CONEY ISLAND

AWH

Once Meg was gone, he heard sobbing and turned to find little Gustave, crying. Scared that he was the reason for his son's cry, he coughed loudly, catching the attention of Christine and Nadir. Christine ran to Gustave and hugged him.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "What happened?"

"PAPA!" Gustave yelled without realizing the volume of his voice.

Christine froze. She totally forgot to say something to Gustave. Hell, she forgot to figure out what to say! "W-what's with him?" she asked carefully. "What did he do?"

And then between sobs, Gustave told the story of how he saw Raoul leaving and asked him where he's going. He replied 'Home' and Gustave asked if he's waiting for them and Raoul said no and Gustave asked why. "And then... Then he said 'WHEN WILL YOU REALIZE THAT I'M NOT YOUR PAPA?!'"

Christine's jaw dropped and so did Erik's, while Nadir was leaning back to the wall, enjoying the show.

"Why would he say that?" Gustave cried out. "Doesn't he love me? Does he not want me? Why would he tell such lies?!"

Christine pulled him into a hug. "I have something to tell you Gustave and I want you to not be mad." Gustave wiped away his tears and nodded. "Your papa, I mean Raoul, he wasn't lying. We didn't want you to know that he wasn't your dad, because we thought your real father was dead," she said.

"So he really isn't my dad?" Gustave asked and Christine shook her head. "Then, who is?"

Christine opened her mouth, glancing at Erik, but he interrupted her. "Christine, you promised..."

Christine stood up, facing the tall man. "Erik, please. I have to do this." Gustave's eyes were flying from his mother to Mr Y and back.

"No..." he said. "No, no, no, no, no!" he started screaming and he ran away, leaving his parents, heart broken starring behind him. A tear escaped Christine's eye and she blinked the rest of them away.

"Should we go after him?" she asked.

"Don't worry, I will," Nadir jumped in. "I'm good at convincing people. Besides you've got something to fix," he added gesturing to Erik, whose head was resting in his hands, his whole body shaking. With that he ran behind the little boy, knowing exactly where he went.

He found him on the pier, throwing stones into the water. "Hello," he greeted. "It's me. Nadir," he said. Gustave was quiet.

"I just wanted to tell you that Erik isn't that bad," Nadir started.

Gustave was very confused. "Who's Erik?"

"Oh," said Nadir realizing. "Uhm... The Phantom?" he tried but Gustave's face still seemed clueless. "Mister Y?"

"Oh."

"Anyway, he's a very nice person and if you'd just give him a chance I think you two would get along!" he suggested.

They spent an hour talking, Nadir convincing Gustave why Erik is better than Raoul, using all the funny anecdotes and stories from the Opera house.

Later, he took him back to Phantasma. He excused himself to go somewhere, leaving Gustave all by himself. Gustave heard wondeful music coming from one of the rooms in the corridor and followed it. He opened the door and found Mister Y, playing the organ. The music felt familiar as though he was born while it was playing and it filled his heart with warm and soft feeling.

"Papa?"

Erik stopped playing and turned around to see his little boy standing there, his mouth wide open.

Then he smiled and ran to him, hugging him tightly and just a few seconds later, Erik hugged him back. And a few moments later, Christine came back with tea and she got pulled into the hug.

In the same moment Nadir and an artist entered. "You see it? Great! Now draw!!!" Nadir ordered and they stayed like that for hours, until the man drew them *because that's what they did in the old times when there was no cameras right?*

GOSH I STARTED WATCHING STRANGER THINGS AND IM SO IN LOVE OMFG
ALSO I TOTALLY HATE THIS CHAPTER BUT YEAH OKAY