"Good God!" Christine slammed the door shut with a slam, strong enough to rattle the frame.
Erik chose to ignore her, hanging up his hat and scarf and not even sparing a glance in her direction. He could feel her eyes glaring daggers at his back, but he strode past her and into the living room as if it was no matter.
She watched as he stoked the fire as if nothing were wrong, and with every passing moment, her ire rose by a tenfold.
"Erik!" she hissed through her teeth. He did not reply.
"Erik, I swear if you don't turn around and talk to me, I'm gonna turn and walk right out this door!"
He did not look at her still, but he snorted a little bit as she spoke. "You really ought not to, my dear. It is rather frigid outside."
"Dammit, Erik. Why won't you listen? All I wanted was to have a nice quiet walk out in the park before it snowed and you had to go and ruin it."
"I did not ruin it," he was adamant.
She followed him as he stalked through to his study, nearly slamming the door in her face. The only thing that stopped him was her foot in the doorway.
"Yes, you did."
He cast a side glance at her as he moved away from the entrance. "It's not my fault that your boy decided to show and stir up trouble. I wanted the walk as much as you did."
"Oh, don't use that card on me!" she grabbed his arm and spun him around her face her. "He's not my boy, and you know that. God, Erik, we've been married for a year and yet you act as if I'm gonna ditch you every time a handsome guy does so much as walk down the street!"
"You admit you think they are handsome?"
Christine groaned and ran her fingers through her hair. "That's not the point, Erik. You nearly made Raoul cry!"
"Good riddance, I say. Nothing good ever comes of encountering that boy."
Christine felt her cheeks sting. They had decided to go out on a nice walk in the park before it got too cold to do so, and no less than ten minutes through they encountered Raoul. Erik had immediately stiffened as soon as he had appeared. Raoul and Christine were still friends, and so it was completely understandable that he had rushed up to greet her.
And Erik had taken that as an invitation to tear poor Raoul to pieces verbally.
After being shocked into silence by his harsh words for a few moments, she had regained enough autonomy to grab and yank Erik away, issuing constant apologies. Raoul simply blinked rapidly a few times, before turning and walking off.
"All he did was say hello to me and immediately you began insulting every aspect of his- him! You didn't think calling his mustache an 'overgrown caterpillar above his lip' was a bit much?"
"No." he answered plainly. "I was rather correct."
"That's not the point. It was completely uncalled for- he's just my friend and you know that."
She took a deep breath, trying to ignore the tears welling up in her eyes. "You can such a complete ass sometimes, you know that?"
Erik stiffened, his eyes widening behind the mask he had yet to remove. He'd been called a variety of colorful swears before- including 'ass,'- but it hurt coming from Christine.
"I know you're insecure, I get that. I really do. But you have to realize you can't be so mean every time you see someone that makes you jealous."
He just kept staring at her, his amber eyes wide and nervous.
"I just… don't want to lose you," he said in a small voice.
"You won't," she reassured him. "But being so nasty to Raoul was completely uncalled for. It embarrassed me and ruined our walk. You gotta promise me it won't happen again."
He sniffled a bit behind his mask, before dropping to his knees and pressing his face to her sneakers.
"Oh Christine," he moaned, "Forgive your Erik! H-he did not mean to anger you."
"I know you didn't," she knelt down to his level to pull him into a hug. "I love you, Erik."
"I love you, too," he whispered into her embrace.
She gave him a gentle tug after a few moments.
"Alright now," she said, "Let's get out of these coats and maybe watch a movie. Thanks for turning on the fire, it was frigid in here."
Erik was more than ready to comply.