A/N: Here's another chapter for you. Enjoy!
She couldn't help but wonder what a man like Enjolras was doing organizing a revolution. He had all the privilege in the world and everything going for him. Why did he care about the people like her who were forced to steal and lie in order to survive? If anything, a golden boy –both literally with his curls, and figuratively with his high prestige- should be disgusted by the scum of the streets like so many bourgeois. Yet he was dedicating his time to making the country a better place for them. Éponine simply couldn't wrap her head around it. She was wondering around the relatively unoccupied streets of Paris, still searching for this man she barely knew. She wasn't sure she would be able to find him tonight, the sun was quickly going down behind the high buildings. She knew she would be able to find him at the café tomorrow, but she wanted to challenge him one on one while her argument was still fresh in her mind and her anger over Marius being put it harms way still heated her heart. Surely she could convince him, after all, it was her people he was fighting for. If he refuses to listen to her he must surely be a fool.
Éponine shivered from the chill of the oncoming night and wrapped her arms around herself for warmth as she continued down an alley many people were using as a resting place for the night. On the other side, the street had almost completely emptied, only a few filth-covered citizens occupied it. She stopped and stood in the centre of the road trying to think of were a man like Enjolras would go. Were he would live.
Suddenly, strong arms grabbed her from behind and a hand clamped tightly over her mouth before she could make a sound.
"What's a little lady such as yourself doin' wanderin' around in the dark all alone?" a gruff voice whispered in her ear. The man pushed her fragile body up against the wall of a building. He removed his hand from her mouth and began pulling at her dress. Though she knew help would likely not come, she screamed for it anyways and she struggled with the grubby looking man, trying to fight him off to no avail. He had at least a hundred pounds on her and probably a good twenty years as well.
Éponine spit in her attackers face and he was suddenly pulled away from her. Her eyes widened as she took in Enjolras throwing the man to the ground with enough force to knock him unconscious. She hadn't even seen him come upon the scene. Éponine remained with her back pressed into the bricks, her breathing wild and ragged.
"Are you alright Madmoiselle?" Enjolras asked, shifting his focus to her now that he was certain the other man would not be bothering them for a while.
"Thanks to you, monsieur," she replied quietly. Tears pricked at her eyes, but she was determined not to let them fall. He would never take her seriously if she began sobbing in front of him. She could take it, this wasn't the first time a man tried to forcibly get under her skirt.
"Are you certain? Do you need a doctor?" His voice did not contain the sympathy or pity one might expect considering the situation. Instead, it was as if he were listing off random facts, sort of detached and clinical. Yet, his concern still managed to seem genuine somehow. He seemed to be unsurprised to find her in such as position and he glanced back disgustedly at the man on the ground behind him.
"I'm fine, monsieur. Thank you."
"Well," he began, looking anywhere but her, "good then."
Éponine looked down self-consciously only to realize why Enjolras had been averting his eyes. The skirt of her dress was hiked up, revealing much of the bare, bruised, dirt caked skin of her left leg. She blushed furiously and yanked it down harshly. "Thank you again, Monsieur. I was actually hoping to find you tonight."
This statement caused Enjolras' eyebrows to rise. "Whatever for?" he questioned.
"Well you see, monsieur, I've just become aware of you intent to start a revolution. I know you wish to help beggars like me but you must know that it's a terrible idea trying to overthrow the king."
His eyes narrowed into disapproving slits. "What causes you to feel that way?"
"You're all going to die."
The bluntness of her statement caught him off guard. He had face much disapproval of his plan, but to be told so abruptly by this random girl was a shock to him. It was her people he was trying to help. "Some will fall at the barricades, yes, but their sacrifice will be well worth it when France is reborn without the monarchy and these binding class distinctions."
"That's quite a fantasy, monsieur. But that fantasy will get young men, such as yourself, mercilessly killed by the National Guard. The people of Paris aren't ready for another revolution. They're still living in fear and won't want to upset things as they are even if what you hope to accomplish is everything they have ever dreamed of."
"You speak very well for a gamine," he said, this time surprising Éponine and venturing the conversation into more personal territory.
"I've never spent anytime in a classroom, but spending time with your friends is an education in itself," she stated truthfully. She enjoyed listening to their conversations and picking up new words and then using them herself in an attempt to impress Marius. She didn't need to admit that part to Enjolras though. "So will you call it off monsieur?"
"Call what off?"
"The revolution."
"Of course not," he stated as if it were painfully obvious, "this is exactly what France needs and the people are ready to make a better life for themselves. You of all people should understand, living in deplorable conditions such as these-" he gestures to the few people sleeping in doorways, "-is no way for anyone to live."
"You don't understand anything," Éponine sputtered angrily, "You have never gone a single day not knowing where you're going to rest your pretty head at night. You've never been forced to steal from some innocent person who simply had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time so that you have enough money to buy the smallest amount of food, barely enough to sustain you. When you get hunger, monsieur, you eat. The people living out here have never not felt the gnawing pain of hunger. While, you, I'm sure have most likely complained on an occasion or two of being too full." She laughed bitterly, shaking her head at him in disgust. "Do you really understand the people you say you're fighting for monsieur?"
"I never want anyone to have to live through the things you have lived through mademoiselle," he murmured, looking intently at her, his hard exterior had cracked slightly and there was an emotion in his eyes that Éponine couldn't place, "that is precisely my reasoning behind this revolution and you are exactly what I need to unite the people. I need you to spread the word. To inform the people that change is approaching fro there is one thing I agree with you on: our barricade will need all the support it can get."
A/N: Read & review!
