Hey everyone!

So this is going to be my 6th fanfiction **yay**

In case you didn't get the summary, this is a oneshot about Marius and Eponine first meeting when they were kids.

And… this is my second Marius and Eponine oneshot.

So, enjoy.

Remember to review!

I looked down at my blistered, bruised hands.

They felt like they were going to fall off, but I kept doing the dishes anyways. Father would scold me if he saw I hadn't finished them.

Life has sure been different since Cosette left.

I can't remember how long ago it was, maybe five to seven years ago. But I'm thirteen now, and mom and dad stopped spoiling me.

Gavroche was born just a few years ago, and they didn't spoil him either. In fact, I was the one who took care of him. I was only six when he was born, and now that he's seven years old, he's learned how to be more independent, yet I'm still the one to cater his every need.

Every night after father hits him or me, I promise him about how I'll take him away some day. I tell him stories about beautiful places, because I know he'll never get to see them.

Sometimes I think it's the only thing keeping him alive.

I sighed at the thought and finished the dishes. A chill went up my spine when I heard the door slam open.

He was drunk.

I knew it.

"'PONINE! WHERE ARE YOU, GIRL?" He screamed.

"Over here…" I said softly.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU FINISH THE CHORES? THE FLOOR IS FILTHY!"

"I didn't have time, papa.."

"DON'T PAPA ME!"

He swung and hit my right in the eye.

I fell to the ground and tried to protect myself.

I prepared myself for another hit, but it never came. He must've walked away, or maybe he was going to hit Gavroche. I prayed that he wouldn't, after all, I had just put him to bed.

My feet barely helped me in a sad attempt to regain balance.

It was dark, and I could barely see a thing. It might have been after midnight, I really didn't know.

My eye felt like needles stabbing into it, but I rushed to find a mirror.

My right eye was black and blue. That was it. I ran out of the inn, and I didn't care how far I ran, I ran.

I ran to the well in the middle of the woods. I prayed that someone was out here, waiting to save me, just like what had happened Cosette.

No one ever came.

I sat sitting by the well, staring up at the night sky, praying that someone would come and save me.

MARIUS'S POV

Me and my brother Enjorlas desperately wanted to go home. Father promised us that this "vacation" would be fun, but all it was, was watching father get drunk with the other patrons of the regretful inb.

My father just asked to fetch water from the well.

"What well?" I asked.

"The one in them woods, boy!"

"That woods? That's so far away and it's dark and.."

"You promised me that if you came on this trip, you'd help me and the boys. Right?"

"I guess." I sulked my shoulders and walked out.

My father brought some of his friends, my brother and I here to spend a few nights. The inn we were at was foul and pathetic, sometimes I even wondered if it was legal.

Enjorlas and I spent all of the days upstairs in our room, because father said we weren't allowed downstairs.

I wondered if this was actually what a vacation was.

We didn't live that far from here actually, but father claims that he has a friend who has connections to this inn, so that's where we stayed.

Sure, the food isn't even food, lots of our stuff went missing, and it was as boring as hell, but it was a roof over our heads. That's more what many people have anyways.

It was freezing outside, and when I finally made it to the well, I wanted to go back as fast as I could.

Then I heard something.

I heard a girl, sobbing on the other side of the well.

"Mademoiselle?"

I walked around and saw a girl, who looked around my age, curled up into a ball crying.

"Excuse me, do you need any help?" I sat next to her and I saw her look at me.

"No, no, monsieur." She laughed. "I am fine."

"Mon dieu! What on earth has happened to your eye?"

"It's fine.." She said quietly. "I don't feel any pain."

She had nothing on but a ripped and well-worn short sleeve dress, and she must have been freezing.

"Here," I said, putting my jacket over her. "What's your name?"

"Eponine," She said, ducking her head. "Eponine Thenardier."

"Wait a minute, you aren't related to the owners of the Thenarider Inn, are you?"

"Sadly, yes." She laughed sadly. "I'm their daughter."

"Wow. That kind of sucks, no offense." I said, staring at the ground. "You sure don't look like a Thenarider."

"Thank you? I think that's a compliment. No, it does suck, no offense taken. Oh excuse me, where are my manners?" She laughed. "I haven't heard your name."

"Marius Pontmercy. I'm staying at the inn right now, I'm sure you've seen me."

"No actually. I never get to see any of the guests. I only clean our home and then clean the inn at night, when everybody else is sleeping."

"Oh. How old are you?" I asked, trying not to sound weird.

"How old are you?"

"I asked first!" I smiled.

"Okay, say your age on three."

"Fine." I laughed.

"One, two, three."

"thirteen"

"thirteen"

We both laughed out loud.

"So what do you do for fun?" She asked.

"Art, mostly. I love to draw and paint. Music, too. But I couldn't dance to save my life. My parents are very involved in education, so I'm always studying."

"What about you?" I asked her.

"Fun? I never exactly get to have any fun… Sometimes when I finish my chores early I write stories. Does that count?"

"Well, sure!" I yelled softly. "Stories about what?"

"Happy things. Princesses, and beautiful places, happy endings." She sighed. "Because happy endings are found in books almost all of the time."

"That's true." I said.

"Sometimes I just wish I could get away." She explained. "Like, get away from this mess of a world we've fallen in to, and in to a place where there's no pain. Some place where the sun always shines, and no one ever gets hurt."

"Oh my, you have to get back don't you?" She said standing up.

"Yeah, I do." I sighed.

She stared at her feet as she passed my jacket back.

"I'm not leaving for another four days." I said. "I'll look for you, okay?"

"Promise?" She said.

"Promise."

I never knew where or how I'd find her, but after all, I promised I would. The inn was a sad, pathetic place to anyone who wasn't drunk or intoxicated. I was so busy with my studies, so I didn't have much time for much else, and that included making friends. I had Enjorlas, but he's two years

Then her tiny figure disappeared in to the night.

Thanks for reading! Please review and read my other stories, including another les mis fic, a phantom phic, and a love never dies fic, and also a gravity falls fic and a hunger games fic.

Have a super sparkly day!