Title: You be the treasure to my pirate (Halloween Variation 04)
Author: Lucifer Rosemaunt
Summary: Short ficlet variations on a theme: Halloween meet cute. Costume shopping is difficult.
Fandom: Phantom of the Opera
Pairing(s): pre-slash Erik/Raoul
Warning(s): modern!AU
Word Count: 1,433
Rating: K+
o.o.o.o
"Can we please just call it quits? We tried. We failed." Philippe followed his brother dutifully through yet another costume store. "It's best to just retreat." This store was actually the largest from the previous three and it carried that overpowering smell of latex and fake fog from those machines.
"We need to find costumes," Raoul insisted, fingers trailing over various plastic bags in an aisle so very much like all the others.
Philippe felt it was important to point out, "It's a kid's party."
"It's our sister's party," Raoul corrected, "and children will be present. Don't be a spoil sport." He turned to find his brother wearing an eye patch and tri-corner pirate hat. "Do you want to be a pirate?"
"Arr, I'll find yer booty yet." Philippe made a show of wincing. "Maybe you should be the pirate," he added, laughing loudly at his own joke.
"Ha," Raoul deadpanned. "Hilarious. You're a regular comedian."
Philippe shrugged and tossed both the eye patch and hat back onto the shelf. "I try."
Raoul kept walking down the aisle, not quite sure what he was looking for, but knowing that once he spotted it, he would know to stop. Halloween was not his most favorite holiday, but he did enjoy the chance to dress up as anything he wanted, be anyone he wanted to be. There was some appeal to it all that his brother failed to see.
"Speaking of your non-existent relationships," Philippe segued.
Raoul stopped. "Can we…?" He lost his train of thought when he turned to look at his brother only to find a zombie panda head looking back at him. He frowned. Its face was gaunt and skeletal with eye sockets much too large for any creature. "That is honestly very frightening."
Pulling the panda headpiece off, Philippe shuddered. "That's disgusting is what it is. Who knows who else shoved their head into that, but it does not smell pleasant." He opened it the bottom and held it in front of Raoul's face for him to smell, but Raoul pushed him away.
Philippe just laughed and swung an arm around his shoulder's to pull him close, "I never get to spend some one on one time with my darling brother. How can I not ask all those tough questions?"
The younger Chagny watched as he tossed the mask aside, not caring to place it properly. He mentally apologized to the staff, although this close to Halloween, nothing was where it was supposed to be.
"Are you bringing anyone to this wonderful party our dear sister 'invited'" he air-quoted "us to?"
"I would have told you if I was dating someone," Raoul replied, turning away from him, ducking under his arm in order to pick up the first thing within reach, which happened to be a tomahawk. "Cowboys and Indians?" he suggested.
His brother shook his head and Raoul wanted to laugh at the cowlick that was now sticking up. "I would get to be the cowboy and you would complain all night about having to be the Indian."
Raoul laughed and kept walking, hoping his brother would just drop the subject of his lack of relationships. He was not so lucky however.
"You need to be more forward about meeting people." Philippe let him walk onward. "I know you haven't been trying and the last time was with who? Christine in high school when you still weren't out? You're never going to find anyone like that."
"How about you?" Raoul said quickly; he figured turning the tables on his brother would be the best course of action, especially since his words rang a little too true.
"What about me?"
The words were so muffled Raoul glanced over his shoulder and nearly poked his eye on the sword pointed towards his face. Philippe was wearing a ninja mask.
"I haven't heard anything more about Sorelli," Raoul prompted, smacking the plastic sword downwards and away from his face.
His brother tore the mask from his face and shrugged. "We're on a break right now."
"Oh," he said, feeling guilty about asking because his brother's 'breaks' with his long time on-again off-again girlfriend were always a sore spot. "I'm sure things will work out."
A shrug was his only response, and Philippe reached out to grab on the colorful strands of a wig. "You know, I know the perfect costume. I can go as a clown and you can go as the little boy still deathly afraid of them."
Raoul rolled his eyes. "You better not." He kept walking, bemoaning the difficulty of finding costumes as an adult, discarding every kitschy costume playing on puns and the ones that cost way more than the little material provided, before he laughed upon seeing a Tron skintight costume. "I dare you to…" he stopped upon finding that his brother was no longer right behind him. Down the aisle, however, he could see the colorful and curly hair of a clown mask. He shuddered.
Walking back down the aisle, Raoul grabbed Philippe's shoulder to turn him, "That's just mean. You know I hate clowns." However, when his brother turned around, Raoul finally noticed that the clothes he wore was different. He immediately released his shoulder and the stranger, who obviously was not his brother, reached to pull the mask off.
"I am so sorry. I thought you were my brother." He stopped talking because the stranger surprised him further by not only already having a mask beneath the clown mask but also looking terribly handsome.
"Clowns are the worst," the man confirmed, glancing at him and quickly busying himself with placing the mask back on the hook on which it belonged.
Raoul could feel himself blushing because of course he would make a fool of himself in front of a handsome man. "The mask within a mask deal is new though," he blurted out and the man stiffened enough at his statement that Raoul backpedalled. "But you know, it's interesting, and I'm really sorry about grabbing you like that. My brother knows I hate clowns and well, I assumed he was going to torture me in some way, like popping out from behind the aisle or something."
The man shrugged, "It's fine. I-" he seemed to think against whatever he was going to say, shutting his mouth. He opened it only to say in a tone that was obviously an end to the conversation, "It's an honest mistake."
Before he could leave though, Raoul said the first thing on his mind because he could hear his brother's accusing words ring in his head. "My name is Raoul." He thrust out his hand and was relieved to find that the man stopped trying to walk away.
"Erik." The stranger shook his hand, and Raoul could not help but smile because you could tell a lot from a handshake. Erik's was firm and sure, Raoul's hand fitting perfectly in his larger hand.
"I know this is really forward of me and I-" he took a deep breath. "I don't normally do this, but could I maybe get your number to call you sometime. Or you know, I could give you my number instead so you have a choice to call or something. I'm not like a stalker or anything, which," he drew the word out, "isn't something I should probably say to be very convincing."
Erik was smirking at him, and Raoul thought that was as good a sign as any since he was not walking away or looking at him like he was crazy. The better sign, however, was when he pulled out his cell phone. "How about you give me your number?"
Raoul did and watched him tap it into his phone, but after a moment, he wondered if maybe he was just pretending to do so to be nice. Before he could even follow that train of thought, his pocket vibrated.
Pulling his phone out, he saw an unknown number. The message read: This is Erik. Any plans for Halloween?
He beamed up at him. "Yeah, but I'm sure we can work things out."
"I'm a fan of being able to wear costumes," Erik commented.
And, Raoul's cheeks hurt from smiling so wide. "Me, too!" He cleared his throat, wondering just how many people heard his enthusiastic response. "Me, too," he said, softer. "Now, I'm just going to, you know, go down this aisle and maybe turn the corner before I celebrate." He rushed down the aisle, glancing back as he reached the end and saw Erik watching him with something softer than a smirk.
o.o.o.o
End ficlet
A/N: Halloween is not over! Remember, 7 total variations and we're only at 4, which I'm still kind of early on since it should be the first seven days of the month. So, not late? Also, I'm working on this concurrently with my research paper (which is kicking my behind) so… sorry if my mind's not where it should be (but that's also instead of doing one-a-days, I'm doing, post all 7 fics asap so I have time to research).
Philippe's such a dork, I love him. I honestly might just always want a fic where they can be awesome brothers with each other. Also, that 'booty' joke in the beginning was totally about Raoul being gay, just in case it was too vague, but it's not like I could've just had Philippe say, "Get it, butt-pirate." Although, lol.
Fic Review: Putting on every costume possible in the store is the best part of costume shopping. In my head, Raoul will always ramble when he gets nervous. Like seriously ramble about everything and nothing just so that he might find the right thing to say at some point. Also, Erik saw Raoul in the store, thought he was too pretty not to linger in the same aisle and sneak peeks at and if he just so happens to eavesdrop, then public conversations cannot be considered private enough for it to be called eavesdropping. Erik's a socially awkward stalker in every universe. He was definitely not ready to be confronted with his stalkee though. He really was about to bail, but Raoul's obvious nervousness/awkwardness/eagerness kind of gave him courage and it was endearing enough that Erik could not help himself but relax the slightest in his presence (Raoul just has that effect on him). Erik in this universe actually does love Halloween because no one's trying to unmask him, which is a pain in the behind.
We also know Philippe was totally watching the entire exchange and in fact, he was going to surprise Raoul once he reached the end of the aisle, but this was way better. He's going to cheer with him – question his taste in men, then cheer him on of course because that's the kind of brother he is.