The next day, Les Amis, accompanied by Musichetta and Madame Houcheloup, marched towards the address Éponine had given to them. It was a deadly cold afternoon and the perspective of another storm drenched all of those gamins' thoughts in such a way that they didn't even feel with enough energy to beg. Looking at them in search of some form of shelter was a heartbreaking sight that not one of them was willing to forget.
"Marius, tell us more about your sister," Courfeyrac asked for the tenth time throughout their walk. It made both Marius and, for some uncanny reason, Enjolras, upset and uncomfortable.
"You're not going to flirt with her, much less treat her as your next prospect," Marius said contemptuously. Musichetta blushed and looked away, feeling alluded; it was clear to everyone (but her mother, of course) that she was Courfeyrac's actual prospect.
Enjolras growled at low, thinking about a girl so beautiful and at Éponine being relegated to Courfeyrac's bed and nothing else. He didn't know what was going on with him, but he knew it was up to no good. He devoted his entire "philosophical time" (which is what he called most of the time he should be sleeping) in thinking about her, repairing both her physical persona and the little internal information she had of her. In his mind, he traced her face, from her big red lips, to her dimples, her little nose, her curiously sunken hazel eyes and her royal forehead, about a hundred times, drawing her mentally. He also concluded, by a basic revision of her actions and manners, that she was also a very good human being willing to help. By the time he was about to fall asleep, and he had to repress himself for thinking so, he realized that the combination of passion and intelligence made her beautiful...and he found that quite attractive.
"I'm quite sure that he didn't mean that...the thing is that we've known you for a while and we didn't know that you had any family...much less a sister!" Jehan asked gently.
"Marius, you're a fool!" Courfeyrac exclaimed.
"Well, I should be honest with all of you. I left my house and refused any help my grandfather gave me. I left my sister behind because I didn't want her to suffer; I had nothing assured and definitely nothing to offer to her. We stopped talking the day I left home but a few months ago I managed to send her a letter and, since then, we've been sending letters to each other. I wrote about all of you...although I never said anything about the revolution. Anyhow, as you can see, she found her way of making her own change," he said proudly as he stopped in front of the house with the signaled address.
It was one of the most decent homes in the slums. It was two story high, with two wooden windows that looked just newly made and a façade, although dirty with old red paint and all sorts of pamphlets posted throughout the years, that appeared respectable. By it sides, two older buildings hanged to it as two old men, making it look more of powerful. Marius didn't even have to knock, for a big old man dressed completely in white opened the door. As he left, he pulled a blonde girl gently by the arm. This girl, the most beautiful Marius had ever seen, locked eyes with him, smiling candidly. Marius sighed, he had met the love of his life and she was gone before he could even say hello.
He stood there, motionless and dumbfounded, waiting as the blonde beauty crossed the street. He was so struck by the vision that he had to be pulled inside by Courfeyrac and Enjolras. They house was mildly fixed and had just the essential pieces of furniture, but it was just as welcoming as a palace. They were greeted by children of all ages, most of them in clothing to big for them, who ran frantically to through the hall, heading towards the last door they could see. When they arrived to the living room, they found a white haired woman sitting at the couch, fixing a shirt for a little boy who waited half naked in front of her. She smiled at them as she handed in the shirt.
"Simone!" Marius exclaimed as he hugged her. The woman, in return, hugged him back with the same excitement.
"Everyone, this is the woman who took care of me as I grew up. I present you all to my nana, Simone," he said as she smiled once again.
All of Les Amis introduced themselves to Simone. After telling them that Éponine was waiting for them on the last door of the hallway, Madame Houcheloup sat down with her and helped her with her sewing; there were many kids who had grown and needed their clothing fixed.
The rest of the group continued walking towards the signaled door, which leaded to a backyard in which most of the kids were sitting down. Éponine was in the middle of the group, talking to a bunch of kids as they were all drawing on top of pieces of wood.
"Children look! Our visitors are here!" she said in a very cheery voice.
Soon, all sets of eyes were directed towards the visitors, who found themselves in front of a group of kids that embodied their cause. One of the oldest kids, a blond boy that was too concentrated in the drawing of a red flag besides his name, recognized them immediately: it was the group he desperately wanted to be part of and, most importantly, his group of friends.
"Hey Courf!" he said with a cheeky smile.
"Do you know them?" a younger boy asked in surprise, his eyes wide open. Gavroche nodded, feeling important.
"Gavroche? You live here?!" Courfeyrac, who had grown to love that little urchin, answered.
"I come twice a week! 'Ponine gives me food and allows me to stay whenever I feel like it...also, I do all these cool things! Did you know I already know how to spell my name?" his voice was so hurried but calmed, as though he was having a normal conversation at Le Café Musain.
"I'm going to talk with our visitors for a few minutes. Gavroche's in charge," Éponine said as everyone went back into the house.
"This is a fine place," Bahorel said, making Éponine smile widely.
"Thanks for coming, it really means a lot to me," she simply answered as she guided them through the different rooms of the house. The place was actually very basic. Every room available was used as a bedroom and the backyard was used as both dining room and playground, unless it rained. Éponine also told them she was trying to teach them how to read and write and that most of them already knew how to spell their names, which made them all very happy.
"How many kids are there?" Musichetta asked as they stopped in one of the rooms on the second floor.
Éponine thought for a few minutes. "About 24 plus 5 that come and go whenever they want to," she answered, "There's also a baby...every week the mother comes and we give them a few quilts to protect him from the cold."
After a while of talking, they all scattered around to help in whatever they could. Bahorel, Lesgle and Feuilly went to check all around the house to fix any sort of damage. Joly and Combeferre called the kids by groups to check their healths and know the equipment and medicines they needed. Grantaire, Musichetta, Jehan and Courfeyrac went to talk with the kids in order to get used to them, since they would be coming very often to the house.
Marius and Enjolras stood in front of Éponine. The first one gave her a hug and a kiss on the forehead as the first display of affection of that day. He also asked her, suddenly remembering the episode at the doorway, who where the girl and the man who were at the house.
"Did you see them? The girl's called Cosette...and the man introduced himself as Monsieur Valjean. He's an anthropologists and apparently goes around the slums giving money to the poor. He heard about this place as he was giving his charity today and came here with his daughter to offer their help. Isn't that good luck for us?" she said with a smile.
"So they'll be coming here often?" he asked.
"I don't know if they'll come often, but I'm sure they'll be coming once or twice every week." Her answer satisfied Marius so much that he went off to find something to do immediately, blinded by the possibility of seeing that blonde beauty soon. Enjolras, on the other side, stood in front of her, not knowing what to say, which disappointed him incredibly.
"What do you think about the place?" she asked him after a while, which took him off guard.
"Is...my opinion important to you?" he asked with uneasiness.
"Monsieur Enjolras, I'm not an idiot, yesterday I sensed that you didn't expect much of me when you first saw me and when I asked you this favor. You were probably thinking that I am just a bourgeoisie playing a game, am I right?"
"How...did you know?" he asked as his cheeks turned varios shades of red.
"Monsieur, that's the same thing I thought of you. A rich young boy who wishes to make some noise and still wouldn't know the meaning of a social work even if he had it in front of him. Then you agreed to come here and I realized that there's more to you than what I thought," she said frankly, he smirked in response.
"Funny, because I also thought you were a pretty rich girl with little capacity to think...and I couldn't quite find a logical favor that you could ask us. Then you told us about all of this and I realized that there's more to you than what I thought," he said, imitating her.
Éponine laughed. "You're just a prejudiced as everybody else," she said, "so...what's your social project all about? Marius never told me about the work of Les Amis de L'ABC...and by the way, that's a clever name."
"Jehan's work, he's good with those kinds of puns," Enjolras answered, "and well...we want to do a revolution to overthrow this pure excuse of a government. It's unfair and inefficient, we want a république that establishes as a base equal rights for everyone."
"With you as the president?" she asked very seriously. This really got him by surprise, since he was waiting for her to make a joke about it.
"Aren't you against it or something?" he asked.
"Why would I be? It's the best idea I've heard in a very long time. Everyone having equal rights...being able to study, to have a roof to cover them from a storm, to eat, to work...it sounds beautiful," she answered with a sight.
"It will be," he promised solemnly.
"So, vive la révolution! Vive la république! Vive la France!" she chanted.
"Vive la révolution! Vive la barricade de la liberté!" he chanted with her.
Then, driven by an impulse, he kissed her softly on the cheek, very close to the lips. Éponine was blushing and so was Enjolras, who couldn't believe he had done that.
" 'Ponina! Madame O'Riley is here!" Simone's voice echoed throughout the house.
"Let's go...and meet the...uhh...the baby I told you about," she said before fleeing through the staircase.
Enjolras sighed in confusion and followed her.
Thanks for all of your support! I'm really happy with this :)