Disclaimer: I don't own any of the POTO characters but Anna and Brooke were fashioned from my brain.

Softiful: Thanks for your support wipes away tear of relief since I don't speak French, I've asked Erik to switch to English…he's been kind enough to oblige 

SCHIZOPHRENIC: Wow! I'm glad you liked it. I'll have to—or rather Anna and Brooke will have to uncover Erik's sense of humor…I know he has one. But, yes Christine will appear eventually.

P.S. Please forgive me if I get Jules's role mixed up…I think he becomes Erik's errand-runner of sorts…I haven't finished that book completely yet.

OF LADY'S UNDERGARMENTS

"Please, Ayesha, don't look at me like that," Erik addressed the indignant Siamese cat glaring at him from her bed. He bent down to stroked her head, but she only twitched her tail in irritation. "I don't know what possessed me to let them stay either," he confessed.

The story of the girls' mysterious appearance, though bizarre, was fascinating nonetheless, but it was really the way they had begged him to let them remain in the house by the lake that had caught his attention. They said they didn't know French and would certainly succumb to a terrible fate if he threw them out. They actually wanted to stay here…with him! The Angel of Doom! A faint hope stirred deep within Erik's closely guarded heart.

"THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA!" Anna shrieked. "Can you believe it, Brooke?"

The girls were sitting on the bed in the Louis-Phillipe room digging through their duffle bags, which Erik had returned to them unopened. Whatever fear they had experienced upon first meeting their favorite "ghost" had quickly given way to spectacularly feminine giddiness.

Brooke was wistfully flipping through their copy of Leroux's famous novel, "Do you suppose we've landed here pre or post discovery of Christine?"

Anna frowned, "I don't know. The dates have always been a little muddled. Best not to mention it though. If he has met her then it is a private subject. If he hasn't…well…it's like Back to the Future, you know? One should never know too much about one's future."

"Right," Brooke agreed as she buried the book at the bottom of the bag.

The next day Erik sent Jules a message to deliver a bundle of simple lady's garments to the underground lair. When the packages arrived Anna and Brooke went so giggly with delight that the Phantom fled from the room with his hands clasped to his ears. His mind could encompass so many extraordinary expanses but women were still a frightening mystery to him, especially giggly ones.

Brooke was nearly in tears over her blue taffeta day dress. The thin brown stripes running through the fabric matched the color of her hair perfectly. She had a weakness for period costumes and the thought of owning and wearing such a novel outfit made her frantic with excitement.

"It's so pretty!" she sobbed. Anna's emotions weren't far behind her cousin's. She was holding a lovely coral day dress to her body and twirling it around.

"I must say Erik has great taste," she said. They ooed and awed over several other gowns, then they discovered the bustles and corsets.

Brooke cringed, "Oh, my."

Erik jumped away from the organ as he heard the door leading to the Louis-Phillipe room crack open. He stood listening tensely. He was rather unnerved by having strangers in his house.

"Erik?" came a timid whisper.

"What is it?" Anna's wavy red head poked through the opening.

"Um, we need a little help here."

Erik beckoned for her to enter, "Well, come in then." The girls shuffled in…IN THEIR UNDERWEAR! The Phantom averted his eyes and cursed.

"Bloody hell, child! Don't you have any sense of etiquette?" he snarled.

Anna and Brooke stood shivering in the doorway. They had managed the chemise and drawers and the petticoats but the bustles and corsets were impossible to figure out.

"I've never had to wear so much underwear in all my life. This whole bustle-corset thing is beyond my comprehension," Anna said frankly.

"What would I know about lady's undergarments?" Erik said spitefully, his back still facing them. He felt his brain burning with irritation.

"Dude, your concept of undergarments is my idea of a Halloween costume," Brooke said.

Dude? Erik nearly turned around to regard the peculiar Americans with a quizzical stare, but he checked himself in time. "I advice that you young ladies quickly acquire a small measure of modesty and leave me in peace." A dark, powerful threat underlined the simple statement. The girls didn't move. Anna huffed impatiently. She understood that ideas of modesty and underwear varied but, really, it wasn't as if the garments left anything hanging out.

"Erik, if this were any more modest we'd be nuns!" she said. Erik blinked. They had a point he supposed. He was too tired to argue. Turning about with a heavy sigh of resignation he beckoned them forward.

Erik managed to get the bustles on well enough, then came the corsets. Anna and Brooke blanched.

"Do we have to wear those?" Anna whined.

"Yes, the gowns don't work without them," Erik replied. He really had no idea if this was true.

"All right. You first, Brooke." The redhead shoved her cousin forward. Brooke bounced anxiously on the balls of her feet as Erik laced up the corset.

"Keep still," he snapped. Beneath the mask he was blushing deep red. He had never imagined himself lacing up a woman's corset.

"Hold on to something," Erik warned as he prepared to draw up the strings. Brooked gripped the edge of the coffin bed and squeezed her eyes shut in anticipation. Erik gave a mighty pull. Brooke's waist appeared to have collapsed into her body. Considering Erik's strength it hadn't taken much to achieve a perfect model of the currently popular female figure on the first try. Brooke's knuckles were bone white and her blue eyes had nearly popped out of her skull. Her shoulders quivered as she gasped wordlessly at Anna.

"I don't understand, Brooke."

Brooke gasped again.

"I'm not a lip-reader."

Brooke managed a choking noise.

"Oh. Erik, I think she's having difficulty breathing."

The Phantom's long fingers flickered over the strings and the corset seemed to magically release its death grip. The brunette crumbled on the floor in a trembling heap. Ayesha hissed angrily and darted beneath the pipe organ, evidently outraged at the unseemly behavior.

"I am suddenly very thankful that I am not a woman," Erik muttered as he and Anna regarded the tearful white mass at their feet. Anna peered up at her host, who must have stood nearly two feet taller than her.

"Really, Erik, this isn't the Punjab lasso."

"Once again, mademoiselle, how did you come by the knowledge of such things when you apparently dropped out of the sky?" he demanded, rounding on her unexpectedly.

Brooke whimpered, "I want my jeans and Converses back."

"Remind me why we're doing this again?" asked Anna.

Two hours later, Erik rapped on the Louis-Phillipe door to announce dinner. Despite the undergarment ordeal he was rather excited. He had never had dinner guests before. It was such a fundamental gratification of the unavoidable need for human interaction. Erik tried to remind himself to be rational, distant, and in all ways aloof, but that alien feeling of satisfaction would not disappear.

Anna and Brooke emerged from the room, shuffling and limping stiffly. Besides the looks of utter pain and misery on their woebegone faces they actually looked very pretty. Erik pulled out each girl's chair, and then seated himself across the table from Brooke.

For being extremely hungry the girls ate timidly. Each felt they must make up to Erik for their earlier imprudence with good table manners. Erik did not eat. He felt both uneasy and relieved that they did not ask why. An awkward silence began thicken around them. The girls stared listlessly at the air in front of them. Erik wished he knew more about entertaining when a thought struck his mind.

"What does 'dude' mean?"