A/N: Hello! This is my first les mis story and I'm very excited for people to read it! Obviously, I do not own Les Miserables or any of these characters, I only wish I did. Please read and review!

The sharp sound of her father's hand making contact with the side of her face echoed in the narrow alleyway. Éponine stumbled backwards, her fingers feeling the slight indent left in her cheek from the ring her father was wearing- no doubt something he'd stolen earlier.

"Next time bring more money, you've got to earn your keep here girl," Thénadier spat at his daughter as she cowered against the brick wall before turning on his heel and stalking in the opposite direction. Éponine straightened up and took a deep breath to settle herself before coming out of the alley and onto the bustling street.

She scurried through the streets, around the beggars and shops people to the café Musain. She knew the only person she wanted to see would be there. Éponine flung the door open and began rushing up the stairs, her eyes directed downwards to avoid tripping in her haste. She was nearly at the top, her heart racing not only from running, but at the thought of seeing Marius Pontmercy. He spent much of his time at the café in recent months along with many other students. She knew they were planning something, a tall blond man who seemed to be the leader of the bunch was always giving passionate speeches about whatever cause it was they were working for. With the amount of time Éponine spent there it's almost embarrassing that she didn't know what it was these schoolboys were on about. She was much too preoccupied with studying Marius. The way his eyes lit up when the blond man finished a particularly rousing speech and him and the other amis jumped to their feet in jubilant cheers. The way his expression became thoughtful when he was examining some plans and his freckled forehead wrinkled.

Éponine was nearly to the top of the stairs when she slammed face first into the broad, muscles chest of a man on his way down. Her waif like body would have been thrown backwards if it weren't for the man's strong hands that shot out to grab her waist and hold her upright. She looked up into an electrifying pair of stormy blue eyes. She immediately recognized the man to be the blond leader of the band of schoolboys.

"My apologies," he said quickly, releasing his grip on Éponine's tiny waist. He noticed the bruise forming across her cheekbone, but made the conscious decision not to ask her about it. He knew enough of her family and had seen her around the café enough times as she hovered around Marius, almost orbiting him the way the Earth orbits the sun, it's life force. He pitied the poor girl, Marius didn't look at her with nearly the same amount of enthusiasm that was in her loving gaze. This sadly wasn't the first time he'd seen her with some sort of injury.

Éponine had never seen him up close before, he had never been more than a blur waving his arms about excitedly in her peripheral vision, but now that she really looked at him, she was taken aback. With his golden curls and strong features, the man was not only angelically handsome, he was breathtaking. Realizing she was staring with her mouth gaping open unbecomingly at a man of much higher social status, Éponine promptly averted her gaze, looking self-consciously at her hands.

"I'm so very sorry, Monsieur, I must really learn to pay better attention," she murmured.

The beautiful man simply nodded and stepped around her to continue descending the stairs. Éponine watched him go before climbing the final steps to the amis meeting place, her eyes scanned the room and landed on Marius' laughing face. It felt as though a weight had been lifted from her chest and she breathed a sigh of relief as she crossed the room soundlessly to greet him.

"Bonjour monsieur," she whispered, standing on her tiptoes to bring her lips closer to his ear. He turned and flashed a smile at her, making her heart swell.

"Éponine," he breathed, "have you perchance seen Enjolras?"

"Who?"

"The leader of the revolution, constantly giving speeches about how we must overthrow the king and make France a republic. Surely you must know of Enjolras, Éponine, he's trying to help people like you who live in the streets," he explained.

"Oh," she laughed, "Of course. Yes he was leaving when I came in."

"Leaving? How peculiar, Enjolras is typically here until the wee hours of the morning." Marius turned back to the other boys and his words finally registered to Éponine. Revolution? That's what they're planning? But a revolution would mean fighting and blood spilled. Surely her beloved Marius wasn't involved in planning something as dangerous as overthrowing the government with a random bunch of schoolboys. She would like nothing more than for the monarchy to be abolished, but the thought of Marius being on the front lines of a barricade horrified her entirely.

A sudden rage boiled up inside Éponine. What gave Enjolras the power to enlist his friends into a war fighting for people none of them could possibly understand. He clearly had a great influence over the young men in the room. From what she remembered of his speeches and their exhilarated reactions, he was eloquent with his words and fervent about what he spoke of. Now she knew that his subject of choice was the poor. She was a street rat, but looking around the room it was easy enough to tell that these young men were all well off. Obviously well enough to be getting an education. They couldn't possibly understand the hardships of living on the street. These boys were sentencing themselves to death.

She waved a quick goodbye and scurried back out onto the streets. Enjolras couldn't have gotten too far. She had to find him. He was their leader; she had to make him end this.

A/N: Well that's one chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think!