Hey - Sorry for the delay but here it is. Please PLEASE review! Thank you SO much Nade-Naberrie, you are my light! Dont worry, longer chapters are coming, follow it along if you will...

Righto, on to the story...

Previously:

"Come Erik, we need to get you cleaned up. You look awful, let me help you."

He sighed deeply but couldn't muster the bother to argue. He took her hand and slowly raised himself out of the shadows, letting Melody put herself under his arm to support his swaying frame.

She turned them towards the inky blackness and let him lead them to his lair, with Melody stumbling and half dragging him blindly down the dark tunnel.

Little did she know, this simple act had set off a chain of events that were now unstoppable.

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3: Out of need-

After what seemed like eternity in the inky blackness of the tunnel, Erik and Melody arrived in the freezing depths of the candle-filled grotto.

Melody noticed that Erik was shivering quite violently, from the cold or the drugs she couldn't decide. She helped him to the door of the small bathroom and he leaned against the door frame, breathing heavily whilst she drew a bath.

Steam began to rise out of the wooden tub, fogging the full length mirror at the end of the room and she stood, beckoning him closer. He swayed as he dragged his tired feet towards her, coming to a stop so close to her that she could feel his labored breathing on her face, sending shivers up her spine.

She unbuttoned his torn shirt and slid it over his broad shoulders, letting it fall to the ground as he shut his eyes and made no attempt to move away as she expected him to.

She gently undid the clasps of his filthy dress pants and let them fall too, leaving him completely bare to her gaze. She took his arm and led him towards the water, helping him into the sitting position and letting his head recline to rest on the baths edge.

She knelt and saw him stop shivering and finally relax as she reached for a cloth and began to wash his beautiful but filthy body. He was covered in scars and marks from past fights and recent self punishment, and it bought tears to her eyes as she dragged the wet cloth over them, almost feeling his pain.

He winced as she cleaned an open cut on his chest, causing it to bleed slightly, the blood mixing with a bead of water below and running quickly into the warmness of the bath water.

She reached down and lifted his arm, wiping away the dirt and blood on his bicep, gently washing his sorry wrist. She lowered it into the water again and moved down, dragging the cloth over his hips then down his legs.

He didn't even so much as stir at her touch, just let her hands do what she wanted them to, washing every part of him with the utmost care until she was satisfied, then she wrung out the cloth and reached for the soap.

She moved around to his head and began massaging the soap into his hair, gently caressing his scalp with her small, nimble fingers. She rinsed her hands in the water then filled a small jug by the tub, reaching up and rinsing out the soap, letting the water run over his face which she then wiped gently with the damp cloth.

As she gently caressed his ravaged cheek, she saw a single tear escape his closed eye, mingling with other beads of water on his face. She guessed it was because no one had ever shown the care she was now showing him because of his face, this obsession which kept him in solitude.

She placed the cloth down and stood, moving towards the pile of clothes to retrieve his small knife that he had discarded earlier.

He gave her a puzzled look and she smiled, kneeling beside him once more and ever so gently dragging the side of the blade down his cheek, shaving away the stubble that he had let grow there. When she finished and had wiped the knife, he brushed his hand over his jaw line and was amazed at her precision, not a single nick.

"Where did you learn to do that?" He asked, making her jump at the sudden sound, as no one had spoken since the finding in the tunnel.

"My father taught me before he died," She answered softly, "I saw him doing it one day and asked him to teach me." Erik felt a strange feeling crossing his face. It was a smile. He hadn't smiled in such a long time; he couldn't even remember the last time he had.

Melody smiled too, overjoyed that he was responding to her, but mostly because a faint glimmer of happiness had been restored to his dark, tortured soul.

She stood and reached for a towel, then grasped under his arm and pulled him up, wrapping the towel around his waist and helping him out of the tub.

She went to the door and retrieved a robe that was hanging there, deep green velvet with black trimming, and placed it around his shoulders. She then turned him to face the full length mirror and wiped the fog away so he could see his reflection.

She took two steps back and admired her work, then waited for his response. He ran his hand through his dark wet hair and smiled again, averting his eyes from his ruined cheek to her through the mirrors reflection.

He turned to her and she looked down, blushing slightly. Almost instantly, she silently chastised herself for being so stupid and reminded herself that she was not there to satisfy her own wants but his.

She looked up again to find he had moved closer. She calmed the welling excitement inside her as she realized what was coming next.

She had thought as much before she came down here, and her mother had warned her too. But she was ready, and she had waited for this moment a long time, ever since she had first heard him sing to Chantelle. She took a deep breath and looked him in the eye.

"Is there anything else I can do for y--"

Before she could finish her question, he caught her lips in a heated kiss and wrapped his arms around her small body.

She was filled with such elation that she thought she would burst as their tongues danced together to a tempo only they knew.

To Melody, the rest was a blur. The tearing off of her dress, corset and undergarments, the falling of his towel and robe, the way she had shoved him down on the red and black silken sheets, the way he had taken her so willingly-simply out of need to cure himself of his pain, the way she rode him like she did-wildly, throwing her head back and sinking her nails into his freshly bathed shoulders, and the way they both cried out as they came together, relishing in the heat they had made to warm their freezing bodies.

There were no words as she lifted herself off him and lay down, letting the silk caress her burning skin as she pressed herself to him. She felt his breathing slowing and returning to normal, as with his erratic heartbeat and felt closer to him than she had ever been to anyone else.

It didn't matter to Melody that Erik didn't love her the way she loved him, or that the name he had cried out at the peak of passion wasn't hers. But it felt wonderful all the same knowing that she was helping him on the long path to recovery.

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PLEASE Read and review people! I need to know if I should keep going!