A/N: I don't want to spoil the events of the story to everyone, but I am aware there are loads of Marius/Eponine shippers who may want to know if they get together. If you really want to know, say in the reviews and I'll private message you what will happen.

I hope you enjoy this chapter even though it may seem a little Marius/Cosette.

Chapter 10: Hearts and Wine

Eponine was startled by a bird flying in front of her face.

Wait, not flying; it was plummeting towards the ground. She stopped suddenly, then realised it wasn't a bird-it was a sheet of paper. She bent to pick it up.

The pain of the way Marius had looked at Cosette. The pain of memories of her past stirring, how her family had hurt her.

All of this faded into curiosity momentarily as she studied the sheet. She realised it was a flyer, showing a symbol of a blue, white and red rosette with writing in block capitals underneath:

HAVE YOU ASKED OF YOURSELF: WHAT'S THE PRICE YOU MIGHT PAY?

FOR EQUALITY?

10 AM OUTSIDE GENERAL LAMARQUE'S.

Her heart froze. Marius always wore that rosette, the symbol of the ABC society. It was clear that these was one of the flyers he'd been handing out.

She thought about Cosette. The girl who'd grown up to be her sister, who she loved dearly the way a sister does.

She thought about her blood family. That treacherous man who she was ashamed to share the same blood as. The woman who was just as treacherous, but cared a tiny bit for her daughter. Then the girl. Pale and starving, on the verge of ugliness from poverty. A creature who could hardly be classed as human, slowly being crushed by fate. Hardly a trace of the pretty but selfish child she'd once been remained in those blurred eyes.

Then she thought about the orphans she'd spoken to. Those orphans who'd been living on the street for a few months after their parents had caught cholera from the dirty drinking water the poor drank. The older sister and her little brother. She'd told Eponine their story whilst her brother cried. Marie-Anne, she'd said her name was. Marie-Anne had stated her hatred for the government, how she fed her brother the scraps she could get her hands on. An honest girl who wouldn't steal, nor sell the silver cross she wore around her neck. But despite her honesty and faith, the girl's pitiful brown eyes had burned with a passion, a hope for a change.

Eponine's mind lingered most on Marius. His freckles, his eyes, his nose, his smile. Everything she loved more than anything. The one she would always love. But little he knew. Little he saw.

She closed her eyes and exhaled with a sad grace.

"I love you, Marius." She whispered to herself.

She turned around, to try and find him.

"Where can she be?" Valjean paced the room.
"Papa, we must call the police!" Cosette turned to him, her large eyes full of worry.

"Dear Cosette, she'll return." He frowned before he poured himself a glass of wine, then sighed, pouring another. The third glass remained empty. "Have a couple of glasses. They'll help you sleep." He left the wine bottle on the table, before leaving Cosette sat alone in her nightgown, drinking the glass.

Oh, it's 'Ponine. She knows her way around. She'll be back, Cosette reassured herself.

Then she thought of the gentleman. He was so kind. She'd heard of this from what Eponine had taught her from novels of love.

Eponine slipped into Cafe Musain. Nobody noticed her. The student she recognised as Enjolras was talking.

"Red-the blood of angry men! Black-the dark of ages past! Red-a world about to dawn! Black-the night that ends at last!" He held up a red flag. Then the man next to him stood up to face him.

Eponine's heart shuddered when she saw Marius.

"Had you seen her tonight, you might know how it feels...to be struck to the bone in a moment of breathless delight! Had you been there tonight, you might also have known how your world may be changed in just one burst of light..."

Eponine had heard enough. She turned to leave. As she stepped into the cool night, she heard a voice.

"Eponine?"

She looked down. "Gavroche?" She remembered him from Christmas eve those years before. He nodded.

"Gavroche...can you fetch Marius for me? I need to talk to him."

The small boy nodded sincerely and disappeared into the Cafe Musain.

It seemed like an eternity before Marius burst out of the Cafe.

As soon as he saw Eponine, he didn't smile like he used to.

"Did you find her?" He asked.

How strange...this feeling that my life's begun at last! Cosette sighed, leaning against the wall. This change...can people really fall in love so fast? She shook her head, giggling girlishly.

"What's the matter with you, Cosette?" She scolded herself. So many things unclear, so many things unknown.

She rose, examining her reflection in a mirror. Her cheeks were flushed, possibly from the alcohol. The pupils of her eyes were wide.

Does he know I'm alive? Do I know if he's real? Does he see what I see...does he feel what I feel?

She smiled again, then turned to the door.

"Find me now, find me here." She whispered. She knew it wasn't him.

When she opened the door, Eponine stood there. She nodded stiffly at Cosette, stepping past her as their father hurried into the room.

"Eponine! Thank god you're back." He embraced her.

"I'm okay." Eponine assured him. Her green eyes were sad.
"Dear Cosette, 'Ponine-you're so alone except for eachother. How pensive-how sad you seem." He touched both of their cheeks in turn. "Believe me-if it were in my power, I'd fill each passing hour. How quiet it must be, I can see...with only me for company."

Cosette saw her chance. The drink made a lot of her mind come out. As Cosette began another one of her pleads to know of her father's past, Eponine slipped out of the door again to the garden, leaving her coat inside.

"There's so little I know, that I'm longing to know, of the man that you were in a time long ago." Cosette attempted to examine the marks on his wrists but he pulled away sharply. "There's so little you say of the life you have known, the one you keep to yourself, why you're always alone. So dark, so dark and deep, the secrets that you keep." She continued anyway.

"Please forgive what I say, you are loving and gentle and good." She took his rough hand in her own slender ones. "But, Dear Papa, in your eyes I am just like a child who's lost in a wood!"

He pulled away. "No more words, no more words, it's a time that is dead. There are words, that are better unheard-better unsaid." He turned away from her.

"I'm no longer a child and I yearn for the truth that you know," she realised how whiney she was starting to sound, so she let her tone soften. "Of the years...years ago."

He turned to face her. His eyes were stern before he even spoke. "You will learn. Truth is given by God to us all in our time-in our turn."

Cosette looked at him a moment, then brushed past him to the garden.

He watched as she left, her white nightgown billowing, and sighed wearily.

Eponine heard Cosette coming, so she slid behind a willow tree and some rosebushes. She wasn't in the mood to talk. Especially when she knew Marius was waiting outside the gate.

In my life, there's been no-one like him anywhere. Anywhere, where he is. If he asked...I'd be his.

Then it happened. He saw Cosette, and slipped through the gate. Eponine peered through the branches, awestruck and sombre by their words.

"A heart full of love. A heart full of song. I-" Marius shook his head, stumbling on words. "I'm doing everything all wrong. Oh, God for shame! I do not even know your name...Dear Mademoiselle! Won't you say? Will you tell?"

Light seemed to radiate from Cosette, reflecting off her white gown and golden hair. He felt the same!

"A heart full of love. No fear...no regret." She spoke softly.

Marius' face lit up. She felt the same.

"My name is Marius Pontmercy." He bowed almost regally.

"And mine's Cosette." She curtsied daintily.

Marius couldn't stop himself from cutting through the space they'd kept. He took her small, pale hands in his and looked into her eyes. Only a thin ring of blue could be seen around the pupils of them.

"Cosette...I don't know what to say."

"Then make no sound."

"I am lost."

"I am found."

She still held his hand and led him to a marble bench, in front of the tree where Eponine watched.

"A heart full of love." She heard Marius' well-spoken voice say.

A clear tear rolled out of her eye, as she leant against the tree, staring up at the stars she could see through the green leaves.

He was never mine to lose.

"A heart full of you!" Her beautiful sister replied.

Why regret what cannot be?

Of course, Cosette got him. She was the one who cared the most for looks.

"A single look and then I knew." Marius' next words proved her right. He saw Cosette that night, in her elegantly designed dress with her hair pinned up, exposing her white neck and sparkling earrings. Jewelled pins had shone from her hair in the streetlights. The thought of that light catching Marius' eye made Eponine feel sick.

"I knew it too." Speak of the devil. Or angel...the term would be more fitting, even Eponine admitted. Cosette, who'd never inflict pain upon a blade of grass.

These are words he'll never say...not to me.

"From today." Marius' tone was affectionate.

Not to me...not for me.

Eponine closed her eyes as another tear fell, watching them again.

"Everyday." Cosette's cheeks were flushed. She reminded Eponine of a porcelain doll.

His heart full of love.

"For it isn't a dream." Cosette's fingers traced Marius' jawline.

"Not a dream." Marius replied passionately.

"After all." Cosette finished.

Eponine sank to the floor under the tree, feeling her heart breaking.

She didn't care how dirty her dress was going to be. She didn't care that there were rose thorns digging into her skin.

She only cared for him at this instant.

He will never feel this way.