Sorry I hope I'm not posting on this story too much haha...

A lot of it's already written except for tweaking stuff along the way, so I've been trying to stick to a posting schedule, but that's not really happening so now the updates are just sporadically frequent.

Thank you all for reading, reviewing, following and favoriting! I am very grateful :)

Also as a side note, Gustave is a gem 3

Chapter 13: A Change in Dynamics

[featuring "Gustave Makes Friends" and "Christine's Replacement"]

~Autumn, 1908~

Raoul and Christine spent their summer arguing whether Gustave would enroll in boarding school or remain home to continue studying with his governess who'd been out of work for the past year.

"She's already found a new position," Raoul said of the governess. "Don't you think it would make more sense for Gustave to attend boarding school rather than hire someone new?"

"No! I don't!" Christine shouted as she stomped up to her room. Maybe her husband wanted the boy out of sight, but Christine refused to send her son away to a dreadful boarding school.

"Christine, he's eleven-years-old now! He can't stay here forever!" Raoul shouted back as he took off after his wife. "Gustave, don't you think boarding school sounds like a good idea?" Raoul asked when he caught the boy scuttling to his room.

"Uh...I don't know…" Gustave said before shutting his bedroom door to hide from his quarrelling parents.

"See! He doesn't want to go either!" Christine poked her head out of her bedroom to chide her husband. She promptly shut the door after she'd made her point.

"He doesn't get a say!" Raoul banged on Christine's locked door. "I'm the man of the house, and what I say goes!"

"Oh, really?" Christine sneered as she opened her door. "Gustave is not going to boarding school, and that's final!" The door slammed in Raoul's stunned face.

Raoul conceded to Christine, and Gustave was not sent to boarding school that autumn. He was, however, enrolled in a boys' day school in Paris. Gustave was worried he'd be far behind his peers, but Mr. Y had prepared him well, and the only thing Gustave learned was that he was actually far ahead of his grade level. By lunch on his first day, he'd earned a reputation for being a genius, but that wasn't the only reason the new kid was a curiosity. Most of Gustave's classmates were from well-off, but non-noble, families, and they were interested in the little aristocrat.

"Does that mean you get a title?" a classmate asked during lunch break.

"No, I'm a bastard," Gustave replied nonchalantly. Since his new friends' families weren't aristocratic friends of his parents, it didn't matter if word got out that Gustave de Chagny was a bastard. "My real father lives in New York City in America. He has a giant manor with a library that probably has a million books in it and a garden that blooms all year long," Gustave said proudly.

"Oh really?" a smug older boy replied. Gustave de Chagny was no doubt just another bastard who lied about his parentage to make himself feel better.

"Yes, it's true," replied Gustave. "He owns an amusement park in Coney Island, and you're all invited!"

The younger boys cheered at the prospect of visiting the amusement park in New York City, especially after hearing Gustave's wildly vivid descriptions, but the older boys were unconvinced by the little aristocrat's tall tales. When the older boys learned about the burlesque show, however, they were willing to suspend their disbelief. Gustave was surrounded by eager faced boys by the time the schoolmaster called them back from the schoolyard to return to class.

All afternoon, Christine stood anxiously at the parlour window, waiting for Gustave to return home from his first day of school. She craned her neck to catch the first glimpse of her son skipping down the street, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw him turn the corner with his books clutched at his side and a wide grin on his face.

"Hello, Gustave! How was school?" Christine called the moment he entered the foyer.

"Oh, it was good, Mother," the boy replied. He walked into the parlour and placed a kiss on his mother's cheek.

"Your studies are interesting? Did you make any friends?" she asked, nervously wringing her hands.

"Yes, I think my studies will be very easy, and I've made a great deal of friends!" Gustave replied innocently. "I must do my homework, but I'll see you later!"

"Alright, see you later." Christine watched her son exit the parlour and heard him traipse up the staircase to his bedroom. Though she was glad he was already enjoying school, she couldn't help but feel this was the first big step in losing her son. He was growing up too fast and growing more like Erik every day. Christine bit her lip to fight back tears when she thought of her Angel on the other side of the Atlantic.

Erik's grief was unending as he mourned the loss of Christine, Gustave, and Ayesha. No one in Mazandaran's household was allowed to approach the master's bedroom, and no one wanted to go near his chambers when they heard the sounds of sobbing and mournful violin music coming from within; no one except one person that is.

"Who is it?" Erik snarled over the strains of his violin when he heard the gentle knock on his door.

"It's me," Meg replied.

Erik loudly loudly groaned on the other side of the heavy wooden door, but the violin music stopped and the disheveled man appeared before her. His dark hair was ruffled as if he'd been tearing it out, and his mask was askew as if he'd hastily put it on a second earlier.

"What do you want?" Erik asked through gritted teeth.

"I was wondering if you'd like to go for a walk with me," Meg inquired.

"Oh...alright. Give me a minute," Erik replied after a moment of thought. He shut the door and Meg listened to Erik bang around his room before he returned to the hallway with combed hair and a black jacket over his wrinkled shirt and waistcoat. He kept his hands in his pockets as he followed Meg wordlessly through the corridors of his shadowy manor. When he stepped onto the garden terrace, he blinked as his eyes adjusted to the sunlight.

"Isn't it a lovely day?" Meg said, linking arms with Erik without being offered his arm. She was determined to cheer him up if it was the last thing she did. Once Erik saw how happy she made him, he'd realize what a fool he'd been for ignoring her all this time.

"Yes. I suppose." Erik looked up toward the sunny blue sky. A small smile tugged at his lips before he let out a sigh. "Thank you for inviting me out, Meg. I do have a terrible habit of locking myself away, I guess one could say."

"Yes, you do," Meg teased. "I wish you would come out every once in a while. Mother is so busy nowadays, and I have no one to talk to!"

"Hmm...Well, how about this? What if we took walks more often?"

"I would like that very much," replied Meg. Erik used to take walks with Christine everyday. The first time Erik had invited Meg for a walk was when he claimed Christine had lost her wedding ring. At the time Meg thought it was an excuse, but she had such a jolly time pretending to search for the ring as she and Erik chased each other around the maze of hedges. Erik would never fall in love with her as long as Christine was in the picture, but Christine had been banished to Paris, and Meg could feel herself slowly replacing the woman in Erik's heart.