DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of this stuff. I don't want to.

SPOILER WARNING: Do not read this if you don't want to know what happens in Phantom: Love Never Dies. Just don't do it to yourself, my friends.

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THE CURTAIN RISES

Christine pushed drunk Raoul off of her and threw on her nightshirt. No more subjecting myself to violent gentlemen. Where is he-the-glorious-lover, anyway?

Erik was in his tent.

God. He was still gorgeous. Along with the curious shrinking of his disfigurement, he seemed to have grown younger. Much younger. Cupid lips, with a slight curl at the ends. He was brooding over his music when she lifted the curtain and crept inside.

"Erik?"

He turned, unfastened shirt button and all, and leapt to grasp her like a hot cake out of the oven. "Ah, Christine! You've come back to me."

"Yes," she whispered, "I have brought my family here so that I can sing for you one more time."

"Oh my love," he said adoringly, "You are more beautiful than I remember."

"And you..." She gasped. "You look so beautiful. So very beautiful...beautiful..."

"My beauty is underneath."

"Yes," the ageless singer replied, "I remember what is underneath. I remember everything that happened that night. There was no moon in the sky...It was dark. I could not see anything. Because it was nighttime. And night is dark."

"And I touched you..."

"And I groped you..."

"And our melodic hearts met as one."

"Perhaps more than our hearts!"

"Yes!"

She suddenly turned away. "Erik you have been shamefully unfaithful to me."

"How?"

"I have seen the way Meg looks at you."

"Little Giry?" He laughed, "I would never! That little tart can barely get my attention, let alone my affection."

"But she loves you! And adores you! And will never ever leave you!"

"Ah, well, we all make mistakes sometimes."

Christine was happy. "I want you to meet someone."

"Oh?" He arched his perfect eyebrow from his 95% perfect face.

"Erik, this is Gustave."

Out of the shadows appeared a beautiful, pale, effeminate little boy.

"This is my son," the diva said proudly.

The child crept to the Phantom in eerie silence. "Hello, Mister."

"Hello." Erik bent down a bit to meet eye to eye with Gustave. So good-looking. "How old are you?"

"Ten, sir."

"That's a lovely age." Erik looked at Christine, showing a little tenderness but not too much because he is mysterious.

The child began to play six notes on the piano. Erik could hardly contain himself. "Oh, lord. Such talent...And he's only TEN YEARS OLD!"

"Yes," Christine smiled. "He likes to goof around and make his own music for hours."

"Obviously, Raoul is very supportive?"

"Well...Raoul tries his best."

"Father never plays with me," little Gustave says. "Father likes his big glass bottle."

"Oh, Gustave!" Christine wept.

"Well your father is not...equipped...to appreciate the obvious."

"This place is beautiful" sang Gustave. "I've never seen a circus so beautiful."

Erik looked at Christine, and this time he pulled her aside. "My dear, I have guessed your deep dark secret."

"What are you talking about?" Christine bit her lip.

"The child...that night....when we made love fourteen times...we created something."

"Oh no!" She covered her face with her hands. "You've found me out. What shall I ever do?"

"You must never leave me again, Christine." Erik touched her face. "Fate links thee to me, forever and a day."*

Gustave was still singing those six notes.

Christine cried. She loved Erik so much. And to think, the first chapter of their lives were a complete waste of time since they would always end up together.

Erik must bribe Raoul and deal with the fury of the Giry's before someone gets accidentally shot.

and–

SCENE

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*couldn't help slipping in a tender moment. Despite all this trash, I still love me some E/C smut. Off to cleanse the mind with some Leroux now.