The Monday after the wedding, Christine went back to work, the lead female's ankle had long healed, so Christine was back to helping the other dancers improve. Madame Giry worked with them as a whole, while Christine would pull one to three aside to work out individual issues.

She felt listless and empty, all the weeks of excitement looking foreword to the wedding had drained her, and nothing seemed to be left.

Madame Giry actually took her aside at lunch and asked if she needed the day off. Christine refused, knowing she needed something to fill her time.

When work ended, she sat at the edge of a wooden box again, watching the others leave. Absentmindedly she worked with her hair, taking it down then up again. Eventually she braided it and left it.

She guessed that she had another hour until her lessons, no, not lessons anymore. Christine reminded herself. Her meeting with Erik. Friends, friends who would meet and discuss music.

Christine laughed, almost nothing had changed.

It had been two weeks since she'd seen Erik, and she missed him, she had a feeling that he could fill the hole that was now in her heart. If only temporarily.

Her fingers twitched some more, and her eyes drifted to the piano, the one used in rehearsals sitting behind a curtain on the stage. Slowly she lifted herself up and walked over to it, she pulled out the chair, feeling the splintered wood beneath her hands.

Gently, she sat, pushing up the cover of the piano. It's quiet clap echoed through the empty stage, she took a deep breath and began to play a scale.

She hadn't played the piano for quite some time, but over the last decade she's neglected her skills. The lack of an available piano had much to do with it, but it was also because the piano reminded her of her father.

Several scales later, Christine set her hands in her lap and thought for a moment, then began to play Clair de Lune. Her fathers favorite.

It felt good, to be playing again, and she began to hum softly along with the song, ignoring the small mistakes here and there.

It filled her, the familiar and sad song. It felt like an old friend, welcoming her and holding her, it's sad tune understanding the hollow feeling inside her.

"I didn't know you played the piano." Erik's voice echoed behind her.

Christine started, the notes she played cut off, the feeling of comfort gone. She turned round and laughed, her heart dancing in her chest. "Stop-" She gasped. "scaring me like that!"

Erik loomed over over as always, but his normal black silk cloak was missing. He looked smaller without it, of course he still towered over her with what must have been over six feet. But without the cloak he looked less large, less intimidating.

Christine found she liked it.

He wore a suit, of course, one tailored for his thin frame, and white gloves covered his thin hands. "Apologies." He said, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Good heavens. Just because your the Opera Ghost doesn't mean that you have to frighten me." Christine smiled, standing from her seat and moving away from the bench.

"You hardly need the push." Erik remarked mildly, waving a gloved hand in the air. "I hope Emily's wedding went well?"

"Oh-" Christine smiled. "Yes, she felt rather nervous at first, but it all turned out right."

"Good." Erik's fingers twitched, as if searching for keys to play. "It would be quite the disaster if it couldn't happen now."

"Yes. I suppose." Christine hesitated. "I- I'm very proud of her. She's made her mistakes but she's learning and doing her best to fix them."

"I thought that after everything that has happened her sense of romance would wither and die." He smiled from underneath his mask and clasped his hands behind his back, absently he began rolling back and forth on his toes. Suddenly Christine held back a giggle. He looked like a school boy, waiting to present his love with flowers.

"I-" She held back a laugh. "I doubt she'll ever lose her romantic inclined personality, but she's got it under better control now. I hope." She added, thinking back to the apartment.

"Very resilient." Erik remarked. "Letting no worldly being crush her spirit."

Christine didn't answer, instead, she examined his hair. It was raven black, and sleeked back with water, she believed. One strand had escaped and was moving with his rocking, it made her smile.

"I missed you." She said truthfully.

He stopped rocking, the hair on his head laid back down limply. "I- I missed you as well." He countered. "Our lessons.... are very instructive on both sides, I have learned much from you."

Christine smiled softly, her eyes sparkled and for a moment she swore she heard him take in a breath. "It was hard. Going without lessons. I'm glad we've decided that even if the lessons must change, only the name has to." Here she hesitated, then ran to Erik and encircled him with her arms.

It was like hugging a board of wood, frankly, Erik was awfully thin, but it was mostly because he had stiffened like steel the moment she touched him. Undaunted, she pressed her face into his chest, rubbing her cheeks against the soft silk suit. She heard him give a gasp as she sighed and finally rested her head gently against his chest. "I really have missed you, I never knew how much our lessons helped me." She admitted.

Still he did not answer, and Christine felt him slowly, ever so slowly relax.

They stayed like that, Erik barely comfortable with her touch and Christine drawing immense amounts of comfort from it.

Then she pulled away, running her hands down his arms to grasp his hands. "Thank you." She told him. "For the ball invitation. I think I will enjoy myself."

His head tilted down towards her, and still he said nothing, though his hands surrounded hers. Gently he opened them, looking down at her palms. "How long have you been playing the piano?" He asked.

"About thirty years." She said, after a moment of thought. "Though I've barely played anything for the past ten years."

"You play well. That piece, Claire de Lune?"

"Yes." Christine laughed. "It was one of my father's favorites."

"I haven't heard it in quite some time." He confided, and dropped her hands.

"Are we going to begin a lesson, or are we going to talk the whole night?" Christine asked, smiling softly. "Either way, I think I'll greatly enjoy myself."

"Is it too much to hope that you could play that piece once more?" Erik asked. "I've been looking for it for quite some time."

"I repeat, I haven't played in almost a decade." Christine laughed. "But I'll do my best." She turned and sat on the bench again, Erik stepped up behind her.

She started the song over, playing it slowly, correcting notes as mistakes came. When she played the last notes, she smiled and turned upwards to find Erik staring not at the keys as she expected but at her. She smiled, felt heat rise in her cheeks but stood and faced his white mask. "I think I can transcribe it if you wish."

"It's alright. I believe I can write it myself now." He nodded gently. "You play well, though it needs fine tuning."

"Well this sounds familiar." Christine smiled, and pressed her hand to her cheek. "Wait-" she said, dramatically staring into the distance. "I have it!" Her fingers snapped. "That's exactly what you said about my voice all those years ago." She quirked an eyebrow, and saw him smile, a real one too. A full one that even showed his teeth, surprisingly white and none missing, from what she could see.

"I see now." She continued, dramatically sweeping her hand above the piano. "Piano lessons instead of singing ones. And after ten years of that, what else? Perhaps the violin, or the tuba."

He laughed then, a silky but rich thing that made her laugh with him.

"I will teach you if you wish." He suggested.

"This sounds familiar too." Christine smiled. "But alas, I believe this is something I can improve on my own. And as of today, I have no desire to perfect it as you have with my voice."

"I merely showed you the path to go." He said humbly, bowing his head towards her.

"And dragged me kicking and screaming. I know I wasn't an easy student, especially at first." Sighing, Christine reached out and took his arm. "But I came round didn't I?"

His head jerked towards the direction of her hand gently clasping his suit. "Yes, yes I believe so." He said vaguely, but Christine wasn't sure he'd heard what she said.

"Come, let's dance again." She pulled his arm towards her waist and smiled. "Let us hope no drunk ghost catchers find us again."

Erik flinched, as if the memory hurt him, Christine dropped his arm and reached up to place a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry." She said honestly. "I didn't-"

He took her by surprise, his hand clasped hers and his arm clamped around her waist. Then he swept her into a waltz.

They didn't speak for quite some time, they moved round the stage to a tune they both imagined. Once or twice she heard him mutter the counting times under his breath. He hardly needed it now. He had mastered dancing shockingly fast.

They finished at the same moment, Erik giving a bow and Christine curtsying.

Christine then taught him another, which he mastered just as quickly. In the end they switched between both of them, one to the other. Enjoying both of them equally.

They stopped and sat on the piano bench together, Christine doing her best to catch her breath after what must have been nearly an hour of dancing.

Erik seemed to be as composed as ever, though a smile hinted at the corners of his mouth.

"We will sweep the floor at the ball." He announced. "There will be no finer couple than ourselves."

Christine laughed. "Perhaps. I still have to sew my costume."

"Why not buy it?" He inquired. Tilting his head to the side, the one strand of hair jerking with it.

"I already dug into a large amount of my savings to buy Emily her dress." Christine revealed. "I can't afford to buy a ready made costume." Here she groaned. "And I need a new formal dress too. My old one is worn after nine years."

Erik was silent, then he said softly. "I apologize, I didn't realize that a costume might be a burden on your budget."

"It's alright." Christine assured him. "I'm excited to go. I want to, and my formal dress will hold out for another year. Maybe-" Her face brightened. "Maybe I could make my costume into a formal dress, so I wouldn't have to buy supplies for both."

Once again, he was quiet, staring at the air vaguely in front of him. His thin lips pressed together.

"Don't feel guilty now. You've done nothing wrong." Christine assured him.

"One would think I would have considered this." He said scathingly. "Forgive me, I am not used to working under a budget."

"You are forgiven." Christine patted him arm. "Come now, how is your costume coming along?"

"Well enough I suppose." He said vaguely. "You'll find out more on New Years Eve, I daresay."

"Oh goodness." Christine laughed. "I can hardly take the suspense."