The Masque of Paris ( Phantom of the Opera )

ONE SHOT - Beneath a Moonless Sky

Beneath a Moonless Sky from Love Never Dies (the god forsaken sequel) has been stuck in my head. So please enjoy this one shot I wrote while listening to it today. It's between Erik and Christine. And I changed some setting details from LND because I rather die than write about Coney Island. Enjoy.

Context: Erik and Christine meet for the first time again in 10 years and remember the time they made love before Christine married Raoul

She had finally broken from his grasp 10 years ago, yet here in Venice, she faced the man who lit her opera on fire. Although he wasn't the one who stoked the flames.

"I should have known. How dare you try to claim me now. How dare you invade my life!"

Yes, she must persevere. She must resist whatever sweet lyrics fell from his lips. She made her choice and so did he.

"My Christine..." he breathes.

Christine restrained a gasp. His alluring voice from ages before as hypnotic as ever.

"After all this time? Why now?"

"I had to bring you back to me."

"And you're so sure I want to be brought back?"

He pauses as he lurks forward from the shadows,
"You sought a dead man once before."

She holds her breath. She longs to smother the dream they shared years before.

"That night before you were wed..."

The season of reddening trees. She found him. It was nearly a year since her short lived prima Donna days were shattered.

"You found were I hid,"

In the countryside of France. A sleepy town with an abandoned rooftop conservatory. He had a knack for making homes out of the most unlikely places.

"You cannot deny it."

It she couldn't. A denial she had been choking long since she fled with Raoul. She made the best choice, right?

"That night. A moonless sky, wasn't it so?"

The picture flooded without further prod. It was dark. Too dark to see a thing. No light could break it. But then, as now, she could sense him.

"I met you to tell you I must go."

"And yet, you stayed."

Christine, even in the room far from that night, she could feel the ivy in the doorway graze her shoulders. His silhouette stood so close, but he felt further than before. And as if she were a puppet, her fingers reached to face. His mask replaced with black fabric draping his scarred half.

"And I touched you," Christine whispered.

"And I felt you," Erik followed.

Those ravishing refrains from the past echoed. The music in his pulse. The singing in her veins. It was every bliss she ever secretly yearned for. The distance minimized. And there, where not even the moon could witness what happened next.

"And I held you."

"And I touched you."

It was their first candid embrace. She had stepped forward. She had found him. And finally, she could feel him. Every breath and sigh was longing. Any past fear or doubt melted. There was nothing left to suppress.

"And I kissed you."

"And caressed you."

The world fell away. They had said things in the dark they would never dare to say.

"And I caught you."

She takes him in.
"And I kissed you."

He absorbs her all.
"And I took you."

There was no denying it. The pair brought themselves as far as human skin could go. And yet, it was as if that wasn't close enough. Nothing else matter, except for them.

However, the remembering ecstasy couldn't remain. Morning arose, and with it, dashed any future. Erik stood over her, ashamed of himself and old fear resettled within. He kissed her hair, whispered a pleading goodbye, and slipped away.

"And I loved you!" Christine cried, the words startling her. Yes, she did love him.
"I would have followed anywhere you led!"

The bitter memory cradled her heart. She had awoken in his last bed, ready to swear her love.

"I found you gone instead."

"How I loved you!" Erik bellowed.
"And I left you!" Remorse ached his voice. But, he had to. They both knew why.

Even though pain carried after their love, there was no regret from either. Not 10 years ago. Not in their graves. And now? Well, maybe now they could have what they've always wanted.