A/N: I am very bad with the passage of time. So I may be incorrect with
it. Please just be patient with me if I jump ahead or accidentally slip
behind. It's hard to follow a time frame with me. If I weren't so lazy,
I'd write out a time line to keep beside me to keep track, but since I am .
. . (lol)
Raoul has his foppish moment, and Erik enjoys it to no end!
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Chapter 25: Joyeux Anniversaire!
"Joyeux anniversaire! Joyeux anniversaire! Joyeux anniversaire, Cher Gerard! Joyeux anniversaire!"
The small gathering around the kitchen table clapped as Gerard blew out the six candles on his birthday cake. Marguerite and Fleur reached forward to swipe their fingertips over the icing greedily before their mother had a chance to smack their wrists away. Yet Gerard didn't seem to care too much. He just laughed excitedly, and demanded to be given a piece of his cake. Sitting at the foot of the table was Erik, his bride pulled onto his lap as Raoul and Christine sat side by side opposite the twins. Christine was a bit heavy with child now. There would only be another two months or so before the baby was born.
"Hold on, hold on!" Madeline chuckled as she picked up the cake from the table, carrying it to the counter so she might cut it and put it on plates. "Who doesn't want a piece, and what sizes does everyone else want?"
"A big piece!" Marguerite insisted, her voice over-excited for her little brothers special occasion. She spoke for both her and her twin sister, who had her arms spread out enthusiastically to emphasize size.
Christine and Raoul held hands atop the table as they looked at one another lovingly. Erik had invited them to the birthday party when it was realized that Gerard had no friends to invite, and he'd desperately wanted company. He'd gone on and on about how many guests he would be having. Although Christine and Raoul were the only guests thus far, Isabelle's father was expected to appear in short time and give Gerard a bit of a gift as well. Gerard was too young to know he didn't have any of his own little friends there. He only knew that it was a big party just for him.
"Big one!" Gerard yelled to his mother insistently, his little voice somehow booming in the moderately sized room. "Big one, Mama!"
"Yes, yes, I know!" Madeline looked over her shoulder to smile at him. Then, she looked towards Erik and Isabelle, as Erik hugged his arm tightly about his wife. "What about you two?"
"We're going to share." Isabelle said matter-of-factly, turning to give Erik a long but relatively innocent kiss. They were careful when they showed affection in front of the children. Laughing, Erik pinched her waist, making her squeal with laughter, and smack him hard across the shoulder.
"I'll have just a regular piece, thank you." Christine said next, trying to give Madeline time to cut everyone else's slices and pass them out. Raoul quietly passed up the chance for some delicious chocolate cake, and took a sip of the punch that had been made available. "Oh, I'm getting so fat. I'll be glad when I can see my toes again!"
"Mon Dieu!" Erik rolled his eyes. "Christine, you're pregnant! Of course you can't expect to hold that child in your regular tiny frame!" He thought for a long moment, and then smiled at her gently. "Though I must say, the entire company will be quite pleased when you return to the Opera."
She blushed quietly, and then made a large scene of accepting the cake that Madeline put in front of her. As Isabelle scooped up a bit of cake from the plate in front of her and her husband, she held the fork up towards his lips. With a playful growl, he struck out at the offering like a cobra uncoiling from his predatory coil, and that made Isabelle jump again. She could act so like the children when she wanted to; could be so flighty.
"Have you started trying yet?" Christine suddenly asked Erik, making him stare at her momentarily in confusion, a bit of chocolate stuck to his lips before Isabelle giggled, wiping it away with a napkin.
"Try - oh! You mean, are we trying for a baby?" He replied. Christine smiled, nodding slowly. Erik slowly turned to look up at Isabelle. His wife simply looked back at him with loving, happy eyes. "Not per se." He finally replied, looking back at Christine. "I mean, it's hard to make love and not take the chance of conceiving. Yet we haven't done anything but accept that it may or may not happen."
The children were oblivious to the conversation. Yet a voice from behind caught their attention.
"Well, it's about time you gave me a grandson!"
Isabelle stood from Erik's lap immediately, although he tried to hold her there, wrestling with her a bit playfully. Isabelle then launched into the open arms of her father, and kissed his cheek. The poor man almost dropped the package he held under one arm. Erik reached out while the man was still occupied with his daughter, and took the package from him, adding it to the small pile against the wall behind Christine's chair.
"Ah, there you are my boy." The man said jovially. Erik still had not asked him his first name, although he was sure he probably had the right to by now. Standing, he shook his father-in-laws' hand, his fingers nearly crushed by the firm grip.
"Père!" Gerard exclaimed from the head of the table, waving to Isabelle's father with hands and mouth both covered in chocolate cake. All three of Madeline's children had taken to calling the man that, as the man didn't know them well enough to allow them to call him grandfather, and he really was sort of an on-the-sidelines father to them as of late. Erik's life had become so busy at the Opera House; he'd been sending the children with his wife to her fathers' estate so they might enjoy themselves in the lavish surroundings. Madeline would, more often than not, accompany them.
"Ah, Gerard! There's the happy birthday lad!" Isabelle's father rounded the crowded table to say hello to everyone, and Isabelle returned to Erik's lap, also returning her attention fully to him.
"He's gotten into this role quite well." Erik murmured to her, making her laugh softly.
"Yes, he has, hasn't he?" She replied softly. "Well, at least it prepares him for the real thing."
"Why do you think I had the children introduced to him?" Erik replied with a low, wicked chuckle. Christine looked at him questioningly across the way, and he shook his head, waving his hand dismissively at her. She shrugged and went back into a conversation with Raoul. Erik watched her temporarily as she rubbed her swollen stomach gently.
When everyone had finished their share of cake, Isabelle and Erik helped Madeline clear the table. Marguerite gave up her chair so that Monsieur Develõngê could seat himself, but then promptly took up place in his lap. Fleur did the same with his unoccupied knee, and Madeline found that there was now a seat available for her to sit in. She sighed heavily as she took the deserved rest beside her son, as he excitedly demanded to have his presents.
"Gerard!" Erik's voice cut through all the excitement in the room, and everyone became silent, turning to look at him. His eyes were stern, almost hard, as the young boy cringed back a little bit. "What do we say?" Erik finally prompted in a far gentler tone.
"Please?" Gerard gave in after a few defiant seconds, which he was well aware, would probably earn him a spanking if he kept it up. Erik nodded, looking to Raoul and Christine.
"He may have them now." He said softly, making it perfectly clear who the authority figure was in this household. Usually he tried not to interfere with Madeline as she disciplined her children, but Gerard had been getting obnoxious.
Christine turned, quickly picking up the package from Isabelle's father, and putting it in front of the boy. Gerard ripped open the present eagerly, not caring about the packaging that it was in. He then stared into the box Madeline helped him to open, then to Isabelle's father in question. Everyone else followed his gaze as well.
"It is a snow globe of the London Bridge, Gerard." The man explained softly. "Show him, Madeline. I thought, Gerard, that you might like a grown-ups toy."
"The London Bridge?" Erik asked inquisitively. "No offense, Monsieur, but don't you think that's a bit plain for a snow globe?"
"Not for his first one." Monsieur said obligingly, laughing. "Next year perhaps, if he wishes another, I will get him something grander." Leaning over, he whispered to Erik. "He's so young, it will probably break in a month."
"Then why did you have to specify it as a toy?" Erik laughed, shaking his head. Gerard had already grown bored with the first gift, but murmured an insincere thank-you to Monsieur before tearing into the next gift, which was apparently from Christine and Raoul.
Again, he stared at them in question. Raoul smiled.
"It's a riding uniform." He explained proudly. "I assume you're going to teach the boy how to ride, aren't you?" He looked to Erik instead of Madeline. "Now he can look good doing it." His little joke made Christine giggle, yet Erik only attempted to keep from rolling his eyes, and hid it by looking up to Isabelle and giving her another soft kiss to a tender spot on her throat.
"Er ist ein dummkopf." He whispered into her ear. He knew that she'd been tutored in several different languages including German, so she began to laugh helplessly when he whispered to her that Raoul was a fool. No one else seemed to understand, and watched them quizzically. Erik, however, was encouraged by her delightful laughter, and chuckled evilly. "Sein Kopf ist leer! Hübsches gesicht - leeres gehim!"
By this time Isabelle could scarcely breathe, and everyone was staring at them with total incomprehension. Raoul might not have been one of the brightest men in the world, but he knew somehow that he was being mocked. His face turned a not-too-flattering crimson, and he muttered beneath his breath, squeezing Christine's hand tightly and trying to ignore the laughter. When Isabelle had finally seemed to calm down, everyone turned back to Gerard, who had meanwhile opened another present and was smiling broadly at a little toy flute that Erik himself had carved out of wood. He tested it, making a high-pitched squeal that made everyone cover their ears.
"Erik!" Madeline scolded immediately, and he chuckled again, shrugging.
"He wanted to learn to play an instrument!" He argued defensively. "Fleur already is learning the piano. I can't very well have them arguing over who is going to use it when! Besides - Isabelle picked out which instrument it would be." His wife gave him a light slap at that, but he ignored it.
His point made, everyone dealt with the noise that Gerard made with his new toy for several more minutes, until Madeline snatched it away. The cries that the boy gave were amazing, as though he'd learned how to bellow his disapproval from Erik. Christine looked at him out of the corner of her eye when she made the playful connection, but he didn't notice. He was too busy reaching behind her to grab another package and put it in front of Gerard in a hurry.
After another two seconds, Gerard quieted down once more, and leapt on the new present. He tore it open with abandon, throwing the packaging paper everywhere without caring where it landed. When his present finally lay bare in front of him, his eyes widened. It was a little toy pocket watch made of solid wood that should not be easily broken.
"How do you like it?" Madeline whispered to him. "Your sisters picked it out for you."
Gerard looked at his sisters, and smiled at him happily, nodding quickly. The girls clapped, excited that he liked their gift, and then Madeline helped the boy to secure it to his vest just as Erik had secured a real gold pocket watch to him several times in the past. In fact, he was wearing one at that very moment, hidden beneath his overcoat. Finally, Madeline brought out her own gift, which was a sort of lantern with a metal shade over it, different shapes cut out of it. When she lit the candle on the inside, and put the shade over it, letting it spin, pictures of stars swirled about the dim kitchen. As it was a misty day outside, it allowed for a fine showing of the new gift.
"Mama!" Gerard shrieked, throwing his arms about her in giddiness. The entire family knew how much he loved to look at the stares.
"Now you can watch them as you go to sleep." Madeline whispered to him, her voice now audible as the rest of the room was pretty quiet. Gerard was the center of attention, just as it should be on his birthday.
Erik had managed to keep his mind on the here and now as the ceremony of cake and gift was done. Yet when it was all over, he watched the faces that crowded around the handsome little boy. They all loved him so much. They all had come to celebrate his birth. All of them had given him a gift. None of the gifts - save the flute - were kept from him. Even the flute would not be taken from him permanently. Yet there would be a time and place for him to practice - Probably alone in his room.
He remembered that he had never been given that opportunity. On the one birthday he remembered, he'd asked for something and been refused it. A present had been given to him that his mother refused to let him use - even though he'd gotten to use it without her knowledge anyway. On that one birthday, he had nearly died because he saw a horrible monster in a mirror, and had cut his hands and wrists badly when he smashed it in fear. He hadn't known at that moment that the monster in the mirror had been him.
It had been the worst childhood memory of his life until the gypsy camp came along. Now, as the attention swirled around Gerard, even Isabelle seemed to halfway forget that her husband was at her side. He was left totally to his own thoughts and memories, and his eyes glazed over as he remembered that day. He'd never had a real birthday. He didn't even remember when it was. There was no birth certificate for him. Isabelle had, for some reason or other, never thought to ask him when his birthday was. No one had. Perhaps everyone thought he wished to keep it to himself. Still, realizing that no one - not even his beloved wife - had asked him anything more than his age, stung like a hundred bee stings.
"Erik?"
He looked up at Christine as her hand suddenly touched his arm. She smiled apologetically when she realized she had startled him.
"Where were you just now?" She asked quietly. He shook his head.
"Doesn't matter. I was just thinking."
She didn't believe him for a moment, yet was not about to question him in front of all these other people who did not know his past. Shrugging, she turned back to Raoul, who was quite annoyingly trying to bring her attention solely back to him.
A knock on the front door caught Erik's attention, and he gently removed Isabelle from his lap to lift her into his place. Kissing her cheek, he quickly made for the hallway to the door. He wasn't expecting anyone else to appear. Yet when he opened the door to fine Nadir standing there with a package under his own arm, he wasn't all too surprised. He had mentioned the birthday party to him a few days earlier.
"Salaam." Nadir greeted, bowing his head in greeting. Erik quickly bowed formally in return.
"Asr be kheir." He greeted quickly. "Come in, Nadir. We hadn't been expecting you. All of the cake is gone, and Gerard has already opened his presents."
Nadir smiled brightly as he came in from the slight rain outside, and Erik closed the door behind him, quickly taking his cloak to hang it in the closet so it wouldn't drip everywhere.
"I know I wasn't invite." He replied. "Forgive me. I just wish to give Gerard something." He hesitated after a long moment, his eyes lowering to the package he held. "That is . . . with your consent, Erik."
"You think I would disapprove?"
"Of the object, yes." Nadir admitted. Slowly, he handed Erik the box, and he opened it to find inside a fine little toy that he recognized immediately. A mechanical doll he'd once created for Nadir's son. A doll with a violin that played and bowed and entertained, and would only start playing again when someone clapped vigorously. It had nearly broken once when Nadir, angry at his sons' admiration of the creation, had tried to make it work without letting his son just clap away.
"This isn't mine to object to." He said softly, looking up at Nadir, shaking just a little bit. He remembered the young boy he himself had killed with a bit of poison when the child was suffering unnecessarily from a fatal illness. A mercy killing, he had told himself at the time. Yet the child's death, and Nadir's following grief, and made him never again enter his friends dwelling in Persia. "Give it to him, please. I am sure he would love it. Yet be certain you want to part with it."
"I would like to see another boy love it as much as my son did." Nadir said quietly, closing the box again. They both went into the kitchen together, getting a couple of strange looks from Raoul and Christine. Christine recognized him as Erik's friend, and so did Raoul. Yet Raoul couldn't make the connection as Christine did. The friend of the Phantom of the Opera, that betrayed his secrets in order to save a young opera star from his grasp.
"Gerard, come here." Erik ordered quietly, and everyone became silent as the boy obeyed, reluctantly leaving the side of the lantern his mother had allowed him to keep lighted on the table. Nadir lowered himself to be at eye level with the child, taking his time as he worked up the nerve to give away the last toy his son had ever cherished.
"I have something that Erik made many years ago." He said quietly. "He has always had many talents, and this is one of them. My son loved this toy . . . I want you to have it now."
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TRANSLATIONS!
Er ist ein dummkopf - He is a fool
Sein Kopf ist leer! Hübsches gesicht - leeres gehim ------ His head is empty! Pretty face - empty brain!
Salaam - Hello
Asr be kheir - Good afternoon
Raoul has his foppish moment, and Erik enjoys it to no end!
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Chapter 25: Joyeux Anniversaire!
"Joyeux anniversaire! Joyeux anniversaire! Joyeux anniversaire, Cher Gerard! Joyeux anniversaire!"
The small gathering around the kitchen table clapped as Gerard blew out the six candles on his birthday cake. Marguerite and Fleur reached forward to swipe their fingertips over the icing greedily before their mother had a chance to smack their wrists away. Yet Gerard didn't seem to care too much. He just laughed excitedly, and demanded to be given a piece of his cake. Sitting at the foot of the table was Erik, his bride pulled onto his lap as Raoul and Christine sat side by side opposite the twins. Christine was a bit heavy with child now. There would only be another two months or so before the baby was born.
"Hold on, hold on!" Madeline chuckled as she picked up the cake from the table, carrying it to the counter so she might cut it and put it on plates. "Who doesn't want a piece, and what sizes does everyone else want?"
"A big piece!" Marguerite insisted, her voice over-excited for her little brothers special occasion. She spoke for both her and her twin sister, who had her arms spread out enthusiastically to emphasize size.
Christine and Raoul held hands atop the table as they looked at one another lovingly. Erik had invited them to the birthday party when it was realized that Gerard had no friends to invite, and he'd desperately wanted company. He'd gone on and on about how many guests he would be having. Although Christine and Raoul were the only guests thus far, Isabelle's father was expected to appear in short time and give Gerard a bit of a gift as well. Gerard was too young to know he didn't have any of his own little friends there. He only knew that it was a big party just for him.
"Big one!" Gerard yelled to his mother insistently, his little voice somehow booming in the moderately sized room. "Big one, Mama!"
"Yes, yes, I know!" Madeline looked over her shoulder to smile at him. Then, she looked towards Erik and Isabelle, as Erik hugged his arm tightly about his wife. "What about you two?"
"We're going to share." Isabelle said matter-of-factly, turning to give Erik a long but relatively innocent kiss. They were careful when they showed affection in front of the children. Laughing, Erik pinched her waist, making her squeal with laughter, and smack him hard across the shoulder.
"I'll have just a regular piece, thank you." Christine said next, trying to give Madeline time to cut everyone else's slices and pass them out. Raoul quietly passed up the chance for some delicious chocolate cake, and took a sip of the punch that had been made available. "Oh, I'm getting so fat. I'll be glad when I can see my toes again!"
"Mon Dieu!" Erik rolled his eyes. "Christine, you're pregnant! Of course you can't expect to hold that child in your regular tiny frame!" He thought for a long moment, and then smiled at her gently. "Though I must say, the entire company will be quite pleased when you return to the Opera."
She blushed quietly, and then made a large scene of accepting the cake that Madeline put in front of her. As Isabelle scooped up a bit of cake from the plate in front of her and her husband, she held the fork up towards his lips. With a playful growl, he struck out at the offering like a cobra uncoiling from his predatory coil, and that made Isabelle jump again. She could act so like the children when she wanted to; could be so flighty.
"Have you started trying yet?" Christine suddenly asked Erik, making him stare at her momentarily in confusion, a bit of chocolate stuck to his lips before Isabelle giggled, wiping it away with a napkin.
"Try - oh! You mean, are we trying for a baby?" He replied. Christine smiled, nodding slowly. Erik slowly turned to look up at Isabelle. His wife simply looked back at him with loving, happy eyes. "Not per se." He finally replied, looking back at Christine. "I mean, it's hard to make love and not take the chance of conceiving. Yet we haven't done anything but accept that it may or may not happen."
The children were oblivious to the conversation. Yet a voice from behind caught their attention.
"Well, it's about time you gave me a grandson!"
Isabelle stood from Erik's lap immediately, although he tried to hold her there, wrestling with her a bit playfully. Isabelle then launched into the open arms of her father, and kissed his cheek. The poor man almost dropped the package he held under one arm. Erik reached out while the man was still occupied with his daughter, and took the package from him, adding it to the small pile against the wall behind Christine's chair.
"Ah, there you are my boy." The man said jovially. Erik still had not asked him his first name, although he was sure he probably had the right to by now. Standing, he shook his father-in-laws' hand, his fingers nearly crushed by the firm grip.
"Père!" Gerard exclaimed from the head of the table, waving to Isabelle's father with hands and mouth both covered in chocolate cake. All three of Madeline's children had taken to calling the man that, as the man didn't know them well enough to allow them to call him grandfather, and he really was sort of an on-the-sidelines father to them as of late. Erik's life had become so busy at the Opera House; he'd been sending the children with his wife to her fathers' estate so they might enjoy themselves in the lavish surroundings. Madeline would, more often than not, accompany them.
"Ah, Gerard! There's the happy birthday lad!" Isabelle's father rounded the crowded table to say hello to everyone, and Isabelle returned to Erik's lap, also returning her attention fully to him.
"He's gotten into this role quite well." Erik murmured to her, making her laugh softly.
"Yes, he has, hasn't he?" She replied softly. "Well, at least it prepares him for the real thing."
"Why do you think I had the children introduced to him?" Erik replied with a low, wicked chuckle. Christine looked at him questioningly across the way, and he shook his head, waving his hand dismissively at her. She shrugged and went back into a conversation with Raoul. Erik watched her temporarily as she rubbed her swollen stomach gently.
When everyone had finished their share of cake, Isabelle and Erik helped Madeline clear the table. Marguerite gave up her chair so that Monsieur Develõngê could seat himself, but then promptly took up place in his lap. Fleur did the same with his unoccupied knee, and Madeline found that there was now a seat available for her to sit in. She sighed heavily as she took the deserved rest beside her son, as he excitedly demanded to have his presents.
"Gerard!" Erik's voice cut through all the excitement in the room, and everyone became silent, turning to look at him. His eyes were stern, almost hard, as the young boy cringed back a little bit. "What do we say?" Erik finally prompted in a far gentler tone.
"Please?" Gerard gave in after a few defiant seconds, which he was well aware, would probably earn him a spanking if he kept it up. Erik nodded, looking to Raoul and Christine.
"He may have them now." He said softly, making it perfectly clear who the authority figure was in this household. Usually he tried not to interfere with Madeline as she disciplined her children, but Gerard had been getting obnoxious.
Christine turned, quickly picking up the package from Isabelle's father, and putting it in front of the boy. Gerard ripped open the present eagerly, not caring about the packaging that it was in. He then stared into the box Madeline helped him to open, then to Isabelle's father in question. Everyone else followed his gaze as well.
"It is a snow globe of the London Bridge, Gerard." The man explained softly. "Show him, Madeline. I thought, Gerard, that you might like a grown-ups toy."
"The London Bridge?" Erik asked inquisitively. "No offense, Monsieur, but don't you think that's a bit plain for a snow globe?"
"Not for his first one." Monsieur said obligingly, laughing. "Next year perhaps, if he wishes another, I will get him something grander." Leaning over, he whispered to Erik. "He's so young, it will probably break in a month."
"Then why did you have to specify it as a toy?" Erik laughed, shaking his head. Gerard had already grown bored with the first gift, but murmured an insincere thank-you to Monsieur before tearing into the next gift, which was apparently from Christine and Raoul.
Again, he stared at them in question. Raoul smiled.
"It's a riding uniform." He explained proudly. "I assume you're going to teach the boy how to ride, aren't you?" He looked to Erik instead of Madeline. "Now he can look good doing it." His little joke made Christine giggle, yet Erik only attempted to keep from rolling his eyes, and hid it by looking up to Isabelle and giving her another soft kiss to a tender spot on her throat.
"Er ist ein dummkopf." He whispered into her ear. He knew that she'd been tutored in several different languages including German, so she began to laugh helplessly when he whispered to her that Raoul was a fool. No one else seemed to understand, and watched them quizzically. Erik, however, was encouraged by her delightful laughter, and chuckled evilly. "Sein Kopf ist leer! Hübsches gesicht - leeres gehim!"
By this time Isabelle could scarcely breathe, and everyone was staring at them with total incomprehension. Raoul might not have been one of the brightest men in the world, but he knew somehow that he was being mocked. His face turned a not-too-flattering crimson, and he muttered beneath his breath, squeezing Christine's hand tightly and trying to ignore the laughter. When Isabelle had finally seemed to calm down, everyone turned back to Gerard, who had meanwhile opened another present and was smiling broadly at a little toy flute that Erik himself had carved out of wood. He tested it, making a high-pitched squeal that made everyone cover their ears.
"Erik!" Madeline scolded immediately, and he chuckled again, shrugging.
"He wanted to learn to play an instrument!" He argued defensively. "Fleur already is learning the piano. I can't very well have them arguing over who is going to use it when! Besides - Isabelle picked out which instrument it would be." His wife gave him a light slap at that, but he ignored it.
His point made, everyone dealt with the noise that Gerard made with his new toy for several more minutes, until Madeline snatched it away. The cries that the boy gave were amazing, as though he'd learned how to bellow his disapproval from Erik. Christine looked at him out of the corner of her eye when she made the playful connection, but he didn't notice. He was too busy reaching behind her to grab another package and put it in front of Gerard in a hurry.
After another two seconds, Gerard quieted down once more, and leapt on the new present. He tore it open with abandon, throwing the packaging paper everywhere without caring where it landed. When his present finally lay bare in front of him, his eyes widened. It was a little toy pocket watch made of solid wood that should not be easily broken.
"How do you like it?" Madeline whispered to him. "Your sisters picked it out for you."
Gerard looked at his sisters, and smiled at him happily, nodding quickly. The girls clapped, excited that he liked their gift, and then Madeline helped the boy to secure it to his vest just as Erik had secured a real gold pocket watch to him several times in the past. In fact, he was wearing one at that very moment, hidden beneath his overcoat. Finally, Madeline brought out her own gift, which was a sort of lantern with a metal shade over it, different shapes cut out of it. When she lit the candle on the inside, and put the shade over it, letting it spin, pictures of stars swirled about the dim kitchen. As it was a misty day outside, it allowed for a fine showing of the new gift.
"Mama!" Gerard shrieked, throwing his arms about her in giddiness. The entire family knew how much he loved to look at the stares.
"Now you can watch them as you go to sleep." Madeline whispered to him, her voice now audible as the rest of the room was pretty quiet. Gerard was the center of attention, just as it should be on his birthday.
Erik had managed to keep his mind on the here and now as the ceremony of cake and gift was done. Yet when it was all over, he watched the faces that crowded around the handsome little boy. They all loved him so much. They all had come to celebrate his birth. All of them had given him a gift. None of the gifts - save the flute - were kept from him. Even the flute would not be taken from him permanently. Yet there would be a time and place for him to practice - Probably alone in his room.
He remembered that he had never been given that opportunity. On the one birthday he remembered, he'd asked for something and been refused it. A present had been given to him that his mother refused to let him use - even though he'd gotten to use it without her knowledge anyway. On that one birthday, he had nearly died because he saw a horrible monster in a mirror, and had cut his hands and wrists badly when he smashed it in fear. He hadn't known at that moment that the monster in the mirror had been him.
It had been the worst childhood memory of his life until the gypsy camp came along. Now, as the attention swirled around Gerard, even Isabelle seemed to halfway forget that her husband was at her side. He was left totally to his own thoughts and memories, and his eyes glazed over as he remembered that day. He'd never had a real birthday. He didn't even remember when it was. There was no birth certificate for him. Isabelle had, for some reason or other, never thought to ask him when his birthday was. No one had. Perhaps everyone thought he wished to keep it to himself. Still, realizing that no one - not even his beloved wife - had asked him anything more than his age, stung like a hundred bee stings.
"Erik?"
He looked up at Christine as her hand suddenly touched his arm. She smiled apologetically when she realized she had startled him.
"Where were you just now?" She asked quietly. He shook his head.
"Doesn't matter. I was just thinking."
She didn't believe him for a moment, yet was not about to question him in front of all these other people who did not know his past. Shrugging, she turned back to Raoul, who was quite annoyingly trying to bring her attention solely back to him.
A knock on the front door caught Erik's attention, and he gently removed Isabelle from his lap to lift her into his place. Kissing her cheek, he quickly made for the hallway to the door. He wasn't expecting anyone else to appear. Yet when he opened the door to fine Nadir standing there with a package under his own arm, he wasn't all too surprised. He had mentioned the birthday party to him a few days earlier.
"Salaam." Nadir greeted, bowing his head in greeting. Erik quickly bowed formally in return.
"Asr be kheir." He greeted quickly. "Come in, Nadir. We hadn't been expecting you. All of the cake is gone, and Gerard has already opened his presents."
Nadir smiled brightly as he came in from the slight rain outside, and Erik closed the door behind him, quickly taking his cloak to hang it in the closet so it wouldn't drip everywhere.
"I know I wasn't invite." He replied. "Forgive me. I just wish to give Gerard something." He hesitated after a long moment, his eyes lowering to the package he held. "That is . . . with your consent, Erik."
"You think I would disapprove?"
"Of the object, yes." Nadir admitted. Slowly, he handed Erik the box, and he opened it to find inside a fine little toy that he recognized immediately. A mechanical doll he'd once created for Nadir's son. A doll with a violin that played and bowed and entertained, and would only start playing again when someone clapped vigorously. It had nearly broken once when Nadir, angry at his sons' admiration of the creation, had tried to make it work without letting his son just clap away.
"This isn't mine to object to." He said softly, looking up at Nadir, shaking just a little bit. He remembered the young boy he himself had killed with a bit of poison when the child was suffering unnecessarily from a fatal illness. A mercy killing, he had told himself at the time. Yet the child's death, and Nadir's following grief, and made him never again enter his friends dwelling in Persia. "Give it to him, please. I am sure he would love it. Yet be certain you want to part with it."
"I would like to see another boy love it as much as my son did." Nadir said quietly, closing the box again. They both went into the kitchen together, getting a couple of strange looks from Raoul and Christine. Christine recognized him as Erik's friend, and so did Raoul. Yet Raoul couldn't make the connection as Christine did. The friend of the Phantom of the Opera, that betrayed his secrets in order to save a young opera star from his grasp.
"Gerard, come here." Erik ordered quietly, and everyone became silent as the boy obeyed, reluctantly leaving the side of the lantern his mother had allowed him to keep lighted on the table. Nadir lowered himself to be at eye level with the child, taking his time as he worked up the nerve to give away the last toy his son had ever cherished.
"I have something that Erik made many years ago." He said quietly. "He has always had many talents, and this is one of them. My son loved this toy . . . I want you to have it now."
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TRANSLATIONS!
Er ist ein dummkopf - He is a fool
Sein Kopf ist leer! Hübsches gesicht - leeres gehim ------ His head is empty! Pretty face - empty brain!
Salaam - Hello
Asr be kheir - Good afternoon
