Disclaimer: I do not own PhofOp.

Forced to Accept

Raoul groaned and placed his head in his arms on the table in front of him. He heard Christine's chuckle but ignored it. He felt her hand on his head then her fingers through his hair. It felt nice and sort of calmed his mind.

"I have to go." Christine told him sympathetically. "I got an exam in my first class."

Raoul peeked over his arm to stare at Christine who brought her hand from his head and was gathering her things into her bag. "You sure you can't say, I'm suffering here."

Christine gave a soft snort and zipped her bag up. "I like to bring up the saying, 'you reap what you sow.'"

Raoul glared at her. "I wasn't going to ask for his help. Not after I said no the first time."

"I'm sure he wouldn't have minded." Christine countered with an exasperated tone. "He's not someone who would hold it over you."

"Yeah, because the two of you are so close now." Raoul noted almost bitterly.

It's been a couple weeks since Raoul had turned down Professor Webber's offer to get tutored by Erik. Apparently, during these two weeks Christine and Erik had started hanging out more and became friends. Raoul wasn't angry at Christine or anything for being friends with him, but he can admit to a little irritation when he remembers it. It doesn't help that Erik's attitude in class hasn't changed.

Christine sighed and swung her bag over her shoulder. "I'm not getting into another argument about that."

"No, you're right." Raoul submitted with his own sigh. He didn't want to fight Christine, he knew that he was irritated from all the studying. He slumped down for a moment before straightening back up. "It's fine. I'll see you tomorrow."

Christine gave him a fond grin. She went to him and pressed her lips to his forehead for a moment then pulled back. "I love you."

"Love you too." Raoul replied with a silly grin. Those words from Christine's mouth still made him giddy every time he hears them. They always cheered him up.

Christine walked away and when she was out of sight, Raoul slumped back down. It was late, but Raoul wasn't comfortable with the material yet. He wasn't confident enough to go to sleep. He heard that doing this the night before the exam actually caused negative results more than positive, but Raoul called bull on that. How was he supposed to get a good night's sleep, if his mind was freaking about his exam?

The answer? He couldn't.

He started to doze and quickly jerked up. He shook his head and patted his cheeks to wake him up. He couldn't fall asleep, he had to study.

Raoul didn't know how long he was studying this time. But the library was quiet, the only sound he heard was the ones caused by him.

What he did know was that he was starting to doze again when he heard a strange noise.

Abruptly, he was hyper aware of his surroundings and he glanced around to see if something changed. He didn't see anything, but then again, the lights are based off a senor and as a result, he wouldn't have been able to see much anyway.

He waited to hear another noise but didn't. He was suspicious but went back to his studying, at least he was awake again.

He heard another noise but this time closer. He looked up again and saw that the lights down the hall were on, but he didn't see the cause. Nerves started to come and he became aware again. From what he knew about his school, it was old, but he wasn't one to believe in ghosts. That was a bunch of nonsense.

But…it was weird that the lights would brighten on their own, especially this late at night.

He placed his pencil on the table and slowly stood up. Raoul felt ridiculous for his pace and caution towards the book stack in question, but he was a person that rather be safe than sorry. He kept himself away from the book stacks to not let the lights brighten because of him. Eventually he got to the book stack right before the one that caused a light to brighten. He didn't want to alarm anyone if they were there.

He didn't want to think that someone wasn't there.

Raoul went into the next aisle and stopped a few feet from where the light was in the other aisle. He couldn't help that the light in his came on but hopefully the person thought they had triggered the light. He heard shuffling on the other side and stopped. Obviously it was a person and Raoul backed away, satisfied.

He went back towards his table, trying to be as quiet as he was on the way. He didn't want to alarm the person, like they had alarmed him. Then again, they had probably seen or heard him as he had been working.

When he got back to the table, he took another look at the light down the hall before going back to work…

"Mr. de Chagny?"

Raoul startled, not realizing he had fallen asleep again. He looked at his watch and saw that it was almost 3am. He sat up with a yawn than turned to see who had woken him up.

"Erik!" Raoul replied surprised. "The heck you doing here?"

If Erik didn't have his mask, Raoul had a feeling that he would see Erik's eyebrow raised.

"I don't need a lot of sleep and the library is one of the few places on campus open this late." Erik explained. He glanced at what Raoul was doing and frowned. "You should not be up this late studying."

Raoul huffed, he wasn't in the mood to deal with Erik. "Yeah well."

Erik sighed and began to pack up Raoul's things.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Raoul demanded, grabbing Erik's wrist to stop him.

"You are going to go back to your dorm and get some sleep." Erik declared. "At this rate, you are going to fall asleep during the exam and I think that will be worse."

"I'm not going to—" Raoul started to protest.

Erik focused his stare on Raoul and he had to force himself not to swallow. Damn, those eyes could make someone catch on fire with their force. Raoul wonder what they would look like when Erik was turned—nope! Not going there!

"Fine." Raoul relented with a grumble, letting go of Erik's wrist. He knew already that he wasn't going to win this argument.

Erik's lips twitch and his eyes gained an amused spark that Raoul wanted to wipe off his face.

He just didn't know whether he wanted to smack or kiss it off.

Damn it, why did Erik have to be a jerk and good looking.

"Come now." Erik stated softly. All of Raoul's papers were stacked in front of him.

Raoul grumbled some more, but it was mostly for show. He was pretty tired. He stood up and placed everything back in his bag. Erik backed away to let him but watched him silently.

Raoul knew why he was, it was to keep caution towards him. He knew that Erik has never acted arrogant towards Raoul, and the times they have talked, it was Raoul that lost his temper but that didn't matter. A person who could act that way towards any one wasn't worth going after.

If only Raoul could get Christine to see that.

"I'm going." Raoul announced as he zipped up his bag and swung it over his shoulder. He began to walk away but Erik stopped him.

"Mr. de Chagny."

Raoul turned around and Erik hesitated but pressed on. "If you do not do well on the mid-term. I hope that you will reconsider Webber's offer."

Raoul stared at him for a few moment, but couldn't trace anything other than sincerity in Erik's tone.

"We'll see."

"Damn it!"

Christine looked up from her laptop. They were taking care of their homework in one of the food courts on campus and Raoul had decided to take a small break to look up something.

"What's wrong?" she asked, her brows furrowed downwards in concern.

"He got his music score back." Meg snickered and pointed her pen at him. "Apparently, it wasn't as good as he hoped."

"Barely!" Raoul growled in frustration. "I barely missed the score I needed! The prof really couldn't give me those points?!"

Christine and Meg gained a sympathetic expression which caused Raoul to let out a sigh.

"I'm going to have to get tutoring from Erik, aren't I?"

Meg shrugged. "If you want to get a decent grade, yes."

"He's not a bad tutor." Christine remarked cheerfully.

Raoul squinted his eyes. "How would you know?"

"Oh well…" Christine blushed and she wouldn't meet his eyes. "He's been helping me out with a few of my classes. I don't think I would've done as well as I did on some of my mid-terms without it."

Raoul frowned. "But he's not in any of your classes."

"True, but he tested out of all the core classes. That's why he's a junior with Anton and Nadir even though he started a year after them." Meg answered.

"Anyway," Christine steered the conversation back to the topic at hand. She gave Raoul a look. "You don't want to fail a class that's considered an easy 'A,' your GPA will never forgive you. Suck it up and ask for the tutoring."

Raoul pouted some more but he knew that Christine was right. GPA's were a hassle keeping high. One 'C' and you could say goodbye to a high score. Raoul thought the system was such an injustice but it was what it was. Still, that didn't mean he had to like it.

When the next class came, he talked to Webber and agreed to the tutoring. Webber had been delighted to hear the news. Raoul was grateful that Erik had not been present at that moment. Raoul hadn't wanted the older to see him ask for his help, he knew that Webber would tell Erik. Erik had stayed after class and Raoul knew the moment when Webber told him.

Erik had blinked, his eyes going wide before turning to look at him. Their eyes met and then Erik gained a large grin that totally didn't make Raoul's heart skip a beat. Nope, absolutely not.

After that they had started tutoring together and Raoul reluctantly admitted that Christine was right, Erik was a good tutor. He was patient and if Raoul didn't understand something, he would explain it in a different way until he did. He also had the voice that made it easy for Raoul to focus on the material. He knew that he would fall asleep otherwise.

Their first session had been pretty tense. Raoul couldn't help it. Every time he asked a question, he expected Erik to roll his eyes or his hand to twitch like it did during class. Since he kept expecting it, Raoul didn't exactly act friendly towards Erik the whole time. However, the two actions never happened.

Once Erik ended their session, Raoul finally let his curiosity take over.

"Your hand didn't twitch." Raoul remarked, watching Erik start to gather his things.

Erik paused and looked up at him with a confused frown. "What are you talking about?"

Raoul pointed at Erik's left hand. "Your hand twitches during class when students ask questions. It always annoyed me when you do that, like you're somehow better than them for knowing more."

Erik appeared more confused for a second then realization lite in his golden eyes. "Is that why you do not like me? You think I'm some kind of jerk that believes others beneath me?"

Raoul nodded and frowned when Erik let out a relieved chuckle. Erik held up his hand.

"I mean no offense it's just…" Erik paused thoughtfully, bringing his hand down. "Those times my hand reacts to a student. Have you noticed a pattern?"

Raoul's frown deepened. "No?"

"Well, to put it simply. My hand reacts that way to specific students." Erik began. "And those students are the ones that are not there to learn, they are there for me."

Raoul raised an eyebrow. "That sounds more arrogant of you."

"If only it was just that." Erik agreed, throwing Raoul off. "But each of them have approached me multiple times in the past and seem to be unable to take no for an answer. You might even call them fans if you will."

"They know who you really are?" Raoul questioned.

Erik gained a soft grin. "There are people that follow the theatre world, Mr. de Chagny. Yes, they know who I am, and the fact that they are only in my TA course for me instead to learn…well, you can say it irritates me when they try to gain my attention during class."

"Yeah," Raoul had been completely mind blown. He thought back to the class and realized that the times Erik's hand twitched were for the same students. He had completely misunderstood the situation and now he felt like the jerk instead.

"You can't really blame me for thinking you were looking down at them." Raoul stated. "The fact that you sometimes rolled your eyes didn't help."

Erik frowned. "I do not roll my eyes…are you thinking about the times I look at Webber? I sometimes check his reactions to those students, he likes the entertainment it brings him."

Raoul felt his ears heat up in embarrassment. Wow, he really misread the situation. "Yeah, that's probably it. I'm sorry."

"Based off what you told me, I do not blame your assumptions." Erik told him in an earnest tone that made Raoul want to dig a hole and crawl in it. "I'm glad that we got that solved. Shall we meet again on Thursday? Same time?"

"Sure." Raoul had agreed, not being able to look at Erik in the eye at that moment.

"Good."

Raoul heard Erik get up from the table they were at in the library and began to walk away. However, he heard the footsteps stop.

"Oh and Mr. de Chagny?"

Raoul turned around to see Erik a few yards away, with a breathtaking amused smirk on his lips.

"While I'm flattered at the attention, maybe you should focus less on my habits in class and instead focus on the lectures."

While Raoul spluttered, Erik left him with a chuckle. It took Raoul a while before he calmed down the raging blush that had appeared from Erik's comment. He leaned his head on the back of the chair and had grinned.

Man, he wished that he could've kissed the smirk off Erik's lips.

There we go! I'm back again. Convention was really fun by the way, but I'm sure my readers care more for an update. Lol. Hoped it was a good read and if it was, be sure to leave a review! They are the energy potions I use to write. ;) Next chapter will be in Christine's POV. Now the fun truly begins. ;) See ya next time!