Well, what an interesting week I've had. Went to school, argued with my fish, broke up with my boyfriend, started young drivers (two years late), had a nice sleepover with one of my bffs, played Catan with my family, and stayed home sick today. All in all, it was a good week. And yes, I had an argument with my fish. But what can I say? He's the most spoiled fish in my hometown.
Chapter 8
Enjolras smiled as he opened his eyes and reached over to brush a stray lock of hair from Eponine's face. She looked so peaceful as she slept. After the kiss, they had spent all day and most of the night awake talking as they sat together on the couch, and eventually Eponine had fallen asleep with her head resting on his chest. He had been fine with that for a while, but he soon became tired too, at which point he had lifted her carefully and brought her to bed.
He was rather pleasantly surprised to find that he had slept better with her beside him. It felt natural, as if it was meant to be.
"Enjolras?"
He grinned. He loved the way his name sounded when she said it. "Good morning," he said, still smiling. "Did you sleep well?"
She chose to ignore his question, her eyes still shut, yet still somehow knowing where she was. "Why am I in your bed with you?"
He resisted the urge to laugh at her question and confused expression as she opened her eyes. "You fell asleep on the couch while we were talking, and there was no way I was leaving you there all night."
She relaxed a bit, clearly remembering the events of the day before, and relaxed even more as she realized she was still dressed. "Sorry about my reaction, but since the last thing I remembered was sitting on the couch with you listening to you talk about some speech you were working on, and then I woke up here… Well, you'd be confused too."
He chuckled and kissed her gently on the forehead. "You didn't answer my question. Did you sleep well?"
"Mhm," she replied, shifting closer to him, shutting her eyes again, surprising him at how comfortable she was at being so close to him when he was only half dressed. He wanted nothing more than to hold her close and stay there all day, but he knew he couldn't, so he pressed a quick kiss to the top of her head before getting up.
"Where are you going?" she asked, frustrated that he had moved, lifting her head from the pillow to try to glare at him.
He laughed as he pulled a shirt on. "Eponine, it's nearly eight. Les Amis will all be heading over to the café within the next hour."
"So?"
"So, I should probably be there. We can't stay in here forever." He smirked at her. He could see that she knew he was right, and, based on the fact that she was trying very hard to glare at him, wasn't happy about it.
He walked over to her, buttoning up his shirt, and, sitting on the bed next to her, kissed her cheek gently. "For someone who was rather confused about where she woke up this morning, you seem pretty comfortable."
"Considering that I'm not used to such nice sleeping arrangements, can you blame me? I've spent several nights on the streets, and even when I did have a roof over my head, I was usually trying not to put all of my weight on the bruises my father would give me, so it was hard to be comfortable."
He looked at her, a mock-pout on his face. "So it has nothing to do with me?"
She smirked. "Can't have you getting too confident now, can we?"
He leaned over and gave her a quick peck on the lips. "Come on, 'Ponine, get up. You've been wanting a change of scenery, haven't you? You can either go to the café with me, or stay here all day. Your choice."
She groaned, and finally sat up. "Fine."
He stood and left the room briefly. "Joly brought this over two days ago. He thought you might like another dress, and if you want, we can get you more later on the way back. Go put it on, you've been wearing the same dress for three days."
She glared at the dress. "It's blue."
He glanced down at the dress, then back up at Eponine. True, the dress was a very pale blue colour, and pale blue was a typically girly colour, but he didn't see what the problem was.
"Is there a problem with that?"
"Yes, Grantaire and the fact that pale blue is so utterly girly and feminine is the problem."
Enjolras thought hard, trying to mentally connect Grantaire and pale blue. It wasn't working.
"Your other dress is blue, too, almost the same shade-"
"Yes, but I wasn't anywhere near Grantaire, and this one is way less frilly and lacey!"
"I really fail to see the problem-"
"Remember when I helped you bring Grantaire back here when he was ridiculously drunk a few weeks ago, shortly before the barricade?"
"Yes."
"And that comment he made about us sleeping together?"
"Yes."
"Chances are when we get there he'll already be drunk, and see us walk in together with me wearing that ridiculous girly pale blue dress, and God knows what comments he'll make!"
"Yes, but that will be because he's drunk," Enjolras replied. He was trying hard not to laugh. Eponine was blowing the whole thing way out of proportion. "It's just a dress, even if it is blue and frilly. Just put it on!"
"Ugh!" She walked over, clearly frustrated, grabbed the dress, and left the room to change.
Enjolras sighed, running a hand through his dark hair. He loved her stubbornness, but this was ridiculous! Were all girls so picky about clothing? He knew his sister was, although with his sister, the more lace and frills, the better, whereas Eponine had appeared to love the plain pale blue and green dress, yet had fought with him over wearing the lacy one.
"Women," he muttered as he put on a clean pair of trousers. A few minutes later, Eponine returned. His jaw dropped.
"I look ridiculous," she said immediately.
"You look anything but ridiculous," he replied. Now that she was wearing the dress, he could see why she was worried that Grantaire might make a rude comment – it was the sort of dress a particularly self-absorbed bourgeois girl might wear – but she looked rather pretty in it. But he thought she would look beautiful in anything, as he paid more attention to her face than her clothing.
The skirt of the dress was long and pale blue, with a bit of slightly darker blue frill, as was the top, and the sleeves were also pale blue with darker blue frill at the end. White lace ran along the top of the dress, and her face held an expression of utter disdain. "I look like Cosette, only my hair isn't blonde. That is literally the only difference. Oh, and I'm probably also a bit skinnier than her, too." Enjolras remained silent, not trusting himself to say anything. He really didn't understand women, and didn't want to say something that would set her off. She smirked then. "Here's hoping Marius isn't stupid enough to somehow mistake me for her."
Enjolras smiled, relieved that she had calmed down a bit. "There's the Eponine I fell in love with," he said, waling over and wrapping his arms around her. "And don't worry, as soon as we're done at the café, we can get you dresses that you don't feel completely ridiculous in. Joly told me that Musichetta can't wait to meet you."
"Just so long as she has a more interesting personality than Cosette," Eponine replied.
"Trust me, I'm pretty sure that you'll like her."
It is only in the last century that pink became a girly colour and blue became more masculine. It used to be the other way around, as blue - in particular, light blue - was seen as soft and feminine, while pink was a lighter shade of red, which was very masculine. Then Hitler came along and screwed everything up, including which colours were feminine and which ones were masculine. One of his symbols of hatred was the pink triangle, which he forced homosexuals to wear, because Hitler hated basically everyone so everyone had a symbol to wear to show that they were hated. And that is why pink is now a feminine colour and light blue isn't. Because Hitler was an asshole. And because Hitler hadn't screwed the entire world over in 1832 Paris, France, light blue was still a feminine colour, which is why Eponine had a hissy-fit over it in this chapter, and now you know something that you most likely probably never needed to know in the first place, and something I only know because I am friends with a walking encyclopedia of random facts nobody really needs to know. You're welcome.
