Sorry for taking so long to update, my week ended up being way busier than I was expecting - hopefully this chapter is worth the wait :-]

Enjolras's apartment was much bigger than the one Eponine had shared with Cosette. According to Grantaire it used to belong to Enjolras's grandfather, he wasn't sure if he had died or ended up in some home somewhere, but either way he wasn't using it anymore and it had been passed onto Enjolras.

For the first week of their co-habitation she hardly saw him. He had a big case coming up and left before she woke up most mornings and didn't get home until after she'd gone to bed most evenings. When their paths did cross all he did was apologize for not being around and ask if she had everything she needed. Eponine didn't mind his absence that much, she didn't expect him to re-adjust his entire life just because they were now sharing a living space.

Thanks to Marius and Cosette's new living arrangements no one really raised that much of an eyebrow when Eponine had announced one night in the Musain that she'd spent the day moving her stuff into Enjolras's apartment. Sure it was kind of random, but he was the only one of them who lived alone with a spare room, so in a way it actually made sense.

Only Courfeyrac had raised some suspicion. When he had asked her if she and Enjolras were secretly sleeping together she thought Grantaire was going to choke on his drink. He later tried to explain this reaction as simply amusement at the idea of Enjolras secretly sleeping with anybody. She wasn't entirely sure if Courfeyrac completely bought her denial, but he seemed willing to accept it for now at least.

Their second week together started much the same as the first. They ate breakfast together on the Monday, with Enjolras asking her at least 5 times if she definitely had everything she needed. She didn't see him on the Monday night, but she did hear him come in just after 11 p.m. On the Tuesday morning he left before she even got up. She invited Cosette over that night, they ate take out and watched bad TV, and Eponine realized how much she actually missed her company.

When Cosette left just before midnight there was still no sign of Enjolras. Eponine was slightly worried that something may have happened to him, but she didn't really feel like it was her place to start texting him to ask where he was, that definitely felt like crossing some kind of line. So she left him a note to let him know there was left over food in the fridge and went to bed.

It was 2:11 a.m when she woke up. This was a common occurrence for Eponine, sleeping through the night had never been her strongest skill. After laying in bed for a good 20 minutes, failing miserably to get back to sleep, she decided to venture into the kitchen and get a drink.

When she opened her bedroom door and began to make her way down the hallway she was relieved to see a light coming from the living room, letting her know that Enjolras had finally made it home. Assuming that he had just forgotten to turn it off before going to bed she took a quick detour, only to find that he was still very much awake and sitting on the couch surrounded by reams of paperwork.

"Shit," she said, unable to hide the alarm in her voice. "Sorry, I didn't realize you were in here."

"Sorry," he said looking up at her and sounding beyond weary, "did I wake you?"

He had taken his tie off and undone nearly half of the buttons on his shirt. His hair was all over the place, clearly from where he kept pushing it out of his face. He looked completely disheveled and Eponine had never found him more attractive. She didn't know what was wrong with her, sure Enjolras was good looking, and sure she had noticed this before, but in that moment all she could do was stand there and try not to be overcome with the desire to jump him.

"Are you still working?" she asked, trying to appear casual.

"Yeah," he said.

"But it's like 2 in the morning."

"The deadline for most of this is tomorrow, so I need to get through it all before then."

"You work too hard."

He shrugged. "I don't mind."

"Anyway," she said, clearing her throat, "I was going to get a drink if you want something?"

"I'm OK, but thanks."

"Well, do you want some company?"

"Just because I'm dumb enough to sit up most of the night doesn't mean you have to aswell, you should go back to bed."

"I'm up now," she said, leaning up against the doorframe and crossing her arms. "But if you would rather sit out here and work by yourself that's fine."

He smiled. "OK then, maybe just for a little while."

"Just let me get my drink," she said. "You sure you don't want something?"

"A water might be good actually."

"That I can do."

She walked into the kitchen, turned the light on and leant over the countertop. She couldn't understand what was happening. It had to be hormones, that was it, she was just hormonal. She was pretty sure she had read something about this during one of her brief skims over the pregnancy book she bought the previous weekend. She tried to tell herself that she didn't actually want Enjolras, her body was just all over the place. For all she knew she would have wanted anyone she had seen in that moment, she may have even wanted Grantaire if he had had the misfortune of being there, but she definitely didn't want Enjolras. She took a deep breath, stood up and poured two glasses of water; trying to think of anything else besides the way his body had felt on top of hers, or the way his hands had gripped her hips.

When she walked back into the living room he smiled at her and she felt her stomach flutter. She needed to pull herself together.

"Thanks," he said as she handed him one of the glasses.

"You're welcome," she said, sitting down beside him. "So, do you always sit up half the night doing work?"

"Not normally, it's just because of this case, it's turned out to be so much bigger than we thought."

"Are you allowed to tell me what it's about or is it top secret?"

"Basically," he said, "a group of workers are suing a government department because they weren't paying them correct overtime or providing them with the right benefits, so they all eventually came together and decided to do something about it. It started pretty small but it has kind of spiraled now, turns out that particular department has been doing it to their employees for years. "

"Wow," Eponine said. "I should have realized it was all about taking down the powers that be, no wonder you don't mind working all those extra hours."

"Very funny," he said.

"Come on Enjolras, we both know there's nothing you love more than a good old attack on the establishment."

The first time Eponine had laid eyes on Enjolras he had been standing at the back of the Musain giving a highly impassioned speech about tuition fees. The whole way through university he had been at every protest going, he was particularly upset about the tuition fee rises, but he had taken to the streets multiple times over a variety of issues. Eponine had tagged along a couple of times when he had been speaking at rallies, not because she particularly cared for any of his causes, but because there was always a good chance she would see Marius there.

"I'm sorry I haven't been around much," Enjolras said, changing the subject. He sat back and pulled at his already loosened collar.

"That's OK," she said, "I don't expect you to just abandon your life to sit here with me all the time."

"I know, but I asked you to move in so we could try and be..." he stalled. "Well whatever this is, and I've barely seen you."

"Well look, we're spending time together now, so that's something right?"

He set his now half empty water glass down on the coffee table and ran his fingers through his hair. "Yeah," he said, smiling. "I guess it is."

Eponine downed the rest of her water and set her glass beside his. She tucked her legs up and tried to focus on anything else besides how much she wanted to kiss him. She was beginning to think that offering to sit with him for a while was a terrible idea.

"So what are you doing up anyway?" he asked.

"Just couldn't sleep, I'm not really a very good sleeper." she replied.

"Yeah, I remember," he muttered.

"What?"

"That night," he said, "you tossed and turned a lot. You were so restless I wondered if I should wake you up, I thought you might have been having a nightmare."

"Oh right," she said, suddenly feeling highly embarrassed. "Sorry about that. You should have just gone and slept in Cosette's bed."

"I didn't want to leave you," he said quietly. "I mean, I didn't want you to wake up and for me to be gone."

"You left pretty quickly the next morning though." she said, unable to hide the slight bitterness in her tone.

"I thought you would want me to go."

"Why?"

"Because it was awkward, and I didn't want to make it any worse."

"Do you regret it?"

"No." he replied. "Do you?"

"No."

Eponine felt the whole atmosphere in the room change, it was stifling, and there was no way Enjolras wasn't aware of it. He held her gaze until she couldn't take it anymore and forced herself to stare at one of the couch cushions instead. She should have just stayed in bed, she thought. She shouldn't have come out of her room and created this potentially lethal situation.

She felt him move closer. When she looked up their faces were almost touching. There was no going back now; he knew it as well as she did.

His lips only brushed against hers at first, as if he was waiting to for her to push him back and tell him to fuck off. Instead she pushed her mouth onto his, forcing him to kiss her properly. That was all the initiative he needed, she felt his hand snake round her waist, deepening the kiss as he pulled her into him. Eponine reached up and grabbed at his collar, running one of her fingers along the back of his neck. He sucked gently on her bottom lip and she felt her breath catch in the back of her throat.

"What are we doing?" she managed to mumble.

"Do you want me to stop?" he whispered, his lips still pressed against hers.

"No," she said. "Don't stop."