Eponine sighed softly as she slowly wiped the counter down with a wet rag. It was almost the end of her shift, and gods she was ready to go home. Not that it was a particularly nice place to be, but at least she could sleep there. The bell rung above the door and she concealed a groan before lifting her head and fixing a fake smile onto her face.
"How can I help you tonight?" She asked in a polite voice, right before she froze in shock. Hot. Damn. That girl was smokin'! She gave the girl a very... very long glance over, trailing her eyes suggestively up and down the other girl's body, ending with giving the girl a wink and a flirtatious smile.
The girl blushed and Eponine smirked, delighted in the response. No pure straight girl would flush like that, they were more likely to be offended than flattered. This was good news for her, regardless of what the girl said afterwards. The girl stammered for a moment, before regaining her senses.
"Um, sorry for coming in right at closing, but I have a question..." She trailed off and Eponine raised an eyebrow, silently prodding at the girl to keep talking. As hot as she was, Ep really needed some sleep. The girl flushed again and Ep admired the color on her cheeks as she burst out, "I need to know if an organization that I'm in can rent the room upstairs for our weekly meetings!"
Eponine leaned against the counter that she had just been wiping and smirked at the newcomer slightly. "I'm not sure about them but I'm sure you can rent the room free of charge, luv." She said in a salacious tone of voice, making the girl blush again. Eponine leaned back with a sense of accomplishment and smirked again, cocking her hip to the side in a way that she knew made her look attractive.
"I- I...What?" The girl looked so adorably confused that Eponine couldn't help but smile. She was just too cute!
"Oh come on darling, you're telling me no one has ever hit on you before? I find that hard to believe." Eponine drawled, once again looking over the girl's body. Damn this was fun, but... "My shift's over in five minutes, so if you want something, you better make it fast, luv. I've gotta get home."
The girl scowled, reminding Ep of an angry kitten. "I already told you what I want! To rent the room upstairs!" She insisted, and Ep almost expected her to stomp her foot and pout like a little kid.
Waving a hand in the air, Ep sighed. "Alright, alright, don't get your panties in a twist. You pay per week, two weeks advance the first time, and you guys have to clean up the mess you guys make up there. The price is posted on the door, you can go up and take a look, but I'm closing up in five, so don't take too long." She said, sounding bored while her eyes watched the other girl closely.
She seemed startled, but went upstairs without another word. Five minutes later exactly she came back downstairs, with Ep waiting for her by the door, keys already in her hand. She rushed outside, and Ep watched her run down the street for a minute before locking up and heading home herself.
Eponine had no clue what group that girl rented the room for nor when they would meet, so when Grantaire showed up at the bar that Friday evening, she didn't think twice about it and just greeted her longtime friend with a rare quick hug, earning a soft squeeze and a large grin from him in return.
"So, meet any cute girls recently?" He asked her in a teasing voice as he sat down at the bar and she made him his favorite drink automatically, a smirk overtaking his face as she slid the glass over the wood to him.
"I did actually, a little blonde thing with the most adorable angry face I've ever seen. She came in earlier in the week looking to rent the upstairs room for some group of hers. Damn she was fine, R!"
Grantaire, having just taken a sip of his drink, immediately choked on it as he registered what she had just said. She pounded him on the back as he coughed harshly to clear his throat from the liquid he inhaled accidentally.
"Do you know her?" Ep asked him, eyeing him suspiciously as he recovered himself and took another sip of the drink in his glass. He gave a nod but didn't say any more. She was about to press him for more details when the girl in question walked into the bar, along with a rag tag collection of individuals.
To her right was a blonde male that she could only describe as an angel, sans halo. The two of them seemed to be the leaders of the group that followed them through the doors. Right behind them were a pair of brown-haired men, one wearing glasses and the other running a hand through his curly hair. Behind them was a trio, a small male with a cane sandwiched between a bald man and a wavy-haired brunette with dark skin. Trailing after them was a small mousy looking boy (he didn't look a day over sixteen, and she wasn't going to serve him anything until she saw his ID).
They spotted Grantaire and immediately went over to him, cluing her into the fact that R was in the group that was renting the upstairs room. Well, that was surprising. What made it even more interesting to her was when R got up, blushing heavily, and slid his hand into the hand of the blonde angel and pecked his cheek lightly before turning back to her with a sheepish expression on his face.
"So this is him, eh? The angel that stole your heart? Well, I guess I see why you rant about him all the time when you're drunk." Eponine said before he could say anything, making him wince and drop his head into the blonde's shoulder in embarrassment. She laughed before holding out a hand.
"My name's Eponine, and I'm pretty much the only family this guy's got, so I guess it's up to me to tell you that if you hurt him, I'm going to chop off your balls with a rusty knife before feeding them to you with a gallon of my most expensive rum and then making you pay for it all, got it?" She said in a light voice.
The blonde looked apprehensive, but gamely extended his own hand to shake hers. R mumbled something into his shoulder that might have been along the lines of 'please god make it stop' but Eponine ignored that with years of practice as she turned to face the second angelic blond, a smirk curling her lips.
"Well hello again, beautiful. I see you brought your friends this time. Couldn't stay away from me, could you?" She said with a wink, making sure that the flirting was so thick a deaf and blind person could understand her meaning. The girl flushed so quickly Ep was half sure she was going to pass out.
The girl rallied quickly, however, and shot back, "Don't worry, it wasn't you. It was your alcohol." Eponine threw back her head and laughed, giving her a genuine smile and a nod before leaning on the counter.
"I see how it is, all you want me for is my alcohol. How could you play with my feelings like that? Oh I'm so hurt." Eponine put a hand over her heart and grinned at the blonde, getting an answering grin. A quick look at R had him giving her the thumbs up, but his blonde angel didn't seem so happy.
"To misquote you, my name is Enjolras and I'm pretty much the only family Cosette has, so I'm obliged to tell you that if you hurt her, I'll..." He seemed to swell up with righteous fury. "I'll lecture you sternly! For an hour! Nonstop!" Eponine couldn't help herself; she snorted. And then burst out laughing.
"Nonstop! Gentlemen of the jury, I'm curious, bare with me, are you aware that we're making history? This is the first..." One of the bar patrons shouted out, but quickly quieted when they realized no one understood what on earth they were talking about. Ep shot him a quick thumbs up from behind her back though.
"I'll be sure to take your threat into consideration." She told Enjolras dryly, before turning her eyes back onto her own blonde (Cosette, apparently). "Of course, no one could ever hurt such a beautiful flower as you." She cooed, fluttering her eyelashes, before laughing again, drawing Cosette with her.
Everyone else seemed to be just staring at them with some mixture of shock and surprise on their faces. Eponine glanced at them, before rolling her eyes. "Cosette, babe, looks like you're going to have to take these kids upstairs, I think we broke them." And with that she turned back to her bar counter.
"Will do, hun. And don't call me babe." Cosette called back as she began to usher everyone upstairs.
"Only if you don't call me hun!" Eponine shouted after her, only to receive a trailing laugh. She scowled slightly, but was too amused to keep the expression for long. So the little blonde was a secret spitfire, eh?
Well that was bound to make things more interesting.
Cosette was a lot of fun to be around. She laughed at Eponine's... unique sense of humor, and didn't mind that she was always plying the other woman with different and unusual alcoholic drinks that she had concocted on the spot or with her specifically in mind. Truly, it seemed like the perfect relationship.
Of course, that was when Montparnasse came to try and ruin things again.
"I should have figured I would find you around alcohol, mon cherie." His sleek and oily voice came from behind her, his arms wrapping around her waist as she felt his wet breath on the back of her neck.
Twisting out of his arms and hiding the shiver he induced in her, Eponine fixed a sneer onto her face in order to hide her worry and slight fear. "Do you want to order something, or should I just have you thrown out now? Just give me an excuse, you slimy piece of..." She trailed off, trying to contain her anger.
He smirked back at her and waggled one finger back and forth. "Now now, don't be rude. That's no way to talk for a lady." Eponine just wanted to punch that smug look off of his face. How had he found her again?
Instead she simply scowled at him. "I'm no more of a lady than you are a gentleman, Montparnasse. Now tell me what you want or leave!" He smiled at her and ordered the most expensive drink she had on the menu, and she flounced off to serve it to him. She was trying to recover her wits in the backroom when she heard a hesitant voice speak up from the doorway to the storage room.
"Ep? Are you okay?"
It was Cosette, and Eponine let out a hearty curse. She forgot that she was coming early today, and with Montparnasse here it was much too dangerous. Taking a deep breath, Ep grabbed the drink that Montparnasse ordered and went out of the room, taking Cosette by the arm and forcing her to come along.
"You have to leave, you have to get out right now. I'm sorry, but today's not a good day, come back tomorrow." Cosette was clearly confused, and probably a little hurt too, but Eponine couldn't spare the time to explain anything. She tried to ask a question, Ep tried to shush her, but it was too late.
"Who's this, cherie? A new toy for us to play with?" Montparnasse's greasy voice came from ahead of them, and Eponine cursed internally. She pushed Cosette behind her and tried to scowl at the slick bastard.
"She's not a toy, and there isn't an us anymore. I left you a long time ago, Montparnasse, and you just never got the hint. I've got your alcohol, now leave her alone." She sounded a lot braver than she felt, and was thankful that Cosette had the good sense to be quiet about things she didn't know about.
"Oh, Eponine, don't you know by now that you can't ever leave me? You're mine, cherie, and I won't let you go." He practically purred as he walked forward. She stood her ground, although her hands began to tremble. She had punched him in the face once before, when she had first left, but now, after all the years spent running... she didn't think she could do it again. Her fists clenched.
That's when Cosette decided to lose all of her sense and step out from behind Eponine and scowl at Montparnasse, adorably fierce in her protection of her girlfriend. "If Ep is anyone's, she's mine." She said boldly, her chin raising in defiance of the threat she saw in his beady eyes.
"Watch what you're saying, little girl." He sneered at her. "Someone less confident than I would take that as a challenge." He looked down at her, despite being almost the same size. "You don't want that, I assure you."
"Au contraire." In a split second, Cosette had reached forward and grabbed Montparnasse by the balls, her hand gripping and twisting viciously. "I've got more balls than you, weasel, and I'm a girl." She hissed in his face, wracked with pain. Eponine just watched, wide eyed, her breath coming just a little bit faster at the sexy sight of her girlfriend. "Now leave her alone, or I'll take what little you have."
Another sickening squeeze of her hand and Montparnasse wheezed his assent, unable to actually form understandable words. Cosette gave him a satisfied smirk and released her grip, allowing the small man to scramble back away from her. He looked between them, tried to say something, before giving up and simply fleeing down the hallway - well, more like limping as quickly as possible.
"Gods, Coco, that has got to be the hottest thing I have ever seen outside of our bedroom." Eponine breathed out, creating a moment of silence before Cosette burst out laughing, an edge of hysteria in her voice. Eponine couldn't resist her own weak laughter, leaning against the wall and sinking down to the ground, the long forgotten bottle in her hand clinking against the floor loudly.
Cosette sat down next to her and leaned her head on Ep's shoulder. "Did that really just happen?" She asked plaintively, and Eponine just nodded silently, her eyes slipping closed for a moment.
"I love you, you know." She breathed out, and felt Cosette grin against her shoulder and look up at her.
"I love you too, Ep. Even when your baggage walks, talks, and spouts so much shit we drown in it."
