phantom of the opera oneshots, originally published on AO3, FFN, and Tumblr (under the same username!)
all of my phantom oneshots will now be published here instead of in my oneshots book :)
cover by BrendaDaaeDestler!
the first in a series of oneshots for a week of fluff that a tumblr user is hosting this week! enjoy :)
day 1 - summer
~
"Christine, I don't know about this," Erik said with a sigh, looking at his wife where she was bobbing in the blue waters of the bay off of the city of Cannes, where they had taken off to for a short vacation.
"Why not?" Christine asked, laughing and splashing her hands in the water. "It's beautiful, Erik, come on!"
Erik sighed and dug his feet in the soft sand, watching as the ocean waves washed over them and took some of the sand with it as the tide went out again. Frankly, he wished he could bury his entire body in that sand; he was feeling remarkably exposed in just a set of swim trunks, no shirt to cover himself up with, and no mask to top it all off, even though they were at the beach so early that there was no one else around. He hadn't really wanted to join Christine on this outing in the first place, but with the way she had pouted at him with her big, brown eyes that he could never resist...how could he have said no?
"You'll be fine once you're in here, Erik!" he heard Christine call out to him. "We'll just float together, you don't have to do any real swimming if you don't feel like it, for whatever reason you have."
"Christine, why can't I just go sit and read while you swim?" he asked with a huff. "I would much rather do that."
"That's no fun!" Erik quirked a brow as he watched Christine stand up and trudge through the water back to the shore, then took him by the arm and gave him a yank. "Don't be a party pooper, come on."
With a huff, Erik finally allowed himself to be pulled into the water, looking around himself subconsciously and wishing he had a shirt. And longer swim trunks. Or just pants, frankly.
He was distracted from his own worries, however, when Christine hopped onto his back once they were deep enough that the water reached his chest. "What are you doing?" he asked with a laugh as he reached behind him to hold onto her.
"Making sure you can't escape," Christine said, laughing through her words while she leaned forward to kiss his cheek. "You're stuck now."
Rolling his eyes, Erik swallowed his discomfort in favour of messing with the woman on his back; taking a deep breath, he bent his legs to dip down under the water, bringing Christine with him. He surfaced a moment later and smiled to himself as he wiped down his face, able to ignore the fact that it was bare as he listened to the sound of Christine laughing and sputtering. She was always the perfect distraction, helping him not to focus on his own constant fears.
The weight on his back was lifted a moment later as Christine swam around him to tread water just in front of him. Their faces were lined up perfectly as she floated and Erik hunched over somewhat in order to keep his torso in the warm water. Erik couldn't help but smile at the sight of his girlfriend, her curls and baby hairs plastered to her forehead after getting dunked in the water.
"That was mean," she said. She was trying to make herself look angry, but Erik could only laugh as he saw her fighting to keep the corners of her lips downturned when she so clearly wanted to laugh.
"You told me not to be a 'party pooper,' to quote you exactly," Erik said with a coy smirk. He wrapped his arms around her to pull her close for a kiss, tasting the salt of the sea on her lips. "I am simply obliging your request."
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