Hi! I know I should be thinking about Misunderstandings (or rather about my exams which are next week but let's not speak about that) but I have all these ideas in my head and this one was the easier to write. I'm writing on a 1968!AU and something, err, something else involving an elevator (and Enjonine, of course).
This, mh, thing has been inspired by The Blue Bicycle, a series of book by Régine Desforges. Some parts are similar while others aren't because it just didn't fit. World War II is a fascinating yet terrible historical period and since I'm re-reading Desforges' books, I couldn't help but think about Enjolras and Eponine. It may seem quite weird at first and I don't know if I'll write something else in the same verse (ok, no, I'm lying there, I know I will because I have started to write other one-shots to explore some of the characters' traits). I just hope some people will like it a bit.
I don't own the characters (may Victor Hugo rest in peace) and I don't own The Blue Bicycle (Régine Desforges does). As a matter of fact, I only own the mistakes (btw it hasn't been beta'd so, uh... sorry if some sentences seem weird or not right). Oh and the title is some lyrics of La Romance de Paris which is a Charles Trenet song of 1941. It means "happiness in sorrow".
Champagne has always made her tipsy and happy. Tonight, she feels guilty, drinking it in a room full of collaborators and Nazis. Grantaire has invited her but she hasn't thought she would see any German uniforms. She has tried to run away at first but the artist has kept her by his side, telling her people here would ask questions if she disappears. Fear has immobilized her. Does he know what she is involved in? Who she is involved with? That man, as much as she appreciates him, is having dinners and parties with Nazis every week. She can't trust him, yet she has followed his orders and is currently drinking champagne as if nothing were wrong. Everybody here, French and Germans, are acting as if nothing were wrong. As if their countries aren't enemies. As if one hasn't made the other surrender months ago. It makes Éponine sick in the stomach and suddenly she desperately needs fresh air. So she excuses herself and leaves the small group of women she was drinking with, composed essentially of collaborators' wifes and Nazis mistresses. She can't listen to them right now or even look at them. If she can't leave this disgusting feast, at least she can breathe on the balcony for a while.
The light wind of this September night makes her shiver. She hasn't taken her coat but it doesn't bother her. Éponine likes to feel the wind. It makes her feel alive. Always have.
"You'll get a cold" the tone is calm, almost amused, the voice is masculine. She knows it well, by heart even. Gabriel Enjolras is Marius' friend, her dear Marius who has been made prisoner in Germany. Before leaving to fight for France, he has asked his friend to take care of Cosette, of course, who was expecting their first child back then, and Éponine — "she's a sister to me" he has said and nothing has hurt her so much. Enjolras has promised and has remained true to his words yet she still doesn't know why. Why he was the one Marius made that request to, why he didn't join the army, why or rather how these two men could be friends. They have nothing in common. Marius Pontmercy has always been a sweet boy, polite and charming. Gabriel Enjolras is — and probably has always been — an insufferable jerk who wants to control everything, especially her life. She's not a little girl anymore and she surely doesn't need him, of all the people, to have her back or something.
"What are you doing here?" he asks, sitting next to her on a bench on the large, full of others benches balcony.
"I could ask you the same question" she refuses to look at him and that stupid, handsome face of his. He always acts as if he doesn't know how attractive he is but Éponine is convinced it's only false modesty.
"I'm working" that's a lie, she can tell but she can't blame him. He doesn't trust her, just like she doesn't trust him.
"Buttering up the Nazis mustn't be that hard for that clever tongue of yours" she snapped. Every young man she knows has been mobilized and has obeyed orders except him. Enjolras has stayed in Paris, keeping Cosette safe, smirking at Éponine as if he were superior to her and spending his days outside his apartment where he has welcomed the two women, doing only God knows what. Working, like he has just said. Like he always says.
"Watch your mouth!" For the first time since she met him, he seems angry. "There are dangerous people here and you may not be aware of that but eventually some of them could learn that you listen to Radio-Londres in the relative secrecy of your room. You, of all the people, should be careful. Why are you here in the first place?" he has caught her, shaking her arm. She whimpers. Whether it's from fear or cold, Eponine doesn't know but he sure as hell is scarring her right now.
"Grantaire invited me" she says in a whisper. His lips resume in a thin line and instantly, she knows it was the wrong thing to say.
"I thought I told you not to see him ever again. He is dangerous!"
"And so are you!" In a second, Éponine regains her composure and her strength. She stands up, soothes the soft fabric of her blue dress and points an accusing finger at him. "I don't trust you, Enjolras, and I won't let you choose my friends for me. You're not my father and you're not my fiancé either!"
The serious look disappears, replaced by a mocking one and his trademark, annoying smirk. He doesn't even have to get up to make her feel small. Here she is, feeling like a child all over again, prisoner of his judging gaze.
"Yes but you would let Marius if he were" he snickers. The bastard!
"I don't know what you're talking about" she lies, feeling her cheeks getting hot even though the temperature is very low.
"Don't lie to me, don't bother. I know you're in love with him. It was so obvious the day he left that I don't understand how he couldn't see it. And Cosette who treats you like a sister… if only she knew!" he cracks a laugh as if it's the most hilarious thing he has ever heard. Éponine doesn't even react. All she can think of is what would happen if he reveals her secret. For a long time, she has hated the beautiful blonde who has stolen Marius' heart. Yet since the war has begun, they have grown strangely closer and she genuinely cares for the young mother and little Hugo whom Cosette has brought to the world nine months ago. Marius' wife would hate her if she knew. She would her out in the streets if she knew Éponine's feelings towards her husband and Enjolras wouldn't object.
"You can breathe, you know, I'm not going to betray you" he says with a smile — a real one, the first since they met but it doesn't make her feel any more comfortable.
"What's betraying me when you've already betrayed your country?" she wonders bitterly, looking down at him.
"Ah, oui, that's what you think of me… a traitor. So charming" he comments pensively in the immensity of the Parisian roofs. "You know nothing" he adds when their gazes meet. His icy blue eyes seem to get straight into her soul, reading her mind like an open book. That's what is the most frightening about him, that way of glaring at people. If looks could kill, she would be dead by then and if he could really read her, Éponine would be screwed.
"I know enough and I don't trust you" she repeats before doing what's she's best at: running away. Running away from these beautiful yet scary eyes. Running away from his controlling manners. Running away from him because there is something about him that makes her guts scream about danger. But not the danger Nazis or collaborators represent. The danger that he might be break the walls she has built around her.