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happy easter!
"That doesn't seem like a very coherent system," Grantaire called from across the room.
Eponine was stood in front of her closet stripping her clothes from their hangers and throwing them onto an ever growing pile in the middle of the floor.
"I thought you came over here to help, not lay on my bed and make snarky remarks whilst watching me pack." she called back.
So far Grantaire's idea of helping had consisted of handing her the books from her bookcase and then taking a break that had now lasted almost 4 hours.
"I am helping, I'm keeping you entertained whilst you pack. I'm helping the time go faster," he said, winking at her. "Anyway, shouldn't your baby daddy be the one over here helping?"
"My baby daddy?" she said, raising her eyebrows.
"Yes, your baby daddy. Enjolras. The father of your child. Co-creator of your fetus. Whatever you want to call him."
"I think I'm just going to stick with calling him Enjolras. You can call him whatever you want, but please don't call him my baby daddy to my face ever again."
"I'm not promising anything."
"You are actually ridiculous." Eponine said. She walked over to her bed and grabbed both Grantaire's hands in a vain attempt to pull him up. "Get up now and help me."
"But why Eponine? Why?" he whined, now lying half on and half off the bed.
"Because I said so."
"If I get up will you finally tell me what Enjolras is like in bed?"
"No, but if you don't get up I will knee you in the crotch."
Grantaire abruptly let go of her hands and jumped up.
"Knew that would work," she said. "Come on."
He dragged himself across the room and sat down on the floor, grabbing some shirts from the top of the now out of control pile of clothes.
"Just fold them and put them into the boxes," she said. "They don't need sorted or anything, I'll just do that when I get there."
"I still can't believe you two are shacking up together."
"Do you think I'm crazy?"
"No," he said. "I think it makes sense, but I just hope you like subtitled films and documentaries about Robspierre, because that's all you're going to be watching over at casa Enjolras."
"Well Cosette only watches Keeping Up With The Kardashians and The Biggest Loser, so at least it'll be a change."
"What did you end up telling Cosette?" he asked.
"Just that Enjolras was thinking about getting a roommate, and it made sense for me to move in there because it's closer to work." She sighed. "And that I had overheard her and Marius talking about wanting to move in together a couple of weeks back, and I figured I'd make the first move so she didn't have to try and broach the subject with me."
This was news to Grantaire. "Did you actually overhear them talking about moving in together?"
She nodded.
"How come you didn't mention it before?"
She shrugged. "I didn't think it was that big a deal."
"So are they moving in together?"
"Yeah. I think he's moving his stuff in over the weekend."
Eponine was trying to pretend like she didn't care, but Grantaire could see right through it, like always.
"Is that really why you agreed to in with Enjolras?"
Eponine sat down beside him, in the middle of the entire contents of her closet, and crossed her legs.
"No," she said firmly. "I'm moving in with him because we're having a baby and we hardly know each other, and it's just the best option for everyone."
Marius and Eponine had met on her first day of University. She'd gotten lost on her way to class and found herself wandering aimlessly round the quad trying to decipher her map. Marius had taken pity on her and come over to ask if he could help. It had turned out he was going to the same class and afterwards he invited her to come to the Musain, the low key wine bar he and his friends basically took over every night, and that was that.
She hadn't developed feelings for him right away, they came over time. He was the first guy who had ever actually been nice to her with no apparent alternate motive and she read everything completely wrong. By the time she was forced to realize that he was just a nice guy who wasn't even remotely in love with her she was far too in love with him to look back. Everyone apart from Marius knew how she felt: it was obvious, she spent the majority of her time following him around like some love sick puppy.
It was because of Eponine that Marius and Cosette had ended up meeting in the first place. She had known Cosette when they were children, back when they both lived in Montfermeil. Cosette and her father had moved away first, so at least she hadn't witnessed Eponine's downfall with her own eyes. She had randomly messaged Eponine on Facebook one day, not that long before her 21st birthday, saying that she was moving to Paris and transferring schools and she was hoping that Eponine might want to catch up and help show her around. At the time Eponine was sleeping on Grantaire's couch, trying her hardest to keep up with her school work and not loose her scholarship. When Cosette found out about her living situation she had insisted that Eponine move into her apartment; her father was paying the rent and was more than happy for her to live there too. A few days after they moved in together Cosette had thrown her a surprise 21st birthday party, with the help of Grantaire. Marius came over early to help set up and by the time the party started they were already inseparable. Eponine spent the entire night in the kitchen getting high with Grantaire and drinking whiskey straight from the bottle. He didn't mention what was happening between Cosette and Marius, he just helped her drown her sorrows and then held her hair back the next morning when she was puking her guts up in his bathroom.
Oblivious to Eponine's feelings for him, Marius was declaring his love for Cosette to her on an almost nightly basis at the Musain. Then when she went home she had to listen to more of the same from Cosette. She felt like someone was ripping out her heart right in front of her face. Eventually she just had to learn to suppress the feelings. Four years later she had become almost entirely numb to the whole thing, except for every now and then when she couldn't help but feel insanely jealous of what they had. Now though she didn't know if it was because she was jealous that Marius had picked Cosette over her, or if it was because she knew she would never have what they had with anyone.
"Anyway, it was obvious," she said, staring to help Grantaire fold. "Although I did think they would get engaged first to placate her Dad, but he's obviously fine with them living in sin."
"Do you think she's suspicious?"
"About what?"
"You moving in with Enjolras?"
"No, I think she was suspicious that night he showed up and sat in my room waiting on me for 4 hours, but now she just thinks we've been planning this for a while and I was just waiting for the right time to tell her. She is probably going to be a bit pissed with she does find out the real reason though."
"Why?"
"Because I lied to her."
As much as she found living with Cosette difficult with from time to time she had actually been a pretty decent roommate and a really supportive friend. Sure she was constantly perky and always thought the glass was half full, which was basically the complete opposite of Eponine's usual life mantra, but she was a good person with a good heart and Eponine did feel guilty about lying to her. She knew Cosette would be upset that she didn't think she could come to her for support.
"I'm sure she'll be OK, she's not going to hold it against you or anything."
"I know she won't, it's Cosette we're talking about here, she couldn't hold a grudge in a bag." she said, watching as Grantaire attempted, with great difficulty, to fold one of her dresses. "Here, give me that," she said, eventually putting him out of his misery.
"So anyway," he said, deciding to stick to easier to fold items from there on in, "how was the doctor?"
"It was fine, a bit awkward, but fine."
"Awkward?"
"Yeah, I mean having someone poking around down there wasn't exactly the most pleasant experience I've ever had, but I swear I've never seen Enjolras look so uncomfortable. It was kind of funny watching him squirm every time the doctor mentioned the words intercourse, period or conception."
"Awh man I wish I'd been there, watching Enjolras squirm is one of my absolute favorite past times."
"He was so torn between trying to appear all super serious and responsible and dying of embarrassment. When the doctor told me to take my underwear off I thought he was going to faint."
"Oh please can I come to the next one?" Grantaire said, sounding slightly too enthusiastic for Eponine's liking.
"No, you cannot come to the next one Grantaire."
"Spoil sport," he said.
They spent the rest of the night working their way gradually through the clothes mound. Every now and again Grantaire would attempt to take another break, but Eponine always managed to reign him back in.
"We're almost done," she said as he lay on the now empty floor. "We only have to clear out the dresser and then we're finished. Come on R, we're so close."
"Fine," he said, clambering up. "But I will be needing a very strong drink once this is done."
"Well you can drink everything I have left in the fridge, how about that?"
"That sounds acceptable."
"Good," Eponine replied.
She was too busy taping up the already packed boxes to notice that Grantaire had already started on the dresser and had discovered the wad of letters she'd been hiding away in the bottom drawer.
"Hey 'Ponine, what are these?"
Eponine looked up to see him standing with the letters in his hand. She hadn't told him about her mother's attempts to contact her. It wasn't that she didn't want him to know, it was more than she didn't deem it a worthy topic to waste her breath on.
"They're nothing, you can just throw them out."
"You sure?"
"U-huh," she said, going back to taping. "I don't know why I'm even keeping them."
"Are they from your parents?"
"Parent," she corrected. "My mother."
"Did you write back?"
"No."
"Are you going to write back?"
"No."
"Are you going to tell them about the baby?"
"No."
"You do know that you don't need them right?" he said. "You have us. You have Enjolras and you have me, and you'll have the others too when they eventually find out."
"I know," she said, smiling. "I know."