Last chapter, everyone :)

Christine loved him.

The kiss confirmed it.

The familiarity she felt with him, the safety, the love of his company and wanting to be near him, to hold his hands. She loved him.

And with that knowledge, she didn't want to leave his side. At all.

She knew that what she was about to ask wasn't polite or proper. But she'd long since stopped caring about that. And, she suspected, so had he.

"Erik," she whispered.

He was looking at her with a mix of love and amazement, as if still processing what had occurred between them. "Christine?"

"It's getting a bit late."

He nodded slowly. "You want to go to bed."

She took his long, cold hands in hers. "I want you to go to bed with me."

His eyebrows lifted and his jaw dropped ever so slightly. "Christine, I-"

"I don't want to do anything," she amended, and he closed his mouth. "I only want to sleep next to you. I'm not ready for anything more. I can't. Not since...not since-"

"I understand," he said gently, and she sighed in relief at not having to mention him, what he'd made her do.

"I only want to fall asleep with you." Christine looked him in the eyes. "Would you be willing to do that?"

He paused, and then smiled, full of genuine affection. "Yes. I would be thrilled to."

Christine and Erik changed separately, as they had every night before bed. This time, however, after Christine crawled into bed, Erik followed.

In the darkness, they both lay on their backs, neither moving, neither touching both barely breathing. Christine could feel her own heart in her chest.

"Erik?"

"Hm?" His voice was soft.

"Can I hold your hand?"

He didn't say anything. Instead, Christine heard a rustling in the blankets and then cold fingers found hers. Instant relief and familiarity flooded through her at his touch. He sighed. She wondered if he was feeling the same thing.

They held one another's hands for several, silent minutes, the only sound the soft breathing between them.

Then: "Christine?"

She turned her hood to face him. She could see, in the darkness, the noseless silhouette of his face. "Yes?"

"Did you mean that?" he whispered. "That you love me?"

Christine picked herself up onto her elbows and moved so that she was against him. She laid her head on his shoulder and her free hand on his chest. The hands between them were still interlocked. She smiled as the palm on his chest picked up the quick thrum of his heart.

"I do mean it," she said.

Silence.

"Christine," he breathed, and placed his free hand on hers. "I've loved you since we were still living in the caravan. Since you asked for friendship."

She pressed her face into his shirt. "I'm surprised by that."

His face turned to her. "Why?"

"Because since the moment I met you, I've never been stable. I vomited the first morning after my father's death. I was forced into things I didn't want, physically..."

"You were in anguish," he said softly. "And whatever Javert made you do...it doesn't say anything about you. He made me do things to. Not the same things, but I was forced into acts I didn't want."

"I killed a man-"

"We already talked about that."

Christine exhaled and gripped his shirt a bit tighter. He reciprocated by rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand.

"I got sick and essentially forced you to be a nurse for a week. I've been emotional; so, incredibly emotional. If anything, I should be the one asking you if you mean it. If you really love me."

"Christine, you didn't force me into anything. I wanted to help you. I want to be here, too, when you feel strongly - good or bad. I've had a difficult life. You are the only person who even vaguely understands what it is like to really be in pain the way I have. I don't begrudge you for how you've reacted the last month. I love you all the more for it - while also wishing I could take all of that pain away from you. And only to add to that, you see me. Erik. Not what everyone else has seen, but me for who I am."

"I do see you," she whispered. "And I love you."

Erik let out a tiny, loving laugh, barely more than a breath, and shifted to kiss her forehead. She smiled.

"I want to be with you." He curled his fingers around the palm that rested on his chest. "I want to have a normal life, if we can."

"I don't know how normal of a life we can have."

He squeezed her fingers. "There's an Opera House in Paris. Nadir mentioned it."

"Oh?"

"I love to write music. Nadir knows someone whose fiancee is a ballerina there, and the ballerina's mother is apparently the ballet mistress herself. Maybe, through Nadir's connection, they'd take some of my pieces."

"Maybe, yes."

"And if I keep teaching you to sing, maybe one day you could-"

Christine cut him off. "I don't want to think about that right now." There was silence, and Erik stared at her. "I can't think about that right now." She moved in closer, and Erik released the hand between them and used his arm to wrap around her back. "When I'm with you, Erik, everything is calm and peaceful. I'm not engulfed by the past or terrified by the future. And when I am, you - your voice - helps to bring me back here, with you. And I'm safe again."

Erik sighed, and brought the hand resting on his chest to his lips, kissing her fingers.

"Erik, we can worry about what will happen later. But please, can we focus on what is happening now? I want to focus on you. When I'm near you, I feel home. I want to focus on that feeling."

He dropped her hand back to where it was. "Then that is what we will focus on."

"You're my peaceful place," she said.

"You're mine."

She looked into his eyes in the darkness. In whatever light there was, she could see their shimmer as he looked back at her. "Say that again, please."

"You're mine, Christine."

"You're mine, too." She closed her eyes.

There was a long silence between them, and then she felt one last, long kiss on her forehead, the feeling sending soft pleasure through her mind, and her lips quirked up in absolute contentment. There would always be demons in her mind, always be grief. And for him, there would always be sorrow for what life could have been had he been shaped any other way in the womb.

But here, now, they had each other. And that was enough.

"Goodnight, Christine."

Thank you so much for reading, everyone! I will miss your lovely comments :)