I sadly don't own the Phantom or any other characters created by G. Leroux, S. Kay and A. L. Webber, but they always have a place in my heart. Thanks to my beta Luthien Saralonde, who's the best!

Talks 2

Erik and Joséphine walked the stairs up to the first floor together in silence. Joséphine stole a glance at her husband, who had once more surprised her with his behaviour. But now it seemed he had returned to his reclusive and brooding self. Her thoughts were disrupted by Erik's voice.

"I'd say this went rather well," he stated when they had arrived the landing.

"Yes, very well indeed. If you act the same at their dinner next week, we will soon drown in invitations," she said, pausing for a second. "Who knew you could be that charming," she added in a murmur.

"What is that supposed to mean?" he asked without looking at her.

"Well, you must know that there's a difference between your usual behaviour and how you acted just back in the salon with the Douvilles," she elaborated.

Erik, still unsure what to think about his wife since the kiss, reacted defensively. "I don't need to persuade you, so there's no need to be nice and charming."

The hurt look on her face made him regret his words almost as soon as they had left his mouth. Joséphine started walking faster, getting away from him as soon as possible. Erik tried to catch up with her.

"Joséphine…" Her door slamming in his face prevented him from saying anything further.

In the evening, Erik came down to dinner, knowing that hiding away too much would raise Clara's suspicions. Besides, he wanted to talk to Joséphine and apologise for what he had said that afternoon.

Instead of throwing them angry looks as she usually did during dinner, Clara opened the conversation as soon as they had sat down together.

"I must say I am disappointed that you did not inform me of the Douvilles visiting today," Clara began with a sly smile on her lips, though it never reached her eyes.

"They called on short notice, I simply forgot to tell you," Joséphine replied. "Either way, you were already otherwise engaged that afternoon."

"Yes, I was. Still, I would have liked to talk to them a bit more," she continued, still smiling.

Erik and Joséphine exchanged a look, both knowing that Clara being that nice was definitely wrong.

"With the changed circumstances," she cast an icy look at Erik at that, "I am pretty sure that there will soon be another opportunity."

Focusing once more on her stepdaughter, Clara suddenly frowned. "Tell me, my dear, you did not look too well these past days, is everything all right?"

Joséphine had tried to hide her emotional turmoil from Clara, but apparently, she had not been very good at it. Still, she was in no mood to enlighten her. "I am fine; there is no reason to worry."

"Well, I only thought, you were so pale, and you did hardly eat anything. Maybe you contracted something. It would be a pity to fall ill now," Clara continued.

Joséphine gave her a strange look. "I assure you, Clara, I am perfectly fine."

Suddenly, Clara's face lit up. "Oh my, maybe you're pregnant!"

Erik nearly choked on his soup, but Joséphine was able to hide her shock at Clara's suggestion. "No, I am not pregnant," she told her. Clara really had a wonderful timing, she thought.

"What a pity. I'd love to have a baby in this house," Clara said, looking rather convincingly disappointed at that. Then, her look changed, and she continued with a lower voice than before. "But, you and…Erik, you did…" she made a gesture, not wanting to say things like that out loud.

Joséphine paled, but answered almost immediately. "How can you even ask that? We are married!"

"Yes, of course…how inappropriate of me to presume something like that, right?" She looked ashamed, but the predatory glance in her eyes gave her away.

"Especially if you needed to have consummated that marriage for it to be fully legal. Otherwise this farce of showing up with an ugly man of lower class for a husband will soon be over."

A smug smile had crept on her face, distorting her classic features. She paused for a second, savouring the moment of having her stepdaughter trapped. She tried to look regretful, but failed. "I am sorry for bringing this subject up at dinner."

Joséphine got up, her chair nearly falling over at her speed.

"No, you are not!"

She left the table in a rush, no longer caring how Clara would interpret her reaction, but definitely not wanting her to see her tears. Clara looked after her with a triumphant smile, ignoring Erik, who had stood up as well, until he was towering over her.

"You better not try anything like that again," he threatened her.

"You won't intimidate me," Clara replied, though she shrank back a bit as Erik leaned down to her.

I surely will," he said, dropping his voice to a growling whisper. "Hurt her, and you will regret it." When he saw her trembling, he turned abruptly and left the room to go after Joséphine.

Her bedroom door was locked, so he tried the connecting door, but she had locked it as well. He grabbed the handle. "Joséphine…"

"Go away." Her voice sounded strangled. So she was crying, but why had Clara upset her so this time? Ever since he had moved in this house, he saw Clara trying to make her miserable. She had succeeded before, but lately everything Clara said seemed to bounce off of her without the desired effect. What had changed?

He realised that he was to blame as well. He had hurt her badly that afternoon, and now Clara had threatened her to question their marriage. He needed to make things right, to do something for her, to comfort her.

Grabbing a tool from his desk, he knelt down and picked the lock, which opened easily at his manipulations. He entered and closed the door silently behind him. The sight of her laying on her bed, sobbing into the pillows stirred something in him he had not felt before. Ignoring the strange feeling, he walked over to her and sat on the edge of the bed. His hand moved forward to reach for her, but he caught himself in the last moment, letting it fall down beside him.

"Joséphine…"

"I said go away! I don't want to talk to you!"

"I…wanted to make sure if you were all right," Erik said hesitantly.

"Obviously I am not." He had to smile; even upset, she still had the nerve to talk back to him. "Why do you even care?" she cried.

"You are my wife," he answered.

An angry laugh escaped her lips. "Exactly. That's why you don't need to be nice to me, for I know who you are."

He grabbed her shoulder lightly, begging her to turn and face him. "Joséphine, I am sorry for what I said earlier. It was unjustified."

"Does that make it less true?" she replied, sniffing.

Applying more pressure, but still very gently, he turned her around and offered her a handkerchief. She took it without looking at him, hiding her face behind it.

"I really did not want to hurt you." He paused, unsure how to proceed, but he knew they had to talk about what happened sooner or later. "I…I was afraid," he admitted.

She finally looked at him. "What?"

"When you…when we kissed, I felt like I was betraying Christine…" he admitted.

"You know that she's married to another man, and they are probably doing much more than…sorry, not the best moment for bringing that up, right?" she said in a rush, seeing how his hand had clenched into a fist at her thoughtless statement.

"Definitely not," he said through gritted teeth.

"I just wanted to say that…" Fresh tears streamed down her face. "That you weren't betraying her. I initiated the kiss." It took a lot of her to make him feel less guilty about what had happened, when she actually wanted nothing more than for it to happen again.

Erik watched her, at a loss of what to say. She raised her eyes to his. "What were you afraid of, Erik?"

He opened his mouth to answer her, and then closed it again. What was he afraid of really? "When you kissed me, I was afraid of my response to you. I reacted instinctively, without thinking."

Joséphine shook her head. "And that was such a bad thing that you had to run out on me?" He did not answer that. "Don't you like me at least a little bit?"

Erik flinched at her question. "No. I mean, yes, I do like you," he admitted. "This is all rather new for me," he added.

She laughed. "And what do you think it's for me? That was my first kiss, you i-…" she clamed her hand over her mouth, not wanting to aggravate the situation further by insulting him.

"Your first kiss?" he asked her incredulously.

"What did you think? I spent the last year in this golden cage, and before that, I was never really interested in men," she explained sheepishly.

Erik was at a loss. It had been her first kiss, and she had chosen him for it. "Thank you." Joséphine looked at him, bewildered, then started laughing.

"This really is unknown territory for you, right?" If she didn't think him incapable of doing it, she would have said that he was blushing. "You really are an exceptional man," she added.

Erik, not wanting to talk any further about this, changed the subject. "Why did what Clara said upset you so?" he asked her.

"I don't know. I guess I'm afraid that she's going to find out," she finally confessed.

"Find out what?" he pressed on.

"That we didn't consummate the marriage, that it's all a fake, that you're the Opera Ghost. That you will leave before…that she will make you leave before you had the chance to attain your goal," she explained in a rush.

"My goal?"

"To convince Christine that she made the wrong choice."

"Of course," he replied. "Do not worry too much about your stepmother. I know how to deal with threats."

She blanched. "Don't hurt her."

"If you insist."

"Erik…" she said concerned.

"I am joking. I won't endanger you by harming her," he told her.

"Oh I hope you do," Joséphine replied.

Erik stood up. "Will you be all right?" he inquired.

She sniffed, but nodded. "I guess so." Erik was nearly at the door when she called out to him. "Oh, Erik?"

He turned around to look at her. "Yes?"

"Stop joking, you are really bad at it."