I took a seat next to Erik as people filed into the audience of the Opera. The cleaning crew had spent the entire day cleaning everything they could find leaving the entire Opera Populaire gleaming like a jewel. I knew Erik was going to chew me out for accepting a real date with a non gay guy. I guess I pretty much condemned Henri to death by Punjab.

"You accepted a courtship with another young man without consulting me." Erik said, getting straight to the point.

"I don't need your okay to go out with a guy that like me Erik. You're not my parent." I was sick of his jealousy but if I talked to him in the wrong way he'd go just a little bit crazy and kill someone and I couldn't cause that.

"You are my student and your parents are not here to tell you that all that boy really wants is your body." Erik's voice came out harsh and mean.

"My parents are dead. They have been for years." I stood and walked around to face him so I could look into his eyes, pouring every last bit of malice that flowed through my veins out through my eyes into his. "Don't think just because I value your opinion I'll do whatever you want me to." He seemed to understand what I was trying to say so I went to the first row of chairs and sat down. "And never mention my parents. Ever."

"I still don't want you seeing that boy," Erik said to my back. I could barely stifle a laugh. Oh, revenge for this offense was going to be sweet. I turned to face Erik with a seductive smile of my lips and looked at him through heavy lidded eyes.

"Erik, Henri's not a boy," Erik's eyes went wide and I grinned at him ground my body against the back of the chair for emphasis, "he's all man." Erik sputtered to find the right words as his face turned pink. I began to laugh. "You fell for it!"

"That was not funny!" He scowled at me. I rolled my eyes.

"You're right, that wasn't funny, it was hilarious." I continued to laugh as his scowl deepened. "I thought I got you to quit acting like you owned me when I became friends with Blase." He pulled the cape off of his broad shoulders; broad sexy shoulders and strong arms mmm... Wait, I have to be pissed at him, not ogle him! That's a shame though, he must be pretty built under those fancy suits he wears. Wrong thought process, what did he just say?

"Are you feeling well?" He asked cautiously. Oh, I'm fine. I was just imagining you with your shirt off. I couldn't say that but it gave me a poorly placed laugh.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just... thinking." Nice awkward pause while thinking of an excuse. Jesus I'm smooth, Erik will totally never expect anything. And this is why I try not to think after awkward situations, I end up ridiculing myself. This has to could as some form of bullying.

"What did I just say." Shit.

"That you're totally alright with my date with Henri." I added with a hopeful smile. I didn't want an overprotective Opera Ghost coming out of the rafters to strangle my date after the show was over.

"Close. I said I didn't want this boy to come in the way of your career."

"What career Erik? All I am is a cleaning girl. I was only able to get this date because I was somehow able to show the people here that I'm just the same as them with dark skin, people out there are cruel and horrible to me because of that and Henri's kind to me and wants to take me out even though I'm not the kind of girl he grew up perceiving as beautiful. I would like to go on a date with someone before my twenties." God it was embarrassing to admit I've never gone on a date before. Then again Neither had Erik and he was about twice my age.

"He unsettles me," Erik said.

"You said the same thing about Blaise and now he's only a friend." I countered.

"But you are still seeing him," Erik said angrily. I turned in my seat so I could clearly be seen from the stage.

"Stop being such a whiny prick, the play's starting." I knew Erik wanted to say something but the music started.

The play was great, I waved to Christine and Meg from the box and they looked relieved that I was still alive. They spent every spare moment looking up at the box to see if I was okay. Sometimes I would talk about the meaning of the play from one point to the next with Erik and ask him to explain something for me. The ballet aspects of it were really good but I'd never thought that Faust was a ballet play, it worked out pretty well. The whole 'Cheating the Devil part was really exciting but the end came too fast. I stood and clapped as the dancers came on and waved to Christine and Meg from the box, this time to prove that I had stayed safe the entire time. When Henri came on with the other lead male dancers I smiled at him. He grinned back at me and left the stage to go get dressed for our date.

"I'm going now Erik." Erik looked up at me with disapproval clear in his eyes; why couldn't he just accept that I'm going to date people here, it's not like I'm going to marry any of them. And if I did it's not his business.

"I still think that this is a mistake," Erik said curtly.

"You also think it's a good idea to lie to a girl for ten years about being her Angel of Music, her dead father, and manipulate her into thinking that he's here watching over her. I want you to stay out of my dating life unless I ask you for help and even then you have the choice to help me or not. You get me?" Erik seemed surprised that I knew about his love for Christine. I got the hell out of there before he could press me for details. "I'll come to tell you the details afterwards." I blew him a kiss and left the room. I ran down the steeps and went backstage where the girls were changing into their regular clothes.

"You guys were terrific!" I yelled as I entered the room. The dancers swarmed me and began asking questions like, "Did you see me fumble on the Brisé in the beginning of the second act?" and "How did the closing number look? Piangi moved the wrong way again." We all laughed at Piangi's flubs.

"What about your date?" They all squawked like hens and pushed me out the door telling me I should go meet him by the entrance hall like we had agreed. I waved goodbye to them before hurrying off to meet Henri. The audience left in a giant wave of people, their glittering jewels glinted in the gaslights that kept the whole theater lit in a beautiful yellow glow. I stood next to the staircase, out of the way of the people coming down.

"Excuse me madame may I ask you a question?" I turned to see a middle aged man, I guessed by the suit he wore that he was important.

"Of course. What do you want to know?" Ah fuck.

"Why is your skin so dark? Where are you from?" He said curiously.

"Well where I'm from it's considered beautiful to have dark skin, since I'm half black people always tell me what beautiful skin I have." I smiled at him knowing that he'd think I was an ugly dark skinned cow or something and would instantly hate me because of my race.

"Interesting. I am the editor of a fashion magazine and I pride myself on knowing the latest trends but I haven't the pleasure of learning of this new trend. What is the other half of you, if I may ask?" He seemed willing enough to learn about having a healthy touch of sun in your complexion.

"Not at all. The other half is french. My father lived in France a long time ago and left when he was nineteen. When I was born they were living in a small town near the sea so a lot of people had sun touched skin that they considered a badge of beauty on women; it showed the men that they spent time out in the sun helping their family and could be a supporting pillar in their marriage. Well, that and a touch of the sun made it harder to show when a woman blushed." Could not believe that I made that up. Well, most of it. The part about my father was true but I had to change it so it fit into this time era.

"Fascinating. What would you say to the ladies who believe that white skin is beautiful?"

"It doesn't matter what color your skin is, if you like how you look that all that should matter." I hope I could make racism a little easier or disappear but that was highly unlikely. I heard someone call my name.

"Danielle! Are you ready to go to dinner?" Henri asked and offered me his arm. I smiled up at him before taking his offered arm.

"Yes. Please excuse me sir, I have a dinner date I'm unwilling to miss." I gave a short goodbye to the guy I'd been talking to and walked out of the building with Henri. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see when we get there," he said as he grinned down at me. I pouted up at him.

"I don't really like surprises."

"Don't worry, it'll only take a little while by carriage," he said. I stared at him in shock. We were going to get in a carriage? Sure enough he hailed one like a taxi and told the driver where to go after I got in.

"How much longer, I'm going to die from the suspense." I leaned into him a little. He gave me a quick squeeze before replying.

"We're almost there, it'll be about ten more minutes." So we talked about ourselves for the ten minutes we were in the warm coach of the carriage.

"I came to the Opera a few years ago when I decided I wanted to follow my passion of dancing into a career. The Opera had an opening and I took the job, they liked my skills so I was able to stay on so long." Henri was a really good dancer, the moves I'd seen him do I couldn't even attempt in my wildest dreams.

"You're really good, I can't imagine doing that in front of anyone, or at all for that matter." He chuckled.

"You get used to it pretty quickly. I hear you're working with Madame Giry to become a chorus girl." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Yes I am, but I won't be doing anything like what you can do, just the easier stuff." I knew I'd never be able to do the crazy flips I watched him do earlier that night. The carriage came to a stop.

"We must be here." He opened the door and helped me down. The restaurant was cute and little on the corner of a main road in the heart of Paris. The hustle all around us was so comfortable and it made the city seem alive.

"It's so nice." Was all I could manage. Henri laughed and pulled me inside, revealing a warm, brightly lit foyer.

"I have a reservation," Henri said to the host who showed us to our table for two in the center of the restaurant. Dinner was wonderful and Henri was great companionship, too soon it was time to go back to the Opera Populaire. We stood just inside the the from steps of the foyer where we had to go our separate ways.

"I had a lot of fun tonight Henri," I said looking up into his eyes.

"So did I. Would you like to go out again?" He asked a little shyly. If I were any lighter I'd be blushing.

"I'd really like that. Goodnight." I turned to go but he caught my arm and brought my hand to his lips.

"Til next time," he said, disappearing into the wing leading to the men's dormitories. I held back a giggle before making it down to the passageway that led to Erik's home. I didn't bother to knock as I walked through the passage into the candlelight of his home I was able to spot Erik sitting on the bench in front of his organ.

"I'm home Erik," I said to announce that I was still alive. "The date was nice and Henri was a perfect gentleman. I told you that you had nothing to worry about." I could see Erik's sexy shoulders tense as I spoke about Henri. Did I just think sexy shoulders? Bad Danielle.

"I hope you had fun with that boy, he's just another ballet rat that scrounges around my Opera." Erik didn't even turn around when he spoke to me. God, first with Blaise and then with Henri, what was his problem? A thought took seed in my mind before I could brush it away. Was the mighty Phantom of the Opera jealous?

"Erik you shouldn't talk that way about people, they have feelings too." Erik harrumphed like an old man before going back to his opera, I wonder if it was Don Juan? "But you don't have to worry about my relationships with men either I'll always love you most," I said kissing his temple. "I have to get up there again, the girls will want to know the story on my first date." I walked back through the passage to the above half of the Opera without a backward glance.

ERIK

I can't believe I sounded so petty, I could only hope that she believed I was upset that she was wasting her time with this dancer boy. Why did I care if she was going on dates with men? I love Christine. Could it be because I feel some concern for her since I am her teacher? That must be it. I began to work on my newest opera, Don Juan, again.

"But you don't have to worry about my relationships with men either I'll always love you most," she said before kissing my temple. I let my eyes slide shut for a moment to relish the feeling of a kiss given out of love to me. "I have to get up there again, the girls will want to know the story on my first date." Then she was gone. I rubbed the spot where she kissed me. I smiled, it felt nice knowing someone cared for you.

DANIELLE

When I got back to the dormitories all the girls were still awake and they were gossiping about something or another.

"Honey, I'm home!" I stage yelled. They gathered around and pressed me for details about my date. I could hardly believe that I'd gone on my first date and nothing had gone wrong. "It went great. Henri took me to this cute restaurant called Chat Dansant and the food there was delicious, Henri kept up a good conversation and he didn't seem crazy at all. And, oh God, his arms are so muscled and sexy, I got to hold on to them when we were walking I never wanted to let them go." They giggled but some of them, including Meg and Christine, went pink. I guessed that there were a few of them that didn't sleep around with the stagehands or whoever. "It was a great date and I'll definitely be doing it again." They all congratulated me on my more than likely relationship. I gave the girls back their things and thanked them before I climbed into bed and passed out.

The days flew by and soon it was Saturday. The dancers were able to go out and have fun for a while before they had to be back at the Opera for that night's performance of Faust so we had to be quick shopping, we only had five hours to go through all the stores and get something to eat. Madame Giry had told me that we wouldn't be having lessons while the play was going on because she'd be too tired by the end of it to teach me anything but I had kept working on my voice with Erik, he seemed to have accepted the fact that I had a life besides cleaning his box.

"Come, this color would look beautiful on you." Christine gushed as she pushed me back into the dressing room with a blue dress that I had agreed was my favorite. I pulled it on through the neck and had Christine do up the buttons in the back. When I was fitted into it I had to admit I looked pretty good. The underskirt didn't make the dress back puff out into some outrageous ghetto booty and it looked tasteful.

"I like it and it will be mine." I went out and showed Meg. They both urged me to give them a turn so I did a model walk down an imaginary runway and spun for them. "How do I look?"

"Very nice but I do hope you'll get that nice green dress you just tried on," Meg said as she gestured to the dress. It was one of the good ones I had tried on so I figured I'd get it, it was just that the underskirt in it made it look like I had an elephant's ass.

"Yo Chrissy, look at the ass on this!" I'd yelled. Christine and Meg had fallen over with laughter and I posed with my butt sticking out.

"I'll get it but I want to try on a few more." I tried on a dozen more dresses before we went to pay. I had gotten four of them, the blue dress with the modest skirt, ¾ sleeves, nice embroidery and drop neckline, the forest green dress with the giant underskirt and high collar and long black cuffed sleeves, a plain light pink one that had sleeves that loosely covered my wrists and a lavender one with ¾ sleeves, a two layered neckline, they went around my neck and the white under-layer folded over like a robe while the over-layer formed the bodice and dark purple stitching embroidering the bodice. I also picked up two corsets ( they didn't bother me as much anymore), two pairs garters, one black the other blue,white stockings, some black heeled boots and a pair of black gloves to keep my hands warm.

I decided to wear my blue dress out and carried everything else in boxes. I'm sure I got a great deal on my clothes because there was more than half a sack of my money left. "Lunch is on me."

"That's so kind you you," Christine said. We went to a little diner and ate a nice lunch before we had to head back. I was carrying all of the boxes that contained my new clothes when I dropped one of the gloves I'd been carrying and it was blown down the street by the wind.

"Crap. You guys go back to the Opera, Madame Giry will kill you both if you're late, I've got this." They waved goodbye and I turned in the opposite direction and ran after my glove. I looked all over for it while carrying the boxes that were getting heavier and heavier when I finally spotted it in someone's hand. "Excuse me, that's my glove. Thank you for picking it up." I smiled at the man while trying to grab my glove.

"It was no trouble. Let me help you with that, it seems like a heavy load." The voice sounded so familiar. I looked up and my heart stopped beating as I saw Raoul smiling down at me. I smiled back at him and let him take half my load.

"Thank you. Really I only need a little rest after running to catch up with this little vixen," I said slipping the glove on with the other. Raoul gave me a cute, shy smile. I had seen that smile before, when I winked at Henri. Did Raoul like me?

"I know a coffee shop on the corner there, would you like to go with me? I can call my carriage and drop you off at your home afterward." I smiled back at him.

"That sounds lovely." We sat in the coffee shop for a good half hour telling each other about ourselves. Got this felt like one of those teenage coffee shop dates. Does this count? I squealed on the inside, Raoul looked like Patrick Wilson, his eyes were a pretty blue and he had a cute smile. He seemed to me strong for a man who didn't have to do any physical labor and making conversation with him was easy and effortless. I could see why Christine loved him. Why did it seem like Raoul had a crush on me. "Raoul I like you, you're a really nice person." He blushed.

"I like you too Danielle. You're really different from anyone I've ever met, you laugh a lot and you're not afraid to say what you really feel about something, not at all like the girls my parents try to set me up with." He covered his mouth like he had said something bad.

"Are your parents trying to make you marry a girl you don't love?" He nodded, looking a little sheepish. "That's terrible. You should be able to marry whoever you want when you're ready, not when they're ready."

"Thank you, not everyone thinks that. I came to Paris to get away from it all, my parents are living in our home in Spain right now but I became tired of their constant pestering so I came to our house in Paris by myself." He looked surprised by all he said. "I'm sorry to burden you with my troubles but you're really easy to talk to." He gave me his cute smile.

"It's no problem. I don't mind being the one you want to talk to." Did this count as dating two guys at once? It couldn't, I've only been on one date with Henri and he didn't ask me to be his girlfriend and this is just a chance meeting with Raoul and sharing stories in a coffee shop. Was it bad that I was flirting with Raoul while I know he's going to marry Christine? Shit this was hard, I'm just gonna go with the flow, things'll turn out alright in the end. Hopefully. "I'm sorry but I have to go now, I have an appointment I need to keep." Raoul seemed sad but he helped me into his carriage and dropped me off near the Opera house.

"Are you sure you don't want a ride all the way there?" He called. I hadn't told him the address of where we were going, only that he needed to let me out before we got there.

"Yeah. Don't worry, I'll be fine." I waved at him.

"Will I see you soon?" He asked.

"I'll be around." I called back. He'll see me again as he becomes the patron of the Opera house. When I got back the dancers were in preparation mode and didn't even see me slip into the dormitories and unload my things. The weeks went by and soon they finished Faust. After the last performance I went out again with Henri and the next day they announced their three day break before they began their new opera Hannibal.

Hi guys! I hope you liked this chapter, sorry it's late but I have a lot of schoolwork to do and I'm trying my best to keep a steady update going. Seems like Danielle met our dear Vicompte, what'll happen? All characters belong to their respective people. Review!