Not So Misérables (Les Miserables Fanfic)

Cosette: My Roommate

Enjolras. Enjolras was my roommate. I was just putting my stuff away in my new room at the college, when lo and behold, Enjolras walks in.

"Hello." I said in my fake deep voice.

Enjolras turned to look at me, and frowned. "Hello. Do I know you?" Enjolras frowned, analyzing my features in a deep uncomfortable stare.

"No!" I accidentally slipped into my normal voice. Enjolras sat on his bed, eyebrows quirked, and read through a book, occasionally looking at me suspiciously.

"What're you reading?" I sat beside him, careful not to touch him.

"A book."

"What book?"

"It's on the French Revolution."

"Oh."

"Why do you care?" His voice held no emotion.

"I dunno." I tried to speak like boys do. "Jus' curious."

"What's your name anyway?" He finally looked away from the book, looking into my eyes. I averted mine.

"Uh, C. . ." NOT COSETTE. NOT COSETTE. ". . . Hristopher. Christopher Gibbon."

"Oh."

I realized he was waiting for me to ask his name. "W-what's yours?"

"Enjolras."

He adjusted his position, and his hand touched mine for a second. I immediately got off his bed. "It's almost night. You should stop." I told him, gathering my nightclothes (I had to create an entire boy wardrobe), and starting to head into the closet to change.

He reluctantly closed the book, and it's thick pages made a crashing sound. "Why are you changing in there?"

"I. . ." I blushed. ". . . Am not used to changing in front of others?"

"Mmhm. Anyway, how'd you know Él?" A certain fondness entered his cold voice as Enjolras spoke her name.

"She's my s--friend. She's my friend." I almost slipped right there. . . "How do you know her?"

"My fianceé." His stony face contained a trace of a smile.

What?! They're engaged?! "Ah." I pretended to be calm and headed into the closet, and exited wearing my new nightclothes.

Enjolras turned off the light and we both tucked into our beds.

"G'night." I whispered.

"Night." He apparently wasn't used to saying goodnight. "So, um, are you free tomorrow at 8?"

"Uh," my voice came out too high-pitched and I desperately tried to lower it. "I dunno. Why?"

~❤~

We were at the barricade. I didn't know how I knew it but I did. I could not move, but only stand and watch from on top of the barricade.

"Who's there?" A soldier on the other side yelled.

A man on our side-Enjolras!-yelled in reply after a moment of hesitation. "French revolution!"

"Fire!" The soldier yelled. Shot were fired from both sides, cannons shot. I spotted Marius in the crowd, picking up a barrel.

"Marius!" Little Gavroche's eyes were etched with fear for his friend. "Marius, no!" A gun was aimed toward Marius.

A skinny boy, no GIRL with a cap on covering her hair and man clothes disguising her figure saw what was going on. Something I recognizable flashes in her eyes. Then I knew. It was Éponine.

She ran in front of the gun and pulled it toward her chest in a matter of seconds. I could not move my mouth or body. I was forced to watch as the gun went off, sending sparks into the air. And sending Éponine to the ground. She sank down, leaning on the barricade.

Marius didn't notice his friend getting shot for him. He held the barrel and a torch. "Back off or I'll blow up the barricade." Marius's eyes looked crazed and the torchlight shone on them.

"You'll have to take yourself with it." A soldier on the other side threatened.

Marius lowered his torch so that the torch almost touched the barrel, most certainly full of gunpowder. I could imagine the flames consuming the barrel, bringing the barricade down.

No! I wanted to shout to him. I tried to shout to him: Don't do it! But no words came out. My mouth was frozen. My leg shifted, though I wasn't controlling it. I looked down at myself, though it took mountains of effort. I was Jehan Prouvaire. "Back off." The soldier on the barricade commanded the others. Deep behind that dark mustache and cruel features, I could see his fear. The soldier didn't want to be a murderer.

Marius lowered the torch and climbed off the barricade. That was when he saw Éponine.

"It's from Cosette." Cosette? A letter from me? What?! "I kept it from you. I'm sorry." Éponine winced from the bullet lodged in her chest. Marius took the letter, concealing his excitement.

"Éponine. . . You're hurt." He took Éponine in his arms. She smiled weakly. The mere action made her wince.

"Don't you fret, Monsieur Marius, I don't feel any pain." Éponine winced again. "A little fall of rain can hardly hurt me now." She half-smiled but obviously was still hurting. "You're here, that's all I need to know! And you will keep me safe. And you will keep me close. And rain will make the flowers grow." Marius touched her bare skin, and a smile entered her eerily beautiful features.

"But you will live, 'Ponine, dear God above! If I could close your wound with words of love!" Marius tried to convince himself, mainly, but her as well.

"Just hold me now, and let it be. Shelter me, comfort me!" Éponine gathered all her strength to reach up and touch his finely carved face.

"So don't you fret, Monsieur Marius, I don't feel any pain. A little fall of rain can hardly hurt me now." This side of Éponine I never knew came out. Broken. . . In love with Marius. "This rain will wash away what's past! And you will keep me safe."

"'Til you are sleeping," Marius murmured glancing at the letter they said was mine once more.

"And you will keep me close. And rain," Marius echoed her. "Will make the flowers. . ." Éponine's eyes turned empty. Staring into a void which must be death. Marius gently closed them.

"Grow." He whispered, ending her sentence. Marius touched his lips to hers. Enjolras looked on, covering up his jealousy with a look of sorrow that was there as well. A tear leaked down his cheek, as did Gavroche's.

I looked on as my sister and best friend lay on the ground. Dead.