What happens after Les Miserables?

Chapter 1

Cosette's POV

"...And that's why, my friends, we must carry on their dream. We must rise up and take their places for that is what they would want. We will fight until we are free from the King's harsh rule!" Marius's voice echoes through the cafe as he speaks to a group of young men.

I hear mumbles of agreement spread throughout the crowd followed by the nodding of heads. After our wedding and the death of Papa, Marius and I have gathered a group of young men to take the places of the revolutionaries that passed.

Marius has risen up and taken the place of Enjolras, the previous leader of the revolutionaries, and has been talking to the new members about the revolution. He has been inspiring them and encouraging others to join him and the revolutionaries in their fight for freedom.

Some of the new members are interesting characters. One man, Étienne Duflot, is one of the first people who joined the group. He doesn't talk a lot and he rarely smiles. Even though they have to work together, Marius and Étienne don't usually get along. Étienne is always finding flaws in Marius's plans, even if they most likely won't happen.

Another man, Maitland Bordelon, is a mysterious character. He never talks and always stares queerly at everybody; almost as if we were all his enemies. I have my suspicions about him. I remember the stories Marius would tell me about his experience in the revolution. One told of a spy, Javert, who worked for the government and tried to spy on the revolutionaries and throw them off by feeding them false information. I have suspicious that Maitland might be another Javert.

I only have heard a few stories because whenever the topic of the barricade is brought up, Marius usually blows it off quickly. He doesn't like to talk about his time at the barricade because it brings up too many horrible memories for him. I never pressure him to tell even though I am truly curious about it.

For some reason he won't tell me, Marius wants to lead a successful revolution. That is why I am helping him achieve that because I know he won't rest until it happens. I also know it will devastate him if he never lives to see a successful revolution.

Many more women have joined and contributed to the group after Marius took control, including me. I never really gave the revolution a second thought, but as Marius explained it more in his perspective, I felt more strongly about it. I still don't understand some parts of the revolution, but my understanding is enough to spark a fire in my heart for the revolution.

Étienne has always disliked me as well. He seems like he doesn't like the idea about a woman being able to contribute ideas to the revolutions which seemed like a job that a male would do. I find the way that he thinks very childish.

On the topic of children, there is another child who is part of the group. Marius first wouldn't allow it after seeing the death of Gavroche, the youngest member of the previous revolution; however, the child begged and begged. After a while, Marius grew weary of the child's pleads so he allowed it, but the boy cannot be near the barricade when the revolution starts.

I never really caught the boy's name, but I know his last name because his mother is one of my dearest friends. She was quite young to have a twelve year old boy; however she was highly intelligent for her age. Her name is Alethea De Bosc. She has recently joined the group and that inspired her son to want to be in it too. For some reason beyond my comprehension, she fancies Étienne.

I have to admit, from the outside, he is quite attractive. Not as much as Marius, but still enough to have an abundant amount of women fall for his looks. His dark brown hair glistens by the candle light and piercing gray eyes could make a heart melt; however, it cannot make mine; only Marius could do that.

Beyond his looks, his soul is dark and cold. I have no idea what a gentle woman like Alethea would fall for a stone-hearted man like him. I just don't get it.

"Cosette," A calm voice snaps me out of my thoughts and back into reality. I look up to see the kind eyes of Marius staring down at me. A smile curves onto his mouth and he extends his hand which I take and slowly rise to my feet.

"The meeting is long over. Were you off daydreaming again?" Marius knows how I usually space out in the meetings. Unless something exciting and new happens, I am usually bored with the same thing over and over again.

"It doesn't do the soul good to be in a fake world where nothing is the truth, Cosette,"

"It wasn't that I was off in my own little world. I am just growing weary of the same tedious speeches. You present them every time we meet up with the other revolutionaries and I am being driven into boredom. I am truly interested in the topic of the revolution, but I do not wish to sit on my arse all day and listen to speeches about us revolting. I actually want to go out there and DO what we are talking about all this time.

Marius looks down and for a horrifying second I feel like I went too far and that Marius was going to be mad at me. However, Marius just looked up and half smiled to most likely hide his disappointment.

"And I promise we WILL get to that point, but for now we have to encourage and inspired the people. After all, we need more people to fight otherwise we won't have enough for a successful revolution. I am doing and Enjolras would want me to do if he were alive."

"But you'll never be him." A voice says from behind me. I don't look back because I already know who it is.

"Étienne," Marius says plainly.

"I agree with your wife Marius, we should actually go into action instead of lying around doing nothing." Marius grits his teeth and I know at any time he could burst out in anger.

"We aren't doing "nothing" Étienne, or maybe you haven't noticed all the hard work Cosette and I put into convincing people to join us."

"Well, it really doesn't seem as if Cosette is really interested in this. Are you Cosette?"

"Don't answer that!"

"Why Marius? Are you afraid of the answer? Are you afraid that Cosette may not be as perfect as you think?"

"Go away Étienne! Now!"

"Fine, but you are doing a crappy job "inspiring people" or if that's what you even can call it." Étienne moves close to Marius so that his mouth is by his ear. He whispers something that I can't hear and that is when Marius explodes. This going to be trouble.

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Marius's POV

Étienne moves so that his mouth is next to my ear. I can feel his warm, disgusting breath on my ear.

"I bet Enjolras could have done much better at this than you. Maybe it should have been you whose body is now rotting on the fallen barricade."

That's when I burst.

I throw a punch into Étienne's stomach which makes him fall to the ground. I lean over to punch him in the face, when swings his leg which knocks me to the ground. My face hits the floor and a few seconds later I feel a fist impact with my jaw. A strike of pain courses though my face, but I swing my arms aimlessly into the air until I can feel them connect with something. I look up to see I hit Étienne's nose which is now bleeding all over me.

Étienne clutches his nose and I lift my arm to throw another punch, but I stop myself before I hit Cosette who as stepped in between us.

"Marius! We need all men we can get that are not hospitalized and that includes you! Now no matter what differences you had and no matter what he said to you over there, you guys have to get along!"

I sigh deeply. Cosette is right. If Étienne and I never get along, we'll never have a successful revolution.

"Marius, apologize to Étienne! Please?" Cosette mutters to me under her breath. Then she looked at me with pleading eyes. I sigh and roll my eyes.

"I am deeply sorry for what I did," I didn't look at Étienne as I said this. I didn't want to look at his face because I knew I would want to slap the smug look off of his face.

"As am I my friend," Étienne says in a phony way, but I have to please Cosette. I extend a hand and he shakes it reluctantly. For now we have made peace with each other, but don't know how long it will last. My guess: half an hour. Sadly, I was correct.