Cosette Fauchelevent met Jean Prouvaire for the first time in daycare when they were four.
Cosette and her mother had just moved to town and Fantine needed someone to watch her daughter while she worked. She didn't trust the Thenardiers across the hall— or, really, anyone in their complex. So Fantine went and found the nearest respectable-looking daycare, and enrolled Cosette in it.
Cosette's first day at day care was sunny and bright, so at lunch, the caretaker let the young children eat outside. Cosette was enjoying her sandwich when she heard someone sniffling from somewhere behind her. Looking around, she saw a cute little girl with curly white hair and big grey eyes with tears coming out of them silently. Whenever Cosette cried, her mama would come and hug her, so Cosette got up to comfort the other girl.
She looked up to stare blankly at Cosette when she sat down and hugged her. The girl rubbed her eyes and leaned into it. Cosette smiled at her and asked "Why are you crying?"
"Some of the others were makin' fun of me. I's nothin'." Her words were slightly slurred from crying.
Cosette frowned. Her mama always told her making fun of others was bad and mean.
"Who?"
"No one."
"Who?"
She relented, "Tomas and Francis."
Cosette frowned and got up. "I'll be right back."
She marched across the playground to where a group of boys were sitting and eating. She stood in front of them with her hands on her hips. "Who is Tomas and Francis?"
All of them glanced over but only two of the heads stayed on her.
Cosette got right to the point. "Why are you making fun of 'em?" She turned around and pointed at the other child who was no longer crying but staring at Cosette with wide eyes.
"Cause he dresses wrongly! My dad says it ain't right and my dad is always right so it's OK."
Cosette blinked in shock at the girl actually being a boy but carried on. "So? That doesn't mean to make fun of people. It's not right. Your daddy is wrong."
The boy angrily stood up. "Take that back right now! My dad is always right!"
"No."
The older boy towered over her but Cosette wasn't scared. She had seen lots of characters of TV defend their friends and Cosette knew what to do.
She pulled her arm back and punched him in the face.
The teacher ran over as the boy screamed and Cosette rubbed her hand.
Cosette's mother was called, and Fantine was disappointed, but when Cosette was leaving the daycare, a small boy gave her a small smile and she knew she had made a friend.
-x-
Cosette and Jean—later self-nicknamed Jehan—were inseparable after that. The day after Cosette had punched the boy, and after she had spent the morning in time-out, the boy she had fought for came up to her and introduced himself as Jean.
You never saw one without the other after that.
-x-
When they were seven and Cosette's mama got sick enough to be warranted a place in the hospital, she stayed with Jehan and his mother.
When Fantine died, the first thing Cosette did was throw herself into Jehan's arms and cry for three days straight.
When she moved in with her last living relative, a nice old uncle named Jean Valjean, she was thankful he lived nearby; she didn't know what she would do without Jehan.
When they were twelve and Jehan began to get bullied for wearing girl clothes and his hair long, he turned to Cosette and she hugged him.
When Jehan came up to her with scissors and asked her to cut his hair, she frowned, but she did it.
When she found him with a bruise on his arm, she marched him up to his mom and let her yell at the school's principal for letting people bruise her son.
When they were fourteen and found out one day during the summer before their freshman year that Jehan would be moving to another state, they were heartbroken.
When Jehan was forced to pack up all his stuff Cosette helped him and they both did it in silence.
When she waved as they drove away, she waited until they were long gone until dragging herself to her house and crying the whole night into her pillow.
When they were fourteen and high school began, they didn't talk to each other as frequently, it was taking its toll on both of them hard.
When Cosette's calls from Jehan went from daily to weekly to only every so often, she didn't cry, but she was sadder than usual, worrying Valjean.
When she was so stressed from homework and thought of calling Jehan to unwind, she had to sadly put down the phone when an automated female voice saying this number has been disconnected sounded in her ears.