A/N: This chappy was made up…needed to escape school and invent crap that was more than just going to lectures and doing homework. Totally realistic scenarios, though.

It's been a monotonous, creativity-destroying semester. Spring break has come and gone, and I'm still waiting for some writer's unblock (if you'll allow me a little 4th wall break here.) I did e-mail Nadir about Erik's particular attachment to me, and he just reiterated what he had texted me about my sister-that Erik had found something in me worth holding onto and so would fiercely protect me for that. Well, I for sure wasn't complaining about that! I loved seeing an excited Erik when I came home from classes. Thankfully, he was perfectly happy being a little hermit in my room for now. He had his electronics and so he could communicate with Nadir, research anything he wanted to learn about, and even shop via the character-sitters site (technically being fictional, he couldn't use something like amazon. Creating any kind of documented existence in my world would make it more difficult for him to go back to his own. It could be made impossible if you're not careful.)

Erik would leave me alone when I needed my introvert recharging time, but I'm pretty sure he just watched me all the time, no matter what I was doing. When I had had enough of textbook chapters and homework assignments, I'd go to Youtube or listen to Pandora. I didn't care really if Erik was looking over my shoulder-I couldn't expect an Erik not to snoop. Besides, I had nothing shameful to hide.

Erik told me every time I opened my music history book that he would love to read it sometime, and so I told him the ISBN number and stuff and he bought a copy. He also offered to help me with my homework for that class if ever I needed it. He was baffled by 20th century atonal music but loved learning about it and composing with it, and we scratched our heads together when I had a particularly weird music theory assignment. At least this was the last semester of theory and ear training. And then my final year! Erik also helped me with my voice and choir rep. He loved the diversity in the choir songs and enjoyed the composers of my voice songs.

There were only minor bumps in the road with regards to Erik's-Erikness.

A couple weeks into the semester, I was meeting my friend and fellow music major to help her with a piano project-an accompanying project. I would sing, and she would have to accompany me, and her professor would grade her on it. At least I wasn't the one being graded on performance this time. That would come soon enough, though, when I performed in front of all other voice students and all the vocal coaches next week. I so needed to work on my memorization!

I left early on a Friday (irregular according to my semester class schedule, which had nothing on Fridays) to meet my friend at her piano class, and then got breakfast afterward with some classmates. One of them offered to walk back home with me, and I said sure because I hadn't seen him in forever and even walking home is a chance to catch up. Erik hadn't been awake when I'd left, and it was almost 11. Oh well. He'd known I'd be going to help a friend this morning.

I hugged my classmate goodbye at the door and went inside to find a quiet Erik sitting on my bed. "Hey," I said.

"Close the door, please," he said after I'd put everything down. Oh crap. He doesn't sound happy. I obediently closed the door and sat on the bed next to Erik. He planted his bony hands on my shoulders and turned me to face him, his grip tight and his hands feeling kind of like claws. He spoke very slowly and very low-very dangerous. "You were gone when I awoke."

"I told you," I said calmly. "I was helping a friend with a school project." Remain calm, I told myself. Stay grounded when he's using his voice like a weapon.

"But then," Erik continued, (crap, I'm a little scared!), "You came home with a boy."

Oh! That's what the problem is. "He's gay," I said. "He likes guys, not girls. It's all good there."

"Have you any right," Erik said in a measured voice, "to go frolicking around with other men?"

A pause. He's about to freak out, isn't he?

"Not if you are mine!"

Yup.

"If I find you have been out with another 'friend' without my permission-"

"You don't own me." I technically own you! I hold you accountable, it's in the freaking contract! "Remember the contract? You make one wrong move, your gone! And I'm the one who has to clean up your mess. You don't technically exist, so the consequences of your actions go to me. Erik, I want to finish my education without having jailtime! Is it really that impossible to trust me?"

Yeah…maybe the wrong thing to say to an Erik. So I grabbed my phone and locked myself in the bathroom to shower. Before pulling up Pandora, I texted Nadir about Erik's and my little dispute and asked Nadir to remind Erik about the contract by which we were all bound. The hot water calmed me down. I'd take some alone time for both our sakes and then gently talk to Erik. Maybe. If we were both cooled down enough. I took my time drying off and changing. I wanted to delay being with Erik as much as possible right now. I was afraid of a bigger explosion-not that that episode was technically even an explosion considering Erik. But hopefully Nadir had helped him regain his sanity a little.

Nadir had replied to me, saying that he had passed on the reminder to Erik and that I should be the one to talk to him and fix this. Urg-hope I do this right. As I finished the last bit of business, and was trying to think of something else to do besides wait and metaphorically stare at the door, there was a knock on sed door.

"Lauren?" Erik's voice sounded small and pleading. "Please, angel, open-open the door."

Well, better sooner than later. "Beware the cloud of steam," I called before I obliged. I went straight into my room and sat down expectantly on my bed. Erik joined me, but did not touch me.

"Do you understand the rules of the contract you signed before you came to my world?" I asked softly but firmly.

"Yes."

"Do you understand the consequences of your actions in this world?" Different laws, man, different circumstances.

"Yes."

"Good. And do you understand that you're the only one that I love and that I won't leave you, ever?" Cheesey, but Erik was dramatic anyway, so that should get through.

"Yes." Now he was whispering.

"Come here," I said, pulling him into a hug. "It's okay. I still love you. Don't cry, don't cry."

"Just don't leave ... don't leave your Erik."

"Not gonna happen. Promise."

We cuddled for a couple of hours before it was time for Treble to go do her business again. And time for me to at least look at and plan out my homework for the weekend. "I have an essay to write too," I said. "I should probably start that. It's due next week. It's not that big, but it's my first big writing assignment for this class."

"For what class?" Erik asked, sounding pouty. He probably didn't want to give me up yet.

"Music history. I have to analyze an art song, you know, talk about how it musically reflects the emotion and the story and how the time period's musical traditions are in there and yada-yada-yada."

"May I help?" he asked, sounding eager now.

"Yeah. I'll need it, I think."

"And the faster you finish it, the more time we'll have!"

So I'd text Erik if I ever planned to stay on campus unexpectedly between classes to meet with a professor or a classmate to work out some tougher homework, or do something for a club or choir. I made sure to let him know what was going on, and that actually helped his trust in me a whole lot.

But one particular day, I'd stayed to quickly finish something up for a class and Treble just had to have a not-quite-solid poop attack on the way home. And then she got way too hyper and distracted because she saw one little kittycat. (Treble loves kitties.) I usually get home for my lunch break at 11:15, but it was almost 11:40 when I walked in the door. Erik had started bombarding me with texts around 11:25 or so.

11:25, "Where are you?"

11:27, "Are you still walking home? You don't have to answer if you're almost home ... I know how unsafe it is to text message while traveling."

11:35, "Lauren, please answer me. I'm simply getting worried, my dear girl ... I do hope you're all right."

I didn't look at any of them, of course, because I was hurrying home. My beeping phone was starting to anoy me, though, especially since it likes to beep again if I don't read a text within two minutes of it being received.

The door to my apartment had barely slammed shut when Erik was hugging me around my messenger bag of electronics and my excitable dog, who was trying to join in the hug with a little too much enthusiasm. "Thank God you're safe," Erik whispered.

Erik ushered us into our room and closed the door quickly (he was still scared of my roommates). I started to take off my backpack, but then I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"May I?" Erik asked.

"Yes, please," I said. Treble was tangling us all up, trying to rub her harness off by herself.

I was glad I could concentrate on Treble as Erik gently took off my bag. His gentle touch felt familiar and comforting. It made my heart feel warm and I wanted to squeal or giggle or something. I swore there were goose bumps under my sleeves. And I had my mind in overdrive trying to make it look like I wasn't thinking about it. I so did not need a wrong interpretation happening!

Unpacked and settled, I could now look at my phone, and it made me giggle. I thought I could feel me blushing, but I wasn't sure.

"I'm sorry," said Erik, sounding sheepish. "I was just...so worried...when you weren't home on time...and you didn't let me know where you were."

"It's okay, I understand," I told him. (I had been making a big effort to stay punctual for Erik reasons.) "I stayed after five minutes to do a quick quiz verbally with a professor, and then on the way home, Treble got, uh, poop sick, and she also got distracted by a kitty. But I'm home now and don't have to leave until two, and then I'm done with classes till Monday." (No class on Friday's felt so good!)

"Oh, all right," said Erik, this time sounding forlorn.

"Aw, come on. You get me for three straight days soon-minus church Sunday, unless you want to come with. Our priest is always stoked when we bring guests. You don't even have to be a practicing Catholic; one time me and a Morman friend went to each other's churches one Sunday just because."

Erik didn't say anything in answer to that, and so I went out to the kitchen and made myself a tuna quesadilla. I came back to my room to eat, and Erik kept an arm around my waist the entire time and sat in the chair next to me while I ate.

"I think you should come to church with me," I said. "I mean, at least if you won't come with me when I go out with a friend. I mean, that hasn't happened yet anyway." Thanks, jacked up schedules. But if Erik wanted to be with me, might as well try to get him out into the land of the living, right?

And then I knew how to get him to come! "I sing in church. You could hear me sing in the choir if you come."

"You're tempting me," he murmured.

"Everyone's really friendly there," I singsonged.

I finished a little blurb of homework before I went to my last class of the day. Erik gave me a hug, a plea to get home on time this time, and a kiss on the forehead before I left.

I eventually persuaded Erik to come to church with me that Sunday, and he loved it. We ran into some of my friends, too, and they all seemed to get along. I knew I had to be cautious, but was it so wrong to hope that I could enjoy the second half of college with a secret Phantom of the Opera by my side?