Sandman
Disclaimer / Warnings:

This story contains lime (R-rated) yaoi (male/male) sexual content, so if you no likey, no clicky.

X and Tokyo Babylon are copyright CLAMP. Phantom of the Opera was originally written by Gaston Leroux and made immensely popular by Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical.

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Author's Notes:

This was originally an entry for the Yaoi-Con 2005 fanfiction contest, adhering to the theme of “Salvation / Redemption”. I did not place in the top three, but it got me to break away from A Perfect Circle and finally write something where Subaru and Seishirou actually talk to each other.

The basic concept of this story had been kicking around my head for a while before the contest got me to write it down; I had mentally charted a conversation Erik (the Phantom of the Opera) would potentially have with Subaru. I had been mulling on the impact of obsession and the effect others have on our identities more-so-often than usual at the time, especially on the concept that certain people define their entire lives in terms of one event or facet: homosexuals who define their identity by their sexual orientation, or war veterans who find Vietnam in everything they see and do, or women's libbers who think everything not purely feminine is in some way corrupted by the arbitrarily evil "patriarchy", or fundamentalist Christians who see sin in everything because they fear it most in themselves. And, if the facet was a tragedy, do not certain people (individuals or groups) resist healing because it would mean the loss of the identity the have established?

Throwing the attachment of love or hate into that question makes it difficult to answer.

The story took form one summer evening my friends and I went to the Skateplex, for lack of anything better to do, and I requested “Enter Sandman” by Metallica because the rest of the music sucked. I was mulling on the story while skating and decided on a whim to title the story ‘Sandman’ and work from there with the theme. It ended up fitting.

So, this one was a fly-by-night, grow-as-it-was-written work. Just like everything else.