"I can't believe just how uncultured you are when it comes to movies!" Éponine exclaimed as the followed Alex into his house, it was a relatively cold summer's day and the sky had been a gloomy gray all day long.

"You aren't the first person to tell me that either," Alex replied with a sigh as he shut the front door behind them, Éponine had been insisting on a movie night in order to have him be "properly" introduced into film culture.

"I'm just gonna take a guess that it was Antoine because he told be all you watch is the History Channel and National Geographic," Éponine rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, "anyway, I want to show you what I've got with me." She led her self into the living room and settled herself onto the couch and began to rifle through her ever handy messenger bag, Alex soon sat beside her. She extracted from the interior of her bag five movies for them to choose from and she showed them to Alex, "please tell me you've heard of these..."

Alex looked at the titles of the various DVD's, "Despite what Antoine may say about me while I may not watch 'popular' movies I'm not completely oblivious."

"That's basically you're roundabout way of telling me that you haven't seen any of these," Éponine shook her head, "well then we shall start with this one, 'Friends With Benefits.'" She took the DVD and got off the couch and started fiddling with the player after struggling for a bit she groaned. "Alex... How does this- I got it!" She exclaimed as the player flashed with a friendly little "Hello."

"Alex?" Sandrine Enjolras called to her son, "Oh Éponine it's good to see you!" she smiled at her son's girlfriend, "here to keep Alex from boredom tonight while we are at the Gala?" she asked as she fixed her earrings. Just behind her was her husband Armand who was dressed in a handsome and finely tailored tuxedo.

"Anyway, Alex, I've left some money on the counter in case you two decide to order pizza or take out, there are also some leftovers in the fridge," Sandrine began listing off things, "and if none of the appeals to you then you have free range of the kitchen as well."

"Thanks mom," Alex replied quietly.

"Hey son," Armand gestured to Alex who approached his father, "go get'em tiger," he whispered to him causing Alex to redden immensely and Éponine looked on in confusion, she did not know what he said.

"Armand..." Sandrine glared at her husband.

"I'm only joking Sandy," Armand chuckled, "you two have fun!"

Mr. and Doctor Enjolras collected their coats from the hall closet and soon were out the door leaving Éponine and Alex alone in the large house to watch their movie. Éponine then grabbed the remote and let the movie start to play as the raindrops began to fall from the sky.

The couple had become completely enthralled in the movie, Éponine clearly more so than Alex who kept glancing out the window to see that a storm had completely over taken the sky and the rain was now coming down in harsh sheets. Then about halfway through the movie the screen went dark along with the rest of the house, Éponine squeaked out of a mixture of fear and surprise. The power had gone out, clearly they would not be finishing the movie tonight. The sudden darkness that had enveloped the house was broken when lighting flashed across the sky causing the room to glow with a bright blue light for a second, this was coupled with a loud crash of thunder which caused Éponine to loop her small arms around Alex's arm out of fear.

"'Ponine are you going to be alright?" Alex asked her with concern.

Her face had been nuzzled between his arm and the back of the couch as she muttered something to him, "I couldn't hear you what was that?"

Éponine took a deep breath and drew herself away from him, "If you must know, I'm a little afraid of storms..." Just then there was another flash of lighting and she released another involuntary squeak.

Alex couldn't contain his amusement that a thunderstorm seemed to be the only thing to make Éponine as fearful as a young child.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want," Éponine glared at him, "it's not funny."

"Well if you do choose to let go of my arm I can go see if I can find something like a flashlight," Alex suggested.

With a sigh Éponine reluctantly let go of Alex's arm and he got off the couch and went to the kitchen, she followed him, her bare feet sounding lightly against the hardwood flooring. Alex immediately went to what was the family junk drawer. Fumbling through all the junk items he wasn't having much luck, so far the only thing that seemed promising was a flashlight that glowed dimly before blinking out for good, not to be discouraged he continued his search. Soon his hands drifted over a small box of tea lights and a box of matches, he could only assume they were there for events such as what was occurring. He pulled out a few of the small candles and placed them around the kitchen to provide light for them, as he did this he could see Éponine appear to relax a bit.

"Is that better?" Alex asked her.

Éponine nodded with a smile, "much better, thanks."

Alex then pressed a button on his watch in order to make the watch face glow in a faint green color, the time read 7:45, "Are you hungry?" he asked her.

Before she even had a chance to properly reply to him her stomach growled in betrayal, "Yeah, guess I am... But what are we going to do? Don't think they can deliver pizza in crap like this," she nodded to the window that was being hammered with rain.

Alex simply shrugged, he wasn't sure what they could do either, with the power being out that eliminated the usage of the microwave and meant that things in the refrigerator might go bad.

"Do you have a guess stove?" Éponine asked.

"I don't know, I suppose?" Alex shrugged, he had never bothered to figure out exactly what it was that made the various kitchen appliances tick.

"Well aren't you a great help," Éponine rolled her eyes, she carefully picked up one of the tea lights and walked over to the stove to check it out for herself, "fantastic, we can still cook with this," she smiled.

"Cook what?" Alex turned to her.

"I dunno," Éponine shrugged her shoulders slightly, "what have you got?"

Alex walked Éponine over to the pantry and they began looking for anything that they could turn into a suitable form of dinner, "Pancakes! That would be great!" Éponine exclaimed as she pulled out a box of pancake mix from one of the lower shelves, "you like pancakes don't you?"

"I guess as much as the next person," Alex replied.

"Great, so we'll get the rest of the ingredients and you are going to help me put this together," Éponine ripped open the top of the box, "after all this is your kitchen, I hope that you would know your way about this place better than I do... So I need butter and eggs."

The two of them searched high and low throughout the kitchen making sure they had everything they need ranging from a mixing bowl to vanilla extract, once they had all they needed they tried to follow the instructions on the back of the box only using the dim light that was provided from their small candles.

"So once we've got this all mixed up," Éponine explained as she poured chocolate chips into the batter, "and we get the frying pan all heated up... We should be good to go!" she continued to mix the batter and then carefully she poured it in to the hot frying pan. "This is the part where you come in," she smiled at him.

"Me? What do you want me to do?" Alex asked.

Éponine looked around for the spatula he had pulled out for her earlier, picking it up she held it out to him, "I bestow this spatula of glory upon you, Alexandre Enjolras, noble warrior of the spatula." When she finished her statement she couldn't help but crack up at her own awful joke.

Alex sighed and picked up the spatula and stood in front of the stove and set to work, "So how will I know that it's done?" he asked.

"When it stops sticking to the pan," Éponine explained, "and don't you dare let them burn!"

When Alex finished he smiled and placed two plates of pancakes at the kitchen table, some of the candles had gone out so he quickly brought out more and lit them.

Éponine sat down and smiled and started to cut into her pancakes with a fork, "Alright, so this might not be my idea of a candlelit dinner, but I guess it will have to do."

They enjoyed their pancakes as the storm continued to rage outside and as they washed all the appliances and dishes Éponine kept getting distracted by the rain as it pelted the window.

"So... How am I gonna get home?" Éponine turned to him.

The thought had not actually crossed his mind till then, "I don't know," he shrugged, "I don't think driving is a good idea, and walking is definitely out."

Éponine smirked and wagged her eyebrows suggestively, "You aren't suggesting I spend the night, are you?"

Alex's face reddened, "I Uh-"

"After all I really am just barely sixteen-"

"'Ponine stop it!" Alex cut her off, "you know I would never take advantage of you!"

"I know," Éponine giggled, "I just like watching you squirm," she added a wink at the end.

"Well considering that I don't know what else we can do, I guess you will have to stay," Alex decided.

"Well I should probably call Cosette or Mr. Fauchlevent," Éponine pulled out her phone to see that she had no service, "damn, no signal, I guess we are well and truly stranded."

Soon they decided there was no point for them to be sitting in the kitchen and carefully they moved the candles with them to the living room and they sat back down upon the couch. Éponine found herself laying on Alex's chest and breathing in his scent, and she could feel his hands running through her hair and tugging at the ends watching them spring back, this caused her to giggle.

"Why is it that everyone always does that?" she looked at him with her soft brown eyes.

"Do what?" Alex asked in confusion as he tried to suppress a yawn.

"They always tug at my hair," Éponine explained, "everyone does it."

Alex shrugged, "Well it does kinda spring back."

This caused Éponine to snort with laughter, "It springs back?"

"Yeah..." Alex replied, "it does."

Éponine started to laugh, "You're cute when you're nervous."

"I'm not nervous," Alex responded stiffly.

"Oh yeah?" Éponine laughed, "have you ever noticed that I'm always the one to make the first move?"

"Hey that's not fair," Alex cut her off, "New Years? That was all my-"

"That was called I think Courfeyrac slipped something into your coke," Éponine smiled, "or do you care to prove me wrong."

Alex gulped, he was admittedly a tad nervous, and he hesitated as he looked at her before finally taking the chance and proving to Éponine that she was wrong.

Happily she responded to his kiss, happy that she had someone in her life like Alex, it continued to get more heated for awhile as his tongue prodded at her lips, his hands even began to trail down her back resting comfortably on her waist and pulling her closer to him and eventually they broke apart for air. She once again got comfortable in his arms laying her head on his forearm her breathing was heavy, "Alright, you proved me wrong..." she sounded tired and she began to yawn, within minutes she was asleep beside him on the couch.

Alex adjusted his position on the couch and he was soon asleep as well, the sound of the rain lulling him to sleep.

Late that night the storm died down and Mr. and Dr. Enjolras returned from their party to find their son and his girlfriend asleep on the couch, instead of waking them up Sandrine took a blanket from the linen closet and draped it over them.

XXX

"So let me get this straight," Courfeyrac sat down with Alex at his house that afternoon the next day, power had been restored in the neighborhood and things were going back to normal. "You had movie night with 'Ponine, the power went out, she was afraid, you comforted her and nothing happened?"

"I wouldn't call it nothing," Alex interrupted.

"Because you are so fucking innocent!" Courfeyrac asked, "Then again 'Ponine has a dirty enough mind to make up for the both of you... Have you ever played Cards Against Humanity with her?"

"I don't even know what that is," Alex replied.

"Case and point, you innocent fool!" Courfeyrac sighed, "that was a perfect opportunity and you let it slip away from you!"

"I'm not going to take advantage of her like that Antoine," Alex sighed, "she's my girlfriend."

"Exactly!" Antoine now sounded exasperated.

"Just shut up, will you?" Alex rolled his eyes, "alright, in your opinion nothing happened, now will you get off my case?"

"No!" Courfeyrac barked.

"Antoine!"

"Alex!"

"Shut up for god sake!" Alex picked up a basketball that was laying near him and tossed it at his friend, it bounced and hit Courfeyrac in the head.

"Oh come on!" Courfeyrac groaned.

מוסיקה מבטאת את מה שאי אפשר לאמר ואת מה שעליו אי אפשר לשתוק