A/N. So I've actually created a multichapter fanfic. I normally do oneshots. But this is my baby. And I love it to death. The chapters will change POV's. This first one is in Eponine's. You'll be able to tell when it's Eponine's and when it's Enjolras. Eponine loves to cuss. And Enjolras is very polite and doesn't cuss that often. This fic is loosely based on RENT. You'll be able to tell. But like I said, it's loosely based off of it. Not completely.
Disclaimer: I don't own Les Mis. :(
The beast is within. Behind closed doors and hidden in syringes. Going through the veins of young girl's and hidden in the face of a young man who has been in her shoes multiple times and yearns to help her and show her the easy part of living without this beast.
Its magic. Its unlike anything you will ever feel. Almost nothing can you bring you down from it. This clear, bubbly liquid that fills the syringe. This addiction. This has become her life.
The loud thumping of the club's music has started to shake the bathroom walls. She ties her arm up and thanks to her fucking Montparnasse last night, she has more than enough to supply her fixes for the week. She grits her teeth together as the needle breaks her skin. It doesn't matter where this needle comes from. It never does. She was diagnosed with AIDS just four weeks ago and she's cutting her life expectancy down by continuing the life she has.
But there is not stopping a Thénardier, let alone Éponine.
She unties her arm as the drug rushes threw her veins. She quickly disposes of anything that would make it seem that this stripped just got high in a two cent bathroom.
The cat calls almost make her cringe. But this is who she is. She is the main attraction of this shitty orientation She's tied up and handcuffed to any man in the room that her boss oh so chooses. She finds it sick and revolting. But money is always earned a hard way.
This must be why heroin is her best friend.
She is cheap. She is filthy. She is easy. She is worthless. These are the adjectives that have always been thrown in her face. By man, parent, lover, stranger. These words weigh her down more the the chains they are putting her into at the moment on state. "Ép! Ép! Ép!" The cheers are roaring throughout the crowds. Only for you, she thinks. She shakes her head and looks out at the sea of people.
Her heart could have stopped right then.
That man. That guitar playing, soul crushing with the black leather jacket and the red v neck under neath it, man. He's here. Why the fuck would someone who had some dignity left in them come to a place as raunchy as the Patron-Minette. The two for one lights hit his face just before the spot light blinds her. She sees the outline of his curly head.
Enjolras. That is is name. Antoine Enjolras. She had heard him and his roommate Marius fight over bills and rent for the past two months she's lived underneath them. She's heard the beautiful guitar playing that she's grown found of hearing at two in the morning or seven in the evening. He's broker than shit.
She's broker than shit.
So why have these two penniless rejects of the world have never held a conversation?
"Éponine!" Cosette hissed on stage. "You might want to fucking move around stage if you want to earn a fucking dollar!"
Éponine blinked and nodded. "Sorry." She muttered to her coworker.
Cosette was a lucky stripper, if there were such a thing. Well there must, because she's the prime example. She never gets the loud costumers. They always tip her in large bills. Not one of these audience members have seen her tits or her pussy. Neither have her coworkers. She's a tame beast. Éponine still wonders why she's a stripper, her father is the mayor of New York. She's well off. Éponine believes if you must strip, strip in your part of the city,
Éponine struts on the stage and the cat calls and whistles and hoots and hollers grow louder with each bend of her body. Éponine was about to unhook herself from the chains when she started to shake.
Fucker. She thought. That stupid fucker didn't give me heroin.
Her shaking becomes worse and everyone takes part. Only her coworkers know she has AIDS. But Éponine knows she took her AZT that day. Her shaking becomes unbearable and she falls onto the stage. The crowd becomes silent. She looks up in a daze as Cosette gets her out of the chains and drags her backstage.
"Are you insane!" Her father yells at her. "We have tons of men who are will to pay, pay for you, you whore! And you decide to pass out on me! Pity! I'll be taking your pay for the night."
"Just the fuck up!" Cosette screams. "She's going through a withdrawal."
Éponine's eyes change from brown to green. She screams at the top of her lungs and destroys anything in sight. Cosette runs to the crowd. "Joly!" She yells. "Joly!"
Joly's head perks up as he sees the half naked blonde running to him. "Ép." She breathes heavy from running. "She's….help." She says as Enjolras appears with another beer.
Joly nods and stands. "He'll need to come with me."
Cosette sighs. "She'll be pissed. You know she doesn't like people knowing her story."
Joly rolls his eyes and drags Enjolras with him as he treads through crowd of horny men. "You know Éponine. The main attraction of this demented ring show." Joly starts. "She's a fucking carbon copy of you, man. She's shooting up heroin in bathrooms with shared needles. She's got AIDS."
Enjolras nearly freezes in his tracts. No. No. No. He was not about to witness someone going through a withdrawal. He was two years clean, thank you very much. That life was far behind him and yet still in front of him. "How am I to help?"
"Hold her back."
Enjolras is ushered backstage and sees the hysterical girl. Christ, how young are they picking strippers now.
"Give it to me!" She screams as the other girls try to calm her down. "I need it!"
Joly rushes in front of her. "Oh 'Ponine." He says softly, holding her face firm.
Enjolras watches the girl's body change. She isn't reaching out to anything now. She's gazing into the pre med's eyes and nodding. She's slowing down her breathing. Enjolras smiles slightly at this. Joly was the one who helped him get clean. Joly has more than enough experience for this one.
"Who the fuck is he?" She growled. But who was she kidding. She knew exactly who he was.
"Stay calm, Éponine. I had to bring him. Grantaire is at the meeting."
The meeting was a code for those who had AIDS. It wasn't sponsored or anything like that. It was in the church off of seventh street's basement. It was the closest thing Éponine had to a family. Or at least of those people who would care about her.
"I don't give a fuck….you told him! You told him, you asshole!"
This was when Enjolras steps in. "Please calm down. Joly just wanted to help."
She glares at Enjolras.
"I've sat where you sat with Joly in front of me. I know how it feels, alright?"
She breathes heavily for a few moments when the shaking stops. "You think you know me so well, guitar player." She shook her head.
"I think I know you better than you think."
She rolls her eyes and goes back to the stage. But a hand grips her biceps. "You're the girl on the floor below me."
She smirks and looks at him. "Bravo, guitar player, you recognized me."
He shook his head. "Enjolras." He presents.
She loosens his grip on her. "Just listen to the roar of the people. That is my name." She walks back onto stage and Enjolras is left speechless.
"Éponine! Éponine! Éponine!"