A Fulfillment of Duty

A/N: Again, I want to thank those that have reviewed. It is only because of you guys that I can find the motivation to write more chapters. Death and Daygonna, thanks so much! And Daygonna, I think you will find Olma acting nicer in regards to Erik's face finally, I just didn't want her overcoming her fear of it too quickly. Again, I really didn't see this playing out into a happy relationship for the two- so right now I see this eventually leading to a kind of unhappy ending. Maybe my mind will change, I'm not positive at the moment. I'm rambling- on with the show.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Acceptance~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Olma awoke again in the smothering darkness of Erik's bedchamber. This time however, she did could not feel his body next to her. She knew she fell asleep in his arms, she knew how he had comforted her as she wept into his chest for her terrible disloyalty. And those memories now greatly overpowered the memory of his face. She was called out of her silent musings by the sound of voices in the next room; creeping over to the door, she placed her ear against the wall in an attempt to hear the conversation taking place.

"Daroga, I can not trust myself around this girl. She evokes such lust and passion from me, yet so much rage. I'm beginning to fear I will use her to play out my anger as I do my music."
"Erik you must calm yourself- Stand still."
There was a slamming of fist upon a table with such ferocity that the sound echoed throughout the apartment.
"Calm myself! Do you know what she said about me, Nadir? She gossiped about my face with such revulsion, so much disgust, with the other young harem girls. And still she came to taunt me with her body merely hours later. And I took it, I'm still not sure if she was really offering it, but I had no qualms in taking it. But if she is mine, I cannot stand for such subordination."
"Erik, I know you, and you do not look at her as yours."
There was a long pause. "Yes, Daroga, you are correct. One cannot own another human being. I will set her free; I will force her to leave before I can no longer trust myself to let her go."
"Erik, you know what will happen to you if you refuse a gift of the khanum"
"I do not care," Erik interrupted.
"That may be, but do you realize what will be done to her. She will no longer be useful, she will be thrown i-"

Olma stumbled away from the door; her senses could not take any more information. Shocked not by the conformation of her fate, but instead that Erik had heard her traitorous deed the day earlier. That explained his rough behavior early in the evening, but it didn't explain his gentility and kindness that followed. Most of all, she did not understand his forgiveness. She did not deserve it. Had she belonged to any other master, he would have had her thrown out, or executed her, for such disobedience. This man, this strange, curious, and exceptional man had so much depth to his soul. His presence intrigued her, his voice enraptured her, and now the thought of him no longer disgusted her. Despite all of him that left her so uncertain, of this she was sure: she would no longer fear his face.

Curling up into the blankets again, she heard Erik enter the room, and she lay silent, feigning sleep. The side of the bed sank under Erik's weight as he rejoined Olma in the bed. He turned to her and she felt his breath on her neck and his hand as it slowly reached out to her hair, to smooth an unruly tendril away from her face. His hesitant touch barely traced the outline of her face before retreating entirely as she felt him turn over, his back to her. Seeing this as her moment, she bravely pushed herself up onto her elbows.

"So you are awake at last m'dear. I'm afraid I must send you away today. Your services are no longer desired." Unable to read the expression in the young maiden's face, Erik continued. "Do not fear, I will inform the khanum that it was I wh--"

"Shhhhh." This time it was Olma who cut Erik off. Reaching a confident hand over to his neck she slowly caressed him before slipping her fingertips below the edge of the mask. Before he could object, Olma's deft fingers slipped the leather obscuration from his face. Erik instinctively turned his head away from the questioning girl until her other hand came over to softly force his face to face her. Soothingly she let her hands trace the marred flesh. Erik's heart began to beat rapidly as he let himself be carried away by her sensual caresses.

"You truly are beautiful," she whispered into his ear. "The beauty inside you shines through and radiates outward. Despite what **anyone** may have said, **they** were wrong." Her words were not lost on him. He knew what she implied, and knew it was her way of apologizing.

"You amaze me," he confessed. It was true. No one had impressed him more than this beautiful young woman before him: such compassion, beauty, and bravery.

"Sing for me," she said with a sigh as she laid herself on top of Erik's body, drawing imaginary shapes on his chest with her tiny figures.

"What should I sing?"

"Anything- something sweet- perhaps a lullaby, one that was sung to you when you were young?" Erik let out a mirthless chuckle at her innocent request, how could she know he was never so much as whispered a sweet lullaby as a child. But he decided to humor her request with the one song his mother ever sang for him.

"Child of the wilderness,
Born into emptiness,
Learn to be lonely,
Learn to find your way darkness.
Who will be there for you?
Comfort and care for you?
Learn to be lonely,
Learn to be one your one companion.

Never dream, out in the world
There are arms to hold you.
You've always known,
Your heart was on its own.
So laugh in your loneliness,
Child of the wilderness,
Learn to be lonely.
Learn how to love,
Life that is lived alone.

Learn to be lonely,
Life can be lived-
Life can be loved- alone."

Erik felt his chest grow wet as it was flooded by Olma's unrestrained tears. Her body shook furiously as it was wracked with sobs.

"I'm sorry," Erik began, often forgetting the effect his music had on people, "I should have--"

"No, it's not that," Olma gasped out between sobs. "My mother never sang me lullabies. She said I must learn to grow up fast, to learn what is expected of me. You know she never told me she loved me? Not once, never a hug, never a kiss. She was a slave, and a concubine, and I was what put her out of a job. Can you understand what that would be like?" she questioned ignorantly. "Can you imagine what it would be like to not even have a childhood?"

"My dear," Erik smiled sadly as her used his forefinger to lift her chin up so that their eyes met. "I thought that by my song you would know that I do. Perhaps we are not as different as I once believed. Of course, you did have friends, companions; people did not run from you in fear, my dear. There is something to rejoice over"

"Oh- master," she still feared to use his first name. He had not yet permitted her the use of it. "I'm sorry for constantly bringing you sadness and pain. I'm a horr--"

"You, my dear, are perfect," Erik insisted with a kiss on the top of her head.

"Well-" she began as she emphasized each word with a kiss down his body, "I- am- supposed- to- please- you-" Her kisses grew more passionate as they traveled lower, stopping at the waistband of his trousers.

She slid her body down the length of his legs, lowering his pants with her, before finally slipping them completely off him. "Mmmm" she murmured as she began to kiss and suck Erik's toes, before moving further up his body, placing kisses all the way.

Erik stretched out below her, sighing in pleasure, as Olma's talented figures stroked and massaged his member to hardness, with a sensual moan, he felt himself being encased in a warm wet mouth.

Olma let her mouth slide slowly down his member until all that would fit was in her mouth and letting her hands cover the length of him that was still exposed. She smiled with pride as she saw the expressions and heard the moans she wrought from him with the massaging actions of her hands and mouth.

Erik's hands found their way to her head as he let his fingers tangle in her soft ebony hair. He writhed in pleasure as she brought him closer and closer to that moment of pure ecstasy, and his hands tightened their grasp as he felt himself near.

Abruptly, Olma released his eager manhood from her possession as she sat up to look at him. "Why don't we try to have a little fun?" she questioned slyly. She stood at the foot of his bed and began a sensual dance, to a rhythm and beat that only the two could hear. As she writhed and twirled before his lustful gaze, she would slowly and seductively remove, one by one, the gossamer veils that served as her gown.

"Darling, it is taking all that I have to resist you at the moment," Erik said with urgency and lust laced deeply in his voice.

"Waiting makes it all the better," she giggled as she now spun and twisted before him in nothing but a see-through veil wrapped about her body. Her movements slowed to a languorous sway as she dipped her head forward and beckoned him towards her with a sheepish movement of her pointer finger.

He lunged at her lustily as he entrapped her in his strong arms. "I have waited enough girl," he growled at her in a voice that made her shiver with excitement. He bent her back down onto the foot of the bed. Nestling himself between his thighs he leaned forward to place hungry kisses on her stomach and chest.

"Ah ah ha," Olma replied in a naughty tone as she pushed him away with her foot. Erik responded by taking hold of her foot between the crook of his neck and his head, turning so that he could lick and suck her toes, before sliding up her leg, kissing and sucking all the way. When he got to her knee he stopped, hoisting her leg fully onto his shoulder, before casting her an impassioned and pleading gaze. She nodded in almost full rapture, and Erik plunged himself deep inside her, impaling her on his throbbing and engorged manhood. He let out a low guttural groan as he was welcomed by her hot tight flesh, stretching and squeezing, attempting to make room for him. The feeling of Olma sliding her other leg around his waist to push him inside deeper, brought him back to his sense as he began to slowly rock his pelvis against her own.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh," she moaned as she began to meet his slow rocking with her own fervid thrusts. Her back arched as she felt his deft fingers traveling up her spinal cord, playing her vertebrae like the ivory keys of a piano as he continued to bury himself deep inside her core.

Olma snuck a shy hand down her sweaty body to her entrance, and began to stroke her enticed bud with her fingers as Erik thrust himself wildly against her. Removing one of his hands from her breast where they rest groping and massaging the firm mounds, he caught her disobedient hand and replaced it above her head. Hearing her desperate moans, he replaced his own hand where hers previously lay, working her heated flesh with growing intensity and ardor.

He felt the familiar clenching feeling around his organ as she arched her back and screamed out in rapture, the feeling overcoming her as she went limp onto the bed. Without relenting on the hungry momentum of his lower body, Erik took the hand that was currently massaging Olma at the pivoting point of their two bodies to join its twins at her breast. She sighed with pleasure as he worked her lower and upper body with equal intensity before grabbing a hold of her back tightly as he came inside her. His body collapsed on top of hers as they slid from the edge of the bed onto the ground in a tangle of sweaty and tired limbs.

They laid in that heap for most of the night. Olma snuggled tightly against Erik's thin but strong chest as she drifted off safely into her dreams, while Erik sat there, humming a sad but lovely tune into her precious ear as he watched her sleep. Finally, with a sigh, Erik gathered the slumbering girl in his arms and laid her in the bed.

"I need too think," he muttered to himself as he stalked quietly out of the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The Next Day~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So, my precious Erik," the khanum smirked maliciously, "have you been enjoying my little gift?" Erik merely glared at her as he went about working on his project.

"You know?" she asked as she stood up and began to saunter towards Erik, angry at his obvious disinterest with her. "I don't believe I have been seeing you much, since I sent the little slave to you. Surely you have not found her company more- pleasurable-than mine?" she questioned this time, placing her face directly in front of his gaze.

"I miss my Angel of Doom," she grumbled, feigning a pouting face. "Your absence leaves me very-" she placed a light hand on his shoulder and traced the length of his arm with her small forefinger, "very- very- bored."

"I do not know if I wish to continue the duties that that title implies," he returned her hard glare, "I also find myself less and less concerned with your boredom." With the last comment he shook his arm free of her touch.

"Fine!" she shrieked, the jealously betraying itself in her eyes, "Perhaps I will just throw you in your magically crafted torture chamber to provide my own entertainment!"

Erik let out a low menacing chortle that sent shivers down even the threatening khanum's spine. "Madam, I fear you would find yourself in quite a painful predicament if you ever tried such a rash act."

"Your right my precious Erik," she spoke, her tone suddenly eerily calm, "Perhaps I can find another subject for that same fate. One that would cure your little ‘distraction issue' but would be a bit more- unable to resist me- a bit- weaker, should we say?"

Erik only answered her question with silence. Incensed by his indifference and rejection the sultana continued her rant, "Yes, I think I know just the person who would fit the description-"

Still Erik only returned silence as he continued to pour himself over the architecture plans before him.

"Since my court magician is ignoring his duties," she scoffed, "I will be off to find my own entertainment, now that I have in mind just what it would take to cure my boredom." With that she turned to stomp down the corridor. Turning his head, he watched her angry form disappear into the darkness of the end of the hall. Sighing, he tucked the plans he was working on into his cloak before turning to depart in the opposite direction.



A/N: Ok, I liked this chapter more than the last. I'm still amazed it's lasted as long as it has, since it was originally just going to be a one-shot lemon, designed for the soul purpose of working out my perverted desire to see Phantom changed slightly so Erik could have a bit more enjoyment in Persia- **smirk** anywayz, if you like, review, if you hate, review, I kinda enjoy flames too... **shrug**
As a warning I still don't see this ending happily, but I'm not certain yet, let me know what you think.
Sorry for leaving it at a cliff hanger, I need time to think.

xxCHEERSxxJENxx