Hello again, friends! Sorry it's so late in the day, but hangovers are not helpful when writing. Also, my big brother came home to see me to celebrate my A Level results, so I've been spending time with him, which was awesome! Anyway, another chapter!
10 points to anyone who spots the Cool Runnings reference.
Disclaimer: Alas, ownership of Les Miserables continues to elude me.
The next few weeks were fairly uneventful. Éponine's injuries improved every day, and soon her ribs were almost fully recovered and she was barely even limping. She went back to work, and started paying rent to Enjolras and Courfeyrac (although she was fairly certain they had lied to her about the amount, it definitely wasn't an equal third.) Her friendships with Les Amis also went from strength to strength, and she adopted a kind of 'mother' role within the group: she helped feed them at the café and brought them drinks as usual, but she also worked out how to calm Joly down when he was freaking out about germs, keep Bahorel away from too many fights, stop Enjolras from working too hard, and look after R when he was completely wasted. Fortnightly 'Disney nights' with Jehan and Bossuet and weekly 'Musicals nights' with Courf and R also began and were observed religiously: there were severe forfeits for anyone who cancelled on them. Courfeyrac couldn't look at strawberry jelly for weeks after he ditched them for a girl, and the memory of him sitting in a tub of it still brought tears of mirth to R and Éponine's eyes.
Éponine went shopping with Cosette, who insisted on buying her a whole new wardrobe, refusing all Éponine's offers of money and ignoring her repeated protestations. For a calm, quiet little thing she was sneaky when getting people to do things they didn't want to. Éponine also suspected that Les Amis had all chipped in some money to get her clothes, just because of the amount of cash Cosette carried in 10 and 20 Euro notes, all crumpled in different ways – the whole thing stank of a whip-round. Although she was irritated that they'd hid it from her and her pride was hurt by accepting the charity, she was also extremely grateful to the guys for doing it. She really had needed new clothes. And she had a nice time shopping with Cosette, she couldn't remember the last time she'd had 'girl time' – she was by no means a 'girly girl', but it was fun once in a while.
Sylvie touched the girls of the group deeply by asking Cosette, Musichetta and Éponine to be bridesmaids at her wedding. Cosette had cried when she had been asked, and even 'Chetta and Éponine got misty-eyed when they agreed. A shopping trip was planned for nearer the wedding. Joly, Combeferre and Enjolras were to be Feuilly's groomsmen.
Les Amis' campaigning against injustice was hotting up, as a government had been elected which was even more unjust than the last: a string of laws were announced which took the rights to things like tax breaks and free health insurance from the poor. The lack of uproar following these announcements and shocked and angered the young men, particularly Enjolras, and they were rallying and protesting harder than ever. Not a day went by when an angry letter wasn't sent to the Paris newspapers, and Jehan's blog consisted of much less romantic poetry and far more educated comments on the social injustices in French society these days. (Of course, he did still post the romantic poetry. He was still Jehan.).
Marius had been over the moon that she had become friends with Cosette, and introduced his girlfriend to the rest of Les Amis, confident that Éponine could offer support if necessary. She was an instant hit with everyone (how could she not be?) once they were confident Éponine was handling the situation well enough. It was hard to watch, as her and Marius did not believe in hiding their love for each other in any situation, but Courf helped her by starting the 'lovely count' – every time Cosette said the word 'lovely' (which was a lot) they would catch each other's eye, and at the end of the night would swap how many they'd counted. Because it was Éponine and Courfeyrac, it quickly became competitive, and they'd place bets on the total for the night. It wasn't just a fun little secret to share with her friend, it helped distract her from the goo-goo eyes, and she really appreciated it.
Gavroche spent his time sleeping in either Éponine or Courfeyrac's room, if it was cold or raining and he didn't want to sleep in his elephant. With the help of Les Amis, and the new addition of Cosette, his schoolwork improved, although he still said it was all pointless, he was 'clearly going to be a rockstar anyway.'
She also started singing at the Musain three nights a week for extra money, after Musichetta overheard her singing 'Harry' from A Very Potter Musical in the shower at the apartment. The response had been overwhelming; the surprise on the faces of most of Les Amis when she'd belted out the same song on her first night was priceless, and she made a week's wages in tips on the nights she sang. Apparently it wasn't only drunk, middle-aged perverts who liked to listen to her sing. The singing also gave her an outlet for her feelings about Marius – singing her heart out when he was right there was liberating, almost like telling him how she felt, and she still held on the tiniest hope that he'd fall for her. Singing had worked for the little mermaid, hadn't it?
Grantaire was surprised almost daily by Éponine at the minute. First of all, by the speed of her recovery – he'd thought she'd never be the same again when he'd seen her lying, broken, on his kitchen table, but there was barely even a mark now on her face, and you couldn't even tell her nose had been broken at all. Her ribs were hardly giving her any problems, and there was half the amount of strapping on her leg that there had been at the start. He knew she'd developed the resilience because her father beat her, but that only made it more impressive in his eyes.
He was surprised by how her body had changed in other ways too; a safe place to live and regular meals had filled her out in all the right places. She wasn't fat, or even particularly curvy, but she was no longer so painfully thin: her face was less gaunt and her cheeks were a little plumper, emphasising those famous dimples; her ribs weren't so prominent and her hips were a little wider. Her boobs had also increased in size by at least 50%. Frankly, she was a sex bomb these days. Christ, he was gay and he was a little bit attracted to her.
He was very surprised she'd agreed to stay in the apartment with Enjolras and Combeferre – he had fully expected her to move out the first day she could physically carry her things downstairs, but she was still there. Her and Enjolras even seemed to be getting along ok, he was almost jealous! (He wasn't though. Éponine and Enjolras? He couldn't imagine two people less likely to start banging). He wasn't surprised she was paying rent, though. Pony took no charity.
He was surprised at how affectionate she'd become with the lads; she was like a sister to them all, not just Gavroche. Or a mother. A bad-ass mother, who don't take no crap from nobody - God help you if you crossed her - but a mother nonetheless.
He was blown away by her strength with the Cosette thing. It would have been very easy for her to mindlessly hate the girl – he knew how the rejection felt and was exceptionally glad he didn't have that sort of problem with Enjolras – but she actually made friends with her and helped her fit in with Les Amis. She definitely wasn't over Marius, her eyes told him that, and so had she one Musicals Night, but if he hadn't known her well, he might have thought she was.
Her beautiful voice and deep love of musicals had been less of a shock for him than it had been for the others, as he'd heard her sing before - he'd thought Courfeyrac was going to shit himself, he'd been so shocked by the revelations ('WHERE DID YOU LEARN TO SING LIKE THAT? OH JESUS, I'VE HAD A MINI PATTI LUPONE ON MY HANDS ALL THIS TIME AND I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW! I THOUGHT YOU WERE JUST A BADASS TOMBOY, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME YOU LIKED MUSICALS? KEEP IT TO YOURSELF, BUT I LOVE THEM! WE HAVE TO WATCH THEM TOGETHER! OH MY GOD WE HAVE TO GET YOU AN AUDITION FOR GLEE! OR GO ON THE X FACTOR! OR ONE OF THOSE BRITISH SHOWS WHERE YOU GET A WEST END PART. DO THEY STILL MAKE THOSE? THEY SHOULD, I LOVE THEM! I LOVE YOU! I'M SO PROUD!').
All in all, as the autumn wore on and slowly turned to winter, Éponine seemed to be doing pretty well. He only wished he could find her a guy to replace Marius to make her REALLY happy. As long as it wasn't Courfeyrac, who's flirting had reached new heights as Éponine got hotter… or any of Les Amis, actually… he'd be happy.
For a raging drunkard, R is very sensitive. I love him! Courfeyrac is also a favourite of mine
I also love you guys for all your support, thank you and please continue to talk to me so I can pretend I have friends. (JK. But seriously, please review!)
95 reviews already (insane): go on dearies, get the 100th on this chapter, I dare you! ;)
Until next time, when there will be actual plot development! (IKRT hold on to your hats)