My Best Friend's Wedding
Disclaimer: This fic is all of my own making, but the characters are Victor Hugo's.
AN: So, here comes Marius! And Cosette! And some lovely awkwardness to ease your minds when the world is dark and terrible. Be safe everyone!
Chapter three: Liars and Fools
The door opens and there he is – the love of her life. She finally sees Marius again after a very long time, and the only downside to this is the voluptuous blonde standing next to him with a bland smile on her face. The fact that she looks vaguely familiar can be written off by her resemblance to every girlfriend Marius ever had.
At least the idiot is consistent in his type.
"Marius," she goes in for a hug, as is custom with the two of them.
"Eppie," the way he hugs her back is more distant than before, and that hurts.
His stupid fiancée appears to be eyeing her every move, because apparently all she has to do to be considered a threat to the relationship is to hug her best friend. Sure, she is indeed planning to screw up the wedding, but she doubts that she is telegraphing her intentions so clearly. The fiancée has an obvious jealous streak, and she can definitely exploit that into Marius needing to choose again. He chose her the last time, and there is no reason why he will not choose her again – she is his oldest friend after all.
Still, she wants a real hug from Marius, not this farce.
"I cannot believe that you still call me that," she pretends to be ultra amused by the old nickname to hide the pain. "It's been years since people called me Eppie. Not since…"
Not since when they were still innocent children. Marius is the only one who never stopped calling her Eppie, and that is something she has always held on to.
"Miss Gardiner's class," she and Marius speak simultaneously.
She was the favorite teacher for just a few students, but she loved Miss Gardiner like she never loved another teacher after her – Miss Gardiner was the only teacher who noticed that her home life was more bad than merely different. Still, nothing changed.
"Was it fourth or fifth grade?" Marius cannot quite remember.
"It was fourth grade," she knows it all too well. "Mrs. D was in fifth grade."
If there was ever a terrible and rude teacher, it was Mrs. D. That woman hated everything that did not fit into her idea of the perfect little world – and even as a kid, she never bothered too much with fitting in with anyone. Just being a good person was enough of a challenge with parents like hers teaching her all about gray areas before she even figured out what these teachings meant. She was always meant to be different.
"Right," Marius nods, and then motions to the blonde standing beside him. "Eppie, meet my Cosette. Cosette, dear, meet my old friend Éponine."
Cosette is just the kind of beautiful young woman that she could never be, with perfect golden hair and cornflower blue eyes and skin in a pale shade that is usually only found in children's dolls. She is basically everything that she herself is not: cultured where she is brash, graceful ballerina where she has always been a tomboy. She is not sure how this could hurt more than it already does. Does Marius like her so little?
"Nice to meet you," she puts a fake smile on her face for Marius' sake.
"Éponine Thénardier?" the blonde is eyeing her like she is dirt underneath a shoe.
Obviously this has something to do with her parents, because there is no way that she herself harmed this girl that she has never even met.
"Yep, that's me," she figures that she might as well own up to her name.
"Do you remember me?" comes the next crazy question from this Cosette.
Did Marius date her once before? She does not remember a Cosette ever being mentioned before, but maybe the girl went by a nickname or something. Only Marius does not seem to think that she should know this girl, so there must be some other reason why this girl seems to know her. Were they in a college class together maybe?
"Should I?" she looks the girl over, not seeing anything that would help her remember.
With a look to 'Jolras, who also does not seem to know what Cosette is talking about, she shrugs and waits for the bomb to burst. She has no idea what is going on.
"Your parents took me in when I was young," the woman bites at her.
Her parents never took in a girl named Cosette. They took in Peter and Jack only. But wait, before Peter and Jack they had this girl living with them that she cannot quite remember – but the girl's name was not Cosette. Her name was -
"Lark?" she blurts out, stunned at the coincidence.
"That has never been my name," Cosette is not happy to be remembered.
"That's what my parents said I should call you," she shrugs, not knowing what to say.
Back then she was still her Daddy's little girl, and she still did whatever Mommy and Daddy told her to do. Her parents were still members of local high society back then, and they were respected everywhere they went – so why not listen to them? Also, she was just a little girl and little girls usually listen to their parents.
"Your parents are terrible people," that is nothing new to her.
"You will get no disagreement there," she pretends to be careless about this.
She is not a little girl any longer, and she can say without hesitation that her parents are terrible people and that she hates them for what should have been a carefree childhood but ended up being a harsh lesson in how the world works.
"Do you two know each other?" Marius is once again the last to figure it out.
"Before I met you," she stammers, "before we moved… My parents occasionally took in kids, provided that the parents could pay them enough money."
It was all about the money in those days – the days after the hotel was gone.
"I was one of those kids," Cosette continues the explanation she started.
"You were one of three," she feels like adding. "Peter and Jack came after you."
The names seem to ring a bell with Marius, and the pained look on his face tells her that he remembers exactly what happened to Peter and Jack. Enjolras just looks confused, but she is not in the mood to care about his feelings about this.
"Can we just not talk about this any longer?" she demands. "K, thanks."
This whole charade is terrible enough without the walk down memory lane with the walking reminder that she is never going to be good enough. How can she still be so fucking insecure about this after all of these years? Should she not have grown out of this already? She should be better than this, damn it.
"How can I not know?" Marius is not happy that Cosette did not tell him this before.
"I hated it there," Cosette replies vindictively.
"That makes two of us," she bites back, hoping her voice does not crack.
It does not, so she at least has that. But apparently even Enjolras has picked up on the pain and awkwardness, and he sees a chance to play up their act. His eyes ask permission, and she tries to nod imperceptibly – he can go for it for all she cares. What she does not expect is for him to simply tuck her into his arms as he comes to stand behind her. She is warmer and feels safer, and she tries to be comfortable as well.
While it does not make the pain go away, it does make her remember she is not alone, and that is something that she really needs to remember at this point.
"Marius, I'm sure you remember 'Jolras," she grins at the surprised looks.
"Of course I do," he sticks his tongue out at her. "How have you been?"
Sure, while Cosette seems surprised at this latest development, Marius seems completely focused on seeing his college friend again. He is not noticing that this college friend is currently practically wrapped around his best friend of twenty years in a way that would be hard to see as completely platonic. This should be good.
"Busy," Enjolras appears to be waiting for him to get it.
"But I got him to come to these weeks of debauchery, using my feminine wiles," she decides to just go for it, seeing as Marius can be rather dense.
There is an exaggerated wink aimed at Enjolras, as she attempts to face him during her little speech without disturbing their perfect tableau too much. Enjolras appears to be trying to hide laughter as he sees Marius slowly losing his mind over this.
"What?" Marius sputters, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets. "Are you two-?"
Are they – going at it behind closed doors? Are they bunk buddies? Are they doing the nasty, making the beast with two backs, fucking? He needs to finish his sentence.
"He's my date," she continues to be a bit evasive with her answers.
Marius can make of that what he will, and everything can still be left open for interpretation by everyone – and she did not even have to lie all that much, which is always a big bonus for her. When everything comes out – after Marius has ditched stupid Cosette – she will just tell him that he was the one who interpreted the relationship between her and Enjolras as romantic, and that they just went with it to see if he would believe them. Or something. She will have thought of something by then.
"I thought you'd be immune to her feminine wiles, Enjolras," Marius turns to 'Jolras.
"It turns out that not even I can be immune to Ponine when she turns up the charm," the response that he gets from Enjolras is just really fucking beautiful.
The wonderful creature that is her partner in crime just played up her feminine wiles without needing even the slightest bit of coaching from her. He even used a nickname, implying that there is a kind of intimacy between the two of them that Marius would not know of. Yes, Enjolras is actually more than kind of brilliant.
"You have changed, my friend," Marius nods sagely.
No shit, Sherlock, is all that she wants to say to that. It has been a long time since the two friends last saw each other, and just about anything could have happened during that time. Even the most set in their ways people change – or at least, that is what they want Marius to believe. He has to believe it for their ploy to work.
Still, during their conversation about their wonderful relationship all of the attention was on the two of them, as even Marius seemed to forget Cosette was even there – and now the woman in question is not amused. She huffs and tries to get their attention, and mostly just succeeds in annoying her and making Enjolras respond with some more of his wonderful theatrics. She is mentally preparing for the fall-out.
"Apologies, mademoiselle," he lets his arms fall and makes a mock bow for Cosette. "I am Enjolras. I went to college with Marius once upon a time."
He acts as if that was so very long ago, while she still feels like she remembers college well enough for it to have happened just yesterday – even though they all graduated college six years ago. Enjolras and Marius went back for law school after, making them only three years out of school to her six. She kind of wants to tease the both of them about that to see how they would respond to it, but she is distracted by the remaining frown on Cosette's face. Yeah, she is probably never going to like her.
"Is that your first or your last name?" Cosette is not satisfied with that name.
"It is what I prefer to be called," his tone is closed off and distant again.
She really wonders what the story behind all of this is, but she also knows that trying to get Enjolras to reveal anything is pretty close to impossible. He is closed off from everyone, even his pretend girlfriend or date. Still, if she wants to be a convincing date, she is going to have to give it a try – even though he will hate it.
"Oh, come off it, lover," she plays up the romance aspect again.
There is a pout on her lips that is supposed to entice a man to kiss it away – and she thinks that it might even have worked if the guy she was trying it on was anyone other than the Marble Man. Still, she is not even doing this as any kind of real seduction attempt; she just hopes to distract him from whatever demons make it impossible for him to talk about his full name. She only aims to make him smile.
"You will have to do better than that," the corners of his mouth turn up.
"There are many things that I can promise you as a reward," she dangles the fake bait in front of him like the proverbial carrot. "You will like these things."
That will definitely put some rather interesting mental pictures in the minds of both Marius and Cosette, which is what they are both aiming for at the moment.
"Maybe later," the deadpan tone in Enjolras' voice is only obvious to her.
At least he seems to be amused again, which was a big part of her current goal. When they are alone again, she is going to have to talk to him about how easy it is to fool Marius with this – she had never expected him to believe it so easily, with just a few jokes about their relationship and a dramatic hug. 'Jolras is actually having fun.
"Is that a promise?" there is a saucy wink aimed in his direction.
"Cross my heart," he even makes the appropriate gesture in response.
He looks like an overgrown boy scout now, even though the curls throw off that mental picture a little. She likes him better when he is casual, not wearing one of his stupid work suits – he is more approachable like he is now, wearing casual slacks and a shirt that is not completely buttoned. She is actually hoping to get him in jeans and a t-shirt at some point, because she fully believes that he could be a lady magnet in that kind of outfit. She foresees some panties being thrown at him in the future.
These panties may or not be hers – she has a pathological need to mess with him.
"Marius did not tell me that you were together," looks like Marius is going to be sleeping on the couch. "Now I have to change the seating chart again. I just got it finished."
Helping Cosette with this would give her another opportunity to dole out some more subtle stings to the other woman, and she knows that she has to take that chance when it is offered to her on something that closely resembles a silver platter. There are so many hijinks that would go over easier with the perfect seating chart.
"I can help," she offers innocently. "Over the years, I have met most, if not all, of Marius' friends. I know which people you should seat together and which people you should keep apart. See, you must seat as many of the Amis together as you possibly can!"
That is the best start on wreaking any kind of havoc at that wedding: getting as much pranksters together at one table as they possibly can. Just seating her next to R will provide them with enough fodder for greatness to last hours.
"The Amis?" now Cosette just looks confused. "Who are they?"
Oh wow, now it just looks like Marius has been keeping secrets from his beloved Cosette, and that just makes her a very happy girl. She did not even have to do anything for this part, because Marius is already sabotaging his own relationship without even knowing that he is doing it. Cosette is not happy that she does not know some important things about him and his past – which makes her want to giggle, because it is obvious that Cosette has not told Marius everything either. They are both secretive hypocrites, and that will probably prove to be their undoing. That and her manipulation skills.
"You don't know?" she makes sure to emphasize that. "They are the old group from college. 'Jolras is also a part of the group. They are all absolutely hilarious."
There simply are not enough words to perfectly describe these guys and their continued need for hilarity, pranks, and jokes. They have the worst convoluted plans that they try to keep secret from 'Jolras and/or Marius, and that always somehow leads to them being found in an embarrassing situation by the men in question. She has caught them a few times, but they always try to include her in their plans.
"Grant is coming," Marius seems happy about that, "and he is bringing a date, so he should be subdued enough. We should not put him next to Eppie, though."
That is a part of her plan that she was not expecting to fall through. The old Marius was always so terribly amused at the jokes she and R would pull – even though he was often the victim of these jokes. Is this Marius pretending to be a real grown up?
"Why not?" she is offended at this. "I adore R."
"You two always cause such trouble when you're together," Marius wags a finger at her jokingly. "And he might hurt you for taking Enjolras away from him."
For fuck's sake Marius, this is not the time to be joking about something like that, especially not with 'Jolras right there and looking positively ill at the implication that everyone knew about this but him. She is now, more than ever, glad that she chose to tell him about it before someone else tried to tell it to him in a stupid joke.
"For the love of…," Enjolras does not appreciate being hit below the belt.
"Just leave it, Marius," she immediately bites back. "He already knows."
She never snaps at Marius like that – or at least, she has never really done so before, and especially not for another man. It could be a wake up call for Marius, but at this moment the wounded look that 'Jolras has on his face seems a lot more important than Marius ending his obliviousness. Her partner in crime is uncomfortable and he should not be, because he has given R his explanation about why he does not feel the same way, and still people continue to remind him of it. Also, it is just disrespectful to R's attempts to move on from his feelings. R is actually just the original badass.
"Should you not take my side in this, Eppie, for old times' sake?" Marius makes puppy eyes at her in the same way that used to make her melt all of the time.
"I guess that does not mean so much anymore," she says. "Besides, I'm with 'Jolras."
Marius was the one who made their friendship feel like a stupid afterthought, and now she is just following his lead like she always did when they were kids. Only she is not just following a lead, she is being proactive and standing up for her new friend.
"I would make her sleep on the couch," her date sounds completely serious.
"I thought only women could do that," Cosette falls for it.
Not only is that idea pretty sexist, it is just hilarious to her that not only would Enjolras try the joke but he would succeed because Cosette lacks the innate ability to tell when someone is joking or when they are definitely being serious. Then again, as a lawyer Enjolras needs a damn good poker face, and he has pretty much perfected it when he was the unofficial leader of the Amis. They never got his humor – and neither did she, at that time – but she thinks that the times have changed now.
"Your deadpan look is still pretty good, lover," she laughs softly and carefully.
"I have had practice," he is obviously referring to his time with the Amis.
This is making her regret all of those times that she thought he was a stick in the mud when the Amis went out to do something – because she undoubtedly missed some subtle part of his wonderfully devious sense of humor.
"It is too bad that I do not take you seriously when you are like this?" she ponders.
"I like that about you," he grins at her, and it is breathtaking.
Now she is not quite sure whether these things that they are saying are a part of the ruse or whether they are a real affirmation of their new friendship. She now indeed knows not to take him so seriously all of the time, especially not when he is masterfully messing with Marius and his new fiancée. Sure, as his date and/or girlfriend she would have already known that, but as his new friend she now knows that as well.
"Wait, there are times when the great Enjolras is not serious?" Marius mocks.
"He is quite playful in bed," she just has to go there.
The thing is, she imagines that the moment when he finally realizes that he is actually attracted to a lucky man or woman – she will never define his sexuality even in a hypothetical situation – will actually reveal that he can indeed be a very playful guy with this lucky person. Once you get his sense of humor, he is fucking hilarious and she has no reason to believe that this would not translate to the bedroom or whatever room he and his significant other choose. And now she is going to stop imagining.
"And that is more than I ever wanted to know about that," Marius is not amused.
Well, she knows more than she ever wanted to know about his ex-girlfriends and their qualities – or their lack of them – in the bedroom or coatroom. This is not even payback for that, this is important for Enjolras' reputation, because when they finally fake a break-up, she thinks that his lack of experience will be seen as the reason. She is perfectly okay with leaving the cause of their fake-up completely on her shoulders.
"It is good to hear that I make you happy," the word happy gets a pointed emphasis.
"Very much so," there is another wink in it for him for that beautiful pun.
Due to her love for Buffy in her teenage years, she is very aware that the word happy can have many interesting connotations, and she is willing to use all of them and happy to find out that he knows it as well and is willing to go along with her.
"You two are just too weird together," her old friend shakes his head.
"What makes you think it is weird?" she just has to ask that question.
"Besides Enjolras here saying that his true love is Patria?" Marius raises a good point.
Yeah, there is definitely nothing that she is going to be able to say about that – at least, nothing that will be really convincing. If they want to make people buy their story, 'Jolras has to go on the record to say that his opinions on the subject has changed, and even then they have to think of a really good reason for the two of them to connect in a more than platonic way. She has no ideas on the subject, and that is just plain bad.
"My judgment might have been a bit hasty in saying that," Enjolras has to lie.
"Cosette, just pinch me," Marius holds out his arm dramatically, looking at his stunned fiancée. "I think Enjolras just admitted he was wrong about something."
Yeah, so while Marius is pretending to have changed in some aspects, she can still see the insecure little boy in him when he loses all maturity and acts like a tool. He always does that when something surprises him, but she figured he would get over that.
"Stop making fun of him," she has had it with Marius' douchebag behavior.
At this point, she is done with letting this happen – especially when it involves 'Jolras – and she is going to start calling him on it. Cosette should be the one doing that, but she is pointedly standing to the side and waiting for the three of them to deal with this without as much as a word from her. Wow, she really does not like her at all.
"I am sorry Enjolras," Marius apologizes. "I tend to act like a tool when I am surprised."
"I can definitely vouch for that part," she mutters under her breath.
Only Enjolras hears her, and the soft chuckle she gets in response makes her slip of the tongue completely worth it. He moves closer to her and wraps an arm around her, once again projecting the image of a picture perfect couple.
"I am sure that this was quite the surprise," 'Jolras finally responds out loud.
She is sure that this is quite the understatement because their fake relationship might even top pigs flying on Marius' list of things that will never happen.
"I barely remember the two of you ever even interacting," Marius is still surprised.
"We did meet through you, but we interact more often than you know," there is an odd emphasis on the word interact, and that just makes her giggle.
If she were to replace the word interact with something a lot more dirty, she would have one hell of a pun, which was probably his intention. It is kind of adorable, but she is mostly enjoying that he has a dirty mind to match his wicked tongue – and that just makes her sound like a damsel in a romance novel, which is not her intention.
"Did you just try to make an innuendo?" she raises her eyebrows.
"I thought I made 'interact' sound quite dirty," he is oddly proud of himself.
Well, if that was his goal, he definitely succeeded at it. She wonders how many more dirty-minded jokes the two of them will be able to make in their evil plots. She might have to start keeping a puns and dirty jokes tally to keep the both of them entertained while the happy couple blathers on and on about boring things.
"That you definitely did," she has to confirm.
"That is all I asked for," 'Jolras smiles at her again.
Holy shit, that smile could probably be a lethal weapon, causing men and women everywhere to pass out at its beauty and charm. Seriously, with his perfect white teeth and the bright blue eyes, he makes a beautiful picture. The curls are a bit off, but for her those curls just complete the package that is her friend 'Jolras.
"You two are so opposite, but somehow it actually works," Cosette observes.
"I guess we balance each other out," Enjolras shrugs. "How is that with you and Marius?"
The audacity is admirable, but this definitely stuns everyone into silence; Cosette and Marius most of all. It could all potentially be misconstrued as Enjolras just wanting to get some more insight into their relationship, when he is in fact being an asshole and trying to point out to them that getting married might not be the best idea if they do not know each other well enough. Basically, now Enjolras is being a total shit and she is enjoying this like nothing ever before. Knowing Marius as she does, he probably saw the girl once and "just knew", and that is definitely something worth mocking.
"We're soul mates," Cosette finally responds, looking at 'Jolras angrily.
"That's so romantic," she widens her eyes for the proper effect.
Yes, her wide-eyed enthusiasm is completely faked and everyone should be able to see through it, but only 'Jolras is smart enough to notice, because the lovely couple is just happy to see their relationship validated by her – or at least, that is what they think.
"I don't mean to be rude," Enjolras lets out an exaggerated yawn, "but can I be pointed to a room? I'd love to be able to put most of this stuff away."
They have been standing in the hall for the entire conversation, and they have been keeping an eye on their suitcases the entire time, because while the house looks big enough to have a twenty-people staff, no butler or bellboy has come out of the woodwork to help them with the heavy cases. She kind of wants Marius to carry their shit upstairs, but she knows that is not going to happen.
"And maybe we can get some sleep?" she emphasizes the word sleep.
"It was a pretty long flight," 'Jolras agrees, grinning at her joke.
If they were really a couple, there would be very little actual sleeping happening in that room, and they both know that they have to play that out right now. The immature snickers that want to escape are barely kept in. Still, Marius does not understand.
"I should be a better host," Marius finally notices. "We put you in a room together. Well, we put Éponine and her date in one room, before we knew it was you, Enjolras."
Yeah, so while it could get awkward at times, she does not really see any kind of big problem with that. She has shared rooms with men before, and at least with 'Jolras she knows that there will not be an issue with accidental middle of the night groping – at least not from him, because she might have a cuddling problem that most of her overnight guests do not get to know about. Guess 'Jolras just has to deal with it.
"I do not see why that should be a problem," he does not even look uncomfortable.
"I think it will actually be very nice," she plays the lovesick girlfriend well.
She is not sure if she is playing in love or just playing horny, but her drama classes in high school feel like a million years ago and she is not even sure that she cares how she plays it as long as it gets her away from Marius and his blonde bimbo.
"Can you wait just a few more minutes to jump me?" Enjolras makes her laugh.
"I think I can, but it might be hard," she follows up with an easy pun.
That earns her a groan from Enjolras, who was probably expecting that one.
"I'm sure it is hard already," Marius mutters. "Anyway, if you two would just follow me."
There is a pointed look to Enjolras' trousers that makes her laugh so hard that a few hiccups and snorts escape before she can control herself. The pissed of look that Enjolras responds with just makes things so much worse, and she has no idea how to pull herself together long enough to form any kind of response herself. She knows that the whole thing is super immature, but she cannot find it in herself to care.
"Right behind you," she speaks in between giggles.
They carry their luggage up the stairs and into a large guestroom. There is a pretty big bed, but also a lovely bathroom attached with a shower and bath obviously large enough for two. It is clear they have been given the best guestroom in the house, and she wonders if this is the only way Marius knows to apologize for being a total ass to her and completely ignoring the promise that they made ten years ago.
"This is so beautiful," she plays up on the enthusiasm. "Look at the bed!"
Indeed, the bed is probably the most amazing thing in the entire room, since they could probably house an entire harem in there without touching. Well, she might be exaggerating there, but the thing is still really freaking enormous.
"And that is Ponine's way of politely telling you to get out before she jumps me in full view of everyone," 'Jolras quips. "And it is my way of saying that I won't mind."
"I'll leave the two of you to it, then," Marius makes an awkward exit.
The door closes behind him, but there are no footsteps moving away. Obviously Marius wants to listen in to whatever they are doing – not just to be a total pervert, but also to figure out if this relationship between her and Enjolras is not just a prank being played on him. They have to continue the charade to fool him – and the nod she gets from 'Jolras means that he has noticed as well. They can totally manage keeping their secret from Marius, especially seeing as all he has to go on is sound.
"Come here," she jumps on the bed and orders him to follow her.
"I thought you would be the one jumping me this time," he responds quickly.
Would be the one taking all of the initiative in a relationship, she wonders. She can imagine it going several different ways with him, because he comes across as being very assertive, but he is also very inexperienced in the ways of love and relationships. If she had to paint a convincing portrait of their fake relationship in regards to who takes the initiative, it would change from time to time, with her usually being the more amorous one distracting him from his work from time to time. Still, she imagines that he would also be the kind of guy who would surprise his significant other from time to time with intimate moments that mean so much more from him.
And thus end the ideas and fantasies, because it is getting too weird.
"This time?" she fakes anger. "I can recall this lovely night two weeks ago when-"
"I remember," he quickly interrupts before she needs to fake details.
"I made sure that you would," she attempts to embarrass him.
She has no problems with thinking of details for their fake relationship, but Enjolras seems like a guy who would mind having the details of any relationship heard by other people – even if the relationship in question is faked.
Enjolras just laughs and joins her on the bed. Of course they would need to test its durability and the possibility of sound effects for their performance. The bed appears to be of good quality, because it produces very little sound as she rhythmically jumps up and down on it while Enjolras looks on with amusement. He participates only in the testing the headboard part, and that is also silently pronounced adequate.
"At least this bed seems sturdy enough," he laughs bemusedly.
"Yes, that time was somewhat embarrassing," she always has to one-up him.
With those words, Marius finally appears to be done eavesdropping, as they can finally hear footsteps moving away from their room. So she can finally be herself again.
"I thought he'd never leave," she sighs, lying down on the bed.
"I think we did quite well for now," Enjolras approves.
For now, everyone appears to be convinced of their relationship – but the real challenge is breaking up the happy couple, and at the same time keeping everyone in the Amis convinced that Éponine Thénardier is lucky enough to have cracked the marble. She thinks that it might just be better to let the Amis in on the plan and hope that they will help them make it work. Knowing those guys, they will probably help.
"I do not think Cosette likes us very much," she has to point that out.
"I thought that was the point of the plan," he has no problems with this.
"We do not want Cosette to limit our access to Marius," she has to remind him.
Yeah, so there is some work to be done to keep the suspicion off the two of them while they go after the relationship with everything that they have.
"You are right, mistress," and then 'Jolras sticks his foot in his mouth.
It is possibly the worst term that he could have used, and he knows it – he is not just turning red, he is ducking his head and turning away and muttering to himself about what kind of an idiot he is. She just has to wait for him to go back to normal.
"That was definitely the wrong choice of words," he recovers.
"It was," she has to agree with him on that point.
Still, she can forgive him that slip-up if he forgives her for the many slip-ups that she will undoubtedly have in the future. They are both only human, and they are bound to make more than a few mistakes in their epic quest to get Marius to figure out that she would make him an awesome girlfriend and wife.
"You should go talk to Cosette tomorrow," he offers a suggestion, "to apologize about your family or something. She looks like the type who would buy that."
Taking advantage of a naïve blonde: her idea of a good time.
"Thank you for the deviousness, partner," she sits up on the bed.
"You are welcome," he replies from his position next to her.
They share an awkward fist bump then, before they both drop down on the bed again, laying down together in a way that is more innocent than it looks. It is weird enough that she actually feels quite comfortable with him being close beside her.
"I am taking the right side," she announces then. "And I sleep mostly naked."
This is the sort of thing that roomies have to know about each other, right?
AN: Let me know what you think?!