Chapter Four
It was a week after Marius had first invited Eponine to come to the Musain, and she was finally able to go. He had asked her to join him yet again the day before, and she'd said that she would go if she was able. That night, her father had come home very late and incredibly drunk. He slept past lunchtime, but finally got up and left with Madame Thènardier to scam some people. That left Eponine by herself and overjoyed that she would get to go to the meeting. She didn't have to worry about anyone telling on her because Azelma had tagged along with her parents. Eponine tried to fix her appearance before giving up and going to sit on the front steps of the house to wait on Marius. She was waiting for a while, and the later it got, the more she began to think he'd forgotten that she would be potentially joining him. Finally, he appeared in the distance walking her way.
"Marius!" she called as he got closer, a huge smile on her face.
"Sorry I'm late, 'Ponine. I got caught up at the university. I'm assuming you're able to join me tonight?"
She nodded, "No one's home, so I can come."
"Good. We should get going. I don't want to be late like I normally am," Marius said.
With that, the two made their way to the Musain.
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Just as they reached the door of the Musain, Eponine hesitated. She reached out and grabbed Marius's arm, keeping him from entering without her.
"Marius, wait. What if they don't like me or want me here?" she asked, looking at the ground.
"Don't be ridiculous. You'll be very welcome here, 'Ponine."
She nodded and followed Marius into the café. The bottom floor was empty, but once she followed Marius up the stairs, she saw the second floor was filled with young men; almost all appeared to be students. Eponine immediately knew she didn't fit in there. A gamine like her wasn't respectable enough to be in the company of a room full of students. She shrank back behind Marius a bit, suddenly wanting to dart from the room. Not noticing her trepidation, Marius grabbed her wrist and pulled her over to a table where someone was calling his name. The table was occupied by three young men. The first one had blonde hair and was wearing glasses. The next had darker hair and was dressed very nicely, and the last had a worried look on his face and was checking his pulse.
"You're actually early for once, Marius," the man with the glasses laughed.
Marius ignored the comment and pulled Eponine out from behind him.
"I wanted to introduce you to my friend, Eponine Thènardier," he said.
The man dressed nicely got up and bowed slightly, kissing Eponine's hand and making her blush.
"Matthieu Courfeyrac, Mademoiselle. It is a pleasure to meet you," he said with a dazzling smile.
The man with the glasses rolled his eyes, "Don't mind him. He flirts with anything in a skirt. I'm Nicolas Combeferre, and this," he said, pointing to the man checking his pulse, "is our friend, who is also a hypochondriac doctor, Joly."
"Something is wrong. My pulse isn't normal," Joly shrieked.
Courfeyrac and Combeferre rolled their eyes at him. Just then, a woman with curly, auburn hair and brilliant hazel eyes walked up to the table. She leaned down, placed a kiss on Joly's cheek, and began to rub his shoulders. At this point, he was starting to hyperventilate. It wasn't funny, but Eponine had to keep herself from laughing at his overreaction.
"Relax. You're fine, Alexandre," the woman soothed.
After he had visibly calmed down, the woman turned her attention to Eponine.
"I'm Musichetta. I run the Musain, and I seem to be the only one who can make Alexandre think sensibly once he starts to panic," she introduced, still rubbing Joly's shoulders.
"I'm Eponine. Are you two together?" she asked hesitantly.
Musichetta gave her a coy smile, "You could say that."
"Where's Enjolras? I'd like to introduce him to 'Ponine," Marius stated.
Combeferre wordlessly pointed behind him to the corner table of the Musain. Marius thanked him and started walking that way with Eponine. They passed another table occupied by four more men. Marius introduced them as Bahorel, Feuilly, Jehan Provaire, and Bossuet. Bahorel was beating Feuilly in an arm-wrestling match, Provaire was reading a poetry book, and Bossuet was cleaning up a drink that he had rather unluckily spilled on himself. Marius and Eponine reached the corner table where a blonde-haired man sat completely focused on whatever he was furiously writing.
"Enjolras," Marius said, trying to get the man's attention.
"Yes, Marius?" he asked, keeping his focus on his work.
Eponine detected a bit of exasperation in the blonde man's tone and guessed that he wasn't one of Marius's closest friends.
"I wanted to introduce you to my friend, Eponine Thènardier. Eponine, this is our leader, Enjolras."
"Nice to meet you, Mademoiselle," he said flatly, never looking up from his writing.
Eponine couldn't believe he wouldn't even look up at her. Everyone else had been so welcoming, so why was he so rude?
"Oh, the pleasure is all mine, Monsieur Enjolras," Eponine replied, sarcasm dripping off of her words.
Being as oblivious as he was, Marius didn't notice her tone, but Enjolras did. Her comment made him pause in his writing, but he continued after a few moments, still not bothering to look up at either of them. Marius led them both back over to the first table they had visited.
"Sorry about him. He can get a bit…fixated at times," Marius said.
Eponine didn't reply, but just sat down with him at the table. Suddenly, a dark haired man who was well on his way to becoming drunk walked up to the table, a bottle of alcohol in his hand. Eponine tried not to flinch at the smell of the liquid that turned her father into even more of a monster than he already was.
"Grantaire, meet Eponine," Marius said.
The man nodded at her with a smile, "It's a pleasure, Mademoiselle Eponine. Grant Grantaire at your service."
Eponine raised an eyebrow at him, "Grant Grantaire?"
He shrugged, "What can I say? My parents were probably drunk when they named me."
"So, the drunkenness runs in the family!" Courfeyrac laughed.
Grantaire glared at him before taking a sip of his drink and sitting down by Eponine. Everyone at the table talked, and to Eponine's surprise, she and Grantaire got along well. She hoped that they might eventually be friends. After talking for quite a while, Enjolras signaled for the meeting to begin. Everyone turned so that they were facing him at the front of the room as he began to speak. Eponine was still a bit miffed with Enjolras for being rude, so she decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. She refused to look up at him as he spoke. Instead, she picked at her fingernails and fiddled with the seam of her tattered shawl. She acted completely uninterested. However, the opposite was true. He spoke words of freedom and equality, and Eponine was very interested in what he had to say. She was very doubtful that any change would actually come. They were just a bunch of pretty words, but she couldn't help hanging on every single one of them. As interested as she might be, she didn't dare let her face show it.
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Enjolras did feel a bit guilty about not truly acknowledging Marius's friend when she was introduced. He had just been so focused on his work that when Marius interrupted him, he got very annoyed. He fully intended to apologize after he spoke. He hadn't even gotten a good look at her until he got up to start the meeting. He spotted her sitting in between Marius and Grantaire. She was clearly a gamine. Her body was caked with dirt, and her hair was a matted mess. Her clothes were basically rags, and her body was so frail looking that she appeared breakable. He was glad she was there because she was the type of person the Amis were fighting for. He wondered if she would give her opinion of their cause because it could help. However, when Enjolras started his speech and his gaze fell on Eponine, he frowned inwardly. She wasn't paying any attention. Instead, she was messing with her shawl and fingernails. It perturbed him quite a bit. She had come to the meeting, yet she wasn't even listening. It only frustrated him more because she was the essence of what they were fighting for, and she didn't care enough to pay attention. He tried to ignore her as he spoke. Suddenly, he realized what she was doing. She was doing the same thing he had done to her. He had essentially ignored her at first, so now she was ignoring him. Enjolras had to suppress a smirk. He had a feeling that she could be quite a force to be reckoned with if she wanted to be. He finished his speech and after a while, everyone began to leave. Enjolras noticed that Marius and Eponine were saying their goodbyes, so he decided it was probably time to apologize. When he reached them they were almost to the door. Enjolras reached out to touch the small gamine's shoulder, and she spun to face him. Marius didn't notice that she had stopped, so he continued through the door, and Eponine glanced in his direction before shooting Enjolras a cold glare.
"Mademoiselle, I am sorry if I came across as rude earlier. I was just a bit focused on my work. I hope you felt welcome here, and I hope you'll come to another meeting," Enjolras said, staring into her somewhat cold, brown eyes.
She nodded at him curtly and continued her cold stare, narrowing her eyes, "Goodbye, Monsieur Enjolras."
Then, Eponine swiftly turned and left the Musain to follow after Marius, leaving Enjolras standing there. There weren't many people who could leave him flustered, but her reaction to his apology had completely confused him. He didn't know how to react. Enjolras may have finally met his match.
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That night, Eponine had managed to get home before anyone else. She was very lucky because she surely would've been beaten if her father had come home to find her missing. Eponine immediately went to her room so she could avoid her family when they did come home. As she lay down on her disgusting mattress, she thought about the meeting. She really did enjoy it, and hoped she could keep attending them. As much as she wanted to deny it, Enjolras's words had truly captivated her. However, the Amis' thinking was flawed. They were a bunch of students who have never known what it is like to live in the slums. They did not really know the lived of the people they were fighting for. They think the people will rise with them in their cause yet they don't understand that the people are too afraid to stand up. Eponine knew that unless the Amis reach the people directly, connect with them, and convince them to trust, then their rebellion that they had been planning for so long would fail.
Eponine was still angry with Enjolras for being rude. It wasn't that he was rude. Lots of people were rude to her every day, so she was used to it. She was mad because he was supposed to be the leader of a group dedicated to helping people, yet he couldn't even bother with being kind to them. Everyone else at the meeting had been welcoming. She had even started to make some friends. So, why had Enjolras been the opposite? She could tell that the man was a bit prideful. She could see that from a mile away. His appearance was almost god-like, but even during his apology, he kept his emotions closely guarded and had remained extremely serious. The only difference was his striking blue eyes that seemed to have pierced her soul with their gaze. Eponine decided she would do what she could to keep attending the meetings, for more than one reason. She would keep going to spend more time with Marius, to hear more of the Amis' plans, to hopefully make some friends, and lastly, to see how much she could perturb the marble, god-like, golden-haired leader.
Author's Note: Hello readers! So this one is a little longer, and I've introduced most of the Amis. The only one missing is little Gavroche, and I promise he's coming up soon, but I couldn't introduce him quite yet. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter and Enjolras and Eponine's meeting. I didn't really get a response from the last chapter, so I'm hoping everyone will be kind enough to review for this one! If anyone has any suggestions or ideas for what they might like to see in this story, just let me know. If I can't work them into this one, I might be able to work them into a new one or even write a one-shot if I get a prompt. Just let me know! I could always use new writing ideas! Thanks so much for reading and review pretty please! I would greatly appreciate it!
~loislane16
