A/N: Hello all! Yes, I know, I owe you a long story, but I just felt this one come on and I actually partially forgot about it and did not wish to do so again. This is based off a conversation I had with my mother (because she's awesome and likes to go in depth with me on Phantom characters) about Erik living in this time, plus an ongoing discussion with my friend Phanatic01 (look her work up, she's awesome too).
At any rate, I hope you all enjoy this and I thank you for any reviews I may garner for this! Thanks a bunch, now enjoy!
Christine gazed at him as he stood by the window of his living room. She was honestly impressed he would allow such a portal to the outside world within his fortress of solitude. No, he was not Superman, but he was certainly something beyond the common humans walking the streets below. She had at first marvelled at his spacious and immaculately cleaned apartment, but now she just tried to scuff the pristine floors to make it look like a real home. He would not complain. He never complained about her doing something wrong so long as she stayed here with him.
The good side of his face was pulled inward into a grimace as the honking symphony of cars echoed up to his nearly penthouse apartment. His perfectly straight nose, dark hair, and piercing amber eye were what one without a second glance would deem beautiful. It was not until he turned to show the other side that anyone cringed. Covered in a white porcelain mask, his rippling and distorted flesh was far from convention's standards of handsome. His whole right half of his face was twisted into what looked like a horror movie version of someone who's been through a machine. His skull even showed through at one spot above his right temple where the skin avoided it like the plague. His lips were swollen and malformed and the whole of his skin seemed to be made of stiff scar tissue, limiting movement and expression. Oh, but when he was hurt or angry, the whole world could tell.
Christine tried to shun the memory of the look on his face when she had first pulled the mask away. She had been horrified mostly by his anger and sudden change in temper, but his appearance did not help matters any. He had begged her to give him a chance to prove he was not his face, lifting his concealing hand for just an instant until her look of disgust broke his heart. She could see it die in his eyes. He had never been so blindly trusting ever since. She had ruined that for him. He had put his faith in her and she had thrown it away with a cry of terror.
Watching him now, his lean frame perfectly straight and wonderfully dressed in his black suit, she wondered if any of that trust could ever be regained. She wondered if perhaps she could fix this whole mess.
'Erik?' She asked, making him flinch slightly. He had forgotten she was there, again.
'Yes?' He asked in that gentle tone of one who wished only to please her. She knew he would do anything if she asked.
'Why do you wear your mask inside? You know I have seen…' she trailed off as the cold and stony look in his eyes froze her presumptuous thoughts.
'Yes, my dear, you have seen. You have had more than your fair share of my hideousness, no doubt.' He clipped back, his shoulders tense and his jaw tight.
'That's not what I meant.' She stated quietly. 'I just don't understand. No one will see. It'll just be us.' She said, imploring him with her eyes to understand.
'You think I care about them?!' He suddenly shouted, leaning forward and pointing behind him to the window. 'Do you think that I would for one instant care what those petty mortals below us think?'
'Yes.' She muttered quietly. He stopped. His eyes were wide with either anger or surprise, he could not figure out which. 'I think you care a lot more than you like to admit.'
He straightened, trying to reassume his cold and distance stance, but it was no use. She had seen through his disguise.
'You are the only one I wish to impress, Christine.' He said in a slightly broken voice.
'Why?' She asked after a pause.
His heart shattered again in his eyes. 'Because I love you.' He whimpered. 'Is it wrong to long to seem human to the person you love? Is it wrong for me to be presentable or attractive to you?' He questioned, his breathing becoming ragged.
'No, but you go too far. Your apartment is spotless. It's more like a picture in a magazine than an actual home. You never have a single hair out of place or a tie slightly askew. There is nothing for me to change or try to make better.' She explained gesturing about her.
His shoulders fell, being the last piece of firm confidence he had. He looked down at the floor with panic and utter despair. 'I-I can fix it for you.' He assured her hurriedly. 'I can do anything you wish.' He promised this, taking a step towards her. He was slightly hunched as if about to beg at her feet for forgiveness.
'I don't want that either!' She snapped, making him take an almost fearful step back. 'I want you to say no to me once in a while. I want you to do something because you want to, not because it will make me happy. I want you to be yourself!' She explained, feeling trapped in the paradox of his eagerness to please.
He looked down more thoughtfully, but his brow was knit in saddened confusion. 'I don't know how.' He told her quietly. His pianissimo tone barely reaching his ears.
'Well, start by deciding who you are. What makes you special?' She asked, standing from her seat on the sofa and slowly coming over to him.
His eyes sharpened dangerously at this. He huffed a laugh and looked at her with a distasteful sneer. '"Special" oh, that is a good one, my dear.' He told her. 'Let me think, oh, I don't know, my face!' He yelled at her.
She took the gale force winds of his shout and rooted her feet. 'All right,' she said slowly, trying to remain calm. 'Your face is one of the things which makes you special. So why do you hide it?' She asked plainly.
'What is it with you today? Why are you so insistent upon my taking off my mask?' He asked, leaning back and away from her steady gaze and potentially grabbing hands.
'Because I don't see the point to you wearing it.' She retorted.
'You seemed pretty damned certain when you took it off last time! Or do you think I have forgotten the look of fear you gave me upon seeing it? I wish I could forget, Christine, I truly do! I wish you had not been so curious, but that is a part of who you are, isn't it? I was doomed to love someone who would never let me be; who would never be able to give me a chance to prove myself.' He told her in a defeated tone.
'Erik,' she told him, reaching out to his good cheek, but he pulled away. 'I just don't understand why you still hide. The world is not so afraid of people who are different.' She reasoned.
Erik laughed. She had only ever heard it on a few occasions, generally when something bad was about to happen, but this was not crazed; this was hollow. He nearly doubled over laughing.
'Not afraid of people who are different? Oh, my naïve child, what a glorious world it must be for you to live in. Not afraid. Ha!' He wiped a tear from his eye as he slowly started to suppress his mirth. 'People all over the world, especially in this country, are discriminated against for their colour, beliefs, where they are from, or simply for loving. They are hated for merely existing. No, there is plenty of hate in this world for anyone who proudly displays themselves as being anywhere near a decent human being.' He told her with a brutally cold edge in his normally silken voice.
'I meant people who are…' She started in a small voice.
'You can say it, darling. You need not be afraid of a word.' He told her in a sickly encouraging tone.
'Deformed.' She said, making him smile bitterly.
'No, perhaps we are not in cages or put on display anymore, but there is a new fear to be had for anyone who is not "normal". We may not be treated as monsters, but we are still looked at as broken. You ask me why I do not walk down the street with you in broad daylight without my mask. It is because I do not wish to receive the looks of pity or the fascination of others, trying to figure out how I can be "fixed". I would be the greatest achievement for a plastic surgeon. They would be begging for me like a piece of meat because they would want the notoriety for saying they fixed the monster and made him a man. They would not care if I wanted it because who would not wish to look like everyone else? What man wouldn't want his pick of any beautiful woman? No, Christine, it is not as safe for me as you think.' He finished, seeing her downcast eyes.
'I'm sorry.' She murmured to the floor.
Erik regarded her a moment. 'This is all assuming, of course, that I would not find those evolutionary left overs who would wish to kill me out of fear.' He said it as though it were nothing. He looked off into the distance, imagining the pain he had already gone through in his life until a sniffle from Christine brought him back to the present.
'Christine-?'
'I'm so sorry I keep hurting you.' She wept, interrupting his question and looking at him with a tear streaked face.
Rushing to her in an instant, he had to hold back from taking her into his arms. He sufficed to hold her shoulders delicately.
'Christine? Christine, no. No, please do not cry. I am sorry. I forget how young and innocent you are. Please forgive your Erik. He did not mean to make you cry.' He told her, sinking a little to search out her eyes as she again ducked her head.
'I just wanted you to be happy.' She told him in a childlike slur of tears.
'I am happy, darling. I am happy so long as you are here. I will always be happy if you are by my side.' He told her, petting the air around her face desperately.
Christine took a step forward, bringing her hands to her breast bone and resting her head against his chest. It took him nearly a full second to realise he was supposed to put his arms around her. It took another two to pull her the rest of the way into him as her silent tears slipped down. She listened to the quick drum of his heart beat and the short gasps he released at her closeness. She stayed there for a few more moments, making his cold skin warm even through his shirt.
'Erik?' She asked, looking up at him, but not pulling away. 'Do…do you want your choice of beautiful women?' She asked, feeling a childish idiot for even asking.
'No, my darling. You are the most beautiful creature on the planet. Why would ever settle for less?' He told her, nestling his head into her curling hair and breathing in her wonderful scent.