A/N: Wow... it's been a while... err, sorry about that. Last time I updated was around August I think. Damn, really sorry guys. I've just been so busy! Senior year is not all that it's cracked up to be. Yes, I'm having a blast, but I have been up to my head in college applications, college essays, scholarships, scholarship essays, 4 AP classes, weekly essays for some AP class, marching band (but thats over now), and work. AGH. Well, I figured now is a better time than ever to post, beucase I just found out that I got in to my top choice for school, lets just say that the Berkeley of the East Coast has better have as good of a basketball team as it did in 2004. (10 points if you can figure out which school i'm talking about). My next choice is finally starting to resolve the 8+ month scandle over a stripper and a lacross team, but that didn't stop me from applying. Anyways enought about me...
Also a quick thank you to my reviewers: I'm so sorry I've made you wait this long, thanks for keeping up the support!
Disclaimer: I bought the Phantom of the Opera, so yes I do own it. Well, the movie, and a few movie tickets to see the movie back when it was in theaters, And the book... but I don't own Erik.
Aslynn sat at her new desk, lightly doodling in the corner of the piece of paper in front of her. A soft light was starting to leak though the windows as the sun was rising higher into the sky. She was surrounded by stacks of papers she was supposed to be going through. Paperwork, recites, bills, employee records, and other random things where scatter through out the stacks; she was trying to figure out what she needed to look at and what could be used to fuel the fire. She actually was trying to work, well, she was before she started to daydream, doodling palm trees on a payroll for the stage hand from 1865.
Aslynn longed to be back in the surf, to have her toes dig into the warm sand. She longed to inhale the salt air and to listen to the waves splash against the shore. Luckily for her, in less than a week she will be by the sea again. She was going to check out the property that Monsieur Garnier left her this coming weekend. With her thoughts back on Monsieur Garnier, she recalled when she told Erik that she was going to buy the Opera House.
The stables hadn't' been inhabited for some time, and some of the stables had started to rot away. The lone bay uneasily shook her head as Erik undid the carriage. The horse could sense the anger radiating from him as he lead her to the best stall. As soon as he let go Aslynn thought she hard the house sigh in relief. It would have been amusing if Erik didn't turn around and direct his anger towards her. His eyes were ablaze and his hand clenched at his sides.
"Why were you with that man?" he furiously asked.
"Who, Andre?" She cautiously replied.
"yes, who else would I be talking about?" He sneered, his eyes shooting darts at her. Unable to stand his gaze anymore the woman turned away. "Look at me when I am talking to you!" He growled his voice crescendoing with every word. The horse was now stomping in her stall.
"He was the only one I knew at the funeral, so I stayed with him for company." Aslynn whispered, slowly lifting her eyes to meet his.
He searched her eyes for truth, and while it seemed like a honest answer, he could see that she still wasn't telling him everything. "You're lying."
"No, I'm not lying. That is the truth. Why would I not stay near someone I've meet before when I know NO ONE ELSE?"
"Don't you dare raise you're voice with me!" He spat, approaching her.
"You can't tell me what I do with my self!" She angrily returned, backing away from Erik.
"I was not finished. You are not telling me everything."
"Then that's not lying."
"But you're not telling me everything."
"Since when do I need to tell you everything?" She shot back, growing more frustrated and livid with the masked man.
"I have provided you with a home woman!" But before Erik could go on with reasons that Aslynn should tell him her secret, she interrupted him again.
"If that's the only damn reason you can think of for me telling you, I still won't tell you. And as for providing me with a home, I can very easily leave. As a matter of a fact, I think I WILL leave." She said storming away from the masked man.
"Where do you think you are going?"
"First to get my stuff," she growled behind her.
Suddenly Erik realized that she was actually walking away from him, heading down to the stairs by herself. He quickly ran up to follow her down through the Opera House.
"Where will you go?" He questioned, catching up to her.
"To Monsieur Garnier's," She hastily replied.
"But he's dead."
"Exactly."
"What do you mean by that?" Erik asked, confused at why she would be staying at a dead man's home.
"Questions Erik, all your saying is questions."
Ignoring that statement he asked again, "How does his death matter?" She didn't answer him this time and kept on leaping down the stairs. Finally as the reached the next landing Erik grabbed her arm and spun her around so she was facing him. "You never answered my question," he snarled, holding a fierce grip on her arm. Aslynn stared into Erik's flaming eyes, the usual green flickering with the golden yellow that appears in total darkness. She tried to get out of his grip but her struggle only made him tighten it.
"Fine Erik, I'll tell you. I don't need your kind hospitality because I have inherited the Garnier estate." She sarcastically remarked her eyes watering both from his tight grip and the mental stress built up from through out the day.
Erik just stared, dumbfounded, at the younger woman. He finally let go of her and watched as she jumped into the boat. As she was untying the boat from the dock he jumped in, grabbing the oar. She sat with her back to him, letting him absorb the shock. The ride to Erik's lair was awkwardly quite, and as soon as the boat docked Aslynn jumped off and headed to her room. The eerie silence was broken by the echoing of the door slamming shut ringing thought out the chamber. After tying off the boat, Erik squatted down on the dock and stared out to the dark lake.
There was a lot for him to ponder over and slowly digest.
'She's leaving. I can't believe she is actually leaving.' Sneering to himself he laughed, "Of course she's leaving Erik, you knew that she would be leaving sooner or later. You're lucky you had her for this long. But she did stay this long. And if you weren't so damn stubborn and didn't have all these fights with her, she probably would stay." 'It's not my fault she's so damn… opinionated. She just has to argue back with me.' "Yet if you think about it Erik, You started it today…" he continued arguing with himself until he heard the door open down the hall.
The sound of her footsteps echoed down the hall, becoming one with the beating of his heart. When the sound of his heart completely covered the sound of her steps he shot up. Turning around he found the woman standing at the top of the steps looking down at him. Her eyes were sparkling with tears, ready to follow the laws of gravity. After a Texan stand-off that lasted for an eternity, one of those tears finally fell gently down her cheek.
She broke the silence first, "Erik, you really don't know how to comfort people do you? A woman comes back form a funeral of someone who was like family to her and all you can do is start interrogating her with questions of trust. What if she didn't want to tell you something because she wanted to surprise you with it later? Since she realized that you would never understand and probably wouldn't appreciate the feeling behind the surprise, she decided she should leave. That's why I am leaving, because I don't think your going to understand these things. Part of me is telling me to stay, so I can teach you how to figure out these things and how to appreciate them. But unfortunately the other side of me is saying that I need my time to sort things out, alone. Your trust issues are ruling in favor of the voice that says to leave."
Erik just stared blankly at Aslynn. No one, as bluntly as that, has ever told him he has trust issues, or the logic behind their actions. After digesting her speech he simply asked, "So you're leaving then?"
Wiping a tear off of her cheek she replied, "Yes, but what I don't get is why you are not trying to stop me. Unless, you don't care about the relationship between us."
A bit confused he asked, "What do you mean?"
"Our relationship. At least we are friends, if not more…" there was no need to explain that anymore. She dropped her eyes to the floor, breaking the strong stare between them.
"Oh," was all he said trying to understand what Aslynn was hinting at. 'She said I could stop her? But look at what happen the last time I tried to stop someone from leaving… look at Christine and how she hated me for it.'
"Well, I guess if you're not going to do anything, I think I will be leaving." She said, disappointment ringing in her shaky voice. 'I really expected him to stop me, well I guess what ever our relationship is means nothing to him.'
She slowly walked down the steps to the dock. When she reached the boat and Erik she stopped. Looking up to the masked man she saw something in his eyes that she had never seen before. Little did she know that his eyes were betraying his will, and showed the true fear that was deep in his heart.
Just as Aslynn was starting to climb into the boat Erik softly commanded, "Wait." She pulled her foot back and turned to the masked man. "I, I don't know what to say to make you stay," he meekly said, gazing at the water.
"Erik, that's all you need to say, that you want me to stay. I just, well, I guess I just needed to hear that you want me to stay, even if you couldn't ell me in exact words." She softly replied, following Erik's gaze out to the lake.
"So, will you stay?"
"Yes, but we might need to make some rules, so we both can be happy."
"You're not leaving then?" He asked again, making sure he heard her correctly.
"Yes, of course not."
Erik turned to look at Aslynn. Moments ago he was preparing for another woman to leave his life, possibly forever. Now she said she was staying, because he asked her to. Basic communication skills were still being developed in Erik's head, so to have this woman go to a more "advanced" level of communicating was a bit to much. He wanted to be angry at her, but right now he was too happy that she was actually staying that he wanted to kiss her. But he could do that, the fear of rejection still loomed over those thoughts, even though, on several occasions she had shown him signs of affection.
"Erik? Are you okay?" Aslynn asked, as the man had not moved since she last said she was staying. "Do you need to sit down? Erik, you don't look so hot. Erik?"
He finally blinked at realized that Aslynn, his Aslynn was talking to him. "I'm fine, thank you."
"You look like you're going to be sick, come on, I'll make some tea."
"I'M FINE!"
"Well, still, come and sit down, I have something I wasn't telling you, and now, I think, would be the best time to tell you." With that she started to walk up the steps. Pausing for a second, Erik raced up behind her and followed her to the kitchen.
"What do you mean you have something else to tell me? I thought you said you told me everything?" He questioned Aslynn.
Aslynn got the kettle off of the Franklin stove and poured the water into a tea pot already stocked with tea. "So many questions Erik, that's not like you. I said I wasn't going to tell you everything." Grabbing two mugs she headed back to the room overlooking the lake. Erik followed her, questioning her the whole time. When they were back in the main room, Aslynn sat down on the couch and set the tea on the table in front of her, "Do you want me to tell you or not?" She harshly asked, glaring at the pestering man.
Erik stopped asking questions and halted behind the armchair across form Aslynn.
"You might want to sit down," she said, and after he didn't move to sit Aslynn went on, " I was going to wait for a more ideal time to tell you, not right after we had a few trust issues and an argument."
"A more ideal time? I don't see why now wouldn't be ideal."
"I was waiting for a more romantic situation." She shyly replied, looking away form Erik to the fire.
"Oh, well then."
After a long pause she finally continued. "As you saw, I was talking to Monsieur Andre, whom I met before at Garnier's house. Once I found out that I inherited the estate I realized that I need to find a place to invest the money, maybe even sell the shipping company. But that's not the point. So I was talking to M. Andre and remember that Garnier introduced him as the owner of the Opera House above us." At that Erik snarled, but Aslynn took no notice and continued, "So I started to talk to him about it and how it is managed, stuff like that. Well, I'm trying to say that, I am buying the Opera House. I'm buying it to thank you for all that you've done for me."
"What, what did you just say?" Erik asked, gripping the chair in front of him.
"I bought, well, I haven't signed any papers yet, so I'm buying the opera house, for you."
Erik had to sit down at the comprehension of this news. His eyes even started to water.
"Erik, are you okay?" He didn't say anything so Aslynn got u and went over to his chair and kneeled down in front of him, taking his hands in hers.
There were many alien emotions flowing through the Phantom's veins, and he had to turn away form her so he would be tempted. Aslynn let him digest the information, and finally when he was ready he looked down to the woman and softly said, "No one has eve done something like this for me."
Aslynn gave him a sad smile and gently rubbed his hands. She glanced down and Erik pulled one hand away and used it to raise her chin so she was looking at him again. His fingers softly caressed her cheek. She leaded her head into his gloved hand and closed her eyes. He slid his hand down her cheek and softly brushed over her lips. She opened her eyes again and reached up and ungloved his hand. He pulled back, so she then reached out for his hand and brought it back to her face. A million thoughts were flying through his head, but he loved the fact that she didn't coil back from his cold, dead hands. Little did he know Aslynn thought that his hands were the most elegant hands she had ever scene.
Bringing up his courage, Erik let his bare fingers slide over her lips. He then brought his hand to his own lips. With his hear beating in his ears he bravely brought his head down, close to hers. He was just inches away form her lips and could smell the sweetness of her breath. Aslynn didn't more; she didn't draw back nor lean closer. She wants Erik to initiate this time.
Taking a deep breath, Erik quickly lowered his head completely to reach her lips. As their lips brushed an instant ecstasy filled his veins. A bit nervous, he pulled back, but that break didn't last for long, for Aslynn followed him so they were kissing again. The position they were in was uncomfortable for Aslynn, so she moved up and joined Erik in the chair, never once taking her lips away from his. Their passionate dance continued until there was a knock on the door.
Some one knocked again, making Aslynn jump from her chair. Sighing, she realized that she was daydreaming about the past, even though it was only two months ago. The person on the other side of the door knocked again.
"Come in!" She called, hiding the paper she was doodling on.
The door opened and a elderly woman dressed in black entered.
"Yes, may I help you?" Aslynn asked the woman.
"Yes, I'm taking it that you are Mademoiselle O'Neil. I received your letter and am here to resume my post as ballet instructor. My name is Antoinette Giry."