Thank you to the three people that followed this story and two that favorited(: It means a lot to me, and I hope you enjoy.

And thanks to the amazing Snakequeen-in-Norway for being my beta!

"Still pretending to be poor, Marius?" Éponine asked, leaning against the alley wall.

Marius rolled his eyes. "Are you still pretending to be rich, Éponine?"

"I am not pretending anything. I'm helping people."

Marius laughed. "I am helping people as well, just in a different way."

Éponine scoffed and half turned away. "Where is my brother?"

Marius pointed toward the open door of the ABC Café and disappeared through it. Éponine ran a hand through her hair before following him in.

She felt awfully out of place once she was inside, in her expensive dress and holding a large basket filled with food. She immediately saw Gavroche standing beside the tall boy with curly hair, Enjolras. He didn't see her, his eyes focused intently on a spot somewhere to his left.

Enjolras announced, "Everybody, listen up!"

Gavroche looked down and exclaimed loudly, "General Lamarque is dead!"

Chatter broke out around them, and Éponine saw Marius look around, startled.

Enjolras said, "The people will be outraged. They will join us at the barricades. Tomorrow, we rally against the king and we fight!"

The people inside the Café broke into a loud cheer, clapping and screaming in approval. Éponine jumped, startled at the abrupt change in mood. Her brother wanted to join these people? She could not fathom his desire to fight; but then, she realized, perhaps in a different world—a world in which Cosette and her father had not saved her from all this—she might be just as bloodthirsty.

A few minutes passed, and the cheering faded into disjointed conversations; Éponine wove through the tables to stand by her brother. A few people noticed her and stared with skeptical looks on their faces, but she did her best to ignore them.

"Gavroche, this is mad," she said quietly. "You can't expect to fight the army with a bunch of inexperienced boys not much older than you!" Her brother turned to glare at her. "Most of them are your age Éponine. And we won't be alone."

"Oh yes, you are all relying on the people to come and die alongside you."

"They will and we aren't going to die! You will see."

Éponine huffed, annoyed, and set the old wicker basket down in front of him.

She turned, ready to leave, when he said, "Why do you even bother?"

"What do you mean, Gavroche?"

He scowled. "Why do you bother bringing me food like you care about what happens to me?"

Éponine blanched. "You think I do not care about you?"

"Of course you do not! You left me here on the streets to try and fend for myself with nothing while you went to play duchess!"

"I did not want to leave you alone, Gavroche, but Monsieur Fabre could not take another person in, and I have done my best to care for you through it all."

Gavroche was about to retort when the doors flew open to reveal Cosette. She seemed to have startled everyone, even herself, when she entered. For a moment, she was frozen in place, eyes searching the room.

When she saw her friend, she said, "Éponine!" The other girl blinked. "We must go now. Father needs us home immediately."

Éponine reach down and hugged her brother, then rushed to the blonde's side; the two girls left the Café.

Standing at the side, unnoticed by both of them, was Marius. He had never before seen the other girl, despite having heard about her from Éponine in passing conversations. She was very beautiful, with what must have been the face of an angel. She was gone as quickly as she had arrived, but Marius felt as though his whole world had changed in that instant.

Outside the Café, Éponine and Cosette were following the streets to where Cosette had left her father minutes before to look for the other girl. When they found him, he was in the middle of a squabble with a poor man. Upon reaching his side, the man turned on the two girls, his eyes wild and crazed. "Éponine?" He croaked. She recoiled, disgusted at the grimy man as he reached for her. A woman appeared from behind the man, and Éponine finally recognized the two, her eyes going wide.

"No!" She exclaimed, taking a step back. Valjean understood what was going on at once, and though he had recognized the ex-innkeepers from before, he hadn't had the two girls with him. Quickly, he said, "Come girls, it's time to go home." He put a hand on each of their shoulders and guided them away.

Éponine heard her father call after them, "You bastard! I'll get you for this, mark m'words, I'll get you!"

They rushed home, and upon arriving, Valjean said, "Girls, we need to go. I've made the arrangements, and we can be in Britain the day after tomorrow. I have the train tickets, we are due to leave tomorrow morning."

The two girls headed to the room they shared, both lost in their own thoughts. Cosette had known that the move was coming, since they had moved all the time when she was younger and had been living in the same home for over three and a half years. Éponine, however, did not want to leave—at least not now, not when her younger brother was planning on joining an underground army and getting himself killed. She knew why they had to, though. Her father had raved on for months and months about how mad he was that he had allowed Cosette (whose name he never did get correct) to be bought by a convicted felon that was on the run. Éponine had known that this man was the supposedly dangerous Jean Valjean from the start—though she suspected that Cosette was ignorant—but he was so kind she often forgot. Either way, she understood why they needed to leave Paris, but she had to find a way to keep her brother among the living.

The two girls packed their most important belongings, resolving to leave a lot of superficial things there—they would buy more once they reached Britain, especially since the styles were different.

Once all of what Éponine planned on bringing was packed, she said to Cosette, "Would your father mind if I wrote my brother a letter and ran out to deliver it?"

Cosette paused, then said, "If you are quick about it, I am sure he will understand."

Éponine nodded and sat down on her bed, grabbing a quill and popping open a bottle of ink. She wrote out the first letter to her brother, careful not to reveal too much of where they were going or how they would be getting there. Then she wrote out a rather lengthier one to Marius, telling him much more and begging him to take care of Gavroche. She moved to sign her name before pausing, knowing it would be her very last chance to tell him how she truly felt. After tonight, it was likely she would never see him again. She stared at the paper for a long time before penning the confession that she loved him, and that she had to tell him now, because if she did not, she would probably end up regretting it for the rest of her life. She folded up the letters and sealed them before writing the appropriate names. Once they had dried, she stripped off her overcoat, replacing it with a cloak over her dress. Slipping the letters and a small change purse filled with coins into the pocket of her skirt, she ducked out of the room. Valjean was in his study, and she quickly said, "I will be back in a few moments, I promise." Then left before anyone could protest her leaving the house.

It wasn't quite dark yet, and she found her way back to the ABC Café easily. For the most part, everyone was still there from earlier, and someone had decided to pull out a keg of beer; the placed seemed much more crowded from the rowdy people.

She found Marius, sober, near the window, and handed him both letters along with the money. "Please, make sure Gavroche gets the coins with this letter…the second is for you. I really must be going now." She tried to smile at him, sure it came out as more of a grimace, before slipping back out of the café.

She was crying as she made her way back to what would soon become her old home. Éponine truly didn't want to leave the city she'd lived in for her whole life, even though she had been been very unhappy for a large part of her teenage years. By the time she'd arrive back in the room she shared with Cosette, her eyes were red and puffy, but she had run out of tears.

Cosette was at the seat by the window, staring outside absently. Éponine discarded her cloak and tapped the blonde on the shoulder.

Cosette jumped, then said, "Did you get you letter—what is wrong? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," lied the dark-haired girl, voice cracking.

Cosette frowned. "Tell me what has happened, Éponine."

"I—I have spoken of Marius to you, Cosette. I am going to have to leave him, and the chances are that I shall never see him again. It is just very difficult." Cosette frowned, "I am so sorry, Éponine."

"It is okay, and I do understand why we must leave."

Cosette nodded, and Éponine let the subject drop by going to finish packing up her bag. The latter knew that her friend—practically her sister—did not truly understand why they were leaving, and was lucky. Not only to be ignorantly blissful, but also that the only people that Cosette cared about were moving with her to Britain.

Almost as soon as Cosette and Éponine were done gathering their belongings, Valjean appeared at their open door. "Girls," he said, "I have found us a place that we might stay for the night, closer to the party we will be traveling with. Come, grab your things."

Éponine was caught slightly off guard, but when she glanced over at Cosette, the other girl seemed as though she were used to doing things like this. They grabbed their bags and followed Valjean out of the room; he had very little with him, only two bags—one large and one small—that he carried as though they weighed nothing. The driver held the door open for the girls, and Valjean climbed in once they were seated; once the door was closed, they were off. Éponine could hear the even clip-clop of the horse's hooves in front of them, and the steady squeak of the right rear wheel. They rode for a quarter of an hour before stopping. Éponine pulled the curtain off the window just enough so she could see the front of a hotel that she knew to be near the eastern border of the city. The door swung open again, and the driver escorted the two girls out of the cab and into the lobby.

After all their things had been brought inside, Valjean checked them into a room on the fourth floor. Cosette took to it immediately, smiling and twirling in their private offshoot. She threw open the doors to the balcony and stepped outside, smiling into the cool night.

Éponine, on the other hand, wasn't at all interested in the hotel room, for she knew what was happening across the city and wanted almost nothing more than to be there, to keep her brother and Marius safe. Instead, she was waiting in a cushy hotel room for morning to come, when she would leave the only place she'd ever known as home for a new city filled with people that didn't even speak her language. Cosette seemed absolutely content waiting, but then, the only people she'd had any real interaction with were Éponine and her father.

Éponine sat on one of the beds, watching the other girl as she relaxed on the little balcony. It was as though the blonde lived in a different world, a different life, the way Cosette was always so carefree and full of compassion. Éponine had been berated and broken as she was used by her parents, by the inn's customers, and, later, by rich men as she begged for money on the street. She could not be like Cosette, so ready to trust and to love anyone. So able to forgive anyone for their wrongs. Whenever she could, Éponine tried and tried to repay the other girl, to be worthy of the forgiveness that was so readily given for the way she had acted when they were children. At least living on the streets, she felt like she was getting what she deserved. Living the rich life with Cosette and her father made Éponine feel dirty and criminal. Where Cosette always looked like an angel straight from heaven, Éponine felt as though she were a spirit from Hell, merely impersonating someone worthy.

After a few minutes, Cosette came inside and changed into her night dress. "It is getting late, and we have to get up early in the morning. I'm going to go to bed."

"Sounds like a good idea," said Éponine, following the other girl's example.