Chapter Nine
A/N: Thank you to MissFiyerabaMeponineSherlock, guest, Christine Eponine Sherlock and Trust Gavroche for reviewing the last chapter.
The time had come, and Éponine found herself walking away from the hospital with her arms wrapped tightly around her waist, the harsh wind reminding her just how accustomed she had become to the room in which she had been left to heal. Immediately, the young woman shook her head, mentally berating herself for her weakness. After all the years she had spent living on the streets of Paris, she had suffered far more severe conditions in that time. She could almost hear her father's taunting voice in her mind, telling her that she was too good for the place that she had come from. Perhaps, before now, he would have been right. But not while she walked the streets, ill, cold and utterly alone.
'After spending all of that time on the streets, begging and scamming and stealing just to eat, I thought that I couldn't sink any further to the dirt. Well, Marius is going to marry Cosette, the silly little girl that used to brush the cellar, and now I have done.' she mused, her mood far lower than pensive. As the rain began to pour from the heavens, the girl found it almost amusing. 'It's as if God has sent the rain to allow me to cry, to mask my tears. If He even cares about me, that is. But why would He? I'm just a lonely street rat, once again, and nothing more. I don't think I ever was anything more.'
The moment she thought those words, Éponine felt the tears begin to swim in her eyes. For all the time that she had known him, she had believed that Marius had thought her different, that he may have seen her as a person in her own right, and not just the street rat that she was in the eyes of the other bourgeoisie. But now, even he had gone to be with his Cosette, and in doing so, he had taken away from her the only person that she had ever wanted by her side. He had taken himself.
The only redeeming feature in this nightmare was the fact that the student seemed to be happy. He had found a woman, a beautiful woman, that he had wished to call his bride, and soon he would marry her, and they would begin a family and live a life that the brunette could only dream of. They would be blissfully happy, and still, she would be wandering the streets, picking two or three pockets a day just to make enough money to buy a scrap of food. 'He will love her, and look right through me.' she thought, cursing the truth in the words. 'Just as it has always been.'
Realising that she had nowhere to call a home, Éponine wracked her brains to find a place where she could stay for the night. The only roof that she had ever had over her head was that which she had shared with her mother and father, and it was more likely for Hell to freeze over than for her to return there. She could not stay in Marius' old flat, as that was also too close to the headquarters of the Patron-Minette, and that left her with no other choice but to sleep on the streets. Unless…
Half a mile of walking and the brunette had reached the door of the abandoned house she had been looking for. The man that occupied it was the only one that she thought could help her, and she could only hope and pray that he was not out on one of his missions that night. After all, there was truly nowhere else where she could turn.
Gathering her courage, Éponine rapped thrice on the door, wincing quietly at the pain this caused her knuckles, which were near frozen from the wind, which was far too harsh for the time of year that it was, as if the skies had sent the storms in mourning for the losses that had been suffered, both in death and in the hurt that Marius had caused her. 'No, I have to stop thinking about him.' the young woman told herself strictly. If the person that she had sought out was indeed at home, she did not want his first impression of her that day to be weakness. 'Besides, I doubt that he is thinking of me, when he could be sitting with his darling Cosette.'
The brunette's melancholy thoughts were broken as the door was thrown open, to reveal the very man she had come to for help. His expression was one of worry, sympathy and a thinly veiled anger, though she was sure that his resentment was not directed at her, but at the person that had caused her to be left in such a state. She knew Montparnasse well enough to know that he would not let a slight like this pass, but for now, she accepted his embrace. He held her a little too firmly, his hands almost bruising on her upper arms, but she knew that he was trying his best to be gentle with her, as no one ever was, and she appreciated the gesture.
"What's happened now?" the young man asked, his annoyance clear in his tone. Many a time had he caught Éponine pining after her precious student boy, and so he was almost certain that she could only have been left in this state by either an incident with Marius or with her father. From the lack of bruises, it did not seem to be the latter, but still he wanted to know.
"I don't really want to talk about it, 'Parnasse, not right now. I just need somewhere to stay for a little while. I don't want to risk seeing her, or the pain might end up killing me." she sighed, desperately blinking the tears back from her eyes as her friend allowed her into the house, closing the door behind the two of them.
"It's alright, 'Ponine. Marius is a fool if he has chosen someone else over you, and he will not hurt you here. I promise."
A/N: I really like the idea of friendship between 'Parnasse and 'Ponine, so I fitted a little into here. Please review!