So... I didn't get as much done as I expected to, partially because I got so distracted by a new story idea (Les Mis/ Lord of the Rings crossover, pretty sure I mentioned it in last chapter's AN but I'll do it again now). I will try to be better at being consistent though.

This chapter is mostly filler, summarizing a few years, so not the best thing after almost a year of no updates, but I'll try to have something a bit more substantial in the next ones.

Chapter 8

The days blurred together in the convent. Cosette's life whirled by her in a blur of of lessons, mass, and nightly visits to her father. She was allowed an hour with him each day, and she relished the time she was allowed. He was the sun and moon to her. She slept in a dormitory in the convent.

She remained as quiet in the convent as she had always been, unable to break the habit formed by her years with the Thénardiers. She now wore the uniform worn by the students at the convent, as she had joined them. She adjusted quickly to life there, as there was a regular routine and her papa no longer seemed the least bit concerned about their safety.

Over time, Cosette began to change. She laughed now, and all gloominess had vanished from her appearance, though she still was not considered pretty.

She grew every day, older, taller, and wiser. At the convent she was taught not only to read, write, some history and geography, but she also learned the Bible, love, and kindness. The nuns seemed to expect her to eventually grow up and join them, but she hardly noticed. She couldn't see herself ever becoming a nun, unless her father wanted her to or planned to stay there. The thought of ever parting with him remained a nightmare. He had been the first person in her memory that had ever shown her kindness, to part with him would be unbearable.

The days slowly turned to months, which turned into years. In her happiness, Cosette thought less and less about her childhood before she lived with her papa. She did not forget, but the nightmares stopped, and eventually it mattered less. She was content to think that she would never again see the Thénardiers, that that horrible chapter of her life was at an end, never to haunt her again.

After five years had gone by there, and Cosette was fourteen, Fauchelevent died. Her papa made the decision that they would leave the convent, donating a sum of five thousand francs in thanks for the time that they had spent there and for Cosette's education.

They moved to a house on rue Plumet, and her papa rented out two other apartments as well, on rue de l'Ouest and on rue de l'Homme Armé, which they would stay in for a few weeks at a time on occasion. Her papa hired a servant, named Toussaint, who would stay behind in the house on rue Plumet when they went to stay at either of the other apartments.

Her papa set things up in rue Plumet so that Cosette occupied the main house, while he chose to live in the porter's lodge at the back of the yard. He saw to it that her bedroom and the rest of the main house were more than comfortable, but elegant for her as well. All her papa desired was her happiness, which could embarrass Cosette at times. She felt almost guilty at the way he seemed to insist upon spoiling her, especially after coming out of the convent, where the nuns had been so strict and her life had been so simple.

Every Sunday, they would go to church in a poorer neighbourhood, and her father would give generously to the beggars in the area, just as he had when they had lived in the Gorbeau house.

Her favourite times were their walks together, which they took every day. Her papa would bring her to the Luxembourg garden. While there was a garden in their house on rue Plumet, her papa had allowed it to remain rather wild, rather than tending to it. The gate by the garden was always kept shut, and they would enter and leave the house through the back. Their garden held a stone bench, two moldy statues, and weeds everywhere mixed in among the flowers that remained. Cosette loved the garden, and the time that she got to spend in it, playing, chasing butterflies, but the walks in the Luxembourg gave her the chance to go out and see the world instead of only dreaming of it.

At fourteen, she was still little more than a child. She was still more ugly than pretty, save for her large, blue eyes, which were always filled with curiosity, though she didn't have any particularly unattractive feature. She was awkward, skinny, timid, and bold, still practically a little girl, though she had grown. She adored her papa, and would gently scold him at times, urging him to keep himself warm with a fire and to eat better food. She spent more time in his simple shack than in the more comfortable house or in the garden.

That time with her papa was part of why she adored their walks together. At the Luxembourg, they would always sit on the same bench, chatting away happily. They would stay there for an hour or so before returning home.

Eventually, she began to notice a young man who would walk in the Luxembourg at about the same time as them every day. He would sit on another bench for a bit sometimes, or simply carry on walking, depending on the day. For the most part she ignored him. The one man in the world that she did care for was her papa.

Nevertheless, the young man was rather handsome, and Cosette was growing up. After a while she found herself occasionally glancing up to look at him, shyly, secretly hoping to herself that he would notice her. He never did notice her, however. After about a year, the man stopped going on the walks, and Cosette soon forgot him, content to go on with her life with her papa.

It wasn't long after she turned fifteen that Cosette suddenly realized that she was, in fact, pretty, if not beautiful. Her papa had for some time been telling her that no, she was not ugly, a passerby in the street had muttered something about her being pretty, but badly dressed, and she had overheard Toussaint asking her papa if he had noticed how pretty she was becoming.

All of that sent her to the mirror to gaze at herself, and in that moment she decided that they were indeed right, she was pretty. From that moment on, her confidence grew and it became impossible to deny that she was truly beautiful. In no longer believing that she was ugly, as she had been told all through her childhood, her beauty only grew.

At her asking, her papa purchased new clothes for her, a black damask dress with a matching short hooded cape, and a hat of white crepe. Never again would she wear her old clothes from the convent, not now that she looked and felt so lovely. If the Thénardiers could only see her now, and how far she had come from the skinny, ugly little creature that they had so tormented, she was sure they would be stunned at how her life had changed since leaving them. She almost wished that they could see her, if only so that they would know that they had ultimately failed in crushing her spirits, but it was only a passing thought. She barely thought of them any more, and they had become hardly more than a faint memory, dark shadows of a past nearly forgotten.

After about six months, Cosette looked up from the bench where she sat with her papa in the Luxembourg, and spotted the young man from before. Only this time, he looked up and noticed her, and she felt her heart flutter. Shyly, she quickly looked away again, unsure of what that feeling was. It was completely unfamiliar to her. When she had seen him before, over the course of the year before he had stopped walking there, she had always noticed him and thought of him as handsome. Now, it seemed, he had finally noticed her, as well. Why that seemed to have changed things, she did not know, but her heart was now suddenly filled with longing.

All too soon, it was time to go, and she and her papa left, her heart full of hope that she would soon see the young man again, her head swirling with thoughts. She had never heard of anything like this in her time in the convent. Could she discuss these feelings with her papa? She did not know. A part of her wanted to, for they had always shared everything with each other, but somehow the idea of trying to explain these strange new feelings to him left her feeling embarrassed, something which he noticed.

"Cosette, is everything all right?" he asked her as they walked away.

"Oh, I was wondering if we could stop by the book shop on the way home," she said quickly, hoping it would be a suitable excuse. She hadn't realized that her feelings had been so clear, but then, her papa always seemed to know with her. "It's been a while since I've had anything new to read."

"Of course," her papa replied with a smile.

Cosette smiled in response, relieved that he had taken the excuse, and hoping to herself that she would see the young man again soon.