Okay! Next chapter!

But before it starts a huge thanks to Audrey for her amazing review! Thanks! Have a million double chocolate cookies!

About the Enjonine kiss: my Éponine is currently still somehow in love with Marius BUT this week with Enjolras might change quite a lot.

If everything goes as I plan it there will be a chapter for every day of their week together in Saint Michele. With quite some stories they tell each other. So excited for this! Ahhh!

But this chapter is – I am so sorry – boring. Before anything happens they need to get to Saint Michele first. I hope you enjoy it anyways! And please please review! I am happy-dancing whenever I get a review and this needs to happen a little more often.

Chapter 13

Both of them went through Paris in silence. They were making a detour, Enjolras knew that but he didn't know why. After her revelation he hadn't known the right thing to say so he simply stayed silent. To break this silence now for such a question seemed somehow inappropriate to him.

So her father was the leader of the Patron Minette. He saw him a couple of times. But more than that he had heard about him and his gang. And it did not match at all with what he thought he knew about the girl leading him into the unknown.

The Patron Minette was a gang of thieves and murderers. They did not care who their victims were. They were merciless. He was sure that not all the stories he heard were entirely true but those men had to be dangerous to gain a reputation like that. When her father was their leader... well what then? He did not believe in stereotypes. But to be so different than her upbringing must have been...

But what if she was not so different than her father after all?, he thought. He knew nothing about her. And yet he trusted her to bring her to Saint Michele in the still dark morning hours. It could easily be a trap. The Patron Minette behind the next street corner waiting for him. But somehow he knew it wasn't. How could she have acted so convincingly around all the students at the cafe? The way she looked at Gavroche or at Marius. It couldn't all be an act. And therefore he trusted her.

After all this walking around barefoot his feet started to hurt. Be felt every stone he stepped on. And his clothes started to itch. He never cared too much about his clothes. But this was uncomfortable. Enjolras had not expected this to be such a bother to him. In fact he had not even thought about it. Sure, during the cold winter months he thought about the lack of clothes for the poor. Now he already wished his clean clothes and shoes back.

Of course he would not tell Éponine. To her it must seem like nothing at all. She was used to this.

What a shame that people have gotten used to this when the rich had more clothes than they needed.

Funny how he always thought about the big problems like the lack of education and sicknesses in the slums when there were thousands of little problems. Sure, most of them were symptoms of those bigger ones but that did not make them less problematic. Or less hard for the people.

Very slowly he began to understand what Éponine had meant when she said that the people do not care about his speeches about all the great evils and how to fight them. And this was only caused by a minor thing like the lack of shoes and dirty clothes in tatters. Little those meant to the poor.

"Wait here.", Éponine said and with that interrupted his stream of thoughts.

Éponine had told him to stop. She wanted to check the alley on their right on her own at first. She was more quiet than him and smaller. Most times she could see other people without being seen by them if she wanted. That was why he father wanted her around for some of their nightly forays.

In a corner in that alley were some loose bricks. A good hiding place for the little bundle of thing the revolutionary took with him. It was still quite some way away from Saint Michele but she learned early that it was not quite the best idea to hide things where lots of people wanted to find something. So many were sleeping in the streets that they eventually just find what you hide. So she led him to her most reliable hiding place. She took her things out a few weeks ago. Now it was empty and waited for the more valuable things the revolutionary had to offer.

She wouldn't have been too surprised if he had wanted to stay at home after she told him who her father was. Lots of people rather not be associated with her. She wondered what he thought about that now that he knew. They had not spoken a word since they left the apartment. For now she had to stop thinking about it. She needed to focus now.

Silently she entered the little, dark alley. She searched even the darkest corners for somebody hiding or sleeping but it was completely empty.

Good, she thought. And called Enjolras over to her and showed him her little hiding place.

"You probably need to check on it a few times. I cannot promise your things are safe here. There is no safe place on the streets to hide something."

She watched as he bent down to hide his little bundle of things. He took one thing out of it. It must have been some sort of necklace for he hung it around his neck. She did not see what it looked like – it was too dark, the first rays of light did not reach down into the small street. What kind of jewelery would a man like him wear?

"What did you just put around your neck?", she asked before thinking about it. To sound less prying she added: "Poor people don't wear jewelery, I hope you thought about that."

"It's nothing of tangible value. A memory, that's all."

She wasn't satisfied at all with his answer but his tone was final and did not allow any other questions. And since he did not force answers out of her she granted him the same favor. Maybe she would get her answer later. She could wait.

It took them another 30 minutes to get to Saint Michele. Most of the city was still sleeping but there the streets were buzzing with life already. The dark of the night did not cover the peoples hiding places to sleep anymore.

It was a strange feeling – walking around so unnoticed. He was invisible. Usually when he walked those streets the beggars would come over. Others would throw him looks full of loathing as if having money was a crime. How could he blame them? But now there was nothing.

He followed Éponine through a few more streets deeper into the quarter until she suddenly came to a stop and sat down in a doorway and motioned him to do the same.

"For your first day we stay here. It's not one of my usual places but it is better when my people don't see us together. I won't stay with you the whole time. But for the first few days it might be better. We cannot risk you getting all bourgeois here."

There was a little smile for a moment when she said that. She began to look more like herself again – less empty. He decided to use this moment to get to know her more.

"Well, since I am here to learn something tell me about yourself."

"I will tell you a little. But only for something in return. You will tell me about yourself, too."

Éponine didn't feel much like talking about herself, but if that meant she would learn a little about the mystery that was him she couldn't refuse. And she still could choose to simply not answer the questions she didn't like. She tugged the scarf that covered the bruises on her upper arm around her more tightly.

"But first things first. What you need to know for your stay here. Observe as much as you want, talk to others if you think you can handle it but don't forget that you need to find a place to sleep for the night and you need to get money for food."

"I have money. I took a little with me, it's hidden in that little alley with my other things."

Éponine raised an eyebrow.

"I thought you wanted to learn something about our lives. We don't have money hidden all over town in case we get hungry."

"That was not my intention. Of course I will try to find work."

"You won't. If it were that easy to find a job don't you think we all had jobs? You will either have to beg or to steal. Do whatever you prefer. I would suggest stealing since you don't really look poor enough to attract benefactors."

"I cannot. It's against the law. And how do I know if they are wealthy enough to not miss the money? I cannot take money from people who need it more than I do."

"Believe me, this week you will change your mind about that. As long as you don't want to steal you will have to stay hungry."

He didn't know why this amused her so much but the enjoyment was written all over her face.

"Now back to where we were before. Tell me about you. I mean no disrespect but you are rather educated for a street girl."

"Well – "

Okay. Maybe a bad moment to stop but I hope that just makes you more excited for the next chapter? Tell me what you think! Review!