"Marius was talking about you today," Enjolras said after many quiet moments had passed after he had returned from his lessons. "You're going to have to make an appearance soon, you've been missing for three months."
"I can't see him. What would I say? Sorry I've been gone. You see I was hiding at Enjolras' garret. Also, I'm pregnant. But not to worry, it's not Enjolras', it's 'Parnasse's." Éponine bit her lip as she watched Enjolras loosening his cravat.
"That's not what I meant. You should come with me to the Cafe tonight." Enjolras paused, seeing the hesitancy in her eyes. "You don't even have to come in around me. You can come and go completely unattached to me, if that would make it easier."
"In my fancy clothes?"
"Yes."
"Who would I say provided them?"
"A good Samaritan?"
Éponine sighed, bowing her head. "I will say it was you."
"Don't act so ashamed. If the thought of me is that horrendo-" Éponine stepped closer to him and placed her finger against his lips. She shook her head, pleading with him silently. "I know this is hard for you." Enjolras said despite her finger against his lips. He rested his hand against her arm, rubbing his fingers against her soft skin.
"I'm not ashamed of you Enjolras." Éponine kept her voice low as she stared into his eyes. Her skin crawled as she felt his fingers continuing to brush against her skin. "I'm not ashamed of you." Neither dared to move as they stood there, their breaths were caught in their chests afraid to break the moment. They couldn't stand there forever, staring into one another's eyes and lost in the silence of the moment.
"Do you want to go back to the Cafe this evening?" Enjolras questioned, his fingers never relenting as they rubbed circles against her arm. "I'll do whatever you want me to do."
"Anything?" Éponine asked, resting her hand on his shoulder.
"Yes."
"Then you'll accept that this is the girl you've decided to bind yourself to? She's scared to death of feeling, probably won't ever admit what she could feel. Creature of her atmosphere. She's nothing more than a whore for purchase. Can you truly accept her?"
"It depends on whether or not she can accept me." Enjolras leaned towards, keeping just enough space between them to keep their noses from brushing. The tension between them was soul wrenching.
"I-" Éponine started, only to be cut off by his lips crushing against hers. She pushed away from him, "I can't. I can't. I.." Éponine turned away from him, trying to collect her thoughts. Her mind was whirling with so many thoughts that she could hardly keep straight which were actually what she wanted. "I just don't understand this."
"Éponine," Enjolras' tone was calm and steady despite the rapid beating of his heart and the drumming blood in his ears. "What can't you understand? Tell me. I'll try to help you understand."
"No." Éponine shuttered as his arm grasped her elbow. "How could you understand what I feel?"
"We're both human."
"But you haven't been selling yourself night in and night out for the past five years. You haven't been waiting for the day that you'd finally die by your 'natural' causes or by the end of some sharp knife. You haven't lived your life waiting for the prince charming you knew would never come." Éponine turned to face him, and despite her fears she continued to explain herself. She was tired of trying to be meek and mild for the charade of a proper woman. She was Éponine Thenardier.
"You haven't been waiting around hoping for a good thing to finally happen to you and then when it does... You weren't too stubborn to realise it, too God dammit determined to ruin your chances by pushing the "good thing" away. That is where you and I are different, Enjolras. You're intelligent; you think things through and use reasoning to form answers. I run with misled gut feelings. Where'd that lead me? Here. I'm living in the garret of a man that's exactly what I've been waiting for and I'm too stubborn and proud to let the defensive walls down and accept him the way that I want to. And to make it all better, I'm having the baby of a self absorbed prick who wouldn't take no for an answer."
Enjolras' eyes were wide as he tried to absorb what meant what as it poured from Éponine's mouth. Tears were welling in her eyes as she finally came to the end, the place where the sob in her throat captured her voice and held it hostage. "Éponine."
Éponine shook her head and stepped away from him. She couldn't handle his kind words anymore. Years of only hearing coarse, bristly, cruel words made the sound of endearing and compassionate words sting worse. She turned and took off out of the garret.
She wished that she still looked like the malnourished street urchin that hardly turned a head except for the gendarmes and the shop keepers. A woman with the appearance of class, sobbing hysterically and running down the Parisian street turned more heads than she wanted to see. The old Éponine would have blended into the woodwork of poor starving urchins that cried out of hunger and abuse that mingled on the streets.
She kept moving, never stopping long enough to meet the eyes of one of the curious gentry who were on his way home from his daily work or the lady as she passed after a social event at another lady's parlour room. They didn't know anything about her, she didn't want the speculations.
Éponine found her way down an alleyway off of the Rue d'Alembert, it was her idea of a good place to hide away in case Enjolras had followed after her. She couldn't handle him, of all people, right now. She couldn't even handle herself. She just wished all of the whirling emotions and thoughts would stop. She wouldn't let herself get hurt like she had let herself get hurt with Marius. She had loved him so fiercely only to have him fall in love with another girl, oblivious to her admiration. She didn't trust herself to love someone again and not get broken.
She only deserved the life that she had now. Pregnant with 'Parnasse's bastard and alone.
"And I wondered who the pretty little tear stained bit was that was rushing down the street. Should've known it's be little 'Ponine. Dress her up like a lady and you still get slut."
"Montparnasse." Éponine grit, subconsciously touching her stomach out of fear. "What do you want with me?"
"Not you. I wanted to see what was wrong with that little crier. What I surprise to find you." Montparnasse stepped toward her, "What's got you in a tizzy?"
"Leave me alone." Éponine shoved him away from her, stumbling backwards. He had this habit of showing up when she least wanted him around. He was the one person she could be certain that she would have settled down with. In the sick way of meaning they would have lived together and been with plenty of other people, making their blood money on the side.
"You know how well that worked for you last time."
"Please." Éponine backed away from him, knowing she was cornering herself down the dead end alleyway. "I have enough to deal with without you in the picture."
"But I thought I liked you in the picture with me in it?" 'Parnasse grabbed her wrist and pulled her close. "Pretty little 'Ponine. Don't we look so sweet and innocent dressed like a virtuous Parisian woman." Montparnasse pinned her against the wall. "But I'm sure I won't find you innocent."
"No! Let me go!"
"Let her go." Came the growl of a voice from behind Montparnasse. Enjolras grabbed the man by the shoulder and jerked him away from Éponine. "When a girl says 'let me go', she means it."
"Son of a bastard!" Montparnasse growled, "Don't lay your hand on me."
"I'd like to lay more than a hand on you." Enjolras dodged the man's badly aimed punch.
"I'm sorry, did you perhaps pay for a night with our mutual harlot friend. Go right ahead. She's not met a guy she can't refuse. Have you poppet?" Montparnasse reached out to cup Éponine's cheek, only to have Enjolras whip him around and slam his fist against his jaw.
"Do not touch her again!"
"Enjolras!" Éponine shouted as Montparnasse reared back and head-butted Enjolras in the face.
Enjolras didn't take but a second to recover from the blow before he was grabbing 'Parnasse by the shoulders and slamming him against the brick wall of the alley way. Enjolras pressed the man's face against the wall, letting his cheek grind against the rough wall.
"This will teach you for raping Éponine."
"I've never raped that little whore in her whole miserable life. She's always ready for a good rut. Aren't you?" Montparnasse didn't give up his cocky remarks even with his face pressed against the wall.
"You raped me!" Éponine snarled, feeling tears spilling down her cheeks. "You took me when I was no longer willing to be taken. I found a happy place and you ruined it! You ruined everything! Now.."
Enjolras picked up the sentence before Éponine revealed more than she had to, "I am going to make sure that she is safe from scum like you." Enjolras met Éponine's eyes, despite her hatred for the man he could see the fear in them at the prospect of Enjolras ending his life. "Go now. Change your ways. May God be your judge."
"Get your self-righteous hands off of me." Montparnasse gritted, dusting his clothes off as Enjolras let him go. "Take your whore then. She's none of my trouble anymore." Gathering his compose, despite his bloodied nose and cheek Montparnasse strolled out of the alleyway as though he were unscathed.
"Enjolras-"
"Don't."
Éponine ignored her protest as she reached out to touch his face. She flung her arms around his torso, holding him close. "Thank you. Thank you."
Hesitantly Enjolras responded to her embrace, wrapping his arms around her and warmly hugging her in return. He buried his face in her billowy dark hair, inhaling deeply the scent that was characteristically her. Éponine pulled back from the embrace and stared at his bloodied nose. "It's nothing."
"It's broken," Éponine protested, touching it lightly. She could feel the uneven bump from where the blow had fractured it into two pieces. "I'm sorry."
"It was worth it."
"But why?"
"Because you are worth my time." Enjolras said seriously, giving her a charming smile. "I would go to battle for you."
Éponine sighed heavily, before rising up on her tiptoes and planting a tender kiss against his lips. The tender kiss grew until it was all consuming. Éponine could taste the iron and salt of his bloodied lip and nose. The tangy taste of Enjolras that flooded her senses. Did she really... care?
Enjolras pulled back, breathing deeply. His lungs were screaming for the oxygen that he had just deprived them off. But his lungs be damned when he was finally able to kiss her satisfactorily. She wasn't pulling away, shying away, hiding away. She was already leaning back up towards him regain the sweet contact of lips on lips. The pleasant feel of tender flesh sliding against tender flesh. Tongue against tongue.
But somehow he knew that tomorrow there would be a new battle to fight with Éponine. She was not the girl who gave up easily. She was a girl that was worth fighting for. She was feisty and lively, full of wit and entertainment. There would never be a dull moment with Éponine.
If only she would see that he was sincere in his offers. He was even willing to claim her bastard child as his son or daughter. He wanted to give her a better outlook and prospect on her life. He wanted to give her everything that he thought every woman deserved.
After all, women name their sons, they care for their sons, they raise their sons. How do men return the favour? They rape, degrade, discard, and insult the women folk. Women are whores when they sleep around, but men are just men. Enjolras was all for respect and revere for someone he cared about.
