Chapter 1

February 28th, 1832

"Please?" Éponine begged her sister. "Just one meeting! I told Marius I would introduce you to him, and I can't let him down! And Grantaire wants to meet you too!"

Gabrielle rolled her eyes. "Just because you're infatuated with Marius Pontmercy does not mean I have to follow him around like a puppy with you." She crossed her arms. "Besides, I need to check on Gavroche."

Éponine's eyes lit up. "Gavroche is coming to this meeting too! And you couldn't possibly keep him away." Gabrielle sighed in defeat. There were few people on this planet who could control Gavroche to any extent.

Gabrielle tugged her poor excuse for a dress into a more comfortable position on her starved frame. "Who else will be at this meeting, besides your beloved Marius?"

"Grantaire, Bahorel, Combeferre, Courfeyrac, Feuilly, Jehan, Joly, and Bossuet. And Enjolras, of course."

Gabrielle gave another long-suffering sigh, but smiled at her little sister. "Very well, mon petit oiseau. Introduce me to these friends of yours." The smile on 'Ponine's face was bright enough to light up the evening sky.

Enjolras was late. He had hurried through the crowded Paris streets as quickly as possible, but the poor were getting more and more restless, blocking up the alleyways and streets with marches of protest. Enjolras supported these marches on the whole, but he generally disliked being made to be late. Especially when he had repeatedly hounded his friends on multiple occasions for the same misdeed with long speeches about the evils of missing important revolution ideas; speeches that would now, upon his arrival, probably be thrown back at him. And there was nothing the Enjolras hated more than that- except, perhaps, civil injustice.

He at last arrived at the Cafe Musain and bolted up the stairs as fast as he could. In his hurry, he failed to notice two mademoisellesstanding on the landing- apparently unsure of whether or not to join the group of young revolutionaries- and ran straight into them. His head connected sharply with someone else's, and they both hissed in shock and pain. He staggered back, clutching at his forehead for a moment before composing himself.

When he finally looked up to see who it was he had run into, he was not surprised to see one of the girls- the one who was always following around that ridiculous-excuse-for-a-revolutionary Pontmercy. Enjolras could never remember her name, so in his head he simply referred to her as 'Marius's Shadow'. The other one however, was unfamiliar to him. This was the one with whom he had obviously smacked heads, as she was rubbing hers vigorously.

"I am so sorry, ladies. Mademoiselle, is your head alright?" he allowed a small amount of concern to show on his face.

"Yes, I am fine, no thanks to you, monsieur." The girl scowled in his direction.

The Shadow gasped. "Gabrielle!" she squeaked. "Be polite to Enjolras!"

"Not after THAT greeting." Gabrielle said. "Now are we going to go to this silly meeting or what?"

"I quite agree, though not about the description of my meeting." Enjolras said. "After you ladies." he said, and motioned up the stairs. Gabrielle blinked her grey-green eyes at this unusual show of chivalry.

"And here I thought there were no more knights in shining armor left in Paris." she said, winking at Enjolras who had begun to feel a slight blush creeping up his neck. He tried desperately to control it. I must be getting ill, he thought. Yes, that was probably it. After all, between classes and his revolution, there was no time left in Enjolras' schedule for girls, no matter how witty they were.

The three walked into the noisy cafe, full of young men who were all drinking and talking over each other. A tall, bespectacled young man with sandy hair hurried over to them, frowning. "Enjolras! Where have you been?"

"Sorry." Enjolras said. "I got stuck trying to wade through one of the marches."

The other man pulled out two sheets of paper covered in big looping penmanship. "I have a few ideas I wanted to run by y-" he stopped midsentence, distracted by Gabrielle who was trying to see the papers from over his shoulder. "Enjolras, who is your friend?"

Enjolras gritted his teeth. He was about to correct Combeferre, but Gabrielle got to it first. "Oh we aren't friends. We just smacked heads on the landing. He still has the bruise." Combeferre looked at Enjolras in amusement, the latter of which sent menacing glares to the other. "My name is Gabrielle. I'm Gavroche and Éponine's older sister." she added.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Gabrielle. My name is Combeferre." he leaned down to take her hand and kiss it, making her blush. Something unfamiliar and nameless twisted into a knot in Enjolras' stomach. Well now I know the Shadow's name, he thought. Éponine isn't nearly as pretty a name as Gabrielle.

Enjolras tuned back into the conversation in time to hear 'Ferre saying, "It's always nice to meet a lady friend of Enjolras."

Courfeyrac, who was passing the small group of three (Éponine had left earlier in search of Marius) at that moment, stopped in surprise. "Enjolras has a lady friend?" he said.

Enjolras raked a hand through his curls. "No! For the last time, she is NOT my friend!" Gabrielle merely watched, her eyes sparkling with mirth.

"Oh, well in that case," Courfeyrac said, turning to her. "My name is Courfeyrac. Allow me to show you around and introduce you to my friends." he put his hand on the small of her back, steering her into the rest of the room. The knot in Enjolras' stomach got tighter.

"Why thank you, monsieur." she exclaimed. Before she disappeared into the crowd though, she turned over her shoulder to smile at Enjolras and wink

Combeferre watched it all with a small smile on his face. "How long have you known this woman?" he asked.

"Five minutes." Enjolras practically growled and Combeferre let out a small chuckle as his best friend stalked away.

Gabrielle yawned. This meeting was boring her. Most of the boys were just drinking and talking about things that had happened earlier this week that she had missed, or about their love lives. She thought this was to plan a revolution. Not that everyone she had met tonight wasn't a perfectly kind gentleman. They were all very nice. Except for that Enjolras fellow- he seemed rather irritable. However, his temperament obviously didn't impair his looks. He was easily the most beautiful man in the building, not that he seemed to care. His halo of golden curls put her in mind of the sun, and his voice made her heart flutter. But enough about him- where could she find some intelligent conversation?

She leaned over to Courfeyrac, who was sitting a few chairs away, and asked him, "Where is the planning for the actual revolution going on?"

"I'm sorry mademoiselle. Are we boring you?" he asked, not unkindly. Gabrielle shrugged, not wanting to be rude. He laughed and pointed to a table in the corner where three other young men were talking heatedly over a map and various other papers. She nodded her thanks and made her way over.

As Gabrielle drew closer to the table she could see that the three young men were Combeferre, Enjolras, and another man who had been introduced to her as Feuilly. "...Already contacted a man who would supply us with arms." Enjolras was saying. She approached silently, so as not to interrupt, and pinched one of the many sheets of paper lying on the table. For a moment she struggled, trying to adapt to the cramped penmanship that covered the page, but once her eyes had adjusted she devoured the information quickly, and reached for another as she took a seat.

"...And of course, our group will man the barricade outside of this building." Enjolras finished. "Feuilly, can you write a note for the other groups telling where they should set up their own bar-"

"Why am I supposed to rise up?"

All three of them turned to see Gabrielle sitting in one of the chairs at their table. She was frowning at part of one of Enjolras' speeches. His brow furrowed in confusion. "I'm sorry?"

"Well," she said. "This part says that in order to live a productive life unaltered by the need for crime, the poor of our Patria should rise up against the unjust government that rules them. I am poor, so please explain, why should I join your cause?" She waited.

Once he had gotten over the surprise of hearing her evaluating his work (and the fact that she could read), Enjolras replied with the obvious answer. "Because the poor live in horrible conditions, so they should fight for a better chance at a good life."

Gabrielle leaned forward eagerly with an intense look on her face. "That means nothing to me. I can fend for myself perfectly fine. As for the government, I doubt most of the people on the street even know who Louis Philippe is. And anyways, the poor are doing quite well on their own. Have you not seen the protest marches?"

Enjolras leaned forward too. "But that is what we are trying to do! We hold rallies on the street, educating people on how their government is neglecting them and their rights. And while the protests are a good start, they don't attract enough attention. This revolution will simultaneously attract more attention, and lead to the abdication of the king. Here," he shuffled through some papers looking for a certain one.

While he was doing this, Gabrielle continued to argue her point. "That is all very well and good, but why, even after all that, why would the people listen to you? You're just some bourgeoisboy trying to get attention. We have to work to survive, something that you wouldn't understand. Why risk our lives in some silly uprising that is bound to fail? So that our families may starve to death a little sooner?"

Enjolras finally found the paper he was looking for. He pulled his chair around the table so that they could both look at it. "Look, at this part right here. Don't you see that..."

Combeferre and Feuilly watched in amazement as the two proceeded to debate the one point for two hours. No one had ever engaged Enjolras so deeply in argument, especially not a female. In fact, the only reason they stopped was because the cafe was closing. When the two looked up to see that the gas lamps were all burning low, Gabrielle had excused herself and left, but not before promising to come to the next meeting so that they could finish their discussion. Enjolras' eyes followed her down the rickety staircase with an odd look on his face.

"Are you all right Enjolras? You look a bit funny..." Feuilly noted.

"Yes, you appear to be smiling." Combeferre said with a certain amount of smugness in his voice.

"Wha- er um, n-no I'm not." Enjolras said, clearing his throat and readjusting his face so that he most certainly wasn't smiling. Combeferre merely smiled and started humming a song about wedding bells and love in the springtime. Enjolras scowled.