Erik released Christine's hand quite reluctantly when they arrived back at the apartment, unlocking the door and holding it open for her to enter before him. His actions caused Christine to wonder, not for the first time, where in his brutal excuse for a childhood he had possibly learned his chivalry and impeccable manners.

She followed as he wordlessly made his way into the kitchen and sat at the table, watching him contemplatively while he set about preparing dinner. He'd seemed oddly subdued and introspective throughout most of their walk home, though not unhappily so. If the emotion weren't such a strange one to find on him, Christine would be tempted to say that he looked quite content. The quiet melancholy and loneliness that always seemed to reside in his golden eyes, even in his cheeriest of moods, seemed nowhere to be found that night.

"Anything I can do to help?" she asked hopefully when he finally glanced over at her, although she already knew the answer to her question.

Erik's lips twitched upwards at the corners. "Of course. You can sit there, far away from anything sharp or heated, and refrain from injuring me or yourself."

Christine rolled her eyes and collapsed on the table in a defeated slump, pillowing her head on her arms and studying Erik through the curtain of her golden hair that had pooled around her face in soft waves. Erik was glad that his hands were occupied filling a pot with water, otherwise he would surely have given into the temptation to walk forward and bury them in her silken tresses, which looked so much like spun gold to him at that moment.

"I hate that you do so much for me and I feel like I have no way to repay you," Christine murmured, almost to herself.

Erik balked at the idea that she should feel indebted to him, considering the fact that she had already given him more joy in his life than he could ever have imagined possible. He could not bring himself to voice these feelings, though, and instead deflected her concern with a joke. "Are you aware of exactly how great of a salary your father is giving me? I assure you, I'm being repaid quite handsomely for my assistance."

Christine rolled her eyes at him. "Don't think you can brush off my gratitude so easily, mister. Your argument has no merit when you know fully well that the only thing you're getting paid for is to keep me safe. No one is compensating you for cooking for me or giving me voice lessons, or for helping me study or proofreading my papers or any of the thousands of other things you do for me on a regular basis."

Erik busied himself pulling ingredients out of the fridge as he thought of a way to explain himself without revealing the true depths of his feelings.

"Christine, I require no compensation for that. I like doing all of those things for you." He turned away under the pretense of slicing mushrooms. "For so long in my job I've grown accustomed to being relegated to dark corners and ignored as if I were no more than an uncommon piece of furniture. I like being more than just a bodyguard to you." Finally finding the courage to meet her gaze, he continued on. "I have had so little friendship in my life… I feel that nothing I do could ever truly express my gratitude for having been gifted with yours."

"Erik, you hardly need to do all of this for me just to show me you're grateful. My friendship is given freely and happily, for no other reason than that I enjoy being around you. It doesn't require compensation."

"You misinterpret my words, mon ange."

Christine tried not to smile at the addition of the possessive claim to the pet name he seemed to have formed for her.

"I did not mean to imply that I undertake these tasks simply in order to give recompense to you. I do them because I enjoy them. I have always loved to cook, and I derive just as much satisfaction from the improvements to your voice as you do. And as to the rest… I grew up in a house where I was nothing but an unwanted burden to my mother. It is quite satisfying, in contrast, to feel useful and wanted by you."

Erik glanced up in time to see a look of complete tenderness soften Christine's usually mischievous blue eyes. "However," he added teasingly, wanting to change the subject and venture out of unfamiliarly intimate territory. "If you still desire some way to show your gratitude for all of my assistance, you could always raise my salary."

Christine giggled, more than happy to fall back into their comfortable routine of sarcasm and humor. "Yes, but what good is money when you have nothing to spend it on?" she asked. "You spend all of your time holed up here with me, and I refuse to let you pay for any of the groceries. What would you even do with the extra money?"

"Deposit it in my Secret Super Villain Account, of course. World domination is a rather expensive task to undertake," Erik explained as if it were obvious.

"Oh, of course!" Christine exclaimed, slapping herself on the forehead. She sobered slightly as she suddenly remembered the point Meg had brought up to her earlier in the evening. "Seriously, though, what do you like to do for fun?"

"I enjoy a great many things, but few that require venturing into public. I'm assuming this question is in response to Meg's earlier concerns?"

"Well, yeah. I'd not really considered before how rude I've been, dragging you around wherever I feel like going and not even bothering to ask if there were things you wanted to do."

Erik smirked slightly as he added the mushrooms he had just sliced into the wine sauce he was making. "Once again I would like to remind you that I am your bodyguard, Christine. While it is my job to follow you around everywhere you wish to go, it's certainly not my place to dictate where that may be."

"Like hell it isn't," Christine interjected sternly. "V, if you're going to claim my friendship, that means you have to get out of this stupid employer/employee mindset and put yourself on equal footing with me."

"As you wish, mademoiselle," Erik declared, bowing regally with a flourish of the spatula he still held in his hand.

"Good. Now that that's settled… Back to my earlier question. What kind of things do you like to do when you're not stuck guarding people?"

Erik shrugged his shoulders dismissively. "I've already informed you of my numerous interests in life."

"No, you've informed me of your numerous careers."

"All of which I happen to be greatly interested in, as luck would have it."

Christine rolled her eyes at his evasive answers. "Yeah, but that's not what I mean. I know you like composing and painting and designing buildings and what have you, but what do you do in your free time?

"I compose and paint and design buildings," he answered, his eyes glinting impishly.

"You're impossible!" Christine huffed, to which Erik merely responded with a crooked, rakish grin. "Fine, if you won't offer up the information willingly, I'll just have to change my tactics. Do you like going to the movies?"

"I prefer our typical routine for watching movies. I doubt our typical running commentary on them would be much appreciated in a public theatre."

"Concerts?"

"I suppose it would depend on what music was being performed."

"Plays?"

"I visited The Globe quite a bit while staying in England. I've only been to a few plays since moving here, though. Spamalot was surprisingly enjoyable…"

Christine giggled at that admission. Leave it to Erik to express a love for both Shakespeare and Monty Python in the same sentence. "How about theme parks?" she continued.

"I've actually never attended one."

"What? That is absolutely being rectified this summer! You have no say in the matter, though I suppose I will give you the option of choosing between Disneyworld or Universal Studios."

Erik grinned to himself, inordinately pleased that Christine didn't even seem to question his continued presence in her life after her graduation.

"So do you like going to nightclubs?"

Erik glanced over his shoulder to stare at her incredulously. "Is that a joke?"

"I'll take that as a 'no', then… Just checking. You never know! How about operas?"

"Ah, now those I have always loved, though I must admit that I haven't attended one since leaving Europe quite a few years ago…"

Christine quieted, then, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"What, finished already?" Erik asked, pouring pasta noodles into the pot of water as it finally began to boil. "You still have fourteen questions left, by my count."

"I'm saving them for later," Christine replied easily.

"So does that mean it's my turn?"

"I suppose, if you like. What did you want to ask me?"

Erik hesitated, stirring the noodles and debating how best to broach his query. "At rehearsal tonight Carlotta mentioned something about your mother, and it made me realize you've never mentioned her to me before…" He glanced back to see how Christine was reacting, encouraged to see that she seemed perfectly serene and composed. "I suppose I'm just curious why you never talk about her."

"Honestly, I have nothing to talk about. I never knew my mother. She died giving birth to me."

Erik sucked in a breath, instantly regretting his curiosity. "Forgive me, Christine. I should not have asked…"

"It's fine, V. I promise. Like I said, I never knew her, so it's not like I can miss her. I mean, I guess I've always missed the idea of having a mother, but my father's always been so wonderful to me that I've never felt like I was deprived of anything." Christine twirled a lock of hair around her finger thoughtfully. "I've seen plenty of pictures, and I don't really look anything like her. I take a lot more after my father, but he says I've got her voice, and her 'thousand kilowatt smile', as he always calls it…" she trailed off slowly, a nostalgic look on her face. "Daddy always said that the instant he saw her smile he knew she was the woman he wanted to marry. One time I asked him what he would have done if she'd turned out to be a miserable bitch, but he said he knew that wasn't possible because-"

"No one with a smile like that could be anything but kind and caring and ridiculously happy?" Erik interrupted softly.

Christine blinked in surprise. "Well, yeah… Not in those words, exactly, but yeah."

"As your father says, you have the same smile," he explained quietly, keeping his back to her and therefore not seeing when she gifted him with just such a smile.

Her smile faded slightly as she noticed that they had once again ventured into the territory of serious, personal conversation. She was rather shocked to realize just how comfortable she felt discussing this with Erik, considering how hard she usually tried to avoid revealing anything personal about herself.

She quickly changed the topic to something light-hearted and humorous to avoid having to acknowledge yet another piece of evidence towards her growing feelings for Erik, stubbornly ignoring the voice that whispered 'coward' in her head the entire time.

After dinner, Erik helped Christine go over her lines for Carmen while she did the dishes and straightened up, as had become their habit in recent weeks. When that was finished, Erik decided to work on some architectural designs while Christine left to take a shower. He had been at it for less than five minutes when a sudden yelp and a crash came from the bathroom, followed by Christine calling his name out sharply.

Erik rushed instantly towards the sound, but Christine had bolted out of the room before he could reach it, and the two collided with each other rather comically in the hallway. Erik wrapped his arms around Christine reflexively to keep her from falling, opening his mouth to ask her what had happened, but suddenly felt his mind go entirely blank at the realization that Christine was dripping wet and clad in nothing but a small white towel.

He suddenly felt as if he had molten lava coursing through his veins, and he couldn't stop his arms from tightening and drawing Christine even closer, until she was pressed forcefully against him.

"Um… Hi," Christine greeted in surprise, her hands tightening on his muscular shoulders in response to being held so possessively. "Sorry about the scream, or yelp or whatever it was… I'm not being attacked or anything, I swear. At least, I don't think I am… It just, um, appears that someone else had a prior claim on our shower…" she trailed off as she realized that she was babbling, pushing away from Erik suddenly in an attempt to regain coherency to her speech. The voice in her head which had previously labeled her a coward was now calling her an idiot, as well, for trying to distance herself when it felt oh so good to be trapped in his embrace, but Christine stubbornly ignored it and smiled at her slightly catatonic bodyguard as if nothing were amiss.

Erik stared at her for several moments, his eyes burning hot enough that Christine was half expecting her towel to burst into flames, before he finally managed to force a response from his throat. "What?"

So maybe it wasn't the most articulate of responses, but it was a start.

Christine couldn't help but grin, pleased at the effect she was obviously having on him, but she tried not to appear too smug as she gestured towards the bathroom with her head. "See for yourself."

Erik was distracted watching the path of a water droplet as it traced down the column of her throat and slowly disappeared in the furrow between her breasts, wanting nothing more than to grab her and follow that same path with his tongue. Clenching his teeth and trying desperately to erase those thoughts from his head, Erik managed to process the fact that she had just spoken to him, and wordlessly stepped around her into the bathroom.

"Erik, this is Octavius. Octavius, Erik," Christine introduced politely, entering behind Erik and peering around his shoulder at the bathtub, although she was careful to keep him positioned protectively in front of her.

Erik raised an eyebrow as he studied the large wolf spider perched calmly on the ledge of the tub. "Octavius?" he questioned in amusement, forcing himself to appear nonchalant despite the fact that every nerve ending in his body was attuned to the feel of Christine's hands clutching at his shoulders as she hid behind him.

"It seemed an appropriate name for a spider," she explained. "Besides, he makes me think of a Roman emperor, the way he barges in and claims my shower for his own without the slightest shame or fear."

This time Erik's chuckle was sincere, not forced for the sake of appearing unaffected. "There is something rather regal and pompous in the way he carries himself," he agreed, playing along easily with her fanciful musings.

Christine smiled brightly at his contribution and couldn't resist the urge to rest her cheek on his shoulder blade while she continued to survey the spider warily.

"Shall I remove Octavius from his newly conquered territory so that you may resume your bath, m'lady?" Erik asked gallantly, emboldened by the way she clutched at him for security.

"I would be endlessly grateful, brave sir. Only… Don't hurt him?" Christine pleaded gently.

Erik smiled softly at her, touched by her concern for a creature which she was clearly quite frightened of. "Of course not," he vowed solemnly. Reluctantly, since he was loathe to give up his position as Christine's shield, Erik stepped towards the bathtub and gently coaxed the wolf spider onto his hand, cupping the other hand over it to keep him contained.

Christine shuddered at the ease with which he touched the arachnid and gave him a very wide berth as he passed by her out of the bathroom.

"Thanks, V! You're my hero," she declared, giving him a beaming smile of gratitude before shutting the door and returning to her shower.

Erik walked dazedly towards the living room and gently deposited the spider onto the ledge outside of the window.

"I don't know whether to curse you or thank you for that, Octavius," Erik remarked. "God knows I was already having enough trouble controlling myself around her… And now, after seeing that," he trailed off with a groan, burying his head in his hands.

"It's sheer torture being around her half the time, but it is surely the sweetest torture I have ever had to endure… She's a remarkable creature, isn't she?" he asked, dropping his hands and glancing towards the spider that was still perched calmly on the window ledge. "Being so kind to monsters like us… I wonder if she would show me the same compassion she showed you tonight, if she ever saw behind my mask."

Erik sighed sadly and ran a hand over the hard contours of the mask. "And now I'm discussing my feelings with a spider… I truly have gone mad." Slowly, Erik stood and closed the window before retreating to the library to console himself with music. His uncharacteristic peace and contentment from earlier was chased away with thoughts of what would happen if Christine ever saw his true face.