The next morning, Enjolras awoke slowly. He was in an unfamiliar room, and the slow ping of raindrops falling on the roof created a comfortable rhythm. With eyes still heavy with sleep, he slowly glanced around. Oh...so it wasn't unfamiliar, exactly; it was Eponine's. He just wasn't used to seeing it in the daylight, however dim it may be from the rain and clouds outside the windows.
"Good morning, sunshine."
Enjolras rolled over at the sound of Eponine's voice, cautiously surveying her. Clearly, he had broken rule number one, and he didn't know if she was pissed at him or not for passing out in her bed.
"Hi." He cleared his throat and stretched, quickly snatching the sheet and pulling it back up his naked body when he realized he was on full display in front of her. He still wasn't used to that.
Eponine smirked and raised an eyebrow, her eyes trailing appreciatively down his chest before drifting back up to his face. "Suddenly feeling modest? I tied you to the bed and rode you 'til you begged last night, in case you forgot. The time for modesty is over."
She crept closer and burrowed under his arm, running her tongue around his nipple and lightly kissing his chest. If there was one thing Enjolras had learned about her in the past few weeks, it was that Eponine was a master manipulator, at least sexually. She could get him to cave with very little coaxing at all.
Enjolras groaned and took her chin in his hand, raising her face up to his to stop her. "Believe me, there will be no forgetting that. But..." He glanced around and said pointedly, "It's morning."
"You're quite articulate at this time of day," Eponine laughed. "I know. You slept here."
"Clearly. But...we're not supposed to do that. Are you pissed at me?"
"You're way too pretty for me to be pissed at you for sleeping in my bed."
Enjolras rolled his eyes. "I'm not joking, Eponine. Rule number one is no sleepovers. Why didn't you wake me up?"
"Because you were exhausted, Enjolras. You needed to sleep, and I wanted you to. Don't worry, I texted 'Ferre and just told him you fell asleep on the couch while we were studying and I didn't want to wake you because I could tell you needed it. He bought it. Probably didn't think a thing of it, actually."
Enjolras was quiet for a minute, and then shrugged. "Well, I do feel better. Thanks for letting me stay, then."
"No problem." Eponine looked a little hesitant suddenly, and said cautiously, "It wasn't that bad, actually. Kind of nice after...well. You know."
Enjolras blushed thinking of the night before and held up his wrist. There were angry red marks still visible from where he had pulled at the restraints. "Yeah, you were right about those knots...pretty impressive."
Eponine laughed and took his wrist, pressing her lips to his inflamed skin. "I never thought they'd be useful in that way, but I have to say – it's a handy little thing to know."
"You're never doing that to me again."
Eponine laughed and pushed him onto his back, hovering over him. Her long hair fell over her shoulders and tickled his face and he reached up to tuck it behind her ears.
"Oh, really? You liked it. I've never seen you so..." She bit her lip, and instead of finishing her thoughts, crashed her lips into his. Enjolras kissed her back, placing one hand on the back of her head to hold her to him. His other hand drifted beneath the sheets, where he slowly began stroking the inside of Eponine's thigh. She wasted no time in changing their positions to give him better access, and she was soon on her back, pulling Enjolras on top of her impatiently.
"If I were mean spirited, I would be tying you up right now to see how you like it." He bit at her collarbone to prove his point.
"I'd like to see you try, Pretty Boy."
Enjolras smirked and ducked underneath the blankets, impatiently pushing Eponine's legs apart. He went slowly, trailing kisses down her stomach and then up and down each leg. Just when his lips reached the inside of Eponine's thigh and her hand tangled impatiently in his hair, her bedroom door burst open.
"Eponine, get up! I need your help with this – Holy shit!"
Enjolras jumped and sprang up, emerging from the sheets to find a shocked Cosette standing in the doorway with her hands over her mouth. Eponine growled in frustration and sat up, clutching the sheet to her chest.
"Well good morning to you, too, Cosette." She sounded amused and annoyed all at once.
Enjolras was mortified; he had never been so embarrassed in his life. He glanced towards Cosette again, whose eyes were wide and staring at him in shock. He was too out of it to even glare back at her and instead flopped down on his stomach, making sure the blankets completely covered his ass. He grabbed a pillow and slammed it over his head.
Eponine's laughter was muffled, but he could definitely hear her cackling mercilessly at him over Cosette's embarrassed apology. The door slammed again and Eponine's laughter continued. He still didn't move.
"Oh come on, Enj, that was hilarious. Oh my God, your face! I will never forget your face."
Eponine kissed his shoulder and tugged at the pillow, which he held firmly down.
"That was the most embarrassing moment of my life." He groaned again and lifted the pillow enough to peek out at her. "I fucking hate you right now. Lock the god damn door next time. I just scarred Cosette for life."
Eponine grinned and laid back down, nudging his leg with her foot. "She's not that innocent, Enjolras. She's hardly a pure little virgin; she spends the night with Marius all time. What in the hell do you think they're doing?"
"Baking cookies and singing duets with little bluebirds that perch outside of her window."
Eponine rolled her eyes. "She didn't see anything."
"She saw enough. She knew what I was doing to you. She didn't deserve that." Enjolras knew he was blowing this a little out of proportion, but he couldn't help it. He didn't think he'd ever be able to look Cosette in the eyes again as long as lived. Yep, there was definitely a reason he planned on getting out of town in a few months.
Enjolras buried his head under the pillow once more, but after a few seconds of silence on Eponine's part, he slowly peeked out. He expected some biting remark, but none came. Instead, she stared silently at the ceiling, looking a little bit troubled.
"What's wrong?"
She glanced at him and shrugged. "Nothing. I think you better get going." Her voice was hollow and closed off.
"What did I do?"
"Nothing, Enjolras. I'm sure you've got more work to do, though, so please, don't let me keep you."
Enjolras removed the pillow and looked at her incredulously. This felt an awful lot like some ridiculous relationship bullshit, which he absolutely was not into, and his annoyance level quickly rose. "What in the hell is your problem?"
Her eyes snapped to his, and if she were capable of breathing fire, Enjolras was pretty sure she would have been doing it. "So apparently what we were doing was wrong? The fact that I like it is wrong? Or bad? Is that what you're saying? Poor little Cosette shouldn't be exposed to that sort of debauchery, but for Eponine it's absolutely fine."
Enjolras let out a barking laugh. That was the most absurd thing he'd ever heard. "What? You are fucking insane. How did you come up with that bullshit?"
Eponine froze and slowly turned to glare at him. Her voice was deadly soft when she whispered, "Get the hell out of my house."
"Gladly. Jesus." Enjolras ripped the covers back and stood, roughly pulling on his clothes. "I don't know how in the hell you came up with that from what I said, Eponine. I didn't mean it like that. Why in the hell would you want to fight about something so stupid?" He turned to glare at her, but was surprised to see she had turned her face away from him. One hand clutched the sheets to her chest and she was biting the nails of her other, her tell-tale giveaway that she was upset.
Enjolras felt his annoyance slowly ebbing away as he gazed at her; she didn't look mad anymore, just upset. And even if he hadn't meant to, he had caused it. Maybe he should apologize?
Enjolras sighed, cursing his conscience, and sat down gingerly on the side of the bed. "Ep? Are you alright?"
She shrugged slowly. "I'm fine. It's fine. You're right, I'm completely insane." Her tone wasn't angry or sarcastic now; she sounded like she meant it. Enjolras had never met anyone so confusing in his life; she was going to give him whiplash.
"Okay...? Uh. Well." He cleared his throat and looked around. He wanted to do nothing more than bolt out of the room because this did not feel like casual sex, but for some reason, his ass seemed glued to the bed. "I don't really know what to do here," he admitted.
Eponine turned to him and cracked a small smile. Her eyes were dry, thank God, but she looked smaller than he'd ever seen her before. "I'm sorry. I really over-reacted. You didn't do anything wrong and...ugh." She covered her face for a moment and raked her hands through her hair. "I'm an idiot, seriously. I'm sorry."
Enjolras raised his eyebrows and said slowly, "It's okay...I can maybe see how you could have taken what I said the wrong way. I overreacted about the whole Cosette thing. I apologize."
Eponine nodded and started biting at her nails again. "So, um. I understand if you don't want to do this again now that you've seen that I'm a little bit crazy. It's alright."
Enjolras reached over and swatted her hand away from her mouth. "Stop doing that. I don't think you're crazy." (That was kind of a lie; he did, in fact, think she was a little batty, but he couldn't stop himself from being intrigued by it.)
"Oh. Okay." Eponine took a deep breath, looking a little happier, and straightened to look him in the eye again. "Thanks."
He nodded and they gazed at each other for a minute. Finally, Enjolras stood and looked around. He still felt a little bit weirded out. "But I do think I should get going. I have all those applications to finish today."
"Yeah. Good luck with those." She seemed back to normal.
Enjolras walked to the bedroom door and opened it cautiously, desperate not to run into Cosette on his way out. It seemed like the coast was clear, so he opened the door wider.
"Enjolras?"
"Yeah?" He turned to look back at Eponine. She had a tiny grin on her face, and Enjolras was struck by how attractive she suddenly looked; her hair was a mess, falling around her shoulders and down her back in thick tangles, and her skin seemed to glow in the early morning light. Her eyes again held their familiar mischievous gleam Enjolras had come to know so well.
"Last night was fun. Feel free to break rule number one whenever you want to." Eponine let the sheet fall seductively to her waist and Enjolras let out a little involuntary squeak. It was suddenly very hard to turn and leave, but he was determined. She laughed at his expression and Enjolras quickly turned and shut the door before he could convince himself to get back into her bed.
Yep. Whiplash. Her definitely had it.
Later that night, Enjolras finished all of his law school applications. Everything that could be turned in electronically was sent, and everything that had to be mailed was laid out on the kitchen table with postage already attached and ready to go in the morning. He felt highly accomplished, and incredibly rested after a peaceful night of sleep in Eponine's bed. He didn't remember when he had slept so good or been so comfortable.
Thinking of what happened that morning, though, and the very strange and stupid argument they had after Cosette interrupted them, still gave Enjolras an uneasy feeling. Maybe he was fooling himself by thinking that sex could be just sex between friends. That argument was about a lot more than just sex, and not in their usual way. The guilt he'd felt when he saw how upset Eponine genuinely was and how hard on herself she was being ate away at him a little bit.
But as bad as he felt, there was absolutely no way, in any universe, under any circumstances, that he wanted a relationship with anyone right now, especially Eponine. He wanted to leave New Orleans, and she was clearly tied here. He wanted to get out and see the world, figure out the best way to make his dreams a reality and help the most people he could. Staying in this corrupt, backwards, behind-the-times Southern city wasn't appealing in the slightest.
And if anything else like that argument happened between them, or Enjolras felt that things were straying from the friend-zone in any way, he would decisively break off what they were doing. That was clearly the smartest thing to do and the only thing to do to keep her from being hurt. Yes, it would be hard. He had no problem admitting that he thought she was the sexiest woman he'd ever seen, and the sex they had was fucking incredible. It would be torture trying to keep his hands off of her for his remaining time in New Orleans and it would suck to have to give up sex after getting so used to it over the last month or so, but he didn't want to lead Eponine on if she really had begun to have feelings for him.
Part of him scoffed at the thought that she actually liked him, however, because she seemed as averse to the idea of a relationship as he was. She had never really given him cause to think she liked him as more than a friend other than a nagging feeling at the back of his mind and what happened this morning.
So he had absolutely no idea why he had taken Eponine's advice and filled out an application for Tulane Law School along with all the others. It's just a back-up plan, he tried to reassure himself, just a last resort in case none of the others work out.
And once it was sent, he refused to think about it or analyze his decision anymore.
Hmmm, what is happening here, my friends? I tried to do some intriguing character development in this chapter, even though there wasn't much action. :) Hopefully you enjoyed. Let me know what you think, either here in a review or over on tumblr! THANKS FOR READING!
