A/N: I just want to give a shout out to WheelOfFish, morrigan24601, and RieneRose because their works have been a HUGE inspiration to me in writing this fic. Enjoy and please review! :)

Christine smiled at her beloved sleeping across from her.

She studied Erik as he slept, the left side of his marred face turned toward her relaxed in deep slumber. His mouth was slightly parted and his warm breath stirred a loose strand of Christine's hair. His top half was uncovered, his chest slowly rising and falling.

She wanted badly to hold him, but she worried that she would wake him. He slept so little as it was.

Feeling restless, she slowly extricated herself from the blankets and got out of bed. She stood shivering until she spotted Erik's cloak on the floor, tossed aside and forgotten in their passion the night before.

She quickly picked it up and wrapped it around herself, padding softly across the room.

She stood at the window draped in his cloak, shielding her bare skin from the chilly morning air as she gazed at the gray fog-covered city of Paris below. Sensing she was being watched, she smirked at her reflection in the glass.

"I daresay black becomes you," said Erik from across the room.

"Really?" asked Christine innocently, turning her head in his direction "You do not find me menacing?"

"Hardly, though it does leave rather a lot to the imagination."

She laughed at that. "I was cold and wanted to warm myself without depriving you of the covers."

"I can survive a little chill, my dear." He quipped, lifting the blankets and rising from the bed.

She turned back to the window. Though the two of them had long since gotten over their shyness of being naked before one another, Erik still very much did not like to be stared at.

Long arms wrapped around her middle from behind, the little heat his body offered warming her where the cloak had failed to do so.

"It swallows you" he murmured, moving her cascading curls to her right shoulder to kiss her neck.

"It does you, too."

"Am I truly menacing in it?"

Christine giggled at that. "That depends on who you ask, but to me you appear imposing."

"Excellent."

Christine rolled her eyes. "As I said, I was cold and you were not there to warm me." she replied.

"I shall remedy that," he said as one hand skimmed down her hip and over her thigh.

Just before his hand met her skin, she abruptly turned around and enfolded them both in the garment.

They shivered at the contact, Erik's normally cool temperature exacerbated by the cold room meeting Christine's body heat.

"Ha!" she cried triumphantly, "Now I have you."

Erik grinned, snaking his arm up the side of her body to cup her cheek.

"I wonder. Do I have you?"

Christine stared at him in disbelief for a moment.

After all we've been through, does he still have doubts?

"Yes."

"What of your heart?"

Christine regarded him thoughtfully, a smile tugging at her lips.

"My heart belongs to myself and to God, so long as He sees fit for me to breathe His air."

Erik looked puzzled, uncertainty visible in his yellow eyes.

Christine pulled him closer to her for reassurance.

"I choose to stay by your side, Erik."

"Why would you choose that?" he whispered.

"I love you."

Before she could say anything else, Erik's thin lips captured hers, kissing her deeply. His arms drew her so closely to him that there was not part of her uncovered by his warmth. Christine responded in kind, her hands wandering up his back to find purchase at the nape of his neck to bring him even nearer. It was some time before they finally broke for air

"Do you believe me now?" Christine asked breathlessly.

"I do," he answered, kissing her once more as he lead her back to bed.