A/N: I really have no business writing this story right now. For one thing, I have two other stories that I should be working on instead, and that I haven't updated in weeks. For another, RL just got super busy this week and I have to catch up! But the truth is, I already wrote most of this, and was just looking for the right time to post it. So post it I shall.

February 1832, Gorbeau House

"Éponine, I have a very important task for you," said Marius seriously. They were standing in front of the door to his apartment, and the chilly late-winter breeze pierced her bare shoulders as she watched the old man and his daughter leave the tenement building. "Find that girl for me, find out where she lives. As soon as possible." Had he been listening to the Jondrette's conversation instead of talking to Éponine, he would have known about the planned robbery and known to caution his liaison against her father discovering the girl's whereabouts as well. But he wasn't, so he didn't.

Éponine cast her eyes downward sadly. "Which girl? You mean the bourgeois one who just came by?" She shuffled her feet, looking for any loophole that might tell her that what she feared was not the case.

"Is there another girl?" Marius said, growing impatient with Éponine's seeming incompetence. "Her name is Ursule F. As far as I can tell, she and her father live alone together. She never goes anywhere without him. Be wary of the old man- he's very protective of her and he's already suspicious of me."

"I can't," said Éponine.

Marius scowled. "Why not?"

"Because I'm in love with you."

Marius was so shocked that he dropped the coins in his hand. Instinctively, Éponine reached down to scoop them up, then looked back up in shame at him. He did not try to take them back, but instead laughed drily. "You barely even know me, Éponine," he said.

"You don't know Ursule, and you're in love with her," she pointed out bluntly.

"That's different," Marius insisted. "That was love at first sight. I could swear we both felt something that day, the world opening up like a flower in full bloom- "

"It was love at first sight for me too," Éponine confessed. Before he could object further, she pulled him in and kissed him as hard as she could. Her lips were rough and dry on his smooth, moist ones, and he felt almost as if she were a vampire sucking away his youth and beauty.

"That was your first kiss," she said slowly in self-satisfaction, pulling away from him with a smile. "That will always be your first kiss."

"Éponine, give it up," he demanded. "It's never going to happen. What part of 'I don't love you, I'm in love with Ursule' don't you understand?"

"All of it," said Éponine, pulling him in for another kiss.

"Give me back my money or I'll report you to the police," Marius ordered her.

"Bitch, what's taking you so long?" Jondrette reminded Éponine, poking his head through his door. "Get back in here, we have things to discuss." He smiled awkwardly and waved at Marius. "Hello, m'sieur, how do you do?"

"Can't you control your own daughter?" Marius demanded, staring at him angrily.

"Apparently not," Jondrette snarled, more to himself. "Girl, if you don't get away from that bourgeois in ten seconds- "

"It's all right, Monsieur, you don't have to punish her," Marius said abruptly. "She's done nothing wrong. In fact, she's poised to earn a great deal of money, with this deal she was just about to accept."

Éponine glared at Marius with equal parts gratitude and hatred. On the one hand, he had just saved her from a savage beating, when he had no good reason to do so and could by all rights have had her arrested. On the other hand, there was a terrible price to pay for this mercy- and he hadn't even given her a choice in whether or not she would pay it. And now, because he had revealed the transaction to her father, she would be forced to give it all to him.

"That's right, Papa," said Éponine, picking up the coins she had sort of just stolen and showing them to her father. "I'm off to find a girl for M'sieur Pontmercy, and I'll make a pretty penny for the deed- just look at that."

"Not tonight you won't," said Jondrette firmly. "You're needed here."

"What for?" Marius asked, growing suspicious.

Éponine was just as confused as he was; her father had never discouraged a money-making opportunity before. "It's that bourgeois girl who just left," she added hastily to her father, deflecting Marius' question.

"Well, that won't be necessary," said Jondrette. "She and her father should be coming back here in a few hours to give us that money he promised us. Even if it's just the father who comes back, we'll be able to secure our friend Pontmercy their home address."

Marius felt a sickening feeling growing inside his stomach. Was his neighbor planning to rob the father of the girl of his dreams?

"I'll give you two a moment alone," Jondrette continued slyly, winking and pulling back into his apartment. "I'm sure you have business to discuss."

"Éponine, is this what it looks like?" Marius whispered nervously, suspiciously, when he thought Jondrette was out of earshot.

"Take me away from this," Éponine rasped as seductively as she could, fondling his shoulders. "Marry me and we'll never come back here again."

"You know that can never be," said Marius sternly, pushing her away. "Now I need to know: what exactly is it that your father is planning?"

"I don't know," said Éponine. "All I know is that I need you, and I love you, and I want you more than anything in the world. Please, I'd do anything for you!"

"You don't really love me," Marius told her. "You don't even know me. You just want someone- or something- to get you out of this horrid place, and I can't blame you. I imagine I'd want the same thing if I were in your shoes. But it's not me. Can't you see that, Éponine? I can barely take care of myself!"

He stormed out of the house, and it was only when he was out on the street that he realized that he was going to the police station to report a robbery. Meanwhile, Éponine was realizing that she had enough money and enough time to go sneak out and buy herself a loaf of bread before her father would notice that she was gone. There came a point at which stealing just wasn't fun anymore.