[AN: An alternate title for this would be "Enjolras and Éponine talk awkwardly in a tiny fitting room." Much thanks as usual to Inge (ThinksInWords here and textsfromumbridge on Tumblr) for the beta and for everyone who's left a comment/followed/favorited!]
"So, this jerk, what does he look like?" asks the lingerie saleslady as she leads them to the back of the store.
"Buzzcut, freckles, kinda tall. Looks decent until he opens his mouth?" Éponine replies as she follows her.
Sabrina the saleslady lets out an inelegant snort as she opens one of the changing rooms. "Ah, one of those. Anyway, stay here, and I'll come back when the coast is clear, alright?"
She doesn't wait for their reply, and upon hearing the door chime, haphazardly shoves Éponine and Enjolras inside the cramped space and closes the door. The blond man, not expecting the push, collides yet again with Éponine.
"Oof!"
He immediately pushes himself off of her and backs up half a step before hitting the wall. He looks at Éponine ruefully rubbing her arm. He starts to reach out for her, but hesitates. "Sorry, is your arm okay?"
She keeps her blushing head bowed, ostensibly to check her arm for any injury. "Yeah, it's nothing. Sorry about dragging you, quite literally, into this mess. I'm sure you weren't expecting your morning to turn out like this."
"It's quite alright. Although, if you don't mind explaining to me why we're hiding from... Theodore, was it?"
"Theodule, Marius' cousin. We went out once, some months ago," Éponine replies, leaning on the opposite wall from him.
Enjolras just lifts an eyebrow at her and says, "And?"
"It was a dinner thing with Cosette and Marius, okay? He was in town for a visit or something and they pressured me into going and the entire evening sucked," she explains. What she can't fathom is why she feels so defensive about the whole thing. It's not like I was cheating on anyone by going out on one date.
"How bad is this date that you'd run away from him rather than tell him off? That's quite unlike you," he remarks.
Éponine rolls her eyes. "Oh, I did tell him. Told him he wasn't my type. Told him I'd rather kiss a jellyfish rather than go on another date with him too. But he apparently thinks I'm just playing coy, or something stupid like that. Wouldn't take no for an answer."
Enjolras looks at her worriedly at that last bit. "Wouldn't take...? Éponine, he hasn't been harassing you or anything, has he?"
"No, nothing that I can slap him with a lawsuit for. He just thinks he's God's gift to women and wouldn't back off unless I was with one of the boys. You'd think he'd learn his lesson by now from the last time he tried to hit on me at the Corinthe. Bahorel decided he needed to show off his MMA moves on him at that point."
"Maybe Bahorel knocked him around so much that his brain flew off," Enjolras dryly comments.
"Ha! Possibly?" Éponine laughs and looks up at him. Her breath is caught at the sight of him smiling. God, she has missed his smile for such a long time. She has missed her Enjolras so much.
Stop right there, Thenardier. Not your Enjolras anymore, her brain reminds her. She quickly breaks eye-contact with him, and looks to see if she can put a little more distance between them. This fitting room is really rather small...
"So, any other bad dates you need to hide from?" he tentatively asks.
Éponine shakes her head, "Oh, he's the only really pesky one. The others usually get the hint immediately that I'm not interested. Not that I date a lot! I mean, I do go out, sometimes, but usually I just hang out with Cosette or Grantaire and the rest of the boys. But yeah, basically, too super busy with the bakeshop and all." Oh my God, did I really just tell my ex about my barely existent dating life since we broke up? Éponine bites her lips to keep herself from screaming in frustration. A few minutes alone with Enjolras and she's already babbling like an idiot.
"Oh, that's nice," he says. She looks at him with a quizzical expression, and he mentally kicks himself. He quickly adds, "That he's the only one annoying you, I mean. Not the whole... being too busy to date part."
"Yeah, it's a good thing. And you? Probably got some dating horror stories to tell too, huh?" she asks, studying the dressing room floor and trying to turn the focus away from her dating life. Oh, this floor is very interesting. What a nice shade of black.
She's too busy staring at the tiled floor that she misses Enjolras' shy smile at her question. "Too many readings and papers to date. And nobody interesting enough to ask out."
Éponine glances up at that. "Oh, that's...that's too bad. I thought people usually met a more diverse set of personalities in college."
Enjolras shrugs, "It's okay, I wasn't really looking for someone to date in college. I made friends, yes, but I guess I didn't make the same deep attachments there as I did here." He smiles when she blushes at his last statement. He reaches up to tuck her hair behind her ear, and they both start to lean in when the fitting room's door suddenly bursts open.
"Okay, he's gone! That sexist asswipe has left the building! ...Hey, why are you looking at me like that?"