Gustave's POV

I wasn't sure why Mister Y's clothes were scattered about, or why he had a table set up in his bedroom, but I didn't ask. Mister Y was a strange man, but he was also my father. If mother loved him and made him my papa, I knew he couldn't be a bad person. I had a nightmare, and came running up to Mister Y's bedroom. Though, after seeing the table, I left him alone. There were some things I didn't understand about Mister Y, and there were some things better left unsaid. The following morning, I woke and dressed, heading out into the kitchen to find a note sitting there. Curious, I picked it up and read my papa's childish handwriting.

"Gustave,

I had a meeting to attend this morning with my employees. I was going to tell you, but didn't want to wake you. I shall be home right after the meeting. There is orange juice in the icebox, and a few left over bagels on the counter. Don't leave the house until I return.

Be back soon,

Mister Y…"

Knowing that I would be eating breakfast alone, I buttered a bagel and poured myself a glass of orange juice. Eating alone wasn't a pleasant feeling, for it was lonely. Mister Y must have been very lonely the past ten years, with only having himself for company. I hated eating alone, and for Mister Y to have done it for ten years must have been extremely hard. After breakfast, I washed out my glass and figured out what to do next…There wasn't much to do at Mister Y's house besides play music, and at the moment, I wasn't in the mood.

"Maybe Mister Y has some toys in his room.." I said to myself as I climbed the stairs to his bedroom. I was never in Mister Y's bedroom alone, and it was scary at first. He kept his belongings so organized that it was as if there wasn't a person living within his domain. Deciding to check in his closet, I pulled the door open and stepped inside. There were shelves ten times taller than me, with a large trunk placed in the center of the floor. Back home, I kept all of my toys in a trunk, and so, I knelt down on the floor and pulled open the lid. Whatever Mister Y kept in here certainly wasn't toys. It looked to be a bunch of junk, but I was still curious as to what it was.

"What's this?" I questioned, pulling out a wooden box. It was dusty, but I opened it, finding photos of my mother. They were worn, but the mere image of my mother sent tears streaming down my cheeks. I missed my mother more than anything in the world.

"I miss you, mama…" I cried, placing the photos back into the box.

Once more, I reached into Mister Y's trunk, and pulled out a beautiful beaded cloak. I had never seen anything like it. Oh, it was beautiful. There wasn't just the cloak, there was also a mask, one much like the one Mister Y wore. I didn't think he had more than one mask, but I slipped the garment over my face and draped my body in the cloak. Once more, I reached inside the trunk and pulled out the final item, which was a music box with a monkey in Persian robes sitting atop of it. The item was more than beautiful, it was magnificent. I sat it down on the floor and wound it up, the symbols moving back and forth to a foreign, yet whimsical tune.

"What are you doing in here!"

When I heard Mister Y's angry voice, I gasped and spun around to find him standing beside me. He looked so angry, and I wasn't sure why.

"Mister Y," I stood to my feet and backed up against the wall. "I'm…I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" he growled, pulling the cloak from around my body. "This is my room! Why are you in my closet? Why are you in my things?"

"I…I was looking for toys…"

I wasn't even sure Mister Y noticed the mask that I was wearing.

"Oh, no…no, no, no, no, no!" he ripped the mask from off of my face and threw it back into the trunk. "Don't you ever put such a garment on your face again! You don't need to wear this..Do you hear me!"

Mister Y's anger frightened me, more than Raoul's anger did.

"I'm sorry, Mister Y…" I cried. "I'm sorry…"

"Oh, and my music box too!"

Mister Y scooped the music box up from off of the floor and pressed it to his chest.

"Get out! Get out of my room, Gustave!"

I wasn't exactly sure why these items meant so much to him, but I didn't hesitate a single moment and dashed out of his room. All I wanted was to find some toys, but it was quite obvious that I had caused nothing but trouble. I wanted my mother. That's all I ever wanted. I wanted my toys, my room, Paris, and most of all, my mother. But I knew those things were never coming back, and that I would be living here for the rest of my life. I was stuck with Mister Y, and now, I had made him angry…

Erik's POV

If there was one thing that always angered me, it was when I found people rummaging through my belongings. Gustave might have been me, but he still held Christine's curious attitude. She loved to snoop through my personal belongings when she and I were back in Paris. It was also an action that always got her into trouble. I had a meeting to attend with my employees, a meeting that I had hoped would run quickly. Nothing too important, just things that needed to be talked about such as pay raises and new rules. Yes, it might have been October, but it was never too early to start thinking about next season. I had returned home, expecting to find my boy playing the piano, and instead, he was snooping through my personal belongings! I didn't own many things, for I wasn't a materialist person, but what was in the trunk of my closet was all I had left of my angel. Yes, it might have just been some old photos of her, or my favorite cloak; the same exact cloak that I wore on the night I led her to my liar, but it was still a part of me…How angry it made me to enter my room and find Gustave wearing my spare mask and cloak! It angered me so, so much.

"He means well, Erik…"

I was loading my belongings back into the trunk, when I turned and spotted Christine standing there.

"Perhaps, but what he did was wrong…Invasion of privacy is how I think of it…"

Christine smiled and picked up the music box from my floor. She smiled widely and ran her fingers over the golden symbols.

"I loved this music box, and yet, you have it packed away."

"I can't bear to look at it, Christine…" I pressed my eyes closed. "It reminds me too much of you."

"Well, perhaps Gustave would like it? He does miss me, and if you explain to him how much I loved it, perhaps he could come to love it as well…"

My angel handed it to me and smiled. "You are a wonderful father, Erik."

And after pressing a quick kiss to my cheek, she disappeared, leaving me alone once again. If there was one thing I hated worse than yelling at my child, it was having to apologize to him. I hated myself for making my own flesh and blood upset, for I hated seeing tears, tears that were caused by me. Knowing what I had to do, I carried the music box downstairs and approached my child's bedroom.

"Gustave?" I lightly tapped on his door. "Gustave, could you please let me in…"

It took a few moments, but the door came open, and before me, stood my child with a face stained in tears. He looked like me, and in more ways than one. Whenever I looked into his tear soaked eyes, I saw myself at his age, crying just as he was now because of the beatings I had received from the gypsies. I had experienced all the pain in the world, and yet, decades later, here I was, staring down at a child who was my own.

"Gustave, I'm sorry for yelling at you like I had." I said. "But, you must stay out of my belongings, all right?"

My child wiped away his tears and nodded.

"I have something for you…"

I entered his room, and placed the monkey music box down on his night table.

"Your mother loved this when she and I were in Paris. It helped her sleep…I want you to have it…"

My son looked it over, before winding it up.

"I want you to have it, Gustave," I assured. "It will remind you of your mother."

"Thank you,"

"If you want," I began. "We could take a walk…would you like that?"

"No, I just want to sleep…" he growled.

"But it's only the afternoon…"

My son did not answer me, and instead, buried his head into his pillow. I knew that I had upset him…When didn't I? Deciding to let the child have some space, I left him be, deciding to work on my documents instead. All throughout the afternoon, I filled out paper work for Phantasma and waited for Gustave to emerge from his bedroom. But as the darkness over took the day, I realized that he had no intentions of doing so. What made matters worse, was when I made dinner that night and wound up eating alone. I had thought for sure that the smell of dinner cooking over the stove would have caused him to emerge from his room, but it didn't. After eating a few morsels, I approached my child's room with a plate of the meal I had prepared for him. Deciding to enter without knocking, I pulled open the door expecting to see him lying there awake, but instead, he was asleep and already dressed in his night attire. Oh, I was a horrible father. I had upset him, and therefore, caused him to stay within the confinements of his room for the remainder of the day.

Knowing that he wasn't going to wake, I cleaned up and decided to take a seat in my family room in front of the fireplace. The weather was becoming colder now, so cold that the only thing that heated my home was the hearth.

"Oh, how I miss you, Christine." I cooed, pressing my head into the back of my armchair. "So, so much. Sitting here now reminds me when you came to me late at night, begging me for a bedtime story."

But tonight, my angel did not appear. It was strange that she hadn't appeared, for when I spoke to her, she was always right there to answer me. I could only hope that Christine hadn't yet disappeared for good…No, Gustave was still a boy and in need of her guiding...I still needed her! As I ran my fingers through my hair in an attempt to figure out where my angel was, I heard a knock at the door. It was strange, because no one ever came knocking, especially for me. I groaned and stood up on my weary legs, approaching the door to open it. I was tired, oh so tired, but I was in no mood for company. I wasn't even sure what time it was when I pulled open the door and looked up. My heart instantly stopped within my chest, for there, standing before me was a man I hadn't seen in decades, a man I thought for sure was dead…There, standing before me, was Nadir Khan…

DUN DUN DUN! Please review! I'm back from vaca! You all must have did a rain dance or something cause the weather on the last day of our vaca was horrible. So horrible that we just left two days early. So, here I am! Thanks again everyone!