Disclaimer: If I owned Moulin Rouge I would be much better at bursting out into song than I am.

AN: I don't know why I wrote this or why I'm posting it. I was in the group that would say, "How in the world could you ever write a Moulin Rouge fanfic?" and now I've done it. Funny little world, isn't it?

Sparkle

Sometimes it's hard to remember the way things used to be.

The way he would laugh, and burst out into song, and sit at his typewriter pecking away at the keys for hours on end. How he could come up with wonderful stories off the top of his head, and spout them with perfect confidence.

How he would stare at absinthe with reluctance, then take a drink and spend the rest of the night conversing with the green fairy.

But more than anything, the way he was full of optimism, and never gave up on love, and how he would just sparkle when you mentioned it.

He's become a different person.

He rarely laughs anymore, except for a dry chuckle or two when he knows he's trying to be cheered up. The songs that escape his lips could hardly be called coherent; they could hardly be called words. His typewriter sits motionless, the ever persistent clacking finally at a rest.

His stories are not grand anymore. They are full of heartache and sorrow, and beauty that fades.

There is hardly a time now when he is not drinking absinthe. The green liquid, it seems, has become a part of him.

And love.

What about love?

He has lost enthusiasm for love. The mention of love, something, which was sacred to him, no longer causes a smile and the twinkle of an eye. It causes unmentionable pain.

He has no need for love.

He believed in it once, and look what it did to him.

Sometimes though, very late at night, when he's reading through his manuscript, his last manuscript, he will look up and smile and tell you proudly.

I used to love.

Love is everything.

Those are the times when it is easy to remember.

When love brings back the memories lost.

And sometimes he'll tell you of a woman named Satine, and despite his best efforts, his mouth will curl up into a smile.

And he will sparkle.