Author's note: Remember that these short stories do not tie together! This is a new manifestation of the phantom phandom :)

Imagine the musical... a man deformed and reclusive, and a dancer thrust into the limelight of a diva...

Now, imagine Christine has just finished her performance and Raoul bursts into her dressing room. What if the Phantom didn't have the courage/time to whisk Christine away? Let's see what might have happened...

Soulmates

The Phantom could not believe his eyes. On the other side of the one-way mirror he could see there was a man in his muse's dressing room!

How many nights has she danced on that stage and no one cares two cents for her, but one last minute, spontaneous, badly rehearsed performance as the lead singer and she is consorting with strangers!

But, no...

It seemed his songbird knew this man for he convinced her to go out for dinner and off they went, with Christine blushing and laughing. The Phantom stewed for hours behind that mirror, incredibly incensed at her dismissal of regular arrangements and willingness to gallivant with that blond haired sissy boy. He could barely restrain his emotional arousal when she returned, and ended up shouting with an awesome boom of disapproval that she better be present for her lesson the following night, before stalking all the way back to his lair.

How dare she break her promises! How dare she deviate from their routine! And that man she left with? How did she even know him? Why had he never noticed her before now if they truly knew each other?

The Phantom couldn't sleep or eat all the next day as his anger faded and the true nature of his visceral reaction came to light.

He loved Christine.

What meaning did his life have without her?

He pondered how he could have handled it differently. Be suave. Be debonair. Reveal himself? Bring her below? Seduce her?

He needed more information. He needed to talk to his sweet Christine, find out why she would break their arrangements, dash their plans to the air. Unfortunately he would have to wait until tonight, after the show, as was their routine.

What if he did finally reveal himself to her? Could she handle the trip through the looking glass to show her that her Angel is actually the Phantom? Would she ever forgive him for the deception?

His head shook in despair as he knew she never would. He had been an angel for too long to strip his title now, and he would remain her Angel for as long as she wanted him. She was all he had in his lonely existence. He had forgiven her already, for his own despair would overwhelm him in darkness if he did not.

The evening finally came, and he waited nervously in the usual spot behind her mirror for her to finish up the final bows. She came in and immediately locked the door.

"Angel?" She called out and he wasn't ready to speak to her just yet. The anger from yesterday still lingered and he did not want it to colour his first words to her. Better she think herself alone for a moment longer.

She began removing her costume, undressing in the middle of her dressing room! He scowled at this deviation from her normal behavior.

She was usually much more discreet, going behind her dressing screen, but today she was stripping off her costume directly in front of her mirror. When the costume lay forgotten on the floor, she began pulling her hair down, the curls falling to frame her feminine figure.

Had one night out with that man done this to his innocent ingenue? What was she thinking?

Knocking sounded at her door and the handle jiggled, but Christine ignored everything as she finished with her hair and began removing her under garments as well. The knocking faded into the background as Christine stripped herself bare.

He knew he should look away, but his traitorous jealous eyes wished to drink in the sight of his muse, naked before him in all her splendour. He'd never seen such beauty before and he felt his body responding to the symphony of skin before him.

Christine turned and seemed to be checking her body for unsightly marks before she sat at her table, gazing into the mirror as if waiting for someone. The Phantom stared at her pert breasts. Whoever was at the door finally gave up and after a few minutes of watching Christine comb her hair he realized that he was now considered quite late for their usual appointment.

She knew they met every night at this time, so why the hell was she naked?

"Angel?" Christine whispered, watching her face in the mirror. The look on her face was one of fear, longing and determination. He wished he had the courage to ask for her thoughts, puzzle out her complications, and tell her he was a real flesh and blood man ready to hold her in his arms. But his life had honed him into a creature fearful of others. It was only this sweet young thing that made him dream of more. But the world would never accept him and she was a gift to the world. Not a gift to God's unholy creation.

"I am here, Christine." He finally spoke with calm, certain that she would forgive him for his atrocious anger last night.

"Oh, praise God." She sagged in relief. "I thought you weren't coming. Can you see me?"

"I do not have eyes to see with." Seemed a safe answer at the moment.

She looked perplexed. "Then how do you know where I am?"

"I can feel you." He was definitely feeling the affect her nakedness had on him, and understanding dawned on her face.

"Yes. I can feel you too." Her hand rose to the empty air as her eyes closed. "I feel you with me, Angel. I feel so safe, so protected. I feel at one with my soul."

"Christine, I would be with you always, if only..." Her naked flesh was making him say revealing things and he stilled his tongue. "You performed well tonight." He clipped out harshly. "But your high notes still sound weak. You must focus your attention to the task at hand and not be so easily distracted by outside influence." It was the most he would reprimand her for last night since he still felt shame for his boisterous anger towards her. She nodded in total agreement.

"I was not focused." Because of that damn blond fiend... "I was distracted thinking of you."

That threw the Phantom. "You were thinking of me?"

She nodded vigorously and stood from her seat, roaming around her room as if she lost something. "An old friend visited yesterday and caused me to miss our meeting. I'm so sorry. We knew each other as children and it was wonderful to see him, but after speaking to him last night…" She shook her head. "It made me realize how much I've grown. It made me realize..." She turned a slow circle, searching the ceiling and the empty air of her room.

"Made you realize what?" He tried to keep the angry jealousy from his voice at the reminder of that good looking, old friend visiting his Christine and spiriting her away to some fancy restaurant.

"It made me realize...I love you."

Silence filled the air as the Phantom was emotionally staggered by his protege's announcement. She loved...him?

"Angel?" Her lips trembled as she turned another circle, still naked as a jay. "I want something from you. Please, Angel? I have never asked for anything."

"Christine?" He was out of his comfort zone with her naked, professing love and pleading for something.

She knelt gently and reached up to the air. "Take me with you tonight."

The question, 'Is that why you are naked?' was on his tongue, but he had professed to only feeling her. "I cannot." He rasped in horror.

"Please, Angel." She looked distressed. "I have fallen in love with you. No mortal man will ever compare to my Angel. Please take me from my earthly body and let me transcend with you to the clouds." She was still kneeling and reaching to the ceiling as if hoping for heavenly arms to embrace her.

The Phantom did not know what to do.

She opened her eyes after a few silent minutes. "Angel? Are you still with me?"

"Y-yes dear."

"Why do you say nothing?"

"This love is forbidden." He managed to whisper and her eyes glowed with triumph.

"Do you... return my love?" She placed her delicate hand to her chest, with hope burning brightly, and he could not lie to his naked muse.

"Yes."

Tears began to rise in her eyes. "I want to be with you. I want to touch you." She was trying to contain her emotion, but it was bubbling forth. "I yearn for your presence, Angel."

The Phantom had never had anyone speak to him so adoringly and he pressed closer to the mirror, yearning for Christine as well.

"It was not meant to be, my darling."

"I don't believe that. I feel your presence. It fills me with holy power when you are near."

The Phantom wanted to fill her with his holy power.

"Christine..." His sanity was pushing to the breaking point. What could he do?

"Touch me?" She pleaded, as if answering his unasked question, and her hands slid down her neck as his hand slid down his body to feel the arousal in his pants.

"Christine..." He musically moaned her name and she shuddered on the floor.

"Yessss." She cupped her breasts and her head fell back as passion overcame her. "Enter at last, master..."

"Flattering child you shall know me. Lay on your bed, ma fleur." The phantom was practically panting with his desire for Christine, but he still managed to curl his words into a seductive song. "Where your hands seek to bless, my love will spread and possess."

She obeyed her master and as her hands touched her chest and stomach he sang to her of his love. She moaned and writhed on her bed as heat and chills swept through her.

"I feel you around me, Angel."

"Yes, Christine, I am all around you." The Phantom had his hand on his rigid cock as his eyes made love to the woman on the bed. "Touch your sacred place, my love, it will join us together forever."

Her hand hesitated, but it dipped lower and lower, until she found the moist center of her being. "Angel?" She whimpered as her legs spread to accommodate her hand. "What shall I do?"

"Make love to me, Christine." He practically wept with longing. "Love me..."

"I do love you..."

"Let me inside you..." He growled as his hand moved back and forth on his cock.

"I want you inside..."

"Then let me in!" He commanded, and groaned as she dipped her fingers inside her body and arched up off the bed.

"Angel!" She called out for him and he answered.

"My Christine! I am inside you. We are finally one. Now love me!"

"I do! I love you! Angel!" She made frenetic love to herself on the bed while her soul mate pleasured himself in the dark tunnel behind the mirror. They climaxed as one, both of them shuddering with their first sexual release.

The Phantom flicked the semen from his hand as Christine pulled the blanket up over her flushed body. "Angel? Are you still with me?"

He laid his bare cheek on the cold mirror as his love for her encompassed his whole being. "I am always with you, Christine. I will always be your Angel." He crooned lovingly.

"Good. I love you, Angel." She snuggled into her soft, fluffy pillow and the Phantom turned to slide down the wall, curling up in the damp dark of his tunnel, with a rare smile on his face.