Back again! Before I start I have 3 things to say:
1. Thank you all SO SO MUCH for the responses to the last chapter. I've never felt so flattered, humbled and proud all at the same time, you are all truly fabulous. Tons of love for you all 3
2. To all the guests who review: thank you! I'm sorry I can't reply to you all individually, but this A/N is already pretty long, but I really appreciate you all reading and reviewing, so thank you again! Guest MVP goes to Brooke, who read the whole thing in one sitting at 3am - wow! Thank you! That's so kind of you, and I'm glad you like it, but seriously girl, get some sleep, it's way more important! (The irony as I sit typing this at five to four in the morning is not lost on me... sorry. I'm a hypocrite)
3. To CrazyJulz16, thank you lots for not only the longest, but the most intelligent and thoughtful review I've ever received. Thank you thank you thank you! No offence everyone else, I appreciate all reviews, you know that, but this review was actually better than the chapter, so I had to give it a special mention.
ANYWAY, irritatingly long A/N over, on with the (also long) chapter!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Les Miserables, Harry Potter, Cinderella, or The Valley of Adventure. My copies of all four are in not much better shape than Éponine's though, because they are so brilliant, so I highly recommend everyone reads them!
Grantaire and Combeferre took Georges' tiny body to Père Lachaise, a cemetery across town. The manager there was an old drinking buddy of Grantaire, and said he would bury Georges without alerting the authorities, and give them indefinite rent of the plot for free. This was a huge relief to Les Amis as they had no idea what to do with the body of a child, which they had no reasonable explanation for having. They all chipped in for a headstone: it would be cheap, but it was better than leaving the poor kid in an unmarked grave. They planned with the manager to have a funeral in two days' time.
Georges' death, and Éponine's outburst at Enjolras had made the atmosphere in the apartment fairly horrible, and most of Les Amis didn't stay long. By the time Éponine had put Gavroche to sleep in her bed, and Jacques in Enjolras's, Combeferre had come home and gone to bed, and there was only her and Enjolras left awake in the apartment. Keen to avoid any awkward conversations, she grabbed her books from her room, and then sat on the sofa in the living room, wrapped in a blanket, with her feet up on the seat in front of her, reading.
It worked for a while and he left her alone, until about half past ten, when he walked out of the kitchen purposefully, and stood in front of her.
'Éponine… can we talk?'
Éponine didn't even look up from her book. She didn't trust herself not to cry or explode if she looked at him, so she didn't. 'I think I've said everything I need to say.'
'Well, I haven't, so… please?'
'Fine' she snapped. She folded over the page of her book and placed it beside her on the sofa as she prepared herself for a very quiet fight. (Getting Gav to go to bed had been hard enough the first time, there was no way she was waking him up. No matter how angry she got.) 'What do you want to say?'
'You were right.'
What?! She didn't know what she had been expecting him to say, but it wasn't that. He seemed to be waiting for a response, but she thought she might cry, so she just kept her eyes firmly on her knees and said nothing.
'I don't regret the protest today. I really believe I can help people, make a difference. But I agree with you… it is my fault. Georges, Gavroche… all of it, it's completely my fault. None of this would have happened if it wasn't for me, and I should have looked out for him, like I promised. I have no excuse except that I was too caught up in the moment, and the cause and Patria to notice what was going on around me. I will regret that until the day I die, and I know that you hate me right now, as you have every right to, but you cannot possibly hate me as much as I hate myself. No punishment you can come up with will hurt me as much as the memories of Jacques' screaming, or the pain in Gavroche's eyes, or Georges' dying breaths will hurt me every day for the rest of my life. I am truly, truly sorry.'
The pools of tears in her eyes were threatening to spill out onto her cheeks at his words. Despite her head telling her to shout and scream, punch him and kick him, he deserves it for leaving Gavroche, in her heart, she believed him. She believed he was sorry, because she could hear the pain in his voice as he talked. She believed he would regret it forever. She believed he would be haunted by the memories, because she was haunted by her own, and knew how it felt.
'Jesus, Éponine, can you say something? Or even just look at me?' Enjolras' voice was thick with emotion and desperation.
She lifted her head to look him in the eye, just as the tears spilled down her face and the first sob wracked through her body. As she met his gaze, she saw his heart break: her tears were clearly a step too far for him to deal with. On an impulse, she jumped up off the sofa and wrapped him in a tight hug, her arms around his waist as heart-wrenching sobs shook her body. Initially, Enjolras stiffened, but after a second, he relaxed, and gingerly put his arms around her.
They stood like that for a while; completely still, with Éponine pouring her heart out into his chest. He screwed up his eyes, rested his chin on her head and held her more tightly as his shirt began to soak through with tears. Neither of them said a word, or broke the embrace, even when Éponine's weeping reduced to sniffles and silent tears. They both just needed to be held.
Once she had stopped crying completely, she pulled away. She sniffed, then said softly 'I'm sorry, I've ruined your nice red shirt.'
'Don't worry about it. Are… are you ok?'
She seemed to consider this before answering, her voice husky and soft from the tears. 'Not yet. I'm still mad at you, Enjolras.' She sniffed and wiped her eyes, as his heart dropped further into his stomach. What can I do? How can I make this right?
'I'm still mad, but I understand what happened. And Gavroche is going to be ok… I shouldn't have shouted at you like I did, it was out of order. I was just so… terrified that I would lose Gav. He's the only family I have, really – my parents suck and Azelma won't talk to me, and…' she looked down at the floor and whispered the end of the sentence. 'I was just scared I was going to be all on my own. Again.'
To this day, he couldn't tell you where his sudden courage came from, but he reached out and gently lifted her chin with his hand, so they were looking directly into each other's eyes. She blinked at him in confusion; her long, dark eyelashes were still wet and her chocolate brown eyes were cloudy from crying. He looked deep into them and said clearly, but softly: 'you will never be on your own again, Éponine. We're all your family, and we'll never abandon you. No matter how much you swear at us.'
Her already flushed face darkened even more at his words, or more likely the intensity with which they were meant. Damn it, you've probably completely freaked her out. She's going to shout at you again, Enjolras, and it's completely your fault. He released her chin from his hand, and let his arm drop awkwardly to his side.
'Will you sit with me?' she asked, suddenly. 'Only… neither of us has anywhere to sleep, and I don't want to be alone anyway.'
'Of… of course.' She picked up her books and her blanket, then they sat down on the sofa, close enough so that they were almost touching.
'Could you hold these for a second, please?' she asked, holding out three tattered, paperback books towards him. He took them, and she busied herself with the blanket, arranging it across their laps. Feeling awkward about their close proximity, he examined the covers of the books to distract himself. One was an apparently ancient copy of Cinderella, which had all but lost its cover, the second was a slightly less scruffy copy of Enid Blyton's The Valley of Adventure, with well-thumbed, yellowing pages, and the third was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. She saw him looking and looked embarrassed, explaining 'I know they're just kids' books, but they're the only ones I have, and I couldn't leave them at the inn, I love them too much.'
SHE ONLY HAS THREE BOOKS?! WHAT DOES SHE DO ALL DAY?! 'These are the only books you have?'
'Yeah… I couldn't afford to buy many, so I only bought my absolute favourites'
His curiosity was peaked. 'Why these three?'
'Well, first of all…' she reached over and gently took Harry Potter from his hands. 'In this book, a lonely little kid gets to go to a big school of people like him, where everyone loves him. He thinks he's got nobody in the world looking out for him, but then he finds out that not only does he have a Godfather, there's his dad's other best friend as well. He even thinks he's going to get out of his horrible house for a while.' She paused. 'I guess I related to it quite a lot… tell you what, I could've used a magical Patronus charm back at the inn… I could just picture a big silver lion chasing my parents and all those lurky guys out, leaving me and Zelma and Gav alone – ooh, or whatever he used to blow his Aunt up. That would be fun… Have you read it?'
'No, I don't really read fiction that much.'
'You should, fiction's great.'
'Have you read the whole series?'
Her face lit up. 'THERE ARE MORE OF THEM?!'
'Yeah, there are 6 others. This isn't even the first one, I don't think. Plus, there are movies.'
'NO WAY.'
'Yes way' he laughed. 'How have you missed this, it's the biggest franchise in the world'
'How would I find out? My parents?!'
'You went to school, didn't you?'
'Yeah, sometimes. My school friends didn't really read though, they preferred smoking and making out behind the bike sheds.'
He laughed, somehow not surprised. 'It's in the front cover, as well!' She flipped it open, showing him a large brown stain of an unidentifiable and probably unpleasant nature.
'Never mind… what about these two?'
'Let's see… ooh Cinderella. I actually found this book in a skip, and rescued it… another one I related to. Poor, innocent little girl is treated like a slave by her evil family, then a fairy godmother comes along to help her meet her handsome prince and leave forever.' She looked up into his face, laughing. 'I guess that makes you and 'Ferre my fairy Godmothers, then.'
He chuckled 'but who's your handsome prince?'
'Marius, obviously.'
'Are you sure you're not talking about Grantaire? I bet he looks dashing at royal balls.' The image of Prince Grantaire Charming was so funny that they both fell about laughing, stifling their giggles with their hands.
'You're so mean to poor old R, I bet he'd be a wonderful Prince Charming'
Sure he would. 'Whatever. Anyway, you're the furthest thing from an innocent little girl I can imagine'
She mock punched him and said 'Cheeky! I could be all meek and innocent if I wanted!'
'You'd be the worst servant ever, you'd tell the master to fuck off within about 10 minutes'
Éponine fell about laughing again and said 'I guess you're right… last book, anyway. Oh, this is my favourite of all. The Valley of Adventure'
'I've never even heard of it.'
'I'm going to make you read it then, because it's brilliant. I don't want to spoil it, so I'll just tell you about my favourite bit, ok? You have to promise to read it.'
You still trust me to make a promise after today? 'Ok, I promise'
'Well, these kids, right, they find this cave, and it's behind a waterfall, but it's all covered in moss and there's like a door made of ferns, so they've got this beautiful view of the waterfall but it's secret and safe and cosy, and nobody can find them. It's in like a faraway valley, as well, so it's doubly secret.'
He couldn't hold back a smile at her childlike enthusiasm, and the way her eyes lit up when she talked about the far-off lands and magic and princesses. In that moment, he had to remind himself she wasn't much younger than him, only four years, and she was the furthest thing from an innocent little kid he knew, because her face honestly could have passed for a ten-year-old's right then. Her eyes bright, her cheeks flushed, dimples out… she looked hardly older than Gavroche, but at the same time… REALLY hot.
Wait, what did you just say?
She cut off his train of thought by asking suddenly 'What's the time?'
He could feel a blush rising, and cleared his throat as he checked his watch, intensely glad she couldn't hear his thoughts. 'It's just passed half eleven, why?'
'Really, we've talked that long?!'
'Yep'
'Oh god, I have to go!' She jumped up, looking frantically around for her jacket, phone and shoes.
'What do you mean, go? You can't be going out at this time!'
'I can and I am. Don't wait up; I don't know how long I'll be. You take the sofa; I'll be all right on the floor.'
He was thoroughly confused now. 'But where are you going?!'
She was at the door, pulling her shoe on. She turned around as she opened the door, smiling brightly at him. 'Don't worry about it. See you in the morning!'
'Éponine, wait!'
But it was too late. She was gone. What the DEVIL was that all about?!
You're probably all sick of me talking about me by now, so I'll keep it short: thank you for your reviews and favourites, please keep them coming, I love seeing all the different points of view, it's really interesting to me!
ALSO, those who mentioned Montparnasse in their reviews: next chapter, promise ;)
