disclaimer: in no way, shape, or form do I own any part of Phantom of the Opera. i mean, seriously, if i did, would i be here writing fan fics? Hell noI wouldn't be. But alas, I don't own it andso Iam here and I hope you obtain some pleasure from reading my work.

a/n: okay, here is my first attempt at writing any sort of fan fiction besides my poem thati posted a while back.this started out as a story about Christine returning to Erik and him finding the strength to live and that other jazz, but i soon realizedi had no where to go afteri had written my first chapter soiadded some stuff, tookout some stuff,and below you see the finished product.Actually, not truly finished,i had anEnglish teacher who once said that no paper is ever finished, there is always room for improvement.i figure that applies to one shot fan fics too, so if you seeanything thatneeds improvement, let me know.I can only get better if you help me. And now, onto A Moment ofLove

A Moment of Love

Once it was clear to me that she would willingly be my living bride, I could not keep her. I could not deny her a life above ground; a life filled with light. And so I had to let her go. I sent her away with the Vicomte, I was sure he would be able to give her the normal life I could never provide her with.

She left with the promise she would return to me one last time with her wedding invitation. It is the one thing that kept me alive, the hope of seeing her face one last time.

And yet, even as I hoped, I knew she would not keep her promise. The Vicomte would not allow it. I couldn't blame him though, for if our positions were reversed, I would do the same. But of course God was too cruel to allow me to love her.

After she left, I flew into an uncontrollable rage. A rage that even Nadir could not restrain me from. I destroyed everything in my underground home that I had spent so long creating. My one sanctuary away from the world was now at the mercy of my wrath. I destroyed my organ and all the music I had written, even my precious Don Juan Triumphant that had taken me years to create. Without her, it was nothing. I had written it solely for her and if she was not to sing it, no one else would.

There was only one room I could not bring myself to touch. Her room. Try as I might, I could not sum up the strength to destroy all that remained of her to me.

My fit of rage lasted for over an hour. I would have kept on in my destruction but as fate would have it, I suffered my worst attack yet. I sank down to my knees on the floor sobbing in despair as pain racked my chest. Fortunately Nadir was there with me; otherwise I would have died then and there. He took me to her room and laid me on the bed I was born in, the bed whose last occupant had been my precious Christine.

He cared for me for the next three weeks, but all his efforts where in vain for I had already decided to leave this world behind. Life was slowly ebbing from my body. After half a century of living with nothing but fear and hate, I was finally ready to die. But God is kind after all. You see, he brought my beloved Christine back to me.

I was lying in her bed, believing my time to be close at hand when I heard her voice. What horrible demons had come to torture me now? Had I not suffered enough? Why then must God continue to torment me? Yet even as my mind was crying out in agony, I felt soft, delicate hands remove my mask and found myself gazing upon my beautiful Angel. Tears welled up in my eyes and overflowed as she held my hands in her own and asked Nadir to stand as our witness before God while she pledged herself to me for eternity.

I still could not believe she had actually returned to me. Where was de Chagny? I had trusted him to protect her and yet he still let her return to me, even after all the torture I had put them through. Maybe I had been wrong in entrusting her to his care, but I could not think of that now.

I was unaware of when Nadir left the room for I was too absorbed in memorizing every detail of my precious Christine. She seemed thinner and paler than when she had left me if that was possible, but she was still beautiful.

Silent tears streamed down her cheeks as she bent down and began to kiss my horribly mangled face. My deaths head that no other living creature had ever dared to touch was now burning with the fervor of her kisses.

I began to sob uncontrollably. I had never before felt so much human contact, not even my own mother had ever kissed me. Such a little thing really, a kiss…most people don't give it a moment's consideration. They kiss on meeting, they kiss on parting, that simple touching of flesh is taken entirely for granted as a basic human right. But now, it seemed as if Christine was determined to make up for half a century of neglect.

She held me in her embrace and our tears mingled. I gathered enough strength to brush a hand through her beautiful brown locks and say, "You came back."

"Of course I did." She looked at me and I could see into the depths of her soul. Her eyes were overflowing with unspoken emotion and in that instant I knew, knew that she loved me.

"I love you," I whispered unsteadily. She smiled through her tears and whispered back, "I love you, too." My heart soared to hear those words from her beautiful lips.

Hesitantly, I stroked her face with my hand and touched my thin, mangled lips to hers, still unable to believe that she was truly here with me, willingly touching me. Her sharp intake of breath surprised me and I didn't know what that meant or how to react. Was she reconsidering her earlier decision? But she quickly alleviated my fears by deepening the kiss.

She pulled back slightly and whispered, "Oh Erik…don't ever send me away again. I couldn't bear this world without you."

I felt the force of her words strike me as I realized what they meant. She loved me. She needed me. No one had ever felt that way about me before and fresh tears sprung up in my eyes, "Don't worry my child, I never will."

I leaned up to recapture her lips with mine. Instinct took over and my hands began to roam her body. I felt her shudder with pleasure as I grazed her breast through the material of her gown. I fumbled clumsily with the clasps of her dress and finally freed her from the rough cloth. I gasped as I felt her skin on my own. I have never felt such pleasure or desire in my entire existence. My body that had always been cold before now burned with a fiery passion. When we finally joined as one, I cried out from the beauty of it all.

A while later, after the flames of passion had subsided, she lay with her head on my chest. I enjoyed this as much as our earlier fervor. Just stroking her dark curls, feeling her heart beat against mine, I was content for the first time in my life, and she had made me so. I leaned down and kissed her lightly on the head, "I love you, my Angel." She didn't respond for sleep had already claimed her.

I was unaware of the passage of time as I lay there with my Angel wrapped in my arms. I stared at her, with her head on my chest, softly rising and falling as I breathed. She was truly beautiful, a soft smile wavering on her lips, an expression of peace on her face that I had not seen since she had discovered I was not truly an angel.

She had redeemed me. At a time when I hated the world and all in it, she had come to me and shown me a love I could never have imagined, a love that I had been deprived of all my life. She alone had the strength to love me. I hated no one, laying there in her arms, and I knew that my body would not last much longer. After wishing for death for so long, it had finally come to take me. Only now I did not want to let go and leave Christine after having but a moment of love with her. I clung to life with all my strength, grasping at it if only to obtain a few seconds more of my time with her.

Finally, I had no strength left, I let go and slowly slipped away. But I was content as I breathed my last breath, wrapped in the warmarms of love.

The cuckoo you see is indeed a beautiful bird.

a/n: so what did you think? i know its choppy in some parts and doesn't flow as well as it could but on the whole, i don't think its that bad. if theentire time you were reading it you were thinking "omg, this is horrible! what was she thinking?" tell me but make sure you tell me why you felt that way. same goes if you thought "omg, this is beautiful" and started crying while reading it. God know i was when i wrote the second to last paragraph. but that isn't really saying much because i cry at almost anything.

on a different note, did any one see the Kay quotes? they should be pretty obvious if you've read the novel. if you haven't i highly suggest you do. it is a beautiful novel on the life of our beloved Erik. anyways, make sure you leave a review!