It would only be a fling - she wasn't about to break up the happy home she had created for herself. After all, why would she give up the wonderful stability she had longed for her whole life for somebody as sporadic and inconsistent as Enjolras? It just didn't make sense.
He had initiated it, so she can always say that she didn't start anything. But she didn't stop him, and when he asked if she was okay with it, she did nod and kiss him harder than before. But it would only happen once, and, as she drove back home, she realised that she was fine with it.
If they did it a second time, things might get awkward. Well, she says 'second time'- funny seeing as they had sex three times, amongst other things, in the five hours she had been at his house. But she could not let it happen again.
Driving home, she couldn't help but feel guilty. She loved Marius, who wouldn't? His dopey smile and loving words were so endearing, she could hardly say no when he asked her to marry him. Three years of marriage was too much to give up for a blond man who prioritised work over friends.
They had married quickly. After five months of dating, he had popped the question in their apartment. Obviously, she had said yes, the perfect life she had always dreamed of seeming not out of reach.
And it was perfect. They were the postcard couple, the ones every other couple aspired to be. They loved each other, had a stable income, and still had time for their friends. They were happy.
Up until Marius joined Les Amis. Courfeyrac, one of Marius' coworkers, invited him to one of their meetings, and her husband loved it. So he started going to their meetings, every Tuesday morning and Thursday night. Once Marius introduced Éponine to Courfeyrac, the latter said that she had to join their group, that she would fit right in with them. So she did.
She remembers how awkward she felt when she first met them all. There were so many of them, and they were all great friends, and she just felt like she was intruding on them. So she clung to Marius' hand as he introduced his 'wife, Éponine' to all of his friends. They all welcomed her, included her in conversation. Well, everyone except for him.
She didn't even know his name at first. She just rolled her eyes and pretended to listen when he gave a speech about freedom. Bahorel told her that he was their leader. She couldn't help but feel like they could have chosen somebody better to lead their little group of rebels.
But the 'chief' blatantly ignored her. She supposes that that is what set them off in the first place, what really ignited the tension between them. She would glare at him, and he would pretend she wasn't there. Being the only girl, she immediately assumed it was because of her gender. Calling him a 'sexist pig' to Marius the night after their first meeting, he nodded along with her and told her that the blond man didn't seem to like Marius either.
Of course, in hindsight, she recognises the looks from across the room as lustful glances instead of glares, and she feels foolish when she thinks of how he once asked only for her opinion, merely so she would begin a debate with him. His idea of flirting was poor, but she found it quite adorable when she realised how hard he tried, especially considering how he had probably never spoken to a woman before her.
She won't lie. She did find him attractive from the start. But, in all honesty, she found his annoying personality and headstrong persona overpowering, so she didn't even realise what had been brewing inside of her ever since the first meeting until it all blew up in front of her.
When he first asked her to stay with him after a meeting and help him with an important letter, she had frowned and shared a silent look of grief with Marius. But she had agreed. She was the editor of the local newspaper, so he needed her 'exemplary language skills to dictate a passionate and hard hitting letter' to another revolutionary group in the city. It was for a good cause, she reminded herself as she watched Marius walk down the stairs, leaving her with the man who seemingly hated her guts.
He had apologised. Told her that he didn't know how to speak to her, he found her 'intimidating' somehow. She had laughed at him, and she thinks that that is when the tension was lifted. She kept checking the time, however, she had told Marius that she would only be an hour, that she would be back by 4pm.
They had actually gotten a lot of the letter done. Well, she had been writing, he had been nodding at intervals and giving suggestions and just blatantly staring at her. She found it very distracting. How could she concentrate when she could hear his breathing and feel his knee against her own?
She was about to ask him about the other revolutionary group when he had kissed her. She was shocked at first, but the determined frown on his face and his trembling hands made her cave. She pulled back to see him stuttering for words to say, so she kissed him back to ease his embarrassment. They went back to his shortly after, and she hadn't left until 8pm.
Marius asked her about it. She lied and said that she had met up with Azelma. He seemed to accept it, and didn't ask her about it again.
But at the next meeting she couldn't help but feel like everybody knew. Courfeyrac was grinning at her more slyly, Bahorel kept glancing at Enjolras when talking to her. Most importantly, he would not stop staring at her. On multiple times she had to grab Marius' hand just to convince herself of the current situation.
They don't speak about it until a week later when he corners her at a meeting. Marius is on the opposite side of the room, grinning to some blonde that Grantaire has introduced to the group. Her eyes keep flicking to her husband, but the blond man is blocking most of her view.
He speaks quietly, but she hears every word. He thinks she has been avoiding him. She says that she hasn't, but it's obvious that she has been. How can she speak to him about that day when her husband is just across the room?
But she does. They end up going outside, Bahorel's rambunctious laughter making it hard to speak quietly. Somehow or another, they end up kissing. She's pressed against the wall when they hear a door open, and they jump apart. The blonde girl from the meeting walks out, barely registering them before walking across the road hurriedly.
Enjolras grabs hold of her hand and pulls her a couple of steps down the road. She resists, but the look of longing of his face makes her cave once more, and soon enough she finds herself in his apartment again. She doesn't leave until the next morning, so she goes straight to work.
Marius asks her about it obviously. She feels guilty about using Azelma as her excuse every time she sleeps with Enjolras, but she thinks that as long as Marius doesn't know, everything will be fine.
Everything isn't fine. Enjolras starts getting jealous when he sees her with Marius at meetings, starts glaring at Marius when he mentions that Éponine is his wife. She doesn't show up to a meeting one day, and Marius comes home and tells her all about how Enjolras was moody and how he 'wouldn't stop asking about you'.
She wishes she could end it. But it is such a nice break from the normal steady life she has set up, that she can't help but wish for that curly blonde hair and those blue eyes more often. Marius was enough for her. He's always there for her, and he's more than fulfilling in the bedroom department, as well as in the husband department. But Enjolras excites her.
She sneaks out to Enjolras' one night when Marius is doing some work in his office. He kisses her goodbye, tells her to say 'hi to 'Zelma from me'. She grins and nods her head.
When she gets to his door, she hears yelling. She can't hear who it is, two men she thinks, but she hears doors slamming. She doesn't register what is happening until the front door is yanked open and Combeferre is stood there, glasses askew and a wild look on his face. It's scary because she has never seen him like this before, the usually calm and composed man in a state of disarray.
He nods at her and straightens himself, striding past her and waking down the street quickly. When she turns back around, Enjolras is stood in the hallway in front of her. He looks lost, and she frowns.
He walks towards her and lets his arms fall around her. She hugs him back, and is grateful that he doesn't start crying. She doesn't know what she would do if he did.
They don't have sex that night, they watch films and eat ice cream and tell stories. She wishes they had just had sex, because it might have made it a lot more easier in the long run.
Somehow she gets pregnant. Despite the fact that she uses protection, both with her husband and with Enjolras, she ends up with a baby inside of her. She sits and cries for a full hour, and Marius finds her on the floor of their bathroom staring blankly at the wall with the little stick clutched in her hand. He grins, and she can see that this is what he wanted. He has been waiting for this moment, always has been since the wedding. He didn't want to use protection, but she wanted to wait for children. And now that it's finally come, she doesn't know what to do.
She doesn't want Enjolras to know. She knows what he will think, but she doesn't want to think about that possibility, so she pretends it doesn't exist.
But Marius tells everyone anyway. It's all he talks about at the next meeting, and she can feel Enjolras' eyes on her all night. He tries to speak to her at one point, but Combeferre's knowing eyes make her walk to Marius and stay by his side for the rest of the night.
Marius freaks out at the first ultrasound. They both cry, and as soon as she sees it she realises that it's not as much of a problem as she thought, that maybe it'll do them good. But when Marius shows all their friends the pictures, and when Enjolras storms out of the room, she thinks that maybe she got that wrong too.
There's not much she can do when Enjolras shows up at her door one afternoon. He obviously planned it so that Marius would be at work, but he looks as though he has been crying so she lets him in.
He asks her if it is his. She says that she honestly doesn't know, that it could be either of them. He looks devastated, and she feels sad and guilty and whole lot of other feelings that she should definitely not be feeling in this situation.
They kiss again, but it's much more softer and slower than the other times. Afterwards, he says that he loves her, and she thinks that that's the difference between sex and making love; when both the people involved are irrevocably in love with each other.
She makes him leave after two hours, Marius usually got back at about 9, and Enjolras had shown up at 6pm. He doesn't want to, and he kisses her again and she almost caves, but a knock at the door stops them instead.
Enjolras looks at her, and his already heavy breathing speeds up as he lays on top of her. She panics, and when he moves off of her she instantly starts putting her clothes on.
"Who could that be?" Enjolras is putting his clothes on as well, but at a much slower pace than Éponine is. She knows why, and it's that malicious and sadistic part of Enjolras that makes her realise why Marius is a much better husband and father than Enjolras could ever be for her.
"I don't know. He shouldn't be back for at least an hour!" She's got her clothes on by now, so she brushes her hair quickly with the first brush she can find. Turning to Enjolras, she nods when she sees him pulling his tshirt on and buttoning his jeans.
She opens the bedroom door. "Okay, go into the kitchen."
He nods at her, and she can't help but notice how his hand lingers on her hip as he walks past her in the doorway. When he is in the kitchen, she clears her throat and walks to the door. These were the times when she really wishes their door had windows.
She opens the door slowly, and her breath stops when she sees who it is.
"Hey, babe."
Her smile is forced and he must be able to tell that her heart has stopped beating, because he frowns when she only replies with "hi."
"Are you okay?" He's concerned, and it's cute and all, but she's too scared to deal with that right now. He's currently dripping with rain, the weather has been bad recently, and the droplets are falling down his face.
She nods. "Yeah, just a little shocked." She tries to act more naturally, so she kisses him on the cheek and hugs him. "You're home early!"
"I know!" He grins at her. "Mike said I could go if I wanted, just as long as the essay was finished, so-" she interrupts him by kissing him. Maybe if she distracts him like this, Enjolras would be able to sneak out unnoticed. A stupid idea, she knows, but she can dream.
"Marius, hi."
For fuck's sake.
Marius tenses underneath her hands, and she steps back. She keeps a grin on her face to try and show that she is innocent, but Marius frowns anyway, standing tall. "Enjolras. What are you doing here?"
She speaks before Enjolras can. "I was having a bit of a hormonal break down, and since I knew you were at work, I called Enjolras instead." She's actually pretty proud of that lie, especially considering that she came up with it on the spot.
"Oh." He nods. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks. I was an absolute mess earlier though."
Marius is still eyeing Enjolras, and Enjolras is glaring right back, so she tries to keep the conversation going. "We just watched a film and talked." There's not much she can say, but she tries. "Marius, do you not want to go and get changed? You're soaking."
"Yeah, I will." Marius nods and places his briefcase next to the door. Taking his coat off, he looks at Enjolras. "Are you staying, Enjolras? Do you not have somewhere important to be?"
She doesn't look at Enjolras, but she can almost imagine how he looks: raised eyebrow, slight smirk, crossed arms. "Not particularly. Why?"
Marius turns to him. "Because I'm about to go and have sex with my wife, so I think you should leave."
Éponine's mouth gapes. She did not expect Marius to speak so harshly, least of all to Enjolras.
She does turn to Enjolras then, and watches as he nods slightly. "Right."
"Leave." Marius' voice is clear and loud, and Éponine just stands there.
Enjolras nods, walking over and picking up his coat from the sofa. Not even putting it on, he quickly slips his shoes on and walks to the still open door. "I'll see you tomorrow, Éponine." Éponine doesn't register the hand on her hip, or the way it slides around to her stomach as he walks past her, until after he has gone, but Marius sees it all.
Enjolras doesn't even look at Marius as he walks out of the door. Éponine closes it afterwards, and turns to Marius slowly.
"I don't want him in our home ever again."
She nods.
They argue about it the next time they see each other, the next day in fact. She goes around to Enjolras' at 1pm the next day, just after Marius has gone to work. He hugs her as soon as the door is closed behind her, and everything is fine for a while.
"I've missed you." She hears him mumble into her hair, and she smiles.
She pulls back and looks into his eyes carefully. "I'm sorry about last night. Marius was very argumentative all night."
He shrugs. "It's not your fault, it doesn't matter."
"Good. But I think we should start being safer with this, if we're going to carry this on, that is." She walks past him and sits on the sofa, watching as he follows and frowns at her. Their knees are touching, and she feels him grab her hand.
"What do you mean?"
She swallows. "Well, it's obviously very dangerous. I'm pregnant now, Enjolras. Marius is going to be more protective and jealous than before."
He looks at her incredulously. "What, and I don't have a right to be protective and jealous too?"
She lets go of his hands and stares at the floor. "Marius is my husband, so-"
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that he's definitely the father, does it?"
She stares at him, her mouth open a bit in shock. Her voice is small, so is easily overpowered by him. "Well-"
"I will not let my child be fathered by another man. Especially one such as Pontmercy." His voice is stern, and she almost feels as though she is being told off.
"But it could be Marius', that's the thing-"
He stands up abruptly and turns to her. "And what if it isn't? What if it is mine?" He's shouting now, and her eyes widen. "Are you just gonna carry on living that perfect little life of yours with Pontmercy and my child, convincing him that it is his? I'm sorry, Éponine, but I cannot let you do that. It's unfair on me."
She nods, but frowns at him. "Enjolras, there's no point in talking about hypothetical situations, we don't know whose the baby is, and we won't know for another 8 months, okay?"
"But it's unfair that Marius gets to be happy about the child in social situations, and I just have to nod my head and act as though I don't care, that nothing is going on between us." He starts walking around the room now, and she stands up to gain his attention.
"Enjolras, the whole idea of an affair is that it's secret. Marius already thinks something is going on between us, let's not make it worse." She groans.
"He does?"
"Of course! Why do you think he reacted in such a way yesterday? Apparently he's seen you looking at me during meetings, and Bahorel supposedly told him that we are friends now- which is obviously a big deal in Marius' mind."
Enjolras walks towards the sofa and sits, pulling her with him. "Éponine, just tell him, get it over with."
"I can't-"
"Yes, you can." She stays silent, and he continues. "Éponine, somebody is going to find out. One of our friends will work it out, and Marius will eventually hear about it. Would you prefer him to find out from one of the guys, me, or you?" He raises an eyebrow at her, and she frowns.
"No." She stands up. "If we stop now, he will never have to find out." She walks towards the front door, fully ready to leave the house and not see him for another three days. She's opened the door when he speaks, and it makes her freeze.
"I'll tell him."
Her grip tightens on the door handle. His voice is fierce and loud, and it frightens her.
"I know where Marius works, I could go and tell him now if I wanted."
She sighs. "What if it isn't even yours?" She doesn't turn to look at him, but hears him sighing too.
"But what if it is?"
She just leaves the house, closing the door gently behind her.
She spends the next few days making up with Marius, acting as the perfect wife and only leaving the house to meet up with Musichetta and to go shopping. She sees Joly at their local store, but she just smiles and says that she has to rush off when he tries to strike up a conversation with her.
By Monday night Enjolras mustn't have told Marius anything, as her husband still speaks to her stomach every night, and wraps his arms around her, his fingers resting on her abdomen, while they sleep, whispering various versions 'I love you' and 'you're everything to me' into her hair.
The next morning, she's throwing up worse than ever. Marius finds her crouching over the toilet, and he brushes back her hair and rubs her back, whispering sweet nothings to her again.
They don't go to the meeting that day, and Marius gets a text from Enjolras saying that the meeting on Thursday is cancelled. She frowns obviously, since she got a text from Enjolras just before saying that the meeting will be at 6 instead of 7, finishing at 10 instead of 9.
She deletes the message and hides her phone just in case.
She does go to the meeting, claiming that work need her for a few hours to go over some files. He nods, tells her to not 'strain' herself and the baby, and she smiles and kisses his cheek.
Her bump is becoming visible now, and Marius constantly resting his hand over it is making it more obvious than it should be. Musichetta and her went for maternity clothes, but they all make her look older than she actually is, and she curses how Musichetta doesn't have to deal with it too.
When she walks up the stairs of the Musain, the door is locked. She knocks and waits for a few seconds. When there is no reply, she shrugs and takes a few steps back down the stairs.
"Éponine?"
She gasps and looks at the door a few steps below her. Enjolras is stood there with a grin on his face, a bundle of keys in his hand.
"Enjolras. Hi."
He walks up the stairs and stands on the step below hers, his hands wrapping around her waist. "You're here early."
"Yeah, well, the faster I arrived, the faster I could leave, was Marius' theory." She shrugs, watching as he raises an eyebrow.
"Well, Marius is wrong, as usual." He steps back, and jingles the keys. "Let's go up, shall we?"
She walks up the stairs. "I don't understand why we had to come here. Could you not have just called me?"
She watches as he unlocks the door and let's her walk in first. "Well, I knew you wouldn't come to my house without an invitation, and since you weren't coming to the meetings, I couldn't invite you without going through technology, which is risky. And I couldn't exactly just show up randomly at your house, 'cause I know how badly that worked out last time." He has locked the door when he finishes speaking, and she just stands in the middle of room, sure that there must be a reason for this meeting.
"What's up, Enjolras?"
"Hmm?" He turns and looks at her, a small smile on his face.
"Why are we here?"
He sighs. "It's pretty important." He must see her eyes change from curious to dangerous, so he lifts his hands. "No, not that important. Just- well- Combeferre knows."
Her jaw drops.
He interrupts her gasp. "I know, I know! I just-I was emotional and Combeferre was there and I always tell him everything, so-"
"Well, I always tell Marius everything, but I'm not preaching the news to him, am I?"
He shrugs his shoulders. "Do it. That's what I want!"
"Oh, shut up." She groans. "For fuck's sake, Enjolras. This could ruin everything!"
He scoffs at her. "Ruin what? This perfect little life you have where you're constantly lying to your husband whilst sleeping with his friend behind his back and being pregnant with his child?" He lets out a bitter laugh. "I don't think telling Marius would ruin anything, simply make it more easier."
"I just can't believe you did it. You actually told someone." She ends up sat down with her head in her hands on a chair, the hormones and stress getting to her.
Enjolras grabs a chair and places it in front of her, sitting on it and taking her hands into his. "Please, Eponine. I'm getting tired of begging, just tell Marius. It will make everything a lot easier, I promise."
She looks him in the eyes and can tell that he genuinely cares about this, that for once in his life, something other than France is taking the high ground in his priorities.
"He'll leave me." She whispers it with her eyes closed, and the way her voice cracks makes tears slip from her eyes.
"And I'll be right there waiting for you."
She doesn't even mean to say it, if she's being honest.
They're arguing again. Marius claims that Bahorel hinted towards Enjolras and Eponine being friends, and Marius' protective imagination warped the situation into the reality that was actually happening. But, being an argumentative person by nature, she yelled right back.
"And what would you do?" She advances on him from the other side of the bedroom, walking over his tshirt from the night before and watching as his face turns red with anger. "What would you do if I told you that i was having an affair with Enjolras?" If they weren't arguing, she would cry as she said that, but she practically screams it at him instead.
He hesitates, and she knows that she's hit something in him. He can imagine all he wants, but if she actually suggests it, he blanks. Of course. "I don't know." His voice is hoarse and he shakes his head.
"Well, tough shit, babe, 'cause you better work it out pretty fast." She gives a bitter smile to him and walks past him, out of the room, grabbing her coat as she storms past the door.
He stalls for a second, before turning to her with a small voice. "Where are you going?"
She opens the door and, with as much sass as she can muster, smirks at him. "Enjolras' house."
And with that, she slams the door shut behind her, takes a deep breath, then walks to her car.
He doesn't follow her, which is what she expects. She does go to Enjolras', and she stays the night. But she left everything at home, so Marius can't get in touch with her in any way. Enjolras has a content smile on his face for the entire night, but she barely sleeps at all.
When she goes home the next day, Marius is there. Sat on the sofa, he turns his head as soon as she opens the door. His blank facial expression doesn't change at all when he sees her, and she sees the empty bottles and cans on the coffee table next to him as she scans the area.
"Are you okay?"
She doesn't dare move. She's only ever seen Marius like this once before, on the night that he proposed. She freaked out and left him alone, and she had walked in the next morning to the exact situation she is faced with now.
"You didn't come back."
She nods.
He turns his head and looks at the floor in front of him. "How is Enjolras?"
"Enjolras is at work right now."
She watches him nod. He stands up and turns to her slowly, and as she walks closer to him, she can see the tears in his eyes. "Éponine, tell me the truth."
"Marius-" she would like to reason with him, but she really doesn't know what to say.
"No, Éponine! Tell me the truth!" He's crying, and when he raises his voice when he's upset, his voice shakes and she can never handle Marius' voice when it's like that.
She's silent for a while. She never really planned out telling Marius, but this isn't how she expected it to go "I don't know what to say."
He nods, then lifts his eyes to her again. "Are you and Enjolras having an affair?" His voice cuts out on the last word, but she understands anyway.
She tries to look into his eyes, only a few steps away from her, but she ends up staring at the ground. She nods and he sighs shakily.
She can't seem to look at him, but she hears him speak despite how quiet it is. "Is the baby mine?"
She does work up the courage to look at him then, but she wishes she hadn't. Tears are falling from his eyes, and his body is shaking slightly. She takes a deep breath. "I don't know." She watches as he nods, but she doesn't know what to do. "Marius, I am so sorry."
She sees him swallow. "I just- Éponine, why?"
She shakes her head. "Marius, I don't know. He was just-"
She cuts herself off, and he raises an eyebrow. "Just what?"
She shrugs. "Just there."
He nods. "Right." In consideration, he takes the news much better than she expected. There wasn't any sobbing, nobody is on the floor yet, and he hasn't left the house with a baseball bat in search of Enjolras, so she figures it's going well. "Okay, it's okay. We're going to get through this, Éponine."
Her head snaps up to him, and she frowns. "What?"
He smiles sadly at her. "I'm not going to give up on this relationship just because some entitled fuckboy is getting in the way. We just- we need to-"
"Marius, we can't just accept this and move on. This is serious." She speaks, but he isn't listening. He sits down on the sofa and clasps his hands together, nodding slightly.
"We can- I could probably ask my boss if I can get transferred to somewhere else, it wouldn't take that much. You're the editor of a newspaper here, it's not like you won't be able to find a job. And anyway, you're going to be on maternity leave soon, so you should be able to find a job without any hassle-"
"Marius, we can't just leave."
He looks at her then. "Of course we can. We just need to sort out a few things, get a few things in order," he stands up and grins at her, "and then we should be gone in a couple of days."
Despite his smile and his determined words, he is still shaking slightly and, whilst he has stopped crying, tears still linger in his redrimmed eyes. She walks towards him, and the smile on his face becomes more and more forced. "Marius, please can we just talk about this?"
She watches his eyes, and she can see the moment when his reaction changes again. He frowns at her, and she watches him sit back downon the sofa. "Why him, Éponine? Why him and not me?"
She shakes her head slightly, but he isn't watching her. "I don't think it was anything to do with you, Marius. I just- I saw the oppurtunity and I couldn't decline it." He's crying again, and she instinctively kneels down in front of him on the sofa and takes his hands. He looks up at her. He doesn't say anything, just watches her. "Marius, I love you."
"Then why did you cheat on me?"
She doesn't know how to reply, so he carries on.
"Do you love Enjolras?"
Once again, she stays silent, and he leans away from her and his tears continue.
"And the baby- all this time you made me believe it was mine, but it's actually his?"
"I don't know."
She jumps when he raises his voice, and lets go of his hands. "Well, that's not good enough, Éponine. We had the perfect life, Ép'. Everything was exactly how we wanted it. And now this has happened, he's just walked into our our lives and fucked everything up."
She sits on the sofa beside him, but she doesn't look at him. "Are you going to leave me?"
He is silent for a while. He turns to her and, just like when they're watching TV or a failm, he wraps his arms around her and she moves into his side. He kisses the top of her head gently, and she feels tears slip from her eyes slowly. "Maybe for a few days."
She nods. "Okay."
He taks a deep breath. "I'll go and stay with Courfeyrac for a bit, you can stay here. It'll give you time to stop things with Enjolras too."
She tenses. "I don't think it's that easy."
"Well, send him my way if he wants to carry it on."
She didn't think she would ever see any of Enjolras' negative traits in Marius, her perfect husband the dopey innocent man he was, but as he spoke, she realised just how sadistic and mean she had made him.
"Or better yet, we'll go to the meeting tonight. He'll be there, right?" He smirks at her and kisses her lips gently, and she frowns when he pulls back.
He is there, and it shocks her when she first walks in, hand in hand with Marius, that nobody realises what has happened. She expected sympathetic eyes, a few pats on the back, but it's weird how well her and Marius are hiding it.
She's been given strict instructions on what to do at this meeting from Marius, and she doesn't exactly want to contradict his orders right now, so she goes along with it, despite how horrible and sadistic the plan is. Marius grins at her as they sit at their usual seats, opposite Jehan and Grantaire, who instantly start asking about the baby and its progress. Marius speaks for her, and she catches Enjolras' gaze on them before he turns back to a letter he is writing.
The meetings are always structured the same with Les Amis De L'ABC: some write letter while others talk for an hour, then everybody gives up on it and starts drinking, so it becomes fun and less serious. Grantaire and Bahorel always start drinking before the meeting begins though, so she figures the structure isn't very strict. She figures the group must be having a hard day, as after 45 minutes they've all got a drink in their hands, and all thoughts of letters have been thrown out of the window. Her and Marius don't drink for obvious reasons, and she can see that Enjolras is drinking steadily from a bottle of water on the table.
She's in the middle of a conversation with Feuilly when Marius leaves her side, she doesn't watch where he is going, but when she gets a shout a few minutes later, she does see him. Stood with Enjolras, with a grin on his face, Marius is waving her over. She realises what this means, and she remembers what she has to do, but she doesn't think she has the guts to be so cruel to Enjolras. However, as she thinks about the consequences, what she has put Marius through already, she thinks that maybe she could just indulge Marius' dark side for a night, so, bidding goodbye to Feuilly with a playful roll of her eyes, she stands up.
She dodges through the different conversations going on, Courfeyrac speaking about horses with Jehan, Grantaire and Joly talking about the advantages of living with another person, and she briefly hears Combeferre say her name when talking to Bahorel, but she has no idea what it is in reference to. Nevertheless, she gets to Marius and Enjolras, and instantly gets pulls under Marius' arm.
"Éponine, I was just telling Enjolras all about our plan for the baby."
Enjolras is staring at her with serious eyes, questioning what Marius has told him. She breaks the eye comtact and smiles up to Marius. "Yeah, we think it would be good for the baby to be born where Marius and I met, let it spend its first few years somwhere quiet, away from the city."
She doesn't know if Marius is serious about this idea, she hopes not, but she feels Marius squeeze her side gently and she can hear the smile in his voice as he speaks. "Don't you just think it would be much better for mine and Ép's baby to grow up there? It would be so adorable and we'd get some time away from this city, so there isn't a downside to the arrangement."
Enjolras frowns at her. "Well, what about your job, Éponine?"
"I can get another one there, it's our hometown so everybody will remember us." In all honesty, she hopes nobody from her hometown remembers her, she wants to stay as far away from her parents as possible.
"Okay, but-"
Marius interrupts Enjolras, and Éponine can see the annoyance on the blond's face. "Ép', I'm gonna go speak to Courfeyrac for a moment in regard to what we spoke about earlier."
She frowns, she knows what she has to do now, but she didn't think Marius would tell Courf' now about their break up. Or, just 'break', she supposes.
Marius kisses the top of her head and walks away from them, and she is left with Enjolras and his angry frown. "Listen, Enjolras-"
"No, Éponine, you listen. You cannot expect me to just sit around and accept you moving so far away with my baby. We've spoken about this already, I get a say in what happens with our baby too, so you have to ask me about this stuff before you arrange it with him." He's angry, and his voice is loud, but she figures that, with how loud everybody else is talking, he cannot be heard.
"Enjolras, please don't be angry with me." She takes a deep breath, not wanting to say it. But she can practically feel Marius eyes watching her, so she just goes for it. Taking a few steps forward, she leans up to Enjolras' ear,places her hands on his chest, and feels the blond place his hand on the small of her back. "I'm coming around to yours tonight, so I'd very much prefer it if we didn't argue about this all night."
She feels him tense up and pull his head back to look her in the eyes. "You're staying the night again?" She watches as his eyes turn hopeful and a smile works its way onto his face.
"Yep, and I expect you to be on top of me for the majority of it, so be prepared." She bites her lip and wraps her arms around his neck, brushing the curls at the bottom of his neck. She can feel people watching them, but she focuses on the excited grin on Enjolras' face and suddenly the embarassment leaves her body.
He stares at her, and she almost has to look away. "I love you so much."
His grip tightens on her back, and she watches as he leans into her face. Her eyes widen. This wasn't part of the plan. What should she do? She goes with her instinct and leans into him too, and suddenly they're kissing. She doesn't know whether it's just her preoccupied mind or whether her friends really did stop talking, but she's pulling away after a few moments, and the talking resumes quietly.
She takes a few steps back, and sees his eyes turn from happy to sad. "What's wrong?" She glances around. "Oh, right, yeah. Our friends." She nods, and he sighs. "You know, if we told them, they wouldn't be angry with us." He grabs her hand, and pulls her closer to him. "And, I'm sorry, Éponine, but as soon as our baby is born I'm not going to be able to keep it a secret for any longer. So, you have about 5 months left of happiness with Marius."
"Maybe."
"What do you mean?"
She shrugs a shoulder. "Maybe he won't leave me. Maybe him and I will stay together if he finds out."
He gapes at her, then sadness takes over his face and he looks to the ground. "You're always going to choose him over me, aren't you?"
She squeezes Enjolras' hand. "He's my husband."
"And I'm nothing to you?"
She opens her mouth to speak, but suddenly there's a hand on her back and Marius is beside her. She drops Enjolras' hand, and the blond's chin rises. His eyes turn hard and he glares at Marius, but Marius is turning to her so he completely misses it. "Éponine, are you ready to go?"
She swallows, remembering the rehearsed lines and how adamant Marius was on how he wanted this conversation to go. "Already? It's only 8:30."
"Yeah, but I really want to finish what we started in the car earlier."
She smirks at Marius, and places her hands on his chest. She can still see Enjolras there, and she feels really guilty all of a sudden. "Now?"
She feels Marius' arms wrap around her waist and pull her closer. "Of course. I want to have you all to myself as soon as possible."
She leans up and kisses him, and she shouldn't be as shocked as she is when Marius deepens the kiss. Suddenly his hands are in her hair, and she instinctively pushes her body closer to his, standing on her tip toes to reach him with ease. Once again, their friends' conversations dip, and she feels as though everybody is watching, but this is her husband, so she shouldn't be embarassed. She feels him smile into their kiss, and she can't tell whether it's a malicious smile or a happy one, so she pulls away and stands down.
Turning to the side, Enjolras is still there, but he's looking at the ground and she can barely see his face. They leave without a word to their friends, who were in fact all watching the couple. She recieves a glare from Combeferre, a sympathetic frown from Courfeyrac, and a grin from Marius, but when she looks back at Enjolras, he is nowhere to be found, so she leaves quickly.
Marius leaves at about 10pm with a bag full of clothes and heads to Courfeyrac's house, and she is left alone. So, with her own bag of clothes, she drives to Enjolras' house.
Knocking on the door, she waits for about a minute before a light turns on upstairs. She glances up to the window and watches as the light inside the door turns on,and suddenly Enjolras is stood in front of her. He looks tired and disheveled and she frowns at his hard expression.
"I didn't think you would be coming."
"I said I would, didn't I?"
"I'm not sure I want you to stay the night."
She is silent for a while, and she nods slowly. "Oh- okay. Why?"
"I think I need some time away from you."
She nods at his vulnerable voice. "Alright, I'll go home then."
He nods and frowns as he closes the door on her, but she speaks before it locks. "I told Marius."
He stops the door. "What?"
"Marius knows about us. He's gone to Courfeyrac's for a few days."
He opens the door fully again and looks at her. "So you've come here." He swallows. "Because you're alone."
She shakes her head at him. "No. I'm staying here for a few days until you and I work this out."
He sighs. "Jesus, Éponine, I just want to get over you. At the meeting I realised that this isn't normal, that I shouldn't be crying every night just because you won't leave your husband." He nods. "But now you've actually done it. He knows."
She nods. He lets a small smile slip onto his face. "Come in."
Thanks for reading, guys! This is going to be a two-shot, and I know it's super long and most of it is boring, but I've had exams and this has been my way of escaping from writing drama essays. Please review, it makes my day! Thanks! X