**Author's Note: Once again i do not own the origional Phantom characters, but i do own mine. I also do not own the music lyrics in this story.**
After she had been brought back to her mother that night, her tears had stopped and she was quiet. She listened to her mothers pleas for an explanation, listened as she brought Nikolis in to explain everything he had seen and heard.
" And they were climbing all over the roof, she could have fallen."
NIkolis had taken a breath there waiting to see Christine's reaction, and right when he knew she was the most upset, he pushed her farther.
"AND Miss Christine, she was TALKING to him...she was talking about why she doesn't talk...and she said its cause.."
Nikolis was unable to finish because Rose had walked over from where she had been standing and stomped on his foot. He let out a yelp of pain, before yelling to her, "If you're not my friend then why should i keep your secrets?"
With a frown on her face Rose took his hand in hers and with her back still to her mother she mouthed the word 'friends'. Nikolis' cheeks went a faint red and he nodded.
" Actually Miss Christine, I don't exactly remember what she was saying."
Christine pulled him aside and tried to pry the information form him, but the toe stomping Rose had given and her mouthed bribe, was the most interaction they she had given him the entire three years he had been there, and he wasn't going to give it up. He just puffed his chest out, looking triumphant with himself and denied any claim to have ever know what she had said on the roof top, and when Christine, with a sigh, rubbed her temples and left the two children alone. Rose yanked her hand from Nikoli, and turned her back on him.
" you are a tattle tale Nikki!"
Nikkoli jumped at the sudden loudness and appearance.
"I thought you don't talk to people you don't like Rosey.."
Rose turned back around to face him," Don't call me that...and besides...i only talk to friends..and since you kept my secret from mother, i have to be your friend. And what good is a friend is they don't talk?"
She sat down on the corner of her bed and pulled her knees to her chest, resting her chin on her knees.
"I really am sorry...that I hurt your feelings Rose.."
Nikkolis lowered his head, triumphant chest deflated, "What good is a friend if the only thing they have done is hurt your feelings?" He turned to leave and Rose sighed, " Don't worry about me Nikki, its not my feelings im worried about..."
Rose crossed her arms hugging her knees closer and burrying her face in her arms. Nikkolis left her room and Rose cried herself to sleep.
It had now been two weeks since she had seen Luccus, Rose had just finished visiting a near by park, with her parents and Nikkolis. They were both exhausted from swinging and playing tag, Nikkolis went to his room and Christine and Roul walked Rose to hers, tucking her into bed and leaving her there to sleep. When she woke she wasn't sure how long she had been asleep. She rose from her bed and exited her room out into an empty corridor, she walked toward the stage until she heard the nearing sounds of the back stage cues and calls for the next performer to ready themselves. Rose glanced around searching for Nikkolis making sure that if he was near, he hadn't noticed her appearance. When she found the coast was clear she headed in the opposite direction toward the spiral staircase. When she got there she peeked carefully around the corner, hidden by the shadows, and saw two armed guard blocking her way up to the roof top. With a slight frown to her face she silently turned and walked down a different corridor, that took her even farther away from the stage. her white sundress she had been too tired to take off the when she slept flowed around her knees with every step her took. After a while she started to sing to herself, or more, to Luccus hoping he would hear her and appear magically like he always seemed to do.
Rose:
Tis the last rose of summer left blooming alone
All her lovely companions are faded and gone
No flower of her kindred, no rosebud is nigh
To reflect back her blushes and give sigh for sigh
Rose waited hoping he would join and sing his part but silence was her only harmony, so she skipped over his lyrics to finished her song,
Rose:
So soon may I follow when friendships decay
And from love's shining circle the gems drop away
When true hearts lie withered and fond ones are flown
Oh who would inhabit this bleak world alone?
Phantom: This bleak world alone...
The voice had startled rose and she turned toward it, knowing right away that it did not belong to Luccus. But Still when she turned she came face to face with a man, in a mask. towering above her lingering in the shadows. The last notes of his voice echoed through the halls seeming to bounce back to her. She knew without a doubt who the man was standing in front of her. His voice was soft and strong, and captivating, she smiled to him, welcoming him, just like Luccus, into her life, into her thought, aloud him to hear her voice.
"Your Luccus' master...you're the phantom that haunts these halls...you're Erik.."
She curtsied to him her sundress hovering just above the ground before she rose again to speak.
" Can you take me to him?"
Erik outstretched his hand and she took it following him to the one of the corridor was masked in shadow. With a slight push it gave way to and entrance with stairs leading Down. She had just figured out how Luccus had always appeared out of no where.
" You trust people too easily little Rose..aren't you frightened?"
Rose shook her head, "No I don't trust many things at all, im quite selective actually."
They walked further down and rose was surrounded by so many interesting sights, that she could barely take them all in. With every new sight the urge to sing pushed closer to the front of her throat, soon she was humming a rich and minor tune, to match the sights around her.
" It's so beautiful"
Erik moved closer to her pointing out small but magnificent things and now they were both humming in harmony with each other, and Erik was the first to break the bonds of singing,
Erik:
Have you ever yearned to go
Past the world you think you know?
Been enthralled to the call
Of the beauty underneath?
Have you let it draw you in
Past the place where dreams begin?
Felt the full breathless pull
Of the beauty underneath?
When the dark unfolds its wings
Do you sense the strangest things?
Things no one would ever guess
Things mere words cannot express?
Rose: Yes
Erik: Do you find yourself beguiled
By the dangerous and wild?
Do you feed on the need
For the beauty underneath?
Have you felt your senses served
And surrendered to the urge?
Have been hooked as you looked at the
At the beauty underneath?
When you stare behind the night
Can you glimpse its primal might?
Might you hunger to possess
Hunger that you can't repress?
Rose: Yes
It seems so beautiful
So strange yet beautiful
Everything's just as you say
Erik: And She's so beautiful
Perhaps too beautiful
What I suspected has come true
For I can tell, we both see
The very same way
Rose:
It's the music in your head
Have you followed where it led
And been graced with a taste
Of the beauty underneath?
Does it fill your every sense
Is it terribly intense?
Tell me you need it too
Need the beauty underneath
When it lifts its voice and sings
Don't you feel amazing things?
Things you know you can't confess
Things you thirst for nonetheless
It all so beautiful
Can it be?
Almost too beautiful
Both: Do you see what I see?
Erik:
To her it's beautiful
My world is beautiful
Both: How can this be what it seems?
All of my most secret dreams
Somehow set free
Erik:
You can feel the lift
Rose: (yes)
Erik:
Come closer
Rose:(Yes)
Erik: You've no fear of the beauty underneath
You can face it
Rose: (Yes)
Erik:You can take it
Rose:(Yes)
Erik: You see through to the beauty underneath
To the splendor
Rose:(Splendor)
Erik: And the glory
Rose: (And the glory)
Erik: To the truth of the beauty underneath!
Rose: (The beauty underneath)!
Their song ended just as Rose reached the opening to what seemined like and underground cave, the size of the opera house itself. She gaped at the spectacles that surrounded her, even more beautiful than the ones before. Her gaze fell to a small figure laying rumpled in an over sized bed that could have fit twenty of the sleeping form easily. Roses eyes widened as she rushed forward toward her friend, leaving the phantom behind, who unknown to her was taking in a spectical all his own.
It was only when Rose was climbing onto the bed did Erik realized that the boy wasn't wearing his masked. He watched and waited for her to react. but she just sat there for a moment. Rose was looking down on luccus' sleeping face, his sleep rustled hair cover the place where his mask should have been. she reached out and pushed the hair away taking in admiring him just as she had been the last time that had seen each other. Her light touch had been enough to stir the sleeping Luccus, who, with sleep filed eyes glanced up to see and angel looking upon him.
"R-Rosey?"