(A/N: Short I wrote for my friends on a twitter RP. Combeferre is my character and his love needed to be known.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Les Miserables...if I did then Eponine and Combeferre would be together forever.

Marius. It was always about Marius. She never noticed me…she never acknowledged how much I was actually there. She didn't even see all those times that I was the first person there to help her when she needed it. I was nonexistent in her world. Just another person on the street… another person that she walked past everyday so she could see Marius.

I should've told her how I felt…I should've took the chances that were given to me to take her aside and just say: "Éponine I—"

Now it's too late…it's far too late…there's no way of going back to tell her.

I can't even tell her as she lies dying…not when she only sees Marius.

)()()()()()()(

She is cradled in his arms as the rain falls around us; she holds to him like he is the only thing in this world; and he speaks to her in whispers, words that he only says to ease her pain. We watch with a silence that is only broken by small cries of pain from wounds not yet closed on hurt friends.

I should help them.

That's what I think as I stare in the quiet at the only person to break past my walls lies dying in the arms of a friend. I can't bring myself to move and I have to remind myself to breathe just so I can control every bone in my body from collapsing onto the ground.

I can hear her talking in that voice. A voice I dreamt about almost every night since I met her. The very voice I yearned to hear say three words to me that would forever change my life, but will never happen. Not because she's dying, but because of him. Because with Marius in this world…she would have continued to never see me.

Her words are soft and soothing, but they can't mend my heart while it slowly shatters listening to what she says.

"Just hold me now…" and I look down biting my lip fighting everything that I want to do. She's not mine, she never was…she never will be. Her heart belonged to Marius even if he didn't want it.

I can hear it in her voice…the pain, the life fading away, and mainly the love she's confessing to Marius. A love that I already knew existed from looking at her. I saw it every time she watched him from across the room and I knew what that look was because it's the same look I had when I watched her.

And here she is lying in her own blood as the rain falls on the barricade and telling Marius that she wants to die in his arms…she wants to die knowing that he knows she loves him.

I would take her wounds in trade to hear her say those words to me…

"And rain," I look back to see her with a hand to Marius' face, "will make the flowers…" her eyes drift shut and her hand falls from his face.

Marius gapes at her with tears running down his face, "…grow." He places his lips to her forehead and hugs her to his chest before looking up at Enjolras who is looking at me.

"Combeferre…"

Why Enjolras? Why me?

He nods his head of curls towards the two on the ground and I swallow back every feeling in my body to step slowly forward, but my heart lurches in my chest and I thank God for the rain as a tear slipped down my cheek. I drop to a crouch next to the girl and I look at Marius.

He's seen it. He's seen the torment. The pain. The hurt. The love. And he lets her go as if he were releasing her to me…allowing me to finally hold the woman I love.

I look away from him as my eyes focus in on the lifeless face of my fair Éponine. Even in death she is still beautiful as ever and the notion of her being an angel on Earth has finally become true as God grants her those wings to be at peace. I turn my eyes to the ground and feel the presence of Enjolras next to me ready to take her if I can't for some reason, but I reach my arms under her and lift her from the ground.

In that moment I know there is nothing worse that can happen to me than carrying the body of the woman I loved more than anything else on this planet.

I stand to my full height and look straight not wanting to lock eyes with anyone knowing in that one second they would all see what Marius saw and I wasn't willing to let them see me weak in this moment. I was their—am their guide. They look to me to be calm and collected. So that's what I will be…until I get into Musain.

I carry her all the way into the building and don't even bother to look at the Inspector tied up. I nod at the student who stands within the building guarding the man and speak calmly to him, "Go see if they need help outside." He nods back then hurries out leaving me alone with the Inspector and the body still in my arms. I give one last look at the man, but then finally drop to my knees around the corner of the door making me hidden from the others.

I slowly lower her legs down and bring that hand up to touch her face, "Why did you do that? Was he worth your life?"

'Yes. Yes he is. He's worth everything…' That's what she would tell me.

My lip trembles and I tuck my head into the crook of her neck hugging her close to me as more tears seep out of my eyes. I pull back holding her face again and take in a shaky breath, "I should've told you a long time ago how I felt Éponine…I should've told you that you were everything to me even if I went unnoticed by you. I should've told you that I was willing to do anything to make you happy…just to see you smile at me." I lean down to gently kiss her still warm lips and my heart breaks even more as my mouth lingers there, but finally I pull back to brush a piece of hair from her face, "Why didn't I tell you? Why couldn't I just bring myself to say it?" I lick my lips sniffling slightly, "I love you Éponine…always have."

I gently lower her to the ground and ball my hands into fists on my thighs, "It's too late now though…" I bite my bottom lip trying to rebuild the wall I had earlier and as I do so I hear a snicker from across the room and I look up to see the Inspector smirking at me.

"You'll all end up like her."

"Then so be it," I say calmly, "We fight for the people and if we die fighting for those rights they deserve than we have no regrets."

"Are you so eager to die boy?"

My eyes slowly shift back to look at Éponine, "Not eager, just ready."

There was a long pause and the tone in the Inspector's voice changed, "What was her name?"

"Her name was Éponine," I pause trying to find more to say, "her life was cold and dark, but she was unafraid." I look back at the Inspector with my wall now back in place and hit him with a set stare, "And I will fight in her name."

I stand up leaving Musain just as a group of students walk in and I pass Gavroche who leans on the wall with tears running down his face with his mouth moving in a whisper barely audible to my ears, "She was my sister…" I hesitate in my walk to say something to him, but what is there to say besides you're sorry? And my being sorry is that I couldn't have taken the bullet instead…I would give anything to have died in her place if it meant she'd live past the barricade. There was nothing to be said to the boy no matter how much I wished to say something.

I turn away in time to see Marius with a letter in hand and instantly I know that his mind is back to focusing in on his darling Cosette. I find the nearest gun and stare at it with every intention of preparing myself to a battle when a hand drops onto my shoulder and I turn to see Enjolras staring at me with a look that says so much about what he is realizing would happen come light.

"Combeferre," he speaks quietly so no one else can hear, "she will not die in vain..."

I stare at him breathing slowly knowing now that he too had noticed my hesitation in carrying her body.

"I'm sorry," he says the words with the earnest of meaning then walks away leaving me to stare after him, but then I close my eyes and tilt my head up to let the rain wash against my face.

Dear God above I ask of you one thing for when tomorrow comes: If I am to die please allow me to walk into your embrace with her at my side…let my love finally be known and my heart finally be given to her.

I let out a soft sigh feeling a certain weight lift off my shoulders just as the rain slows to a stop, but when I open my eyes a drop hits the tip of my nose and I'm forced to close my eyes again. When my eyelids shut the sight nearly stops my breathing. There it is a smile…a smile so soft, so pure, and so full of grace. Her smile. The smile I prayed to see since I met her. I can see it and be it because I'm going crazy in these few seconds or because she's actually smiling down at me from Heaven…I want to remember it for as long as I shall live.

If I die tomorrow Lord…I want you to know that I will fight to live, but I'm ready to be taken into your garden to be with her. I'm willing to walk in that garden for an eternity if it means seeing that smile again. I need her Lord and wish to be with her till the end of time.

I open my eyes looking up at the slowly clearing sky and my heart tenses with every feeling I ever had.

Éponine, when the Lord claims my soul…I promise to care for you more than anything else I had ever been blessed with on this Earth and promise to forever keep you happy. Because even in death nothing can stop me from feeling the way I do for you. And when I finally see you again I will say what I should've said long ago—

"I love you Éponine."