A/N: Hope y'all are enjoying this story! I'd really love some reviews to know y'all like it though... but with over 500 views on it so far I'm pretty happy with that :)

Disclaimer: Ah yes I've somehow gained ownership of phantom and now I'm writing phanfiction for it (not I own literally nothing you may recognize from phantom)

Now, let us continue on!

Prima Donna

Christine stared at the mirror in confusion. Why did his words seem slurred? He normally spoke with such confidence and clearness in his voice, but at the moment she was having trouble understanding what he nearly mumbling. "Angel? Are you drunk?" There was obvious disapproval in her voice.

"Nooo… I'm fineee…" His words were unnaturally drawn out and she knew he had to be on something.

"Show yourself to me then." She could hear him on the other side fumbling to find a switch. He normally absolutely silent with his actions, reinforcing her theory that he was under the influence of some substance.

After a few long moments, the mirror finally swung open revealing Erik, whose appearance surprised her. His clothing was rumpled and he was slightly slouched. He wasn't wearing any gloves and from what she could see of his hands he had fallen several times coming up here. His white shirt was untucked and he wasn't wearing his cloak or hat. The mask he wore was slightly skewed almost showing her part of his face. His dark, black hair was a complete mess and wasn't gelled to perfection as it normally was. His golden eyes were clouded and he was leaning on the wall for support.

She quickly turned and locked the dressing room door and then grabbed the man's damaged hand. She led him to the couch and pushed him to force him to sit down. He didn't fight back which was out of character for him. All of his movements were sluggish and lacked the natural grace he had. She flipped over his right hand to reveal his bloodied palm. She quickly pulled out a small medical kit she normally used on herself when she injured herself during rehearsals and began to treat the cuts. He seemed unaffected by what she was doing as if he couldn't feel any pain. Perhaps a pain drug? It seemed so odd to her that her angel would stoop so low as to take drugs. Then again, how much did she really know about this man?

"What are you on, Erik?" She asked as she worked.

When she received no reply she looked up to find his eyes fixed on her tending to his wounds in awe, as if he had never been given such treatment before. "Erik?"

"No-nothing…" He slurred out and after seeing her disapproving glare he finally broke. He was normally much more secretive and stubborn, but with this drug, in his system, he was more in a daze than anything. "Morphine…"

Her eyes widened in surprise. "Where in the world did you get that Erik?" She paused, realizing she would more than likely not get an answer while he was in this state. "Actually, I don't even want to know."

She closed her eyes and tried to gather her thoughts and suddenly remembered that she promised Madame Giry she'd be at rehearsal. She quickly jumped up, startling the dazed man before her. "I have to go to rehearsals. Do not allow yourself to be discovered, please."

He lazily nodded his head in reply. With that, she left praying that this masked man wouldn't get himself into trouble. She locked the door behind her taking the key with her. She quickly went to rehearsals hoping she didn't run into anyone along the way.

When she reached the stage she quickly joined the rest of the ballet.

"Christine! You are the lead role move to your correct spot!" She did as she was told by the director trying to hide her surprise that Carlotta wasn't here.

Where could she be? Christine thought, she remembered seeing her earlier in the day when she was glaring at her while she spoke to the manager. Perhaps she was sent away? Or maybe the manager couldn't sate her childish wants and needs. Christine guessed it was the latter of the two options. Carlotta would be back when she realized that she wasn't going to be chased after and begged for her return.

"Focus Christine!" It took a moment for Christine to realize she had been far too deep in her thoughts and had missed her cue. She quickly went to the correct spot and promised herself to not let her mind wander for the rest of the rehearsal.

Erik found himself not moving whatsoever and not even feeling the need to. He sat limply on the couch riding out the remaining high the morphine gave him. He glanced down at his bandaged hand that his angel tended to for him. How kind of her… For her to take care of such a beast without even being asked… He tried to ignore the urge to close his eyes that was slowly growing stronger.

He should leave… he should be gone before her return. His thoughts wandered past this though. Erik looked down at his other hand, covered in his own blood and it was horribly dirty. He let out an irritated sigh and picked up things from the med kit Christine had left next to him. This wasn't the first time he had been injured so he easily cared for the minor scratches on his hand and covered them. They would make it difficult for him to play his piano but he already knew he would just ignore the pain and play anyways. Nothing could keep him from his music. Well, perhaps one, thing; Christine could. If she asked him to give up music for good he would gladly do so. He was her willing servant awaiting her command. He let his mind wander to how much he cared for and lo-...

He quickly shook the thoughts away, thinking of her while under the influence of this drug was dangerous. He couldn't let his thoughts drift to such horrible places, what did he have to give her anyway? Music, music was all he could give her and he was quite sure it would never be enough for her. She would want a life in the sunlight above ground not in some home build in the fifth cellar of the opera house. What of his face? He was hideous, a demon that didn't belong in this world. He didn't have a pretty face like the Vicomte who could offer her everything she could want and more. He'd never have a chance to have her with that fop around. How he longed to snap the boy's neck, but he knew that Christine would never be able to forgive him if he did so and followed through with such desires.

He groaned and put his head in his hands. It was hopeless. Utterly hopeless. Why had God cursed him in such a way? He closed his eyes and silently cursed any God that existed if there was one. Due to the drug within his body, he fell asleep in this position inside Christine's dressing room. Images of his angel floated through his dreams as he slept somewhat peacefully, sleeping off the remaining effects of the morphine.

The rest of the rehearsal went by quickly. They were only stopped a few times to fix small errors that were made. It was near the end of the rehearsal and it seemed that Carlotta was not going to return before the next show. Everyone who thought that was wrong.

"What is this girl doing in my place?" Carlotta shrieked across the theatre causing everyone to jump and some to cover their ears. The high pitched noise that Carlotta's voice made could nearly break glass.

Christine scurried to the back without anyone telling her to and just joined the rest of the ballerinas. Everyone was quite surprised by her compliance. Carlotta strutted to center stage proud to have it back, especially with all eyes on her after her big entrance. All the other performers seemed disappointed that Carlotta had returned and some groans were heard throughout the company. Carlotta turned around with her anger obvious.

"What? Don't you all love me?!" Some fake sounds of affirmative were heard from those standing there trying to sate Carlotta. Sadly, even she could tell when she was being lied to. "I am the prima donna you all will love me! There is a reason why I am the lead role and any of you are not!" Her Spanish accent was making her near hysterical voice hard to understand, but everyone was trying their best to calm her.

Suddenly her burning eyes went to the quiet girl in the back. "Is she a better singer than I? Do you like her more than me, the little brat!" Christine looked down as Carlotta flung horrible insults at her. "She only was in the lead role because she bed the Vicomte!"

As Carlotta said this Christine felt a blush rise to her cheeks. Did the cast think she slept with the patron to get to where she was? She prayed that wasn't what they thought, but knew more than likely they did. She could feel fury rise up within her, something rare for her to feel. Although she was too timid to act on it she wished she could slap Carlotta across the face or at least spit some biting insult back at her. Christine closed her eyes and waited for Carlotta to just give up and leave her be. She felt tears stinging at her eyes and willed them not to fall, she couldn't give Carlotta what she wanted.

The conductor finally stepped in and dared to cross the prima donna while throwing her childlike tantrum. "That is quite enough Madame! We have a show to rehearse if you care to join us. Mademoiselle Daae was merely filling in for you during your absence."

"I do not care! I do not want that brat filling in for me any longer!" She screeched as an angry child would. She even stomped her foot a little bit to try and add authority to what she was saying.

"O-of course Madame! As long as you take no unexpected vacations." The manager joined into this argument of trying to sate the angry women before them.

Carlotta still had one more unreasonable request. "Even if I am gone the twit is not to replace me again! She is bad for my audience!" She seemed to think getting rid of Christine would solve all of her problems.

"Well if you are gone again then who is to replace you?" Lefevre hesitantly asked.

"I do not care! As long as it is not her!" She spit out the word 'her' with such venom even Christine could sense it from the back of the room.

"As you wish…" Lefevre said in defeat. He turned to leave muttering about how he needed to retire and this work was too stressful for him.

Christine could have stepped in sometime during the dispute and said she really didn't mind being in the background but found she would rather see how the dispute went down. Even though she knew she was better at singing than Carlotta her words still stung. She just tried to ignore everything around her and noticed how Meg sent worried glances in her direction. Christine just smiled to show she was alright even though that was far from the truth. Inside she was crying to herself, tired of being berrated by the tyrant of the prima donna.

"Alright let's begin back at the beginning of the aria!" Christine plunged herself into focusing on rehearsals, glad to have some kind of distraction from the storm of emotions swirling within her.

Throughout the remaining part of rehearsal, Carlotta was compliant she didn't complain, very much, only when she directly corrected saying 'she was doing everything just right'. Christine would just roll her eyes, knowing the action was wrong considering she was in the role for one of the performances. She mentally cringed everytime Carlotta hit a sour note, which was nearly every second. Christine was beginning to tire of the constant glares sent in her direction and it was really starting to wear on her. Finally, just as she was really to cry from the stress of the day lunch break was called.

"Meet back here in thirty minutes!" The director hollered at the company as they skipped off to lunch, knowing full well many were going to be late on purpose.

Christine hurried off with Meg, just wanting to be away from everyone and enjoy some food since she had skipped breakfast in the morning to get away from Raoul. She didn't really want a relationship at this time since she was more focused on furthering her career as an actor.

During this entire time, she had forgotten about the man slumped, asleep inside her dressing room. She listened to Meg talk excitedly about how handsome the Vicomte is and kept asking if she was going to go to lunch with him. Christine merely answered 'maybe' since she didn't feel like answering Meg's endless questions if she said no.

She let Meg gush about all the cute men in the opera house and how she wished one would court her and take her away from this place. She rolled her eyes at Meg's childish fantasies but didn't bother to jump in and change anything she was saying.

Soon, lunch had ended and Christine trudged her way back to her spot on the stage preparing herself for Carlotta's incoming glares. Carlotta was of course ten minutes late to come back and no one commented on it they just went on with rehearsal as normal.

By the end of rehearsals, everything seemed to be going alright and nothing seemed wrong so everyone was dismissed without having to stay late, only giving them an hour to prepare for the show later that night. Everyone rushed off to get their makeup and costumes fixed before the show started.

Christine was dragged off to the ballet dormitories since she was no longer the prima donna and had to get ready with the rest of the ballet. Thankfully, Carlotta wanted a different dressing room insisting the one Christine had been in was 'unclean and disgusting' so the man that laid within was left undisturbed.

The performance went as well as it could, with Carlotta in the lead role and the audience seemed to dislike having the screeching prima donna back. Christine felt odd as if something was missing throughout the entire thing and just shrugged it off.

She returned to the dressing room she had inhabited after the show and reached for the door handle, completely forgetting what lied within.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Please read and review! (I'm literally begging)