Heights

Disclaimer: I don't own phantom of the opera. But if I did, it would be great. Rated for language and sexual themes/content.

Lily pushed her hair back behind her ears as she read her Les Miserables book in the candle light in her room. It was a wonderful tale of the French revolution and a peasant girl arrested for stealing a loaf of bread. It was one of Lily's favorite books; and she could spend days reading it if she was given the chance. Lily loved to read, it was a nice escape from the ballet dormitories.

She paused in her reading to push her reading glasses back to the bridge of her nose. She didn't used to have to wear reading glasses, but she did after her stupid cousin Gabriel tricked her when she was 13 into believing that she could stop her period if she walked around cross-eyed until it worked. Well- it didn't, and thanks to him she couldn't look at print without her reading glasses.

Les Miserables was a novel that spanned to 1,463 pages, and she was only on page 379. She still had a lot left to go in her novel, and thanks to the cast party, she might be able to get through a lot of it that night. She had hoped to anyway, since she doubted she would be allowed to pick it up again until the next cast parties. The nights after practices were full of exhaust and an inability to focus on any one task until you're asleep.

But also thanks to the cast party, she couldn't concentrate. Her mind kept wandering back to the party, and distracting her from her novel. She knew she didn't want to go, cast parties like that were the ones that young ballerinas with their whole lives ahead of them got pregnant and had to drop out of the ballet to take care of the little one on the way. Lily wouldn't subject herself to that kind of future, she was meant for something more than giving up her whole life for a man.

Claire had gone to the cast party, but that wasn't a surprise. Claire loved parties, she loved to dance, drink, eat, and enjoy herself. But Lily didn't worry about her, because Claire knew when to say when while she was drinking, and she didn't fall into the trap of horny stage hands. In fact, Claire was a mean drunk, and she would beat the hell out of the stage hand that tried to take advantage of her while she was obviously heavily intoxicated.

In fact, Claire could take her liquor better than Lily could. Lily was a lightweight, and could get drunk over four glasses of wine. She really didn't trust herself in those parties, and neither did Claire. She didn't want to have to baby-sit Lily and make sure she didn't go back to the dormitories with a baby in her belly, because then she wouldn't have any fun at all. And there was no fun in having no fun!

Finally, she got tired of trying to concentrate, she could hear the cast party in her room, and frankly it was loud. She could hear the other ballet girls giggling at the party, the stage hands outside the dormitories trying to convince good ballet girls to let go of their inhibitions and enjoy a night of freedom. So, she decided to go up to the roof to read. It was quiet up there, and she would be able to focus on her novel instead of the party that she knew she didn't want to go to. So, she put her bookmark in her book and went up to the roof.

It was quiet up there, just as she had anticipated. The only thing she didn't expect was the shadow of a man sitting in her usual spot with his leg dangling over the side, and his face resting on his arm; which rested on his knee that was arched. She watched him, and started to eavesdrop on him. But the man said nothing at all.

He looked sad, but that was just from what the bright moonlight told her. But even in his sadness- she noticed he was a very handsome man. At least- he half of his face that she saw was handsome. She didn't know about the other half. But then again- did it entirely matter what he looked like? He wasn't a character in a romance novel, he didn't have to be all handsome, have a great personality, and basically a wondrous human being. In fact, that kind of perfection got on her nerves.

"Excuse me," Her voice must have startled him, because he jumped a little and looked at her with the expression of a frightened cat. She gave him a smile before moving over to his side of the roof. She stopped in her tracks when she saw him move away from her- just like a cat in its hiding spot. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to scare you. But I don't think I've seen you before; although I guess I probably just forgot." Erik stayed away from her, until she held her hand out to him and made a hand-motion like she was calling a frightened animal. "Come on, you don't need to be afraid."

"I'm not." He snarled at her.

"Well, prove it. Come out of you're hiding place." She said in a saucy tone. Erik gave her a dirty look before ignoring her again. "What's you're name?"

"None of you're business." He hissed at her in a low tone. She was really starting to get on his nerves, and she could tell.

"Well, nice to meet you none of you're business. I'm Lily." That was when he gave her the evil eye; but she just smiled it off. "So, any particular reason you're up here and sitting in my spot?"

"You're spot?" He inquired with a sarcastic tone. He could tell that his tone had bothered her a little, but that was one of the reasons why he used it. Bothering her was fun for some odd reason. Entertaining in it's own special way. "I didn't see you're name anywhere."

"Jesus, you don't have to be such an ass you know." Lily snapped at him. "I didn't do anything to you but try and be friendly."

He glared at her before leaving her alone on the roof. Part of him was saying 'she's got a point you know. You've got to apologize' but the other part- the stubborn part that kept him from thinking clearly, was telling him 'she's wrong, you're right, just leave.' And that part he listened to.

Lily stuck out her tongue at him as he left, and then she took her spot on the ledge. That man- None of you're business- had kept her spot warm for her. She should've probably thanked him for that, but she didn't. She just opened her book and began to read once again.

It wasn't until a few days later that she heard from the cloaked man again. Somehow, her sauciness had caught his attention, and he decided he'd observe her more. To the front part of his mind- he was merely observing her activities as a scientist would observe a lab rat. But in the very back of his mind, so far back that he didn't think he was thinking it at all, he was interested in finding out about her. So he watched.

He learned two things about her: 1. she had the language of a sailor, and 2. she was very clumsy. She would trip over her own feet sometimes, walk into doors and walls, and even fall down the grand staircase in the lobby of the opera house. She had a number of bruises on her arms and legs because of her falls- but it wasn't just her fall that made her clumsy, she was obviously accident prone.

Truthfully, he didn't mean to have to speak to her again a few days after their rooftop meeting. But he did. He was stalking up in the catwalk after everyone had cleared out of the stage area and when he turned around there she was. He watched her cautiously for a moment, but noticed that her face was drained of all color.

At first he assumed it was because she'd recognized his mask, but he saw her grip on the cat walk was so tight that her knuckles turned white, and she was very low to the bottom of the catwalk. Obviously, she was terrified of heights.

"What are you doing up here?" He asked her, his voice angry. Lily looked up at him, her arms shaking and her voice quivering she was scared, and wanted to go back down. But she couldn't. She was like a deer caught in the headlights, and that was what gave him the idea that she was scared. "What? Are you afraid of heights?" She slowly nodded, and he could hear her softly whimper,

"Help me down…" so, the good part of him winning the overall argument, he nodded and went to her. He knelt down to her height, and like a jelly fish, she latched her arms around his neck and allowed him to lift her up off the floor. She held onto him like an octopus would hold onto something with it's suction cups, he could feel her hands ball up into a fist with his cape in them, and her shivering grow as he moved.

"Calm down." He instructed her. "I'm not going to drop you. But can I ask you something?"

"W-What?"

"How is it that you can go up on the roof without any problems with heights, but you can't get on the catwalk, which is obviously closer to the ground than the roof is?" He felt her shrug, and he saw her gaze move away from him.

"It's different with the roof. I mean- If I fall off the ledge at least I have the hope that I'd fall onto the steady roof. If I fall off this- It doesn't matter which way I fall. Either way I'm going to hit something very hard and very fast." It wasn't exactly the smartest answer she could have given him, but he took it none the less. He climbed down the ladder until they were on the floor, and then he let her out of his arms.

"There, now if you're so scared than don't go back up there. Next time I might not be so generous." And he was gone.

Lily watched him leave until Claire tapped her on the shoulder and asked what she was starring at. Lily blinked slowly before shaking her head, and telling Claire it was nothing.

"Hey Claire, how long have you been here?"

"'bout as long as you, why?"

"No reason." She turned to walk away from the spot where the stood, but couldn't help but let her head turn back to the direction that the masked man had run off to. "No reason at all."

Yaaaaay did you like it?

XD I got my Halloween costume today. I'm going as V for VENDETTA! And me and my best friend are going trick or treating! That'll be fun.