As the World Falls Down
Summary: Little Raoul doesn't remember when his father went away. He remembers when his mother got the letter that made her cry. He remembers the masked man who came to comfort her. And he remembers the days after that.
Rating: K plus
Genre: Family
Disclaimer: So I have watched the Thor movie and looked into Norse mythology, and according to mythology, Hela, one of Loki's kids, looked half human and half skeleton. According to the book, the Phantom looked like a skeleton. Therefore, Erik must be the son of Hela and grandson of Loki. (Just thought I'd toss that out there. Oh, and I don't own POTO either.) Oh, and I also don't own the song 'As the World Falls Down' - David Bowie owns that, I've just borrowed it to play with for this fic.
T.A.R.N.S.: I have never written a POTO story, so I apologize if I have ripped someone off here somehow. I wasn't trying to. Anyway, this came to my mind last Sunday while I was working on my family law homework. So, it's been awhile since I wrote any fanfics, so I wrote it down. I want to point out before we begin that this is not a romance story. Sorry to everyone who was expecting that. That just wasn't the way it worked out.
Little Raoul doesn't remember when his father went away. His mother tells him that his father went off to explore great unknown lands, but he doesn't understand this.
And he won't, not for many years.
He remembers Erik, though. He remembers the night his mother got a letter and read it at the kitchen table. She had cried and cried. He didn't understand what she meant when she looked up from the letter said that father wasn't coming back.
Then he cried to, because he didn't know where Poppa was and because Momma was so sad.
The next day, the strange man with the mask on his face had shown up. At first his Momma had been angry with the masked man, but then she started to cry and he watched as the masked man walked into the kitchen and held her while she cried.
So the masked man, at least, was nice to Momma. Raoul wondered if the masked man knew what had happened to Poppa.
It was after that day that the man started to come by more often, though always in the evenings. He told Raoul to call him Erik.
Sometimes when he came, he brought food. Other times he brought an envelope, and Momma would look in it and sigh and thank him and put the envelope away. Momma had started taking in mending to do for the neighbors. She would spend hours at the kitchen table, sewing, while he played with the blocks his father had carved for him on the floor by the table.
One day another man came by. He came during the day and he didn't wear a mask. Raoul remembered him because he shouted at Momma and told her that if she didn't have enough to pay the rent, then he had no choice but to put her out on the streets.
Raoul was scared but he didn't want to tell that to Momma because she was always so sad now. So when Erik came that night, he told Erik instead.
"He said that, did he?" Erik asked after Raoul had told the whole story.
"Yeah. He was yelling at Momma and he 'tole her that is she didn't pay him we would have to go." Raoul explained. "What did he mean? Where will we go?"
"You'll go to a new house." Erik said as he stood up. They had been sitting on the step outside the house. "It's time for you to go to bed, little one."
Raoul went to be that night and listened as his mother and Erik sat at the table and talked. They were still talking when he fell asleep.
The next day, Momma began to pack up their things.
"Why do we have to go?" Raoul asked.
"Because this place doesn't belong to us." His mother replied. "And the man who owns it wants it back."
Raoul considered this. "Why?"
"Because we only borrowed it from him for a little while." She replied. "Now hush, little one. I need to finish packing. I'll sing you a song while I work."
His mother had a pretty voice. Raoul had always liked to listen to his mother sing. He remembered something his father had said once, long ago: "Christine, when you sing the angels stop to listen."
His father had meant it to be romantic; Raoul could tell by the dreamy voice he said it in, but his mother had looked stricken and his father had quickly apologized and turned the subject to other things.
Raoul didn't understand it. His mother sang beautifully and he was of the opinion that if the angels didn't stop to listen, they should.
He told the same thing to Erik that night. The masked man gave him a half smile and said, "Perhaps they do."
Erik had been coming by less often. Raoul noticed and told him that, too.
"I've been very busy lately." Erik replied. "I have a job to do."
"What is it?"
"Wait and see."
One week after that, Erik had shown up at dusk, as usual, but this time with another man and a team of horses and cart. Erik and the other man helped Christine move out all the furniture and crates and load it into the wagon. Raoul climbed into the back of the wagon and looked out at the empty house. Erik leapt into the back of the wagon and sat down beside him. The other man helped Christine into the wagon seat and then sat next to her.
There was the crack of a whip, and the horses started to move.
They went for a long time; so long that after a little while Raoul gave up trying to see where they were going and fell asleep. It was too dark to see, anyway, and he had meant to ask why Erik never came during the day, but before he was going to, he fell asleep.
The first pink streaks of dawn had just begun to light the sky when he woke up. He stretched and yawned and then lay where he was, under a blanket he had pulled out of a box before he slept, and watched the sun come up. Next to him, he saw that his mother was sleeping beside him in the wagon bed and instantly felt safe.
On his other side, Erik was still sitting in the same position he had been sitting in the night before. Erik was singing, so softly he could just barely make out the words.
"There's such a fooled heart, beating so fast in search of new dreams, a love that will last, within your heart. I'll place the moon within your heart. As the pain sweeps through makes no sense for you. Every thrill has gone, wasn't too much fun at all, but I'll be there for you-ou-ou. As the world falls down…."
Another moment passed and the cart turned on to a gravel road. Erik abruptly stopped singing as he stood and stepped over Raoul and Christine, heading to the front of the wagon. He gave quiet directions to the driver, and then turned back to wake up Christine. "Christine, wake up. We're almost there."
Fifteen minutes later, they were there. 'There,' as it turned out, was a newly built two-story brick house set a little ways back into the woods. It was the biggest house Raoul thought he had ever seen.
Christine shook her head. "Erik, I can't accept this."
"Yes, you can. You need to. For your son's sake, if no other reason."
Raoul had run to the door of the house, and turned back to Erik standing next to his mother, who looked as though she might cry again. "Are you coming, Momma?" He called to her.
"Yes," She called, her voice sounding teary. "I'm coming." And she came up the steps behind him.
Raoul turned back, about to call Erik to come join them, but Erik was gone, leaving only the man in the cart, who was unloading the furniture.
About a year after that, Raoul noticed that has mother had begun to wear a new ring on her finger, not the one he remembered from when he was little, but a new one, still reminiscent of a wedding band.
He knew Erik had given it to her.
Erik still came by, still in the evening but more frequently.
When he was old enough, his mother sent him away to school. When he was eight, he got into a fight with some of the other boys.
It was during moments like this that Christine dearly wished that her husband was still alive to help her deal with incidents like these.
But Raoul de Chagny was gone. She paused in her kneading, pushed a strand of hair out of her face with floury fingers, and decided that Erik would just have to talk to her son about it for him.
If Erik seemed surprised by her demands, he didn't show it when he came by that night. Instead, he and Raoul sat out on the front step of the house.
"Your mother tells me you've been fighting at school." It was an issue that really only mattered to Christine, not to Erik. If asked, Erik would have cheerfully taught Raoul how to make and use a Punjab lasso, but he knew Christine would not appreciate that thought, so he kept it to himself.
"They were saying mean things." Raoul said moodily. "They said 'Your Poppa left' and doesn't come by and that he's ashamed and hiding from things."
"That's not true. Your father was very brave." Erik told him.
Raoul looked at the Phantom, a serious look on his face. "They said that you're hiding, which is why you only come see Momma at night."
"They- what?" Erik stopped, suddenly not sure he was hearing correctly.
"They said you have something to hide, which is why you only come at night."
There was another pause, then Erik said, "Raoul, you do know that you father died overseas several years ago, don't you?"
The boy nodded. "But you gave Momma the ring. That means you're married to her, right?"
How was it, Erik wondered, that Christine always managed to miss the especially awkward conversations? Perhaps it was better that she did, though. She might have collapsed from the shock of hearing this.
"Raoul, do you know why I come here?"
"To help Momma."
Erik nodded. "That's exactly right. But your mother and I are not married."
The boy looked surprised at this. "But I thought you were."
Erik shook his head. "I gave your mother the ring so people would think we were married. It doesn't matter what people say about me. If they thought I was coming by and we were not married, they would say worse things about her. Do you understand?"
The boy looked a little confused. "Yes. I think."
The masked man nodded again and stood up. "Someday when you're older, you'll understand it."
"Why did you come after Poppa died?"
"I had a promise I had to keep. One I made to your mother, a long time ago."
Christine poked her head out the door a moment later. "Raoul, you had better start getting ready for bed. You have school in the morning."
"Alright Momma." He said as he got to his feet. "Goodnight Erik."
"Goodnight Raoul."
The boy darted into the house, and Christine stepped out and took the place where he had been sitting. "Well?"
"We discussed the situation. Raoul will, I think, fight less in the future."
Christine nodded. "Thank you, Erik. I don't know what I would do without you."
Upstairs, tucked safely into his bed, Raoul listened to murmurs of talk that drifted up from below and wondered what the promise that Erik had made was.
After a few moments, the talking stopped, and he heard his mother come back into the house. Then he heard Erik start to sing.
"I'll spin you moments of gold, I'll paint you Valentine evenings, though we're strangers 'till now, we're choosing the path between the stars. I'll place my love between the stars. As the pain sweeps through makes no sense for you, every thrill has gone, wasn't too much fun at all. But I'll be there for you-ou-ou. As the world falls down. Falling…As the world falls down. Falling…As the world falls down…"
T.A.R.N.S.: Awkward Ending is awkward. Gak! And sorry for the widening scope of the story. We started out small and then got bigger, and I don't know why and I'm sorry. For those who weren't able to piece it together, the 'little Raoul' is Christine and Raoul's son, who was named after his father (because I was supposed to be doing homework when I began writing this so I didn't bother to go look up any names.) Raoul and Christine were married, but the Raoul went overseas and died and then Erik came along just to help Christine. Anyway, that's the short version. I ended up using a song from the movie Labyrinth because it just seemed to fit.
Anyway, reviews are loved and appreciated. If you made it this far, please let me know what you thought! Thank you for reading.