Say You'll Share With Me | Phantom Oneshots

POTOber Day 8 - From the Moment I First Heard You Sing

sorry about the delay in posting this! wattpad's website was being really weird yesterday and this morning, so i wasn't able to upload this, but here it is! 

day 8 prompts: desire/pining/wedding dress

~ 

Erik sighed to himself as he reached out to touch the delicate lace hem of the wedding dress he had so painstakingly crafted by hand for his love. It had taken him countless hours to choose the right materials and colours, to measure out all the fabric and carefully stitch it together to form the dress that hung on the mannequin in front of him, standing tall over him from where he sat on the ground in front of it. Everything had been so blissful when he had brought Christine down to his underground home for the first time. She had seemed to be amazed by the surroundings, by his presence...and then he'd pulled the sheet off of the mannequin and she had collapsed to the floor.

Just perfect.

"You're still staring at it?" Erik glanced back over his shoulder when he heard his friend's voice and saw Nadir walking out of the kitchen, two cups of tea in hand. "You've been sitting there since I arrived."

"Yes, well, lots to think about. Lots to regret," Erik mumbled, leaning forward to fiddle with the tulle of the wedding veil that hung down low enough for him to reach. "So much to regret."

He thought he heard a sigh from behind him, then the sound of the teacups being set down on the table before Nadir sat down with him, not without a quiet grunt at the effort. "Look, no one said romance is easy, my friend. There's a lot of...navigating that you have to do."

"She saw my face, Daroga," Erik said softly. "How can I fix that?"

"Every person isn't going to be the same, Erik," his friend replied, then held up a hand when he tried to speak up to refute the point. "I know that's been the case for much of your life, but that's not to say it won't be different now."

Erik sighed and shook his head, running his fingers through his hair. "It was going so well. What did I do wrong?"

"Well...this might just be me, but lying, kidnapping a young woman, and then showing her a mannequin that looks exactly like her wearing a wedding dress the very first time you meet her might be part of the problem."

With a groan, Erik buried his face in his hands, rolling his eyes when he heard Nadir chuckle. "It's not funny," he muttered.

"I know, I'm sorry," Nadir said, still laughing as he patted his friend's back. "I know you're fond of her, Erik. This is just a bit...much for the first interaction, that's all. Especially because you had never actually met in person before this."

"It seemed like it was going so well," Erik said with a sigh as he lifted his head and gazing sadly at the wedding dress. "We were singing and she looked so amazed to just be here, that I was there with her. It was all fine. And then I decided to show her this and she fainted. She fainted, Nadir."

"Yes, I heard you," Nadir replied. "She was probably just...very taken aback by everything, that's all. This, as beautiful as the dress is, would be a lot to take in."

Erik sighed again and looked back up at the mannequin, smiling to himself as he looked at the layers of lace, tulle, and satin. "I just...I love her, Nadir, and I didn't know what I was supposed to do to tell her that," he said quietly. "And now I've ruined it."

"Erik, you don't know that."

"Well, she fainted, and then when she woke up, she took my mask off out of her own curiosity and want to know what lay beneath it despite my warnings, and then I completely lost my temper. I ran at it, we both ended up on the ground, and I acted like a complete monster. There can't be any redemption for that, any hopes of rekindling a friendship, never mind romance. She'll be happy with her Vicomte and I suppose that's all I can ask."

Nadir sighed and patted his friend's back. "It'll be alright," he said, leaning some of his weight on Erik's shoulder as he got to his feet. "Drink your tea now. I saw that you left your mail on the kitchen table, did you want me to get it for you?"

"Yes, you may as well. I should probably look through it, get back to Madame Giry's correspondence," Erik replied, taking one last look at the wedding dress before he stood up and picked up his teacup to take a sip.

His friend returned a minute later and handed him the few envelopes that he had retrieved from Madame Giry's desk earlier that day, so with a grateful smile in return, Erik sat down in his armchair and started to read through them. Nothing was particularly interesting; Giry's report on the new managers' resistance to his requests peeved him as usual, and there was another that contained a copy of the coming shows that would be performed. He was just about ready to set them aside when he looked at the last envelope and paused when he recognized the delicate handwriting.

"Something interesting, I presume?" Nadir inquired as he sipped his tea.

"It...it's from Christine," Erik replied, gently opening the envelope so as to not ruin his student's stationery, then started to read the contents of the letter, memorizing every swoop and dot of her personal script as he did:

Maestro,

I wished to write to you since I am not sure when I will see you again. Or if I will see you again, frankly. I feel terrible about how our last interaction ended. I should never have removed your mask, knowing that you did not want me to do so, given how often you removed my hands from even being near it, so I wish to apologize. As for when I fainted, I was simply caught off guard by all you were showing me, the wedding dress included. That said, I truly did think it was beautiful and a thoughtful idea, though perhaps a bold one. Not that that is entirely a bad thing. I would love to continue our acquaintance and, should you be agreeable to the idea, I would like to return to your home to speak more about all of this and perhaps to take a better look at all the hard work that you put into the wedding dress.

Yours,

Christine

A quiet chuckle from Nadir tore Erik's attention away from the letter that he had simply been staring at, his jaw slightly slack. "Wh-what do you want?" he managed to ask, his mouth dry.

"What did she say that has you looking like that?" Nadir asked, still laughing quietly through his words.

"Well, I...she apologized for taking my mask off, which she didn't really have to do, and then she said that...that she was just overstimulated and fainted that night and that...she wants to come back so that we can talk and she can see the wedding dress again," Erik explained as he looked back at the letter to read it again. "I don't understand."

"It seems she's sweeter on you than you think she is," Nadir replied, and he laughed to himself when he saw a smile spread across his friend's face, seemingly subconsciously. "I wish you the best, Erik. Perhaps I can offer some tips about how to handle it so you don't have to worry about losing her again."

"Of all the advice you have given me, Daroga, this is by far the most unexpected."

"You don't want my help, then?"

"Oh, I didn't say that. I am going to need all the help I can get to make this work. I am determined to make it work. For her."