A/N: I'm very sorry about any mistakes in grammar, sentence structure,
mistranslation, or any other error concerning the French I use in this fic.
Also, I have just begun reading the book, so I am VERY sorry for any
inaccuracies. Yes, I know there are many. Once I finally finish reading the
book, I will come back and fix this entire story. Oh, and because of Andre
and Xavier, this fic should be under the category of AU (Alternate
Universe).
Disclamier: Song lyrics from "Look Down" and "The Second Attack (Death of Gavroche)" property of Cameron Mackintosh Productions and Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg. Gavroche owned by whoever it is that owns the rights to Victor Hugo's Les Misérables.
No Easy Pickings
"Look down and see the beggars at your feet. Look down and show some mercy if you can. Look down and see the sweepings of the street. Look down, look
down, upon your fellow man."
The city lay quiet. There was a light breeze, and the only sign that anyone lived there was the glowing of candles that could be seen through the cracks beneath the closed shutters. The clicking of boots - many boots - on the sidewalk could be heard in the distance. Two shadows crept cautiously up the street, making as little noise as possible.
André and Xavier did not want to be seen. No, being seen was dangerous, and they could get in trouble, which would be a decidedly bad thing. André carried a small burlap bag on her back, and a black kitten - Ombre de Mort, as she had taken to calling him - was cradled in her arms. Xavier carried an identical bag, and a similar kitten, except that his was white (this one had been dubbed simply "Mort"). The houses they passed were rundown - they hardly deserved to bear the name of "house" - and all of them were filled with many families to a single one. Their occupants were criminals, prostitutes, or beggars, and each of these people considered themselves lucky to be living there. André paused to gaze longingly at one of the buildings and whispered so quietly that Xavier had to bend down so that his ear was almost right in front of her mouth to hear her.
"Xavier, pouvoir't nous seulement pour un moment - " ("Xavier, can't we just for a moment - ") He shook his head and moved determinedly onward. André ran to catch up with him. She leaned against him as she walked, and shivered. It was a cold night, and neither of them had jackets of any kind. They had both been thrown out of their homes - Xavier from Cerdon, and André from Coullons - somewhere around 180 kilometers south of Paris. Xavier had come upon André a few hours out of Cerdon, and the two decided to stick together, since they were going to the same place - to join the rebellion in Paris. Xavier's parents had discovered that he had joined the (extremely) small group of resistance fighters in their town, and had thrown him out immediately, saying that he would only bring trouble to the family. André had been living with her older brother, but when he got caught in the crossfire between the police and the rebels and was killed, no one in her town had been willing to take her in, so she was left to fend for herself. A woman in Gien had felt sorry for them when she spotted them walking through the streets, and had given them each small bags filled with food, as well as some money in case they needed to buy more.
"How do you do? My name's Gavroche. These are my people. Here's my patch. Not much to look at, nothing posh, nothing that you'd call up to scratch. This is my school, my high society. Here in the slums of Saint Michele, we
live on crumbs of humble piety - tough on the teeth, but what the hell!
Think you're poor, think you're free? Follow me! Follow me!"
So, seven days later, here they were. They were in Paris. And they had no idea where they were going. They had overheard a conversation in one of these "houses" about a beggar boy named Gavroche who was rallying all the people of "the slums" to join the rebellion. They had asked a few people earlier that day where he could be found, but all they had gotten out of them was, "Les Amis de l'ABC." Well, that was all well and good, but what was Les Amis de l'ABC? Finally, just before night fell, another beggar told them that Les Amis de l'ABC was the name of the group of students that were leading the rebellion, and that they could be found at the Café Musain. By the time they had finished getting directions from the man, it had grown quite dark, and the two children had to hide as they went or the police would arrest them.
"Ici c'est," ("Here it is.") said Xavier, gazing up at a street sign. "Rue Saint-Michel. Le café est en bas cette rue." ("Rue Saint-Michel. The café is down this street.") He and André turned up the street, and began scanning shop signs, looking for Café Musain. The black kitten started to wake up, and André had to muffle its meowing.
"Là-bas! André, nous l'avons fait!" ("There! André, we made it!") The children ran into the café - and into a group of people who were on their way out. The black kitten leapt from André's arms.
"Ombre! Ombre! Revient!" ("Ombre! Ombre! Come back!") She called, chasing after him, while Xavier apologized profusely for running into the men. She caught up with him in the back room of the café, where she found him "teasing" a boy who looked to be not much older than she was.
"Il le vôtre?" ("He yours?") asked the boy.
"Oui, je suis désolé s'il vous a ennuyé." ("Yes, I'm sorry if he bothered you.")
"Aucunes inquiétudes. Je m'appelle Gavroche. Qui vous est?" (No worries. My name is Gavroche. Who are you?") So, this was Gavroche.
"Je m'appelle André. C'est vrai? Etes-vous le celui qui est s'appelé pour le mendiant pour joindre la révolution?" ("My name is André. Is it true? Are you the one who's been calling for the beggars to join the revolution?") she said excitedly. "Me et Xavier, nous venons ici au volontaire! Nous voulons vous joindre!" ("Me and Xavier, we come here to volunteer! We want to join you!")
Gavroche grinned and shook her hand. "Bien alors, bienvenu à Les Amis de l'ABC." ("Well then, welcome to Les Amis de l'ABC.")
i"When's it gonna end? When we gonna live? Something's gotta happen now or something's gonna give. It'll come, it'll come, it'll come, it'll come, it'll come, it'll come. Where are the leaders of the land? Where are the swells who run this show? Only one man - and that's Lamarque - speaks for
these people here below."/i
Gavroche took the children with him back to where he and his "babies" lived. The kids he had taken under his wing - the kids who thought of him, this little person, barely more than ten years old, as a paternal figure - treated him with the utmost respect, and would have trusted him with not only their lives, but with the lives of each and every beggar in the city.
"Papa! Papa!" they cried joyfully when he entered, André and Xavier trailing in behind him.
He greeted them, and then introduced André and Xavier to them. "Attente - où Gervais et Bastien sont?" ("Wait - where are Gervais and Bastien?")
"La police a fait une attaque, et ils étaient ne pourrait pas cacher rapidement assez! Papa, ils les ont tués!" (The police did an attack, and they were could not hide quickly enough! Papa, they killed them!") All color drained from Gavroche's face. He had been taking care of these kids, and Bastien and Gervais (twins) had only been six.
"Papa? Etes-vous bon?" ("Papa? Are you alright?") asked the younger of the two boys, who looked to be not a day older than 5.
"Oui, Alain, je suis beau. Seulement me donner un moment." ("Yes, Alain, I'm fine. Just give me a moment.") He turned to André and Xavier. "Cel'est la quatrième attaque ce mois. La police reçoit plus vicieux. Je ne l'aime pas - cel'était ce que la réunion qui vient de terminer était de. Lamarque général meurt, et quand il est allé, les gens pauvres comme nous n'auront pas un hasard." ("That's the fourth raid this month. The police are getting more vicious. I don't like it - that was what the meeting that just ended was about. General Lamarque is dying, and when he's gone, poor folks like us won't have a chance.")
Xavier showed no sign that he had understood except that his face was more solemn. André nodded slowly then gazed around at the remaining beggar children. There were two kids, not counting herself, Xavier, and Gavroche, in the room. And there had been four of them just that morning.
Her cat jumped from her arms again. He always seemed to pick the most inopportune moments to do that. Except this time, Xavier's had jumped first. Curious as to what they thought was there, she cautiously followed them.
"See our children fed, help us in our shame - something for a crust of
bread in Holy Jesus' name. In the Lord's Holy name. In his name, in his name, in his name. Lamarque is ill and fading fast - won't last the week
out so they say. With all the anger in the land, how long before the
judgement day? Before we cut the fat ones down to size? Before the
barricades arise?"
She followed them into the dark back room and tripped over something. Something big - and alive. She shrieked, and jumped back, just as the kittens did the same. The others ran in, all with candles, and André saw a man lying on the floor. He wore a policeman's uniform, and was tied up.
"Nous cel'avons reçu, Papa. Seulement celui," ("We got one, Papa. Just one.") said the older boy. He was maybe 8 years old.
The policeman was starting to wake up.
"Quelqu'un me reçoit un couteau," ("Someone get me a knife.") said Gavroche, deathly calm. He kneeled down on the man's chest and held his head back to expose his throat. One of the kids handed him a pocketknife. Gavroche held it ready for when the man woke up. Sure enough moments later, the knife was pressed against the man's neck, and Gavroche was questioning the man, asking him when the next raid was going to be, how many had been with him, who they had been. When he refused to answer, Gavroche turned the knife so that the sharp edge of the blade rested against the man's throat. "Dernier hasard. La répons'ou meurt." ("Last chance. Answer or die.") Still the man remained silent, and Gavroche cut into his throat and dragged the blade across it.
"La mort n'est rien, la mort n'est rien, la mort n'est rien." ("Death is nothing, death is nothing, death is nothing...") whispered André under her breath.
"Little people know, when little people fight, we may look easy pickings but we've got some bite! So never kick a dog because he's just a pup. We'll
fight like twenty armies and we won't give up. So you'd better run for
cover when the pup.. Grows."
In the following two weeks, the weeks leading up to when the revolutionists attacked, the police had not managed to kill any more of Gavroche's little "family" - which now consisted only of himself, André, Xavier, and the two little boys named Alain (5) and Samuel (8). When the day of the battle came, they all waited for the battle to end in the emergency hospital set up in the café. Gavroche was out there with the fighters, and that's where André and Xavier wanted to be, but they had promised Gavroche that they would watch the two. He had also told them that if anything happened to him, he wanted them to get the kids OUT of there. Then they heard shouting - no screaming. Everyone was screaming Gavroche's name. The four ran out to see what had happened. They saw Gavroche fall. Oh Dieu. No. (Oh God. No.) Two of the fighters went out to get his body. The kittens were with them. They went to examine Gavroche's body. Xavier watched them.
"Ombre de Mort et Mort. Comment ironique," ("Death and Death's Shadow. How ironic.") he whispered. André leaned into his shoulder and cried.
Disclamier: Song lyrics from "Look Down" and "The Second Attack (Death of Gavroche)" property of Cameron Mackintosh Productions and Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg. Gavroche owned by whoever it is that owns the rights to Victor Hugo's Les Misérables.
No Easy Pickings
"Look down and see the beggars at your feet. Look down and show some mercy if you can. Look down and see the sweepings of the street. Look down, look
down, upon your fellow man."
The city lay quiet. There was a light breeze, and the only sign that anyone lived there was the glowing of candles that could be seen through the cracks beneath the closed shutters. The clicking of boots - many boots - on the sidewalk could be heard in the distance. Two shadows crept cautiously up the street, making as little noise as possible.
André and Xavier did not want to be seen. No, being seen was dangerous, and they could get in trouble, which would be a decidedly bad thing. André carried a small burlap bag on her back, and a black kitten - Ombre de Mort, as she had taken to calling him - was cradled in her arms. Xavier carried an identical bag, and a similar kitten, except that his was white (this one had been dubbed simply "Mort"). The houses they passed were rundown - they hardly deserved to bear the name of "house" - and all of them were filled with many families to a single one. Their occupants were criminals, prostitutes, or beggars, and each of these people considered themselves lucky to be living there. André paused to gaze longingly at one of the buildings and whispered so quietly that Xavier had to bend down so that his ear was almost right in front of her mouth to hear her.
"Xavier, pouvoir't nous seulement pour un moment - " ("Xavier, can't we just for a moment - ") He shook his head and moved determinedly onward. André ran to catch up with him. She leaned against him as she walked, and shivered. It was a cold night, and neither of them had jackets of any kind. They had both been thrown out of their homes - Xavier from Cerdon, and André from Coullons - somewhere around 180 kilometers south of Paris. Xavier had come upon André a few hours out of Cerdon, and the two decided to stick together, since they were going to the same place - to join the rebellion in Paris. Xavier's parents had discovered that he had joined the (extremely) small group of resistance fighters in their town, and had thrown him out immediately, saying that he would only bring trouble to the family. André had been living with her older brother, but when he got caught in the crossfire between the police and the rebels and was killed, no one in her town had been willing to take her in, so she was left to fend for herself. A woman in Gien had felt sorry for them when she spotted them walking through the streets, and had given them each small bags filled with food, as well as some money in case they needed to buy more.
"How do you do? My name's Gavroche. These are my people. Here's my patch. Not much to look at, nothing posh, nothing that you'd call up to scratch. This is my school, my high society. Here in the slums of Saint Michele, we
live on crumbs of humble piety - tough on the teeth, but what the hell!
Think you're poor, think you're free? Follow me! Follow me!"
So, seven days later, here they were. They were in Paris. And they had no idea where they were going. They had overheard a conversation in one of these "houses" about a beggar boy named Gavroche who was rallying all the people of "the slums" to join the rebellion. They had asked a few people earlier that day where he could be found, but all they had gotten out of them was, "Les Amis de l'ABC." Well, that was all well and good, but what was Les Amis de l'ABC? Finally, just before night fell, another beggar told them that Les Amis de l'ABC was the name of the group of students that were leading the rebellion, and that they could be found at the Café Musain. By the time they had finished getting directions from the man, it had grown quite dark, and the two children had to hide as they went or the police would arrest them.
"Ici c'est," ("Here it is.") said Xavier, gazing up at a street sign. "Rue Saint-Michel. Le café est en bas cette rue." ("Rue Saint-Michel. The café is down this street.") He and André turned up the street, and began scanning shop signs, looking for Café Musain. The black kitten started to wake up, and André had to muffle its meowing.
"Là-bas! André, nous l'avons fait!" ("There! André, we made it!") The children ran into the café - and into a group of people who were on their way out. The black kitten leapt from André's arms.
"Ombre! Ombre! Revient!" ("Ombre! Ombre! Come back!") She called, chasing after him, while Xavier apologized profusely for running into the men. She caught up with him in the back room of the café, where she found him "teasing" a boy who looked to be not much older than she was.
"Il le vôtre?" ("He yours?") asked the boy.
"Oui, je suis désolé s'il vous a ennuyé." ("Yes, I'm sorry if he bothered you.")
"Aucunes inquiétudes. Je m'appelle Gavroche. Qui vous est?" (No worries. My name is Gavroche. Who are you?") So, this was Gavroche.
"Je m'appelle André. C'est vrai? Etes-vous le celui qui est s'appelé pour le mendiant pour joindre la révolution?" ("My name is André. Is it true? Are you the one who's been calling for the beggars to join the revolution?") she said excitedly. "Me et Xavier, nous venons ici au volontaire! Nous voulons vous joindre!" ("Me and Xavier, we come here to volunteer! We want to join you!")
Gavroche grinned and shook her hand. "Bien alors, bienvenu à Les Amis de l'ABC." ("Well then, welcome to Les Amis de l'ABC.")
i"When's it gonna end? When we gonna live? Something's gotta happen now or something's gonna give. It'll come, it'll come, it'll come, it'll come, it'll come, it'll come. Where are the leaders of the land? Where are the swells who run this show? Only one man - and that's Lamarque - speaks for
these people here below."/i
Gavroche took the children with him back to where he and his "babies" lived. The kids he had taken under his wing - the kids who thought of him, this little person, barely more than ten years old, as a paternal figure - treated him with the utmost respect, and would have trusted him with not only their lives, but with the lives of each and every beggar in the city.
"Papa! Papa!" they cried joyfully when he entered, André and Xavier trailing in behind him.
He greeted them, and then introduced André and Xavier to them. "Attente - où Gervais et Bastien sont?" ("Wait - where are Gervais and Bastien?")
"La police a fait une attaque, et ils étaient ne pourrait pas cacher rapidement assez! Papa, ils les ont tués!" (The police did an attack, and they were could not hide quickly enough! Papa, they killed them!") All color drained from Gavroche's face. He had been taking care of these kids, and Bastien and Gervais (twins) had only been six.
"Papa? Etes-vous bon?" ("Papa? Are you alright?") asked the younger of the two boys, who looked to be not a day older than 5.
"Oui, Alain, je suis beau. Seulement me donner un moment." ("Yes, Alain, I'm fine. Just give me a moment.") He turned to André and Xavier. "Cel'est la quatrième attaque ce mois. La police reçoit plus vicieux. Je ne l'aime pas - cel'était ce que la réunion qui vient de terminer était de. Lamarque général meurt, et quand il est allé, les gens pauvres comme nous n'auront pas un hasard." ("That's the fourth raid this month. The police are getting more vicious. I don't like it - that was what the meeting that just ended was about. General Lamarque is dying, and when he's gone, poor folks like us won't have a chance.")
Xavier showed no sign that he had understood except that his face was more solemn. André nodded slowly then gazed around at the remaining beggar children. There were two kids, not counting herself, Xavier, and Gavroche, in the room. And there had been four of them just that morning.
Her cat jumped from her arms again. He always seemed to pick the most inopportune moments to do that. Except this time, Xavier's had jumped first. Curious as to what they thought was there, she cautiously followed them.
"See our children fed, help us in our shame - something for a crust of
bread in Holy Jesus' name. In the Lord's Holy name. In his name, in his name, in his name. Lamarque is ill and fading fast - won't last the week
out so they say. With all the anger in the land, how long before the
judgement day? Before we cut the fat ones down to size? Before the
barricades arise?"
She followed them into the dark back room and tripped over something. Something big - and alive. She shrieked, and jumped back, just as the kittens did the same. The others ran in, all with candles, and André saw a man lying on the floor. He wore a policeman's uniform, and was tied up.
"Nous cel'avons reçu, Papa. Seulement celui," ("We got one, Papa. Just one.") said the older boy. He was maybe 8 years old.
The policeman was starting to wake up.
"Quelqu'un me reçoit un couteau," ("Someone get me a knife.") said Gavroche, deathly calm. He kneeled down on the man's chest and held his head back to expose his throat. One of the kids handed him a pocketknife. Gavroche held it ready for when the man woke up. Sure enough moments later, the knife was pressed against the man's neck, and Gavroche was questioning the man, asking him when the next raid was going to be, how many had been with him, who they had been. When he refused to answer, Gavroche turned the knife so that the sharp edge of the blade rested against the man's throat. "Dernier hasard. La répons'ou meurt." ("Last chance. Answer or die.") Still the man remained silent, and Gavroche cut into his throat and dragged the blade across it.
"La mort n'est rien, la mort n'est rien, la mort n'est rien." ("Death is nothing, death is nothing, death is nothing...") whispered André under her breath.
"Little people know, when little people fight, we may look easy pickings but we've got some bite! So never kick a dog because he's just a pup. We'll
fight like twenty armies and we won't give up. So you'd better run for
cover when the pup.. Grows."
In the following two weeks, the weeks leading up to when the revolutionists attacked, the police had not managed to kill any more of Gavroche's little "family" - which now consisted only of himself, André, Xavier, and the two little boys named Alain (5) and Samuel (8). When the day of the battle came, they all waited for the battle to end in the emergency hospital set up in the café. Gavroche was out there with the fighters, and that's where André and Xavier wanted to be, but they had promised Gavroche that they would watch the two. He had also told them that if anything happened to him, he wanted them to get the kids OUT of there. Then they heard shouting - no screaming. Everyone was screaming Gavroche's name. The four ran out to see what had happened. They saw Gavroche fall. Oh Dieu. No. (Oh God. No.) Two of the fighters went out to get his body. The kittens were with them. They went to examine Gavroche's body. Xavier watched them.
"Ombre de Mort et Mort. Comment ironique," ("Death and Death's Shadow. How ironic.") he whispered. André leaned into his shoulder and cried.