I'M SORRY! I haven't abandoned you, I SWEAR, but I've been cuh-raaaazy busy with essay submissions and my weekend at home, and I went home AGAIN to see Imagine Dragons on Monday and work have almost doubled my hours, and I have to start revising for exams and I'm a little bit stressed, can you tell?

Anyway, I haven't forgotten you and I'm so sorry it took me so long. Updates are going to be really infrequent until Christmas and I'm sorry about that, but there's not much I can do I'm afraid! Thank you all so much for your continued support, it really really means a lot, please bear with me for just a little bit longer. I won't forget!

Disclaimer: I don't own Les Mis. Frankly, I wouldn't have time to at the minute.

She looked into his eyes and saw a fiery inferno of fury staring back at her.

'WAIT. THERE.' he growled, every syllable filled with hate and disgust. He turned for the cellar, Gavroche effing and blinding at him, punching and kicking to no avail.

She didn't want to abandon her little brother, but this would be her only chance to run. Every fibre of her being was electrified, ready to spring up and bolt the second her father was out of sight. You have to protect the baby. At all costs.

His back disappeared through the door and she ran, faster than she had ever run before.

The silence was killing her, because inside she was screaming. She knew she should say something, ANYTHING, but there was too much white noise in her head to hear a thing. Every so often she saw him glance up from his papers at her, stare for a while, then look down. Is this what it's going to be like now? Stolen glances and utter silence? The way we were before everything?

I don't think I can do that.

The tension was building, so thick she could taste it, she had to break it, it was too much –

'I'mnomadatyou!' Smooth, Thénardier. Really smooth. That'll diffuse the tension.

He blinked at her. 'Sorry?'
'I'm not mad at you. I thought you might think I was. But I'm not.'
'Oh… good.' That's all you have to say?!

Good?! That's ALL you have to say?! Enjolras, the great orator, giver of speeches, leader of rallies, letter-writing extraordinaire, comes up with GOOD?

They fell silent again, the air filling fast with the dense fog of unsaid words, filling his lungs so that he could hardly breathe.

'I have to go and get Gav from school… see you at the meeting' she blurted out, before bolting out the door, head down.

Well, if she wasn't made at you before, she is now...

Congratulations. You really are a class A prick, Enjolras.

Idiot.

Gavroche sat on the windowsill, pulling his feet up to hug his knees, and then ran a hand through his hair. This wasn't a perfect situation, but it wasn't giving up time, not yet. He wasn't dead yet, was he?

He had a lot going for him here: he was in the inn, and he knew his way around the inn (granted, he was locked in the cellar, and this was Thénardier's home turf, so again, not a PERFECT situation); he was alone – no Thénardier to bother him, no Montparnasse, or any of those idiots the Patron-Minette – and alone was how he worked best. He could think clearly, work out how he was getting out. And he was getting out.

Maybe the window? That's how he'd escaped the last time he'd been here. The time he thought he'd never come back. But he was bigger now, too big to squeeze through the bars: six months of Éponine's cooking, Musichetta's baking and Courfeyrac's treats had made him stronger, taller, and while he was far from bulky, he'd filled out enough so that his bones didn't poke out any more.

A noise outside the window stopped his heart momentarily, and then a familiar face poked their head down to see through the bars.

'Gavroche?'
'JACQUES!'

YES!

Even as he sat, hours later in a student café by Montparnasse cemetery, he couldn't get that fiery girl from outside the university that morning out of his head.

'There are people who'll fight this, with all they've got. Spread the word. Tell everyone there's a meeting tonight, 7.30. Next to the old elephant statue on the wasteland. If they want this stopped, want to go back to uni, want things different: go there. Tell EVERYONE.'
Fight it? What? Who? 'Who shall I say they are meeting?'
She'd smiled then, the smile of a girl with a secret. A secret that if you were lucky, she would tell you one day, and your life would never be the same. 'Les Amis.'

He'd dismissed it afterwards as the garbling of an angry teenager, especially after she disappeared into the crowd only seconds later. But now, he couldn't stop thinking that maybe this was their chance. Maybe these 'Amis' could help, maybe not. But he had to have a go. I have to try. I have to tell everyone. But how?

Pierre climbed onto the table in the common room, his ears filled with the angry rants of every student in the packed café. Clearing his throat, he said 'Everybody?'
The room ignored him, his voice lost in the gabble of fury.
'EVERYONE!'
No reply. This calls for drastic measures. He grabbed an empty beer bottle from the table and held it in his hand for a second, contemplating. Oh, what the hell…

Smashing it with all his might onto the floor, he yelled 'OI!' at the top of his voice.

Quiet fell across the café, and everyone turned to look. He felt the heat rise in his cheeks, and the familiar knot of nerves in his stomach, but an image of that girl flashed up in front of his eyes, her eyes blazing with more fury than he'd felt his whole life. Don't give up now, Pierre. Not today.

And then he began to speak.

And the students began to listen.

Ok, sorry it was a bit Love Actually, not focussing on one thing, but I need to get it to the point where I can tie it all together (it is coming, promise).

Pierre is the student who Eponine met earlier that day, in case it's unclear... I'm tired, I have no idea, sorry :L

Please please let me know what you think... or just have a go at me for disappearing, that's fine too.

In case anyone is unaware, I am about halfway through a not-a-one-shot one shot for Eponine's birthday party in this story called No Tomorrow - it's on my author page and I'm a little bit proud of it, so feel free to take a look if you get a chance please :)

RIGHT, long A/N over... see you as soon as I can guys, promise!

(ps: Jodie - hope you're ok chick, keep your chin up. Love you!)