She's sleeping over at Grantaire's when she hears it. She's left her best friend, practically comatose on the bed, to go and get a midnight snack. Walking past the doors as quietly as she can, she winces she she hears a creak in the floorboards. She's certain everybody is asleep.
Tiptoeing the rest of the way to the brightly lit kitchen, she opens the fridge door and shoves as much food into her arms as possible. Cookies, cheese slices, jam, peanut butter, whipped cream. She grabs the lot, closing the fridge door with her hip as gracefully as possible without the use of her arms.
She's just about to leave when she spots a large bag of Doritos on the table. Feeling a sudden need for them, she walks towards them, only realising she has no spare room for them when she is about to reach down. In a eureka moment, she carefully leans down and bites the end of the bag with her teeth, lifting them up and walking out of the room proudly. Mission accomplished.
On the way back, she avoids the creak in the floor. Walking around it, literally pressing her back against the wall to not step on it, she thinks she's done well. Until she stumbles a bit and steps on it lightly, only noticing her mistake when she has no other option but to step on it.
And that's when it happens.
She hears it clearly, the sound of a pained groan coming from the room she is currently stood mid-step in front of. She frowns.
She knows whose room it is. The blond one; Enjolras, she thinks he's called. He's the only one with a red door, Grantaire told her with an eye roll a couple of days ago. They've never had a proper conversation, but they row a lot. His saviour complex doesn't work for her, and he can't seem to accept that she doesn't want his help. So they argue.
Her stomach drops. She doesn't want to move, lest he hear her. She'd rather not have an argument right now, especially with her mouth starting to cramp from the heavy bag in it. She can't help but wonder what he is doing though, because he genuinely sounded in pain. She would go and check see if he was getting murdered, but her most reliable weapon right now would probably be the half full jam jar in her left hand.
"Oh, God."
Oh.
That's what he's doing. He suddenly sounds a lot less pained, and a lot more pleasured. She tries to smirk, but fails terribly. Goddamn Doritos.
She leans closer to the door, her foot lifting from the creaky wood. The sounds of his moaning is something she never even expected to hear. She doesn't really know what she expected though. After all, underneath all that red clothing and those determined speeches, he really was just a typical horny twenty two year old man.
She doesn't know why she can't move (she blames it on the creaky step), but she feels like she has to stay and listen to this. Nah. He was being pretty loud, she'd probably be able to hear it from Grantaire's room anyway. May as well get a good quality version of it by resting her ear lightly on the red wood, right?
"Yes... Oh my god..."
She's starting to really enjoy the fact that she has midnight cravings for whipped cream and jam.
"You're so beautiful... Oh..."
Her face pales. Was he with someone? She panics. She can't listen to him have sex with somebody, now that's wrong. She would happily listen to him masturbate, but it's just creepy to listen to this. She actually suppresses a disgusted shiver.
"God, Éponine... Do that again."
She does a double take. Her face fills with blood again, and she can hear it rushing through her ears. Did he just say her name? How many other Éponine's were there? He can't have meant her.
"Yes... Oh."
Who knew he would be so loud? To be fair, he never shuts up any other time, she can't expect him to be quiet during this either.
She hears a loud grunt and figures that must be it.
Huh. Looks like she got more out of this trip than food, now she has information. Maybe their bickering turns him on. She can hear material rustling in the bedroom, so she smirks.
A blush on her cheeks (for some reason), she takes a step backwards to head back to Grantaire's room.
She forgot about the creaky floorboard. Oh.
She hears the rustling of material cease, and her face goes blank. She can't move. The Doritos bag is getting heavier and heavier as the seconds pass.
"Hello?"
The worried tone in his voice almost makes her laugh. Should she run? Should she confront him?
She hears footsteps from behind the door. A sigh. The door handle moves, and suddenly he's stood there in only a black pair of boxers, hair mussed and chest heaving.
She stares at him. She must look like a deer caught in headlights, because her eyes feel like they're about to pop out of her head. She's been caught in the act. But then, hasn't he too?
With the look on his face, she realises that he knows that she heard everything.
"Éponine." His voice comes out croaky, so he embarrassedly clears his throat. "Éponine."
"Hi." She attempts to say this, but the bag in her mouth is keeping her teeth clamped shut. She really should move it, balance it in her arms or something.
"I am so sorry. Please forgive me. I don't want this to ruin our friendship, I value it very much and-"
She opens her mouth unconsciously, the bag of Doritos dropping to the floor unceremoniously. She leaves them there. "Nah, it's fine. I'm not too bothered."
His eyes widen. "What?"
"Well, I'd like to know why, but I'm not bothered that it happened." She shrugs. God, now her arms were starting to ache.
He grins at her. She watches him look her up and down. Thank god she wore relatively attractive pyjamas this time. "What do you mean, 'why'?"
She lifts an eyebrow. "Okay... Why did you say my name?"
"Because."
"Because?"
"Because for some reason, I'm attracted to you."
Was that an insult or a compliment? She frowns.
He lifts his arms to try and halt her thoughts. "Wait. Shit. That came out wrong. What I meant was that- well, I-uh- I quite like you." He lowers his arms with a flop, and he sighs to himself.
He lifts a corner of his lips. "That did not go like I expected it to."
"What, have you been planning your big 'I like you' speech for a while?" She says it as a joke, but he nods.
He nods back to his bedroom embarrassedly. "The speech isn't the only thing I've been thinking about."
She actually laughs then. He seems pleased with himself, because he grins right back. "You're such a loser."
He smirks. "You like how much of a loser I am."
"Debatable." She quirks an eyebrow.
"You know I love to debate."
He actually winks at her.
What?!
Was this seriously the same guy who had, just this morning, yelled at Combeferre merely because he had put a letter in the wrong box?
She groans. Of course she would get that guy.
"Look, I'd love to stay and chat all night, but I was actually going to go and eat all this on my own while scrolling through Tumblr, so I'm kind of busy." She shrugs. "Unless you wanna give me a live showing of the exciting event that I just missed in there."
He blushes. Bending down quickly, he grabs the bag of Doritos. "You're not funny." He looks down at the ground and smiles sheepishly.
"It wasn't a joke."
His head perks up. "Really?" His voice is way smaller than she expected, and she almost has to ask him to repeat it.
She just nods. She walks into the bedroom and doesn't even wait for him to follow her. Placing the food down on his desk, she lightly stretches her arms. Turning around, she sees him staring at her chest. Seriously, vest tops are a gift when seducing men.
He's still clutching the bag of Doritos when she closes the door, and she almost laughs as he drops them when she pulls her vest off.
Please review omg it makes me so happy! Thanks for reading!