40A/N: Written for a fic prompt on Tumblr, "I think I forgot how to breathe". A prequel.
Galatea
"Christine, how did you find me?"
I shook my head, tears of relief clouding my vision and tightening my throat. There would be time later to explain all that had happened since that fateful night. How I had begged Raoul to return to Paris for any sign that my fallen Angel had escaped the mob's wrath. How Meg had shown me the mask and I had pleaded with her mother to confess everything she knew.
"If you will not say how, then...why?"
In the weeks we had spent apart, I had pondered Erik's question a hundred times over...and its answer had led me here, to his arms. I smiled up at the dear, ruined features I had feared never to see again.
"I was made of stone when you first came to me. I'd forgotten how to feel, how to breathe. You made me flesh again - brought me back to life."
Erik stared down at me, slender fingers trembling as they stroked my cheek. I caught his hand and pressed my lips to the ring I had returned to him, selfishly pleased that he still wore it.
"I've held you in my dreams, just like this, so many times."
Though his eyes were fixed on mine, he seemed to doubt his own senses. I clung to him, reassuring myself that he was real even as he accused me of being a figment of his imagination.
"Perhaps this is all another vision, a cruel trick of the mind..."
Lifting myself on my toes, I kissed him for the third time, heart filled to bursting at the thought that we would someday lose count.
"Then let me wake you."