Twelve months, thirteen days, four hours, and fifteen minutes.
Three hundred seventy-eight days.
Nine thousand seventy-six hours.
This is how long it had been since Cosette had seen Marius.
He had left for deployment last year a few weeks before Christmas and she missed him. They Skyped when they had time, they wrote e-mails and letters, they called, they did everything they possibly could to stay in touch. But she missed him. The way he'd tug her back into bed even though she had to go to work. The way he'd rub her back and press kisses to her hair when he hugged her. The way he'd always smell just a little bit like coffee. The way he never let go of her hand when they were walking.
Cosette just wanted him to come home.
But she was overjoyed when he told her he should be home just after Christmas. She'd love to spend Christmas with him, but a few days after was sooner than she expected, and she cried when he told her. She cried and he was laughing with wet eyes and she just murmured "I love you" and pressed her fingers to the screen. She called Éponine afterwards and Ép congratulated her and Cosette was just happy.
Cosette Pontmercy woke up on December 17th, sighing slightly and marking off another day on her calendar. "Eleven days, eleven days," she murmured to herself. Less than two weeks until she could see her husband face-to-face. In her opinion, it was still eleven days too many, but it was better than a month or two. So she made her way to the empty kitchen and made breakfast for one and drank coffee from his mug. She picked up the phone to call Éponine, like she normally did when she got in these moods.
"Hey Cosette, what's up?"
"I miss him," she said quietly, padding back into the bedroom to get ready for work. She heard the other woman coo. There was movement and she heard her murmur, "Go back to bed, 'Ferre, it's just Cosette."
"Hey now, I know you do. I miss him, too. We all do. But he'll be home soon. What is it now? Thirteen days?"
"Eleven."
"Right, eleven. See? He'll be home and he'll be 100 percent okay and we'll all be happy. What about we through a welcome home party? Or would you rather you guys have time to yourselves before everyone else bombards you like only they can," Éponine murmured fondly. She loved her friends but sometimes she wondered if they were too close.
Cosette sighed, tugging on her shirt. "I don't know. I think Marius would love a party, but I don't know how I'll react. If we do throw one, you have to realize, I'm not letting go of him until we leave," she joked, but Éponine knew that was probably how she was going to react.
"I honestly don't think anyone will mind. I'm pretty sure Courfeyrac will try to do the same thing. But hey, you go to work and you teach those kids real good, and we'll go out for coffee later, alright? In fact, I'll call up 'Chetta and we'll make it a girls' night. That work?"
Cosette smiled, before nodding. "That'd be wonderful, 'Ponine. I need to get out of the house anyways. A girls' night sounds amazing."
They finished making plans before she had to leave for work. She was a fourth grade teacher at a local elementary school, and she adored it.
The children were wonderful, the parents were normally amazing, and her coworkers were generally pretty good, too. The children loved her. They called her Miss Cosette and they gave her hugs and (she remembered fondly) on her birthday, one class through a party for her with the help of some of the other teachers. She loved teaching and she didn't think she'd ever regret becoming one.
She listened to the radio as she drove to the small school. She nearly cried when she came across one of Marius's ties in the back seats. (If she happened to end up wearing it, no one had to know). She let her thoughts wonder to when he'd come home. She'd cry and they'd hug for a long time and then, if they did throw a party, everyone would crowd them and after a moment Courfeyrac would launch himself at them and then there'd be a group hug and afterwards they'd go home and Cosette would cling to him and they could finally sleep together again; just warm and close and hugging and she'd probably cry again.
She dabbed at her eyes again when she arrived.
"Eleven days, Cosette. You can do it. Eleven days," she muttered to herself, before stepping out.
Éponine woke up the morning of the 16th to a phone ringing loudly. She didn't bother to check the caller ID and picked it up sleepily.
"'lo?" she muttered, rubbing her eyes and sitting up in bed.
"Hey 'Ponine," said a very, very familiar voice. She made a noise loud enough to make Combeferre beside her wake up and she closed her eyes for a moment.
"Marius? Oh my god," she replied, squeezing onto 'Ferre's hand as he threw her a confused look.
She heard him chuckle through the phone. "That's me. Do you think you could do something for me?"
She sat up more. "Of course, anything. What's up?"
"Well, I'm sort of in a taxi on the way to your house. Actually, do you mind opening the door?"
Éponine scrambled out of bed as Combeferre shouted "'Ponine? What's going on? Who called you?" She tugged open the front door and threw herself at the man clad in his uniform.
She heard him laughing and heard the footsteps of Combeferre behind her. "Nice to see you too, 'Ponine. It's been a while," Marius grinned, rubbing her back.
"It's been more than a year, you asshole. Why the hell didn't you tell me you'd be coming back earlier?" she questioned, pulling away to wipe her eyes. She heard 'Ferre make a little noise before he was clapping Marius on the shoulder.
"It's good to see you," he said, before Marius tugged him into a hug.
"Well, you see, if I told you, you guys would tell Cosette and I can't have you guys do that yet. And seeing how you two are the most trustworthy I figured you guys would help me surprise her?" Marius questioned, pulling off his cap.
Éponine pretended to think for a moment. "Of course we will, you shit. What do you have in mind?"
Marius grinned before tugging them both into a hug. "It's good to be home."
"Alright, well, we finished all I had planned. How many of you guys are ready for Christmas?" Cosette questioned, leaning against her desk. There were shouts of "I am!" and "Me!" from nearly everyone in the room. "Well, that's good! Christmas is a really fun time. You get to spend time with family and Santa comes. Hmm… Leanne, are you going anywhere for Christmas?"
The small child shook her head. "I'm staying home. But my cousins and grandma are coming down!"
Cosette smiled. "That's wonderful. So, if you guys want to, I do have a little coloring activity planned if you guys are bored…" she trailed off, watching with amusement as every child said that they wanted to participate. "Alright, well, you guys know Christmas isn't the only holiday, so I thought we'd color both a Christmas tree and a menorah. You guys remember when we had Sean tell us about Hanukkah and the menorah?" The children all nodded. "Good, good. So I printed off some pages, and so until the bell rings in," she glanced at the clock, "half an hour, you guys are free to color, alright?" Everyone cheered as she started passing out the papers.
She walked back to her desk, content with the joy of her students and the way a quieter sort of noise was over the room. The door knocked as she logged back onto the computer. "Nina, can you open the door, please?" she heard it open and then heard the child question, "Who are you?"
Cosette looked up and frowned at the sight of Éponine. "'Ponine, what are you doing here? I'm in the middle of class," she questioned, standing up and walking towards her. Éponine threw up her hands.
"Stay right there. Yes, I know you're teaching, but I talked to the principal and he said I could bring you your Christmas gift now."
Cosette frowned, confused. "Christmas gift? 'Ponine, it's the seventeenth. I don't know wh—"
She gasped as a very Holiday-dressed Marius walked into the room. He was wearing a dumb sweater that her father had gotten him when they'd first started dating, and he had a Christmas bow placed on his head. Her hands flew to her mouth as he smiled at her. "Oh my God," she whispered, tears already falling. "Oh my God!" she repeated, running across the classroom and into his arms.
She sobbed as she felt him rub her back and kiss her hair just like he used to. "You're home. Oh my God, you're here," she whispered into his shoulder, still crying freely.
Marius laughed slightly, although it sounded wet. "I'm home, Cosette. I'm here and I'm home," he murmured to her, hugging her even tighter.
She pulled away and leaned her forehead on his. "Why didn't you tell me you'd be home early? I thought I had eleven days. You could've said something. Oh God, was 'Ponine in this?" she rushed as Marius smiled softly.
"I wanted to surprise you. And yes she was, and I'm pretty sure her and 'Ferre are videotaping us right now," he laughed, wiping her tears away.
She let out a shaky laugh, not even attempting to look at where Éponine stood. Her husband was right in front of her and she was drinking him in and she was never going to look away again.
"I love you," she murmured, before finally kissing him softly.
The first kiss in over a year.
"I love you, too," he murmured back, pressing a kiss on her forehead.
Cosette was still tucked under his arm when she turned to her students. "Um, you guys remember when I said my husband was overseas? Like, Suzanne's mommy?" She saw them nod. "Well, he's home. And I—"
"And you are going home while I watch your class until the end of the day," said one of the other fourth grade teachers, Chase Martinez. She smiled at him gratefully before waving goodbye to her class and following Éponine and Combeferre out of the class room, still underneath Marius's arm.
Marius and Cosette were standing in the closest of the Musain, holding hands and leaning on one another. It was now the 18th, and after a much needed rest and some time together, they thought they'd surprise the rest of the group. The only ones in were the waitresses ('Chetta had off, they made sure. She was coming with Joly and Bossuet to the meeting though), Éponine, and Combeferre.
"Courfeyrac's gonna cry and hold onto your legs," Cosette whispered to him and she felt him laugh.
"Oh God, I missed you all. It's been way too long," he said back, pressing a kiss on the top of her head.
They were quiet for a few moments before one waitress opened the door. "Enjolras is in the middle of one of his speeches. Everyone's there and 'Chetta's wondering where you are," she addressed to Cosette.
She smiled before grabbing Marius's hand and pulling him out of the cramped space. "Well, let's go see how badly Enjy reacts to us interrupting his speeches."
"He can't get mad at you. He knows you'll kick his ass," he laughed to her, but following nonetheless.
They made their way to the familiar back room and watched for a moment. Enjolras was already speaking quickly and powerfully. Combeferre and Éponine glanced at them once but made no notice that they'd seen them. Courfeyrac was sprawled out across Jehan's lap, but seemed to be listening. Jehan was absent-mindedly running a hand through Courf's hair. Joly, Bossuet, and Musichetta were curled up on one couch, in their own little world away from the rest of them. Bahorel was sipping a drink, seemingly bored. Feuilly was near Enjolras and seemed to be the one most focused on his words. Grantaire was lying down, absently sketching something in his notebook.
"Ready to surprise them?" Cosette questioned, glancing to her husband. He nodded at her and the two slowly made their way into the room.
They simply leaned on the wall, not saying anything and waited for the rest of them to notice.
"Hey, Marius," Joly waved to him before freezing and turning his head back around. Everyone heard him and slowly turned towards the pair. Marius gave a little wave.
It was silent for a moment before…
"OH MY GOD!"
Suddenly Marius was being attacked by a teddy bear. Or, at least, he was about to lose feeling in his arms because of how tightly Courfeyrac was hugging him.
"I missed you too, Courf," he said to the man, hugging him back. Cosette smiled as she thought she heard Courfeyrac whimper.
Then there were calls of "Marius!" and "Welcome home!" and, from Bahorel, "When the fuck did you get back?" and Marius was surrounded by his friends. Even Enjolras clapped him on the shoulder. Joly couldn't stop grinning, Jehan was babbling away about what he'd missed, and Courfeyrac was still curled around him.
Feuilly called for drinks and even Enjolras agreed that they could push the meeting back a bit because their Pontmercy was home.
And it was one of the best Christmas's they'd ever had.
A/N Late last night I was watching soldiers' homecoming videos and I was inspired to make this. I hope you enjoyed... I made myself cry.