Disclaimer: I don't own any of the POTO character but Anna and Brooke are mine.
A/N: Thank you for all of the reviews! It really brightens one's otherwise boring day to know one has made people smile.
THE SLUMBER PARTY
Erik had no idea what his life was coming to. It was all a little overwhelming. One moment he was an angst-ridden monster, a reject of society, pinning for love and boiling with anger, the next moment he was nearly bound and gagged by a brightly colored wool blanket, held hostage by two young women in flannel pajamas, armed with nail polish and popcorn.
Anna and Brooke had made good use of the Poppins Principle, asking the Bag for their favorite pajamas, blankets, nail polish, and most importantly, their bathrobes. Bathrobes were to Anna and Brooke as black cloaks were to Erik. Anna danced around in a worn, faded, much-loved red robe. Brooke wore a magnificent brown Jedi robe, hood and all, which Anna had made for her birthday some years ago.
"Please explain once more what we are doing?" Erik gasped between bites of popcorn.
"We are having a movie marathon," Brooke said as she pushed the first DVD into the computer.
"What is a movie marathon?"
"Where we sit like vegetables and watch two, or in this case three, movies in a row," Brooke replied.
"And what are movies?"
Anna explained the process of stringing a series of still photographs together and moving them at 24 frames per second so that the human eye perceived them as a recording of fluid motion. As Erik found this fascinating, she explained persistence of vision and the phi phenomenon as well as the workings of a film camera.
"And you say this miracle of science is only a few decades away?" he asked excitedly as Anna arranged blankets around Erik.
"Yes, it's a little difficult to decide who really created the first movies, but in the 1890's the Lumière brothers will host the first commercial viewing of a film here in France."
"Then how do you project them from the computer without a camera or projector?"
"I don't know. I haven't learned about all this digital stuff yet."
Naturally, Erik wanted to know more, but Brooke had started the DVD.
"Now, Erik, try to restrain your questions for the next seven hours and just pay attention to the story. I think you'll like it." The girls nestled on either side of their Phantom and set to work on their nails.
Erik did like it. He wanted to know how one made those glowing swords—"Light sabers," Brooke corrected—and he wanted to know how one managed to film in outer space and where these other planets existed.
"Why is the man in the black mask the villain?"
"Don't worry…he has a happy ending."
"He's Luke's father! He has to be lying!" Erik jumped up angrily, bumping Anna.
"Ack! Erik, you messed up my nails! Look!"
Erik sat down to examine the damage he'd done and found nail polish to be an interesting substance. He was leaning over her hands when Anna noticed a few hairs gone astray in his eyebrows. Erik had nice eyebrows; it seemed a pity to let those few rebels mess them up. She reached for her tweezers.
"Hold still, Erik."
"What are you doing?"
"Fixing something."
"Fixing wha…OUCH!" Erik shot up off the sofa, as though a snake had bitten him, rubbing frantically at the red skin above his right eyelid. "What the bloody hell are you doing to me?"
"Just plucking a few hairs from your eyebrows," Anna said innocently.
"Erik, you messed up my nails, too," Brooke grumbled.
"I don't think I like slumber parties!" Erik mumbled as Anna tugged him back down. He shrank away when she brought the tweezers back out.
"Oh, come on! It doesn't hurt that bad. We do it all the time! You have lovely eyebrows, Erik, they just need to be cleaned up a little."
Erik held still, whimpering quietly like a child trying to brave a tetanus shot. He winced with each hair Anna plucked.
"Men are such wimps," Brooke put in from her place, leaning against Erik's back. He didn't argue.
It was nearly four o'clock in the morning when Erik carried the sleeping girls into the Louis-Phillipe room and tucked them into the bed. He could still feel the warm places on his sides where they had fallen asleep. As he turned out the lamp he a few mental notes of some questions about filming in outer space he intended to plague them with when they woke up.