(Sigh), I have a boxful of 4 squeaking kittens in my room, they are so cute! (Second sigh) I've realised there is a definite pattern in many of my last chapters, I really should work on that, I hate repetition. But still, its my phic and its being written the way I like it, it's just difficult with the future of the story to fit some things in any other time, so please, please, PLEASE stop begging for "intimate" scenes and plot and for sappy declarations of love because you don't know how things are supposed to go (and to be quite frank at certain points neither do I) because there are factors I am yet to introduce which will either chop this phic to an abrupt end or allow for another 20 or so chapters and there are some things that will and will not be happening (glares pointedly at plot love sex and DBCA scene beggars and buggers) leave off ok? I know what I'm doing and this phic is not supposed to be smooth running, it's going the way I intended it to go. It's meant to be a stress relief, not a do-this and do-that errand. Thankyou for all your suggestions, I'm getting more and more ideas already, especially yours Naomi (maniacal laughter) that will be fun
Erik: Ignore her, she's suffering from stress and overwork and other…things
Well if bloody Brent hadn't broken his foot I wouldn't have to work now would I!
Erik: Calm down
Never! And never ever write 4 phics and a dozen novels at the one time, it spreads you far too thin.
Review Replies
IflyNAVY: Spas are fun! Forgive my ignorance, but who is Berik?
NeoQueenSolarisCosmos: Sugar sober? Doesn't that hurt? Plots are irritating
Fantome de l'Opera: Actually they did have protection back then, Vatican roulette and they were called apothecary sheaths, plus women could take certain drugs to make them infertile. Who's the little "sevvie" you know, I'm confused?
Cap'n Meg: Aint Nothin better than your own laptop! I think I'm living in Break into song Year, I do it every day! Sing sing sing!
Mrs. Malfoy: Random is my special talent
Littlemasquerader: Thanks!
Phantomfreak07: Yeah no such luck, don't think I could handle cameo's at the moment, oh well!
PJBG: Nothing I ever do makes sense, haven't you realised that yet? Yeah its always popular kids who get school captains etc down here, but the geeks took over the assembly! (and we were good!) if you write the Prom Date Erik thing I will so read it!
Kissoftherose: But but...if you reviewed I should have replied! I always check! Sorry!
La Phantom: Elaborative rehearsal, link everything to things you already know and read and read and read, I kept linking things to phantom, what are you studying?
Daughterofdarkness87: Thanks:D
Eriksangelofvoice: (accepts bows and curtseys in reply) My talent is making Erik blush...hehe, its funny
PhantomLover05: I will send your stuff back shortly I promise! Hope you had an awesome final night!
Des Ires: Actually there's one that's about 95 chapters ahead of me, but reading that much is kinda daunting, it scared me when I passed Phantom Companions because that one is the best of them all. I get "All singing all dancing psychopath" on occasion. And yes, I am sure as time goes on I will be getting more and more erratic
Mlle. Opera Ghost: Yay for randomness indeed, I LOVED Pride and Prejudice! Mr Darcy...(gets all hot and bothered) Yum!
Angel of Mystery: You are forgiven, I know what that was like
StakeMeSpike04: Sock Puppets! That Idea is so ridiculously perfect, I think it would get me killed! A sock puppet Erik...I think I might just make one anyway!
Naomipoe: I love love love your idea, its bloody brilliant. On a completely unrelated note my Oma turned 65 yesterday and we went down for her birthday, me and two of my cousins (who are a year older and younger than me) sat in BJ's room and talked about guys, fetishes and sex, it was hilarious! They have and I haven't but we recounted our favourite things and I was called the kinky one! BJ was nasty, (dinner etc,) Jaymee was naughty (Naughty nurse) and I was kinky and Erotic! (fangs blades candles and seduction) Now that's just funny! (but scarily enough so true!) No idea why I just recounted all that to you...
Reltistic: No more sugar before chores? Yeah right! Sorry about the misspelt name, Odd mental picture indeed
Phantomluvr: No! I am insane! Truly! I was in the middle of exams and work which forbid singing the POTO soundtrack at the top of your lungs while partaking in the activities which means I had to at least pretend to be normal.
Miss Black Shadow: Try 7 years...loooong time blue roses...I like
Sirrius's sister: Hope you like this chapter it might explain a few things, or just confuse you
Erik woke to a pair of lips caressing his own, "Erik," a low murmur called, "It's time to get up now,"
"Mmmhmm…" his hand rose up and twisted around her hair, keeping her trapped against him.
"I'm serious, you promised to teach me double blades toni-mrph!" A pair of pale thin arms trapped her in a steel grip, crushing her against red velvet sheets and Erik's form. She pulled away and glared at him, his sunken eyes watched her possessively as she pulled her hair away from her face, "But you promised-"
"I promised no such thing," with a slight shift she was pinned beneath him, "That's cheating," she cried in frustration.
"So?" Erik started exploring the tender skin of her neck, gracing her pale throat with his tongue and his teeth.
"Would you stop…that," she sank into his embrace with a gasp, her body responding longingly to Erik's cold touch.
xXx
Adriana propped her hands up on her elbows and looked at Erik, "You can be bloody infuriating at times, did you know that?"
Erik coiled a lock of hair around his finger, with infinite curiosity and wonder, his deep sunken eyes shadowed in the red glare from the velvet sheets pressed against his cheek, "I have been called many such colourful names on occasion," he admitted, Adriana rolled her eyes, "Why does that not surprise me?" she muttered, stealing back her hair. Erik reached out and caught her shoulder, drawing her close to kiss her lips slowly, gradually drawing them open to touch his tongue to hers, convincing her silently to respond, kissing into his mouth as he delved ardently into hers. Time had no meaning for them, days and nights blended into an endless round of creativity and passion. Both worked incessantly at whatever project held their attention, pausing only when eyes could no longer see, or fingers shook from exhaustion. It was then that they would fall into one another's arms and sleep a full day, two days at a time, each tangled in the limbs of the other. Then they would rise, called by the seductive siren of their own desire to create, design, shape, polish and refine. They were unbound by rules and regulations and delighted in their freedom. If Erik believed the performance was worth attending, they never missed a night hidden in the shadows of Box 5, watching the actors delight in their own talents and misfortunes, which continuously gave rise to vivid discussions which lead to arguments on the presentation and letters which the managers both dreaded and followed. They argued often, enjoying the game of point and counterpoint on any given subject and while Erik sometimes found her points of logic infuriating, he found the chance to pull an idea apart and put it back together again almost as entertaining as sharing a bed with the odd, fiery, and many faceted young woman who had tumbled gleefully into his life.
Adriana pulled away from Erik's embrace and kissed his sunken eyelids, then slipped off the swan bed and ducked away from his skeletal fingers, snatching up her dressing gown, "I did you a favour," she smirked, "Your turn,"
Erik sighed and buried his face in his arms, "Why do you constantly torment me with such demands?" he pleaded.
"Because it's fun for the most part," Adriana sniggered, "Please?"
"No," a pillow muffled the reply.
"Please, please?"
"I forbid it,"
"You can't forbid me anything, please, please, pretty please with ice cream in the middle and Ger-"
"Stop!" Erik shot out of the bed and took up his clothes, "Spare my ears from that incessant badgering!"
Adriana sighed, "If you insist…"
"I do," Erik slumped back onto the bed and began to dress, "There is something about you I have been trying to understand,"
Adriana shrugged and turned to grab a comb from the dresser, where the files from the case where spread across in every which way, seating herself on the vanity chair, "And what might that be?"
Erik paused, concentrating on pulling the sleeve the right way out in his shirt, "I have seen you weep at music, but never at anything else, you are determined to halt this murderer whom we know nothing of, and yet you shed no tear for the victims. Why?"
Adriana frowned, concentrating on her tousled mane, "You cry at music, yet you show no remorse over death Erik, how is that different?"
"I had no choice," he stood and walked over to her, barefoot and clad only in a long pair of black trousers, stark midnight against the ghostly paleness of his skin, he began untangling the tresses caught around her head. Adriana leant her head back against his naked chest, feeling the shifting pull of old scars across his body, letting him take over the task of her hair, "I only cry," she began, "Wait, no I don't even know, oh yes I do," she brought her feet up onto her stool and wrapped her arms around her knees, "I only cry when I have no control, if I can fight something or change it, I do so, or at least kick and yell and break things. But when I know I'm truly helpless, that's when I start." She sighed, leaning into Erik's cold hands, "Which thankfully is very rarely,"
"You cry often at my music," Erik protested, she shrugged,
"Doesn't mean I don't hate it, I'm a mess whenever I do,"
"Really?"
"Ha, don't be such a snark, you've seen me,"
"Indeed it's one of the few entertainments I receive hidden down here,"
"Well fine thank you very much, and what does this make me?"
"A relentless little Wraith with a fetish for the bizarre and hair that quite frankly," Erik gave up and handed her back the comb, "I don't know how you manage with,"
"Hrmph," Adriana took the comb and began ripping through her hair, "It would help if you wouldn't tangle it so much,"
"But its fun," Erik imitated her earlier tone, reaching out a hand to brush against the fallen mess, the mousy gold threads felt like silk against his cold skin.
"Oh shut up," she shook back her head and started up tugging again, humming quietly under her breath,
"I know this is how I could be over you
You know this is not another waste of time
All this holding on cant be wrong
Just come back to me so I am not alone,"
"What's that?" Erik demanded
"Train," she replied, "Why?"
"It gives me an idea..." Erik mused thoughtfully
"For what?"
"A new composition,"
"There are only three colours, ten digits and seven notes. It's what we do with them that's important," the Wraith intoned sententiously, tugging a comb through her tangle of knots.
"Who said that?" Erik asked, watching in amusement as she scratched at a particularly stubborn knot with the teeth of her comb.
"Why I did," she replied.
"Come now my dear, you get distracted far too easily to be able to come up with something that profound."
Adriana pouted then shrugged, "Fine, Ruth Ross said it."
"And you think it applies to me?"
"Well it never said anything about writing did it? There are innumerable languages, so I guess it wouldn't really fit with the whole little numbers scene."
"I suppose not, how many languages do you think there have been in history?" Erik leaned his head on his arm, sitting back against the bed, Adriana groaned in a tone of well-known frustration. "Too many to count, especially if you count all the cases of Twin or girl speak."
"Girl speak?"
"Well haven't you ever noticed that a pair of ballet rats seem to get more across to one another through giggling than you could with a hundred notes to your managers." Adriana dropped a hank of golden threads and started on another looped tangle.
"So you think I should giggle instead of writing notes,"
"Did I say that?" Adriana grinned, putting the comb down, she looked at the ends of her blonde hair, "I really need a hair cut," she mourned,
"Whatever for?" Erik asked, crossing to see what the dilemma was about, she showed him a lock of her hair.
"Split ends," she sighed, "I can never get rid of them." She pulled her hair back into a ponytail, the ends swinging down past her shoulders, "It's just too long to do anything with." She looked at him thoughtfully, "I don't suppose you know of any decent hairdressers?" she asked hopefully, he raised an eyebrow and she sighed, "I suppose not."
"Nadir might," Erik offered, "I promised him we would dine with him at his restaurant again some time soon,"
"Really?" Adriana perked up at the thought of a venture outside, forgetting all about fencing, "When do we go?"
"Did you have plans for tonight?"
"Erm…not really," a blush covered her freckles, which had paled dramatically since she had come to live beneath the Opera House. Erik blinked and shook himself, "You are without doubt, the oddest girl I have ever come across,"
"Thankyou," Adriana replied, "I think,"
Erik suppressed a chuckle, "Oh there is to be no doubt of it," he said with sincerity, he flicked a black cloak across the floor, "You will need this, it's early December,"
"It is too," Adriana murmured, "Hmm…"
"What?"
She shrugged and whipped the fabric dramatically over her shoulders, standing to bow to him gracefully, "The managers holding a Bal Masque again for New Years?" she asked, stripping off the cloak and crossing to the wardrobe.
"A party I believe, not a masquerade," Erik smirked rather sadly, "They don't seem to trust in disguises any more,"
"I wonder why," she retorted, head buried deep in the mass of costumes in the mahogany wood, "Can we go?"
Erik frowned thoughtfully, it had been a while since there had been a decent performance in his Opera House, and his Wraith had a greater flair for the dramatic than Carlotta had "Perhaps..."
"That was far too easy Erik, what are you thinking?" she asked suspiciously, tugging out a black dress with a ruffled emerald green underskirt and lace mantilla shoulders, reminiscent of a flamenco dancers gown with a hit of Slytherin. Erik stared at the dress, "When did you make that one?" he asked, silver stitches glimmered at him from the black silk, Adriana tossed the dress onto the bed and went hunting for her black boots, "Ages ago," she flattened herself onto the floor and looked under the skirting of the rich wood, "Oh there they are," a pair of polished leather boots went skidding across the floor, "Envy's Dance, what you think?"
"Interesting," Erik managed, flipping the dress over, the back was a low corset, modesty was just served by covering the back and shoulders with ornate black lace.
"Thankyou," she pulled out her pony tail and started braiding her hair down her back, "I think I left some ribbons on the table out there," a nod of her head indicated the main room, "Can you find them for me?"
"If I must," Erik sighed, he left his jacket crumpled on the bed and wandered out into the main room, he found the mass of silk ribbons marking a place in one of Adriana's books and drew them out, making note of the page number, his Wraith got violent, he had learned, when she lost her place in one of her, several thousand it seemed, books. His mask took several moments to find, hidden out of sight, it lay atop a small side table, staring blackly upwards. The elegant porcelain dangled loosely in his fingers as he returned to the bedroom.
Adriana was buttoning the little black fasteners on her boots as Erik entered, braid falling over one shoulder and skirt hoicked up over her knee as she pushed the black beads through their holes. Translucent alabaster skin, pale from so long underground, shone provocatively through gaps in the black lace, "Did you find them?" she asked, not bothering to look up, reaching the top most fastener se discovered her ends didn't match, she sighed and began undoing the buttons. In silent reply, Erik took up the rope of fly away hair and began weaving green silk through her braid. "I'll take that as a yes," she laughed, finishing the fasteners and holding still as Erik toyed with her hair. A large bow of black ribbon seemed to suddenly appear at the end of the plait and she turned to take his mask. She untangled the ribbon knot and looked at the mask for a moment, rubbing away a smudge of dirt on the otherwise pristine white face. Then she gazed up at Erik who waited for the white prison to once again cover his gruesome face. Reaching up on tiptoes she kissed him lingeringly before fitting the cover over his face, Erik sighed, bowing his head as she put her arms around his neck, tying the black bands over his grey brown black hair.
"Ready?" she asked
"If one is ever ready for such a trial," he replied, people as a whole still terrified him, threats and manipulation were the only ways he had ever managed to remain in control, as she tugged on the knot, he caught her in a crushing embrace, running skeletal hands over her hair, reassuring himself that no harm was to befall either of them. Adriana rubbed her fingers soothingly over his shoulders, hushing him like a child, "Shh…easy Erik," the warmth of her arms, always willing to hold him, calmed his temper and fears, he hissed out a cold breath and took a step back to reclaim his jacket, his eyes flicked when he looked at her and she gave a small smile as she swirled her cloak over her shoulders, then ducked out into he main room to find his. Erik followed, shrugging on his tails as she handed him his long cloak. Straightening his cravat the Phantom offered the Wraith his arm, she took hold of his hand and looped it around her waist, leaning her head against his breast with a sigh of comfort.
"So are you going to dance with me tonight good sir?" she teased as he helped her into the gondola, Erik rolled his eyes, "Not a snowballs chance in Hell,"
"That's my line!" she sat up indignantly and glared at him, behind his mask, Erik raised an eyebrow, she raised both hers, there was a staring contest for a moment, and then the melodic Angel's voice began to laugh.