Hello Everyone! New writer and story here! I am basing this story around Marius and Eponine and….that's pretty much all that I am certain about right now. I'm kind of doing this as I think of it so if you like the story so far, and you have any comments or requests for things to come up in the story, I would love to hear them!
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own anything that has to do with Les Miserables.
Marius Pontmercy had finished his classes for the week and had been walking around Paris at night with his Amis comrades. They were laughing and shouting randomly enough to cause an old hag to yell down at them from her two story window and shut her badly painted shutters loudly. This caused the young men to make even more of a ruckus than before. A long distance away a clock chimed twelve times alerting them of the late hour.
"C'mon men, what do you say to a few pints at the café?" Grantaire, the lazy drunk of the group asked, already ladled down with a few of his own. In fact many of the group were quite intoxicated this evening as they stumbled down the street, taking their time before answering their friend.
"Grantaire, we just finished our third round at my flat. How much more can you handle?" Enjolras, the broad man and leader of the group asked, with a slightly slurred tongue. With his attention on his friend he took a small trip down the walk without realizing. Two sets of hands belonging to Marius and Courfeyrac reached out to grab him and missed completely, leaving the two men holding onto air while the rest of the group laughed greatly.
"Apparently I can't handle much more tonight. I'm going to turn in early." Marius told his friends while still looking confused at the fact his hands were holding onto nothing.
"I agree"
"Me as well"
"I too" Came from the group while Grantaire looked downtrodden. He bounced back after a few and shrugged.
"Alright then. If you need me, you know where I'll be." He exited the group and made his way towards the café while the rest of the men walked on their way home.
"Will you be around the café tomorrow Marius? We have our meeting set for early after noon. You do realize you have missed the previous two meetings right? What have you been doing locked up in that flat of yours?" While Enjolras was Marius' good friend, Marius didn't have the courage quite yet to tell him that he was tiring of the daily meetings along with his class work and keeping up with himself. He had needed a break if he was going to be able to clear his head enough to continue with the movement the men had started. The poor of the poor in Paris had enough of being treated like animals with the new king in charge. Enough so, that they felt they needed to send their own kind of message to the king, or his army at least, so that they could be heard. Marius and his friends were not poor to say the least, but the poor needed someone to speak up for them when they couldn't speak for themselves. While it sounded like a lot of riff raff to some people who were told of the Les Amis de'ABC, or the men who were starting this movement, Marius felt that it was a just cause. He had to remind himself of that once in a while however, especially when Enjolras was on his streak of hours and hours of meetings every week. It got to be tiring.
"Yes, I will be there. I've just been caught up in a lot lately. My grandfather isn't cooperating as usual and I'm receiving the short end of it." Luckily it was late and Enjolras didn't really care too much about the answer Marius gave. Marius didn't have the brain power tonight to continue on with a fake story like that anyway. It was best to just end the conversation now.
"I'm going to turn down here. I will see you all tomorrow." Marius started to turn down one street before he felt Courfeyrac's hand on his shoulder.
"You must be worse off than we thought Marius. Look at what street you were about to turn down." Marius glanced at the street sign already certain what street it was but just checking to be sure.
"Yes I know…"
"The docks Marius! You're heading in the direction of the docks! Are you mad?" Marius shrugged the hand off of his shoulder. Sure, he knew the street he was going down wasn't exactly safe. Prositutes and gang members swarmed these areas late at night just waiting for someone like him with some fortune to make a wrong turn. The police had narrowed down the slums of the streets to just a few blocks to keep the peace, but those blocks were full of cretins of the streets.
"I've been down this way before. It is a short cut to my building."
"Tell me why again you live in the slums when you could live in a perfectly safe area just a few blocks down?" Feuilly was the one to ask this question.
"I'm going further than anyone of you! I've chosen to live like the poor so that I can understand their troubles! Plus, my grandfather is stubborn enough to not lend me money unless I've taken a job in an area he deems fit for me. I'm not ready to sell my life off yet while I can still live it, you know?"
"Well you won't be living long down there I can assure you that. Either you'll get killed, or you'll crawl your way out of there to one of us. I'll bet on that." Courfeyrac tapped the side of his pant pocket as if saying that he would put his money down right that minute. Marius shook his head.
"I'll see you all tomorrow then?" He wanted to get out of this conversation and into his bed, however grimy it seemed. The group nodded at him, not saying a word, but watching as he walked down the alleyway in the direction of the docks and his flat in the slums.
It took Marius longer than usual to reach his building. Whether it was the amount of alcohol in his body or the large amount of prostitutes and gangs he had to outsmart to make it there he was unsure. All he knew was that his bed was close and that was all that mattered to him at this hour.
Looking up from his feet to see his building, Marius saw multiple people arranged around the front door to it. This wasn't unusual as one of the areas most feared gang members lived in his tenement, Thernardier. There he was in the middle of the group trying to look as unforgiving as possible as his other members were copying his movements.
"They all look the same trying to be fearful when in fact having fear themselves." Marius thought to himself. His eyes scanned the group as he came closer and they fell upon the one person that made him not fear for his life at the moment, Eponine Thernardier. Daughter of the most hated man in Paris. Strongest young woman he might have known and his closest friend. She stood on the side of the steps, furthest from Marius' eyes shifting her weight back and forth while clutching her tan trench coat as close as she could to her thin frame. None of the men's eyes were on her at them moment and that was when Marius felt that she was at her most vulnerable. Always a pawn in her father's games, Eponine lived a life of danger and despair not to mention the lack of necessities her family seemed to always face. Despite that, Marius couldn't think of a better friend than her and never failed to tell her that. Right now, she was looking cold and exhausted, not yet noticing Marius' approach to the group nearing.
Again, Marius wasn't sure what made him so bold that night to bypass every gang member including Thernardier himself to talk to Eponine, but by some grace of God he was able to do so with minimal threats.
"Eponine," Marius called not quite able to get all the way through the group to her. He figured it would be easier if she came to him. As she heard her name, Eponine's head raised and Marius was given two looks from her. The first, her protective glance, the one she gave to most any male voice that called her name as from her experience, men were selfish, cruel monsters. Her eyes were glazed over and a frown was upon her lips. Reluctance was spelled out in every form in her own body language. However, that reluctance quickly turned once she saw it was Marius calling her name. The glaze was gone, the frown was turned and no reluctance showed as she stepped forward into the street light where Marius was waiting for her. Both friends ignored the calls and grunts from the gang members as Marius pulled Eponine's hand closer to him to place a kiss upon it. The smile he received in return from her could have lit up the entire city.
"How are you today 'Ponine?" He asked her while spinning her around and bringing her close to him. Eponine glanced over her shoulder and saw her father and a few other men stand up furiously, jealously watching them interact with each other.
"Hey Eponine!" One of them called to her. Again Marius felt the rigidness come back to her. "Why don't you give me some of that, huh? Just let me have you one night! That's all you'll be able to handle!" The gang member called out louder just so that everyone on the street could hear him. Eponine whipped her head back around to Marius to find that he was just inches from her face. Eponine looked confused by his actions until Marius stumbled a little where they were standing.
"Monsieur, I do believe you have had a little to drink tonight." She tried to look stern to match the tone of her voice but failed when Marius chuckled.
"You didn't answer my question, 'Ponine! Even though I am slightly intoxicated I can tell that I did not receive an answer to my question!" Eponine could barely make out what he had said as his words were slurring together, his eyelids dropping.
"My day was fine Monsieur, but you better get to your flat before you fall or else you will be in more trouble than you wish for." Eponine slightly jerked her head behind her to the group of men watching their every move.
"I am tired. I will see you tomorrow then?" Eponine nodded and pushed him in the direction of the door to the tenement. Marius cooperated until the door was almost shut behind him when he swung it open again surprising Eponine and the rest of the gang as well.
"You know Eponine, you look tired too. You should sleep more often. One day you're going to wake up as an old hag because you didn't sleep enough. You're starting to look like one as it is now." He was teasing her and while he always pretended to be annoyed by their back and forth jabs at one another, he really enjoyed having fun with her. Eponine rolled her eyes with the smallest smile on her lips and pulled the door closed, returning to her spot next to the gang. She pulled her coat closer to her once more and the smile never left her lips the rest of the night.