Hello everyone! Hope all of you are alive and well! This is my second story, hope you guys enjoy it... Please read and review! Have a nice day (^_^)
For as long as any of his friends known him, Combeferre had always been a calm, mature, level-headed young man. He was the Guide in the group, the voice of reason and naturally the one everyone turned to whenever they needed advice or help. It was unlike him to make a mistake, especially foolish, embarrassing ones. Even though he never boasted about it out loud, Combeferre was secretly proud of the fact. Therefore, on the rare occasional moments when he did screw up, he would remember every particular detail of it no matter how small it might be.
That was the reason why the moment Marius' gamine friend appeared at the Café Musain one evening, he recognized her instantly. Courfeyrac and Marius talked about her occasionally, but none of the rest had ever met her in person prior to her appearance at the Café. She was introduced to everyone present, and Combeferre managed to keep a straight face when it was his turn. "Eponine," she said simply, her voice was as hoarse as he remembered. "Combeferre," he returned politely, and they returned to their own business. It was unsurprising that she stuck by Marius' side the entire evening, watching as the young man joined the game of cards with a couple of the others.
Combeferre was in his usual corner, reading through a new book he stumbled upon about moths while Enjolras was seated next to him, working on his latest speech. Occasionally he stole a glance at her direction from the corner of his eyes, memories of the first time he had seen her a week ago began rushing through his mind.
flashback
His head felt slightly heavier than usual, but he was still capable of walking without any assistance. His friends insisted that he joined them for a celebratory drink after they finished their exams for the term, but Combeferre had excused himself before the celebration can turn any wilder. Due to the tipsiness he felt, Combeferre found himself heading towards the apartment Courfeyrac shared with Marius, which was a lot closer compared to his own. All he wanted was to catch some sleep, after almost two days straight staying up studying for his paper.
It was exactly in front of their door that Combeferre remembered that both of them were out of town for the whole weekend. With a dejected sigh, he turned around and prepared to start the long march to his own place instead. "Monsieur Marius," a hoarse voice called out from the darkness, before a figure slowly stepped out from the shadows. "He's out of town for the weekend," Combeferre answered, his eyes squinting to get a closer look at person who had just appeared. From the limited amount of lighting, he could at least tell that the guest to be a young woman, with dark locks falling down to the middle of her back. Dressed in only a white chemise and a brown tattered skirt held up by an old, worn-out belt, she was most probably not acquaintance with Marius from the university.
Hearing his answer, she turned around to leave without saying anything, but he moved forward and called out to her. "Mademoiselle," he knew she must be desperately needed help for her to come looking for Marius at such hour. She halted midways, and glanced slowly over her shoulder, looking unsure whether he was addressing her. "Is there anything I can do for you?" Combeferre asked gently, taking another step closer.
The girl visibly bit her lower lip and stepped backwards, trying to maintain the distance between them. "No," she said harshly before turning to leave, but he grabbed her wrist in time to stop her. Upon the sudden contact, she shrieked and swatted his hand away roughly, catching him completely off guard. "What are you doing?" she hissed through gritted teeth, glaring daggers at him. Combeferre quickly backed away and held up both his hands apologetically, especially when she slightly crouched, as if she was ready to pounce at him at any given chance.
"I'm so sorry, mademoiselle. I didn't mean to startle you," he said quickly but remained in his spot to avoid startling the girl once again. "Marius will be displeased if he finds out I let you leave just like that," at the mention of Marius, he saw the girl's eyes softened, and her stance slightly relaxed. "He will?" she echoed hesitantly, to which he nodded his head affirmatively. She visibly chewed on her lower lip and her eyes trailed downwards to the left side, clearly contemplating on his offer.
"I need a place to stay for the night," she said after a few moments of silence, finally made up her mind. Combeferre nodded his head once again, so she cautiously stepped out from the shadows and gave him a full view of herself. Seeing her bare feet, he immediately felt a pang of pity for the girl.
end of flashback
"Combeferre, you've been staring at her for the sixth time this evening," Enjolras finally said without looking up, knowing he had caught the sandy-haired man off guard. "Is there something I should know about?".
"None that I'm aware off," Combeferre said curtly, fixing his stare on the pages of his book instead.
"I'll take your word then. But if you need someone, you know where to find me," the golden-haired student lifted his face to meet his friend's eyes. Combeferre knew Enjolras did not fall for his lie a single bit, but decided not to pursue the matter further against his wish. Inwardly, he was grateful that Enjolras was more on the discreet side when it came to matters like this as opposed to Courfeyrac's approach.
He resumed reading without stealing any glances, now aware that nothing really escaped Enjolras' sharp eyesight. A loud thud coming from her direction however caught his attention once again, and Combeferre was horrified when he saw Gavroche had tackled Eponine to the floor, as his friends watched in amusement at the siblings' antics.
He got up from his seat, ready to drag the boy off his sister by force, but Eponine was quicker to handle the situation. She slipped a hand, grabbed a handful of Gavroches's hair, and sharply yanked it backwards. The boy's grip loosened, so Eponine simply kicked him off her with force that sent him tumbling to the side. Gavroche cackled as Eponine swore under her breath and smacked him upside down on his head. Combeferre unconsciously bit his lower lip in worry as he saw Eponine got up from the floor with Marius' help, all the while holding her left side.
flashback
His breath hitched as soon as he caught sight of her newly exposed skin. She was disturbingly thin with her ribs protruding against her sallow skin, and her stomach was sunken in. She had a rather nasty bruise on her left ribs, which was why she had been holding her side the entire time they walked towards his home from Marius and Courfeyrac's residence. He examined them gently, with calm apologies every time she hissed in pain when he pressed on too hard. Relieved that nothing was broken, he proceeded to bandage her torso carefully before turning his attention to the numerous fresh bruises on the small of her back.
He collected her auburn-coloured hair in one hand and pushed it away from her back, letting it fall down the front of her left shoulder. Just like her ribs, her spine jutted out along her back. Fresh bruises decorated almost every inch of her back, some of them already turned blue. Aside from the bruises, she had some cuts in some places across her skin, and he could see there were quite a number of scars too.
Combeferre remembered the time he had seen Feuilly's body in the exact same condition of her body at that moment, and understood that it was poverty taking its toll on people. She was clearly exhausted; she had fallen asleep halfway through as he was applying balm to soothe her bruises. It was quite a feat on her behalf; he was half-impressed, half amused to see her sleeping while sitting up straight in his couch, her hands wrapped around her raised knees.
He took the moment to truly look at her, since she had glared at him a couple of times before when he stole a glance at her direction as they walked side-by-side. Her cheeks were sunken and her eyelids were sagged, which made her look constantly tired and a lot older than she really was. As she slept, her cracked lips twisted into a contented smile rather than her permanent scowl, and the whole expression of her face softened.
Her abrupt transformation intrigued him of just how much poverty and starvation can roughened someone up. Instead of the ferocious, almost feral woman that kind of scared him a bit just now, she now looked like who she really was; a young girl no older than seventeen. He inhaled deeply and put his hands on her shoulders, prayed hard that she would not wake up. As gently as he could, the young doctor pushed her down so that she was lying down before straightening out both her feet.
He then stood up to get a blanket to cover her with, but there was something about her that kept drew him in. Seeing how content she was just to have a roof over her head to sleep for the night, he could only imagine just what sort of life she had. To see her sleeping peacefully there, she looked fragile and Combeferre could not help but feel the need to protect her, to make her feel safe against the cold, harsh world.
Perhaps it was the wine he had with his friends, or it could be the sleepiness due to the time, but for some reason he just felt an odd feeling inside his chest and felt a knot in his stomach as he looked at her face once again. The next thing he knew, he was kneeling next to her, pressing his lips tenderly against hers. It was a chaste kiss, and he pulled himself back before he could go further, but her eyes had already snapped open. Confusion clearly written across her features, her eyebrows slightly scrunched as she frowned at him. He felt the strange knot in his stomach once again, and Combeferre boldly kissed her for the second time.
end of flashback
"Combeferre?" Enjolras' voice snapped him from his train of thoughts. He turned to look at his friend, and realized that he was still standing up, and the rest of the Amis was looking at him with curious looks as well. From the quick observation, he noticed that Eponine and Gavroche both had left the room. "Are you sure you're okay?" Enjolras pressed further on, clearly worried of his friend's bizarre behaviour that night.
The doctor-in-training looked around and sighed heavily. "I think I'm more tired than I realized," he said as he began clearing up his things, trying to calm himself down. Enjolras nodded and helped to arrange some of the papers scattered on the table and handed it to him. "Do you want me to walk you home?" he asked with a tiny smirk on his face, much to Combeferre's slight annoyance. "Good evening to all of you," he bid them goodbye as he got everything inside his bag, and left the room.
As he walked out of the Café Musain, Combeferre took several deep breaths to calm down after clearly hurried his way away from the place. He had no idea why he would be that flushed just thinking about the girl, which embarrassed him in front of his friends. If there was anyone to blush and grow red in the face when thinking about someone of the opposite gender, it was always Jehan's role, and lately, Marius' as well.
Combeferre increased his pace as he wanted to get to his place as quickly as he could; so that he could drown himself in one of the many books he had and hopefully refrain himself from thinking about her. His collection of books and assignments did a decent job to keep his mind from thinking about her throughout the whole week before their second meeting at Café Musain.
"Leaving so soon, monsieur?" the familiar hoarse voice halted him in his tracks. "Eponine," he said and slowly turned around. She stood a few feet away from him, her face dimly lit by the moonlight.
Finished the first chapter! Thank you so much for reading, everyone. Working on Chapter 2 now. Till then, have a nice day :)
