Never Knew I Could Feel Like This Chapter 12: A Love Story Of Harod's Making, a moulin rouge fanfic

AN: Thanks to all reviewes and readers. Won't be updating very often, considering many term papers are coming up, but I'll try to have the next chapters up ASAP. Yes, xWolfyx, Harod is Ziddler. Sorry I never really clarified that.

Chapter 12. A Love Story Of Harod's Making

"Maybe it's intuition

Some things you just don't question

Like in your eyes

I see my future in an instant

And there it goes

I think I've found my best friend

I know that it might sound

More than a little

Crazy but I believe

I knew I loved you before I met you

I think I dreamed you into life

I knew I loved you before I met you

I have been waiting all my life." (1)

Gregory stood atop the stage that my bedroom window overlooked, singing his heart out, his arms outspread and a smile upon my face. It was a show intended for an audience of one.

And I was that special one.

"I look at you looking at me

Now I know why they say the best things are free

I'm looking for you boy you are so fine

Angel of mine." (2)

I looked out my window, placing my hands on the windowsill and grinning back. Just one week and already I hummed the tunes of jollity and love and promise.

"You know, the sun is in your eyes

And hurricanes and rains

And black and cloudy skies

You're running up and down that hill

You turn it on and off at will

There's nothing here to thrill

Or bring you down

And if you've got no other voice

You know you can fellow my voice

Through the dark turns and noise

Of this wicked little town." (3)

I left my spot from the window to join Gregory on the stage. Jumping into his arms, I began to kiss his face frantically, as if at any moment he might retreat.

"Oh Isabel," he closed his eyes and opened them only to seize my lips, startling me to the point where I broke away. "What is wrong?"

"I…can't… do this." my heart was pounding in my heart, and the sight of Gregory with my lipstick speared randomly about his face made me laugh. "How ridiculous you look right now, Gregory."

"You still look beautiful," Gregory reached for me, pulling me near so that I had to look up at him to face him entirely. "Can I just marry you now?"

"We have only met a week," I felt my face flush, unable to fathom what I should do.

This was definitely a situation I had never imagined would happen in my life.

"Isabel… you are… magnificent." he grinned. "My Mona Lisa."

"Mona Lisa," I closed my eyes, remembering the last time I was called that.

"Let me be yours," Gregory whispered, wrapping his arms on me and kissing me sweetly, barely a brush on my lips, so subtle I was doubting if it occurred until he performed the act again.

Unable to resist further, I wrapped my hands around his head and returned his kiss with passion.

He loved her.

No amount of passionate kisses and exchange of love could deny it. Gregory was fully and deeply caught within the realms of romance, passion, and love.

But did Isabel love him back?

Hidden in the shadows behind the stage, my dark apparel blended well with the darkness around me. Gregory's pleads to be wed were well intended, yet Isabel tossed them aside as if he were merely inquiring her on the weather. As much as they kissed and laughed and sang, they were not engaged.

Isabel had yet to acquiesce to Gregory's proposal.

"O but you're lovely

With your smile so warm

And your cheeks so soft

There is nothing for me to love you

Just the way you look tonight

With each word, your tenderness grows

Tearing my fear apart

And that laugh that wrinkles your nose

Touches my foolish heart

Lovely never never change

Keep that breathless change

Won't you please arrange it

Cause I, I love you

Just the way you look tonight." (4)

Would he ever say that to me? The truth wedged deep within my heart cried out, making me slip further into darkness.

"Just the way you look tonight."

His words… his voice. Everything about him brought back memories of the boy I had secretly followed in the shadows all of my life, clinging onto a dream that someday he would notice that it was I he was searching for all along.

"Say you love me every waking moment,

Turn my head with talk of summertime…

Say you need me with you,

Now and always…

Promise me that all you say is true-

That's all I ask of you…"

"Let me be your shelter,

Let me be your light.

You're safe:

No-one will find you

Your fears are far behind you…"

"All I want is freedom,

A world with no more night…

And you always beside me

To hold me and to hide me…"

"Then say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime…

Let me lead you from your solitude…

Say you need me with you here, beside you…

Anywhere you go, let me go too…"

"That's all I ask of you…" I grew rigid as Isabel continued her song with Gregory. "Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime. Say the word and I will follow you. Share each day with me. Each night. Each morning. Say you love me…"

"You know I do…" Gregory held her close, cradling her in his arms, and planting a kiss on her forehead. "Anywhere you go, let me go too. Love me- that's all I ask of you." (5)

Watching as Isabel grinned sheepishly, too enthralled in the idea a man would say such words to her, jealousy possessed me. It was no surprise that when they departed, fingers entwined, cuddling one another, yet still not engaged, I emerged from the shadows, walking upon the stage and standing at the exact spot they stood only moments ago.

Gregory…

"Heads I win, tails you lose

I always play by my own rules

And I don't believe in wasting time

So long before we end this night

I will have held you

I will have kissed you

I will have claimed you

You will be mine

I will have loved you

Wrong or right

I will have your heart

You will be mine

An unwritten law says I girl should wait

Should let the man set his own pace

But a woman in love, she's above the law

So long before this night is gone

I will have held you

I will have kissed you

I will have claimed you

You will be mine

I will have loved you

Wrong or right

I will have your heart

You will be mine

You top my list of things to do

And I will get close to you

Before this night is through

I will have held you

I will have kissed you

I will have claimed you

You will be mine

I will have loved you

Wrong or right

I will have our heart

You will be mine." (6)

In Gregory arms, I felt secure. Safe. Could you blame me for not wishing him to let me go?

"I love you, Isabel." Gregory reminded me as we strolled down the streets of Paris, his arms around me. "I would hold you forever like this, if I could, for you seem to be the only aspect of my life worth holding onto."

"Don't say that, Gregory. You have a family. A respectable position in society. A stable life."

"It is true," Gregory replied offhandedly. "My mother is growing impatient with my lethargic behavior towards politics and the rest of my family is as dull as can be. You provide me with all the enchantment and excitement worth living for. Duke? A boring family? A position I would throw away if it allowed me to roam freely without having people lower their eyes as if I were worth more than they? I would give it all up in an instant. None of it matters to me."

"I've had neither family, nor a name for myself, or a position in society, so I could never truly understand."

"You will have all of it soon enough, mon amour."

"Stand by me," I held his hand tightly, smiling when he squeezed back. "Ma liberté."

"Sing for me," Gregory asked, resting his chin atop my shoulder. "Mon coeur chante avec le vôtre."

"Spend all your time waiting for that second chance," I sang, looking up at the Moulin Rouge, I saw Harod staring down at us from a window. "For a break that would make it okay. There's always one reason to feel not good enough, and it's hard at the end of the day. I need some distraction. Oh beautiful release. Memory seeps from my veins. Let me be empty and weightless and maybe I'll find some peace tonight." (7)

"Let me be your release," Gregory coaxed soothingly. "You are more than enough for me."

"In the arms of an angel fly away from here. From this dark cold hotel room and the endlessness that you fear. You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie. You're in the arms of the angel. May you find some comfort there." (7)

I tried ignoring Harod's presence, but I could feel his eyes piercing me, his duplicitous plans taking wing. It would always be the Moulin Rouge that would ruin it all for me. Tears burned the back of my eyes, as I struggled to finish what I had begun.

"So tired of the straight line and everywhere you turn there's vultures and thieves at your back. And the storm keeps on twisting. You keep on building the lie that you make up for all that you lack. It don't make no difference. Escaping on last time. It's easier to believe in this sweet madness. Oh. This glorious sadness that brings me to my knees." (7)

"It is beautiful. La chanson de l'ange." Gregory breathed as he contemplated joining me where I stood a few feet in front of him, staring up at Harod. "Mon ange."

Lowering my head, the tears came, as I thought of the Moulin Rouge and Harod and the love story that had concluded here.

Would my own have a similar ending?

"Never knew I could feel like this," I whispered to myself before dropping down and having Gregory run to my side in an attempt to comfort whatever had plagued me. "Like I've never seen the sky before." (8)

1. Savage Garden "I Knew I Loved You"

2. Monica "Angel of Mine"

3.Ben Jelen "Wicked Little Town"

4. Tony Bennet "The Way You Look Tonight"

5. The Phantom Of The Opera "All I Ask Of You"

6. Faith Hill "You Will Be Mine"

7. Sarah McLachlan "Angel"

8. Ewan McGregory & Nicole Kidman "Come What May"