This fic is only a one shot. I'm not quite sure why I wrote about Cosette seeing as she's my least favourite character but I needed something to get my ideas and inspiration rolling.
I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer- Well you should know this by now...
Cosette lay sobbing to herself on the thin mattress on the floor. Cosette knew it was wrong to cry, Madame had told her that when she was younger. "you oughtta' be grateful we even took you in,you little slut!" But Cosette couldn't help crying sometimes, days she would go wihthout showing emotion and then suddenly it would catch up with her. But only ever at night.
Wiping her tears she turned over in order to find a more comfortable position but no matter how hard she tried the worn, scrap banket that once belonged to Eponine yielded no warmth from the Winters frost. Cossette did not like the dark, she prefferred the happy sunshine and the smell of wildflowers in the garden, but only rarely could she play outside. Azelma and Eponine were always playing outside, they never had to sew old clothes, scrub floors or clean the fireplace.
"What did I ever do wrong?" she asked herself almost every night. Perhaps she was being punished for the time when she broke one of the Thenardier's mugs and cut her fragile hand. Afterall, they did have to replace the mug and waste time tending to her wound when they could have been serving the customers. Or maybe it was because of her illness, a few years back, when there was no-one to polish the staircase.
Cosette being only a young child did not think ill of anyone, she knew it was all her fault and that if she did what she was told, when she was told the Thenardier's would be happy.
But why had her mother left her in such a place? Did she even have a mother? Perhaps madame was her mother but hated her for being so ugly. Yet Cosette still liked to think that her real mother was coming for her, with a bundle of the sweetest wildflowers in the world and pretty dresses like the ones Azelma and Eponine had. Oh how nice she would look!
And maybe even a father who would teach her how to read and write and dance with her like the fairies she often saw in her dreams. But only ever in her dreams.
"Cossette! get down here now!"
Cosette jumped up from her bed shaken with fright. She had mad Madame angry again, Eponine was right. She WAS stupid. Cosette wiped the tears from her eyes. "I'm coming!" her voice shook slightly amongst her sobs. Her feet pattered across the floor, making her way through the dark to the door.
She was greeted by light which was hidden from her room. Cosette was scared of the dark but the bright full moon shining through her very own window comforted her. "Eponine and Azelma may have pretty dresses. But I have the moon" she reminded herself, smiling.
There were still a few soft murmurs coming from downstairs and as Cosette hurried down the stairs she saw the last customers staggering out the inn, shouting incoherently at one another.
Madame was standing behind the bar with her hands on her hips. "Where have you been!" she demanded slapping Cosette across the face. Cosette winced but bit her lip hard to stop the tears coming, and as usual it worked, despite the blood dripping from her mouth.
"I was...fixing the, um, clothes in my room" she lied, quickly wiping the blood from her lips with the back of her hand. Madame looked at her hard then smiled.
"Well, if by tommorrow you've washed the aprons and as you said fixed the clothes perhaps I'll let you out to play"
Cosette picked up the basket of aprons and ran to the washing room at the back of the inn. She quickly emptied the basket into the tub of water and scrubbed the clothes harder than before. She knew that if she were to play outside tomorrow, the clothes would need to be washed quickly so she could finish sewing the clothes. Even if she wouldn't be able to sleep.