"I love you, Eponine." Marius said with a broad smile. "You are my everything. The Lark means nothing at all to me."

"I love you, too, Marius." Eponine said softly.

Laughing, she threw her arms around the young baron's neck and he ran his hands through her long, soft hair. The sunlight around them both was warm and, silently, Marius kissed her, passion and adoration ablaze in the young man's spirit. For a long time they did nothing but kiss until, slowly, he let his hands travel downwards to place themselves on her waist and on her ribcage, just below her breast. With closed eyes, Eponine felt herself being placed onto the bed and she let her arms fall beside her. The bed shifted slightly when Marius added his weight and he draped himself over her, earning a delighted noise from her mouth. Softly, he kissed her again before he placed another kiss on her neck, all the while writhing on top of her. His lips felt warm and magical as he traced them over her collarbone and the tops of her breasts. Tracing his hands over her chest, Marius and Eponine's lips met again and he began to unbutton the front of her taffeta gown, exposing her endowments to his eyes and to the warm air.

"I love you." She whispered breathlessly.

"I adore you."

At his words, Eponine stilled completely. The man's voice answering her proclamation of love was not Marius'. Blinking her eyes open slowly, she stared not into the deep, fresh green of her beloved's, but the faint jade of Javert's. The Baron had been replaced by the Inspector.

Without a word, he finished undressing her. Eponine watched, shocked into silence by his presence, as his haughty eyes looked over her body, seemingly unimpressed. She felt as if she was frozen or that she was carved from marble. She could not move a muscle as he looked over her, taking in each secret attribute meant for only the eyes of the mother, the wet nurse, and the husband.

"You're beautiful." Javert murmured.

Not a word more was spoken. Calmly, he pushed her back onto the bed roughly and shifted himself on top of her. Instinctively, she shifted her legs open to let him rest comfortably against her, something hot and insistent pressing between her thighs. In the cloudy, innocent mind of a virgin, Eponine could not imagine lovemaking to be as noisy as it is, especially with someone as silent as Javert. Not a sound filled the air as he broke inside of her, only excluding quiet breathing and the soft rustling of the bed clothes. There was no pain while he pierced the barrier that separates virgins from sluts as well, as the only pain felt in dreams is pain that exists in reality and filters through the veil of sleep. Callously, he moved in her, eyes lost in some far away place, refusing to show an ounce of gentleness. After what seemed like a millennium, he stopped, Eponine's inexperienced mind unable to procure a climax for him.

When it was done, the two lay in silence, the sun still drifting through the four-paneled window to encase them in a dusty light. Javert blinked often, his red hair slightly tussled as he held Eponine to his chest which had somehow become bare during their escapades. It seemed to her that he was lost in that relaxing place where no one has to think or worry about anything, though, if she would have looked over and noticed them, his eyes were nothing but contemptuous, as if she was just a street whore. At the same time that he was lost in thoughtlessness, she was still stilled into silence by the shock she had received when he had uttered those infallible words 'I adore you'. Her mind was racing with a million things, mostly the disbelief that she had just had carnal relations with Inspector Javert. Eyes still filled with superiority, he caressed her hair almost lovingly as she did nothing but stare at the ceiling.

After an eternity of silence, he took her for the second time and this time it was slightly more realistic. A cold bucket of horror was splashed over her face as he made love to her, his face filled with condescension. Realizing what she was doing and that it was not with Marius, Eponine opened her mouth to scream. Instead, she moaned and Javert answered this pleasured sound with a derisive laugh. This mocking sound which rang from his throat like the ringing of bells produced an effect on her that she could not describe. Uttering another pleased cry, Eponine continued to exclaim and Javert began to dig his fingers into her shoulders, shaking her against the surface of the bed so that the back of her head slammed into the soft surface of the pillows and mattress. As if possessed by some lustful being, she felt herself trace her mouth over his shoulder before applying a passionate kiss to his neck. Some sort of intense ecstasy burst through her and she could not help but say his name.

"Jaaveeert,"

Hearing his name being uttered that way had done it for Javert. He had been awkwardly sitting in silence while his ward made strange, unheard of noises in her sleep. Occasionally, he would give a glance to the window seat where she had fallen asleep in his parlor but he ignored her as best as he could. However, when he heard his name unconsciously produced from her throat in a tone that ached of sexuality, he could not help but jump up and take her shoulders in his hands to roughly shake the young lady awake.

"My God woman are you alright?" A loud voice exclaimed and Eponine jolted awake, suddenly finding herself face to face with the man whom, just a few seconds before, she had been dreaming of copulating with. Looking up at the Inspector, she could not help but blush furiously remembering her strange and unwanted fantasy.

"Get- get away from me!" Eponine said, squirming in his grasp. "I'm sorry I was having a. . . a nightmare." She finished lamely.

"I see." Javert said quietly, releasing her from his hold and looking at her with supreme contemplation. A nightmare? That did not sound like a nightmare, he told himself. Her little, surprised gasps had not been produced from fear and he knew all too well where they did come from. She'd been having a sinful dream, and with him in it. For a moment he fought the urge to grin like an idiot before remembering her proclamation that she had been experiencing a frightful dream. Inwardly, he sighed, filled with deep anguish and the fear that she did indeed hate him. "Are you alright now?" He asked obsequiously, hoping to gain some sort of her favor with his politeness.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine." She said, standing up and brushing past him.

"What was so frightening about it?" He blurted out quickly, seeing that she was headed for the door. The way he enunciated this question made it seem that he suspected what she had really been dreaming of and wanted to know why she would classify it as a nightmare.

"I don't know. I can't remember." She answered, even more hasty in her response than him in his question. Closing her hand over the doorknob, Eponine felt a surprisingly warm hand place itself over her shoulder.

"It wouldn't be me you are frightened of?" Javert asked in a mutter, staring at the back of her head.

For a long time they were both silent. Plucking up the courage to speak, Eponine cleared her throat before saying to him, "Is it so surprising? For nearly half my life you have been the symbol of the world's end to me. If I am caught, if I am arrested, my life might as well be over. Even though I know that you won't convict me that fear still lingers. I cannot stop being afraid of you just as much as a bird can forget how to fly."

"Perfectly sensible." He said.

"You think so?" She asked, her voice lilting in surprise.

"No."

Eponine murmured a small, dismayed 'oh' before turning to face him, leaning her back against the door and folding her arms over her chest.

"You needn't fear me. I won't arrest you." Javert said, mirroring her movement and crossing his arms over his chest.

"You're an imbecile if you think that's the only reason I would fear you. Look at you," She said, her eyes flitting from his strong arms to his fearsome face to the little sprig of gray hair just beside his right temple. Remembering her dream, she felt her mouth grow dry and she licked her lips. His face loomed alarmingly close to hers and Eponine let her arms drop to her sides, trying in vain to ignore the sudden warm pulsing in between her legs. With a quick cough, she managed to make the arousal in her vanish as quickly as it had appeared. "Tall, strong, imposing, fearsome. You would terrify any woman and any man smart enough to feel fear. Your eyes burn like fire but you are as cold as ice. I am a woman, you are a man. Of course I fear you. It's perfectly sensible."

"You shouldn't be so paranoid."

"Paranoia has probably saved my life at least a dozen times. I have a lot of rules, you see. The stakes are high in the gutter. One bad hand of cards and you lose the game, my brother used to say. If you think somebody is following you, vanish. If you think somebody is paying far too much attention to you than he should, disappear. If you catch a man's eye, melt back into the shadows where you belong. Otherwise, you might not find yourself in such a good state of health."

"Well, you are no longer in the gutter. You will not lose the game here."

"How can I be so sure? I barely know you. And then, how am I not to know that you are not some deviant?"

"I give you my word as an officer of Paris and as a servant of the people." Javert said, his face still too close to hers for Eponine's comfort. "I will never hurt you."

For the second time, he felt himself drawing closer and closer to her. Perhaps there was an evil spirit in the room which had been playing tricks on the pair of them, turning Eponine's dream about Marius into a dream about Javert, and making Javert lean into her presence as if hypnotized by the sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of her nose and the caution in her narrow brown eyes. His mouth was only a few inches away from her own and she could smell his breath. Strangely enough, she detected the smell of apples and, behind that, peppermints. If he had acted a few seconds faster, their lips would have met but, with a quick slam, Eponine had opened and shut the door behind her. The closed door collided with his face and Javert swore under his breath while rubbing his nose. For a moment, he pondered whether or not he should open the door and face her, though, in the end, he decided against it. Whatever she had been dreaming she had been doing with him, she would probably want to reflect about it on her own.

That is exactly what she did.

Never in her life had Eponine experienced an erotic dream and she was in horror to think that her first one had involved Inspector Javert. How on earth did her subconscious replace Marius with him of all people? She could not tell herself. The dream was surely a gift from the Devil, but perhaps God had worked his own message into the sin filled false reality. Was her Father trying to tell her to move on? Was Javert perhaps a better man for her than Marius? She scoffed at the thought. Marius was the single best man in the world. There was simply no competition between the young, fresh eyed student and the wolfish policeman. But, a small voice in the back of her mind whispered, weren't you enjoying it just before you woke up?

"What was I thinking!" She hissed to herself. "Enjoying that? With him? How absurd!"


This is an incredibly short chapter, I know. You'll have to forgive me. I had an audition yesterday that I've been preparing for for ages and I found out several nights ago that I have carpal tunnel syndrome so it's been a pain to write. If you haven't already heard of it, an amazing writer and reader of this story has another Javert/Eponine story called Terminus, which is incredibly beautiful and which I am severely jealous of. It's gorgeously dark like a Les Mis fanfic should be (unlike mine -_-), and I definitely suggest reading it. Another reader of this story, Etspera, who is just a god damn sweetheart, wrote a Javert/Eponine one shot which is quite lovely as well. It's called Ink and Starch and is truly a nice read.

Alright, all plugging aside, thank you as always. TTFN.