Disclaimer: You know what's supposed to go here, but I guess I'll put it anyway: I don't own the Moulin Rouge. Happy?

Chapter 3: Panicked

Over the next few weeks, Nini learned quite a few disturbing things. They were disturbing enough that she decided to write them down:

1) The boy Sparkles danced with is named Christian.
2) Christian is not some foreign royalty that only came for the night.
3) He is a 'penniless poet' (these are Sparkles' exact words – is there something special about being penniless? Other than that it should scare girls like us away?)
4) Audrey has mysterious disappeared.
5) Christian has taken Audrey's place as writer of Spectacular Spectacular. Coincidence? I think not.
6) Sparkles is not in love with the Duke.
7) Sparkles is in love with Christian.
8) Correction: Sparkles thinks she is in love with Christian.
9) Why couldn't she have these delusions about the Duke? – It would make everything much simpler.
10) Sparkles and Christian are being all too obvious about their affair.
11) Despite this, no one has actually noticed the affair.
12) The Duke is more possessive than I imagined.
13) He has all but bought the Moulin Rouge, and insists that Sparkles belongs to him alone.
14) This wouldn't be a problem, if not for Christian.
15) All our livelihoods now depend on Sparkles – why did she choose now to lose her head?

Nini saw this list as fifteen reasons why she should be panicking.

But it could be all right. While Christian and Sparkles were being extremely obvious – and getting more obvious over time – the Duke had proved himself to be, not only ugly and possessive, but also exceptionally stupid. He noticed nothing. Which was disturbing in and of itself.

When Harold finally realized something was amiss, Nini was relieved. If anyone could put a stop to this nonsense, he could. And he did – Nini hid in the shadows and watched as Harold confronted her after spotting Sparkles and her poor lover making out in plain sight. "It's nothing," Sparkles said, shrugging her shoulders defensively. "It's . . . just an infatuation, it's – it's nothing."

"The infatuation will end." Nini had never heard that degree of anger in Harold's voice – it gave her a certain amount of satisfaction to see him direct it at Sparkles. She seemed more than upset at his tone – or perhaps his words – as he ordered her to break up with Christian. Nini doubted she'd been spoken to that way since she'd come to the Moulin Rouge – as far as she was concerned, Harold's first words of anger to her were long overdue.

As Harold left, Nini watched Sparkles turn and slowly walk away, looking as though she wasn't quite sure where she was. "Why live life from dream to dream?" she sang softly. "And dread the day when dreaming . . ." For the second time in as many months, Sparkles never finished the song. Her breath caught and she spent a few labored minutes trying to get it back.

Then she fell. Not off a trapeze this time, but neither was anyone there to catch her. She hit the ground hard. Nini quickly checked to make sure she was alive, then she stepped back. She would be found soon enough and Nini might never again by able to talk to Christian without the slightest chance of being interrupted by Sparkles. Why she wanted to talk to Christian uninterrupted, Nini wasn't sure, but she knew she had to do it.

"Christian?" Nini asked tentatively. She carefully tapped the door to his garret open. He turned around quickly and looked disappointed. He had obviously been expecting someone else – namely, Sparkles.

"Oh . . . uh –" she came in without invitation as he searched for her name. He'd been told it, of course, and she saw him everyday at rehearsals, but Nini doubted he saw her. In fact, she doubted he saw anything besides Sparkles. Poor guy, she felt sorry for him – or at least, she would once Sparkles got her priorities straight again.

"Nini," she supplied. "Nini Legs-in-the-Air."

"Yeah. Right."

Nini fought to keep from laughing. "Why are you here, Christian? What are you doing at the Moulin Rouge? Do you know?"

He looked confused, "I'm – writing this play –"

This time she did laugh, rather loudly, startling him into silence. "Writing the play . . . I suppose so. Writing it – stealing it – ruining it."

"Wh –?"

"Satine is the play, Shakespeare. And the play is the Moulin Rouge. Harold has put every cent he has into the production – all his own money, and as much of the Duke's as he can get. Without Satine, the play doesn't exist. Without the play, the Moulin Rouge doesn't exist. Without the Moulin Rouge – we're all on the street." Nini was trying to keep her voice as cold as possibly, but she knew it was trembling. She slowly crossed the room and he backed away. "Do you really want to be solely responsible for turning every girl in this establishment – including the precious Sparkling Diamond – into the street without a penny?" she whispered venomously. "Because that is what you're doing!"

His back was to the wall now, and she was pressed against him. She was close enough to kiss him if she leaned forward a few more inches, and were it anyone else she might've done it. But it was not anyone else – it was Christian, Sparkles' penniless poet, and she recoiled from the very thought of kissing him.

Nini sharply let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Think about that." She began to leave, then turned back. "Oh, and think about this, too: once the play is done, and the Duke is gone, and you don't have to hide anymore – how long do you think Sparkles is going to stay? She likes the fun of keeping a secret now, but once she doesn't have to?" Nini shrugged. "She's a courtesan, Shakespeare. Remember that."

Her next stop was Sparkles' Elephant, where they had taken her. The doctor was talking quietly to Harold. "I don't think there's any actually wrong with her! People faint, especially women."

"It's the second time she's fainted in the past two months! What if it happens again, next time during a performance?" Harold asked, eyes wide.

"I can't rule out that possibility, not if you keep her in such tight corsets. If you want her to breathe, you're going to have to allow her some room to do it in." Nini snorted loudly and they both turned to her.

"Sparkles doesn't wear corsets bone-crushingly tight because Harold wants 'er to – she wears them that way because she wants to. She's not gonna loosen them just because you tell 'er to, either."

The doctor stared at her for a few seconds as though she were mad – but Nini wasn't the one who wore too-tight corsets, that was Sparkles! – then told Harold that she would be all right as long as she got enough sleep and loosened her corsets. He left, and Harold followed him, muttering about needing to tell the Duke.

"He's not gonna be happy." Nini told Sparkles' still unconscious form. "For that matter, neither is Shakespeare – but that's none 'o my business, is it?" She curled up in a chair and fell asleep waiting for Sparkles to wake up.

I'm not sure how Nini (or I) decides when to drop h's and when not to, but I'm not sure how she's really supposed to talk. She's got, what, three lines in the whole movie? *sigh* I will try to keep it consistent, but since when has consistency been one of my strong points?

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