I don't know why I'm awake right now... Anyway, here it is. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Les Mis or the characters... and for good measure, I don't own any crystal meth... at the moment. No, no, I'm just kidding :P I don't do meth. Oh and, uh, I don't own Aleve. Well, I do, but I don't own the rights to it. Y'all know what I mean. And I don't own War and Peace.

Eponine was shaking. A lot. She couldn't control it. It had only been 48 hours and withdrawal had hit her hard. Her body craved crystal meth, but Eponine had promised Marius that she would stop. It was a promise that she intended to keep. She was sitting on the floor in Marius' flat, hugging her knees to her chest. Marius was in class. She knew he would be back soon.

She rubbed her temples, her head throbbing. Headaches... one of the worst parts of withdrawal. She felt like someone was stabbing her in the head, like her head might explode. Her stomach felt like it had flipped over, making her nauseous, and her mind was overwhelmed with worries. And that was the anxiety part of withdrawal, which was never fun. And then, of course, there was the shaking. The constant shaking. That came from craving the drug. She was hyperventilating too, and she was finding it rather hard to stop. Her forehead was beaded with an icy sweat and her heart randomly sped up at times.

The door opened and Marius walked in. His eyes immediately found Eponine and he hurried over to her. He set his bag down before kneeling next to her. She continued to shake uncontrollably. Marius wrapped his arms around her and held her small frame close to him.

"Deep breaths, 'Ponine." Marius said, "Breathe in for four seconds, hold for two, out for six." Eponine tried that and succeeded in slowing down her breathing very slightly. She knew that if she continued to hyperventilate that she would faint. Her head throbbed painfully and she winced. "Headache?" Marius asked. She nodded. He kissed her temple lightly, "I'll get you some Aleve." He got up and walked over to the kitchen. He searched through the cupboard where he kept the medicine and soon found the small pill bottle entitled Aleve. He filled a glass with water and then brought both the pill bottle and water back over to Eponine. "Here," he said as he handed them to her. She smiled weakly before taking them from him. Marius sat down next to her as she took the capsules. He gently rubbed her back. She set the glass and the pill bottle down on the ground next to her. Marius wrapped his arms around her again. Eponine convulsed, her body craving what she refused to give it. Marius kissed her hair, then her forehead, then her cheek, then her lips. "We can get through this, 'Ponine." he said. She smiled slightly and rested her head against his chest. She felt so tired. Ah, and there was the energy loss. "Do you want me to read to you?" he asked her, knowing how that always seemed to calm her down. Eponine nodded. Marius reached into his bag and pulled out his copy of War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy. Marius read, ""Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war, if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that Antichrist- I really believe he is Antichrist- I will have nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer my 'faithful slave,' as you call yourself! But how do you do? I see I have frightened you- sit down and tell me all the news."

It was in July, 1805, and the speaker was the well-known Anna Pavlovna Scherer, maid of honor and favorite of the Empress Marya Fedorovna. With these words she greeted Prince Vasili Kuragin, a man of high rank and importance, who was the first to arrive at her reception. Anna Pavlovna had had a cough for some days. She was, as she said, suffering from la grippe; grippe being then a new word in St. Petersburg, used only by the elite." He continued to read to Eponine until late into the night, stopping occasionally to give her a quick kiss, or to ask how she was feeling, or to get her something to eat. Eponine still shook, but she found it easier to get through when she had something to focus on: Marius. She listened to his heartbeat more than she did to War and Peace. The sound comforted her and almost made withdrawal bearable. She liked listening to his voice as well, even if she wasn't paying attention to the words.

Eponine closed her eyes and just listened. Marius glanced down at her and smiled slightly. He continued to read,

""And what do you think of this latest comedy, the coronation at Milan?" asked Anna Pavlovna, "and of the comedy of the people of Genoa and Lucca laying their petitions before Monsieur Buonaparte, and Monsieur Buonaparte sitting on a throne and granting the petitions of the nations? Adorable! It is enough to make one's head whirl! It is as if the whole world had gone crazy."

Prince Andrew looked Anna Pavlovna straight in the face with a sarcastic smile.

"'Dieu me la donne, gare a qui la touche!' (1) They say he was very fine when he said that," he remarked, repeating the words in Italian: "'Dio mi l'ha dato. Guai a chi la tocchi!'"" Marius looked down at Eponine again and found that her breathing was slow and deep. Her eyes fluttered occasionally and she had a small smile on her face. She was asleep. Marius put the book back in his bag and then gently lifted Eponine and carried her over to the bed. He lay her down and pulled the blankets up so that they covered her. Then he lay down next to her, wrapping his arms around her. The shaking had somewhat subsided and was now just the occasional tremor. He kissed her cheek lightly before closing his eyes and falling asleep.

...

Eponine awoke in the middle of the night from a nightmare. She was used to nightmares, but this one had seemed to real, so vivid. She had dreamed that her father had sold her to a pimp, but now, as she lay in Marius' arms, it felt more like a memory than a dream. A few tears fell from Eponine's eyes and she started to shake again. Feeling her shake, Marius awoke and looked at her. He saw the tears. He softly wiped them away.

"What's wrong?" he asked her.

"Really awful nightmare." she replied. "It seemed so real..." Vivid dreams are another part of withdrawal.

"What happened in your nightmare?"

"My father sold me to a pimp." she told him, shaking even more. Marius held her close.

"It was just a dream, you're safe. I'm here and I won't let anything bad happen to you. I'm here."

"That's all I need to know." Eponine kissed him softly. He kissed her back, smiling slightly. Then, she rested her head against his chest and, listening to his heartbeat, fell back asleep. Marius stayed awake a bit longer, until he was sure that she was asleep before he himself went back to sleep.

...

The next couple of days passed in much the same way. Eponine would shake and have horrible headaches and have anxiety attacks, and Marius would talk to her and read to her, effectively calming her down.

And then, as weeks went by, the withdrawal symptoms started to go away. The shaking stayed the longest, but after a month, that too had gone. Eponine still craved crystal meth, but she knew that, with Marius by her side, she could get through that. She found her strength in him.

And that concludes this two-shot story. I hope you enjoyed! Please review!

(1) God has given it to me, let him who touches it beware!