A/N: Thanks for the reviews, fluff warning. I don't know really how far you want me to go where writing out serious "together" scenes are concerned, but I've read many stories which jumped to the "point" too quickly, and it ruins it. Please read and review, I enjoy your comments regarding the characters, and I hope you continue to review :), nothing makes me more happy than getting your feed back, trust me!

Oh, btw, you all know school is going back soon, so I won't get a chance to write as much as I do now, but I assure you that unless I am in all honesty plagued with the doom of homework, I will update a few times a week.

Disclaimer: I wish I could own the Phantom of the Opera, and the characters, but I do not! Damn I wish I could own the Phantom!

He crossed the threshold of curtains, back into her room. "They don't have much around this place any more, I wish I could bring you more than just this, but it is all I could find" he said quietly. Kristen sat up. She kept her eyes closed. She longed to see him, but it would have to wait for now.

"Grapes?" she asked him cleverly.

"How...?"

"I can smell them" She told him, and she truthfully could. With her eyes closed, she still had all of her overpowered senses. He smiled at her, kneeling to her bedside once more,

"Erik, why do you use the floor when there is plenty of room in this bed for you to sit beside me?" she asked. He watched her, everything she did... everything she said was so unpredictable. "Sit beside me," She requested. Holding her eyes closed, she soon felt an extra being occupying the bed, and she could hear his breath whispering to her.

"I never left your side Kristen. Why must you always scare me like this?" He asked her, cupping her cheek with his palm and gently caressing her skin. She sighed in reaction to his touch, his hands were like fire, sending her heart rate to a maximum speed.

"I was trying to stay with you." She avowed, as if the words were timeless. Her expression and tone were different, they were passionate, but somehow still different. After all his years of spying on behavior, he had come to know people by personality... usually they acted a specific way if they were hiding something or if they were enduring something huge, of course he always discovered what their secrets were before anyone else did. There was something different about her this morning, he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Kristen, are you sure everything is ok?" He asked her softly, And in return, he received another sigh from her.

"Oh... Erik, I'm a horrible person for keeping this from you, even for these few moments." She confessed, reaching over and touching his face. Leave it up to her stubborn selfish reason to want to have her sight returned and not use it, her hand accidentally brushed with the mask he wore.

He frowned, "You are... hiding something?" He asked. This was new, what would she have to hide? Had she secretly told Meg to get Madame Giry to help her away from there? And once again he was torturing himself inside. These thoughts and accusations of such a horrid nature would haunt him. They would plague him perhaps forever.

"Well, yes... sort of. Uh..." She slightly giggled nervously. She honestly did not know how to tell him. She wanted to, but he wore a mask! In fact... he was the one hiding something from her! Not the other way around! Fighting and arguing would not work in this situation, she had to make sure that she did not make some stupid mistake with her unremitting words.

"Is it bad?" He asked gently, releasing his hand from her, he watched her carefully.

"No Erik, this is without a doubt a gift which accents the very gift you've given me." She slowly went on to say. She was beating around the bush, everything could be different now. She didn't want anything to be different when everything was starting out so perfect! And then she wondered how in the hell she could now be sad upon the return of her sight! Maybe she really was too strange for words.

"Tell me" he said, becoming curious... which was odd for him. He was never curious, because he always found everything he wanted to know, when he wanted to know it. The people of the Populaire were like his little hand puppets, he controlled them, but he didn't control her. She was in all honesty, non controllable.

She sighed, "Ok" She said, as strange little feelings of tightness began to surround her heart and stomach. She was so nervous, so very, very nervous. "Something... happened. When I fell, I mean... when I woke up... just now, something happened... I mean... I can...I can..."

"Are you sure, you're all right?" Erik asked her, feeling her forehead for any sign of fever. She had never been afraid to tell him anything, even if it was in a heated anger!

"Yes, Erik I'm all right" She said, taking the liberty to remove his hand from her forehead herself. "But I'm afraid that if I tell you this, things will never be the same. I'm afraid that you will hide from me or send me away if you knew."

Then it occurred to her that now shecould be apart of society again, with her eyes, she would be able to see and communicate perfectly with them. Erik would want the best for her, right? It was with these thoughts that she broke down crying. Erik's eyes grew wide.

"Kristen, what is wrong? Please tell me," As soon as her sobs became clear to him, the grapes which he had brought her were forgotten, and he pulled her weeping form to him, so as to hold her closely. She huddled into his embrace, never before had a thought seemed so scary, the thought of him sending her away because of her stupid... stupid eyes, which were, since the fire, the source of every little tragedy that had befallen her, including this little episode, which could very well be her ruin.

"Erik," She whispered, trying desperately to calm her sobs.

"I'm listening" he told her in a caring manner, stroking her hair softly.

"You have to promise me, that you will never send me away when I tell you this. You have to tell me right now that I am here to stay, no matter what. Please, I dread the thought of leaving to go back up to a place where all beauty is lost."

Wow, he thought. The world had seemed nothing but beautiful to this man who could not live amongst it, and this woman actuallywanted to be down here!

"Do you think I would be so stupid? to force you back up there after I've been so blessed with your will?" But she only paused... waiting like a stubborn child, for an answer. "Yes... fine, Kristen, I promise to never send you away against your will." Though his words could have been spoken in frustrated levels of voice, the whole time he was nothing but soft and gentle. He actually laughed at himself inwardly for being turned to such mush, but there was nothing better than being reduced to mush.

"I know how you... feel... about why you wear your mask, and I know that these words may terribly destroy everything that we were about to have... but... What happened, with Madame Giry, was a blessing in disguise."

"I don't understand..." he expressed with confusion.

"Erik..." She swallowed her strength, and just allowed herself to jump into the situation without holding back. She opened her eyes, though not yet making eye contact with him. For all he knew, she was still thinking of the right words to say. She looked down at the grapes which sat so still on the bed beside them, and then to the sheets of glorious black and blood red. Then, as her heart rate sped up like never before, she looked up at the man she had longed to look upon ever since hearing his beautiful... gorgeous, voice. "I can see." She told him. The very sight of him almost caused her heart to stop all together. From what she could see of his face, he was the most dashing man she had ever laid two eyes upon. So very intelligent looking, attractive, his eyes spoke of their genius, simply by looking back down into hers. But why... dear God why was that the first look she would ever see him give her?

Worry, and sadness. He was doomed, he knew it. But hadn't she just made him promise to allow her to remain?

"You can... see?" His voice seemed to tremble out their words. So startled was he, by this news. Kristen nodded slowly,

"Erik, I can't imagine what you must be thinking" She softly said. He turned his face from her,

"We could have had so much" He whispered, fighting back tears of agony. He knew that if she ever saw his face, she would react as everyone else in his life had reacted.

Kristen's lovely brown eyes grew wide, no longer were they broken, "Erik, what are you talking about?" She asked, moving her hand to bring his face back so she could look him in the eyes. The sensation of her touch to his face seemed to close his eyes automatically. She knew he was feeling something terrible.

"Kristen... my whole life, has been filled with horrified reactions and ridicule made by others at the very sight my face..."

Her brows lifted in sadness, "I know Erik, but not this time. It's over isn't it? As long as we're here, it can all be forgotten, right?"

He couldn't believe the effect she had on him, when she looked deeply into his eyes like that. Only once before had their eyes met, and that was accidental. This was real, and intentional, and her eyes were like pools of fire, the way she looked at him.

"To this day, I've never been sure of that." he replied.

"But Erik, I'm here, and I... want to be here, with you, no matter..."

"Wouldn't you rather return..."

"No! I made you promise me you wouldn't suggest those things!"

He sighed. She was right. Somehow she had a way of making him promise her things that seemed to get in the way only moments later. There was such genius flame in his eyes, she regretted never having been able to see him before, but thanked God so greatly that she could now. His gaze did something to her, it seemed to set her on fire. She had to inhale deeply, his eyes, they were so penetrating.

"You're right" he admitted with defeat. Kristen gently smiled, and took his hand into her, just staring down at it. She hadn't seen him before, and she wanted to. She wanted to see every part of him. She allowed her eyes to travel over him, over his fine black clothing, the perfect half of his face and the mask which he wore over the other. Looking up at him, she brought his hand to her lips and kissed it,

"Madame Giry interrupted a perfect moment to make way for this miracle," she said, her voice soft and slow, "I will not let anything ruin us. Tell me we have something here." she gently demanded. His hand moved from her lips to the side of her neck, where it rested there warmly,

This was almost too much for him to bare. After a lifetime of never knowing love from anyone, could he really act upon it now? He had to, he could not let her go, this was something she was willingly giving him, it was the one thing he had only dreamed of having throughout all his years of solitude. "You are in my heart Kristen," he told her. No words could have ever sounded so alluring, than those words which came from his lips. She rose to her knees, still wearing that gorgeous green dress, which she still didn't know the color of, the only light was the light of the candles burning on the other side of those curtains, and it was not enough to make out darker pigments.

On her knees, she traveled to close whatever gap there was between them, all the while never taking her sparkling eyes from his. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed herself to him, stopping when her lips were just inches from his. She could tell he was having difficulty remaining calm, but she wanted this more than ever now that she could see him.

"How do I show you that you truly fascinate me?" She whispered, her breath warming his lips. His eyes seemed to perforate her soul, she was growing weak in both her knees and heart, with every moment she gazed into them. She was seriously falling. Before he could have expected, she brought her mouth to his, in one very passionate kiss. A kiss that was nothing like the innocent little touch of lips before, it stole his lips completely, and would make way for more, as she felt him return her heated affection. Both of their eyes closed in unison as they tasted each other hungrily, however long he had lived his life alone, that solitude was coming to an arduous end.

She broke the kiss to catch her breath, but upon opening her eyes she realized once again the way he was looking at her. So sensual and aflame were his piercing jade eyes, she could barely breath. "Erik" she said, panting for air. Nothing had ever jolted her in such a way. That kiss was powerful, deep and passionate, her heart was beating furiously.

She was well aware that she had not yet seen his unmasked face, and she thought it wise not to ask about it in such a fragile moment. She could have fainted at the fluttering her heart was experiencing, like dynamite, it was the explosion she had been waiting for, that kiss, and she wanted more.

"Kristen..."

If he was planning on saying more to her than just her name, she didn't give him any chance at all to express it, for she once again stole his lips, perhaps with stronger ferocity than before. He could not believe what she was giving him. This passion, this love, was greater than he could have ever dreamed. How could he refuse her? he could not... he could only return her fervency, until the feelings within him began ascending to a dangerous level.

This time it was he who broke their attachment. She was driving him mad, and he knew he had to prevent falling to a situation where containing their feelings was not an option.

"Erik, what you make me feel... it's..."

"Strong" he finished for her, for she had made him feel the exact same thing. She nodded,

She put her hands to his chest, and looked up at him, "Is there something wrong?" she asked quietly. He hadn't said anything, but by the look in his eyes she could almost sense it.

"No Kristen, nothing is wrong." He told her, but he removed himself from the bed, and began to walk towards the exit of the room.

She didn't say anything, she just followed him. When he turned around he found himself face to face with her, "Erik, what are you thinking?" she asked curiously.

How could he tell her the real reason of his departure from her? Well, when words could not be found, it must be said the only way it can be said.

"If we would have continued that, God only knows how far it would have gone." he said.

Kristen's beautiful brown eyes grew wide, "Oh..." she replied. A part of her grew frustrated. So what if they went further? It was not as if they hadn't both wanted to... obviously he was trying to respect her, and if it was something other than that, she would have to kill those feelings right out of him. "It will happen, you know..." she said, because in all reason, that was true. She would soon not be able to resist him the way she was now... and even now it was difficult. She wanted him, but obviously they were not ready.

Erik said nothing. He simply moved through the curtains, and out into the dim light provided by the candles. She quietly sighed to herself. She knew it was more than he was letting on.

"What happened to the man who told me to call him Erik, and not a Phantom? Truly, tell me the real reason why you withdrew from me..." she gently demanded. He knew she was seeing right through him. Was he really that bad at hiding his emotions? or was she really that good at seeing them?

He walked to his organ. Honestly if she was not already killing him with her power, she was killing him with her fight.

"Surely you do not mean to tell me that he is dead..." she said with a slight hint of sarcasm. "It's because of my eyes now, isn't it." She began to slowly travel around the organ, "Oh but... of course! It was always about my eyes..." She sighed slowly, "Is the way everything looks going to effect our relationship? If that is in fact.. what we even have."

He turned and looked to her, "You cannot possibly tell me you are ready for such intimacy."

"I was..." she confessed.

He moved from around the piano, and stood before her. He took her chin into his hands, and looked down into her lovely eyes, "You have a heart made of gold Kristen, but I think that this is something which must be... delayed."

What was he thinking? From what Kristen had heard of men, sex was the only thing they wanted, and here he was telling her to wait? Or was it the lingering memory of Christine which truly held his heart? Inwardly she growled. If she ever got her hands on that singing crow she'd rip her hair out! Whatever his feelings were, she would not have the power to change them.

"For what reason?... I'm just, curious" she wrapped her arms around him and allowed her head to rest upon his chest.

"There are many faults which can occur when two people do not plan these things..." He told her, returning her embrace. She frowned,

"Are you talking about children?" She asked.

"that would be the main result" he replied, lightly resting his head on hers. She lightly smiled. It was a better answer than what she could imagine him saying...

"I suppose you are right," She granted. His brow lifted and he looked down at her,

"I'm sorry, did I hear you correctly?" he asked, hints of laughter in his voice, probably the first sound of pure happiness she had ever heard come out of him.

She pulled him to her and hugged him roughly, he felt so squeezed he could have coughed up a lung, but the moment which could have turned truly sour, had somehow become fun and loving.

"Yes Erik, you heard me agree with you." She sighed out lightheartedly, and returned her head to his chest.

A/N: Hugs and hope to everyone suffering from Hurricane Katrina, may the tragedy soon end!