Disclaimer: Please don't sue. I don't own POTO... All I own is an overactive imagination.
Summary: ErikRaoul slash. Post-POTO. A bit of R/C (yeah). General discontent runs through the characters as they are forced to adjust their views of happily ever after. I guess a bit of E/C as well (but that's usually unavoidable)
Warning(s): slash (that's homosexual content for those of you who don't know)
Pairing(s): ErikRaoul
A/N: Yes, this chapter was rushed. I hope you enjoy it since I will not be deterred on taking that extra week as a break.
Story note: Short chapter, but I was grinning by the end of it.
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Reluctantly Willing
Chapter 03 - … to heal
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By: Lucifer Rosemaunt
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Raoul hadn't thought he could do it, but somehow, he made it up the driveway and into his home. Admittedly, he'd taken more breaks than he'd wanted just to arrive, but the ghost was not making it any easier by being unconscious and if that damp spot on his shoulder was any indication, drooling on him. He just hoped it wasn't blood – honestly though, he was torn as to whether he wanted it to be blood or not. Taking so long had the added advantage of hopefully arriving so late that no one would be awake. So far, no one had bothered to stop them.
Now that he was in his home and in front of the stairs, he just couldn't see how this was going to happen. There were a lot of stairs, more than he remembered ever having. His shoulders hurt and his legs were about to give out already. The sitting room was beginning to look rather convenient, but there was no other choice but to make it upstairs if he wanted to keep the ghost a secret. Adjusting the ghost higher on his back, he tugged at the man's arms.
"Vicomte?"
Raoul turned to his left slowly, wondering just how odd this must look. It was his butler.
"Do you…" the butler reminded himself that it was not his place to pry in his employer's business, "Do you require assistance?"
Hesitating for just a second, Raoul nodded. The butler took the ghost's arm and shifted him so that the ghost's weight was distributed equally between them. Raoul made certain the cloak was still covering the ghost's face and the butler didn't ask any questions about who the stranger was. Getting up the stairs was significantly easier.
"The den," Raoul said softly, looking around suspiciously hoping that no one else was awake.
There was no bed in the den, but Raoul just pointed to the floor. It was better than the alley, so the ghost would simply have to accept whatever Raoul had.
The older man straightened his clothing before asking, "Is there anything else you require?"
Raoul shook his head and waited until the butler left the room before falling onto the nearest seat. Leaning his head against the backrest, he closed his eyes. What was he doing? Who did he think he was? He wasn't this kind. Definitely not regarding this man.
Rolling his shoulders back to relieve some of the tension that had gathered, he paused to peek at the man currently sprawled on his floor. Raoul would help him until he was better enough to leave. He guessed it would be more like until the ghost tried to kill him – because even he drew the line at helping an ingrate. He highly doubted that anything good would come from this, but the man had wanted to live. And for that moment when their eyes met, the ghost had only been a person in need. They hadn't had their sordid past and Raoul felt like he could actually do something; he could help heal this man, be of some use. He was needed again in the way that Christine hadn't needed him since they left the opera house, and it felt good.
Standing up, he hesitatingly pulled the cloak off the ghost's face. With his face covered, Raoul could imagine that it was simply some stranger he was helping and that would make his life that much easier, but his life was far from easy, and he couldn't fight the compulsion to take a closer look at the ghost's face. He tugged off the cloth, holding his breath.
Surprisingly, he didn't recoil from the sight. He had seen it before already, and in his dreams, the ghost was always mask-less. He supposed some sort of immunity to it was bound to occur. Before he knew what he was doing, his hand was reaching forward to touch the man's deformity. A knock on the door made him jerk his hand back quickly. Flinging the cloak back over the ghost, he opened the door just a fraction.
The butler stood there, his arms completely full of blankets and other items. Raoul opened the door to let the man in, who placed the items on his desk.
Raoul stared at him in confusion.
"You brought him here to help him, right?"
Raoul nodded.
"This should be everything you need for the evening. I woke the cook to heat you up some soup."
"No need to trouble her."
The butler pinned him with a stare, "It's no trouble. It would have been dinner had you been here, and I'm sure the gentleman would want something to eat."
Raoul looked down at the ghost as an after thought. "Of course, he must be hungry." He had completely forgotten the state the ghost had been in. Food would definitely be necessary, but he would have to wait until he woke up before they could do that. He wasn't about to feed the man himself.
The butler left without another word.
Sighing, Raoul went over to the things the butler had brought. There were extra blankets, bandages, a pitcher of water, and towels. His gaze fell to the ghost again. All this for a man who tried to kill him on more than one occasion.
Crouching down with a purpose, Raoul yanked off the cloak to stare at the ghost's face. Quickly, before he could reconsider or the butler knocked on the door again, he touched the ghost's deformity. Gently, he skimmed his fingertips over the ridges of irregular skin near his forehead. The skin was smooth near the top of his head, indicating that there had never been any hair to begin with near the deformity. The man had been wearing a wig after all. It shouldn't have been that surprising, but the other side of his head really was completely normal. He ran his fingers through the ghost's hair; it was a little oily. Apparently, he hadn't been taking very good care of himself.
Reaching behind the ghost's head, Raoul checked if the ghost was still bleeding. Checking his fingers, he saw that the blood was already drying; the only thing he would need to do was clean the wound and wrap it. Laying the man back down, Raoul stared at him some more, focusing on his deformity. If only he could heal this part of the ghost as well. It was a stupid idea of course, but none of them would be in their current situation if this man had not been deformed. Life would be simpler. Christine and he would be married… he paused at the thought. Maybe they wouldn't have been. There was a whole chain of events that had brought them together and this man was the center of all that.
Knowing that he'd done what he'd set out to do with checking the man, his next step should have been to move away, but he couldn't seem to stop the exploration of the man's face as his fingers lowered to the man's cheek. There was a particularly deep trench in his cheek, the skin rising up unnaturally, affecting even the ghost's nose. He followed every ridge and dip from the man's skull to around his eyes and lips and jaw. He felt the toughness of the skin in some parts and the smoothness in other parts. The deformity reached back towards the man's ear, and Raoul followed it even there. The ghost's skin was cold, warming up by fractions when his fingers revisited the areas on the ghost's face. He traced the deformity over and over again, finding new things at every pass; he traced until his fingers memorized the feel of it beneath his fingers.
He was caught up in complete fascination of how the deformity no longer seemed strange, but rather it fit the man. It was part of the ghost and not entirely unnatural. Raoul grinned as his fingers stroked the particularly scarlike indentation at the ghost's temple before realizing he was actually touching someone. Not just anyone. He was touching the ghost.
Pulling his hand back as though burned, Raoul couldn't get it to stop tingling. He could still feel the ghost beneath his fingers.
God, had he been so deprived of human contact that he would stoop so low as to touch the ghost?
Raoul scrambled away from the man, knocking into the desk. The ghost hadn't moved given any sign that he was waking, for which Raoul was very glad. His heart was pounding and he couldn't quite look at the ghost for longer than a glance. He hadn't even realized what he'd been doing. Well, of course he'd known he was touching the ghost. It seemed like he had a right considering the fact that he was helping the man. But… why wouldn't his hand stop tingling?
Pacing a few steps away and then back. He jumped when someone knocked on his door. He strode over to the welcome distraction before remembering to cover the ghost's face. Opening the door, he quickly took the two bowls of soup from the butler.
Peeking past the Vicomte, the butler raised an eyebrow, "He's still on the floor."
Raoul looked at the ghost, nodding. "I was just getting there."
"Do you need assistance? He probably needs to be cleaned as well," the butler offered.
Shaking his head firmly, Raoul began closing the door. "I'll do it all myself," as an after thought he added, "We must keep this secret."
The butler nodded without hesitation. He had figured as much, considering the Vicomte had come in the middle of the night, dragging a stranger along. It would only make sense to keep it a secret.
Sighing, Raoul was glad it had been his butler who had been awake. Before shutting the door, he said, "Thank you."
Placing the bowls of soup down on his desk, he looked back at the ghost. There was no way he could just leave the ghost lying in the middle of his floor without some blankets or a pillow. After all, he told himself that he would help the man. There were a lot of things to do; good thing he rarely slept nowadays. It would have been nice to have some help, but he couldn't truly trust anyone with this particular secret. The less everyone knew, the better. When he reached for the sheets, he frowned seeing that his hands were shaking.
Heal the ghost, kick him out, and then kill him. That was the plan. That was the only thing he would do.
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End Chapter 03
Word count: 1,769
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A/N: Don't forget to R/R (Read and Review)!
Chapter review: Massively Raoul-centric. He's kind of pervy touching Erik while he's unconscious.