Mini fic pairing/prompt: 23) things you said after she went home, Erik/Mannequin
She was waiting patiently for him when he returned below. His bespoke bride - not living, yet undying. Ever faithful. "You can come out now, my dear. I've taken her back above." For now. Erik removed the sheet he had draped over the mannequin the night before, sighing as he revealed her crumpled frame. "If only you had behaved..." he chided with a cluck of the tongue. He shouldn't have left her in disarray for so long, but also hadn't wanted to risk startling Christine any further after that first mishap. Oh, but she had a rude awakening all the same, didn't she?
Standing her up straight, Erik guided her lifeless limbs into more natural angles and gently tested her joints, noting which needed tightening. "If I didn't know better, I might think you did it on purpose." He cupped her chin, tilting her face this way and that, watching how her glass eyes sparkled in the candlelight. "Jealousy is not becoming on you, my beauty." Even as he admonished her, he tried not to compare the unyielding wax skin of the mannequin to the warmth and exquisite softness of her flesh-and-blood counterpart.
"After all, she will come back." He adjusted the veil and tucked a stray curl behind the sculpted shell of her ear. "No thanks to you," he teased, his mood already improving as he restored his world to order piece by piece. Erik pressed a kiss to the back of each hand before closing them around the bouquet once more. "She only needs time. She'll see both of us differently, in time…"