A/N- Wow, sorry guys! I've been away from this story for almost a month! Trust me though, it was worth it. I read Les Miserables and let me tell you, while the musical is the best adaptation that could've possibly been done, the book is INFINITELY better. Anyway, I started an Eponine-centric story (the first in a trilogy) over under the book fandom, entitled La floraison de la Rose. You should all go read it, even those who haven't read the book yet (mainly because I'm a review-slut *wink*). Anyway, this chapter was another one that was a total devil to write, and that's part of why I was so much delayed in posting it- I poked and prodded at it for awhile, then wrote the last 800 words or so at three in the morning and gave up on improving it. (Yeah, I put sooooo much effort into my fanfiction...)

4. A Slippery Character

Forcibly ejecting the quartet of soldiers did not prove as taxing as Eponine had feared. One of them had broken a stool in a drunken argument, and had put up something of a fuss about being turned out, but she had succeeded in chasing him out with some assistance from a fiery-eyed Roxanne. The other three had been more than happy to follow their swearing comrade into the night. The ladies that had been so attentive to them earlier in the evening immediately switched their attentions to other men, which caused Eponine to roll her eyes. How working girls managed to find the time to chase man after man completely baffled her. She certainly had no time or patience for it!

The rest of the night passed with relative normalcy. At some point late in the evening, just before the time Roxanne ordinarily closed her establishment, the majority of les Amis de l'ABC trooped out of the back room. A few of them nodded to her. Eponine gave a vague wave of her hand and ducked her head in embarrassment.

"Why do you let those rabble-rousers meet here?" she complained to Roxanne.

The sharp woman raised an eyebrow. "Those "rabble-rousers" are right," she said curtly. "Despite what you seem to think, I'm not that thick; I know what they're about."

"All they're going to do is cause trouble," Eponine muttered.

"My husband would have liked them," she responded in a positively icy tone.

Eponine knew better than to contradict a word she said once her husband had been invoked, if she valued her job at all. She quietly went back to wiping spilled wine from the tables.

Some fifteen minutes later, Roxanne shouted down the long hallway, "Alright, you lot! I'm closed up! Get out unless you intend to sleep here!"

The door to the back room opened and the last handful of occupants emerged. The handsome Enjolras exited first with a scowl on his face. Grantaire, beaming smugly, followed close behind him. As they passed through the common room on their way to the door, Eponine glanced up and happened to catch Enjolras's eye. Immediately, the irritation he had provoked in her earlier reemerged, and though she did not know it, showed plainly on her face. His scowl turned even colder in reply, and he quickened his pace.

Eponine did not have time to dwell on thoughts of the prideful young man, as she spotted a third pair of very short legs creeping along on the opposite side of Grantaire from her, apparently quite content in their belief of invisibility.

"Oh no you don't!" she exclaimed, and before Gavroche could get away, she darted around Grantaire to seize him sharply by the ear.

"Ow! Ow! Get off!" he cried.

"Trying to sneak out, were you?" she asked rhetorically. "Thinking you'd get out of trouble by taking to the streets again? I think not!"

Grantaire laughed. "He's a slippery one, your brother," he said. "Don't be too rough with him, Mademoiselle."

"We shall see," said Eponine evasively. "And as for you, I would appreciate it if you would keep my brother out of trouble, rather than helping him get into it."

"Whatever do you mean?" Grantaire asked innocently.

Eponine glared at him. "I know you were in on his little plan to avoid me," she said.

Grantaire tipped his hat to her, smirking. "A fine evening to you, Mademoiselle." So saying, he followed the long-departed Enjolras into the night.

Eponine rounded on Gavroche, whose ear she was still clenching tightly in her thin fingers. "As for you!" she exclaimed. "I've a few more things to do here before I can leave, but don't think you're going anywhere. Sit there. Yes, right there, in the middle of the room. I want you where I can see you!" Gavroche obeyed, wearing a look that seemed somewhere between a smirk and a pout.

Really, she was too happy at seeing Gavroche again to really be angry with him, but she didn't want him to know that. Her brother had been quite the little rogue from the moment he could walk, and she wished to teach him a little discipline. She just hoped she was capable of it. Their aunt was perfect for that sort of thing, quite liberal with the cane, but Eponine wasn't sure she was up to the task. Raising Azelma was one thing; she had always been a sweet and fairly pliable girl. Gavroche, though...

In just a few minutes, she had finished up the last of her tasks and, with a halfhearted wave to Roxanne, she crossed the room to where Gavroche was still sitting. "Come on, 'Vroche," she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him from his seat.

He resisted her tugging, but ultimately she was much taller and rather stronger, and managed to get him out into the street.

"Let go!" he cried. "Let go of me, I say!"

Eponine looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "For pity's sake, 'Vroche, you're not in trouble! I'm not going to scratch your eyes out!" she exclaimed in frustration. Then she tried with some effort to soften her tone. "I just don't want you getting away from me! We Thenardiers have to stick together, right?"

"I'm not a baby," he muttered sullenly. "I don't need my hand held!"

She resisted the urge to say something along the lines of "oh really?" and instead asked, "Can I trust you not to run off if I let you go?"

Gavroche put on a very innocent face. "Yes," he said.

Reluctantly, Eponine dropped his hand and let him walk beside her under his own power. He did not run off, for which she was grateful. The idea of chasing him through the streets of Paris was not a pleasant one, especially as he had already proved once tonight that he was rather faster than she. As they walked, Eponine studied him surreptitiously out of the corner of her eye. He was taller than when she had last seen him- and no surprise! It had been almost an entire year since she and Azelma had taken the coach back to Montreuil-sur-mer to visit him and Tante Adilene last Christmas. He was not dressed very warmly, and his clothes had holes. Grantaire had said that he'd started tagging along to their little back-room meetings three months before. Eponine suspected that he'd been living as a gamin since at least then, maybe even longer. His face was dirty and his hair was sticking up comically at the back.

A few minutes into their walk, Gavroche began to shiver from the cold. Wordlessly, Eponine took off her little gray cap and settled it on his head.

When they arrived home, Eponine discovered that Azelma had once again waited up for them.

Immediately she rose from her seat at the table and flew to Gavroche's side. "'Vroche!" she exclaimed, hugging him tightly. "What in heaven's name are you doing here?"

"That's what I intend to find out," Eponine muttered.

Gavroche studied first one sister, then the other. "The pullet fares better than the hen," he commented sagely, noting Eponine's thin frame contrasted with Azelma's blooming. Both sisters chose to ignore this.

"He's been in Paris three months at least," Eponine said gravely. "You said there was a letter from Adilene... has she only just written now?"

Azelma shrugged. "It's on the table still," she said, pointing to the envelope.

Eponine fell upon the letter and almost tore the sheet of paper inside in her haste to get the envelope open. By the light of the candle, she read the contents, and her face paled as she went on. Once she had finished the missive, she looked up at Azelma, positively stunned.

"She says... she says she's written to us twice before now to tell us Gavroche was gone, and because..." She swallowed heavily. "Because we seem so wholly disinterested in our brother's well-being, she's washing her hands of him for good. And us, too. For being such ingrates, apparently." Her tone managed to be both shocked and wry.

"But we never got the letters!" Azelma protested.

Eponine sighed. "As if that does us any good," she lamented. Then she squared her shoulders resolutely. "Well, we can do without her. It's not as if we can't manage, after all. Though with another mouth to feed, I think we shall have to eat black bread for awhile." She shot a look at Gavroche. "And as for you! What are you doing here? What possessed you to leave Adilene?"

Gavroche shrugged. "I had a yearning to see Paris," he said. "And Adilene's a crazed old bat, anyway. Quicker with the smackings than the feedings!"

"It might not have been perfect," Azelma said, "But it was safe and you had a place to live and you were in school... now Eponine says you've been living on the streets?"

"The gutter is a fine place for a seedling in the wind," he pointed out.

"You talk like a gamin now," Eponine said, a sigh behind her words. "Haven't I raised you any better than that?"

"Ah, but you haven't been raising me, have you? Old Adilene's been raising me, the sharp-eyed crone!"

Eponine rubbed at her temples tiredly, feeling the beginnings of a headache. Gavroche was too smart in the mouth for her to deal with him at this hour, and to be perfectly honest, she rather understood his reasoning. She had never liked Adilene either, and had only relied on her for necessity, and only for as long as she absolutely had to. The moment she had been able to support herself, she had been gone, and had taken Azelma to live with her just as soon as she was able. For some time now, they had been working to build up their income enough to support Gavroche as well. His precipitous departure from Montreuil-sur-mer had only really served to accelerate a process that had already been in motion.

"Fine, fine," she said. "I surrender. It was stupid of you, but good stupid. Just... no more running about like a wild thing."

Azelma took this as her cue to hug Gavroche again. "How did you even get to Paris?" she asked. "It's such a long way!"

Gavroche grinned. "There was a merchant with a cart-ful... he didn't notice a little bit of extra baggage."

Eponine wondered whether to be shocked, or to be proud of her brother's resourcefulness. It was times like this that she briefly, wistfully, thought of her mother. Eloise Thenardier had not been an admirable woman, nor had she been a good mother, and Eponine knew this, rationally. In her heart of hearts, however, she couldn't hate the woman, and wished she could ask her how on earth to manage an unruly child.

"Alright, you two," she said to her siblings. "It's late, and I at least have to be awake quite early tomorrow. 'Vroche, Azelma, you take the bed. I'll spread out a blanket in front of the stove, that's as good as anywhere."

A/N- Writing Gavroche is hard. He's my favorite character, bar none, but writing Gavroche is hard! Anyway, more of the history of the Thenardier siblings and their life with Adilene is going to be explored, never fear, but I prefer to do a slow reveal rather than tell all immediately.

...Reviews? Please and thank you?