Disclaimer: I do not own Phantom of the Opera or the characters within, they are properties of their respective creators. But I will take credit for Adele and David in a second.

Wow, I updated quick this time, I got sick and missed some work so there was more time to edit! Woo! I desperately needed some Erik fluff for some reason. Mm, fluffy…

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The Shadows

It was barely morning when Adele stood outside the patio to the Café LeRose. They wouldn’t open for a few more minutes and Adele fiddled with the pocket watch she carried. Snapping the cover open and closed as she paced back and forth. Why was Meg always late? She sighed, slipping the watch back into her pocket as she watched the wispy lace of her skirt move as she walked. Adele sighed, brushing an invisible speck from the rose colored silk.

She hadn’t seen the girl in almost two weeks because of Erik. He had changed somehow, or perhaps he hadn’t, it was just something had… He had become increasingly uncomfortable when she left on her own, she could see it in his eyes. He wanted to drag her back to bed this morning. It was like he was struggling with parts of him that she had yet to see fully. He was a dangerous man, volatile, but he would never hurt her or David, would he? Sometimes the paranoia glinted in his eyes and it scared her. But he seemed to be truly fighting with it. He feared things, of course, like all men did, but what scared Adele was that he feared himself.

“Adele!”

Adele blinked as her head snapped up, she had been so lost in thought she hadn’t even seen Meg come up the sidewalk.

The blonde was smiling as she adjusted her shawl around her shoulders, “Where on Earth have you been? I thought you’d gotten sick, disappearing all of a sudden.”

Adele sighed, “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. It’s Erik.”

Meg’s smile faded as she heard the last sentence and then she nodded, “Come on, the Café is opening, let’s get a table.”

---

Meg sighed as Adele finished talking and looked up over her tea. No, this didn’t sound good at all.

“He hasn’t wanted you to leave the lair at all?”

Adele shook her head, “No, it isn’t like he’s tried to keep me there by force, but whenever I am about to go out he looks so worried, it’s pitiful. I have to stay in, and now he won’t come out with me at all. It’s like suddenly he’s become this mother hen. It worries me, Meg.”

Meg frowned over her coffee, “What’s he like with David? Has that changed?”

Adele tilted her head from side to side as she dragged a spoon through her tea idly, “Well, they are both very much more subdued. David’s as worried as I am, he won’t leave Erik’s side at all. But Erik hasn’t gotten mean or angry, just… listless. Distracted, even, every time I look at him he’s drawing or writing. It’s like he’s doing anything to keep his hands busy.”

Meg leaned back in her chair, noting the concern on her friends face. It was concern, not the fear that Christine had carried. There was some fear, but it was for the man himself not terror at what he could do.

Meg narrowed her eyes, “And what about the bedroom? Has that changed any?”

Adele blushed and a flicker of a smile graced her lips before she frowns again, “No, perhaps. He just… He touches me like it’s the last time. The way he moves, it’s as if he expects me to not be there in the morning and I don’t know what to do.”

Meg looked into her coffee, “Maybe that what he expects.”

“But it isn’t true!”

“He can’t be sure, can he? After all that’s happened, I’m sure he’s almost a slave to his doubts. After such a rejection, this may seem unreal to him…”

Adele pouted and plopped her spoon into the saucer with a clink, “Damned Christine’s ruined him.”

Meg broke out into laughter and soon Adele joined her.

Meg grinned, “Let him trust you Adele, and I’m sure he’ll trust himself soon enough.”

Adele sighed and stood, “I hope you’re right, and now I think I must go.”

Meg nodded, “Of course, go on before he panics like a governess with a lost charge.”

Adele giggled her eyes bright again, “Thank you Meg, for listening.”

The blonde merely giggled, “What are friends for?”

---

Derek was still half asleep, sitting in a chair, watching the city come to life through the hotel window. Money was such a beautiful object, it could get you anything, make anyone do anything, and destroy anything you wanted it to.

There was a rap at the door and Derek smiled briefly,

“Come in.”

The door opened and closed in a quick movement and Derek toyed with the brandy glass in his hand.

“Well? What do you want?”

“She’s been spotted sir.”

Derek grinned. So it had been worth paying off every beggar in Paris to keep an eye out for his golden specked butterfly.

“I see; report.”

“One of my men saw her this morning; she had breakfast in the Café LeRose with a young blonde woman.”

“The blonde again? Was she all the company Adele had?”

“Yes sir, there still has been no sightings of her with a child, much less a young boy.”

Derek nodded, “Was she followed?”

“They both were sir and we have the address of the blonde but as for Adele…”

Derek narrowed his eyes, “Well?”

“They lost her sir. My men claim she went into an alley and simply disappeared.”

The heavy bottomed glass hit the windowsill with a deafening shatter and Derek felt the man behind him flinch.

“That is almost not acceptable. Of course, I wouldn’t put my pretty wife’s intelligence below that of your men’s. You will find her and I will triple what I first gave you.”

Derek smiled at the sharp intake of breath behind him. The first sum he had given the man would have been more than enough to make him commit murder.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, now off you go, keep an eye on the blonde, if they are seen together so much it may be Adele’s undoing. I want both of them shadowed at all times. And I want to know the second if Adele is seen with a child. If you manage to finally find her I want those answers to my questions.”

“Yes sir, shall we have her brought here?”

Derek stood and waved his hand, “No, I haven’t an urge to get my hands dirty, simply find the information I want and when you are finished you can do whatever you like to her.”

The man was tall and had brown eyes and hair; he looked plain, like he could blend in with anyone on the streets of Paris.

He smiled, “Of course, sir.”

---

The lair was quiet once again when Adele returned. She peeked into the bedroom and smiled. Erik and David were curled up in the blankets. Erik’s mask was left on the nightstand and his hair stuck up just like David’s did. Their hair was the same color. Adele blinked; it even had that same shade of dark when the light hit it just right. It was like David was meant to be Erik’s all along.

Adele grinned as she made her way out into the study which was even more of a mess than usual. Papers were everywhere, songs and drawings. Adele paused; she hadn’t really looked at any of Erik’s work lately, more concerned with looking at Erik. Deftly she shuffled the papers before her, these were all older drawings, and they were all of her and David. There had to be half a dozen drawings of David playing and sitting, hugging Paiz, reading with his toy soldiers scattered all about him. Then there were drawings of her, holding David or fiddling with one of his toys; drawings of her sewing or doing her hair. Simple mundane things…

Adele took some of the more recent drawings from another pile on the desk. Just her and David, outside now, in a garden, taking a walk, looking in a storefront… All pictures of them… but not a single one with Erik in it.

Adele worried at her bottom lip, why was Erik not with them? He should be. That was his place! With them! Wasn’t it? Adele swallowed as she left the drawings on the desk and walked back to the bedroom.

Both of her men, curled up in a ball. Erik’s arms were around David, shielding him, holding him… Why was he so afraid?

Adele walked up and sat on the edge of the bed, she slowly stripped her gloves off before gently brushing Erik’s hair away from his face, tracing the lines of his marred face with her eyes.

I’m here, nothing can harm you…

Erik stirred and blinkingly looked up at her. Adele smiled as she ran her fingers along his cheek, such beautiful blue eyes.

“Don’t leave…”

Adele blinked as he murmured before his eyes closed again.

Don’t leave? Where would she go? What did he…?

“No, love,” she whispered as she lay beside him and David, “I’m not going anywhere.”