iv. When they were nineteen

Enjolras left the city and state to go to university, with most of his friends also making the exact same trip to join him. They were all doing different courses but chose to go to the same university because they all knew they would be hopeless at staying in touch. It was there that he realised that college life was not all that different from the life he had led in the city. He was living with his friends and studying so hard he was convinced he was going insane - see, no different from New York. However, his new bed across state was nowhere near as comfy as the one at the apartment in New York, and his friends were dirty, leaving their clothes and other junk strewn across their share house and he was nowhere near The Hamilton Isles.

He was packing up his things for the summer break when he received the phone call telling him to get to the holiday home as fast as possible as it looked as if his mother would finally be relieved of this life. It would've made him happy, because it was torture watching her live that way (if it could even be described as living) but he hadn't said goodbye yet, hell, he barely even said goodbye the last time he left. That last summer Enjolras just shouted in the direction of the room she was sitting in, his mind on what he believed was much more pressing issues.

He raced to the airport and caught the first flight out of town but he wasn't quite fast enough. She died while he was collecting his luggage at LaGuardia and by the time he finally got to the island her hands were cold, but at least she looked like she was finally out of her misery and perhaps they were out of theirs. Now they could move on, his father can debut his girlfriend and they can stop living under her shadow because as much as his mother never wanted to destroy their lives she did. It was not intentional, but her imminent death hung over all of them. People tried to hide it they really did, but Enjolras could always see the pity in their eyes. When he started going up to the holiday home more frequently over the last few years, he'd sometimes forget to complete about all of his work, but his teachers would not care, they would just nod and place a comforting hand on his shoulder, telling him that it's okay and just to get the work done "when he can". He knew he was manipulating them and he didn't really care.

Things were only going to get worse now. There would be a notice in the paper, and a highly publicised funeral, photographers, journalists, future bosses, they would all be there to mourn, to sigh as they shake his hand, "I'm so sorry, your mother was such a lovely woman, taken too soon" and he would nod and thank them even though they probably knew her more than he ever did. He never made the effort, because she was never going to be alive for long. He was told to prepare for life without his mother when he was six years old, no one ever thought she would live this long, they had already phased her out of their lives, long before she was actually gone. Thinking about it now made Enjolras hate himself.

He eventually made his way down to the diner. He walks, and it takes him longer than usual because he really does not want to deal with people right now, just with Eponine. She was the only person he had really discussed the situation of his mother with. Yes, whilst the rest of his group knew - everyone knew everything about everyone in New York - he had never quite discussed his situation with them, and thankfully they never pressed it. They understood Enjolras and knew that he would talk if or when he wanted to. Right now Enjolras wanted to talk, he needed to talk but he only wanted one person.

There was an unfamiliar face making coffee at the diner when he arrived. A young man, probably Enjolras' age or a few years older with dark hair, even darker eyes and ridiculously high cheekbones that Enjolras had never seen before on another man. Enjolras watched as Eponine, who seemed to be getting more and more beautiful each year pulled this new man into a hug, before pecking him on the cheek and darting upstairs.

"Hi, how are you" the man shouted from behind the coffee machine when Enjolras finally entered.

"Not too bad, yourself?" his mother just died and he replied with not too bad. Enjolras had to stop himself from rolling his eyes, seriously what was wrong with him?

"Dying for this shift to be over, the wind's picking up and the waves are going to be great. Anyway, what can I get for you?"

"Double ristretto"

The man laughs to himself "Not from around here are you?" Enjolras shakes his head "I don't think I've heard anything other than a cappuccino or latte in the six months I've been here."

"What made you move up here?" Enjolras seized his opportunity to pry.

"Eponine, the girl that runs-"

"Yeah I know Eponine."

Enjolras later learned that the new man's name was Montparnasse and he had lived in California, Istanbul, Connecticut and Rhode Island before meeting Eponine whilst he was surfing at the beach one day, and decided to stay permanently.

Enjolras concluded that the absolute worst thing about Montparnasse was that he was so damn easy to get along with. The two of them fanatically followed the same football team and shared a passion for Berlin's street art but not even that could make Enjolras like him. On what felt like was the one time he really needed Eponine, she was never there, she was always working with Montparnasse, surfing with Montparnasse, watching a movie with Montparnasse and Enjolras would always find him self tagging along for half an hour until thought of an escape from the couple who were all over each other.

He rejoiced a few days later when the rest of the group arrived. Even though his friends from New York had already heard the news from their parents, it was with the group as a whole, and Montparnasse where Enjolras finally said it out loud, his mother was dead and the dreaded funeral was just a few days away. He wasn't dreading the fact that they were going to lower her into the ground, rather the fuss that came with it. He did not want to have to deal with all the people who were going to be at the funeral, he did not want to shake hundreds of people's hands, he did not want to he also didn't want to have to fake tears when it came to the his speech which he still hadn't written but he needed to come across as somewhat human, his Dad's friends had always found him a little strange as is.

"Shit man, that's tough" Montparnasse finally spoke up "If you ever need anything, Ep and I are here for you."

God Enjolras hated him.

Eponine cornered him soon after everyone had left because hanging around someone whose parent had just died is a little depressing, and the fact that Enjolras wasn't showing any emotion was beginning to scare them. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't tell anyone" he snapped, mimicking her tone.

"Fuck off, everyone else knew except me, I looked like an idiot-"

"I tried to, but you were busy" he realised he was being petty, but really didn't care.

"Come off it Enjolras, since when did you start acting like a five year old, you could have told me" she's shouting at him now, her voice piercing through the empty diner.

"You were with Montpar-"

"Are you really angry about that? Why? Why do you even care?"

He had no response because yes, he was angry with her but he has no reason to be, she had done nothing wrong but that didn't change how he felt "I have to do a speech at the funeral can you be there with me?"

"What?" Eponine snapped.

"I have to get up and do a speech at the funeral, I don't know what to say, a-and I'd like for you to just be there with me when I have to read."

Her face relaxed and her face softened "Sure."

Ten minutes before the funeral and Eponine was no where to be seen, her mother was sitting somewhere towards the back of the room, but Eponine and Montparnasse were yet to arrive and Enjolras was getting angry, and anxious. He kept running his hand over the paper in his pocket which he had opened, reread and refolded so many times it was close to tearing. Not a particularly religious person, he found himself praying that she would be there, because for some reason, he was nervous, terrified. He could see people arriving, their necks craning to catch a glimpse of him as he had managed to disappear off the New York social calendar for the past 18 months. Those women would nudge their husbands and whisper down to their daughters "He's grown up beautifully, a real mix of both his mother and father, it's a shame they never had more kids". He really didn't miss that life.

Eponine arrived three minutes before the ceremony began, which annoyed Enjolras because he expected her to be there for him, and all she had managed to do so far was stress him out. However, when he stood up to read his speech, she was there, standing just behind him, supporting him the whole time. He had written it just an hour before the funeral, as for one of the first times in his life, he had nothing to say, words just would not come. He wanted to make it emotional, he wanted people to cry but everything that came out on paper just seemed to so wooden and robotic, he hated every word on that scrunched up piece of paper.

He glanced over at Eponine beside him for one last time before taking a breath, and staring out at the faces in front of him "I never knew my mother the way all of you did. You have memories of her a certain way and there is nothing wrong with that, but it wasn't the mother I knew..."

He hated the end of funerals, when everyone gives their condolences, to him, it seemed like a great waste of time, and as much as he just wanted to leave Enjolras remained, shaking hands with people and managing a sombre yet grateful smile. He thanked people he hadn't seen since he was a child, and people he was sure he had never seen before. He stood in alongside his father, with his friends watching him from the side of the room, rushing him canapes and drinks in between greets, though he found himself changing the wine which Courfeyrac brought him with Cosette's water time and time again.

He never realised how much people loved his mother, they spent their night trying to tell him all these stories of her at high school, at university and at mother's group. She was nothing like he was, people said that a lot and he was sure that was their way of saying that his mother was actually fun to be around. Though they also said he was nothing like his father either, too friendly to be like his father and not friendly enough to be like his mother. The truth was that Enjolras was a child born into despair, into a family not equipped to handle what was coming at them, into a family who threw all their energy and all their money at a disease which refused to be defeated. A family that realised the hard way that no matter how much property they owned, how much money they had or what their status was in society, they were ultimately powerless.

Thye were right, he was not his parents, it was unreasonable for them to expect that from him.

Finally his family and their friends left the home, to take the drive back to New York, he's assuming his father was with them, as he was not in the house and had probably forgotten to say goodbye to his son in between all of his grief. In the final years before his mother died Enjolras had begun to wonder if his father had ever really been in love with his mother. The funeral made him remember that no matter what had happened in recent years, his father had never stopped loving his mother, and he felt guilty for ever thinking otherwise.

Eponine was still there, when everybody else had left, she didn't speak to him much, because really, what can you say when one's parent is gone but she wanted to be there, just in case he needed her. It was dark out, and rather cold, they stood out on his balcony, staring out into the water in complete silence. It was then that Eponine noticed Enjolras' face in the moonlight, eyebrows furrowed and biting onto his bottom lip, as she looked closer she noticed he was shaking too. It was when they caught each other's eyes that he broke down, loud sobs piercing the silence and Eponine held onto him as he cried into her shoulders, cries that sounded closer to howls and she shut her eyes tight to stop them from crying because she had never heard pain quite like this.

She stayed with him that night, in that huge empty house, they looked at old photos, old videos, ate the leftover food and fell asleep on the couch. The house was huge, it creaks and groans as if it too has lived a long hard life, Eponine thought of it as the ghost of his mother, her soul etched into the walls, trapped in the house.

iv. When they were twenty one

It's been years since Cosette had a massive birthday party, her sixteenth birthday was a movie night, and for her eighteenth birthday, they just took the yacht out and ate dinner in the middle of nowhere. But now she was 21, she wanted an absolutely huge party to celebrate her official entrance into adulthood, she felt like she deserved it, after all these years of… existing. There are not many people in the world (according to Eponine) that could boast to know over 100 people, and there were even fewer who could actually know over one hundred people, and have every single one of them absolutely adore them, Cosette was one of those people.

The town buzzed the day of her birthday, not only with the usual summer holidayers but also with college students, which horrified the locals who feared that the town had suddenly turned into the new Cancun. Monsieur Fauchelevent moved out of his holiday home for a weekend, he did not want to be there as it was practically being destroyed by a bunch of bored college students. He had told Cosette to be careful, to ensure that nothing was truly ruined, and so Marius and Combeferre were given the task of moving almost all the furniture downstairs into what would have been a secure and locked basement. This was a wise move on her part, it is a shame though, that her friends have zero coordination and generally poor communication skills. They dropped the coffee table twice, damaging one of it's legs and accidentally walked into several walls while carrying the dining room table, severely denting one of it's sides, honestly she would have been better just leaving the items where they were.

Just like old times, Courfeyrac was in charge of providing beverages, but much preferred not having to be so discreet about it. As he lugged in the last slab of beer, he dropped in the living room victoriously, and leaving a strange mark in the shape of a corner on the floorboards, but Cosette was too busy to notice. She was running around frantically, trying to ensure that everything was in it's place, it was almost five and the caterers were meant to be here half an hour ago but were still no where to be seen. Enjolras had flown in just under an hour ago when he said he would be there in the morning that annoyed her for some reason, she didn't even know why.

And Eponine was still nowhere to be found, well that was a slight exaggeration on Cosette's behalf, she was probably at the diner working, as they were expecting to be quite busy with all the student being in town. The diner was, in actual fact, quite the opposite.

To go along with all the new families who had moved up to the small town over the past few years, another restaurant opened up on the main shopping strip, just a few doors down. It was brand new, very shiny and modern, but that was all Eponine knew about it, as she had never actually dined there, that would be seen by her mother as an act of treason. However, it's modern New Yorker menu had caused much of the townspeople to leave what was old and familiar to them for the new restaurant who's steel front glistened at them from across the street.

Seeing all the people leave her restaurant for the new one annoyed Eponine's mother and made her a bitter lady. She would storm through the restaurant, cursing the "Damn Addams, Wilsons and those gossiping Hammond family". "Good riddance" she would shout throughout the restaurant, even if there were customers dining "Good riddance to them all."

Eponine did not take their betrayal quite as hard, the food at that restaurant looked tasty, and they hadn't updated the menu since before she was born – even she was sick of all their meals. They hadn't updated the diner itself in years, it was in desperate need of a paint, some new furniture, crockery and probably a new kitchen too, but Eponine would never dare to tell her mother that. Ever since her father's death, her mother has been reluctant to change anything, their bedroom is still unchanged since the day of her father's death, his clothes still hung in the closet and there is a glass of untouched water lying next to their bedside table, with his tablets next to it, it's been over 10 year and Eponine is sure that her mother will never recover. So she just accepts what her mother wants, it is easier like that. Eponine was never one to shy away from a conflict, but she had seen how her mother laboured, how stressed and tired she was and decided not to add to the problem.

Eponine was late to the party, arriving with just ten minutes before speeches, after greeting Cosette who really just glared at her she quickly said hi to the rest of the group before getting up to begin her speech. Cosette who was very annoyed and quite drunk pulled her close and whispered quite loudly "This better be worth the stress you have caused me."

Eponine had to stop herself from laughing at this new, grumpy Cosette which she had never seen before because, well, it was hilarious "Well," Eponine smiled, putting on her best showman's voice "I am terribly sorry for being late Cosette, and everyone else who was eagerly awaiting my arrival" her voice turned sarcastic as she gestured over to her very drunk group of friends who cheered loudly in response "however, as I tend to work as Cosette's trusty side kick, I am by default unable to roll out of bed looking absolutely stunning, I like fine wine need many, many years to look great, please forgive me Cosette" Eponine cried dramatically making most of the room burst out laughing. "But that's enough about me, let's talk about Cosette…"

Soon after her speech was over Eponine started drinking because… well what else was there to do and Courfeyrac always bought the best alcohol. It doesn't take long for Enjolras to appear by her side absolutely reeking of alcohol "nice speech" he smiled, leaning closer in closer than necessary to talk to her.

"Thanks, I had no idea what to say!" she shouted over the music.

"I want you to dance with you" he took her hand, pulling her out onto the makeshift dance floor, making it very obvious that in his current state, he didn't really care about her speech for Cosette. University had done good things for Enjolras, namely making him a lot less awkward in these kinds of situations. "So, where's Montparnasse tonight?"

Eponine raised her eyebrows at Enjolras "Sailing somewhere in the Caribbean."

He didn't even bother to hide his smirk as he pulled her closer "Knew it."

As the night and drinks continued to flow, the pair began to get more adventurous, Enjolras' lips trailing down her neck, ghosting soft kisses of her skin and Eponine's hands, tangling in his hair, pulling his body even closer to hers. She did not care who could see them, she just needed him. Her hands were trailing his body, pulling desperately at him until he finally glanced up at her, from a part of her neck he had been focusing on, his hands were pressing on her hips and there was a look in his eyes she only vaguely remembered.

They left without saying goodbye to anyone, in some sort of drunken haze they stumbled through the backstreets of the quiet town back to his home, which seemed so much closer that night than it ever had before. Her hands, felt so familiar on his body as they began peeling items of clothing off, leaving a trail towards the bedroom. Her knees buckled as she hit the bed, Enjolras joining her moments later. He had missed the way her lips felt against his, her soft skin against his body and how amazing she could make him feel.

Enjolras woke the next morning to see Eponine, standing by the window looking out across the waves and he wanted nothing more than to pull her back to bed with him, and never leave the house again. In almost every aspect of his life Enjolras prided himself on his ability to keep his emotions and actions completely separate and generally it was easy to do so but with Eponine it was different. He didn't quite know exactly when he fell in love with her, in fact, he can barely even remember a time when she was not the centre of his thoughts and one of the few reasons why he would regularly make the drive up to The Hamilton Isle, even if those drives had become less and less frequent since he started university.

He wasn't quite sure if she felt the same way about him, generally he didn't mind not knowing, but there was something about the way she looked at him last night and the way she moaned his name in pure ecstasy that made him want to invite her to live with him in New York, Massachusetts or wherever he was going next.

"Oh you're up" she turned away from the window, breaking him from his thoughts "good, I really need to get going actually."

"Or you could stay here" he smiled as she began to search for her clothes.

"Can't, work"

"Just call in sick" he took hold of her hand, trying to pull her back into bed with him.

She harshly snatched her hand back "Don't you have to go back to the city or something?"

"Umm n-" he started, only to realise she really wasn't listening

"Anyway, see you whenever I see you next" she shouted from somewhere down the hallway before hearing the front door slam.

He got up, changed and for a minute decided he would go help Cosette with the cleanup effort. He got in the car and drove back to the city instead.

AN: Thank you so much for reading, following or favouriting, a special thank you to those who also commented, I really, really appreciate it. Please remember that comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated.