I do not own The Phantom of the Opera.
Christine found Erik in her dressing room when she opened the door, and she knew that he heard at least part of her conversation with Raoul. The strange thing was that she found she didn't mind it. She wasn't sure if she should have been bothered it or not. If Raoul had heard an argument between her and Erik, she probably would have been angry with him. With Erik, she felt differently about it, and it confused her.
"Are you angry with the Vicompte?" Erik asked tonelessly without any prior greeting.
"I don't know. I want to be angry with him for calling you a monster, but I find I don't care much about him anymore," she answered tiredly.
"I'm angry with him for upsetting you." There was more venom in his voice than Christine expected to hear. She heard more than anger; there was pent-up frustration, too.
"Erik…" she said in a warning tone.
"I'm not going to hurt him, today at least."
She hoped changing the subject would calm him down. "What are you doing here anyway?"
"I…" He didn't actually know why he was there, and he suddenly felt embarrassed. Christine's conspicuous absence in his day had driven him to her dressing room, but he didn't know how to express it without showing how utterly obsessed with her he was.
"I see." She quirked an eyebrow at him, making him quail and begin to inch toward the mirror. "What exactly did you do today?"
"I watched the rehearsal," Erik said, grateful that she filled in the awkward pause, "and I managed not to burn the opera a second time."
"At least you survived the day without me."
"Barely," Erik said, only partly jokingly.
Christine put her arms around him, filling the space between them and resting her head against him. "Me, too," she whispered, wishing she could stay where she was for a long time.
Erik was about to stroke her hair when there was a soft knock at the door. He and Christine jumped apart so quickly it was almost comical, and Erik darted behind the mirror with astonishing speed.
"Come in," Christine called uncertainly as she walked to the door.
Two small ballerinas that she didn't know very well cautiously entered. The smaller one (Christine thought her name was Jammes.) nudged the other forward slightly.
"We wanted to ask you something," Jammes said.
"What?" Christine replied sharply. She was sure Erik was watching, and she could feel his eyes on the back of her head.
"Well…do you know the Phantom of the Opera?" the younger blurted out quickly. Christine blanched, dread beginning to grip her.
"Who told you I know the ghost?" she asked, instantly thinking of Meg. I could kill her for gossiping, she thought furiously. I trusted her!
"Most of the other ballerinas said so. Sorelli said the Vicompte de Chagny knows him, too," the older one offered.
"Sorelli was talking about it the most," Jammes added.
"That's a silly rumor," Christine said, gaining some composure, "You shouldn't believe it. Don't think that I won't tell Madame Giry about this, either."
Mentioning Madame Giry had the same effect as mentioning the bogeyman; the girls bolted quickly.
"I was afraid of that," Christine said softly. She felt like the two girls would hear her if she spoke too loudly, even though they were probably gone.
"No one believes the rumors from the ballet," Erik said in her ear. She didn't hear him move from behind the mirror.
"But that one's true. I just want to know where Sorelli found that out." Christine turned around to face him and found that he was standing closer to her than she originally thought. She kissed him impulsively, feeling pleasantly devious at being alone with him in her dressing room. It felt wrong after the visit from the ballerinas, and Christine pulled herself away from Erik with discontent.
"I'm wondering," Erik mused, "if it was the Vicompte that told the ballerinas about me."
Christine asked, "Why would Raoul do that? Everyone saw me take off your mask in Don Juan Triumphant."
"But they didn't know that the person they saw onstage was me," Erik countered, "or had any dealings at all with the Phantom."
"The dancers are obsessed with the Opera Ghost. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them connected a description of the ghost with you."
"You're right. I'm going to watch the Vicompte and Meg closely," Erik said, "I don't want you to get hurt."
Meanwhile, Jammes and the other dancer, Angelique, were returning to the other ballerinas with Christine's answer to their question. After seeing the way that she paled at their inquiry, they were certain that she wasn't telling them something.
"What did she say?" one of the other girls asked excitedly.
"Nothing," Jammes answered, "but you should have seen her face when we asked her!'"I told you didn't I?" Sorelli interjected, "There's something going on with Christine Daaé."
"Maybe she's a ghost!" Angelique said excitedly.
"Maybe she is the ghost," Jammes amended. The other ballerinas whispered eagerly.
"Don't be silly," Sorelli said, "Mademoiselle Daaé isn't a ghost. She probably just knows something that we don't."
"And what might that be?" Meg asked argumentatively, joining the conversation for the first time. She never cared much for Sorelli, and she only felt more disdain know that the other dancer was talking about her best friend.
"I don't know. She knows something about the de Chagnys and the Phantom, so maybe there's a connection there," Sorelli answered.
An awed Angelique whispered, "Are you saying that the Compte or Vicompte de Chagny is the Phantom of the Opera?"
"That's ridiculous!" Meg cried.
"It's possible," Sorelli said mysteriously, thoroughly enjoying this new puzzle, "The only thing I'm sure of is that Christine Daaé is hiding something, and I intend to find out what that is."
The directions that this could go were obvious to Meg, and she knew exactly what lengths the ballerinas would go to learn more about their fixations. She was very familiar with the way they could become obsessed with something that interested them. It was a dangerous threat to Erik's quiet existence under the opera, so she slipped out of the room as quietly as she could to go talk to him.
What none of the ballerinas knew was that Henri Michel heard their conversation on the other side of the door. He didn't know what he was going to do with this information, but he knew it could prove to be valuable. The other thing that the ballerinas didn't know was that Henri Michel had a secret just like Christine did. He was merely better at keeping it.