Chapter 10- Angel of Music

Esmeralda came out from her closet where she changed her loose dancing frock for a dress with a red corset top, laced with black ribbon and lace around the U neck line. The skirt was black and fell down her hips to her shins. Esmeralda let her hair out of its ribbon and sat at her vanity, beginning to brush the long black waves.

"You look better with your hair down." a voice purred from behind her.

Esmeralda smiled and continued to brush, even when the black figure with the white mask came up behind her, when she felt his warm breath on her neck, followed by her lips.

"Are you still dreaming?" Erik whispered.

"If I am, I never want to awaken, Mon cher." she turned so she could kiss him properly. "Shall we be off?"

On the way down the passage, Erik was humming a tune Esmeralda couldn't place.

"What is that you are singing, mon ange?"

Erik smiled. "A surprise."

Down in his lair, Erik sat at his organ and looked at her. "Dance for me?"

Smiling, Esmeralda curtseyed, and then raised her arms as if she was doing a pirouette. The night was spent with him playing his music, and her dancing to the way that it made her feel. Sometimes it was lively and full of joy. Other times it was desperate sadness that made even the feared Phantom want to weep.

Eventually Esmeralda grew tired and sat next to him on the bench whilst he played soothing songs. She fell asleep on his shoulder and Erik stopped playing so that he could take her to bed. Laying her down under the red satin sheets, he kissed her lips softly.

For three months they did this. They would also sit and talk about most anything, learning more about the other, just as they were when they were children. Only there was so much more.

Erik had long since memorized Esmeralda's face; the curve of her lips, the slope of her nose, the almond shaped eyes and the creases that were beginning to show next to them that were caused by years of laughter.

Her laughter and her voice were two things he could never get enough of. The music and melody. The body and the soul. The beauty and the wonder.

For three months not a note was received in the opera house, save one person. Erik would leave them in Esmeralda's room- telling her to meet him somewhere. The gypsy looked forward to seeing the red grinning skull.

One night she came down to his lair of her own accord. She could hear him playing, pausing only to probably write something down.

"Angel of music grant me your glory," she sang across the water. "Angel of music, hide no longer. Secret and strange angel..."

Not long after, Esmeralda heard the boat slosh in the water and the gondola lights came into view.

"You rang, my dear?"

Esmeralda smiled and took Erik's hand and stepped in the boat. Only when they got to the other end of the shore did she produce a thick, cream colored envelope with a black seal. The design was simple; two masks, one smiling (comedy) the other frowning (tragedy): The universal symbol for drama. It had already been broken, which made sense for Esmeralda to read her own letter.

" 'Mademoiselle Esmeralda Gringoire is cordially invited to the Bal de Masque three weeks from today's date. Please come in full costume while sporting your favorite paper face. You may bring one guest maximum.' Well, what do you think?"

Looking at her face full of hope and joy, Erik was confused none the less. She couldn't possibly be..."Are you asking me to go?"

"No, I was asking the cat." Esmeralda rolled her eyes. "Of course I am! Its perfect- you wouldn't be out of place. No one would question your presence there."

"Until someone asked me what I did for a living. 'Well your lordship, I haunt this very opera house.' No, I couldn't do that to you."

Esmeralda wrapped her arms around Erik's waist. "Do what to me? Allow me to show the world that I love you? Erik, if you don't want to go that's completely alright. We can stay here and treat it like any other night. Or..." she trailed off.

"Or...?"

"Or, we could show society who really runs L'Opéra Populaire."

Erik rolled his eyes and kissed her lips. "You shall be the end of me."

"I'm not hearing a no..."

"And you won't. Alright, I suppose. I've been meaning to speak with the two dim wits upstairs anyways."

Esmeralda laughed and Erik brought his head down for another kiss.

Two short chapters uploaded the same night, and now I'm working on the third. I'm so sorry for taking forever with these updates. My boyfriend's been keeping me busy (a short while ago he gave me a red rose with a black ribbon tied around it- insert Phangasm) but we've reached what's roughly the halfway point of this story so it shouldn't be much longer you have to put up with me.

Erik: He stole my thing that I do…the rose…mine…