A/N Hey. It's Eppy Liz here. Who has just made herself cry. :'( Sorry if Gavroche goes a bit OOC, but remember he has grown up a bit!
Gavroche knows he is dying. It wouldn't hurt otherwise. There wouldn't be a searing pain in his chest, which makes him feel as if he's being torn apart by wolves. He can see them crying. He can see his life, flashing before his eyes. He thinks that is really must be the end, because in all the stories Courfeyrac tells him, that always happens before someone dies. He doesn't want to give up. Gavroche does not give up. Even if he is struggling to breath, even if he feels nauseous and dizzy...
He will not give up.
He will grasp his way upwards, in the dead of night, when everyone thinks he is gone. He will grip tight on himself and ignore his feeling of nausea. And he will try so, so hard to walk forwards, before collapsing, and drifting into the welcome blackness.
He wakes up in a dark room, full of candles and shimmering lights. Am I dead? he thinks. He doesn't realise he is saying this aloud. A silvery laugh comes from behind his head, ringing in his ears like tinkling bells. After the laugh comes a voice, a comforting voices that tells him he is not dead and really is quite a silly boy for thinking so. Gavroche lets out a small smile, and the silvery laugh comes again.
"I rescued you, you see. You were in quite a state, but I saw you there and I thought, 'What on earth is a fine boy like that doing lying on the floor?' So I took you home, you see, and I bathed you - no don't be embarrassed, I did my best to look away - and dressed you, and put you to bed. You didn't stir at all. I was quite afraid you were dying, but I could feel your pulse, and you were definitely breathing, so I simply waited for you to awake - and here you are! I've sent for a doctor as well, so he should be here within the hour."
Gavroche tells the voice that he does not want a doctor prying into his private buisness. The silvery laugh comes once more, and the voice moves into the hazy light cast by one of the candles, and Gavroche sees that it is a girl, with long, dark brown hair, and sparkling blue eyes. It all seems a bit too perfect for him.
"Who are you?" he whispers, tilting his head so he can see her better. The girl says nothing. And then, in a low voice, looking around as if to check for eavesdroppers (though, Gavroche observes, eavesdroppers would have a hard time getting into this place. It doesn't even seem to have a door!) says:
"Telling you my name would be to admit that you are trustworthy. And I know nothing of you, except for the fact that you are a dashing young man who almost died."
Gavroche makes another observation, this time being: How silly can this girl honestly be?
The doctor comes, and Gavroche is as good as gold, according to the nameless girl. He was asleep, so knew nothing of it. In fact, he was asleep for two whole days, and when he wakes up the nameless girl says that he is well on his way to recovery. Gavroche would have shrugged, had it not been so painful. The nameless girl (this, thought Gavroche, is a bit of a mouthful to say. I shall just call her Girl) makes dinner, buys new clothes, and redresses his wounds, but she never seems to leave the house. Often, Gavroche wonders how she does it, but for the most time he was asleep, so he just assumes that she would go about her duties then.
After about two months (or what Gavroche assumed was that time), Gavroche has made a full recovery and has grown accustomed to Girl. In fact, he even comes to befriend her. He will tell her stories of the streets of Paris, and the barricade, and in return she will make up stories about a fantasy land that you can only go to in dreams. Gavroche likes to imagine that Courfeyrac and the rest of his friends reside in that world. In all the time that Gavroche reisides with Girl, he never leaves the candle-lit room. He often begs her, of course, but she will simply shake her head and say "not yet". He would not have minded, for Girl was good company, was he not a street boy at heart. So one day, after a year in Girl's company, he tries to escape. It takes some time, but he manages to pull away some of the bricks in the wall. He tries to squeeze through, and he almost success, but just as he is about to pull his legs through, Girl comes in and sees what he is doing. He expects her to be angry, but instead she simply laughs her silvery laugh and says,
"Come, you silly boy! Had I known you were so desperate to get out I would have taken you sooner! Tomorrow, shall we say, we can go out, and you can show me your elephant and your Café Musain!"
Gavroche is so happy that he runs to Girl and embraces her in a hug. He is finally going home.
The next day, Gavroche and Girl leave the candlelit room. Gavroche is dressed in the clothes he first arrived him (Girl has darned the holes and cleaned away the blood), and Girl is dressed in a simple brown dress. They walk, arm in arm, through the streets of Paris, until they reach the spot where the barricade once stood. This is finality for Gavroche. There was a small part of him that had hoped the barricade may have succeeded. But it is not to be. The most haunting thing of all is, that after a year, there are still bloodstains on the floor. He restrains a cry, but instead grips Girl's arm so hard he thinks he might pull it off. Girl nods solemnly, as if she is accepting finality too.
"Come," she says, "let us go to a place where there are not so many haunting memories for both of us." Gavroche wonders what on earth her haunting memories could be.
They reach the Luxembourg Gardens, and neither of them have yet released a tear. They kick of their shoes and sit by the lake, letting their feet drift around it. She really does have quite pretty feet, thinks Gavroche, and quite a pretty face as well. He had not noticed this before, he had thought of her simply as good company, but when he looked at her again he felt a little jump inside him. Girl leans on his shoulder, and then looks into his eyes. And he knows she feels it too. Their lips touch for one brief moment, and suddenly, he feels Girl slip from his grasp. He sees her try and grab onto his little finger, and he sees her let go. Before she does though, she whispers her name in his ear. Gavroche realises she trusts him - and lets himself slip in with her.
A boy and a girl's bodies were retrieved from the lake in the Luxembourg Gardens yesterday. They are yet to be named, and no one seems to recognise their faces. They will be buried tomorrow.
:'(