She immediately turned around and her chest made contact with another, she looked up and gazed into that green, familiar depth that was Erik's eyes. Her voice disappeared, only small dumbfounded sounds emerged and all she could do was to stand and gape at him. He was wearing his cloak, he looked so tall and frightening, she slowly started to shrink away from him.

"What, prey tell, mademoiselle Daáe, are you doing outside at this late hour in my garden?" with that voice that had always been in her dreams.

"I..I was just.." she knew how silly she must look, but she couldn't help it, here he was standing right in front of her just as dark and haunting as before.

"Wait, your garden?" she asked "This is my uncle and aunts garden, and what are you doing here, anyway?"

Erik smiled, she was still the same innocent little child that he had grown to love more and more every day. No sign of womanhood what so ever, perhaps the vicomte was out of the picture he thought triumphantly.

"Little Daáe, so much has happened since you left me for that ignorant fop of yours that I don't even know where to start." He backed away from her and she exhaled from the tension that had wrapped around.

He turned around gazed at the flowers that blossomed because of him.

"Erik, what happened that night?" she asked and slowly walked toward him but stopped as she saw his back tense the closer she got.

He took a deep breath and started his story.

"I escaped, the managers and the police broke into my home and destroyed everything, I waited for what must have been the entire night until they finally left. Everything was gone except something's. I left for London first were I started painting for some weeks out in the streets, until the rumour about the masked painter in London spread it's way to the french police who immediately arrived here to find me again." He stopped and turned around to look at here, it was such an exquisite thing, just to see her again and to be at the same place as her.

"Did they..." she started but was interrupted by the shaking of his head.

"No, of course not, you know me Christine, I would rather kill myself than be killed by society" he smiled a devilish smile that made shrills run up Christine's spine.

"I escaped once more and made my way up north until weakness took over me and I collapsed unconscious on a country road, then when I woke up I was tended by your uncle and aunt, they brought me here, they didn't care about my face or anything, they gave me the job as their gardener. And now you're here, I certainly didn't expect you to come."

"Didn't expect me to come?" she asked, turning angry. "Didn't you think of me at all when you found out that we have the same name?" Erik raised his eyebrows and looked at her.

"Of course I did, I just didn't expect you to come here at all, Carl and Lena said they hadn't seen you in nearly a decade."

"You, you told them that you knew me!" she nearly screamed out.

"Yes, I didn't tell them about you abandoning me and me murdering other people because of you, if that's what you're worrying your pretty head about" he smirked at her.

"Don't mock me" she said irritated. "Why didn't you expect me to come?" she asked later in a more gentle tone.

"What do you think?" he asked, his voice turning angry. "You left me for a foolish brat, a handsome foolish brat that I thought would surely please you as long as you lived with his money and charm" he said, annoyed that she didn't understand better. "By the way, why aren't you with him, enjoying your freedom from me? From the man with a face that is so... what was it you said again?" he slowly walked toward her. Her eyes widened, by each step he took the more and more dangerous he became, he frightened her just as much as he tempted her. She backed away from him but stopped as she felt a tree behind her back. He was so close now that she could feel his breath on her face.

"So distorted deformed it is hardly a face" he said reminding her of the cruel things she had said before. She closed her eyes and felt a few tears escape, she opened them again as she felt his thumb brush them away his eyes were suddenly gentle and caring.

"Did you hear us that night, at the roof?" she asked with a trembling voice.

He only nodded, his hand caressing her cheek, his eyes enchanted by her.

"I forgot how beautiful you are" he said so silently that it was merely a whisper. Christine smiled but the smile was replaced by a look of confusion when he suddenly turned around with his back facing her again. She heard his heavy breathing and saw the slight trembling of his shoulders.

"You hurt me, Christine, until then I didn't understood that the aching of love and compassion is a hundred times more painful than the aching of real physical pain."

Christine looked at his tall silhouette, how much had he suffered in his life? Raoul had told her of the story about the travelling fair that Madame Giry had told him the night after the masquerade.

Slowly walking over to him, she reached out her hand and touched his shoulder. He turned around and looked down at her, she was just as he remembered her, just as lovely and delicate.

"I was hurt too, don't you understand? When you told me to leave you after I had kissed you, I wanted nothing more than to stay with you."

Erik looked at her as if she was mad, he didn't dare to believe her.

"Finally when I was able to face you just as you are I had to leave you, Erik, I don't care if you believe me or not but just this once let me love you" she said with a tenderness that broke through his final barrier and his eyes became filled with tears.

She brought her arms around his neck and embraced him as she had never done before, he stood completely still, not knowing what to do. She took his arms in her hands and brought them up around her waist, his arms tightened around her and pulled her close to him, he buried his face in her neck and wept in her hair. Christine stroke his soft hair, she could feel the ribbons that held the mask in it's place, very slowly she started to untie them, later she felt how the mask released itself from his face and landed with a soft sound in the grass.

His face came up from her neck, looking her as the man he was, not a demon or an angel. Her hands came up and framed his cheeks, the left one was smooth and beautiful, the right one was the complete opposite, but she didn't care, there was no man as beautiful as Erik.

His own hands came up behind her head and pulled it forward t his own. His lips ever so softly touching hers. The memories of their first kiss came back to him, he had been so shocked that he hadn't been able to really response, deciding to take control of the situation one of his hands left her hand and slowly roamed down to her back where he pressed her up against himself, his other hand slowly massaged her scalp as her arms came up, once again, around his neck. His tongue plunged into her glorious mouth where it dances with her own.

Small sounds escaped Christine's throat as she experienced the most wonderful kiss in her entire life, never had she felt this way before, so much love and passion in one kiss it had to be unreal.

Finally they parted, her face was all flushed but the night was hiding it from Erik's eyes. She leaned her cheek against his chest, his shirt was partly open so the hairs from his chest tickled her. He smelled so heavenly, a mixture of male and nature. She could stay this way forever. He grabbed the edges of his cloak and wrapped both of them up in the warm cocoon. He leaned his cheek against her dark curls, they were so soft.

"If you only know how much I have missed you" he whispered "God, I love you, sweet Christine, the most beautiful creature the Lord has ever created."

Christine looked up and saw that he smiled, she smiled back at him and popped a little kiss on his mouth.

"I love you too, my angel of music, you have been in my dreams ever since we parted that night back in Paris."

They lay down in the soft grass with their arms around each other, looking up at the moon and the stars. Christine cuddled her face in his chest once again.

"How come you accepted to be a gardener? It's so different from the other things that you've done" she asked.

"Actually, my love, it isn't. Flowers are just as much art as anything is, but instead of painting them I grow them, I give them life. It's such a wonderful thing to do, to bring life to things when I have only brought death to them before."

Christine understood what he meant, it must be wonderful for him to be able to be outside with no one staring at him, to feel the rays of the sun stroke his face and to fell fresh air fill his lungs, yes, it must be wonderful.

"What happened with Raoul?" he asked. Christine was not that shocked about this question, probably because the answer was so simple.

"I couldn't stand it, being in that world of empty chatter and endless boredom, trying to live up to others expectations and his parents didn't like me because I was just a simple singer. Raoul turned different too, he and I started to argue quite a lot after we had left the opera house."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to go back" she could feel his eyes turn to her face and his lips kissing her temple. She was back here with him and she loved him! It was something he would never get used to. He would always protect her, guard her and guide her and she had finally saved him from his solitude.

They rose up from the ground and retrieved the lantern they had left by the swing, he escorted her out from the garden and gave her a good night kiss.

"I believe this is yours" he said later and held up her hat that she had dropped earlier that day. She smiled and took it.

"Where do you sleep?" she asked.

"In a little cottage that used to be the guest house before, but it's all mine now, it's right behind the other gardens."

"What about this then" she said and tapped with her hand on the door "Why did you say it was yours?"

"I found it when I first came here, it was locked up and hidden from the world but I found the key and I have made it my own. No one cares for it and no one ever goes in here except me. You can't suspect that there is a garden behind this rose wall" he said and Christine smirked at him.

"If you want to keep it secret then you should not sing so high while you work here, who knows what sort of person would find it?"

Erik smiled, understanding.

"But at least it brought me my angel back to me."

Christine embraced him once more and kissed him as if she would never see him again, but she would every day for the rest of her life, she promised herself that.

>---

Authors note: Sorry if my english is not the best, love and roses from Snowstar.