Title: The Living and the Dead
Summary: Marius' Nightmares wake him
Marius jerked awake, feeling his heart thunder in his chest. He closed his eyes again, trying to chase away the images the dream left behind, along with the prickly feeling on his skin. His nerves were heightened, and he felt the sweat on his brow, his fingertips tingling from the adrenaline the dream had injected into him.
He realized her was pressed against Cosette's chest, his face against the cool and soft skin of her neck. Her fingers were combing through his hair, and he breathed in, comforted by the scent of her skin. His heart rate calmed a bit.
Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes and found his cheeks were wet.
"Are you alright?" came Cosette's voice through the dark.
"I just had the most horrible dream," he marveled, finding her hand in the sheets.
"I know," she said. "You were shaking in your sleep."
"I was at the barricades," he said. "I've had that dream before but... this time I was shot. And I woke up just before the bullet hit me and I fell from the barricade."
"Come here," Cosette said, and he obeyed. She held him in her arms, and he felt a little out of place at first, to have her taking care of him.But the depths of hell were so close, and she was the only thing that could pull him out. He held onto her gratefully, onto the only person who was keeping him from succumbing.
"I watched my friend Courfeyrac get speared by bayonets," he said finally. After months of putting aside thoughts of his best friend, simply dismissing them with 'Courfeyrac is dead,' he finally spoke the words. "I lived with him, he was the best friend I ever had. And... all I wanted to do was die when I was at the barricades. I didn't think twice about my friend's dying- all I wanted was to escape the pain. But months later, now that he's gone and I'm still here... I'm always reminded of him, but I think I'm forgetting them all, too... Why was I the one who survived?"
She held him tighter. "But you did survive, Marius," she said, sounding scared. The well of his depression opened sometimes, exposing how much those two days in that inferno- the one she would never truly understand- had torn him apart. She sometimes wondered how deep that well rested in him.
"If you had gone to England..." he began, "I would have gone after you. Before I asked my grandfather to marry you, I was fully prepared to go to England to find you. But if I hadn't found you... Cosette, they're would be nothing-"
"Marius, don't," she said. "Don't dwell on the past." She was already well-aware of his tendency to embrace sorrow and revel in it. It was dangerous. "You're here, you're alive, we're together."
"Don't you ever wonder what would have happened...?"
"Of course I do," she said matter-of-factly. "But in the end it doesn't matter. Why wonder about the horrible things, when we're happy?"
Because we're so close to losing it all, he said. He knew now how fate rested on such a tiny precipice- tomorrow, something could happen and he could lose her. He could marry Cosette, he could possess Cosette, but he could not predict what God wanted her life to be.
"I love you," he said seriously. "And not just when we're laughing, making love, or feeling happy. Even when I'm in the blackest of moods, I love you."
"I know you do," she said. "And I adore you."
Title: Noises
Summary: Marius has a realization that terrifies him
It was Monday, February 29th, 1832. Marius was about to go to the library, and was going through the bureau in the bedroom he shared with Cosette to find a tie to wear. Cosette was in the room next door- the one that she had originally decorated for her father, before he had confessed to Marius. There was a bird's nest outside the window, and it endlessly entranced Cosette.
"What time will you be home?" she called, without projecting her voice much.
"Probably around five," he said, going over to the mirror. "I won't be long."
As he sat down to tie his boot laces again, he heard Cosette singing softly. He was surprised he could hear- there was a wall between them anyway. But her soft singing under her breath was clear to Marius- he could almost identify the song already.
But this bothered him not. He stood and left the bedroom, ducking his head into the room next door.
"I shall see you at dinner, darling," he bid goodbye. "You'll be visiting with your father when I return."
She smiled and bid him goodbye, before turning back to admire the birds who were huddled together for warmth in the winter air.
It wasn't until Marius was out the door of the house and walking down the street that his thoughts returned to Cosette's singing from her father's bedroom. He had no idea the walls were so thin.
Then he blanched. He could hear Cosette from the other room, meaning anyone in that room could hear everything from their room.
Why had it been decided for Cosette's father to take thatparticular room? Marius was now inexpressibly grateful he was not living with them, and not for the original reasons. How horrifying! How embarrassing! What he could have heard. Or worse.
What he wouldn't have heard.
Despite the fact that none of this had happened, Marius' face turned brilliantly red and he had to stare at the ground as he walked, providing a comical image for the passerby.
Later that night, he retired early, hoping to fall asleep before Cosette joined him. She had noticed he couldn't look her in the eye all through dinner, and he wanted to avoid her questions. But she joined him in bed mere minutes after he'd retired, and kissed his cheek once. Twice. He ignored it, but then she laughed.
"I know you're awake..." she teased. "Your face would not be that stiff and miserable looking if you were sleeping."
He opened his eyes, but shut them again quickly because she started to kiss him. But the only thing he could think of was... an audience! Thank God his Grandfather's bedroom was all the way across the house, next to his Aunt's. But the notion that he father could have heard everything was enough to put him out of any sort of amorous mood. He kissed her back only enough to not make her feel rejected. She ignored his lack of any kind of enthusiasm, and pressed herself closer to him.
Still, she did notice his lack of response, especially pressed so closely. Not a stir from him! She reached for his hand and wrapped it around her waist, but he just let it hang there limply instead of pulling her closely. Despite her continued efforts for the next few minutes, she could not get a reaction out of him.
"What is the matter with you?" she finally demanded.
"Nothing," he quickly defended, and took advantage of her momentary distraction to put some inches between them.
"It is most certainly not nothing," she argued. "This morning I had to scold you because you would not let me alone when I was trying to dress my hair. But now you lay here like a dead body."
"I'm tired," he lied.
"I don't believe you're this tired," she said, and tried kissing him again. He avoided her lips. "There!" she cried. "What was that?"
He buried his face in the pillow. "Your father could hear," he said. She made him repeat it twice before she understood what he had to say, the pillows eating the sound of his words.
She burst into laughter. He felt somewhat ashamed that she was laughing at him, but her laugh made him feel warm so he let it go.
"He's not here!"
"But he almost was," Marius said. "And he would have shared a wall with us. I'm sorry, but that makes me very uncomfortable."
"Well you needn't worry. He wouldn't have heard anything."
"Why?" Marius asked. Maybe her father had a hearing problem?
"Because!" she said as though it was totally obvious. "There's nothing to hear! It's not as though we make any kind of noise... I would understand your predicament if we shared a room with him, but honestly, Marius- there's nothing to hear!"
"I'm going to sleep," he grumbled, and turned over. She continued to giggle for a few minutes, wounding his ego more with every moment of her amusement.
Haha... sorry I haven't updated it awhile! Reviews?
