His shoulders like mountains

Block the window.

There's nothing out there anyway.

His breath is air,

His skin is water,

He touches me like I'm his

But I'm mine, and so is he.

Gratitude enveloped me. I tried to let some negative thought invade my mind, to pierce the pink glow and make it burn the red of urgency, for I know we were still in danger, but I couldn't. His arm was around me, a heavy safety. His voice hummed in my ear, softened by the sound of his breath, a lullaby. Enclosed in red velvet and warm candlelight, nothing but his hands could touch me.

I suppose it speaks to how much of a child I still was. Then again, I couldn't help but feel every bit a woman as I pulled my eyes to his half-hidden face and saw him as lost in paradise as I was.

His hand was twisted into my hair, my cheek pressed into his smooth chest, our legs entwined. The covers were on the floor and the only heat in the room came from the glowing fireplace and our bodies. It was a perfect moment, frozen in time, so safe. So fragile.

Erik's humming was a soothing mystery. "What is that?" I whispered.

"Nothing yet. You'll help me make it a song."

I turned my head, my chin resting on his chest. "I can't write music."

"You've never tried. I'll teach you."

With a smirk, I raised myself up on my hands and knees and leaned over him. "And what will I teach you?"

He chuckled and caught my hips in his hands, turning us both so that he was above me. "Oh," he said, "a great deal, I hope." His kiss made me weak, even after the hundreds we'd shared that night. I clasped my hands behind his neck, bringing him closer to me. "Do you need to sleep?" he murmured.

"Probably," I said, and wrapped a leg around his waist.

With a sigh, he slipped inside me. "Erik," I whispered, my eyes already sliding closed. I was sore and his length felt as though it were tearing small holes in me, but I knew what pleasure waited on the other side of the pain. His head buried itself in the space between my neck and shoulder- it must have been becoming a new favorite place of his. He moved slowly, savoring every sensation as if he was afraid he'd never experience it again. Even when his breathing hitched and tremors ran through his body and mine, and my legs circled his hips to bring him even closer, he never increased the frequency of his movements. His head remained at my shoulder, placing kisses there and pressing his leather-covered nose into my neck.

After, when we were relearning how to breathe, his head was on my chest, resting in that flat space between my breasts, his fingers tracing circles across my stomach. His fingers were pale, even against my white skin. Truthfully, I was exhausted, but he never seemed to get tired, and I didn't want to waste a second with my eyes closed. I ran my fingers over his hair, irritated that the strings of the mask disturbed their path.

"Erik…" I bit my lip.

"What, love?"

"Won't you… can't I… I so wish you'd take it off, Erik."

I felt his breath race across my skin as he sighed, still turned away from me. "No."

I did the only thing I could. I leaned over him, kissed his hair, and told him I loved him. After that night, there was nothing I wouldn't share with him, nothing I wouldn't give him. That's why it was so difficult for me to understand why he couldn't give me everything. His walls were so thick and so high, that I don't know if I could ever get completely inside of them. Time would be the only thing that might work. I would give him a lifetime. Determined as I was not to waste a second sleeping, my eyelids would not cooperate. With the weight of his body on mine, I couldn't help but let the calmness steal me, and I fell asleep.

The emptiness woke me. It was amazing how quickly I'd grown used to the weight of Erik's body next to mine, and when it left, my mind called me to attention. "Erik?" I called, stretching my hands into the growing morning light.

"Get dressed, Christine." His voice, hard and cold, came to me from the window beside the bed.

"What's happened?" Though I already knew. We only had one enemy, and it was separation. They'd found us. Erik turned toward me, his mouth set in a grim, familiar frown.

"Someone in this establishment was not as trustworthy as we'd hoped. The police are surrounding us now."

I threw back the covers and snatched my clothes up from the ground, wincing slightly at the pain from the cut in my hand and the tenderness between my thighs. The pain was nothing, though, to the panic that was making my eyes water, my knees tremble. Erik helped me dress, yanking my stays into place and lacing my underclothes. When I was dressed, he remained standing behind me. He leaned down to press his face between my shoulder and neck.

"You have to go," he said.

I whipped around to face him. "No! I told you last night, Erik, I'm not leaving. I'm staying with you, forever."

My heart was pounding and panic blurred my vision, so it took me a few moments to notice how calm Erik appeared. WIth a smirk, he said, "I'm a very good ghost, Christine, but not when I'm with you. If you come with me, I'll be distracted, clumsy, and slow." He took my hands in his as I raised a brow at him. "You need to trust me. I promise, I'm never letting you go again."

"So what do we do?"

He took a deep breath and said, "You let them catch you, and you go back to the Vicomte-"

"I won't!"

"Listen! You go back, for two days. I swear on my life, I will come for you."

"He won't let me go. He'll know I was with you…"

With a nod, Erik said, "He will. Because you'll tell him. You'll tell him you took a walk

back to the opera house to see the ruins and the phantom stole you again."

By now, I saw what Erik was doing and I shook my head. "No, I won't ever let them think of you that way again. If I tell them what you are and what you mean to me, how I love you, they can't say you're a monster."

"This is the only way, Love." His thumb brushed my cheek. "I'm still a murderer. No amount of pretty words from you will change that. If you stay with me, we'll be caught, and you'll be my accomplice. Go, let the Vicomte protect you, and I'll come for you. They can't take this from us. This is what we'll do..."

When Erik opened the window and perched on the sill, his cloak drawn low over his face, I felt confident that his plan would work. Still, fear gripped my heart and stole my breath. I kept wide eyes focused on Erik. There were heavy footsteps on the stairs behind our door, and the rattle of the knob as someone tried to open it. "They'll send for the key in a moment," Erik said. "I must go."

I gripped his arm. "Two days. A second longer, and I will find you myself."

"On the second night, keep your balcony window unlocked." He leant down, and I rose on my toes to meet his mouth with mine. A desperate press of lips was all we had time for when we both heard the turn of the key in the lock. "I love you, Christine." With that, he pulled himself out of the window and up to the roof, using only the strength in his arms.

When his shoes disappeared from view, I ran to take my place next to the door. When it started to open, I called on every bit of acting training I had, shoved fear into my voice, and screamed, "Stop, please! Don't open it!"

"Miss Daae?" A man's voice called through the crack in the door.

"He's here! He says if you open that door, he'll cut my throat," I sobbed. "Oh God, help me, please, God!"

"I speak now to the demon holding Miss Daae! We have the building surrounded, every entrance blocked. Give her up now, and you will be treated fairly."

Erik told me to stall for as long as I could, but to give him at least ten minutes. His life depended on my convincing these soldiers I would die if that door opened. "The Opera Ghost says he wants everyone at the bottom of the stairs, now!" It wasn't difficult to make my voice tremble.

"We can't do that, Miss Daae. Listen, murderer! You will not make it out of this building alive if you do not give us Miss Daae here and now. A coward like you must know that this is the only way."

"Please, monsieur, do not insult him!" I screeched.

"I'm sorry, Miss, but only a coward would speak through the woman he's holding."

I yelped as if the imaginary knife had just poked me. "The bottom of the stairs, now!"

"Move, move!" The voice called to someone else. I smiled as I heard boots backing down the stairs. "Alright," the voice was much more distant, coming now from the entryway to the building, "We're at the bottom. Let her go!"

The back and forth lasted for a few more minutes, but eventually, I heard the men begin to make their way back upstairs. I don't know if they recognized the deceit, but they certainly began to hear the emptiness of my threats against myself. If Erik was holding me because he was desperate to have me forever, then they probably figured he would not kill me today. Regardless, I knew that the act was wearing thin, and I prayed that I had held out long enough for Erik to escape. With a deep breath, I threw the door open and ran downstairs. "The window!" I yelled at the group of gendarmes waiting on the stairs. "He pushed me away and climbed out the window!"

A man caught me in his arms, and I sobbed into his shirt, the buttons of his uniform pressing against my skin. "It's alright, mademoiselle, the vicomte is waiting outside."

My stomach roiled at the thought of seeing Raoul after all of this, knowing that he was responsible for the manhunt for Erik. I wrapped the memory of Erik's lips on mine around me, and prepared to meet my fiancee.

I'm sorry this took so long. There really is no excuse, just life getting in the way again.