Disclaimer: Sad though it may be, I do not own POTO ):

Hello everybody, and welcome to my new story. I wrote this in August by a pool in Madeira, when I had loads of time, and i have only just finished it. I am currently writing loads of stuff, but only want to submit finished stories, as i am terrible at updating, an i know how annoying it is when somone takes forever to update.

This story is an EC romance, but they will go through many problems before their happily ever after, as the title kind of suggests. It's AU so if you don't like that, don't read. However, perhaps you should give it ago, and you might change your mind.

This story begins in the town of St Simone in Northern France. This small market town was one of those few places left in the world where everybody knew everybody, be they friends or not. There was no such thing as a secret in St Simone, and no one was a stranger.

Erik Gaston gazed down at all the tiny houses from his hilltop house, failing to be moved by the beauty of the place he called home. The sweeping hills and clear blue sky no longer brought any emotion forth. If he was honest with himself, he had grown tired of the place years ago, and ordinarily he would have moved on. It was in his nature to be traveling as he grew restless if he was in one place for too long. He knew he would have done so long. If it were not for one thing, he knew he would have done just that. St Simone was the first place he had ever received any measure of the acceptance he had craved for so long, and he supposed he had grown used to the quiet routine of the place.

He had lived here for just over 15 years, coming close to half his life. Erik credited much of his acceptance due to all the money he had put into the village in the past few years. When he had first arrived, the place was close to poverty, employment was low, and crime was high. As a consequence of Erik's wealth, the town thrived, and he had been accepted by the rest of the town, mask and all.

When he had first arrived, all that time ago, a young man of just one and twenty, he had decided to stay. St Simone was close to becoming a ghost town. Many off the town's people had left, most having gone to Paris, which was only about half a day's travelling away, and the rest were either very old, or very young. Erik however found the town a perfect place for hiding, due to the many empty houses, and dark streets.

After a chance encounter with the town's Mayor, Richard Moncharmin, he had agreed to allow Erik to stay, in exchange for backing the town financially. Erik stayed quiet about how he had acclaimed his vast wealth. If Moncharmin knew where it had been acquired, Erik was sure he would be much less inclined to allow him to stay in his town. Erik now practically ran the town, such was Moncharmin's ineptitude.

Erik had slowly been accepted into the town, even if most of the residents had never actually seen him in person. He had kept up his reclusive habits, never wishing to venture into the village. He had everything he could possibly wish for up here, and his manservant Jacque would get him anything he required from the village. The only other people he saw were various business associates, enabling him to enlarge his already immense wealth. As well as assisting Moncharmin with the running of the town, he was an architect, designing houses for the aristocracy, and the generally filthy rich. He had built up an excellent reputation over the years, and so his reclusive habits did not affect his business. People were clamoring to have a house built by him. Ever since rumor had come out that he had designed a palace for the Shah in Persia when he was just 19 years old, he had become one of the most famous architects in Europe. If only they knew it wasn't't simply a palace he had built, they would be much less inclined to desire his services, he thought with a sly grin

St Simone's only attraction appeared to be that of a musical act of father and daughter. Gustav Daae, a violinist originally from Sweden, and his young daughter, Christine. The duo apparently wowed audiences from afar with their combined talents. Erik was skeptical to say the least.

After he had been given the chance to see this act, he was forced to change this opinion. Not one for admitting he was wrong about anything, Erik conceded that he would have to accept he was in this case. Gustav, and the singing angel, and the town's folk dubbed them were in a word, phenomenal, and Erik was very hard to please, especially when it came to music. Music was everything to him. Without it, he would simply have nothing to live for.

Christine was 8 years old when Erik first met her and her father. She was tiny, with a head of curly blonde hair, and huge blue eyes. Gustav was a man in his late 40s, although he looked considerably older, his failing health most likely due to the death of his wife a few years previous, who he had evidently loved very much. When this duo had been presented to him by Moncharmin as the greatest thing ever to come out of St Simone, Erik wasn't't surprised the town was close to poverty. He had never seen such an odd pairing in a musical act in all his life. Preparing himself for what would no doubt be an insult to music, he waited for them to begin. What resulted was quite simply magic. As Gustav lifted an incredibly battered violin, which had most definitely seen better days, and began to play. The haunting melody was outstanding, and Erik was highly impressed. That was before Christine sang however. Beautiful was the only word he could think of to describe it. Truly beautiful. As soon as she opened her mouth and sang, he was mesmerized by her. The innocence and purity in her voice reminded him of all he was not, and he had never heard anything so beautiful in all his life. He knew her voice would get even better over time, and with the right training could surpass every singer in the world.

After hearing them, he had immediately offered to give little Christine singing lessons, after saying how incredible her voice was. After this, Gustav would bring his daughter up the winding hill to Erik's place for the lessons every day.

Fifteen years later the lessons were still going strong, although there really was no need. Christine's voice had surpassed even Erik's highest expectations. Now 23 years old, Christine had grown into an incredibly beautiful woman, with a face to match her exquisite voice. She still had those big blue innocent eyes, which often glittered with laughter, and a long waterfall of silvery blonde hair, cascading down her back. She was considered the most beautiful woman in St Simone, and many said she was the most beautiful woman in the whole of France. Erik however knew differently. To him, she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Ever man wanted her, and ever woman wanted to be her. Christine Daae's hand in marriage was the most sought after prize in the whole of St Simone, and in much of the surrounding land as well. Talk of her beauty had spread far and wide. The angel of St Simone, with a voice that could captivate any man, and a face so heavenly, once you looked upon it, it was impossible to tare your gaze away.

The man who won Christine's hand, and more importantly her heart, would be a lucky man indeed. Her many suitors had not interfered in her singing lessons, much to Erik's relief. She seemed almost as devoted to developing her voice as he was. She had never missed a lesson, and was late very rarely. During the lessons, Erik had her undivided attention. Very few men got to spend so much time with her, and it should have pleased him that he was permitted to gaze upon her beauty every day. It of course would be the perfect excuse to court her, and set about to win her for himself. Any normal man would have done so in an instant, but Erik was not like normal men. His face had prevented that from ever happening.

He knew that at some point their lessons would have to come to an end. Christine was destined for greatness, and it was only a matter of time before she left St Simone, and him forever, in search of Stardom. This was what he wanted for her. For the world to hear her sing had been his goal ever since he had first met her. There was one problem however. He was completely and utterly, and hopelessly in love with her.

A great emphasis was on the word hopeless. A man like him would never win the love of one such as Christine, especially with every man in the land vying for her hand. Christine could have any man she desired. There was no way she would choose to spend her life with a man so ugly he had to wear a mask to cover his face.

Over the years he had managed to accept his own hideousness, to some extend anyway. Long ago, he had resigned himself to the fact that no one could love him, no matter how much he may long for it. He had learned to accept his fate. He had learned to be lonely, and had reached a point of contentment in his life. Not happy perhaps, but content. Happiness was not meant for one such as him, just as love was not. He had his music, and his architecture, and that was all he would ever need.

All of that changed when Christine came into his life. The small child had managed to burrow her way into his heart from an early stage. Her sunny disposition and bubbly personality often made him laugh, something he didn't ever remember doing before he met her. Erik had always been a creature of darkness. Darkness was the only friend he had. It protected him from the rest of the world, who stared at him in horror, and it accepted him into its cold embrace like no one else ever had. Christine however was sunlight itself, and it seemed that she even managed to give some of that light to him. Whenever she was with him, he was the closest to happy he had ever been. Christine seemed to have accepted that he wore the mask, and never spoke of it. He suspected that this was due to her father telling her not to, but he appreciated it never the less.

He was even sure he knew the day he fell in love with her, or at least the day he finally acknowledged the fact. A 17 year old Christine had come for her daily lesson, wearing a simple, but exquisitely fitted light blue dress, which showed off her figure wonderfully, emphasizing her perfect breasts, her tiny waist, and wide hips. He had been mesmerized, having been used to seeing her in her more childish dresses, which swamped her petite form. Until that day, he had never thought of her as anything but a child. One he cared a great deal about, but a child nevertheless. It was clear the girl had become a woman however, and what a woman! After that day things were never the same again.

He could not keep his eyes off her. Now, he was not only captivated by her angel's voice, but her exquisite beauty as well. He supposed that must have been when he began to truly fall in love with her as a man loves a woman. He had not been the only man to see her blossoming womanhood unfortunately. Every man in Paris seemed to be in love with her. Erik knew that he was the only one who truly loved her though. All they wanted was her body, and the status that came with having such a woman on their arm. Christine was nothing but a prize to be won for them, a challenge to face. None of them knew her. Her loves, her hates. Her dreams and desires. He knew all of these things. He knew she dreamt of becoming a prima donna at the opera Garnier in Paris. He knew that singing was her life, and made her feel alive. He knew she hated olives and mushrooms, and loved chocolate, and pasta. She loved the sea, animals, the colour red, and curling up with a good book when there was a storm outside, and her favorite flowers were roses. He knew that she could not sit still for longer than 10 minutes, without having to do something. She hated people who were dishonest, and those who were cruel for no reason. As well as these things, he knew how she smelt. A mixture of rose water, and her own natural scent, which was purely Christine. She had claimed his heart long ago, and he was never getting it back. He knew it was his fate to be alone however, and Christine could never be his, no matter what he did.

Over the years he felt that he knew all there was to know about her, although he was always eager to learn more. The one last thing he knew was that there was not a man on earth who could love her like he did, but that she could never be his. It was impossible for her to love him in return, and he wanted Christine to be with someone to whom she could give all her heart, and that certainly wasn't't him. There was nothing lovable about him what so ever. .

He shuddered in fear when he thought about what people would think if they knew that he was in love with Christine, along with what seemed to be every other man in France. A hideous monster in love with a beautiful angel! It was unthinkable. No doubt he deserved to burn in hell for all eternity for so much as dreaming that Christine could belong to him, but dream he did. Late at night under the protection of darkness, he would allow his dreams to take place. Through his mind he would drift off into another world. One where Christine was his wife, and had somehow found a way to love him. In this dream, she permitted him to kiss those cherry red lips of hers, and she would welcome him into her arms, smiling sweetly up at him, desire in her beautiful blue eyes. He tried not to allow these dreams to enter his head too much. He would no doubt go insane if he did, longing for something which could never be. Christine would never be his, and he must accept it, and brace his heart for when it would inevitably break when she left St Simone, and him in search of her own dreams at the Paris opera.

He knew that the day she left would be the day he would die. Perhaps not physically. That may take a while longer, but the day she left, he would die inside. Christine had held his heart for so long, and she would take it with wherever she went. There was no way he could live without her, even though he knew they could never be together.

For so long he had lived alone, but she had brought light and laughter into his lonely existence and showed him what life could be like with love in it, and he knew that he could never be content in his loneliness again. It was only a matter of time before she left, and he dreaded that day with all his heart.

Remember to review! As I said, it's pretty much finished, so the more reviews, the quicker the updates will be.