Sorry to all of you who have been waiting for me to update my other fics. I promise, I'm trying.

Anyway, this is something I've been working on for a while. I think that Raoul gets bashed way to much. I mean, I'm a die hard ExC shipper-don't get me wrong. But seriously, Raoul is not a fop, drunk or abuser. I think that whatever Christine had chose to do on her own he would have supported. So I wrote a fic dedicated to that. Everyone will be happy with this one! Erik gets Christine, and Raoul doesn't get bashed!

Anyway, this is not a long story, it will only have two chapters. But hopefully everyone likes it! Please, please review! Your reviews make my day! Seriously!

POTO (c) Gaston Leroux

Raoul de Chagny looked at the envelope in front of him. For the first time in months he felt...hope. These past months had drained Raoul's energy and will to live. His beloved Christine had gone back to that murderer and Raoul had no idea what to do. He only wanted the best for Christine. If it had been anyone else, anyone he would have given her up for her happiness. But could that man guarantee her happiness, safety and security? For God's sake, he lived in the basement of an opera house! Surely that could not be healthy for a delicate young woman!

God, why? Why did you take away my one true love? He asked silently into the starry sky outside of his window. He had-and still did- love Christine, but people did not believe him. They said that it was a childhood romance that would only bring misery to both participants. But he had to disagree.

He could no longer see the faces of women anymore. All he could see was his beloved Christine. He slowly opened the envelope that was on his desk.

After reading the first line he felt his heart shatter and disappear.

Dear Raoul

I am truly sorry for all that I have done to you my dear friend. It was not my intention to hurt you. But Raoul I do not think that it would be beneficial for either of us for me to keep regretting the past. I wish I could bring the happiness you so desperately deserve. What I have done to you was a truly despicable thing. I realize that I have destroyed your happiness and I can only hope we can remain friends, like in the house by the sea. I have found my Angel of Music Raoul, I just ask that you accept that and leave Erik in peace. We are happy, and I wish that someday you can experience that happiness as well. I no longer reside with Erik in the bottom of the opera house, Erik thought it would be a danger to my health. Please Raoul, live your life and forget about me. I will always be Little Lotte and I do not want you to think otherwise.

All my love

Christine

Raoul stared at the letter in shock for a few moments. He was glad to see that...Erik... cared about Christine's health.

Who am I kidding? He asked himself he has always been the one to know her best. He felt a sharp pang in his heart as he realized this. Looking back he wondered how he could have ignored the love for that man in Christine's eyes. He had been in denial. He loved her so much and he wanted to be loved back. But he also wanted Christine to be the happiest girl in Paris. Even if it could not be with him.

Raoul sighed and thought back to the moment where his heart had been broken, to where he had come back for her.

It had been a normal day for Raoul and Christine, or as normal as things got for them now. It had been three weeks after the fateful night of Don Juan. Christine was a shell of her former self. He was incredibly thin and always had dark circles under her eyes. Whenever Raoul asked what was wrong she would give him a brief smile and reply that it was nothing.

But Raoul was worried, his fiancée was wasting away before his eyes and he was powerless to stop it. He felt such regret for letting her fall like this that for the first time in his life he wanted to hurt somebody. He eventually had to force her to eat or else she would not be able to get food into her stomach. Raoul was contemplating sending her to a doctor to see if she could get medical help.

They had been sitting in the library, reading books when their butler, James came into the room. His face was pale and he was trembling. He didn't even have enough time to announce their guest before passing out cold.

After leaving James in Christine's capable hands Raoul went to see what had bothered James. He thought that it was perhaps, a rather large spider or one of the children from across the estate playing a trick on him. But he knew that his luck was not that well off.

He let out a gasp as the very thing that had frightened James filled the doorway. The man's amber gaze burned into Raoul with a cold fire, he was very tall but extremely skinny. His preferred wardrobe contained all black. His skin (or what people could see of it) was a pale white that clashed with his raven coloured hair. But the thing that was the most noticeable about this man was the mask that took up the whole of his face.

It was white and most likely made of porcelain. No one had dared to touch it to check. Christine was the only person to have seen under his mask and come out almost completely unharmed. Well, physically at least. Her mental state was quite unstable for a time afterwards.

Raoul looked at the man with horror and felt his stomach clench in fear.

"Erik." He whispered.

Erik walked into the room with unearthly grace that only Erik could manage. He barely paid Raoul the respect of a glance and walked straight over to Christine.

She drew back in fear at first. But did not speak. She was sitting on the floor with James's head in her lap.

Erik reached down and stroked her throat with loving attention and Christine felt chills go up her back at the contact. Whether it was fear or something else she did not know.

After a moment of doing that Erik pulled his hand back. But he did not say a word. He stood there, mesmerized by Christine. Finally she worked up the nerve to say something.

"You're dead." Were the words that came out of her mouth. Erik seemed to wince slightly at them. "I saw it in the newspaper. It said "Erik is dead." And it had to be you!"

These words were said more like a charm against evil than a real fact. She had desperately to believe that he was dead so that her relationship with Raoul would not suffer. If Erik was dead it would be easiest to mourn for him and go on to marry Raoul as he had told them to do.

But now he was back. And he was very much alive.

Christine did not know what had scared her more. The fact that he was said to be dead or him by himself.

Raoul read the fear on Christine's face and felt enraged that this man was scaring her. He was about to tell him to get out when Erik started singing. Softly at first but it was getting louder.

Both of the occupants in the room were enchanted by the voice. Raoul had never heard him sing before and fell completely under his spell. Christine had heard him sing many times and had a slight resistance to it. But she eventually succumbed to the beauty.

Erik looked at the boy with contempt while he sang. Even Christine gave up more of a fight than that! How could he succumb to him that easily? Really, if he wanted to survive against Erik then he would need to learn to how resist his voice!

He sighed then looked at Christine. She had obviously been troubled when he walked in. The circles under her eyes, the weight loss. The glazed look in her eyes.

He had been following her for about two weeks now. It had taken a week for him to gather his sanity-or what was left of it and clean his house.

In a fit of rage after Christine left him he destroyed everything except the Philippe Louis room. Then when he realized that he could no longer function without seeing Christine he began watching her again without her knowing.

He watched with a sick feeling in his heart as she began to waste away. For the first week he had convinced himself that she would get better in a few days and that she would be happy with the boy as he had wanted. But by the end of the second week she was worse and he could no longer bear it.

Then he had come to the realization that perhaps, it was him that was causing her worry and grief. Perhaps she was afraid that he would try to take her away from her beloved Vicomte. So he came up with a plan.

He went and asked for his former friend-the Daroga's help in the matter. He could not walk into a public place after all. He was the Phantom of the Opera.

He put three words in the Paris newspaper to settle Christine's mind. Erik is dead.

This could have been counted as true. He was dead to Christine. That was his thought anyway. Sometimes though, when he was in her room at night (she did not share one with the boy. If they had consummated yet he would have killed them both.) he could have sworn that he heard her whispering his name. Or calling for an angel.

He knew he had heard wrong though, she loved the boy and not him. The vicomte was the one at the altar, not the Phantom.

But, after she saw the newspaper article, her already fragile health began to slowly decline. She was going to die, Raoul refused to believe it but Erik knew it for a fact. And he needed to stop it.

But that would include confronting her...but her life was more important than the pretence that he was dead.

He finally decided that he would pay a visit to her at the end of the week. If she went into cardiac arrest after seeing him he would really kill himself this time. Then he would hope that the boy would force her to live and she could forget about him. If she didn't and seemed to want him...he would figure it out as he went along.

So he went the house and almost upon instinct started singing to calm her down. He had not wanted to hypnotize the boy as well but it was quite unavoidable. He then realized that he could use this to his advantage.

He kneeled down in front of her once again and asked her

"Christine, are you happy here?"

She snapped out of her trance like state immediately. Since Erik was not quite ready to release Raoul he kept him under the trance. He did not want him interfering with this conversation. This was the conversation where everything would be reviled and put on the table.

Christine looked up at him and blinked.

"I don't know. I want to love Raoul and in a way I do." She began. Erik felt a hot rage boiling within him as she admitted to loving the boy. He had been expecting it of course, but it cut him deep still.

Christine heard his intake of breath and looked up at him sympathetically. She had been thinking the past three weeks. She did love Raoul, in a brotherly way. One kind of love that would never die, but would never truly become the roaring fire she felt with Erik. She could not love Erik completely until he opened up to her and maybe, showed his love, not as an obsession but as a relationship between two people. Then she could truly love him.

"But, I feel about him as I would feel as a brother, not a lover." She continued and Erik felt for once in his miserable life, hope. What was she telling him? Was she trying to say something? He felt a shiver run up his back at what implications she might have suggested. Or...it could have been his imagination and he was getting excited over nothing.

"Christine." He asked softly, still with the entrancing tone in his voice. Imploring her to tell the truth. "What are you implying?"

She looked down with unmistakable sorrow and Erik felt his heart fall.

Of course she wasn't implying anything he berated himself. He continued to do this for several minutes. Then Christine got up the courage to tell him what she was thinking.

"Erik...I think that I love you more than Raoul. I also think that we should give this one more try. For both our sakes. We never really tried before and if it doesn't work out we'll know and be better off than before, always wondering 'what if' and not knowing." She explained. He felt his heart leap with joy and anticipation. She had chosen him over the boy! For now at least. He was afraid that if he took her and it did not work out for her that he would never be able to let her go. He knew that he would never grow tired of her, never. She was his Angel of Music.

All the implications of this agreement came crashing down on him. He felt like staggering under the weight but know that if he wanted to he could hold it.

Then he realized that there was so much to arrange, not to mention the fact that it might not work out at all.

But first he wanted to have a little fun...

He slowly turned away from Christine and walked over to Raoul who was still standing where they had left him. He had a slightly glazed look in his eyes and Erik knew that he would have a lot of fun when he woke the boy up.

He stepped behind him on the right side and used his voice technique of ventriloquism to speak into the boy's left ear. He woke up with a start. He looked over his left shoulder and saw no one there. He shivered in fear and remembered that Erik was somewhere around here. Or was he...? Had he taken Christine against her will again? He looked over and exhaled in relief. Christine was standing about three feet in front of him. And he noticed for the first time that she was smiling. He felt his heart leap at the sight. When she smiled he remembered why he had fallen in love with her all those years ago.

But she didn't seem to be smiling at him, rather at something behind him. Something over his shoulder.

He felt a tingle of fear throughout his limbs. He now knew who-or what was behind him.

He turned around and planned to confront the man that was behind him. But he let out a gasp of surprise as he realized that Erik was not there. Then he heard a voice from behind him.

"Are you looking for someone M. Le Vicomte?" Erik asked quietly. Raoul whirled around in surprise and sure enough the man dressed in black was there.

Erik took an intimidating step towards him and he stepped back. Raoul looked around nervously to see if there was an exit to get Christine out of the room. He would face this...man...alone.

Erik was blocking the only exit, the windows were too small for even Christine to get out through. Raoul felt an acute sense of panic close in on his chest. He had already dismissed all the servants for the night, all except James.

Erik gave a low, frightening chuckle that frightened Raoul more than anything. He backed up and put his arm up to protect Christine. He looked back and was surprised to see her glaring in an amused manner at the masked man.

What was she thinking? She was encouraging him! Raoul wondered if he had somehow hypnotized her with his voice. It had happened with him and who said that he wouldn't do it with Christine?

He looked at her and she looked back at him with pity and happiness in her eyes. It was the first time he had seen happiness in those eyes for a very long time.

His heart sank as he anticipated what he was going to hear. He knew, he always had. He loved her in the real love type way but he knew that she thought of him as more of a brother. He thought that when he took her away from that man that she would learn to love him. But, he knew the truth all along.

Christine pushed past his arm and went and stood by Erik. She looked at him in a way he knew that it was all over.

"Raoul..." She said, for once at loss for words. Erik gladly took over for her.

"She is Erik's now. She will be leaving with him and you will not interfere. Understood M. Le Vicomte? If you do not Erik could gladly explain it in simpler terms for you. She loves Erik and Erik loves her as well." He said with a satisfied look in his eyes. That was the only way to tell how Erik was feeling really. Through his eyes. And at the moment they were shining as bright as the stars and were staring at Christine in a way that she did not have to look up at him to know that he was looking at her. She could feel his gaze burning into her. He took her hand and started to tow her away. But she stopped and looked at Raoul.

"I'm sorry Raoul. I will write soon." Is what she said as she left. Raoul watched them go, then when he was sure that they were gone he finally wept.

Wept for all that had been and could be. Wept for his love who could never love him back and he wept for Christine who had to make such a hard choice without having any help. Then, when there were no more tears to shed he felt empty.

James woke up a few hours later. But he did not enquire where the mistress of the house was. He already knew.

Now, after he received the letter he felt more empty than ever. He looked towards the liquor cabinet. No, he decided he would not become an alcoholic jerk like so many of his friends. He would be different. But there was one thing he still had to do. He rang the bell to call James.

"James, I want to find them."

So, I hope you enjoyed that little idea. I promise that I will get the second (and last) chapter up as soon as I can.

Wandering Recluse