Chapter Two

A/N: Thanks to NanLikesEmmie-Bear, Thespian24601, Elena3579, Christine Eponine and MariusxEponine3 for being my first reviewers. You're all great!

The rain was not yet even dry on the pavement and the reflected moonlight shone upon it, lighting the way for the girl staggering down the back alleys of Paris.

Her goal was in sight now, a five storey towering apartment block against the blackening sky. It was familiar to her in the light of day, but under cover of darkness, even the most recognisable of things could twist and turn into the unknown. For Éponine, her destination was daunting enough. The Gorbeau building.

It was the first place that she had thought of when she thought of Marius. The student had once lived there after all, right next door to herself. Even if he no longer did live there, it was the best place the girl could think of to start.

It took her quite a while to reach the fourth floor, where Marius' old apartment was. However, she needed to be careful, as it was directly opposite to the apartment the Patron-Minette lived out of, and if her father should spot her returning to the place, he would not likely be pleased.

Upon reaching the time battered door, Éponine was not surprised to find that it was unlocked. The landlord, Monsieur Gorlait, while not hesitating to turf residents out when their rent was delayed, had never been overly concerned with the safety of the building's occupants, nor for their belongings. She knew that all too well, from the amount of people that her father had robbed under the man's very nose.

Pushing her fears aside, the girl staggered in through the doorway, clutching at her side as the burning pain increased. Her vision was becoming increasingly unsteady, the room around her swaying unnaturally, but still, she needed to see.

Much to her disappointment and heartache, Marius was nowhere to be found. Of course, she had not expected for the man to be present, knowing that he was more likely to be with his beloved Cosette. But still, a part of her was truly disheartened by the fact that he wasn't there. It was as if he had truly forgotten her.

When she thought of her memories, one jumped to the front of Éponine's mind. Something that she had once seen and long since forgotten, hidden within these walls.

Wracking her brains for detail, the girl bent down, the sound of her wincing combining with the sound of her knock on the solid walls. She continued her knocking, moving further along the wall until a hollow noise echoed from within it. That was what she had been looking for.

Scraping along the wall with her fingernails, the brunette found an uneven edge in the middle of it, where she dug in hard, using all of her strength to pull it away. Behind the false wall, there was a small space, and in that space there was a box. It was not a special box at all, just a few polished pieces of wood, but to Éponine, it was the most special box there could ever have been in the world.

A smile lit up the girl's fatigued face as she opened the lid, revealing the contents of the wood. Marius had always been a sentimental man, keeping things as treasures that Éponine would hardly consider worthy of a second glance. A drawing, a ribbon, a lock of hair, rather pointless things locked away like precious rubies.

Flicking through the other objects with little interest, something caught her eye. A piece of paper, violet in colour, rested in the picture frame at the bottom of the box, perfectly preserved despite the years it had been there. On one side of the parchment, a beautiful water lily was pressed and secured to the page. It had evidently been there for a good few years, due to the cream colour of the petals, but Éponine had known that since long before she had opened the wall. However, it was the inscription on the frame that brought tears to her eyes.

'The beginning of the most beautiful friendship.'

Despite her tears, Éponine was elated. Even if he had not truly felt her love, it seemed that Marius had always cared about her. Ever since the act of kindness that had gained him the flower, he had cared.

The girl remembered it well, the day she had first met Marius. Long before she and her family had become involved with the Patron-Minette, when they had just arrived in Paris, the winters were particularly harsh on them.

That particular winter had been one of the harshest she had ever known. Snow covered the ground, seeping through the substantial holes in their roof, while the harsh breeze blew through the cracks in the windowpanes. Consequently, it was much more difficult to find money that had been dropped by the rich, and so Éponine was sent to get some bread, by any means possible. When her father had said 'by any means possible', the child had known immediately that he meant for her to steal it.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't summon the courage to steal from the baker's counter. She knew that it was the only way, but she still just couldn't. It was wrong.

She had been sat sobbing in the snowfall outside the baker's for goodness knows how long, when a young man had come along, stopping to bend down beside her. He had asked her what was wrong and, as the entire story poured from her lips in a blur of words and hacking coughs, took pity on her. Éponine had hardly believed it when the boy had given her five whole francs to spend. He had practically saved her life, yet still he had almost torn it apart.

She had had nothing else to give him in return, so had plucked a water lily from the surface of a nearby pond, and had left it outside the door of the grand house she had seen him enter many a time. The next day, he had come back to find her again, and from then on, the pair were the closest of friends.

Shaking her head, Éponine slammed the box shut, moving the wall back into place in front of it, and collapsing into the hard surface after she'd done so, tears surfacing in her eyes. 'Looks like he doesn't care now though, not now that he has his dear Cosette.' the girl thought in anguish, sighing to calm herself enough to tell her heart a lie.'Still, I suppose that if he can survive, so can I. It wouldn't be the first time.'

Still intent on finding the man, if only to tell him she had moved on, she left the tiny apartment, shutting the door with some difficulty as she left. It was then that she noticed that something was not right. It was then that she realised… there was someone standing behind her.

"Well, well, well…" spoke the figure, in a low and deadly voice. "Look what we have here."

A/N: Please review this for me. Your reviews keep me writing.