"Stop that," Eponine snapped. Marius pulled his hand back from his tie, looking terrified.
"Sorry," he said. Eponine sighed and readjusted his jacket. "I'm just nervous."
Eponine nodded, not looking him in the eyes. "What if she says no?" he asked.
"She won't," Eponine said. "I promise."
He nodded. "Right," he said. "Okay. Let's do this."
She smirked. "Not yet. Wait for the music."
"Yeah," he said, looking nervous.
"God, do I pity your best man," she smiled.
He smiled down at her. "Go have a drink," she said. "It's an open bar." He nodded. "But just one," she cautioned. "We don't need another Grantaire on our hands."
He kissed the top of her head. "What would I do without you?"he asked. She smiled up at him. Be happy, she told herself. He is.
"Oh," she said, looking across the dance floor. "I see Fey and Cosette. Go mingle. And keep your hands away from that tie!"
She took off across the courtyard to where Cosette stood. Cosette turned and beamed at her.
"Eponine! You look gorgeous!"
Eponine paused and looked down at herself. It was true, she supposed. The midnight blue dress Cosette had lent her fit her like a glove, and she her brown curls were arranged artfully around her shoulders. A single diamond sparkled on her chest.
She looked up at Cosette. She was gorgeous too. Her thick, gleaming chestnut hair was braided ornately on top of her head. She wore a shimmering dress of rose pink which gave her the appearance of a ballerina or a fairy princess. Look at us, Eponine thought. So much has changed from when we were ragged urchins. In fact, Eponine would almost have dared to say that they were princesses. And at least one of them would get her prince tonight.
"You too," she said, hugging Cosette tightly. Cosette looked a little surprised. She pulled back to smile at Eponine.
"Is Marius here?" she asked. Eponine nodded. Fey wandered over to them.
"Cosette," he murmured. "Why don't you go stand in the middle of the dance floor?"
"Because I don't trust you," she said, raising an eyebrow. "What are you planning?"
"Nothing," Fey breezed. "Just go find Bosseut. Joly's looking for him. And he's on the dance floor."
She glared at Fey but gracefully floated off to the middle of the dance floor.
"I don't see him," she called back, looking for Fey and Eponine. They had already disappeared. Cosette heaved an exasperated sigh.
Fey pulled Eponine in behind the DJ's booth. "Okay," he said. "Is everything in place?"
Eponine nodded. "I bribed the DJ. Stand's all yours."
"Good," he smiled. "Now let's make some magic."
He climbed up onto the stand and pulled out his iPod. He pressed the play button. A banjo and fiddle burst into corny country song. "Fey!" Eponine hissed.
"Sorry, sorry," he muttered, fumbling with the buttons as the party-goers began to stare. "I was listening to Oklahoma on my way here." He clicked triumphantly and the fiddle turned into a violin quartet. "There," he said cheerfully.
They watched together as Marius moved in towards Cosette. They spoke for a few seconds, then began to dance. "Magic," Fey said with satisfaction. Eponine nodded, feeling the beginnings of tears behind her eyes. She felt Fey's arm around her shoulder and she leaned into him gratefully. "Are you going to be okay?" he asked.
"Yeah," she whispered into his chest. They watched the dance floor for a few more moments. From behind Marius and Cosette they saw Grantaire and Bosseut being pulled out of the garden by a pair of secret-service-y men. Joly trailed after them, chuckling.
Eponine straightened up and looked at Fey. "I'm going to go find out what they did," she said to him. He smiled and nodded. She walked down off the DJ podium and headed into the garden.
She had only gone a few feet into the hedges before she found Enjolras. "Hi," she said, startled. He looked up at her. He had lost his jacket and tie at some point during the night. His blond hair was rumpled and a glass of scotch sat next to him.
"Hi," he said, looking equally surprised to see her.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Avoiding people. You?"
"Same," she said, sitting down next to him. He offered her his drink and she sipped it delicately. "So who are you avoiding?"
"Everyone," he said tiredly.
Eponine raised her eyebrows. "Do you want me to leave?"
"No," he said gently.
They sat in silence for a few moments. Then Enjolras spoke. "Who are you avoiding?"
She shook her head. "It doesn't matter."
He nodded, leaning forward onto his knees. "You look exhausted," she said.
"I'm alright," he said tersely. She looked at him with disbelief. He sighed. "I don't like being here," he admitted. "Being around these people- smiling and playing nice while children are starving- it's exhausting and I feel like a fraud."
"Why?"
"Because," he said. "I try so hard to get rid of this life. To help people. And I come back here and it feels like nothing has changed. Like I'm just another rich boy with a cause."
"You're not," she said quietly. "No one who's ever heard you speak could think that."
His mouth twitched up in a half smile. "Thank you," he said. They sat for a few moments. Through the hedges of the garden they could hear the faint strains of the music still playing. Enjolras stood suddenly.
"Let's dance," he said.
"What?"
"Let's dance. It's a party. We're in formalwear. There's music. Let's dance."
"I can't dance," she said uncertainly.
"That's fine. I can." He held out his hand. She stared at it for a few seconds, then took it. He pulled her up and into a waltz position. They began to dance. He really could, she was surprised to note, gently leading her around the garden. She smiled up at him and he dipped her gracefully and pulled her up. They stood there, staring at each other.
"Where'd you learn how to do that?" she asked incredulously, terribly aware of his hand on her waist.
He shrugged. "Fey made Ferre and I take a ballroom dance class with him when we were younger." He didn't let her go, and she didn't pull away.
Suddenly they heard shouting over the music. "What's going on?" she said.
"I'd put solid money down on Bahorel," he said, letting go of her waist. "Come on." He pulled her forward. "Let's go see."
When the music began playing, Cosette was heading off the dance floor. She was reasonably certain that something was about to fall on her. The country music didn't help that suspicion and she looked around, expecting to see Les Amis square dancing naked or something like that. Instead, she saw something much better: Marius.
Marius Pontmercy was heading towards her. She smiled, suddenly understanding Fey and Eponine's bizarre behavior. She had little doubt that they had been planning this for weeks in advance. And she was grateful. Because something about the way Marius looked at her, the shy way he peeked up through his ridiculously thick eyelashes, the way he'd argued with Enjolras at the first meeting Eponine had dragged her to, something about him that made her feel like her insides were made of helium whenever she heard his name. And now here he was, looking handsome and bashful in a dark suit that brought out the shine of his hair, walking towards her.
"May I have this dance?"
Fey watched with satisfaction as Marius and Cosette whirled starry-eyed around the dance floor. This was well worth Grantaire winning again.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a familiar dark head leaving the dance floor. He darted down off the stand and chased after it.
"Jehan!" he called into the darkness. "Can I talk to you?" he asked, stopping right in front of him.
"Sure," the other boy said. "What's up?"
Fey took a deep breath. "Look," he began. "I've been calling and texting you almost hourly for the past three days. And I figure that that kiss didn't mean anything, and that's fine, if that's what you want, but you don't have to ignore me. Because I'm fine. If you just want to be friends. I mean, I want to be friends. I mean, I want to see you. And talk to you. And you don't have to avoid me-" he stopped, noticing the smile spreading across Jehan's face. "What?"
"My phone is broken," Jehan said. "It fell out of my pocket last week while I was climbing a tree. I haven't gotten any texts since last week."
"Oh," Fey said.
"And I haven't been ignoring you," he said earnestly. "I've been sitting in the sitting in the Musain for hours waiting for you to show up."
"I've been looking for you in the park!" Fey said. "I blew off my drama class to wander the English wing looking for you!"
Jehan began to laugh. Fey joined in. They quieted after a few seconds.
"The kiss... it meant something," Jehan said. "To me, at least."
Fey smiled. "Good," he said, and softly kissed him.
At three o'clock AM, Ferre finally staggered into her room.
Grantaire had won, as usual, but poor Bosseut had been thrown out with him for breaking a fountain while trying to keep R from relieving himself in it. Bahorel had broken the DJ's nose and Feuilly had doodled on the tablecloths. Joly had followed Bosseut and Fey and Jehan had disappeared around ten. She'd just gotten a text from Cosette saying that they were all at the Prouvaire's for the night except Enjolras, who had apparently been convinced to return to his own home. Nothing was left for her to do. She pulled an oversize tee-shirt over her head and unpinned her hair, feeling the relief wash over her scalp. She hated this, all this. She couldn't wait to get back to school, to use her brain once more. Her mother had done nothing but criticize her all night. She was tired. So tired. She fell into her bed, asleep before she hit the pillow.
She was awoken half an hour later by a knocking on her window. She looked up to see a familiar silhouette against the glass.
"Enjolras?" she said, opening the window. "What's wrong?"
He climbed into her room and sat on the edge of her bed. She looked at him worriedly, memories flooding through her mind of all the times he'd knocked on her window in the middle of the night.
"I just got and email," he said. "Senator LaMarque had a heart attack."
"What?" Ferre gasped. "Is he alright?"
Enjolras looked her straight in the eye. "He's dead."