Disclaimer: I don't own Phantom of the Opera.

Kendall

Ch. 18 – Adventures in Time: Introducing Technology

Several hours later, all five of us were sprawled around the Louis-Philippe room. Kayla had gone through her entire stock of iTunes music and we had been through all the CDs. Erik actually looked comfortable, propped on the bed with a glass of wine in his hand.

Kayla glanced up at him and did a double take.

"Is there caffeine in wine?" she wondered, climbing up beside him and reaching for it.

He slapped her hand away. "I doubt it."

"Then why do you drink it if it doesn't help you stay awake?"

Erik rolled his eyes. "Because it's all I have to drink."

Kayla's face lit up. "Can I have some?"

Sip. "I sincerely doubt you are of age, mademoiselle."

"Sil vous plait?" she drew it out, reminding me of Simba and Nala from Lion King.

"Non."

She bounced off the bed in a huff and threw a discarded pillow at him, muttering, "Sheesh, I just wanted to see what you tasted like…"

Unfortunately (for Erik), he had just tossed back the rest of the glass. In a second, the white sheets were stained a deep crimson.

Josie, Sam and I burst out laughing. Erik was sitting bolt upright, his eyes wide, the glass forgotten on the floor.

"Come again?"

Kayla shrugged and hid a laugh. "Adi and Lauren and Naomi and I decided you taste like red wine."

I snorted. "The good part is, that actually makes sense for him."

Erik decided to sidestep his 'taste' for the moment.

"Who are Adi-and-Lauren-and-Naomi?"

Kayla grinned. "They're my Net buddies. We hang out on the computer and write stories about you and talk about you all the time."

Erik raised an eyebrow as she smacked herself in the forehead.

"And I need to check for updates!"

I stared at her. "Okay, I understand that you're random, but why now?"

She fake-pouted. "'Cause I wanna."

Rebooting the laptop, she logged onto and we were greeted by a happy squeal.

"Adi's on! I gotta tell her!"

Kayla clambered awkwardly onto the bed next to Erik, carefully balancing the computer in one hand. He snatched it away.

"Okay then," she grinned, "Go ahead… say hi to her, ask her if we really think—

"How does it work?" he interrupted, running a finger over the mouse.

In a few seconds, we were all on the bed and Kayla had pulled up an IM box with Silvermasque.

(KKayla, AAdi)

K: OMG, you'll never guess

A?

K: guess where we are

A: umm… in ur house?

K: use your DBCA/Erik-induced imagination, Silvermasque…

"What is that supposed to mean?" Erik pointed at the line.

Sam pulled his finger back. "You'll see."

A: u're on a trip to Scotland, visiting Harry Potter castle?

K: try again

A: on a trip to Paris and u've just got back from spending the day in the Opera House where I wanna be?

K: close enough

K: but then, I don't think u'll believe me…

A: if I didn't kno better, I'd say u've sucked urself into a fic just to torture me…

A: have u been reading too much of Mirror again?

K: maybe…

K: I'll let u talk to him; thank heaven u can't glomp people over the computer

A: wtf?

A: I don't glomp

A: I seduce :)

Pause.

A: OMG

Kayla put the computer in Erik's lap.

"I know you watched," she said, "so say hello."

K: Good evening, mademoiselle.

A: OK, I'm totally disregarding the fact that it's morning here

"What does she mean, 'it's morning here'?" Erik asked.

"She's from Australia," we said together.

A: what's he wearing? I need to see this

Erik looked at us in disbelief. "She actually wants to know what I'm wearing?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Um, yeah."

He frowned. "She makes it seem like I'm not wearing anything saying that."

We all fell face-first into the bed.

Josie came up first, gasping for breath. "Whatever you do," she whispered, "don't say that to Adi."

Adi, however, began answering her own question.

A: taking awhile to answer…

A: are u stripping him or something?

We fell into the pillows again as Kayla ripped the laptop away from Erik.

K: NO! how crazy are u?

K: do you think he'd even let us touch him?

K: seriously, Adi…

A: yeah, ur right

A: fantasies get in the way a lot

K: we've been down here for a few days

K: and we're thinking about bringing him back w/ us to present time

A: OMG, that's awesome!

A: gotta tell Misty and Naomi about that

A: lol 

K: ok, ttyl

A: ERIK I LOVE YOU!

A: cheers

Erik was silent as Kayla closed the box and clicked around, checking emails and story reviews.

After a moment, he asked, "When she put in 'Erik, I love you', what…?"

He looked so confused and upset that we all hugged him at once.

"Put it this way," said Kayla, "if anyone on that site says Erik I love you they really, sincerely, honest-to-Opera-Ghost mean it. There are all these girls who love you to death, Erik. We all think Raoul is a pretty-boy fop—

"Hey!" Josie and I protested.

"Except these two," she gestured at us.

"He stood up for his love," Josie declared. "He spared your life," she pointed at him, "and he loved Christine more than anything!"

We stared at her.

"Let's just show him the DVD," Sam suggested.

"Good idea," I reached for it.

So now Erik has seen his own novel, is about to see his DVD life, (including Gerry!) and has been intro'd to the internet. We're getting there, hopefully they'll come back to real time next chappie. R+R!