A/N: I decided to try something a little different than the introspective one-shots. Hope you like it!

Christine and her Angel

Christine closed the door to her dressing room, feeling completely drained. Her eyes were sunken, dark, and downcast, surrounded by gray-tinged circles. She looked ready to fall apart.

"Christine," her angel addressed softly.

At the sound of his voice, Christine's lip trembled, and unable to hide her guilt, she burst into tears.

"What troubles you, child?"

"Oh, angel," she sobbed, "forgive me!"

"Why? What have you done?"

Christine sobbed and threw herself on the floor, kneeling in a lamentable, pitiable mess.

"I know you told me that I cannot have an angel of music and a man. I've tried so hard to—I really did—but I can't—he won't leave me alone! " she strangled out incoherently.

"Who won't, my dear?"

"Raoul!" she gasped.

There was a silent pause, filled with unsaid, almost hostile things, which only made Christine more hysterical.

"Say something, angel! Please, say something. I am trying so hard to avoid him, to treat him just as anyone else, as you say to, but he won't let me!—he is just too insistent. Tonight, he followed me after rehearsal, then he cornered me and demanded that I answer his questions! I—I had no choice!"

"What did you say?"

There was a tinge of anxiety, pain and anger in her angel's voice. His reaction made Christine only burst into more tears.

"I told him about you, angel," she replied miserably and inconsolably continued. "He demanded to know who was speaking with me after the performance of Faust, after I sent everyone away--"

The angel mumbled something.

"What are you saying, angel? I cannot hear you. Please, don't be angry with me, angel, please, I beg you--"

"I thought I told you to keep our lessons secret."

"I didn't want to tell!" she cried defensively, her voice growing hoarse, "but—but he pressured me! He kept charging me with being dishonorable! He thought I was being impure with a secret lover! He had heard your voice, a voice I so selfishly thought only I could hear, and assumed the worst! How clumsy was my mistake, how... oh, my wretched, wretched, weak soul! I am unworthy of your kindnesses! He won't leave me alone! Not even... it's so strange, angel, he... I can't..."

"What is it, child?"

Christine tried to collect herself, but miserably failed. She buried her face in her hands in shame. "I have tried for your sake, angel, but I can't get him out of my mind."

That brought a very uncomfortable, tensed and angry silence from her angel. Christine only wept all the more. She was becoming weak from so much crying.

"Oh, angel, forgive me! Have mercy! Please... please... I will avoid him more fervently. Please, angel, I'll avoid him with all my soul! Just don't abandon me! You--you're all I have!"

The mood of the silence softened with that last remark. Christine continued to shed tears miserably.

"Don't cry, child. Be still."

Christine tried her best to calm down, hiccupping every now and then a little sob.

"There. Be calm. Do you love me, Christine?"

Christine nodded, her tears evaporating in innocence. "Very, very much, angel."

The tension finally dissolved. The sweet sadness of her angel's voice returned, filling the room with a warmth.

"I will have mercy on you, child, as long as you promise to avoid him. He is an object of temptation for you. He will drag you down into the cares of this world, and then you will no longer be able to sing like the angels."

"I'll avoid him, angel," Christine said, relieved that she obtained forgiveness. "Thank you. I'm unworthy of your kindnesses."

There fell a short, almost unearthly silence, which Christine luxuriously absorbed.

"Tell me, my dear: do you plan on going to your father's grave tonight?"

"Yes," Christine said, a plaintive and innocently sad look coming upon her. She kept her troubled thoughts inside.

"If you promise not to see Raoul, I will play the Resurrection of Lazarus for you on his old violin at his grave. Would you like that?"

Christine's dark eyes sparkled with a supernatural, glittery glow. Any trace of death on her countenance faded away. "Yes, very much! I live for your music!"

Her angel laughed. "Then I shall play for you. But you must remember your promise not to see the viscount."

"I promise with all my soul, angel," Christine said sincerely, becoming evermore radiant.

Christine could sense her angel smiling. "I will hold you to that promise. Now, let's commence with your voice lesson."