FAR AWAY
PAIRING: E/É
WORDS: 12K
WARNING: contains swearing and sexual themes (SMUT)
BETA: none
TYPE: Modern AU; High School AU; Norwegian
So two days ago I asked (THEAMAZINGSUPERDUPERAWESOME) Thea (unicornesque) what she would like for her Birthday-Gift-Fic-thing, and she said she wanted an E/É Norwegian AU fic. So here goes
FAR AWAY
Choosing high school must be the hardest decision of her life. She was 15 for crying out loud! Why would she have to decide what she wanted to do for the rest of her life right now? So she sat staring at the computer screen as all her classmates were signing up for the programs they wanted. She snuck a peek over to her left where her friend Cosette was signing up for health and social care and to her right where her friend Grantaire was signing up for music, dance and drama. She looked at him weirdly; he had never shown any interest in anything besides graffiti, skating and partying. He caught her confused stare and quickly wrote down two words directly onto the desk.
Far away.
And she understood and quickly signed up for music as her first choice, drama as her second and ordinary studies specialisation as her third choice (to be safe), praying she could get in on her mediocre grades.
The week after was her sixteenth birthday, and Grantaire hosted a home alone party in her honour and got her shitfaced drunk (again). It was refreshing being with Grantaire and his friends instead of Cosette and hers. Cosette's friends always wanted to talk about boys and make up and diets and boys and parties and sex and boys. They wore tons of orange foundation and lumpy mascara and lipstick that were whiter than their teeth, as they poured over endless amounts of top list blogs on . And they all had their own 'little thing' going on. They would often go to the cinema, seeing movies and having inside jokes, or go with their 18 year old boyfriends to parties so they could get 'drunk' off of two sips of cider and have an excuse to behave slutty. At least Cosette was more virtues and her strict Christian upbringing gave her more time to hang out with Éponine for slumber parties instead of partying with her other friends. Not that Éponine minded the slutty behaviour, it was entirely their choice, she just didn't like the way they shamed her for it because she had not been drunk when she was doing the slutting.
No, she much rather liked staying with Grantaire and his band of merry burn-outs that didn't plan expensive shopping trips or pretended to be something other than what they actually were. She just wished she could say the same for herself.
To be honest, Éponine and Cosette hadn't really been as close as they used to since the class trip to the concentration camps in Poland and Germany. She got that it was a big experience, but it annoyed her that while she could not afford to go, those who could had all been more excited over the cheap shopping and alcohol in Poland, and their amazing time at Tropical Island than about actually learning about the camps and the Berlin Wall and the amazing salt mines in Krakow. After Cosette came back it was like she was completely changed, she had apparently gotten a boyfriend from another school three hours from here that had joined their guided tours. (the relationship did not last long.
She would have killed to go on that trip, but she was stuck doing essays about the cold war instead.
When the class filed out of the computer lab and back into their classrooms for more career counselling, they just ended up discussing their choices instead.
Their friend Feuilly had applied to design and crafts, something that would fit him well she noted as she looked through the design sketches he was showing her excitedly. Some of Cosette's friend would be going to design and crafts too, to become hair dressers, and Feuilly sighed as he predicted which of them would be most likely to get knocked up in the next two years. (There was always at least one or two each year.)
"So what did you sign up for then?" asked Cosette.
"Music." Grantaire and Éponine answered simultaneously.
"Music?!" but it was not Cosette that had repeated them in disbelief, she looked up to see Montparnasse lounging in an artfully pretentious manner on the desk behind her. Her ex-boyfriend had an annoying habit of sneaking up on her when she least expected it, only to insult her and walk away.
"Yes, music, you got a problem with that?" She snapped, hoping he had not had the same plan as her and Grantaire.
"No, I always figured you would do the Restaurant and Culinary major. Some of the free food there would do well to put some curves on that skinny frame of yours."
Ah there was the insult, he could do better.
"Yeah, it wasn't as if you minded my skinny frame when you started – what was it you called it again? – 'courting me'?"
And so the jibes continued as their teacher gave up on trying to teach them about further education.
The only reason why Montparnasse stopped being an arse was because Bahorel cracked his knuckles behind Éponine's shoulder.
The exam rounds were starting and Éponine and Grantaire were holding hands in the library, praying not to have their names called up, and it looked as if Éponine was actually going to be so lucky when
"Éponine Thérnardier."
Drat.
Oh well it could have been worse, she reflected as she gathered with the group that had been called along with her, she could have had to do written maths instead of written English. The long essay on the exam had literally been "B) Write a fictional story about what would happen if Katniss Everdeen (see excerpt 12) were to meet Nelson Mandela (see excerpt 3)"
She did have to do oral French though, but due to the French being spoken (shouted) at home, that exam had been a breeze, she had spent most of her preparation time of trying not to cuss.
Exams passed and she passed them, proudly accepting her diploma in a pink dress she borrowed from Cosette as all the other girls were wearing their bunads.
And then they all rented a partytent and got drunk in a forest, falling asleep together in a big pile on the grass as the rain poured on the tent roof above them.
Now all they had to do was to wait until they got their acceptance letters on July 15th.
She didn't have good enough grades for music, the waiting list there was miles long and she was number 33 and would never get in, but she did get into drama.
"You got in then?" Grantaire smiled as she showed up at his house, grinning even though she just rode her stupid old bike up the 2k uphill road to his remote house. Only one school in the county offered Music, Dance and Drama and said school was too far away for them to take the bus every morning and afternoon. It was over three hours away after all.
"Almost! Drama! I get the living-away-from-home-scholarship!"
And so they celebrated by drinking champagne on his porch with music blasting from his computer to drown out the shouting match his parents were having in the kitchen.
The next week they settled in for a 4 hour moped ride to the school, they had to find a flat that would fit their collective 8 000kr a month budget. And they found one, it was tiny and only had 1 bedroom, but the kitchen and bathroom had a decent size and the tiny living room had a door and could be converted into the second bedroom. Grantaire paid the deposit and first two months and Éponine promised him she would pay him back the moment she got her scholarship.
And so they became flatmates. Grantaire's dad drove down with all the stuff they could not fit on R's moped nor take with them on the bus, and when school started and Éponine finally got her hands on her scholarship, she felt liberated for the first time in her life.
It didn't matter that she could not use any of it on other things than laundry soap and rent, but it was her money none the less.
School was nothing like she had expected it would be either.
The teachers were really fun, they dared to be dramatic and theatrical and actually believed in their students. They also got to do some pretty fun things, like set up their own 15 minute play based on a Shakespeare classic, and having tango lessons in P. E. But by far the funniest thing was their choir lessons. Only about 5 of 14 knew how to sing, two of them (and Éponine) joining drama for a chance at switching over to music the next year, and one who was in a choir in her spare time. But what had surprised her most was Enjolras, the brooding blond kid, who could sing anything they got as easily as he could roll his eyes at their antics at lunch.
Enjolras was the only other student in the class who had chosen drama for the same reason she had. He wanted to move out, he had admitted when all the kids in the class who lived in student flats around the school had a barbeque in the park, but he also wanted to get something out of this school choice, and drama would help build up his charisma and people skills. The latter needing serious work, Éponine thought.
No one was surprised when he chose the harder math course, nor when he signed up for a private exam in psychology "for fun" or when he decided to take the French private exams (so he could be exempted from those classes to study all the extra subjects). He stated that just because he was majoring in drama, it was no excuse for not over achieving academically.
What was a big surprise was when Éponine took the French private exams alongside him. Once she found out she could get 2 years of French education done with in two simple exams, it didn't matter that she used her spare money to pay for them.
So every Monday and Wednesday you could spot Éponine chilling on her school computer in the cafeteria as Enjolras poured over the heaps of books that covered the rest of their table. He left her alone and she left him alone, only breaking this truce when she rolled her eyes to chide his French.
She and Enjolras did not really get along the first few months.
Nothing exciting really happened their first year.
Of course, everything was new and exciting, so for something to be exciting exciting, someone would have to hook up, get expelled or fuck up their spring project, but no one did.
Their second year was much more fun. Not only because people were switching between music dance and drama, making them lose 4 classmates, but gain 2 new ones. Courfeyrac and Jehan had both converted from Music after their freshman year of drama classes had grown on them.
Rewriting the spring project to fit 2 new guys and 4 less girls within 10 days had been exhausting, and somehow Éponine found herself replacing Sophie, who had been the romantic lead. She'd had great fun, but playing lovers with Enjolras had been the most awkward thing in the world.
At least that was what she thought until they started their Commedia dell'Arte project, and she was in the same group as Enjolras.
"Commedia dell'Arte is essentially an improvisation about money, food and… and sex." He said as the group gathered to agree on a loose story line. He was blushing as he said the word 'sex' but his face was still completely poker-ésque.
"And I for one wish to keep all those attributes, so before we are making this story line we need to agree who would be alright with sex scenes."
Éponine could not resist raising her hand as Courfeyrac raised his with a challenging smile at her.
"Okay, so Ép, Courf and myself are the only ones who will be asked to have stage-sex." He was blushing like mad as he said this.
Éponine just shrugged, but was having a minor panic attack as she realised she would probably be having stage-sex with the both of them. Her character was Fiorinetta, (the whore) after all and though it would be easy to set up a sex between her and Courfeyrac (who played Brighella, the trickster who basically managed to get whatever he wanted) it would at least be harder to set it up with Leandro (Enjolras' character, who was one half of the lovers and therefore bound to Isabella.)
But somehow she managed to get the sex-scene with both of them as they acted out the base skeleton of the play in Courf's living room.
"I can't believe that you'll be having sex with the hottest guy in your class, Ép." Grantaire sighed as they snuggled on the couch to watch the new episode of supernatural. Éponine sighed in exasperation.
"Again, R, it is not sex. All our clothes will be worn and it is meant to be funny! Hell, I'm even going to be playing a fucking horse making turtle sex noises when I do it with Courf!"
"Ah, but you'll be face to face with Enjolras right?" he smirked and she punched his arm.
"Yes, because I am pretending to be his love Isabella, and therefore have to be more 'loving' than with Brighella. Honestly, it'll last for like 10 seconds before he's done and the real Isabella catches us!"
"Yeah yeah, you still get eye contact as he thrusts his pelvis into yours and lifts you off the floor three times."
"No, because we are wearing masks and my mask is utter crap that I can hardly see anything, and- wait, how did you know anyway? Have you been spying on our rehearsals in P. E. class?"
"I might have. Come on, we have our P. E. lessons right next to yours and our are classes are just volleyball and soccer and you get to do stage fighting and sexing and weird walking…"
"Oh shut up, you music students always try your best to kick us out of you little couch meetings so don't whine when we don't appreciate you spying on us." She poked her tongue out at him.
"Hey! We paid for those couches with the money from our concerts!"
"Yeah yeah."
But she had lied to Grantaire, because she could see Enjolras' eyes though her poorly crafted mask, and the way they were shining as his face got all red had almost made her break character to smirk at him. Instead, she slightly pulled on his mop of curly hair and patted his head when she told his character he had done a "good job".
No matter how much positive feedback she got for her performance in that particular play, it was still the most awkward moment of her life, though no one would know it, as her blush had been nothing compared with Enjolras'.
Oddly enough, the two of them formed an odd sort of friendship after that, actually taking to each other while their classmates had French, German or Spanish.
"So when did you realise you had a talent for acting?" Enjolras asked one morning as she shuffled her beat up card deck for another round of President with him and Grantaire (honestly, how come he had so much time off? Did he even go to his piano lessons?)
Grantaire laughed as Éponine looked up at him in confusion.
"I have a talent for acting?"
Enjolras scrunched his brow, "well, yes. But you must have realised that before applying here, right?"
"No."
"Éponine and I Applied to this school for the same reason you did, Apollo," Grantaire joked, "because we couldn't stand our home life."
"Oh."
"Yes, I had horribly posh parents and spoiled sisters, and Éponine here, well her parents are French." He said, as if it would explain everything. Enjolras nodded as if it did.
"I do miss my siblings though," Éponine muttered as she finished distributing the cards.
"Yeah, so do I," Grantaire offered her a sweet smile before he coughed and picked up his cards.
"Now, are you ready to get schooled again, peasant?"
For Christmas they were doing The Little Match Girl, a tradition that started 12 years ago and the only project in which the teacher would be their director. It was great fun as well, she thought, as they got to work with the dance-girls in this project, but what she found herself not liking was watching as two of the dance girls flirted shamelessly with Enjolras as she was putting on the grandma costume, cursing the faiths that she would have to be the ugly grandma during their dance number, and the dumb street child during the rest of the play.
So it was with a heavy heart she admitted to herself that she did have a crush on Enjolras, as he had surprised her with buying bus tickets for her sibling so they could see the show. And so she hugged him tight, in their post-performance euphoria and freaking kissed him on the lips.
(it was just a peck, and she quickly brushed it off by kissing Grantaire as well when he admitted to have helped.)
So Azelma and Gavroche stayed for Christmas break, and Éponine managed to convince Azelma to apply to music next year. Not only would she get to move in with Éponine, but she would get away from her parents as well, Gavroche still had two years left of middle school, but he promised to apply for drama the moment he was old enough.
On new year's eve, Éponine and Grantaire left her siblings in charge of her flat with a take away pizza from heaven (actually just from the Italian place on the corner, but it was the pizza this tiny town was famous for) and left to go to Courfeyrac's New Year's Party.
And that was when everything changed.
Enjolras was there, and, for some reason, he was drunk.
"Heeey, Poniiiiine!" He said as she showed up fashionably late and decently tipsy, having drunk from Grantiare's 'diet coke' (actually it was jack and coke, but no one was the wiser) on the train to the city. And then she was tackled in a hug from Courf and Jehan as Enjolras struggled to walk in a straight line towards her.
She gave Jehan a confused look, but he simply nodded towards Courf who had a bottle of tequila in is hand an imitated pouring it into his beer can.
"'Ponine!" Enjolras said again as he finally reached her and practically leaned all his body weight on her as he gave her a welcome hug.
He did not let go. And it took the combined effort of Éponine and Jehan to get him to sit on the couch, but he did not remove his arm from around her shoulders, forcing her to sit down next to him. So she did, taking Courf's tequila bottle and downing a quite big gulp of it before asking him how much he had actually given Enjolras.
"Just like, I don't know, 6 shots divided in two beer cans?"
"Holy shite." She said as she dragged Enjolras' head away from her chest by his hair, where it had been resting comfortably with his face in her cleavage as he snoozed.
"Hey, wake up Enjy-Benjy!" she said as she lightly slapped his cheek to wake him up.
"Hey, ''Ponine," he grinned at her and she felt the hand still in his hair start to rake her fingers through it as the warm feeling triggered by his smile and the tequila spread through her stomach.
30 minutes later they were dancing to the awful "Feed you my love" by Margaret Berger and when everybody started counting down to midnight, they started off the new year by making out like there was no tomorrow on the couch before he fell asleep, head in her lap and arms around her waist, telling her he was not feeling good and he never ever, ever, never, ever, never should have accepted a beer from Courf... ever.
When she woke up the next morning, she was in her own bed and Grantaire was collapsed next to her, obviously having walked her home and been too exhausted to get himself to bed as his jacket and hat were still on. She could remember getting on the train and falling asleep on his shoulder, but after that it was all black. She was still wearing her scarf, but she was still cold, seeing as it was minus 30ᵒ Celsius outside and she had turned her heater off to save money. She eyed Grantaire's coat enviously before she zipped it open and snuggled in with him, falling right back to sleep and swearing she would never drink anything offered to her by Courfeyrac ever again. There must have been some moonshine in that tequila.
When she woke up a second time, Grantaire was gone, and she was snuggled into his jacket alone. Grantaire gave her a cold shoulder the rest of the holiday for some reason, but Éponine was too tired to push him on it and spent the last three days with her siblings instead.
Back in class it was highly awkward as everybody knew Éponine and Enjolras had snogged, then again so had Courf and Jehan, and Courf and Synne, Courf and Lydia, and Jehan and Grantaire.
Luckily the class was too focused on Jehan finally coming out to bother about Éponine snogging someone. Then again they were a little focused on the fact the Enjolras had actually kissed someone to leave them quite be.
It did not help that the two of them got paired together for the 30 minute challenges with the breakup scene from "A Doll's House" by Henrik Ibsen. Especially as the teacher went on and on about their chemistry and how the class could learn a lot from that instead of trying to remember the script.
Courf turned 18 that February, and although they both went to his party, neither got drunk, scared of what might happen between them if they did. Éponine instead stayed parked at the kitchen island and chatted with Courf's childhood friend Marius, and ended up getting a date with him the following weekend.
After she told the news excitedly to R, he started treating her like he usually had, and she wondered what on earth could be the reason.
They stared on their next project; Adapted Classics, and Éponine paired up with Lydia to do a revised version of "Miss Julie" by August Strindberg, but they needed another player to get the group approved, and preferably a man at that, so as Éponine was trying to recruit Courfeyrac or Jehan (Courf refused to leave "The Foreigner" by Larry Shue, dramatically saying he needed to do a comedy, and Jehan refused to leave the group Courf was in it) Lydia had already recruited Enjolras. It did not take long for Éponine to wish she had picked "The Foreigner" as she heard Courf and Hannah's laughter from the cafeteria where they were re-writing the script. Heck she would rather have done "Hedda Gabler" (renamed Herman Gabler due to lack of male actors) by Henrik Ibsen than have to play Enjolras' fiancé.
Instead of focusing on her awkward Enjolras-situation at school, she instead focused on her boyfriend Marius. He was sweet and perfect and everything she had ever dreamed of having in a boyfriend… but there was a certain lack of passion. Hell, they'd been together for two months and she still hadn't had the chance to remove his shirt! He was incredibly romantic though, and his kisses were good, but she still felt wanting and needy whenever he left to go home to his stupid Christian parents because of their stupid curfew.
What was even more stupid were the AUF (Worker's Youth League) meetings he attended all the time. She was pretty certain that political meeting only happened once or twice a month, not once or twice a week! Apparently their new sector leader was very politically active and put up protests and petitions every other weekend. She was a member of UV (Young Liberals of Norway) herself, not really that active, but she still shoved up for their pizza congregations.
She also used to be an active member of the NU (Nature and Youth) but after she found out it was Enjolras who was her sector's leader, she quickly stopped coming to those meetings. They still had her signature for important petitions.
So it was with great trepidation she removed her UV pin from her jacket right before she accompanied Marius to one of his AUF meetings.
She was prepared to have her opinions tested by stupid AUFers who supported the party who wanted to fucking dig for oil in Lofoten for some fucked up reason, but she was not prepared to see Enjolras leading the meeting, narrowing his eyes at her as she came in hand in hand with Marius.
She was also not prepared for his whispered "out" in her ear the moment the power point turned off and the pizza was served.
"Excuse me?" She said, voice raised enough to cause a scene, hoping he would leave her be.
"You are supporting the opposing party, and I know you have no reason to be here." He apparently did not find it a good enough reason to stop attacking her.
"Enjolras," she heard Courf sigh, warning his friend to calm down.
"'Ponine…" she hear Marius whisper, she had obviously made him embarrassed.
"Excuse you, I am not supporting the opposing team, do I look like an FpU (Progress Party's Youth) brat to you? I am merely not supporting oil digging and having this country stay the same year after freaking year! It's not as if my tiny group is even a threat to your precious political party!"
They ended up having a screaming match in the hallway as Courf pointedly shut the door behind them, refusing to let Enjolras back in until he was done.
"Éponine. Let's go." She heard Marius mutter as he took her by the hand.
"Yes, listen to your boyfriend, I bet he didn't even know you were a member of the UV!"
Marius pulled hard on her hand then, dragging her out the front door before she could retaliate, she only managed a shriek of fury and frustration as the door closed behind them.
Marius didn't say anything until the bus stop before hers.
"I think it's best if we didn't see each other for a little while." He sighed, rubbing his eyes.
"Why, because I am not in the same political group as you?"
"No, 'Ponine, because the girl I really liked was the girl who was nice to me at Courf's party, who was innocent and sweet and didn't fight my leader at my political group's gathering."
She was stunned, so stunned that Marius had to push the stop button for her.
"Did, did you know that I was, that I am a member of the UV?" she whispered as her stop came looming closer.
"No. You never told me. In fact, you don't really tell me anything." He said as the bus stopped.
"Goodbye then." She whispered as she exited the bus.
No, she mused as she held her tears back the whole way home, lest they freeze on her cheek this cold march night, I didn't really tell you anything.
But you were supposed to just know.
Grantaire was not home, but there was a note on the fridge telling her he would be out all night and to take the advantage of having the flat to herself to seduce her boyfriend instead of whining about not getting any to him all week.
She cried all night instead, wishing Grantaire was there to comfort her instead of the stupid condom he had taped to the fridge.
Thankfully the Adapted Classics project was over two weeks later, and the on stage kiss between Jean and Kristin was as impersonal and chaste as they could get away with, and even though she was still mad at him and blamed him for what had happened between her and Marius, she still found herself feeling jealous as Enjolras' Jean shared his much more passionate stage kisses with Lydia's Julie.
The rest of the year was thankfully focussed on monologues and hiking, activities you could do alone. Oh and pre-exams.
She moped with the rest of the class about their written Maths.
"I can not believe that after two private exams this year I am expected to do fucking's smart peoples maths pre-exam shit, why did I not choose practical maths, why!?" Hannah exclaimed as she waved her pre-exam letter about, refusing to open it, as if she would not have the pre-exam in a week if she didn't read it.
"No worries Hannah, you did okay for the last two tests, I'll help you!" Enjolras said as she practically strangled him while begging for his help.
And that was how Éponine became jealous of Hannah, the least intimidating person in the class, and decided she needed to do something about the, the thing, the – this! Because she had to admit she did have feelings for Enjolras.
So it was with great trepidation she knocked on his door that night, half way hoping he was out, and half way hoping he wasn't, the latter half was the one who was freezing from standing outside his door in a skirt and tights on one of the last freezing evenings in April.
He was home, but it was not him who had opened the door.
"Whoops, sorry!" Hannah said as she opened the door too quickly and slammed it into Éponine's knee cap.
"No problem" she wheezed out, knowing Hannah would fuzz forever if she admitted it had hurt.
"Oi, Enjolras! Your girlfriend is here!" she yelled over her shoulder before she invited Éponine in.
"He's not my boyfriend!" she hysterically hissed as Enjolras came running into the living room from the bathroom, only wearing a towel.
"Hi." He said breathlessly, smiling as if he had waited for her to visit him all year. All in all he looked like a big (extremely attractive) puppy whose owner just came to pick him up from the kennel.
"Erm, hi." She muttered shyly, looking anywhere other than his naked and wet torso. "Sorry, I don't want to intrude, I just, I'm going to go now. You two have fun!" She faked a smile before she spun on her heel and ran for the door.
"Nah ah." Hannah said, locking the door and blocking the way. "You are not interrupting anything. I simply spilled a whole carton of milk on him and as he showered to prevent getting smelly, I stayed to prevent the same to happen to his kitchen. Now, I was just leaving, my bus leaves in like 4 minutes, so you two talk about what you were going to talk about because I can't handle another awkward 'force Hannah to be third wheel so we won't have to acknowledge out feelings for each other'-moment. Ok?" she said and pulled on her coat as the two gaping people left just, well, gaped at her.
"Ok, so, thank you so much for the help Enjolras, we need to do this again sometime soon, and Éponine, it was a pleasure to see you again. See you both Monday!"
And then she unlocked the door and walked out, giving them a military salute before she slammed the door behind her. They heard her curse and something splash outside as Hannah probably fell into the slush pool outside his door.
Éponine and Enjolras looked at each other, and Éponine felt trapped. She regretted her decision to come here and wished he was wearing a shirt so she could just fucking focus and get this over with.
Enjolras had apparently noticed that he still wasn't wearing a shirt as he started making incoherent sentences and gestured towards what she guessed was his bedroom, but she knew that if he left her alone for even a second to get dressed, she would run out the door and never come back.
"No, wait!" she said, but he was still moving towards his bedroom so she leapt across the room and grabbed his arm, forcing him to look at her, and to stay.
"I just, I need to get this out now, or else you will never hear it. It's like it's now or, or-"
"Now or never." He said faintly and she nodded, swallowing and letting go of his arm, no longer looking at his eyes, but focusing her gaze on one of the water droplets on his shoulder. But it got super hard to focus as that particular drop started to run down his chest, but she still keeps her eyes on it as she starts talking.
"I can't do this anymore. I can't pretend any longer."
She tears her eyes away from the drop as it gets absorbed by the towel around his hips and forces herself to look back at his eyes.
"Marius and I broke up. Yeah, weeks ago, he told me I was pretending to be someone other than I am basically, and he was sort of right." His hand twitched, as if he was reaching out for her, but thought better of it.
"But the reason why I couldn't really be myself, is because I am not some cute little girly girl, who wants big romantic gestures or a boyfriend who apologises for everything he does in case I don't like it. So I pretended to like it, and I pretended to like it when he brought flowers to my flat, but after our fight last month, I couldn't bear to pretend anymore, so it was not worth it to get him back."
There was a few seconds of silence as she fidgeted with the ends of her scarf.
"I want to be with someone who I can actually fight with and win, or not, but at least get the fight resolved instead of being ignored. I want to be with someone who knows what I'm trying to say and I want to be with someone who I don't have to pretend I am perfect with. But at the same time, I want to be with you."
He blinked, staring at her for a few seconds before he responded.
"What do you mean 'but'?"
And she understood; he understood. He knew she wasn't perfect. And he didn't care. She is not quite sure who moved first, but the next second she was clutched against him in his strong arms, her own arms snaked around his neck as their lips met in a breathless kiss.
This is passion, was all Éponine could think as she broke away to breathe, feeling his lips travel down the column of her throat as her hands knotted themselves into his still wet hair. He removed her scarf and unzipped her jacket as they got in the way of his path towards her collarbones. She gave a small moan at the unexpected pleasure of his lips at her shoulder and his thigh between hers as she instinctively grinded against it.
Her hands unclenched from his hair and travelled down his neck to end on his shoulders for purchase as he spun them around and pressed her against the wall. Her jacket fell to the floor, quickly followed by her cardigan and t-shirt before her hands returned impatiently to his torso, fingers running over the fuzzy hair on his chest and then trailed down to his unexpectedly hard abs. She heard him groan as her fingers lightly followed his happy trail then moved up again.
She felt high, drunk, empowered. She felt like every single cell in her body was on fire, in a good way. She felt herself shudder and moan as his hands cupped her breasts under her bra, thumbs circling her nipples and mouth kissing the exposed part of her breasts. And she let her hands roam under the towel, that had stayed on by some miracle, to pinch his butt, earning a surprised moan from him as he reached under her skirt and massaged her bum in return, lifting her thigh and bringing her closer, both hissing as her heat rubbed against his hardness, and he grabbed the top of her tights to impatiently yank them down and off her legs, so he could lift her up and wrap her legs around his hips.
He then returned his lips to hers, kissing her with desperation, as if it could end any second, and he would die if that moment came.
The walk into his bed room was a little awkward. For some reason his bedroom door opened outwards, so he had to break away from her lips, to curse as he wrenched open the door and staggered, off balance, around it and into his room before he unceremoniously dumped her on his bed.
"Stop that!" he said, ears red and face blushing as she laughed at him.
"Sorry, sorry! I just," but another trill of giggles, giggles for crying out loud, escaped her.
"No! no, don't be shy all of a sudden! Come here!" she said, as he awkwardly crossed his arms and stepped back half a step as if angling his hips would make his boner less noticeable. She sat up, quickly grabbed his hips and dragged him back to her. She was positive that the only thing keeping the towel up still was the erection making a tent with the white fluffy material.
She slowly unwrapped the towel and let it fall to the floor, hearing him suck in a breath as she leaned closer. She looked up at him and smirked at seeing the wide eyed wonder on his face, before she gently took his cock in her mouth and sucked.
"Oh God. Ép, God, I-" he muttered as she gently ran her tongue around his head, bobbing her head in time as she brought his hip closer.
"Ép, Éponine. I, God 'Ponine, yes." He muttered and she looked up at him through her lashes as he rambled, locking her eyes with his heavily lidded ones as he shuddered and his hands moved of their own accord into her hair for purchase, making her moan as she felt him lightly yank on it.
There came a strangled moan from him as the vibrations of her voice apparently had a huge impact on him. She had never had this big an effect on anyone before, and it was incredibly hot. She dug her nails into his arse, taking as much of him in as she could, and was surprised as he let his self-control go, letting her have his all as his hips twitched and his moans came out loud and unhindered.
She hummed again, dragging it out as long as she could as she took all of him in, letting the nails of her right hand drag from his backside around his hips and to the top of his thigh, leaving four red marks in their wake. Mine she thought as she left her mark, and she growled as she let her hand run up and down his thigh, feeling in control as his hips buckled uncontrollably, all the while he was almost yelling her name.
"I, oh God, 'Ponine, Ép, Ép, 'Ponine, Éponine, I – God! I'm gonna' – you have to, Éponine!» He yelled as he frantically yanked on her hair, but she snaked her right hand back around his hips to hold on as she felt him coming close.
"Oh Fuck!" he growled as he came, panting and sweaty. And he looked glorious, she thought, and he looked like this because of her. She swallowed, savouring the taste of him as he watched.
"God, I-" he muttered, before he collapsed on the bed next to her, laying with his arse in the air as he tried to catch his breath. She was proud of her self for the crescent moon marks her nails had left there and the four red lines she could see disappearing over the side of his hip.
She shimmied out of her skirt and crawled up the bed to lie on her stomach next to him, fingers tracing invisible tattoos on his back as she felt his muscles relax.
He mumbled something unintelligible into his duvet and turned his face to look as her in wonder.
"Sorry, I didn't catch that." She smiled at him as he reached a hand out to stroke her back as she had done with his just seconds before.
"I said 'that was amazing, but hardly fair.'" He repeated as his hand trailed down to play with the top of her thong.
She almost said something as silly as 'it was fairly hard.' But Enjolras luckily distracted her from saying it as he closed the distance and started kissing her, his hand working on her bra clasp and tongue doing that rolling thing that she had been fantasising about ever since New Year's Eve.
She hummed as he rolled her over on her back, sliding her bra straps off her shoulders before pushing away the offending garment, eagerly taking her nipple in his mouth and gently nibbling it as she moaned and arched her back to get closer to him. He massaged the hard nub between his fingers as he kissed his way down, leaving a burning trail where his mouth had been. He let go of her nipple to trail his hands down to separate her knees and stroke the inside of her thighs before he settled his shoulders between his thighs, and oh, he was going to-
"Fuck!" she exclaimed as she felt his nose nudge against her clit through her soaked knickers. And she impatiently dragged the stupid string down her thighs, ignoring his chuckle as he helped her out of it.
She heard him suck a breath, and trembled as she felt his hot breath on her hotter centre. She thought of him, of the complete control she had over him ten minutes minutes ago and wanted him to make her loose it the same way. He moved incredibly slowly, kissing the inside of her left thigh, then her right, and she could positively scream as he moved away the second time, and she showed her hands into his hair, tangling her fingers into his blond curls and she pushed his head to where she wanted him.
And then she could not think straight any longer, as his mouth attacked her clit and oh god he did the rolling tongue thing on her clit she had died and gone to heaven. She could not help the moans and gasps that escaped her lips, and the shouts that were almost wrenched out of her throat as he inserted two fingers into her and started pumping a quick and steady rhythm, all the while doing an impressive figure eight with his tongue on her clit.
"Fuck, yes, there, keep – yes, yes! Enjolras, fuck!" she exclaimed as he gently sucked on her clit, making her hips buckle unevenly, desperate for him, and she felt the almost impossible tension built even further until she shuddered, trembled, and shook with the force of her climax, spouting out a trill of profanities and gibberish as she clenched up around his fingers and then sunk into a boneless mess on his mattress.
Enjolras' face popped up from between her thighs and she would have laughed, if she weren't so contented and relaxed, because he was smiling boyishly at her, like a dog who had finally found the stick she threw as he beamed proudly, her juices still smeared all over his lips, chin and nose. Oh god, she never thought she would ever be as attracted to a nose like this until now.
She reached down and dragged his face to hers, so she could kiss that stupid nose of his. He happily obliged and smiled as he reached her.
"Wipe that proud grin off you face and fuck me already," she muttered as she reached her hand down to the hardness that was poking her hip.
And he ran his hand over her still sensitive cunt making her moan as he reached into his nightstand to grab a condom. She would have offered to put it on for him, but he was still letting the fingers of his left hand trail lightly up and down her wet slit. He made no time of putting it on and soon his tip was replacing his finger.
"Fuck, just get in me already!" she exclaimed, slapping his shoulder in frustration, and he complied, pushing himself into her and she could see stars. He was a perfect fit, filling her completely, and she knew that if she just…
Yes. She thought, or shouted; she was not quite sure, as she flung her left leg over his shoulder, hooking it there and moaned as he hit just the right spot. She felt his chest rumble with his growl as it was pressed against her thigh and breast.
"Move damnit." She bit out through clenched teeth; and god if he did. He pulled himself almost out of her, before he slammed himself back in, thrusting relentlessly as she felt her orgasm building up way too quickly.
His growls and moans mingled with hers and as she felt herself close to coming, she wrapped herself tighter around him and shouted his name.
It was explosive, and way better than she had ever dreamed of, she reflected afterward, and he collapsed on top of her, still inside her and tried to both catch his breath and suck her neck.
She stays the night, huddled under his warm duvet and in his warm embrace. She has never felt this warm and comfortable before. It's a safe feeling and she would give everything to feel like this every day for the rest of her life.
Over breakfast, they agree on not telling anybody what happened. Éponine doesn't really want the class to be on their case all the freaking time, and it was bad enough that Hannah suspected what had happened if her jibe on facebook was anything to go by. (Luckily she made said jibe on chat, and also promised not so say anything unless they did.) And Enjolras did not want to tell anybody that he had 'the sex' with her after he yelled at Marius when he thought he had done the same.
Although they did not make anything official, Éponine still went to the school nurse the day after to get some birth control pills. Enjolras even offered to pay for them, but as they cost 10kr for three months, she told him it was no big deal, his rent was more expensive anyway.
They stayed a secret for a long time. They were very casual at school, behaving like they always had, except now she would sometimes put her feet in his lap when they sat opposite each other in lunch. Or she would wink at him when she saw him about town after school. And her phone bill got more expensive. But other than that and frequent sleepovers at his flat, they pretty much stayed friends in front of their classmates and other friends.
It was not until a month later that they "came out."
On the seventeenth of May everybody dressed up in their national costumes for the day, Éponine didn't have a bunad; they cost the same as 10 months' rent for crying out loud! Without having to even talk Enjolras into it, they decided to take the 3 hour bus ride to see Gavroche and Azelma in their school's children-parades.
She is utterly surprised to see Azelma wearing a bunad. You could see there were mistakes with it and it was obviously not a real one, but it is still passable and incredibly nice and she thinks it must have cost her at least 10 000kr. How on earth she got the money for it was a mystery to Éponine. Then again, Azelma had always been in better graces with their parents.
Gavroche bounces excitedly over to her when he spots her, hugging her and telling her he'd missed her in a totally unlike-himself manner. And then she freezes as she sees who's got their arms wrapped around Azelma.
Montparnasse.
"Mother of fucking God," she mumbles as she stalks over to them, a confused Enjolras trailing after her.
"Well, hello 'Ponine, I don't believe I've seen you for, what, two years now? Did yah miss my cock?"
"Shut up!"
"Ah, so you did then-"
"No, 'Parnasse, I did not miss your cock. What the fuck are you doing here?"
"Ah, I'm enjoying my Russ parade, what did you think?" he smirked and brought Azelma closer, making it clear that he knew exactly what she thought. But sure enough he was wearing the black overalls the black Russ wore the month following up to the seventeenth of May as they pranked freshmen, did drunk dares and went to festivals in huge vans, attempting sexual promiscuities with as many people as possible. She was actually looking forwards to her own time as a Russ, wearing red overalls and wreaking havoc. It must be the best tradition of this country.
But the fact that he actually graduated was not a big enough shock to deter her from her confrontation.
"Since when the fuck did you fucking start fucking dating my fucking sister, you fuck?!"
"What, are you jealous?" Montparnasse smirked.
"Of course not, idiot!"
"Because they say you never get over your first… now come on, where is the good tease I remember from middle school?"
Éponine slapped him, hard, and felt a great satisfaction at the way her hand stung, meaning it was a good slap too.
Montparnasse sighed and looked back at her as Enjolras carefully took her arm as she prepared for another slap.
"I see your new boyfriend doesn't like living his life on the edge, you must get bored with him."
"What? Because he doesn't deal pot? Because he actually answers when I call him? Because he actually cares about getting me off instead of getting himself off?"
Enjolras blushed furiously, but kept his power stance as he looked down at Montparnasse, silently promising to fuck up his face if he said another thing about his girlfriend. Éponine turned her attention to Azelma instead.
"'Zel, what are you doing with him?"
Azelma scoffed "what, because you are allowed to do him, but the moment he takes an interest in me he's suddenly bad news?"
"He was always bad news, I just didn't realise it until we dated. I thought you were smarter than this Azelma. I thought you were better than me."
Azelma was obviously caught off guard, expecting Éponine to retaliate, maybe slap her as well, but this Éponine was different than the old Éponine and they both knew it.
"You changed," Azelma stated. It was a neutral statement, she was not happy for Éponine, nor was she bitter, she simply accepted it.
The sisters then split, Azelma and Montparnasse went with the other black Russ to cause a commotion while Éponine and Enjolras followed Gavroche as he excitedly told them about his first year of middle school, telling Éponine about his cheeks with the teacher and telling Enjolras about the cute girls as Éponine got them their third ice creams. They called Courf and asked him to pick them up when it became obvious that Gavroche would make them stay until the fireworks at midnight. They escorted Gavroche back home after that and made their way back into town to wait for Courf.
And as they walked, Éponine wearing Enjolras' suit jacket over her bare shoulders, they discussed Montparnasse for the first time.
"I can't believe you were with that swine." Enjolras voiced what had obviously been on his mind all day.
"I can't believe it took you this long to bring it up," she tried laughing it off, but by the look Enjolras sent her it was obvious that he was not in the mood for joking now.
"We were fourteen years old. Well, it was right after his fifteenth birthday and I was a little drunk and I was young and naïve so we ended up dating for about a year, less than that, and then he started making out with random girls at parties and I just couldn't do it anymore so we broke up and I slept with this other guy to get over him and it just ended up with a cluster fuck of things I could not deal with so I abstained from guys until I met Marius. So, counting you, I have only slept with three guys. And I have to say I do not really regret that."
She held her head high, she still carried feelings of resentment towards Cosette's friends for slut shaming her after that one night stand in the tenth grade.
Speaking of Cosette, she thought as she saw a blonde beauty scream and run towards her.
"Éponine! Oh. My. Gosh! I haven't seen you in almost two years, what happened?" Cosette was apparently drunk.
"Cosette, hi, is this your first time drinking?" Éponine asked as the petite blonde girl flung her arms around her.
"Yes, I might have had a tiny bit yes." She nodded suddenly serious. There was a moment of awkward silence as Cosette looked from Éponine to Enjolras, totally unaware that she had interrupted a really serious conversation.
"Yeah, um, this is Enjolras, my ehm, my Enjolras." She stuttered a bit awkwardly.
"Nice to meet you Éponine's Enjolras." Cosette smiled as she wrapped her arms around a bewildered Enjolras, who awkwardly patted the top of her head.
Cosette then returned her attention to Éponine. "I told my dad I was staying the night at a friend's house but we had a fight and I can't possibly go home drunk to papa, now can I? I know that we haven't really talked in two years but would you mind awfully if I stayed the night at your place?"
Cosette's big pleading, and bordering on tearful, eyes were just impossible to say no to.
So that was the story of how Cosette 'outed' Enjolras as 'Éponine's Enjolras' to the car containing Courf, Jehan, Marius and Grantaire, and also how Cosette met Marius, but that is another love story to tell some different time.
"So this is your secret lover… should have known." Grantaire said, a bitter undertone to his voice as they all climbed into the car. For the most awkward 3 hours of Éponine's life they were 7 people stuck in a 5 seater.
After the 17th, Éponine and Enjolras didn't necessarily become any more affectionate. They did get to finish the chat after Éponine and Grantaire put Cosette in her bed, and she went over to Enjolras' for just that reason. But ever since their classmates found out they were just as annoying as Éponine knew they were going to be. Overanalysing the smallest of touches and the weakest of teases, and Éponine very nearly smacked Hannah as she easily fuelled the fire.
So that was a big difference to get used to, but the biggest difference was the open hostility Grantaire held towards her. He stopped sitting with them at lunch, stopped playing cards with them when the others had French, he stopped watching TV-series with her, and totally abandoned her for weekly pizza night at the Italian place. But she could deal with his M.I.A. behaviour, but it was the nasty jibes he said whenever they actually were together that hurt the worst. Grantaire was her best friend in the world, and he knew everything about her and he knew what would hurt her the most, and damn it she had trusted him and here he was breaking her heart every day.
As a result, she started staying over at Enjolras' flat almost constantly, and refused to listen whenever he told her she should talk to R and find out how to fix it. Because it was obvious she had hurt him in some way.
This went on for the rest of the month, and when exams started in the beginning of June, Éponine had had enough.
She stormed home after a fight with Enjolras where she had pretty much irrationally blamed him for all her problems with her exam subject, Grantaire, her sister, heck she even blamed her stress acne on him before she slammed the door shut and stalked back home. The ten minute walk did nothing to calm her down, and when she unlocked the door to see Grantaire making a break for his bedroom door to lock himself away, she knew she had to bloody fix this thing.
"No!" she shouted as she threw herself between him and the door. "I need you to talk to me and I need you to listen."
He just crossed his arms and stuck out his chin, looking expectantly at her. So she said what had been on her mind for almost a month.
"What the fuck is your problem? We've been best friend for years and now you can't bear to be in the same room as me, and when you are all you do is taunt me and bring up things that you know hurts. What's the deal?"
Grantaire looked resentfully at her for a moment, before he too accepted the fact that he couldn't do this anymore. He took a sip of the beer in his hand before he answered.
"You hurt me Ép, you hurt me first. You hurt me when you went behind my back-"
"It's not as if you were the only one I didn't tell! We didn't tell anybody!"
"Then why did Cosette know? And Hannah, seriously you told Hannah before you told me?"
"Cosette interrupted a very couple-y conversation and Hannah guessed it before it even happened!"
"I was still the last to know."
"No you weren't and you know that, what is really the issue here?"
"I, I…" but Grantaire didn't continue, he only looked timidly at the ground and closed his mouth, suddenly extremely vulnerable. He raised his glassy eyes at her and said with such heart breaking sadness and despair;
"I love him."
And suddenly she understood. All the months he had teased her about Enjolras were to see if she actually did like him or not, and the reason why he had been so distant after the snog-fest at Courf's Christmas party was because she had kissed Enjolras.
"I- I didn't know," she whispered, unsure what to do with this new bit of information.
"Yeah, well, you should have. As you said, I am your best friend, and you should have fucking known that I was arse over tits in love with Enjolras if you just hadn't been so fucking homophobic and self-centred." The venom in his voice that she had gotten used to the past few weeks was back.
"What?"
"Yeah, if you didn't think about yourself all the fucking time, you would have noticed I was struggling with my unrequited love! And if you weren't so damn homophobic, you would have been okay with me being in love with a boy, and you wouldn't have been so shocked about it!"
"That is not the case! I thought you had a little thing for Jehan, it's not as if I didn't know you were gay!"
"What?"
"Yeah, I was waiting for you to come out when you were ready, and I thought you would come out along with Jehan after New Year's but that you just hadn't done it and were regretting it and that was the reason why you were avoiding me. Oh fuck. Grantaire, had you just told me then, we would not have been having this problem!"
"Yeah, like you wouldn't have lusted after Enjolras if you knew I did too."
"That is not what I am saying; I am saying that I never would have gone to Enjolras with my confusing fucking feelings if I knew it would hurt you. You're my best friend and I love you, but I'm afraid it's too late now."
Grantaire was crying, so was she for that matter, and he looked like he didn't know whether to blame her or blame himself.
"But you are right. I should have known. But I didn't. And it is just as much my fault for not understanding as it is yours for not telling me. But I can't break up with Enjolras for you."
There was a moment of quiet, before a half-choked sob escaped Grantaire.
"Why not?" She knew he knew how childish he sounded, but she also knew that when it came to matters of the heart; everybody turned into the biggest needy three-year-olds.
So she wrapped her arms around her big best friend, letting her hoodie soak up his tears as he wept, she stroked his back and silently answered.
Because I love him too much.
And that night was the most depressing birthday of her life.
Just because she had talked things over with Grantaire, did not mean that they were the same best friends they used to be. In fact, she was pretty sure their relationship would never be the same again.
So when he announced that he was moving out of their shared flat when their yearly lease was up, she couldn't find it in her to be surprised.
But they had one last night, after she had helped him do his laundry and pack his boxes, where they were simply themselves. They had a movie marathon as they ate take away pizza from the Italian place, and she made cookie dough only to have them eat it out of the mixing bowl together as they cuddled up on her bed to watch another episode of top model. And they fell asleep tangled together like they used to do in the eighth grade, her at the headboard with her arms wrapped around him as he used her stomach for a pillow.
And neither mentioned Enjolras the entire night.
When school restarted, Enjolras had moved in with her. They had decided that instead of her looking for a new roommate, it was better to just move his stuff into her flat and split the bills between them. She already knew how domestic they got around each other, and for some reason she felt less nervous about moving in with Enjolras than she had felt about moving in with Grantaire two years previously.
Enjolras was safe, and she felt comfortable around him, not too comfortable though, there was still a lot of (sexy) excitement in their relationship, but she did not feel like she had anything to hide from him.
She had originally planned on letting Azelma move in with her, but she had apparently decided to become a Restaurant and Culinary major instead.
For the start of their third year of high school, their senior year, the last year before they went into the world, Éponine found herself dreading the inevitable time when school would end and he would fly abroad to go to some amazing university, leaving her to go to a mediocre one in Norway, where tuition was free and the loans payable.
She wanted to be a teacher, she told him as the subject came up, and there was a local school that was one of the best in the country for educating teachers.
"It has he lowest drop out percentage and I get to keep this flat, which is mine and I love it." She said as she gestured around herself. The flat had become amazing. After asking the landlady, she was allowed to paint the horrible pine walls white and give the ceiling a new coat of white paint while she was at it, leaving the rooms feeling bigger and brighter. She had also turned her old bedroom, which was originally the living room, back into a living room and moved Enjolras' amazing red couch in there as they moved into Grantaire's old bed room.
The layout was great and the size was perfect for the two of them, and the landlady liked them so much she said she would gladly rent them this flat until the day she died.
This was where she and Enjolras had their first fight however. He believed she should follow her theatre dreams (and talent!) and audition for the top drama schools both in Norway and abroad, while she had no issue with staying put. This was her first proper home for crying out loud!
But they took the fight to bed, literally, and after an amazing round of angry sex (or three) she decided that he was actually right. (Not because of the sex, but because of the arguments in between.)
So after a lovely Christmas, spent partially at their flat with Gavroche, and partially (two days only) at Enjolras' parents cabin, she returned to school with double the intensity as she threw herself into the main production working.
The best thing about the New Year though was not her newfound resolve to try becoming a professional actor, it was that Grantaire and Jehan had finally gotten over their individual unrequited loves enough to try dating each other. And Hannah whispered to Éponine as they worked on the scenography; it would take them shorter time to figure out they had fallen in love than it had taken Éponine and Enjolras.
The winter was long this year, with freezing nights, some dropping to almost – 40 ᵒ Celsius, but Éponine could still see the beauty of the snow frozen onto the trees and the glittering icicles covering every street corner (death-traps, Enjolras called them, when one almost fell on his head). But the inky black sky was dotted with millions upon millions of stars when the sky was as clear as it was now, and the Aurelia borealis was shimmering faintly green above them.
It was a romantic winter full of cuddling in bed to keep warm and short stops with spontaneous sex at the tanning beds that were open 24/7 and located midway between their flat and the grocery store. She felt drunk on love, and it was still winter, her favourite time of year, where it almost seemed like the cold also had also frozen time, and she got to be with her Enjolras like this forever.
Winter inevitably changed to spring though, waking her up from her dream and forcing her through puddles of icy water and alternate days of rain and snow as everybody in their class started stressing over everything. All non-drama related subjects were expecting a great deal from them and their drama teachers expected even more as they also worked really hard to finish their main production.
Hannah and Éponine were everywhere, hot-gluing and gaffa-taping everything from costumes, to scenography, to scripts and their own fingers, wanting everything to go perfect as Enjolras used his natural leading abilities to whip them into shape, forcing them all to redo things that were not perfect and not to horse around at rehearsals. Éponine had no idea how he managed to lead his AUF meetings, take extra subjects and give 110% to their main production while still having enough energy to make dinner on his days and not slack at all in the bedroom. He must be some sort of a wonder-super-duper-man or something, because Éponine was only half as busy as him and still felt exhausted. Éponine was actually convinced he was Clark Kent when he got a part time job on top of it all.
Their main production came and went, it had been a huge success and they had actually managed to make more money on ticket sales than they had expected, leaving them all pleased and in a state of lingering euphoria that lasted for the next week, seamlessly mixing itself with the excitement for their Russ celebration. Éponine and Hannah stayed up all night hot-gluing, sowing and ironing all sorts of shite onto their red overalls as Enjolras prepared for his private exam in "study of law" two weeks from then. So they abused his overalls too, and he could not help but laugh when he saw the pocket flap that covered his crotch area was labelled "Home of the 'mini Chief'."
They got drunk off their arses on the night before the 1st of May, as was the tradition, and they got a lift in Courf's van really cheap for the festivals and she could honestly say she had not had this much fun in in a long time.
For the national day they, once again, took the bus to see Gavroche. They were surprised to see him walking around hand in hand with a pretty little redhead, who he presented to them as his girlfriend, Éponine was a little bit mad, hissing to Enjolras that Gavroche was only a baby and too young to have a girlfriend, while Enjolras calmly reminded her that she had told him, exactly a year ago, that she had her first boyfriend when she was Gavroche's age. This did not help as Éponine changed her argument to "Gavroche is too young to have sex!"
But after just half an hour of hanging out with the two little lovebirds, it was plainly obvious that they were not yet bonking.
Yet.
That night they managed to catch the last bus home, leaving Gavroche and sweet, freckled Marianne to enjoy the fireworks in peace.
They then joined their classmates at around one in the morning for one last celebration before it was time to take the overalls off for the last time.
(and Éponine and Enjolras had a lot of fun with that particular aspect of tradition as they drunkenly locked themselves inside Courf's van to do just that. )
When the celebrations were over, you could see all the seniors, no matter what program they did, looking a little worse for wear. The constant drunkenness for 21 days was rapidly catching up with them as everybody worried about exams and pre-exams. It was as if the whole 3rd grade had one massive hangover, and the other classes were taking advantage of that as payback for all the pranks that had been played on them during the Russ period.
When the exams were over and they could all finally relax, they all just walked around in anticipation. Wondering where they would go next year.
And that was when the rounds of auditions started for Éponine. She made countless of video audition tapes for countless schools abroad she had gotten call-backs from and spent half her food budget on train tickets to various schools in the country.
Enjolras was being very supportive, he had quickly gotten his acceptance letter to the law school in Oslo, being beyond pleased that he could get to go to his dream school; it made him twice as optimistic that Éponine would get to do that too. It was not really a surprise Éponine told him after a few rounds of congratulatory sex in all five rooms of the flat (yes even the tiny cupboard of a hallway) he had gotten a perfect 6.0 GPA and 2 additional study points for his involvement in the more challenging subjects.
"Honestly, if you had not gotten in with 6.2 out of 6.0 and the glowing recommendations from our teachers, I would seriously have doubted the system!"
So it was with unearthly joy that she found out she had gotten in to the second call back at KHiO. (Oslo National Academy of the Arts) They always selected 1 or 2 first time appliers to their program, and she could be one of them.
"You know when I forced you to watch fame?" she said excitedly, jumping up and down in her seat.
"Yeah," he smiled, indulging her for a little while.
"It's like that, except more theatre focus and less bohemian problems."
"Yeah, I know." He was still smiling at her.
"And it is harder to get into than that school let me tell yah. They only accept like 8 a year and people apply every year for a decade before getting accepted!"
"I know 'Ponine. I had the same introduction that you did."
"Oh, right..." she said as she collapsed back into her seat, suddenly nervous as fuck.
"Hey, you'll do great! You are extremely talented, you love drama and acting and you were made for this, trust me."
She curled into his lap, kissing his lips as a reward for saying the perfect things.
"You know what would really help?" She whispered mischievously into his ear.
"Éponine! We are on the train!" he hissed, but he could not help feeling incredibly aroused because he knew exactly what would help a nervous Éponine.
"The bathroom is unoccupied, and I checked it earlier, there is no fugly shit there either!"
"That must be the sexiest pick up line I have ever heard." He deadpanned as she started nipping his ear.
"Aw, come on! Please! For my future, the audition depends on this!"
"For crying out loud!" he mumbled, a phrase he had picked up from her, and made his way to the bathroom before the tent in his trousers became too noticeable.
Éponine did great on her audition and joined Enjolras with his flat hunting when she was let out, confident that they needed to find one for the both of them and they found a few they could both imagine living in. It was not as if you could get affordable great flats with amazing space without having to ride 40 minutes on the metro twice a day.
But they found an adorable flat that was a tiny bit smaller than their current one and not too far from the universities.
When they arrived home that evening she was extremely happy and content with her life, and when her acceptance letter arrived in the mail, she and Enjolras threw a huge party in their tiny flat, as a little goodbye to their friends and classmates.
And Éponine reflected on the impromptu decision she had made that time over three years ago in an old computer lab, back when her life literally had no direction, and she had signed up for drama (as a second choice, but she had signed up never the less) and not one day since, no matter what sort of drama she was mixed up in, or how much stress she was under, or how impossible her drama homework had been; she would never regret that decision in her life.
It had given her these amazing friends, Enjolras; who was possibly the love of her life, and it had given her purpose, a sense of direction, and a sense of self that she never would have managed to find without the years of forced exploring.
And for that, she thanked Grantaire, clinking her glass with his as she nodded, her arm around Enjolras and the biggest grin on her face, for writing the two words that he had written on that dingy old desk.
Far Away.