I dunno if you'll do this but I have been rereading some of your E/C phics but I was curious if you had any headcanons regarding them in anyway. Or even the daroga + Christine friendship headcanons with E/C implied. ( also Etched with Tears wrecked me and I'm still recovering)
Do I ever have headcanons! Sorry it’s taken me so long to reply. I’ve just been ridiculously busy all week. BUT I’m glad you’ve been enjoying re-reading my phics, and dare I say I’m a little pleased you’re still recovering from Etched! I’m taking that as a compliment.
For one, I very much consider that ‘Cocoon of Comfort’ and ‘Cartography’ take place in the same ‘verse. Along with ‘Between the Past and Future Tense’ and a few others. But that’s a side-note.
Daroga often calls on Christine for tea, and vice versa, for no reason other than wanting to chat. He becomes that best friend she never quite had before, and someone she can confide in and ask for advice, about anything, not just Erik.
It takes Erik a long time to adjust to actually being with Christine. At first they still keep separate rooms, because he’s awkward about anything else and doesn’t feel it’s quite appropriate. There are various other reasons too, like not wanting his face to be the first thing she has to see when she wakes up, and not wanting to disturb her when his own, inevitable, nightmares come.
After a few weeks of this arrangement, Christine is growing increasingly frustrated and basically orders him into bed with her. For nothing more than sleep. Neither of them sleep well that first night, Erik awkward about sharing a bed with her, and Christine worried he’ll flee back to his coffin.
The second night they do sleep, and when Erik wakes around dawn and sees how soft and trusting Christine looks cuddled in against him, and how sweet with her curls falling over her face, it catches something in his heart, and he can’t bear to leave.
While Christine and Daroga become best friends, Daroga is also That Person that Erik runs too when he’s confused about what he’s supposed to do, and worried that he’ll frighten Christine away. Daroga does his best to assuage his fears, knowing from everything that Christine tells him that it’s not going to happen.
Erik still has outbursts of temper, times when he cracks and can’t hold everything in, but he never harms Christine, and she always does her best to soothe him. He still finds it hard to maintain perspective.
Christine finds the way Erik plays with his pocket watch chain very sensual.
Erik is very mindful of Christine’s voice, and never lets her strain it. They still put a lot of time into working on her vocal technique.
For months kissing is the limit of anything they do. Soft forehead kisses and gentle cheek kisses, and then Christine works up the nerve to kiss him on the lips (or what passes for lips) and Erik swoons with the shock of it because it caught him off guard. They grow a little bolder from there, and get more confident with kissing each other, and cuddling. But it’s a very slow process.
It’s awkward and neither of them find it particularly pleasant, but they do, eventually, get to the stage of being intimate with each other. It takes time for them to get to like that, and for the most part they’re content just to cuddle and kiss.
Erik often, especially in the early days, gets overwhelmed by the frequency with which Christine touches him, and it takes a lot of time for them to develop his tolerance for closeness.
Erik’s nightmares are a constant source of worry for Christine, as is his near-frequent joint pain. She learns massage methods that soothe the worst of it away. and when he wakes screaming in the night she gets up and makes him tea while he composes himself. He shuffles out to kitchen when he feels up to it, and they spend a long time in silence together.
He never tells her the details of his nightmares.
Post-LeRoux canon, Christine and Daroga become friends and regularly correspond with each other. He’s with Erik on the night of his death, trying to keep him comfortable and soothe him. He writes Christine when it’s over, and she comes directly, and together they bury Erik.
Any time you want more headcanons, don’t hesitate to ask!
