A fuzzy beep from an alarm clock scrounged up from a dumpster woke Eponine up the next morning, and she gingerly touched the chaffed skin on her hands from digging out that roof shingle. Her mind still foggy from sleep, she looked around and smiled satisfactorily. She was alive, so Cosette must not have called the cops, she supposed.

Stumbling out of bed, she groped around for the doorknob and opened it, revealing Gavroche. "Where's…the food?" he asked cautiously.

Eponine's stomach dropped, realizing exactly what she had forgotten at her father's house. She could only smuggle so much food out of her parent's cabinets, not to mention that said cabinets were pretty bare themselves. Their parents liked to have food for themselves and simply ignore the pairs of malnourished eyes that would peek through the door while they ate. For a week or two, Eponine had been getting what she could – a can of soup here, a packet of frozen green beans there – but as it became increasingly difficult to conceal the food in their rooms, she stopped collecting it.

"Uhhh…" she stalled, going into her suitcase and pulling out vegetable soup. She handed it to her brother. "I'll get actual breakfast food after classes today," she compensated as he walked back down the hall to the kitchen.

Reminding herself of classes, she glanced at the clock, which read 8:15. Her first class today was at 9, so she set about to getting ready as she heard Gavroche and Azelma murmuring in the hallway.

"Yes, it's soup, but who cares? She's going out to get other stuff later." Gavroche whispered.

"Where's she going to get the money from?" came Azelma's bitter response, causing Eponine to bristle as she pulled a burgundy shirt over her head.

"She had a job, you know. I'm assuming she'll get another. And why don't you get a job, huh?" A pause followed. "Don't tell me it never crossed your mind-"

"It crossed my mind," Azelma spat back. "And I'm fifteen, not to mention without a technical legal guardian. Nobody's going to hire me."

"So you put down our parent's names."

"It's not that simple, Gavroche!" Azelma hissed, and Eponine pressed her ear against the crack in the door. "It's pretty obvious that Eponine doesn't want any of us to be found. And you know, that's probably best. Father would kill her and beat the living shit out of us, and we can't have people asking questions about our parents. I can't put my name on legal documents that trace back to their names with our address on them; it would be like begging for them to come find us."

Eponine allowed herself to exhale in the silence that followed. She had never realized just how much of the situation Azelma actually understood. When they were growing up, she had always assumed that Azelma was blind to some of it, or that she didn't see just how deep the venom ran through the family. But Azelma brought up a valid point – would they be able to apply for jobs and still use their real names? Would their parents be notified somehow?

"What about babysitting?" Gavroche suggested lamely.

"You idiot," Azelma exhaled. "I can hear it now. 'Oh, do we know your parents, honey?' Yeah, probably not. My mum and dad run a small hotel in which they run a bloody crime ring to steal from the guests, and they're usually too drunk to properly function. But hey, you might know my sister who brought us to this apartment to hide out the rest of our lives like we're running from the law or some shit."

Eponine wasn't even insulted by this, because it was all true. She herself was still young enough to get asked about her parents. It dawned on her that she would need to come up with a story for everybody to follow, just in order to live on a day-to-day basis.

She strolled out of her room to find that Azelma and Gavroche had left the hallway, and were in the kitchen trying to work the lid off of the soup can with a can opener.

"Alright," she started, slapping her hand down on the counter, drawing both of their attentions from their breakfast. "Here's our cover: I'm going to the university. I live here with one of my friends. You two," she continued, gesturing at their concentrating faces, "visit me very frequently and sometimes stay the night. Our parents are dead. Car crash. You two live with your aunt and uncle and cousin."

"What if people ask who our aunt and uncle are?" Gavroche interrupted.

"Joseph and Faith," Eponine answered dryly. "Now, if we stray from the story and people get mixed ideas, we're all screwed. And finally," she paused to stress the importance. "Do NOT invite friends over. Tell them the dining room is being repainted, that you're grounded, I don't care. Do not accept a ride from a friend. Be vague about where you live. Don't even tell them the building. Nobody. Comes. In."

They nodded, and Eponine could see the barely concealed fear in their eyes.

"I'm going to go to class." She announced, walking back down the hallway. "How many friends do I live with?"

"One," came the answer.

"Wonderful," she called back, grabbing her bag off of her floor and fiddling with the door so it would lock behind her. "We'll go enroll you in school when I get back."

It felt strangely refreshing to go outside of the building onto the street. There would be nobody here who wanted to know where she was, or where she had come from. Everybody was so absorbed with themselves that their gaze went right through Eponine, and she loved it. She was just Eponine Thenardier, and there was nobody to hide it from.

When she walked past the other building, however, a voice sounded behind her. "Hi, Eponine!"

She sucked in a breath and slowly turned, but exhaled when she saw that it was Cosette. "Oh, hey blondie." A quick glance at her neck showed that she had abandoned her fancy little necklace for today, at least.

"Are you going to class?"

"Yeah, yeah I am," she stuttered, relieved of her paranoia. Allowing herself a small smile, she forced out some conversation. "What do you have?"

"Psychology lecture," she recited.

"Me too."

"Oh, thank god," Cosette sighed, "I thought I would be alone in my first class."

Eponine eyed her. She seemed to have dropped the slightly frightened, angry persona that she had assumed last night, and now exactly fit the mold she had created for Marius's girlfriend: bubbly, friendly, conversational, and nice hair. But she wasn't all that stuck-up, Eponine had noticed. Maybe it had just been the jealousy talking. Still, Eponine knew it would take her a while before she could wash the "Marius's girlfriend" title from her brain, even though Cosette had said that they had broken up. That he had broken up with her, nonetheless, although it was doubtful. Marius had been so completely enamored with her, Eponine could tell without ever meeting the girl…

Stop, she decided. It was better for everybody if she washed Marius completely from her mind.

They reached the gates of the university. "Maybe after class we can go grab some coffee or something?"

Eponine pretended to think, but her nerves pulsed. "I can't, my brother and sister are coming over from my aunt and uncle's house."

"Your aunt and uncle's house?"

"Yeah," Eponine gave a shaky sigh, trying her best to look sad. "My parents died in a car crash."

Cosette drew in a short breath. "Oh my goodness, Eponine, I'm so sorry."

Even though it was all a lie, Eponine felt embarrassed from her pity. "Don't be. It was a long time ago. My brother doesn't even remember them." She tried to make a mental note. If her brother didn't remember, that would mean that he was a baby. If he was a baby, then Azelma would have been three and she would have been six. She would have to relay them that portion of the story when she got back.

Still, there was something about the way Cosette nodded at her that made Eponine want to cave in, because she could tell that she felt her 'pain'.

And while it had never happened before, Eponine felt terrible for it.

Please R/R!