Chapter 4:

Eponine walked through the school with her eyes firmly planted on the floor. She would not look up, she refused to let people stare at her. Her supply of makeup while already minimal was practically exhausted by Tuesday. It had taken a pound to hide the bruise the day before and she had woken up with it still staring at her. As ugly and discoloured as usual. She had hoped that she was pretty. Sometimes she felt she might be. But there was no mistake today. The thing had made her left side swell a little and the green tinged edges of the bruise spread under her eye and gave her a gaunter look than usual.

She practically ran into her History class and sat at her usual spot at the back praying that no one would pay attention today. The wish was incredibly short lived. As Grantaire entered the classroom he dramatically flopped himself into the chair next to Eponine and glowered at her.

"No offence, but fuck you." He stated.

"Well good morning to you to." She said and he snorted.

"You would say that… Judas."

"Would you please explain what I have done?" She asked not exactly in the mood for his cutesy attitude.

"Thanks to your little stunt at the last meeting we are now being forced to volunteer our precious time away. First it was the shelter, now it's for a stupid bike race!" He moaned again flinging his arms to the sky. "I mean, it's one thing helping the homeless, but I draw the line at supporting our local lycra fanatics."

"That does sound thrilling." She agreed finding it amusing how quickly Enjolras had roped everyone into following his lead. If the boy ever had genocidal tendencies he would have no problem rounding up the masses.

"Oh no, you're signed up too missy!" He told her and she finally looked over at him. Her face must have been a picture because Grantaire began to laugh. "Oh yeah, this Saturday you'll be in fluorescent just like us."

She wasn't sure what to say. How could she put it in terms he would understand? It was her loud mouth that had inspired him in the first place.

"Enjolras," She said after plucking up the courage to talk to him as he was getting stuff from his locker. "I don't think I'm going to be able to do the whole bike-volunteer thing this weekend." She cringed as he whipped around to look at her.

"Why?" Was all he said.

"I have to work." She told him.

"Take the day off" he replied and she scoffed.

"Yeah like it's that simple." She retorted.

"Well why isn't it?" He asked.

"Because!" She said pausing. How could she explain? Sure Enjolras I could get the day off but my Dad is expecting money on Saturday and if I don't go I won't have anything to give him. That would work nicely.

"Well?" He said clearly waiting for an explanation.

"I have to give like a weeks' notice." She reasoned.

"Well if you call your boss now you'll be giving him 6 days' notice. Surely that's close enough to a week?"

"Enjolras I can't volunteer at the bike race on Saturday." Eponine stated. "I know I suggested helping the community but I can't put my welfare above others especially not a group of fucking cyclists!" She shouldn't have exploded. But she had. And she couldn't take it back. Enjolras stared at her again. Christ she hated that looked. It was as if he was shocked but amused while also a little scared. She hated it so much because it wasn't just one emotion. This was the only expression that she couldn't read like a book.

"Fine," he said slowly. "But you needn't come to the meeting this Friday as we'll just be discussing plans for Saturday."

"But…" She began to protest but Enjolras walked away before she could speak. She kicked his locker in frustration. Fuck him for getting pissed at her for such a small thing. It wasn't as if they were doing something important! It was just a stupid little bike ride. They didn't desperately need her. Well, she thought, fuck him and his pompous fucking attitude.

But as it got closer to Friday she realised how much she would miss the meeting. Now she had to go back to wandering the streets on a Friday. She couldn't go back to her house and she couldn't let herself set a foot into the Musain. So that Friday night was spent shivering in a church that had a late night service. The priest was a bigot but it was warmer than nothing.

That weekend she felt the absence of the meeting weigh down on her. The bruise began to fade slowly as she creeped around in her own home.

Enjolras sat in his house, enjoying a Chinese take-out as he planned his group's next steps.

She went back to school hoping that everything would go back to normal. And for the most part they did; Grantaire moaned about how much it had rained on Saturday and Enjolras rolled his eyes at his friend. Eponine didn't apologise to Enjolras and the two never mentioned their argument again. Instead, Eponine walked over to him with a long list.

"These are all things you can do to help." She said as he picked up the paper that had been chucked onto his desk. "Take it or leave it."

"I'll take it." He said quietly. "Are you free most weekdays?" He asked.

Eponine nodded. "I work Monday and Thursday but other than that I'm free." Enjolras just nodded in reply and so missed Eponine's smile. She knew she had won another argument with the great debater. She could get used to this.

A few weeks passed and the group continued on their mission to make a positive difference. Predictably Enjolras got wrapped up in local politics and so every other meeting was him ranting about another 'corrupt' member of government who had let injustices happen on his watch. Eponine had become more vocal within meetings, so she had some modicum of power and she used it to her full advantage. It became evident that she was the only one who could get Enjolras to change his mind and so she was able to veto certain great schemes Enjolras came up with that would land them all in jail.

One idea she failed to veto was the Fundraiser. Enjolras had been paying attention to the movements of certain high-powered people within the city and had found that his parents had been invited to a fundraiser held by a certain Judge Keech who Enjolras held in contempt.

"All I would aim to do," he began knowing he still needed to convince Eponine. "Is to speak with him, get some perspective."

Eponine scrunched up her nose. "Why not just call him up?" She asked.

"He can hang up if we call him," Combeferre answered. "But if it's at a social function he can't make a scene. We're more likely to get some real time with him."

The boys looked at her as she shifted in her seat. Finally she sighed and shrugged. "Sure, why not?" Enjolras smiled.

"It'll be fun 'Ponine," Marius whispered to her." I promise. It'll be like prom again. You can get a nice dress and I'll twirl you around the dancefloor." She had to admit this sounded good. Imagining herself on his arm dressed to the nines, well it was every girl's fantasy.

"If it sucks I'll blame you." She replied and he laughed. They all made small conversation before people began to leave. "Grant, I don't own a dress." She said coming to the realisation as the words fell from her lips.

"We'll get you one." He said still inspecting his nails which had taken up most of his concentration that evening. "My sister has loads and she's probably your size-ish."

"If not," Enjolras added. "We can get it altered." She nodded debating whether to state the obvious or not. "We'll pay." Enjolras offered.

"I'm sure Grant's sister's dress will fit fine." She replied. She'd gotten this far without receiving a hand-out from any of her friends. She didn't want to start now.

It felt like they'd been sat in Grantaire's room for years. He wasn't quite sure why he'd shown up. He supposed he wanted to make sure that Grant didn't dress her in a ridiculous way for fun. But now Enjolras was sat on his friend's bed waiting for Eponine to finally get out of the bathroom.

"Come on 'Ponine!" Grantaire called. "We've aged about 80 years in the time it's taken you to button that thing up!"

"I'm almost ready!" Her voice came from the closed door.

Enjolras shuffled on the bed. While large, Grantaire's room was incredibly cluttered and the mess irritated Enjolras. There seemed to be no order at all. It shouldn't surprise him, Grantaire had been this messy since birth and no matter how many times Enjolras came round and organised it all it soon ended up in compete disarray.

The door creeped open and the two boys sat up in expectation. Eponine walked out clearly uncomfortable in this weird display she was giving them. The dress was a dark red that fell from her waist to the floor. It hung beautifully on her hips showing their shape and clinging to her skin. The dress was sleeveless and Eponine fussed with the neckline pulling it and pushing it, clearly worried that it would fall down.

"Well… shit!" Grantaire said quite happily. "I think I'm going to have to marry you now Ep." She frowned at him in confusion. "I've fallen madly in love with you." She laughed and turned to look at herself in the mirror.

"Do you think it looks okay?" She asked as she studied herself.

"You look amazing." Grantaire told her.

"Enj?" She asked turning to him. But he couldn't speak. Or at least. He couldn't let himself speak. What would come out of his mouth, he feared would be cripplingly embarrassing. If he told her the truth; that he honestly didn't think he'd seen something so beautiful, he knew she would run from him.

"You look… fine." He eventually managed and Grantaire laughed. Eponine chuckled with him but Enjolras thought he saw a hint of sadness flash through her.

"Okay," Grantaire jumped up. "You go get changed back into your normal clothes gorgeous and I'll go and set up the film! It's time to take your Die Hard virginity!" He bounded out of the room and Eponine laughed at him before heading back into the small bathroom.

Enjolras, unsure of what to do, remained in Grantaire's bedroom. He felt uncomfortable and hated it so he began to organise Grantaire's bookshelf hoping that this would clear his head a little. Suddenly he heard Eponine curse loudly.

"You okay in there?" He asked standing up to walk over to the bathroom.

"Erm… Not really." She said her voice an annoyed moan. "Can you," She paused. "Can you just come in for a second?"

"What?" He asked perplexed.

"Can you come and help me please Enj?" She asked and as he opened the door she was turned away from him desperately pulling on the zipper to the dress.

"What's up?" Enjolras' voice was higher than usual but she ignored the fact.

"I can't get this bloody zip down and I think I'll break the whole fucking thing if I keep doing it myself."

"Right." He said as he moved closer to her. "You want me to?" He asked and she nodded. She stood straight as she felt his hands hover above the dress. She could see his face in the mirror and was surprised at the expression she saw.

He was nervous. Nervous to touch her. He took a deep breath before taking the zipper in his hand and attempting to move it. The bugger really was stubborn and so he had to place a hand on the small of her back to get leverage. The zip began to move and he felt Eponine relax into him. They were closer than they'd ever been before. He was hyper aware of his breathing, he was breathing way too quickly. But he couldn't help it. His throat caught when pulled the zip which revealed a completely bare back. His hands now had nowhere to go but to come into contact with her skin. He felt her shiver at his cool hand.

"Sorry." He said quickly and she laughed.

"It's fine." She said. "Just cold."

He nodded before unzipping the rest of the dress. Before she turned away though he noticed something at the bottom of her spine. "Eponine?" He asked and she became visibly tense. "How did you get this bruise?" A large purple smudge lined her spine and now he was close to her he could see small bruises lining the tops of her arms.

"It's nothing" She said quickly trying to get further away from him.

"It's not nothing." He said wanting to look at her but having to turn away as she let the dress fall to the floor. "Is someone hurting you?" He asked.

He'd asked the question. The question she had hoped would never come. But it had. She'd let someone get too close to her. And now he knew. Nothing she could say would get him to forget about it.

"Enjolras it's nothing I can't handle." She said fixing him with a glare.

"That's what I'm worried about." He replied. "That you've had to get used to this... treatment." The word hung in the air along with the word that wasn't said.

"I'm fine." Her voice wavered a little and she cursed it. The tears that pricked at her eyes were bad enough but now even her voice wasn't believing her words. She quickly began to put her clothes back on.

"You're skin tells a different story." He replied and she rolled her eyes as she pulled her sleeves further down her arms. "Tell me what's going on Eponine, I could help maybe."

She laughed at that and as she threw her head back a tear escape and rolled down her cheek. "Oh of course. Of course the great Enjolras will be able to swoop in and save the day as always! My mistake!" She scoffed. "People have tried before. If the government couldn't help then why the hell do you think you could?" He tried to answer but she cut him off. "And who says I need help anyway? I've survived this long on my own so why should I need someone else's help?"

"Because unlike the government I care about you!" He was nearly yelling. It was tearing him up seeing her holding back the tears that threatened to fall at any moment. "We care about you." He corrected himself hoping he hadn't given anything away. "We want to protect you because you mean something to us, not just because we have to."

Eponine turned away from him as she began to cry. Years of practice meant that her sobs came silently. If her shoulders hadn't been jolting so severely Enjolras wouldn't have known what was happening. Instead he walked over to her and, without thinking, put his arms around her. She leant into him then, sobbing. All the years of biting her tongue were coming out. He just stood and held her. He fought the overwhelming urge to talk deciding that silence was the best comfort he could provide in that moment.

Grantaire came upstairs to see them stood like that. Eponine sobbing onto Enjolras' shoulder as he lightly rubbed her back. Their friend backed out of the room, careful not to disturb them. When Eponine eventually came down stairs, eyes puffy and nose red he did not mention it. He merely did everything he could to replace those tears with laughter. And Enjolras let him do his thing. He knew that Eponine needed to laugh right now. Maybe he would eventually get the answers he wanted; maybe he wouldn't but it was inescapable now. He was completely and utterly hers and she had no idea.