Marius hadn't actually formally met Cosette's father before. He could only try to imagine him, Marius had only seen him once or twice from far away.
As much as he knew, Cosette's father was a fairly old man who wasn't her biological father. They lived alone, which was enough for Marius to be fairly suspicious about the entire ordeal. It was pretty weird, a young girl living with some old man who wasn't even her real father. However, he invited Marius over for dinner when they had officially started 'going out.'
They were probably close, Marius could guess, because it was just the two of them. He tried to imagine himself in Mr. Jean Valjean's position, his only daughter had her first ever serious boyfriend.
If he was Cosette's father, he would have his shot gun ready.
"That was nice of them to invite you for dinner. We can have Cosette and her father over sometimes soon," his mother commented, not noticing her son's nervousness.
"Yeah, that sounds good," Marius agreed, not really paying attention as he bid goodbye.
The Valjean's lived in a big, fancy house in European style. It had a beautiful garden in the front decorated in gourds and pumpkins, it was just what he had expected.
Putting his hands in his pockets and then deciding to take them out again, Marius waited for someone to come to the door. At almost the same time he heard Cosette and her father.
"Could you get that, honey?"
"I'll get it, Dad!"
The door quickly opened and Marius' face met with Cosette's. She smiled at him kindly, her eyes lit up with excitement. Marius tried to mimic her expression.
Jean Valjean was not exactly the man he was expecting. He was tall and strong looking, with a face of glasses and grey hair. Mr. Valjean even had a warm expression on his face and probably no intention of making Marius nervous.
"Dad, this is Marius. Marius, this is my father."
"Nice to meet you," they said simultaneously. Cosette's father merely laughed it off and offered his hand.
As it turned out, he was good for a conversation and also a surprisingly good cook. Their dinner had turned out a million times better than Marius could have expected.
Mr. Valjean- or Jean, as he insisted (Marius doubted he would ever use that title, Mr. Valjean was fine for him), had actually lived an interesting life. Born in south France, the Valjean family had moved to America when he was ten .
He had suffered through hard teenage years, both of his parents died and lived in the bad parts of Massachusetts for some time.
"The only bright point in my life was when I first met Fantine," he remembered.
"That was my mother," Cosette interjected, trying not to disrupt her father's deep musings. Marius figured he hadn't meant to reflect into his life story as much as he had.
"I helped her out of some hard stuff and that was a really great feeling. To be able to help someone is a great feeling," he said. Marius nodded his head.
"But she died and I went to go save her daughter, like something from a story. And she's still the best thing that ever happened to me. It was the first time I loved in a long time," he continued, Marius could only smile in return at his remark. Cosette looked embarrassed.
"Daddy..."
"It's true. And you've turned into a lovely young woman," he remarked. Cosette had turned a certain shade of pink, but Marius didn't mind. It was sweet to hear the man's honest thoughts.
"And I think she also has very good taste," Valjean continued, sending a non-discreet wink Marius's way.
"Thank you," he said to Cosette's father. It was his turn to feel embarrassed.
The rest of their dinner was still pleasant. Marius didn't think he would get along with Valjean as well as he actually did. However, he was an interesting man and a good conversation partner. It was finally time to leave and he said a quick goodbye to both of the Valjean's. He wondered if it would be okay to kiss Cosette goodbye, but just forgot about it and walked out the door.
"I'll walk you out," Mr. Valjean had offered, leading him outside of the door.
"Thank you... sir," Marius said, searching for the correct word to address the man with.
"You're quite welcome, Marius. To be honest, I didn't think I was going to like you. Cosette's never had a serious boyfriend before and I was nervous."
"Yeah, I haven't really had one either... A girlfriend, I mean, not a boyfriend!" he added hastily, not trying to mess up his first impression within a minute. To his relief, Mr. Valjean just laughed.
"Well, it was nice to meet you."
They shook hands again and Marius drove home with relief and contentedness. He liked Jean Valjean.
To Cosette's delight, her father and Marius had gotten along marvelously. He thought her new boyfriend was kind and intelligent and marvelous was really the only way to describe their night. Marvelous.
She hoped that she could meet his parents soon, they were probably just as nice and sweet as Marius himself. They were getting rather serious, she decided it was time to try to impress him somehow. Marius seemed to sacrifice so much for her.
Namely, she really wanted to become friends with Eponine Thenardier.
Eponine had been Marius's best friend since they were in middle school- or maybe it was elementary school. His other close friend was Enjolras, but Cosette knew him fairly well. He seemed nice.
Cosette only had one class with Eponine, French III. It was an okay class with Madame Bougon, but Cosette didn't really have many friends in that class. She surveyed the room. Jason Prouvaire sat, very bored, attempting to write something in French. What he was writing, she didn't really know, but it wasn't the vocabulary they were learning. L'amour was written more than a few times. Jason was a good friend of Marius, she knew him sort of well and they sort of talked. No one else in the class, though, really stuck out to her besides Eponine.
Though she didn't know of Eponine Thenardier getting much attention, Cosette thought she was pretty. She had the rare combination of pitch black hair and very fair skin. Her hair was long and wavy, Cosette wished her hair was that nice and thick, her hair was so thin and short in comparison. Eponine was pretty, she seemed nice. If Marius liked her so much, why wouldn't Cosette?
She had started listening to her teacher again just in time to hear that they would be doing a partner activity for the rest of class. Cosette grinned, this was the perfect chance!
As fast as she could, she made her way to Eponine's desk towards the back of the classroom. "Hey, Eponine. Do you want to be partners?"
"Oh, yeah... sure," Eponine said. She sounded very surprised.
"Have you taken French all three years here?" Cosette asked her, trying to start friendly conversation.
"Yeah, I have. Did you learn French at your own school?" Eponine asked, not nearly as enthusiastically. At least she was trying to make an attempt, though.
"My dad's been trying to teach me since I was little, but I'm so bad at it," she laughed, "I should be in French I."
"Is your father French?"
"Yeah, he was born in Nice, if you've heard of that place."
"Oh, I know Nice. It's near Italy, I've heard it's gorgeous there."
"It so is, I have been there before. You would love it."
They talked for a little while longer and successfully completed the day's worksheet. Cosette reasoned they were a good team. They weren't best friends, no, but they definitely had the makings of being good friends.