A Heart Full of Love: An Eposette Love Story

I Love You-Cosette

TW: mentions of death, blood, and corpses

Cosette's stomach dropped as she read the letter in her hands. Her heart pounded and a loud sound seemed to ring in her head. For a moment, she had only one thought.

Eponine.

Taking deep breathes, Cosette attempted to calm herself. After all, the rebellion most likely wasn't even happening at that very second. Eponine would retrieve Gavroche and make it out. Then all would be as is should.

But Cosette had a gut feeling that she was wrong. Something was going to happen to Eponine, to the revolution. Something bad.
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Cosette stumbled home, her legs shaking beneath her as she walked through the fence of her garden earlier that morning. She was home.

"Cosette!" Valjean called with worry in his voice from the house.

Cosette froze. She knew her father would be awake, but she hadn't anticipated he would have been up long enough to be this concerned. She quickly racked her brain for some kind of excuse.

Cosette plopped down in the flowers and pretended she had been there all along. She picked nervously at the grass.

"I'm out in the garden, Papa!" she yelled.

"Oh, Cosette," Valjean said with relief as he ran out of the house. "Where have you been?"

Cosette paused momentarily. She really was a terrible liar. "Just out here. I came out early to watch the sun rise."

Valjean narrowed his eyes at her. "No you haven't. I was just out here searching for you."

Cosette tried unsuccessfully to hide the truth, but she couldn't help the fact that her cheeks grew red.

"Uhh, uhh," she stammered. "Umm, I was out on a walk."

Even to Cosette it sounded like a lie. There was nothing she could do.

"Don't lie to me, Cosette," warned Valjean. "Now where were you? Really?"

Cosette took a deep breathe. It was time for her to reveal her secret to her father. She couldn't stall any longer.

"I was with a girl," she said cautiously. "Her name is Eponine."

"A girl?"

"Yes," Cosette whispered, fear clutching at her stomach.

Valjean looked confused. "You made a friend? Why didn't you tell me?"

Before Cosette could answer, Valjean gasped, seeming to notice something.

"Cosette! Where did you get these bruises?"

Well there was no use lying. "Her father. Eponine's."

"What? Why would anyone do such a thing?"

"I threw a rock at him. He was hurting her. Beating her," Cosette admitted, her voice breaking from remembering the pain.

Valjean gaped at Cosette, his mouth open wide. Tears welled in his eyes. "Cosette. You did all this for a friend?"

She had come this far. The biggest secret had to be shared. "She's not my friend," Cosette confessed. "She's my girlfriend."

Valjean looked stunned. His eyes seemed to bulge in his head. Suddenly, he closed his mouth into a thin line. Cosette couldn't decipher his emotion.

Valjean stood and marched inside. Cosette followed him, trailing after him through the halls. He went out the front door, and Cosette watched from him from the frame as he walked away.