Disclaimer – I own nothing of Les Miserables or the song Light My Candle. They belong to their respected owners. I do own the plot and my original characters. 'Nuff said.
Italics are song lyrics and thoughts.
A/N: I was listening to Light My Candle earlier and somehow, I thought of the Les Miserables characters singing it. Samantha Barks is Eponine, Michael McGuire is Enjolras and Eddie Redmayne is Marius.
Summary: AU: Takes place in 2013. Marius and Enjolras are college roommates. When Marius steps out to get pizza, the mysterious girl who has the apartment next to the guys' decides to visit Enjolras. Eponine/Enjolras one-shot. Set to the song Light My Candle from the musical RENT. Rated T because I'm paranoid.
Genre: Romance/Friendship
Rating: T
It was the day before midterms. Enjolras was slumped at his desk, his varsity jacket over his shoulders. His roommate, Marius, was playing a video game. Marius had already gotten his studying done for midterms and had quizzed Enjolras in the subjects they had together.
Enjolras was now studying for his World History midterm. The words seemed to be swimming on the page before him. He rubbed his temples and groaned just as Marius turned off the video game he was playing.
"I'm going to get some pizza. You want any?" Enjolras' roommate, Marius, inquired, putting on his winter jacket and scarf.
"What? Oh, no thank you." Enjolras replied, going back to his textbook. Marius sighed and exited the dorm room.
Enjolras only stopped his studies to get coffee and use the bathroom. He was about to sit back down when there was three sharp knocks on the door. He was almost to his desk when the knocks repeated.
Marius probably forgot his wallet again Enjolras thought, rolling his eyes. He opened the door and a girl who was not Marius stood before him. She had olive-colored skin, shoulder-length brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. She wore a pink baby doll dress, blue shrug and cowboy boots. She was leaning against the doorframe, twisting a lock of hair around her left index finger. In her right hand, she held an unlit candle.
"What'd you forget?" Enjolras inquired.
"Got a light?" the girl asked, coming into the dorm room.
"I know you – you're, you're shivering." Enjolras told the girl, removing his varsity jacket and placed it around the girl's shoulders.
"It's nothing, they turned off my heat and I'm just a little weak on my feet. Would you light my candle? What are you staring at?" the girl wanted to know as Enjolras lit her candle.
"Nothing. Your hair in the sunlight. You look familiar." Enjolras told the girl, catching her arm as she fell forward. "Can you make it?"
"Just haven't eaten much today. At least the room stopped spinning anyway." The girl told Enjolras. She smiled at him. "What?"
"Nothing. Your smile reminded me of – " Enjolras started, watching the girl in front of him.
"I always remind people of –" the girl started, looking at the pictures on the mantel. There was one of Enjolras and a very pretty girl that caught the girl's attention. "Who is she?"
"She died. Her name was Portia." Enjolras told the girl. She shoved her candle in Enjolras' face.
"It's out again. Sorry about your friend. Would you light my candle?" the girl asked. Enjolras smiled and lit her candle for the second time.
"Well?" Enjolras started.
"Yeah? Ow!" the girl exclaimed. Enjolras took her hand in his and gently looked it over.
"Oh, the wax, it's dripping." Enjolras said, smiling.
"I like it between my –" The girl started, but was cut off by Enjolras.
"Fingers, I figured. Oh well, good afternoon." Enjolras said, taking his varsity jacket from the girl and closed the door behind her. Two seconds later, there was a knock at the door. The girl was there, candle unlit, a pretty smile spreading across her face. "It blew out again?" he instantly went to light her candle, but she was too quick for him.
"No, I think I dropped my meds." She said, instantly looking around the dorm room for her meds.
"I know I've seen you out and about when I used to go out. Your candle's out." Enjolras told the girl.
"I'm illin' – I had it when I walked in the door. It was orange. Is it on the floor?" the girl asked, getting on the floor. Enjolras stood, arms folded across his chest. He scanned the room for the orange bottle the girl was looking for, but didn't see it.
"The floor?" Enjolras inquired. The girl then smiled wickedly at him.
"They say I have the best ass below 14th street. Is it true?" the girl asked, shaking her rear end at Enjolras.
"What?" Enjolras asked.
"You're staring again." the girl told Enjolras, getting to her knees, staring at Enjolras.
"Oh, no. I mean you do, have a nice. I mean – you look familiar." Enjolras stumbled over his words, making the girl giggle. She got to her feet and searched a different area of the dorm room.
"Like your dead girlfriend?" the girl inquired.
"Only when you smile, but I'm sure I've seen you somewhere else." Enjolras said.
"Do you go to the library on Pine? That's where I work – I organize the books. Help me look!" the girl told Enjolras.
"Yes! You're very good at organizing the books." Enjolras told the girl.
"It's a living." The girl said, shrugging her shoulders.
"I didn't recognize you without your glasses." Enjolras said.
"We could light the candle. Oh, won't you light my candle?" the girl asked, shoving her candle yet again in Enjolras' face. He smiled and lit her candle again.
"Why don't you forget that stuff? You look like you're 16." Enjolras said.
"I'm 19, but I'm old for my age. I was born to be bad." The girl told Enjolras as the two of them made their way over to the couch.
"I once was born to be bad." Enjolras said, putting his varsity jacket once again around the girl's shaking shoulders. "I used to shiver like that."
"My heat's out, I told you!" the girl argued.
"I used to sweat." Enjolras told the girl.
"I've got a cold." The girl responded.
"Uh huh. I used to be a junkie." Enjolras told the girl. He had done drugs when he was a freshman at Victor Hugo College for the Performing Arts. Now, he was a junior and had kicked the habit, with Marius and Joly's help.
"But now and then, I like to-" the girl started, but was cut off by Enjolras.
"Uh huh." Enjolras said, his tone uncaring. A glint of orange out of the corner of his eye distracted him.
"Feel good." The girl finished her sentence.
"Here it is!" Enjolras said, picking up the orange bottle and put it in the back pocket of his jeans.
"What's that?" the girl inquired, looking over Enjolras' shoulder.
"Candy bar wrapper." Enjolras answered, putting the flame out on the candle as the two of them sat upon the couch.
"We could light the candle. Oh, what'd you do with my candle?" the girl asked, sitting next to Enjolras.
"That was my last match." Enjolras told the girl.
"Our eyes will adjust. Thank God for the sun." the girl told Enjolras.
"Maybe it's not the sun at all. I hear Tom Hooper's shooting down the street." Enjolras told the girl.
"Oh, whatever. Oh, whatever." The girl said, looking at Enjolras' hands.
"Cold hands." Enjolras told the girl.
"Yours too. Big. Like my father's." the girl said, getting off the couch and pulled Enjolras to his feet. "Wanna dance?"
"With you?" Enjolras asked, a big grin on his face.
"No. With my father!" the girl answered rather sarcastically.
"I'm Enjolras." Enjolras introduced himself.
"The call me
They call me 'Ponine." The girl – 'Ponine – introduced herself. She then reached into Enjolras' back pocket and produced the orange bottle she had come in with.
A short while later, Marius returned with the pizza. He saw Enjolras and a girl he did not know sitting on the couch.
"Enjolras, who is this?" Marius inquired, getting out three paper plates and three plastic cups.
"Marius, this is 'Ponine. 'Ponine, this is my roommate Marius." Enjolras introduced his roommate to 'Ponine.
The three of them had pizza and drank soda. Eponine was on her second slice of pizza when her cell phone rang. Looking at the screen, she saw that it was her roommate, Cosette, texting her.
"I have to go. Forgot to tell my roommate I was coming. It was nice to meet both of you." Eponine told the men as she gave Enjolras back his jacket and exited the dorm room.
"How'd you meet her?" Marius asked as he and Enjolras cleaned up the kitchen.
"She appeared at the door and I thought she was you. I let her in and we talked. She works at the library and seems really nice." Enjolras said.
"I've never heard you talk about anyone like that except Portia." Marius told his friend, placing a hand on his shoulder. Enjolras smiled and went back to studying for his World History midterm.
"Don't bring her up again." Enjolras told his friend, a pained expression on his face. Portia had died in a car accident the year before. Enjolras didn't like to talk about it much – the accident was still fresh in his memory.
As Enjolras got ready for bed and eventually fell asleep, he couldn't get Eponine out of his head. He could tell that she was the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.