A/N: So sorry I have been MIA for the past week! I have been so busy and I can't believe I found time to write this chapter! Disclaimer: I don't own Les Mis or the Man in the Arena quote.
After Eponine's shift at the diner, Enjolras offered to take Eponine home, an offer to which she happy obliged since she had no desire to walk or take a taxi.
"We could hang out if you have time," she suggested. "You can come in and we could watch a movie… or something." It felt odd to invite Enjolras inside. Just weeks ago he seemed like an unapproachable stranger that had a heart of marble and no interest in being friends, but Eponine was now getting glimpses of who the marble man really was. So far she had decided that Enjolras did not have a heart of marble after all. No; he had a real, human heart that was guarded by marble because that made it easier to block out emotions. She didn't exactly know what could be troubling him that would make him block out emotions, but she knew it probably stemmed from his parents. Whenever he mentioned them, he got a hard look in his eyes, and he tried to avoid the topic as much as possible. Perhaps tonight she would be able to reach out to him about the issue.
"Okay, that sounds good. I think I will come in, but I don't want to watch a movie. I have something better in mind," Enjolras said.
"What do you have in mind?" Eponine asked cautiously.
"Let's study."
"No, I don't want to study! That's so boring. C'mon, let's do something fun!"
"Studying is fun, and studying with a buddy always adds on to the experience."
"Why? It's a Saturday night for crying out loud! I refuse to spend it studying."
"You will really benefit from studying with me, I guarantee it. Just give it a try."
After several minutes of pointless arguing, Eponine found herself slouched down on the couch with a freaking big textbook cracked open in front of her.
"I don't want to," Eponine said firmly, but she knew it was useless. Even though she was more stubborn than him most of the time, she wanted to get to know Enjolras better and the best way to get close to him was by doing what he liked to do.
"Ah, let's study the Renaissance. What a wonderful era, the Renaissance was. The word 'renaissance' itself means a new beginning…"
Eponine tried to pay attention, truly she did, but after 10 minutes of listening to Enjolras drag on and on about Leonardo da Vinci, she stopped listening and just watched him talk. She watched how his eyes lit up when he remembered another fact and the way his mouth moved with precision, perfectly executing all of his words. She watched him run his hands through his hair every so often, a little quirk of his.
"Eponine, are you paying any attention?"
"Nope," she replied candidly and Enjolras sighed in agitation.
"Please tell me you learned something, at least."
"Um… renaissance means new beginning?"
"Good enough," Enjolras shrugged and slammed the textbook shut.
"I'm sorry, I know I am the lousiest student that ever lived. My parents never cared about my education and I suppose that made me not take school seriously," Eponine admitted. "All I care about is my job so I have enough money to pay off my father."
"Why do you do that? You don't need to pay your father, he shouldn't take your hard earned money," Enjolras said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"As if I don't wish that could happen! But you don't know my father the way I do. He's a conman, but he's also more than that. He has so many connections he isn't a man, he's a puppet master and the world is his puppet. All he has to do is pull on a string and the job is done. He can hit you so fast that you didn't know he was even there, and there is no way to know when he is coming after you. If I stopped paying him, he could force me to do unmentionable things and he could easily hurt my friends, including you," Eponine said bitterly.
"Surely the police can help you," Enjolras said fiercely.
"The police? That's cute. My father has inside connections to the police force, you think they are really going to come after him if he doesn't want to get caught? Another thing my father is: invisible," Eponine said shaking her head.
"I hate your dad; I just don't get why anyone could be so terrible. When did he become like that? Was he always that horrible to you?"
"No, it's gotten worse. When I was about 5 or 6, I was daddy's little princess. He loved me and spoiled me rotten to the point where I expected everything to come so easily. I thought I could have the world with the snap of my fingers. My mother was the boss of the house, and definitely the boss of my father, and she would dote and fawn over me every moment possible. I had a couple siblings back then and my parents took in this foster child. The foster child, well I don't remember her too well, but we never treated her very graciously. Kind of like how the Dursleys treated Harry Potter, if you ever read the books or watched the movie. We fed her and gave her a place to sleep at night, but never showed her love and we made her do our chores. Then a man came and took her away, I think it was her dad or whatever, and my parents began to treat me the way they treated that foster child. At first it was really weird not being the apple of my parents' eyes anymore, but I grew used to it and adapted. I didn't mind that too much. You see, my parents owned a hotel in Manhattan that was quite popular. Unfortunately, people began to realize that the hotel was just a big scam. It got terrible reviews and they even mentioned it in the newspaper once, but no good things were said about it. My father and his gang would steal luggage and nice items from the people who stayed there, and eventually they had to shut it down because there were no customers. That's when my father went into the taxi business and started to con people there. He treated me so horribly and told me that my dream of being on Broadway was ridiculous. Around that time was when everything started to go to hell."
"I can't believe that I feel so bad about my parents when you have it a million times worse." Ah, there it is. Enjolras is beginning to let his guard down and talk about his problem.
"What did you parents do to you?" Eponine asked trying to get the marble man to dig deep.
"Don't worry about it," Enjolras said stiffly.
"Tell me, Enjy. Pleeeeaaaaaaaaa-"
"Fine, just don't call me Enjy anymore. My dad wanted me to be a doctor like him, but I am far more interested in law than medicine. Being a doctor is his dream, not mine. He also doesn't like how involved I am with charity, which is my main passion. I want to travel around the world and help people in every country. My mother is so obedient to my father that she automatically agrees to everything he says, and he has brainwashed her to think I am a disgrace. It's a miracle that they haven't disowned me yet, but I'm expecting it to happen soon. They threaten me with it enough," Enjolras shrugged. "Of course my sister and brother are the perfect, cookie cutter doctors that my father wanted them to be."
"So what if they are perfect? You are perfectly imperfect and I know that you are destined to save the world one day. You have so much passion in helping people and becoming a lawyer that you would fail for your cause, and that makes you a hero. Anybody with that much faith in one thing can accomplish whatever their dream is. You aren't wishy-washy about what you want, you have one goal in mind and plenty of determination to achieve it. Who are your parents to judge you? It's like that Teddy Roosevelt quote about the Man in the Arena, do you know it?" Eponine asked, and Enjolras shook his head.
Eponine cleared her throat and began to recite her favorite quote of all time. "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat," she said softly. "I memorized that when my dad started to beat me and I found my new dream of being a Broadway star. That quote is what keeps me going when everything is wrong and I can't see why I even try anymore. It reminds me that it matters that I do try, and that makes me better than the people who have never worked hard for anything in their miserable lives. The line that strikes me the most is 'so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.' You see Enjy, you're like me: you have so much passion for your dream that you would do anything, including failing, for it."
Enjolras was rarely reduced to speechlessness, but he was now. Everything that Eponine was saying struck his heart and made Enjolras feel. He felt the rejection from his parents, but his passion for charity glowed a thousand times stronger, burning brighter than it had before.
"Enjolras? You gonna say something?" Eponine asked prodding his shoulder hoping for some reaction.
"Thank you," he mumbled and Eponine crinkled her brow in confusion.
"Thank you for what? I haven't done anything."
"Thank you for being my friend; I'm glad we met. You listen to me and you understand, and that is exactly what I need," Enjolras said honestly yet somewhat awkwardly. He felt like he was going soft, and he seldom made comments like this.
"Thanks for being my friend as well," Eponine said nudging him playfully.
"I haven't really done anything for you."
"Yes you have, Enjy. I know that you are here for me, and I know that I can always count on you. That's what friends are for."
Enjolras shrugged when suddenly a genius idea hit him; he knew what he was going to do for Eponine's birthday present. Granted, it would be belated, but better late than never, right?
A/N: Has anyone seen Man of Steel yet? I am seeing it soon and I'm SO EXCITED! Anyways, I have an idea of what Enjolras' present is going to be, and it's gonna be totally awesome! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed, and favorited my story! Don't forget to review
