I looked out my window at Satine's room and went back to my type writer, lost in my ideas for the show. I couldn't help myself, but I kept looking up at her window every few seconds. I had never felt like this before, could it be love? My heart skipped a beat as I saw her in the window, singing something. I rose from my seat and stepped towards the window, gazing at her. I walked carefully to the door of my flat and opened it.
She was going to the roof of the Elephant, and I would meet her there. Soon I was out on the terrace, staring upwards, trying to see where she was. I searched for something to assist my climb and luckily found a long tassel hanging from the Elephant's back. I climbed up, slipping ever so often, growing closer with ever step. She was just sitting down as I made it to the top, so I watched her for a few seconds.
She noticed me almost instantly, and sprang up, obviously unsure of whom I was. I sputtered out a few lame excuses of why I had come to her in the middle of the night. I told her it was to thank her for helping me get the job. Just as she was about to leave, I stopped her.
"Wait. No, please, wait." She stopped and turned to look at me. "Before when we were--when we were—when you thought I was the Duke, you said that you loved me, and I wanted to know if-"
"If it was all an act?" She asked, cutting me off.
"Yes." I replied simply, looking up at her with hopeful eyes.
"Of course." She said smugly, pursing her lips.
I had never been one to hide disappointment well. In fact, I could rarely ever keep a poker face.
"It just felt real." I stuttered, lowering my head. She hadn't even thought of me once. To her, I was just another lovesick follower, the same as all the other ones that meet her at the show.
"Christian," She started, making me look up with a start. "I'm a courtesan. I'm paid to make men believe what they want to believe."
"Yes," I said, my eyes clouding over. A hurt smile played across my face. "Silly of me, to think y-you could fall in love with someone like me." She laughed, to my despair.
"I can't fall in love with anyone." She stated. I felt so bad for her at that moment I wanted to cry.
"Can't fall in love?" I said incredulously. "But a life without love, that's terrible." The part of me that was a Bohemian Revolutionary was starting to take over.
"No, being on the street, that's terrible." She argued.
"No!" I cried. She gasped. "Love is like oxygen, love is a many- splendored thing, love lifts us up where were belong, all you need is love!" Just when she had had enough, I began singing, drilling my point over and over again.
"All you need is love."
She continued to argue, but I wouldn't give up.
"All you need is love."
"All you need is love."
"Love is just a game." She finished. I rounded the other side of her.
"I was made for lovin' you baby, you were made for lovin' me!" I sang. She moved farther away.
"The only way of lovin' me baby, is to pay a lovely fee."
I circled a pole and continued, "Just one night, give me just one night." I pleaded. She most likely heard that all the time.
"There's no way, cause you can't pay." She laughed, sending that shiver down my spine again.
"In the name of love, one night in the name of love." I begged again.
"You crazy fool. I won't give in to you."
I sang some more, and this time she listened.
"You'd think people would have heard enough of silly love songs." I walked up to her.
"I look around me and I see it isn't so."
She sang another verse to me, and I leaned in very close, close enough to kiss her even, but she pulled away. I had to show her how much I cared. I ran up to the very edge of the Elephant and spread my arms wide.
"Love lifts us up where were belong. Where eagles fly, on a mountain high." She grabbed me down, and I put my arms around her waist.
"Love makes us act like we are fools. Throw our lives away, for one happy day."
"We could be heroes, just for one day!" I sang to her loudly. And we could be heroes, if only she'd let me near her. I followed her down the stairs, arguing about why we would never work together. Finally I could put up with it no longer. I came out from the back and sang,
"We should be lovers." It was a very bold statement for someone as sheltered and conservative as I, but I said it anyway, only to be rejected by Satine. This blow did nothing to me, I merely suggested it again. This time she was more open to the suggestion. Though it was nearly impossible, we could still be lovers if we really wanted to.
She joined me this time. "We could be heroes, forever and ever."
She ended our love medley. "How wonderful life is, now you're in the world."
"You're going to be bad for business, I can tell." She whispered.
That was when I kissed Satine for the very first time. In an Elephant late at night, I, Christian, Bohemian Revolutionary, fell in love.
How wonderful life was, now Satine was in the world.