It was raining when they got to the metro station, but Enjolras' over sized red sweatshirt kept Eponine warm. They should have known something was wrong when they took cover in the underground station and saw that the escalators were turned off. Jehan mentioned the lack of hustle and bustle, but no one paid him any mind as they should have. They bought their tickets and passed through the turn stile and boarded the nearest blue line car. Courfeyrac sat closest to the door, jittery as ever.

"What stop are we again?" He asked Combeferre, who was holding the map upside down.

"Capitol South." He fingered the gun he kept in his waistband nervously. "Jehan is the Smithsonian stop and Enjolras is the Federal Triangle. Eponine, are you going with Enjolras?" He said it as if it were a dare. She knew the correct answer was no, but if she didn't stay with him, how was she supposed to keep him alive? She shrugged.

"Where is everyone?" Jehan mused again.

Eponine turned in her seat and pressed her face against the window. There car was empty and the station only had a few homeless people lingering about in it. In the streets there were a few people loitering about, but they looked- on guard? It was hard to tell because the train was moving so fast. Her breath fogged up the window. "Maybe it's a holiday."

"Could they have evacuated the city?" Courfeyrac wondered.

Combeferre chewed his cheek, considering it. "It's flood season, but we would have seen it on the news the last few days if the flooding was bad enough to cause a city wide evacuation."

"There could be a tornado coming," Jehan offered.

"That doesn't usually send everyone indoors. There would've been more people in the station if that were the case anyway."

Courfeyrac and Combeferre got off at their stop quietly. They nodded to their friends, but didn't say good bye. It would have been too ominous. When Jehan got off, he hugged both Eponine and Enjolras, wishing them luck as he did so. "You guys stay safe okay?"

"You too." Eponine held his hand for a second before letting him go. He was always so good. She wished he would stay with them instead of going off on his own. It wasn't fair that she should be alone without someone to watch his back. She slumped in her seat when he was gone.

"Our stop is next."

She responded with a sigh.

"You could stay on the train and ride it back to where we got on if you wanted."

"You could too."

"Are you ready for this?" he asked, ignoring her suggestion.

"Only if you are."

He took his gun out slid a magazine in. "Do you think everyone's gone because they knew we were coming?"

"That kind of thing only happens in the movies."

"I bet they took the president to a more secure location if that's what this is all about."

"I don't think so. It's like Combeferre said, we didn't see anything about this on the news. If it happened while we were walking, then realistically, they wouldn't have time to pull him out. He's probably holed up in an underground bunker inside the city."

Enjolras ran a hand through his hair before stuffing the gun back in his jeans. "I hope you're right."

"Am I ever wrong?"

"You failed all of your finals," he smirked at her.

She kicked his foot. "You're a jackass."

"I know."

The Federal Triangle stop was inevitably empty. Enjolras got off first, glancing around for hidden gunmen before sprinting up the stairs to the street above. Eponine followed more cautiously. It was hard not to be afraid of the unknown. How could the entire metropolitan area be deserted? The city didn't get evacuated because a couple of kids stole a car and were known to have guns. She was sure of it. Entertaining the very notion was ridiculous. This sort of thing only occurred during natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Terrorist attacks. Could it be? Someone must have alerted them to the assassination attempt that was planned. The Musain Cafe wasn't exactly a private area to plan these sorts of things. She ran after Enjolras, bumping into him from behind in her hurry.

"Hey-"

"Shhh!" he shushed her, taking her arm and pulling her down the street, away from their planned route to the white house. "Don't look back. There's soldiers on the corner that way. They saw me and went for their walkie talkies."

"What?"

"We need to figure out where everyone else went and hide there ourselves."

"Enjolras," she started walking faster "I think they know about you and the plan."

He stopped in surprise "What? How?"

"Someone must have told. They could have put the city into lock down to protect the people from a terrorist attack."

"Didn't you just tell me that kind of thing only happens in movies?" He was jogging now, checking for unlocked doors on the storefronts they passed.

"That was when I was thinking about this as a revolution! The soldiers back there aren't as free-thinking as you and I. This is a terrorist attempt to bring the people to their knees in their eyes."

"Come on, back here!" He pulled her into an alley with him, pushing her behind the dumpster before ducking down himself.

"Are you kidding me? This is the worst plan ever! Hiding behind a dumpster is the sketchiest thing we could be doing right now." Her harsh whispers bounced off the walls.

"There's no where else to hide! All of the stores are closed up, what do you want from me?"

"We could have pretended to be lost tourists!"

"Sure, and they know who I am, they would recognize as America's Most Wanted and shoot us both on sight."

Eponine groaned. They were both going to die and they'd hadn't even done anything yet. There were shouts from the end of the street. Enjolras stood and went for his gun, but she stilled his hand. "If you shoot them, it will alert the others."

"If we don't, it will alert the others and we'll be dead." He went for his gun again. She yanked his hand away from it, giving her an idea. She pulled him in close and kissed him hard on his open mouth.

For a second, she thought that he might kiss her back, but instead he shoved her away roughly. "Woah, woah woah! What the hell?!"

"Come on! Just kiss me! They won't be able to see your face!"

She took a step toward him and he took a step back. "Yeah, they won't see it until they tell us to freeze and put our fucking hands in the air!"

"Just trust me!" She saw his eyes flick to the giant ugly bruise on her neck and knew what he must be thinking. She didn't care about herself. Anything she did from now on was for him. He took a small tenative step towards her, but that was enough. She could tell he had given in and was back on him in an instant. "Dammit boy, kiss me like I'm a woman, not your grandmother!" she hissed into his mouth.

He pulled away a little bit. "I don't know what to do with my hands!"

"Push me against the wall."

"What?"

"Like this," she backed against the wall and pulled him on top of her. "Just copy what I do now, and keep your head low." The soldiers running footsteps in the empty street were in time with her pounding heart. She started to pull her sweatshirt off.

"Wait! What are you doing?"

"Less clothes the better."

"What? No!"

"Fine, you take your shirt off then!" she could feel him fumbling against her to do it so she helped him, going back to kissing him as soon as it was off. He teased her, probably not on purpose, with soft gentle kisses, like she was going to break. It wasn't going to fool anyone. Impatiently, she deepened them running her fingers down his bare stomach. He pressed closer to her, one arm resting against the wall on the spot above her head and the other at the base of her neck, thumb going in small circles the way it had been that morning on her hip.

There was a shout of surprise at the alleyway's entrance. Enjolras stiffened and reached for his gun instinctively, but she recognized it and instead took his hand in hers and moved it to her hair. She tilted her head so that he was kissing her neck now, effectively hiding his face from the soldiers with her hair. She bit his shoulder experimentally, and he nipped her back.

"What are you two doing out!"

Eponine lifted her face to the man. "We thought we'd take a little stroll," she answered breathily. She ground her hips against Enjolras, inadvertently making him moan as well.

"The city is in lock down. You need to get back to your assigned safe spots." he ordered.

"I'm sorry," she told him as sincerely as she could manage with Enjolras mouth wandering over her freezing cold body. She wrapped a leg around his waist, hoping he would catch on. He took her other thigh and helped her up so that he was holding her weight entirely. She wasn't sure how he could see with his face buried in her nonexistent chest, but he walked past the officer and down the road, around the corner without dropping her or bumping into anything. "I think we're safe," she whispered. Enjolras put her down quickly.

"That was the stupidest thing I've ever done."

"Actually, I'm pretty sure your entire plan to come here is the stupidest thing you've ever done." They jogged down the street, looking for obvious safe houses, people milling about, unlocked doors; any form of life would have been nice.

"What if it hadn't worked?"

"What if you hadn't used tongue?" she retorted.

"Me?! What about you? You practically reached into my pants halfway through!"

"No, I'm pretty sure that was you."

"Wait-" He held out and arm to stop her. "Do you hear that?"

She paused and listened. "It sounds like chanting."

They sprinted to the next street corner where the noise was coming from. It was the biggest assemblage of people either of them had ever seen. They were walking and running and screaming and the police were trying to hold them back to no avail. They were trying to get to the Capitol.

Do you think I should combine this chapter and chapter 13?

Please go read The Masquerade if you like my writing (link at the bottom. I think it should work.) It's a story that I've been beta reading for the last few weeks and it's coming along really well!

I appreciate all comments and suggestions! Thank you so much for all of your support guys! I couldn't ask for better readers!

s/9149390/1/The-Masquerade (just add fanfiction dot net, before it, or put it into the google machine and it should give you the story as a search result!)