Mia laughed. "No silly, put your foot here." Erik looked where she was pointing then obeyed. "Good, then spin…and exactly." She insisted on teaching him her favorite dances, and honestly, Erik hadn't minded. It'd been a week since Mia left Gaston and during that week, she had been teaching him how to have fun. It wasn't something Erik realized he had missed until now. In fact, until Mia, he didn't have any idea what fun truly was. Before Mia, he really only had his music, and while it was his passion, he took it far too seriously for it to ever be "fun".

Some days he hardly even recognized himself anymore. When he was with Mia, Erik wasn't angry at the world. He laughed and smiled and sang and for the first time in his life, he was genuinely happy. It was such a wonderfully intoxicating feeling being in love; sometimes he felt like he was drunk simply on her presence. There weren't enough words in the world to describe how he felt when he experienced her kiss or gentle touch.

"See, you're getting the hang of it," she said as she giggled. "You're actually quite light on your feet Monsieur."

"Monsieur?" Erik repeated, his brow raised. "Since when am I Monsieur?"

"If we were at a real ball, I would call you 'Monsieur' and you would call me 'Madame' because to do otherwise would be much too forward," Mia explained.

He swept her off her feet and spun her in a circle, their lips caught in a passionate kiss. "Well then Madame," Erik replied when they parted. "Consider me much too forward."

"Erik Destler are you mocking me?"

"Mia de Chagny, I would never mock you."

She let out a pretend sigh. "Oh Erik what am I going to do with you?"

"Kiss me." Mia laughed before wrapping her arms around his neck and doing precisely that.

Of course not everything was completely perfect. Erik did his best to keep Mia calm and happy, but she insisted that he continue his hypnosis with her, which often led to showdowns with Amelia. She was far from happy with Mia's decision to leave Gaston and was even more upset about her and Erik's affair. And as he was quickly realizing, Amelia brought out the Phantom within him, and the more time he spent trying to rationalize with her, the harder and harder it was to keep control of his temper.

"You can't keep me here forever," she growled one day after she had taken control. She was pacing in front of the mirror trying to figure out how to open it. He had discovered that now, even though some of their memories were beginning to blur and neither could quite tell who had actually experienced something, as a whole, their memories were generally still separate. Mia knew how to open the mirror. Amelia did not.

"I can and I will," Erik replied from his place at his organ. Amelia refused to allow him to hypnotize her so he was attempting to work on his music until an opportunity to draw Mia back out presented itself. "Besides, Mia chose to be here."

"And Mia is a fool."

He set his pen aside with a frustrated sigh and turned to face her. "Would you rather her go back to the man who is unfaithful to her, who doesn't care about her, who hurts her?"

"You mean her husband?!"

Erik leaped to his feet and stood before her. "Gaston Barineau is her husband in a name only," he snapped. "Even if his behavior towards her improved tenfold, he still would be unworthy of her."

"Says the deformed freak who's wanted for kidnapping, arson, and murder."

Amelia had called him worse before and he knew he shouldn't react, but that was the one that sent him over the edge. Before he had entirely processed his actions, the Phantom within took ahold of him and his hand shot out, his fingers wrapping around her throat, although he wasn't squeezing…yet. "Don't call me a freak," he hissed through clenched teeth.

Her eyes glittered with disdain. "You think you're so much better than him. You think that you're so superior to Gaston just because Mia likes you more. Look at you," she spat, glancing down at his hand on her neck. "You're no better than him."

His eyes widened as Erik realized what he was doing. He released Amelia before he wound up hurting her. "I am trying," he said. "I am trying to be better for her. I love Mia."

"It certainly doesn't look like it from where I'm standing. Besides, if you really loved her, you wouldn't be trying to get rid of me."

"But I'm not!" Erik countered. "Mia and I both know that she needs you. She's not strong enough to stand up for herself without you. I'm not trying to destroy you, I'm trying to get you two to work together."

"Pretty words Monsieur, if only I believed you."

Frustrated didn't even begin to describe how Erik felt. He didn't want to fight Amelia anymore but she brought out the worst in him. But nothing he could say or do could convince her that he meant well. But a thought struck him. Even if he couldn't maybe someone else could.

"You want me to what?" Mia asked, staring at him wide-eyed later that night when she had resumed control. "Erik don't you think if there was a way to communicate with Amelia and have her listen to me, I would have found it by now? Sometimes I think I hear her in my head but for all I know, it's myself. Don't look at me like that, I know Amelia's a part of me, but that's different."

Erik sighed and sat heavily on the bed. "I know it wasn't really fair to ask. I just…I just thought since I can't convince her, maybe you could."

She sat beside him, pulled his mask off, and pressed a kiss to his deformed cheek. "We'll think of something. I'm sure we will."

Later that night, Mia stared out over the glassy water of the lake. The only sound she could hear was the steady beat of Erik's heart and the soft sound of his breathing as he slept. His arms were around her in a comforting embrace as she rested her head on his chest, her mind too busy whirling around to sleep.

The thought had been plaguing her for days, becoming more and more prevalent in her mind the more time she spent with Erik. She nestled closer to him, trying to find enough solace to fall asleep. "What's wrong?" Erik asked, seemingly woken by her movement.

"Nothing," she mumbled into his chest. "I'm fine."

"Now I know there's something wrong."

"It's nothing, Erik."

He propped himself up on his elbows. "You're thinking about going back aren't you?"

"Erik, I'm not-"

"You are!" His voice was filled with hurt and outrage. "After everything he's done to you, you still want to go back?"

"Well I don't want to but-"

"Then don't!" Erik cried. "Mia, you're a human being with feelings. You don't have to go back if you don't want to. He can't make you. Not as long as I'm here."

Mia just nodded, too tired to fight with Erik right now. She allowed him to pull her back in his arms and kiss the top of her head. After a long while, his breathing evened out again as he fell back asleep, but Mia still couldn't.

As soon as she was absolutely certain that Erik was sleeping again, Mia slipped out of Erik's arms, being extremely careful not to wake him again. "I'm so sorry Erik," she whispered. She made her way over to the mirror silently and was about to open it, when she turned and looked back at Erik. A sob welled up inside her, forcing Mia to put her hands over her mouth to silence herself.

She didn't want to leave Erik. She was so happy here with him. But every time she thought of Gaston, she felt crushing guilt. She was married to Gaston. She was supposed to be happy with Gaston. But Erik…Erik was everything to her. He would do anything and everything for her and she loved him more than life itself. But she had to go back to her husband. Didn't she?

The moment she hit the switch to open the passage, she heard something. "Mia?" Erik murmured. She turned back, but saw he was only talking in his sleep. He had a small smile on his face and she had never seen him more content. Tears began to stream down her cheeks. She couldn't do this to Erik. Not again. Mia could still hear him screaming her name the last time she left him. He had been so heartbroken, and there was nothing on earth that could compare to the joy on his face when he saw her come back. Erik had been hurt so many times before; there was no way she could put him through it again.

Erik woke with the feeling something was terribly wrong. He sat up instantly, realizing he was alone in bed. "Mia?" he called. When she didn't respond, he leaped to his feet and ran through the lair, screaming her name, to no avail. After working his way over to the mirror, he noticed it was ever so slightly ajar. Maybe she had just left. Maybe he could still catch up to her.

"MIA!" he screamed, moving through the passage as fast as his feet could carry him. He tripped over a dip in the floor, one he knew was there and usually instinctively skipped over, and went sprawling on the ground in a very undignified manner. The Phantom was the embodiment of grace and mystery but Erik was nothing more than a slave to his emotions and right now all he could feel was pain, heartbreak, and betrayal. "I should have known better," he moaned, putting his head in his hands and allowing his tears to fall freely. "I could have stopped her."