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Chapter Text

"This opera house is your box. And it's also a treasure box you've locked from the inside. I'm a phantom thief. I can open your lock with ease." 

 One evening, in their hotel room, Erik was thinking about these sentences Lupin once said. 

He and Lupin had returned to Paris to rest and attempt to solve the mystery of the much talked about safe, after their bitter defeat - or their partial victory depending on the point of view - in London. They had lost the diamond leading to the werewolves' village, the Penultimate Night, but at least they had managed to get the safe back.

Since then, it was already three days that Lupin was trying to open it unsuccessfully, before he decided to go outside for a bit. 

The phantom of the opera found it hard to admit but during this operation, he really felt free, useful and needed. And he came to be truly grateful for having been robbed by the arrogant gentleman. But Erik would only admit this to him in a soft murmur, in the proximity of their bodies, under the sheets. This will be their secret and his oath - Use me as you please forever and ever because the day I will no longer be yours shall be the one where death finds me.

Lost in his thoughts, Erik didn't realize for a while that someone was knocking on the window. Carefully, he took a knife and opened the window. And surprise!

"Finally, Erik! You don't know how many minutes I have been knocking on this window. What were you thinking about so deeply and not hearing anything?" exclaimed Lupin with a bit of anger in his voice.

"Nothing. And why are you entering through the window instead of using the door like any normal person?" answered the phantom of the opera exasperatedly.

"My dear Erik, I'm not a normal person. That's far too banal and boring. And come to the roof, I'm waiting." As soon as he finished his sentence, the mischievous thief vanished from the masked man's sight.

A few minutes later, Erik joined Lupin and surprised him with a mask, a hat and a violin in his hand. Strange combination. He cast a questioning look at Lupin who was just smiling enigmatically.  

"Follow me," he said before setting off across the rooftops of Paris. Lupin or more intimately, Arsène was fiddling at the same time he was walking on the roofs and, similar to the children following the pied piper, Erik could only accompany him to the end of the world. Even if it would lead him to his death, especially if it would lead him to his death.

Fortunately for his feets, the destination was only the Eiffel Tower. The landscapes on the way had dazzled him, it was the first time that la Ville Lumière (the City of Lights) seemed to deserve its name. The phantom rediscovered the city he never took the time to know or to love, shut away in his opera. 

Once at the top of the tower, Arsène finally turned over his direction - and he was terribly radiant with his sincere smile, his gaze fixed on him as if Erik was the most precious treasure on Earth. Erik needed to touch his chest to confirm that his heart didn't give up in the meantime. Not yet, it looked like. 

"Why did you bring me here?" he said, pretending to be in control of himself.

"I wanted to show you the view from the Eiffel Tower, you who never go out." Arsene exhaled while looking at the moon and turned around elegantly. "Only a setting like this one can match your beauty."

"What are you saying? I have an awful scar on the right side of my face, this doesn't exactly fit the definition of 'beautiful'."

"It's included in my definition of 'beautiful'. Your scar, your stiff manners, your purple eyes, everything is magnificent about you, my dear… And anyway, your worth is decided by me, I'm the thief and you, my possession."

At these words, Erik felt so grateful for the painful ordeals that had made him become the Phantom of the Opera. If being the Phantom of the Opera was the only way to meet this man, he would go through them again and again. 

"Okay, enough talk about that. More importantly, you didn't notice something changed about me?" Arsène asked with a flame in his gaze. 

"...You wear a mask and a hat…hmm," replied Erik, hesitant. 

"And?" added the thief.

"And???" repeated the stolen. 

Arsène burst out laughing before his partner's total confusion. He was so cute when he was stressed and it wasn't as if Arsène really expected him to find the answer.

"Come closer," he said. No sooner said than done. Erik was just in front of him, a few centimetres separating them. Arsène smiled then declared : "My mask is on the same side as yours, we match!"

Erik told himself that no matter what locks he had placed around his heart, Arsène would know how to open them easily. So he chose to destroy his reserve and to completely expose himself to his judgement, to his future blade. 

For the first time, he brought Arsène's face closer and there, he placed a kiss as soft as clouds. But when human beings try to control themselves, the beast always resurfaces. Then Erik rested his lips on those of his partner, Arsène reciprocated the kiss and deepened it. They were thirsty for each other and weren't close to being hydrated. 

After several minutes of passionate kissing, Erik stepped back to be able to feast his eyes upon his lover, his owner, his everything, in the moonlight. And came out the words he had promised himself to say under completely different circumstances. 

"Arsène, I couldn't stop thinking about our meeting again and again. And, the conclusion I reach each time during those reflections is that I am incredibly grateful to have been stolen by you, to have been freed from my box."

His head was empty, he was going to empty everything with only a witness, the moon. Them and the moon in all Paris. 

"I decided to stop shutting away my heart and my feelings behind doors and locks - you'll open them in a few seconds anyway. Like you said, I'm your belonging, use me as you please." 

Arsène quickly approached Erik, delicately removed his mask and admired him for a long time, without a word. The lovers only gazed at each other as if they now saw something previously hidden on the other's face after this declaration. 

When Arsène finally opened his mouth, he whispered : "I love you too. I love you." and he said it over and over again like an incantation. 

An incantation that will ensure that they will always stay together - the thief and the stolen, the owner and the possession, the collector and the jewel - in the same way the moon always watches during the night.