A/N: I'm back from New York! It was a lot of fun, but unfortunately I did not see Aaron Tveit. I wasn't really expecting to, but that doesn't mean I wasn't looking for him… I could not find anywhere where he lives I saw Newsies and it was phenomenal, but sadly Les Mis was not currently playing on Broadway. OOOOO someone should write an Enjonine Newsies fic… Anyways my trip inspired me to write a Modern NY Enjonine fic that I will start when I finish this one.
Colin sat expectantly in the carriage with his eyes nervously flickering between Eponine and Enjolras. The pair had been immensely vague as they explained that it was already time to return to Paris, but they both were in a foul mood. It even soured the air and effected Colin's normally chipper mood.
"I understand th-"
"Don't even speak," Enjolras snapped silencing the words on Colin's tongue. Colin looked quite frightened, but he kept his mouth, not even daring to make a sound.
The trio had been riding in silence for what seemed hours. Day was already fading into night, yet only a few terse words had been exchanged during the entire duration of the carriage ride. Eponine and Enjolras' steam had not vanished quite yet, and they looked as though they would attack the next person to look at them. Colin did not want to test that theory.
The moon was so big and yellow in the sky that it did not seem to be night at all, and Colin had to convince himself that the day was ending. He was glad, now, for a reason to be silent. The earlier silence had seemed too forced and stiff, unsaid words were thickening the air in the cabin and suffocating him.
Colin eventually began to drift off into an uneasy sleep, but he woke up immediately when he heard voices quietly discussing something. He kept his eyes shut so Enjolras and Eponine would not see he had woken.
"I would apologize for the way my uncle behaved, but I did not control his actions. I know that you do not want to hear 'sorry.' You hate it when people are sorry for you,'" Enjolras whispered to Eponine taking her hand for the first time since they left. Eponine seemed to instantly soften at the contact.
"I should be the one being sorry for you! After all, you are bound to the man through blood. Family is family, and you can't choose who is in your family," Eponine sighed obviously thinking about her cruel father.
"But what if you can choose your family?" Enjolras muttered so silently that Colin almost couldn't hear it.
"What do you mean, Enjolras?" Eponine asked, and Colin could percept the confusion in her tone. Enjolras cleared his throat nervously, and Colin heard him rustling around to sit on Eponine's side of the bench.
"I am not someone to do reckless things, and this may be the most ridiculous thing I have ever done in my life. But I feel like I have known you for years, and I know that I will never stop loving you. I am not good with emotions and conveying my sentiment, but I want to be better for you. I want to wake up next to you for the rest of my mornings, and your voice is the first thing I want to hear every single day. Some people need love in their life to distract them from the bad, but Eponine, having you in my life creates miracles that I never thought possible, and you destroy the pain in my life. Loving you is the most natural thing I have ever done, and it makes my life a life worth living. And I know I am rambling a bit, so let me get to my point: Eponine, will you marry me? Will you be my family?" Enjolras asked shakily as he drew an old ring wrapped in a purple cloth from his pocket. He looked quite afraid, yet very determined.
Eponine for the first time in her life cried happy tears. She wept as exclaimed 'yes!' and she threw herself upon her fiancé.
Her fiancé.
Eponine covered Enjolras' face in sweet kisses, and Colin wished he was still sleeping. He felt like he was intruding a private moment; this seemed to become a pattern.
"Agnes gave me this ring before we left; she said it was my mother's. She told me that she had never witnessed two people who loved each other more than I love you, and that when I got around to proposing I should take my mother's ring. I was going to ask you after the revolution, but I realize now talking to you I might not get a chance. I want the world to see how much I love and need you, even if we may not be living in a few months," Enjolras said before attacking Eponine's mouth with his own.
He used to be shy when he kissed Eponine, but he had quickly grown more familiar with the action, and he was fearless. He bolding grabbed her waist and beckoned her closer to him, and Colin had already had enough.
He did not want a repeat of what had happened in the café.
"Time to go to bed!" Colin grunted as he revealed to the couple he was quite awake. Eponine blushed as she separated herself from her fiancé, and she rested her head on his shoulder.
"Good night," she said cheerfully.
"It is a good night indeed," Enjolras responded quietly.
Sleep claimed the three occupants of the carriage swiftly and blessed them with pleasant dreams of a better tomorrow. The rest of trip rolled on smoothly, but Enjolras seemed to still hold a major grudge over his uncle.
After many stops and many roads traveled on, they arrived home to Paris. Eponine flung herself out of the carriage before the men could even stand up, and she began to worship the Paris streets by kissing them and she blessed the sunshine.
"Freedom! Freedom at last!" Eponine cried out. A baffled look from Colin went unnoticed by Eponine.
"She really missed this place," Enjolras said blatantly, and Colin let out a chuckle. Clara and Grantaire were in a black carriage directly behind theirs seeing as Jacques would not allow them to stay another minute more.
"Enjolras, can we go to the café? Then we can take a nice walk around Paris!" Eponine begged. Enjolras grabbed her hand.
"As you wish," he said. "But first, we need to haul our luggage inside."
The second the boys and Eponine had successfully placed the luggage securely inside, Eponine sprinted to the café. Enjolras and Colin were far behind her, but they would catch up soon enough. The second she pushed through the doors, a pile of men swarmed her.
"Eponine? Where have you been? Was Enjolras with you? Clara and Grantaire left as well, and none of us had any idea as to where you disappeared off to! Marius and Cosette left for Provence, but at least they explained their disappearance!" Bahorel shouted from the back of the mob.
"You vanished! We thought you were dead!" Combeferre raged. Eponine had never seen any of them this angry. She had never been the best of friends with any of them, but she had recently become closer to Les Amis.
"I was worried you had caught a disease! You aren't currently sick, are you?" Joly asked stepping back from Eponine, and she rolled her eyes at the worried doctor.
"I am not sick, I was traveling," Eponine said cryptically as she mysteriously floated to a table and sat down. She had piqued the boys' curiosity, and they followed her to her table like a flock of sheep. Eponine smirked triumphantly.
"With who? Where did you even go?" Jehan demanded. Eponine threw her head back and laughed. Eponine felt a smug smile spread onto her face, but her answer was cut off when Enjolras and Colin barged into the café.
"Eponine, I do not know how you have so much endless energy," Enjolras said shaking his head. A loud laugh escaped Eponine's mouth as Les Amis looked at Enjolras in total surprise.
"Where did you bloody go? Is Grantaire with you?" Courfeyrac yelled. The boys immediately rounded on Enjolras. "Who is that with you?"
The questions were endless, and Eponine's laughter was ringing out through the café.
"Eponine and I went to Provence accompanied by my sister and Grantaire. They have returned as well, but I do not know where they have gone off to. This is Colin, a friend we met during our stay. He will be living with me for several days, and then he will return home. Oh, and Clara and Grantaire got engaged, by the way," Enjolras said nonchalantly. Eponine remembered her own engagement ring, and she began to flaunt in front of her hoping one of Les Amis would notice it.
"They got engaged?!" everyone shouted at once. "Grantaire actually chose one girl to spend the rest of his life with? I even expected Enjolras to get engaged before him!"
"Well…" Enjolras began, but his words faded as he noticed Jehan staring at Eponine's hand. His eyes seemed to be bugging out of his head, and some of the Les Amis trained their eyes to see what he was looked at. Some of them gasped, even.
"Eponine, is that an engagement ring?" Prouvaire exclaimed, voicing what they were all thinking. Eponine nodded her head in such an excitement, Enjolras assumed her neck would snap at the ferocity.
"Who are you engaged to? Do not tell me it's Enjolras," Bahorel said in a teasing manner, assuming that it was some other man that they had never met before. The smile wiped clean off his face, and everyone else's for that matter, when Eponine uttered one word.
"Yes."
A/N" It was so pollen-y outside, my mom's car was completely yellow. So of course I wrote: TO THE BARRICADES on the back of it. If you passed a car that said that, you passed my car! Lucky you! Then my brother drew a French flag on his window; he knows what's up.