"What is your name?" The Phantom asked, his icy blue stare cutting into her once more. It's not that his gaze was rude; she just disliked eye contact.
"I um... Aria." She almost whispered.
"Speak up, child."
"Aria." She did as she was told.
"Aria..." The Phantom thought to himself before beginning to pace back and forth. "Aria, as in a song." He sat at his piano, played a few notes, then looked back at her. "Well? There's enough room for both of us on this seat."
She chuckled and hesitantly sat beside him on the chair. Her long slender fingers caressed the keys. She noticed her flesh was open for view and she pulled her hands back.
The Phantom eyed her in thought. He then cleared his throat and sat up straight, beginning to play an old hymn on the piano. "Do you know this one?"
"Um, yes, I think so. My aunt Juliet used to play it at home."
"Did you go to church?" The Phantom continued to play.
"Uh, she did." She began to visibly get more uncomfortable. "I always wanted to go. She loved me very much, but she didn't want to take me in... public.." Aria's movements got fidgety.
The Phantom stopped playing. "How absolutely ridiculous. How stupid!" His pale face slowly turned red with anger.
"It's been years. I am over it now." Aria tried to reassure him, although she was never great at that.
"Well, I'm not. That was not okay."
"Oh, but Monsieur, what about your childhood? Did you go to church?" She asked, in an attempt to change the subject.
"...I... would prefer to talk about something else." He began to play the sheet music.
"As you wish, Monsieur." She watched him, as his skeletal fingers hit the keys perfectly, she watched his ocean blue eyes flicker between the keys and the sheet music.
His playing abruptly came to a stop. "Play."
"What?"
"I said play."
"I-I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't know..."
"You can't read sheet music?" The Phantom asked her. She shook her head then. "Perhaps I have a use for you after all."