"How are you?"

Cosette looked at her and sighed. Her eyes looked tired and she seemed as thought she had been crying.

"Not-not bad. Could be better."

Éponine nods. She can't even attempt to feel the same, she got out of the attack completely fine, no injuries at all.

"Tell me if you need anything."

Cosette nods and turns back to a sleeping Marius. Éponine stands and walks over to Enjolras who is slouched against a wall, apart from everybody else as usual. He sees her walking towards him and he straightens up a bit, clearing his throat as she slides down the wall next to him.

They sit in silence for a while. He has avoided all conversation for the past two days, ever since the attack. They haven't left the church, focusing solely on getting everybody back to full-or almost full- health before working out how to locate their friends.

"How are you feeling?"

She jumps a bit, not expecting his voice to sound as deep as it did, especially when right next to her ear.

"I-I'm fine. I didn't get hurt at all. How are you?"

He nods a bit. "I know. Thank god for Courfeyrac, right?"

She chuckles a bit. "I know, he's a lifesaver."

He hums a bit, but doesn't say anything.

She speaks quieter, her voice softer. "I'm sorry that I didn't help. I should have, I know that, but-"

"In the attack?" He turns to face her.

So she turns to look at him. "Yeah. We're the leaders, I should have stepped in and intervened. I should have protected everyone, I should be hurt, not Marius or Cosette or anyone in this church. I don't even want to think about what is happening to the rest of us."

He brings his left hand to her knee and squeezes it, successfully shutting her up. "Stop it. If Courfeyrac hadn't taken you away, I would have, and then neither of us would have been able to help."

She nods and looks into his eyes for a couple of moments. They're very close now and she can feel his breath on her lips. His gaze is flickering between her eyes and her lips and she feels something weird settle in the pit of her stomach, a weird sense of longing and trepidation mixed into one. His face is slowly making its way closer to hers and she keeps her eyes open when his close slowly.

"Éponine?" She turns quickly towards the voice. Bahorel was stood about five feet away from her, his eyes wide, and his body ready to move. His wound was starting to heal, and the bandage that she had wrapped for him that morning was still intact.

She hears a sigh from next to her and she vaguely sees Enjolras resting his head on the wall behind them as she looks at Bahorel. He continues. "Joly wants your help."

She smiles and nods at him. "Okay, I'll be right there." He turns around and walks away, moving faster than needed.

"Well, I guess I have to go." She says it as cheerfully as possible.

"Right."

She stands up and nods at him. "Tell me if you need anything, alright?"

She hears a faint murmur of 'sure' as she turns and walks towards the opposite corner of the room where Joly is laying down, Bahorel sat up next to him.

As she walks past the central aisle of the church, she feels Courfeyrac's eyes following her and she tries to lift her head a bit higher.


They don't leave for another three days. Their supplies start to dwindle, despite the significant lack of people to feed, so they make a considered decision to move on. Everybody says they're ready to move, but Éponine can still see the limp in Joly's stride and the fragility of Cosette's arm.

Enjolras pretends he didn't get hurt at all, and doesn't answer when anybody asks if he's okay. Just as well, Éponine would rather not completely know how injured he got because she wasn't there. He can walk and he can talk, and that's enough for Éponine.

"Stay together, everyone. We're going to carry on moving north. If you see anything of use or alarm, alert somebody immediately-"

Éponine interrupts him. "What about the others?"

Enjolras freezes, his voice faltering. "We-we need to get supplies first, we can set up a plan then, once we know we have enough to keep us alive."

Joly jumps in. "But how do we know if the rest of us are alive?"

"Please don't say that." Enjolras squeezes his eyes shut and Éponine nearly flinches at the pain in his voice. "Supplies first, then we'll find the others. Okay?" Nobody says anything. "Okay."

They head out, Enjolras at the front with a stone cold face and rips in his hoodie.


"I've missed you."

She's cuddled up with Courfeyrac on a blanket in the middle of an old coffee shop they found. They were cautious when they saw that nobody had even attempted to break the glass windows in, but to make it seem less suspicious to others, Jehan had managed to pick the entrance. They're all locked in the back room, the steel bolt opened and shoved shut by Bahorel. They found some left over cans and packets of food hidden in some cupboards, and the bottles of water Joly retrieved from the back of a pantry made them all sigh with relief and happiness.

The room is quite big in fairness, especially considering some of the places they've lodged in before. They found several supplies that will definitely come in handy during the next couple of weeks, two blankets, a coat from a lost property, along with an umbrella, a red scarf, and a tattered hat from the same box. At the present moment, Joly is still looking through the many cupboard and doors in the room, desperately trying to find things the owners might have left behind.

Courfeyrac is sat up and her head is in his lap as she lays on the blue blanket. "What are you talking about? We've constantly seen each other for the past four months, there's no way you could have missed me."

He chuckles, twiddling a piece of her hair between his fingers. "No, I've missed these moments where we can just be us two. No fear of injury or if we're safe to go to sleep, just being calm and in love."

She smiles and sits up, facing him. "I suppose you're right. I missed you too." She kisses him, resting her hand on his shoulder as he leans into her. His hands thread through her hair and she fights the urge to lean down onto the blanket and bring him with her. This is a small moment, they don't have time for this in the world they're currently living in. She pulls back, ignoring the moan of protest and tilt of his head to keep their lips together, sighing as she rest her cheek on his shoulder, her face turning to look to the side.

He whispers something to her, but she doesn't catch it because she just manages to make eye contact with Enjolras' pained face as he looks to the side and glares at the floor.

She feels a sick sense of dread in her stomach and turns to nestle her head in Courfeyrac's neck.


When they go to sleep that night, she hears somebody crying. She knows it isn't Courfeyrac, his body is still and relaxed beside her, but the thought of who it could be keeps her awake until Bahorel starts his nightly sleep talk which helps her forget.


Thank you for reading! if anybody has any ideas or comments, please tell me! Hope you liked it! :)