A/N: Well, I suppose I owe you lovely people an apology, I've had this chapter written for ages, I've just not had time to upload it. Sorry. I hope it's worth the wait, and I promise the next chapter will be much better much sooner.

Disclaimer: Not Victor Hugo and therefore, I don't own Les Miserables.

The first rays of sunlight pierced through the grime stained window above the Liberté and Vanessa groaned to life. She peered out from beneath the threadbare blanket that covered her bed and frowned at the rude shaft of sunlight that had forced her from her sleep. With a sigh, she shoved back the covers and stumbled out of the bed. Below, she could hear the city waking up.

What she couldn't hear, however, was her flatmate crying.

Enjolras had cried well into the night, and at some point Vanessa was sure she heard something smash. But now it was silent.

The silence was somewhat unnerving as Vanessa hurried to wash and dress, she was eager to get out of the flat and away from the silence. That was the one thing she loathed – silence. It made her skin crawl and her ears rush, and she hated it.

As she scurried out into the living room, her coat already bundled in her arms, she paused. Her eyes slowly focused on the second bedroom door, and her mind wandered to the fractured young man behind it. Wetting her lips, she found herself knocking gently on the thick oak. "Enjolras?" she called softly.

From the other side of the door, a series of shuffles could be heard before eventually the door cracked open. "Yes?" His voice was gruff and muted and Vanessa could barely see him in the gloom.

"Are you alright?"

There was a brief pause before Enjolras cleared his throat. "Yes, yes I'm fine." He tapped a disjointed rhythm against the other side of the door and then it swung open, revealing a pale and dark-eyed Enjolras. "I'm sorry if I woke you last night," he muttered as he retreated into his room

She watched as Enjolras wandered around, picking up papers, not saying a word. There was no denying it, he looked utterly defeated. The purple stains beneath his eyes had returned and he seemed to have shrunk in size.

Eventually Vanessa could take this self-pity no longer. With a frustrated sigh, Vanessa stalked over and took the shard of glass from his hand. "Sit down," she commanded.

Surprised by the sudden interruption, Enjolras did as he was told. He slumped onto the bed and sighed, kneading his forehead with his knuckles. With a concerned glance in his direction, Vanessa began clearing up the torn scraps of paper and broken pieces of glass that were scattered across the room. At least now she knew what had smashed during the night.

It didn't take her long to finish collecting the glittering shards and shreds and pile them up in the corner, and when she had finished, she sat back on her haunches. "There," she said, turning to Enjolras, "all done."

On the bed, Enjolras sat turning a dangerously sharp fragment of glass over and over in his hand, his eyes staring off into nothing. He didn't even flinch as the jagged edge of the sliced into his palm. When she saw this, Vanessa rushed to her feet. "Hey!" she cried, ripping the glass from his hand and snapping him from the depths of his mind. "Enjolras, what. . . ." her words faded to nothing as she took him in. At the tears forming in his eyes, Vanessa exhaled slowly and sat beside him with her arms wrapped around his chest.

Hot tears splashed onto her sleeve as Enjolras crumbled under her touch, he looked down at the blood pooling in his hand and let out a choked sob. Vanessa rubbed gentle circles on his back until he could breathe easily again, whispering soothing words in his ear. "Enjolras, talk to me a minute," she said once he had calmed. "What do you want me to do?"

With bleary eyes, Enjolras glanced up at her and shrugged. "Probably fix me up again, it seems to be becoming a habit." It pained Vanessa to see how empty his voice sounded, how hollow his eyes looked. She smiled at him and nodded, leaving him to get her seriously depleted medical box.

When she returned, he was back to staring into space again. For a moment, she leaned against the doorframe and just watched him, trying to ignore the ache in her heart. She failed, and with a sigh, she stepped forward and took his uninjured hand in her own. His hand was freezing, and shaking. Gently, she stroked her thumb over the back of his hand and crouched down in front of him. "Enjolras, you alright?" she asked.

He nodded, and eventually tore his eyes away from oblivion to look at Vanessa with those big sad eyes. "I'm fine," he murmured and Vanessa felt his fingers squeeze around her own. There was a brief moment when she thought she saw a weak smile flash across his face before he looked away. Vanessa found herself forcing down a smile of her own as she released his hand and moved her attention to the still bleeding wound.

Enjolras squirmed and hissed, much to Vanessa's annoyance, as she cleaned the wound and twitched as she wrapped the last of her gauze around his hand. "Stay still," Vanessa chided between giggles.

"But it hurts," Enjolras huffed.

Rolling her eyes, Vanessa tied off the bandage and pushed herself up from the floor, using Enjolras' knee as leverage. "There, all fixed," she said, "maybe now we can get some breakfast."

As she headed out into the living room, she could hear Enjolras shuffling along behind her. It seemed that he was attempting to make himself as small as possible, as little a nuisance as possible. It worried Vanessa to see him like this. Over the past few weeks she had believed them to be making some progress, Enjolras was eating more, he was sleeping better, he looked better, until today.

Now? Now he looked exhausted as he pushed his food listlessly around the plate.

Finally, Vanessa could cope no longer. "Right," she said, "if you're serious about a job, we need to be looking in places befitting our situation."

Surprised, Enjolras looked up from his uneaten breakfast and raised an eyebrow at the fiery brunette. "Which places would best befit our situation?" Enjolras asked, something between amusement and sarcasm colouring his voice.

Vanessa shrugged. "Factory floors, the docks, places that'll take the scum of the streets."

Shaking his head, Enjolras gave a snort of laughter and shoved his plate away. "So that's what I am now? Scum from the streets of Paris." He nodded. "Well, I always did want equality. I just didn't really expect it to be like this."

"Would you please stop wallowing in self-pity? It's really very unbecoming," Vanessa snapped. "And frankly it's annoying when I've lived like this my whole life."

The look of shock on Enjolras' face was enough for Vanessa to know she had won, and when the shock had dissipated a small smile crept across those sharp chiselled features. He gave a small nod of understanding and held up his hands. "Alright," he said, "time to find a job."

Within ten minutes, the pair were out on the streets going to every factory on their side of the Seine. It took them only half an hour before someone finally showed the slightest interest. Enjolras had been talking to the foreman of the docks for nearly ten minutes before he finally gave in.

"You sure you can handle working the docks, boy?" the foreman asked, leaning against a stack of crates.

Enjolras raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't I?" he asked.

With a barking laugh, the foreman slapped Enjolras on the shoulder. "You've got spirit, I'll give you that, boy," he said. He scratched his chin thoughtfully and Enjolras could see his eyes roaming over him, taking in the bad fit of his shirt, the deep circles under his eyes, just how ill did he look to cause that look of scepticism?

"Look," Enjolras said, running a hand through his hair. "I just need a small job, I need some money or else I'm going to lose everything I have." He found Vanessa in the crowd and sighed. "I'm not willing to lose everything twice."

The foreman gave Enjolras a look of sympathy and exhaled deeply before nodding. "Alright, fine," he said. "I'll give you a month. You start tomorrow, be here at five tomorrow morning and no messing around or you're out. Understood?"

Enjolras grinned and stuck out a hand. "Absolutely, thank you," he said. Relief flooded through him as he turned and raced across the docks to the low wall Vanessa was perched on. She was sat between a pair of little gamins, and the three of them were sharing a warm roll in the morning sun.

"And then I'm going to be like Apollo and beat up the king!" the smaller of the two boys cried, jumping to his feet and knocking into Vanessa.

With a gentle hand, Vanessa patted him on the shoulder and laughed. "Alright Henri, calm it down now." Her eyes lit up as she caught sight of Enjolras. "Any luck?" she asked.

"I start tomorrow at five," Enjolras replied. The trio on the wall began to cheer and applaud, and Enjolras found himself giving a small bow, which only increased the applause.

After the clapping died down, the other boy, Aster, piped up. "Does this mean you'll still be able to stay at the Liberté then?" he asked.

Enjolras shot him a curious glance, he couldn't be much older than ten, and yet he had a maturity way beyond his years. Behind the impish exterior, those muddy blue eyes held a truly adult view of the world. Without the grime of the street, Enjolras could have believed he was looking at himself at ten years of age. "It'll go a little to paying the rent," he explained, "but one morning shift isn't going to be enough to pay a month's rent in a week."

Nodding, Aster hopped down off the wall. "It's not fair that the proletariat have to work so hard to just keep a roof over their head while the money grabbers at the top have more than enough to feed a city in the bank," he mused as he began to walk away from the docks.

Once he had regained the power of speech, Enjolras whispered to Vanessa, "Where did he hear politics like that, he's what, ten?"

"Eleven, actually," Vanessa whispered back. "And he heard you speaking at one of your meetings about a year ago, when Grantaire found him dying from starvation on the streets and insisted he join us for supper. We always ate together before the meetings, and by the time we'd finished feeding the little mite, you had already begun your speech. He stayed for the entire meeting after that." She smiled at the memory and absently tucked a loose curl of hair behind her ear.

Two times in the space of a minute really was too many times to lose the power of speech, and yet, Enjolras found his voice stolen by the radiance of the woman beside him. She was beyond words. For a moment, Enjolras just watched her as she helped Henri down from the wall. As she spun around with Henri clinging to her neck, she caught Enjolras watching her and raised an eyebrow. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Enjolras nodded, desperately praying for his voice to return. This didn't happen to him. He cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm fine, and we need to be getting on to the next factory, don't we?"

Barely hiding her smile, Vanessa nodded in return and ruffled Henri's hair. "We'll see you boys around, you look after each other, okay?" she said.

The pair shared a grin and nodded before scurrying off into the mass of people that filled the dock. As they disappeared around a corner, Vanessa sighed and began walking in the other direction, back towards the centre of the city. "It's sort of easy to forget what you fight for when you're not out on the streets, isn't it?" she murmured.

"I didn't think I'd still be fighting now, if I'm honest."

"We should get going if I'm going to get back for my shift," Vanessa said, snapping Enjolras from his thoughts. She hooked an arm through his and smiled up at him, which honestly, unnerved Enjolras somewhat.

With Vanessa in the lead, the pair made their way back up into the city. Enjolras found himself watching the gaggles of gamins who wove in between the vast crowds of Paris. Despite their poverty, they looked happy as they ran through the streets.

Over an hour later, Enjolras and Vanessa finally returned to the Liberté with four scruffy little gamins in tow. The four youngsters rushed through the door and scrambled for the nearest table. Madame LaMotte turned and laughed. "Goodness, what a racket. Now Vanessa, what have I told you about bringing home strays?" she asked.

Vanessa shrugged. "Well, you know me, Madame, I can't help but take in any pitiful creature I meet," she said as she patted Enjolras on the arm. "It's a burden I must bear."

Choking back a scoff, Enjolras turned to her. "If I'm such a burden I'll just take my wages and leave then shall I?" he asked with amusement. "No Madame, I am treating these fine gentlemen to a meal with us." He gestured to the four boys around the table fondly. "After all, they have helped me find three jobs in one day. Without these four we'd still be wandering the streets looking for factories."

"Well, in that case I'll go get you heroes some dinner shall I?" Madame LaMotte said. She chuckled to herself as she wove back towards the kitchen, if only those two would admit their feelings already, then she could stop worrying about poor Vanessa being on her own once again. As she reached the kitchen, she stole a glance back at the farthest table. Sat side by side, hands almost touching, they looked like the most blissful couple. And with all the children they seemed to be adopting, it wouldn't be long before they were a proper family. The thought warmed the old woman's heart as she stepped into the kitchen and let the door swing shut, blocking her view of the two broken angels.