Happy V-day lovely readers!

Hope you're all having a lovely day with loved ones, whether romantic or otherwise. I, for one, spent the day with my mother watching period dramas and then the BAFTAs. Perfect V-day, I reckon!

The Ed Sheeran lyrics (bold) aren't being sung by anyone like songs usually are in this story, I just thought they fit. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Les Mis or either of the songs featured (Ed Sheeran and Roo Panes, respectively)

Loving can hurt
Loving can hurt sometimes
But it's the only thing that I know

He wasn't as hungover as he deserved to be, Grantaire thought, as he raised his head groggily from some hard surface. Opening bleary and swollen eyes, he rubbed his forehead and looked around. He had fallen asleep on a bench by the river again, it seemed. That explained why he was cold, at least.

He sat up and looked around, his limbs screaming in protest. Dusk was falling – the light was soft and low, shining off the proud buildings of the city of lights as the sun sank lazily towards the skyline. A group of tourists on a fairy-lit boat floated slowly past and he pretended not to notice the woman pointing him out to her boyfriend like a zoo animal. What must she be saying? 'Look darling, a hobo'?
Well Grantaire thought. That's probably what I look like.

He stood up slowly and groaned as his head panged and a wave of nausea swept through his gut. Ah. There's the hangover, he thought as he sank back down onto the bench with his head in his hands.

Grantaire had lost track of how long he'd felt so hungover he wanted to die. At some point after he'd been thrown out of the third bar, he had completely ceased to feel any emotion at all. He even started a few fights, trying to wake himself up; and for a few seconds after some asshole's fist would hit his cheek he'd feel suddenly alive again. He didn't even swing back, because that wasn't as satisfying: he found himself craving the pain. Because at least it gave him something to chase. Even if it was oblivion. Now he was numb again, with nowhere particular to go, and the dead weight of grief weighing him down like chains. He looked out over the Seine, gazing at the glowing reflection of the streetlight that had just come on. It was like the Sun, he thought. For a second, he even seriously considered chasing that sun and letting the weight of his inadequacies drag him down. It was only a second, though; Grantaire had long ago found his Sun to chase. And like Icarus, I flew too close he thought wryly. Think I can consider my wings firmly melted. And look where I landed.

He almost laughed. I didn't even have the sense to aim for the sea. I've crash-landed straight onto the streets of Paris. He stared, disgusted, at the shining yellow-white orb shining on the deep grey river. And the Sun just keeps on burning.

Grantaire suddenly couldn't stomach sitting on that bench any longer. He stood up, ignoring the spinning in his head and the churning in his gut, and he set off in search of a bar.

Loving can heal
Loving can mend your soul
And it's the only thing that I know

Éponine woke suddenly. Her limbs felt heavy, the way they do when you haven't slept for long enough, but she knew she was too restless to go back to sleep. Raising a hand to rub the sleep out of her face, she opened her eyes and looked over at the sleeping form of Enjolras next to her. The room was still dark, only the faintest slither of light coming between the curtains, and he was still out for the count, his soft, long lashes resting on his cheeks. Éponine had no idea why, but she felt suddenly sad: it swept over her like a wave and she felt a sudden need to get out of bed. Slipping as gently as possible from between the sheets, she padded quietly out of Enjolras' room, turning only briefly to look back at Enjolras, who turned over, sighing quietly in his sleep.

The clock in the kitchen told Éponine it was half past 5 in the morning. Counting quickly in her head, Éponine reckoned she must have had two and a half hours sleep at most, but she wasn't tired.

Now what?

Normally she'd go for a walk, but she didn't think she'd be popular if Enjolras woke up and she wasn't in the apartment. For lack of an alternative, she poured herself a glass of water, and leant against the counter, sipping it in contemplation.

"Ép?"

She looked up to see the sleepy form of her little brother peering around the door of his room, his bleary eyes hopeful and then delighted as he saw it was really her. She smiled at him as she placed her glass down on the counter and opened her arms for the hug that was running towards her full pelt. Three days of absence meant she was looking at her brother with fresh eyes; he was getting tall, she realised: his head reached her chest, and as she wrapped her arms around him, stroking the back of his neck, she realised she barely had to bend to lay a kiss on the top of his head these days. Gavroche was growing up.

"How you doing, kiddo?" she murmured into the top of his head, burying her nose into his curls.
"Good" he replied. "Am glad ya back."
"I'm so sorry I left you, Gav, I'm –"
"S'alrite" he cut her off. "I knew ye'd come back. Y'just needed an elephant day."
She lifted her head and looked down at him, confused. "An elephant day?"
"Yeah" he replied, as though the term was an obvious one. "Y'know, like when I used t'go to my elephant when I didn' wanna be 'ome. E'ryone needs elephant days sometimes."
She smiled "Gavroche, if I didn't already know you were just mental, I'd say you were pretty wise."
"Why not both?" he joked with a toothy grin, and she laughed, dropping another kiss on his head before ruffling his curls.

"Right, come on you, back to bed" she said.
"But –"he started.
"Nope."
"You don't even –"
"No!"
"Can't I –"
"BED, Gavroche!"

He grumbled, but turned around, padding across the floor in his bare feet back towards his room. "I'm not going to be able to sleep" he declared as he opened his door.

Smiling, Éponine walked over, understanding what he wanted (even though apparently he was too big to ask for it now he was a grown-up ten-year-old). She'd done it for him since he was a tiny baby: for a long time, he wouldn't sleep without it.

He climbed into his little single bed beside a fast-asleep Jacques and looked up at her expectantly.
"Alright, budge up" she whispered, perching next to his legs when he shifted them over. She tucked the blanket around him and squeezed his cheek, earning a wrinkled nose of annoyance.
"Close your eyes" she instructed.
"Ok" he replied, obliging.
"Which one you after?"
"You pick" he whispered, his voice already softer. Won't sleep, my arse Éponine thought with an internal laugh.
"OK" she replied, before starting to softly hum the tune of the first song she thought of.

And when it gets hard
You know it can get hard sometimes
It is the only thing that makes us feel alive

Enjolras woke up and realised immediately that Éponine wasn't beside him. A wave of panic hit him in the gut as he tried to convince himself she wouldn't be gone again. He thought he heard movement through the wall in Gavroche and Jacques' room, so he rose from the bed, and grabbed a t-shirt from the back of his desk chair, and then walked softly through.

As he stepped through the door, he heard a hum, and the knot in his stomach untangled. Éponine's soft voice soon followed, and he felt himself drawn to it, just like always. Like a moth to a flame.

Sleep; leave it behind
Lay all your burdens aside.
For here, we have no time,
So sleep and just leave it all behind.

Through the open door of the cupboard-room, he saw Éponine sat on the bed, singing softly to a fast-asleep Jacques and a sleepy – but still smiling – Gavroche. He leant against the doorframe, not wishing to disturb the touching moment between siblings.

And all you have to do is call,
And I'll come running to your side,
I'll take the weight of your world from your shoulders, Gav
I'll take the weight of your world from your shoulders, Gav

He saw Gav's smile grow and knew Éponine's would be too. He felt his playing at the corners of his lips, too, as he watched his love fit back into their lives like she never left. She was back where she was supposed to be. And while he suspected it was the first lullaby song she had thought of, he also thought this was her way of reassuring Gavroche that she was here for him, and she always would be.

Tomorrow's a new day,
And yesterday's tales far away,
All will be alright,
So sleep and just leave it all behind.

And all you have to do is call,
And I'll come running to your side,
I'll take the weight of your world from your shoulders tonight
I'll take the weight of your world from your shoulders tonight

Gavroche was very nearly asleep now, and Éponine's hand rose to stroke his cheek. Enjolras felt suddenly like an intruder: the two of them were so rarely openly tender, and he wondered if she'd be happy if she knew he'd watched. He decided to return to bed, sliding slowly into his covers as Éponine sang on.

Nothing can get you, you know I've got you, you're in my arms.
Nothing can get me, I know you've got me; I'm in your heart.

He pulled the covers around himself as he listened, unable to shake the feeling of unease that he had been pretending wasn't really there since he and Éponine had returned to the apartment. Did he know? Did he have her? he wondered. And then, he felt the real fears bubble up to the surface. What if she left again? How did he know she wouldn't?

What if she only came back for Gavroche?

Nothing can get you, you know I've got you, you're in my arms.
Nothing can get me, I know you've got me; I'm in your heart.

How could he ask? He couldn't.

And all you have to do is call,
And I'll come running to your side,
I'll take the weight of your world from off your shoulders tonight

He'd just have to learn to trust her again, he decided. And until he did, he'd just have to act it was true: that was the only way to go back to how it was.

I'll take the weight of your world from off your shoulders tonight

He heard Éponine on her way back through, and so he closed his eyes, feigning sleep. As she climbed into bed beside him and her breathing slowly evened, he told himself that everything would be alright. Éponine was back.

Nothing can get you, you know I've got you, you're in my arms, he thought. Nothing can get you, you know I've got you, you're in my arms.

I know, it's not a very happy fluffy Valentines Day chapter. It's probably because I'm bitter and alone. There will be a fluffier update on my Ep/Courf story I Like You in the next couple of days (it's half written), so if you're starved for fluff, that's a good place to find it! You have until I finish it to read the 9 chapters already there... ;)

Please review! Lots of love, Valentines :D