Disclaimer: I own Arianna and The Mistress of Solitude and not much else. But I did dream about Raoul and Erik last night. I may not own much but I do lay claim to the cookies I'm baking right now. :)

Thanks TPP. I'm so glad you like this so far. Your nice reviews always keep me going. Thanks again.

Thanks also to Ambrosia. I'm also glad that you want to see more.

Family

Arianna walked into her mother's office with confidence the next morning. Her heels echoing on the marble floor as she walked up to her desk and smiled at her mother.

"Hello Mother." Arianna greeted.

"Arianna dear. Here again to defend Erik I presume." she said still not looking up from her work.

"You know I am mother." Arianna said as she took a seat, "He's very upset."

"Yes I know he is. But he would not be if he would just listen to me." she said handing a paper to Arianna, "Look at this before you defend him. This is only a small percentage of the artists who would be perfect for him."

Arianna looked over the list and thought hard. So many people needed a muse and not just any muse they needed Erik. But deep down she knew Erik would not let any of them down. No matter how many he had Erik would spend as much time as need with each one. He loved his job too much to do any less.

"I can understand how you feel." Arianna said gently, "But Erik can handle any number of artists from one to one thousand."

"That may be true." she said, "But I want him to spend more time here with me."

Arianna knew where her mother was going with her argument and she tried her hardest to keep her cool as she said, "Erik is not father. He will not abandon you and leave you without a job."

"You have no idea how I feel." she hissed, "Don't you see all men will leave if you give them a chance."

"I know exactly how you feel mother." Arianna said with tears in her eyes, "Father left me behind too. And you may be right when you say that Erik will leave you. But he will only leave because you are pushing him away. Just like all the other muses you once had, the very ones that come to me now. You have to trust Erik enough to know that he is more than capable enough to know what he can and can't handle. If you don't you might lose him as well."

"You may be right daughter but it is so hard for me to trust Erik. I trusted your father to make the best decision for us but in the end his decision only benefited him and hurt us." she said with her own tears falling, "He's an guardian angel now and we never see him any more and it is all because I let him decide."

"Erik is not father. He will always need you to help him. Erik isn't going to leave you." Arianna said trying to regain her composure, "Please just let him decide what is best for his artists at least for my sake. He is fond of you and it hurts him when you two fight. So please just trust him, I promise he won't leave."

"All right daughter, I will trust him enough to let him decide for himself. But if anything goes wrong I will be back to my old ways." she said finally.

"Thank you mother." Arianna whispered as she gave her mother a hug, "I love you."

"And I love you." she said hugging her daughter back, "Now I think we both have work we need to do."

"Goodbye Mother."

"Goodbye Daughter."