When Erik had finally proposed, in the words of Philippa, the couple were married no longer than a month later. Philippa hadn't rushed the wedding, but Erik had. He wanted to forget about Haya completely, and with a sudden annoyncmeent of joy and happiness, he couldn't begin to explain how happy he was without her. Sure, there were lingering feelings in that stubborn heart of his, but he couldn't care less. As mentioned, there was a great thing that had occurred, and he wasn't going to lose the chance of making his life happier than ever.

"Erik?"

"Yes, my love?" He asked her quietly.

They were laying on the sofa one night, witnessing the fire burning in their small fireplace as they talked over this and that.

"Have you ever courted another woman?"

Erik nearly chuckled. Technically, no he hadn't done such a thing... Had he been in love with another woman? Twice, but was he to tell her that... No. It was bad enough his wife knew of Christine already. And the way she had reacted to Haya! Oh, he would never tell her that he loved a woman of color. As much as he wanted to admit it to her to get rid of her, he didn't want her to leave him. Erik had foolishly gotten attached to his wife and the exciting future that was to come.

"No, I have done no such thing. You recall I was in love once, but that was dreadfully unreturned and unhealthy." Erik recalled that foolish time in his life, he was far younger then. Then again, he wasn't always so sure the love was completely unrequited.

"I do recall. Anyways, stupid question. I don't even know why I asked it. What I really want to talk about is names."

Erik smiled and placed a hand on his wife's growing stomach. The small swell in her abdomen was making him more and more joyous by the day. Philippa had joked that if getting pregnant was all it took to make him that much more joyous, she would have slept with him when they first met!

"Names... You are only three months pregnant, we still have a very long amount of time before we go talking about names."

"No," Philippa said with a grin. "I want to talk about it now; that way we aren't struggling for one when the baby is born."

"Alright, but before we start, I wanted to let you know how excited I am to be having this child. He or she is going to be so very loved."

Philippa giggled and kissed her husband.

"Names!" She scorned him and settled into his hold.

"Fine, we will discuss names. Boy or girl first?" Erik asked.

"Well, girls. I think girls names are much harder to come up with than boys names."

"What about Christine?"

"Erik, if you're not going to take this seriously-"

"Only joking, my love," Erik assured Philippa with a kiss, his smile her very proof.

"Oh! I know, I like Eponine!" Philippa told Erik with a smile on her visage.

"No, that's far too commonplace. We have money, darling," Erik told her with his nose scrunched in distaste at the name.

"What about we name a girl Marjory?"

Erik was, in no way, going to tell her that that happened to be Christine's middle name, but that didn't matter. He really liked that name, and it's not as if he would ever see the brunette soprano again.

"I like it. Now a boy."

"Easy, Philippe after me!" She said jestingly, but Erik was harshly offended.

"No, we are not naming the child Philippe!" He scorned her with a harsh tone.

"Calm down, Erik, it was simply a suggestion! Would you like to name a boy after you then?"

"No," Erik determined also. The poor child was already going to have him as a parent, no reason to curse the poor thing even more.

"Maybe girls names were easier," Philippa said.

"How about we name him Henri?"

Philippa seemed to aw at the name, her lips upturning into this cute smile that Erik wanted to kiss her for.

"I love it."

"Wonderful," Erik replied and pulled his wife into him, "I'm so happy that we can agree on that, Philippa."

"Mhm, well I do very much love you."

"And I love you, darling."

The woman giggled as Erik began to kiss up and down her neck. And then the moment was ruined when Philippa put a hand to her stomach and groaned.

"I do not think dinner agreed with the baby and I tonight, Erik," she said and wearily looked up at him. "I'm sorry for ruining the moment."

Erik chuckled and kissed his wife on the lips, "It's just fine, why don't you go to bed?"

She nodded and left the room, happy to rest her tired head and back.

Erik sighed and got up to aporia he the over-bearing presence lingering at his door.

"What are you doing here?" He asked the person quietly, but strongly, too late in the night for him to even be seeing them.

"You're having a child?"

"Yes, Haya, that's what married couples do, wouldn't you know?" He asked her quickly, raising her left hand that he'd snatched from the poor girl's side.

"Wait! How did you even know I was out here?"

Erik rolled his eyes as he threw her wrist away from him, backing away so as to not be compelled to touch her again.

"Shadows," he replied blatantly. "Now tell me why you are here! Could you imagine if my wife saw us? She would think I was having an affair with a-" Erik caught himself before he could address her poorly, no such foul words would come from his mouth, but calling her a colored woman would showcase his wife's shameful bigotry.

"With a what, Erik? Don't tell me, you married someone with a supremacy complex!" Haya nearly shouted, but Erik covered her mouth with his hand.

He'd be damned if Philippa came out of the house any time soon.

"Stop this nonsense! Who I married is none of your concern! What is your business here before I alarm the gendarme you were trespassing on my property. Or," Erik said slyly, "I could tell the king of Cathan you live..."

Erik hated himself the moment it escaped his lips, and as Haya began to weaken in her stead, he felt the loathing kick in.

"I came to give you this," she said weakly, pulling out four sheets of parchment from her dress pocket and handing them to Erik. "I wrote a lullaby for a child that Philippe and I have been planning to have... But when we were failing we discovered he was unable to do such with a visit to a doctor.

"I knew you would probably at least have a child by now with a wife you'd settled down with... I just hoped it wasn't true I guess."

Haya began to cry lightly, and it was obvious to him that it was hurting her. Erik knew it had been a while since she'd done that... And if he felt bad before, he felt positively wretched now.

"Take it," she said and shoved it into his hands.

"How is your career?"

"Well, it's been going great!" She seemed to muster up some positive force of energy, "I've been doing a lot of writing, and my husband is very good with me. He's been patient, so I have been able to do very much."

Little did Erik know, she was lying through her teeth.

"That's good. I haven't been working much, I've been living off what I have earned from the opera. It's been a good little while."

Haya smiled, and so did at Erik at their tiny, little, civil conversation. He could hardly believe that everything felt like it was happening so quickly. Erik could hardly believe anything these days, it seemed.

"I agree. Well, I'm going to go now, wouldn't want your wife having a fit," she said gently and waved at Erik before leaving like they had been civil their whole entire lives.

Erik just stared. He didn't even wish her goodbye, he simply stared at her like some ignoramus.

"What the hell is fate doing to me?" Erik was able to mumble as he went to bed in his own house.

It felt like forever before he was able to fall asleep next to his oblivious wife, the beautiful blonde who captured his mind but not his heart.

Erik studied her sleeping, wondering why on earth there was any discrepancy on the way she felt for another "regular" woman... And for another woman of color. They were both the same, Erik knew it. With his time in Persia, he understood greatly that skeletons all looked the same, whether or not they were under the skin of a black man or a white one. He'd been cursed and battered for his face, his deformity, therefore he forgot that some actually were scorned for being normal... Just normally a different skin tone. It made him think on his rashness. Some were able to accept the fact that people weren't like them but had flawless skin, but they couldn't accept someone with a deformity? People were very strange, as Erik thought the awful thoughts over. He abhorred every man and woman who scorned another for what they were on the outside.

Yet Erik couldn't bring himself to hate his wife, and for that little and awful fact of information, Erik was fully capable of being able to hate himself... Not even for the things he hated the common population for.