Say You'll Share With Me | Phantom Oneshots

POTOber Day 12 - The Scorpion or The Grasshopper

day 12 prompts: begging/choices/the ring 

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Christine watched as Raoul tried to figure out the best way to push off the boat from the shore of the underground lake, thinking that he looked a bit silly trying to manage the massive pole when Erik had looked so smooth and graceful with it, just as he always was.

Oh, Erik. She still couldn't quite believe what a turn the night had taken, how terrifying and angry and unhinged she had just seen her fallen angel acting only moments ago. He had been prepared to kill Raoul all in the name of gaining her love, he had completely missed how doing that would only push her away. So, thinking quickly and acting in harmony with the little tug in her heart that still pulled her towards him, his ring on her finger, she had kissed him. Twice. Only during the second one had she felt him hesitantly kissing her back, only to pull away far too soon. Then he had released Raoul and, looking completely dejected, insisted that they leave him, escaping the mob descending on them and simply leave him to their wrath.

She couldn't do that.

"Raoul..." she began, looking up at her dishevelled fiancé, his hair a mess and his shirt torn. He really had gone to the ends of the earth for her, almost dying in the process, and she wasn't sure how she would ever show her gratitude. She just hoped that he wouldn't think she was throwing that all away with the request she was about to make.

"Yes?" Raoul inquired as he carefully stepped off of the boat and walked over to her, setting his hands on her shoulders. "What is it, my dear?"

Christine sighed quietly and looked down at her hand, at the dark stone set in the gold band that still adorned her ring finger. "Wait here for just a moment, please," she said softly. "I...I want to go and give this back."

"What?" she heard her fiancé ask, and she looked up at him again to see the frown on his face. "Why? Why not just throw it in the lake and be done with it? With him, with this whole ordeal?"

"Raoul, I can't," she said with a sigh. "This belonged to him long before I came into my life, he gave it to me, and...and I know he loves me. Yes, he went about telling me and trying to win my love in all the wrong ways, you needn't tell me that, but to throw it away would just be cruel."

"And you don't think he deserves that? After all he's done?"

"No, I don't. No one deserves cruelty, no matter what they've done, and he is no different. So you can either stay here and wait just a few minutes for me to come back, or you can leave on your own and I will find my own way back."

She watched him mull that answer over in his mind, only to sigh and give her a slight nod. "Just go quickly. I don't want to stay here any longer than I have to."

"I will," she replied, tipping her head up to kiss him gently before she turned and walked back through the catacombs towards the place her angel called home. She was hoping she wouldn't walk into any kind of gruesome scene and find him injured...or dead. He had made countless mistakes, hurt both her and Raoul, as well as others around them, but she still didn't want him to be killed. Even if they weren't to be in each other's lives anymore, she still wanted to think that he was alive and well.

Rounding the corner, she let out the breath she had been holding when she saw him sitting on the floor next to the music box that he always kept close by. She suspected it was a comfort to him, made him feel like he wasn't completely alone in the dark, dingy fifth basement. She hadn't meant to disturb him, but she suspected that he heard her footsteps as quiet as they were since he flinched and jumped to his feet, almost as if he were expecting an attacker, but quickly relaxed when he saw her. The weakest smile she had seen in a long time formed on his face, only for it to fade slightly when he saw her holding his ring in her hands rather than wearing it.

"I didn't want to leave with it," she said quietly, trying her best to keep her voice from wavering as she held out the ring to him.

His eyes flicked from the ring and back up to her as he stepped over to her, then gently covered her hand with his. "Christine...I love you," he whispered, his voice breaking off at the end of his sentence.

Christine's lip trembled as she tried to fight the tears filling her eyes, though seeing him just as emotional certainly didn't help. She took his other hand to hold it tight and tipped her head forward just enough to press their foreheads together, then simply took a quiet moment to stand there with him, relishing in the moment that, for all she knew, was the last time she would ever see him.

"I have to go," she replied in a whisper, not missing how his grip on her hand tightened slightly as soon as she spoke. As she stepped back, she lifted his hand and gently set the ring in his palm, then closed his fingers over it. "Promise me you'll take care of yourself."

He simply nodded in response, hardly able to look at her. Before she left, though, another thought crossed her mind: "Tell me one thing before I go."

"Anything," he said quietly.

"Your name."

A sigh before he finally made eye contact with her. "Erik."

"Erik," she whispered, smiling sadly as she slowly reached up to brush a tear away from under his eye. "Goodbye, Erik."

She pulled away before he could reply, not sure that she would ever leave if she had waited for him to speak, and started to make her way back towards her fiancé, trying to ignore the tears pouring down her face and the heartbroken sobs of the man she had left behind.