Chapter Text
For as long as he knew her, or at least talked to her separated by glass, Erik had always known Christine to have an optimistic disposition. Not that she was a bubble of cheer, but she always had a litte smile and tried to look at everything in a positive way which made his chats with her all the more rewarding.
So it came as a surprise to him to find her suddenly subdued and slightly gloomy during their talks and ... even during her singing.
"You seem unhappy, my child. What is wrong?" Erik asked, after enduring the most miserable version of Mozart's "Deh, vieni, non tardar" he had ever heard.
"Oh angel, I'm sorry." Christine sighed. "I do not want to waste your time with my little problems."
Erik smiled at this. If only Christine knew that her tiniest problem was more important to him than his own life.
"I am always here for you, Christine, don't forget that." He said sincerely.
That seemed to brighten her spirit and she sat down to tell him.
"Oh Angel, it's so terrible. It's Christmas in five days and I have no where to go. I stupidly expected to be invited by Raoul, but he and his family are away to Switzerland. Mother Valerius has gone to Baden-Baden with a friend. And, wouldn't you know; Meg and Madame Giry are also out of town as Meg is performing at a Christmas gala in Italy. Had I known that Raoul wasn't home I would have gone away with them, as Meg invited me. But it's too late now. It's tragic, I'll be alone without anything: no friends, no music, even without decorations or snacks. This while I love Christmas so much."
Behind the mirror Erik shook his head. How could that stupid Vicomte let his precious Christine down like this? How he wished he could invite her to something, anything. But he couldn’t, to her he was nothing buy a friendly voice that soothed her.
Wait! A friendly voice!! Suddenly it struck him: wasn't he her friend as well? Did a mere mirror that separated them matter when he cared for Christine so deeply.
True, he had never celebrated Christmas himself but ... Perhaps he could help her ... and enjoy a first taste of Christmas himself at the same time.
"Oh Christine, do not worry." He said before he could even think about it. "Angels are especially powerful at Christmas, and I will make certain you will celebrate and get everything you need. Come to your dressing room at midnight on Christmas eve and you will find a surprise."
Erik watched as Christine brightened before his eyes. With a little cry of joy she jumped from her chair and clasped her hands.
"I can have Christmas with a true angel?! Oh thank you my Maestro!!"
And that's when reality hit Erik: he had promised a miracle and Christine was expecting something created by an angel. Whatever he did, it should better be good.
So for the next few days Erik worked without a single break (except for the music lessons, of course,) to create a perfect Christmas for his Christine. He shopped, he baked and he created magical decorations no shop would ever have. As an angel it wouldn't do to have shop bought things as decorations, she might suspect something otherwise. And in all honesty, most were sold out by now anyway, so he had no other choice.
Thankfully he did manage to lay his hands on an adorable Christmas tree. Which he dragged home with him on a long, cold journey through the rain. It was only when he returned to the opera that he realised the tree would also have to be dragged all the way up to her dressing room. Which probably wasn't a good thing for someone who had been up for close to ninety six hours by then. But Erik would attempt it anyhow, only the best for Christine.
By the time Erik had dragged up the Christmas tree and all the things he had made Christine he was a wreck. It had been an awful ordeal and Erik had burst into tears on at least three occasions. But the tree stood where it needed to be. Erik stood too, but barely, he was shaking from exertion and the thought that he still had all the decorating to do seemed like torture. For a moment he wondered if he would even make it to midnight as he felt close to collapsing. But he had started this so he would see it through. It wouldn't do to let Christine down.
So after carefully straightening the branches of the Christmas tree, Erik begun decorating. And it was then that things truly started going wrong for him. Slowly his body became colder and heavier, all of a sudden he could not stop yawning. Soon after he started shaking even more and he begun to feel so terribly sleepy he could hardly keep his eyes open. In fact, he couldn’t keep his eyes open at all and soon was pondering on the possibility of laying his heavy head on a branch and doze while he continued decorating at the same time.
For a while Erik manfully forced himself to push through until the room swayed and went in and out of focus, making nauseous. The long journey to the dressing room had truly been too much for him. Yawning and fumbling through a haze Erik somehow managed to get some of the bulbs, garlands and tinsel onto the tree. Then suddenly there was a brief second of nothingness followed by a crashing sound.
For a few seconds Erik stayed in the blackness, listening to the sound of someone snoring, certain it wasn't him. With an extraordinary willpower he managed to force himself back into semi consciousness. Much to his surprise he found himself slumped into the tree while the bulb he had been in the process of hanging was now on the floor in several pieces.
Yawning loudly he straightened himself up again. This wasn't good, he was actually falling asleep standing up with so much to do and so many hours to go to midnight. He tried to focus his sleepswollen eyes on the clock. Twelve hours ... he had to make it through twelve long hours till midnight. A choked sob escaped him at the thought.
As in a daze he stood gazing at the clock and suddenly blinked to find more than five minutes had passed without him noticing. This was troubling. What if he fell asleep talking to Christine? Could he even actually talk anymore? He wasn't certain. And what about singing? He shuddered at the thought of the effort it would take right now. There was no denying it: he had messed this up.
All he had wanted was to celebrate Christmas with Christine. But now all he yearned for was to sleep for a year, if not longer.
Gazing into nothingness somehow Erik’s heavy-lidded eyes landed onto the sofa and a wobbly smile rose onto his lips.
A sofa ... he could sit a few minutes to recover, could he not? Yes, he could, Erik decided. And he sat. Immediate relief spread through him, and within seconds his head slumped sideways. No, no! He urged himself: just rest, no sleeping!! There was so much still to do, and with him falling asleep every two minutes he needed all the time he had.
But ... wait, another part of him piped up: he was a fast worker, wasn't he? So taking a brief little nap wouldn't do any harm, would it? He wasn't a deep or long sleeper as a rule. Just a small, little, brief nap and he would be right as rain and ready to start decorating. Having reached the point where he could barely see from exhaustion and the strain he had put on his eyes from all the ornaments he had created, Erik agreed with that voice without hesitation: yes, a quick nap was absolutely the right decision.
And so Erik yawned again as he eagerly stretched his weary body on to the sofa and ... immediately fell into a state of deep unconsciousness.
Unfortunately, for Erik he had forgotten one important fact: not having slept in over four days while working as hard as he'd done would make anyone both a deep and a long sleeper the moment they lay down to rest. Especially on a sofa that, despite being old and lumpy, was more comfortable than his coffin had ever been.
Erik’s "brief nap" stretched into several hours and he was nowhere near waking up when the door opened sometime later.
Christine Daaé tiptoed to her dressing room several hours earlier than her angel had asked her to. She had decided that it was now or never: if she wanted to discover who her angel was this was the only time she could catch him in the act.
It had been quite a while since she had discovered that her angel could possibly be human. Every now and then the slightest cough, stumble or him sounding far too tired for an angel to have any right to had alerted her to this possibility.
It should make her feel angry or disappointed, but it didn't. The thought that someone would be so dedicated to her and her career that they created this elaborate ruse just to help her? It all felt rather flattering and comforting knowing someone would care so much for her well being.
For over three years this strange man went out of his way to teach her every day, took time out to listen to her ramblings and comforted her when she felt low. Once in a while he had even gifted clothes, money or jewellery under the guise of granting her a miracle. All this without asking or wanting anything.
These last few days he had sounded very odd, distracted and yesterday he sounded so exhausted that it worried her. She didn't know anything of this man and wanted to see him to make certain he was well.
Maybe he is ill and has no-one to look after him, she worried. People who had friends and family didn't hide in walls to give someone they didn't know singing lessons.
The first thing Christine heard when she entered her dressing room was someone snoring loudly. It was a very exhausted sound.
The sound told her that it's owner had no intention of waking up anytime soon. So it was safe to step in to take a peak.