A Stolen Heart

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 -

Eponine was looking considerably better. The bruises that had discoloured her skin were fading fast and thanks to the kindness of her friends for buying her every meal, her bones no longer jutted out unnaturally from her form. It had been a week since she had come home to Enjolras and he was glad to be getting work done now she was healthy enough to contribute.

"I'm bored." She finally announced after three hours of watching Enjolras scribble down random thoughts. He squinted up at her and frowned. He set his pen down and raised his eyebrows.

"You never got bored before." He noted. Eponine sighed and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

"I've been stuck in here for a week, I want to go out, I want to have fun." She whined in frustration at having been practically under house arrest since her return.

"We are having fun, are we not?" Enjolras furrowed his brow at her, he had been quite enjoying the calm of the morning's work. Eponine rolled her eyes at the man and stood up abruptly.

"I'm going out." She declared and proceeded towards the door.

"Eponine, wait! We're almost finished, we're shaping lives here." He pleaded, wishing dearly to have this speech finished tonight.

"Shaping lives? No, Enjolras, I believe the word you're looking for is 'destroying'. That's all this will achieve." She scoffed, unhooking Courfeyrac's jacket from the door and pulling it on in the means of wearing it to the Musain to return the garment.

"After all this time, that's still what you believe?" Eponine nodded, pulling her hair out from under the collar. "Eponine, we are helping the people, what we do here may well shape the future of France for the greater good."

"And how many of the 'people' have you helped, Enjolras?" She asked scornfully, turning to the door.

"I helped you didn't I?" He muttered, glaring at her in defiance. She paused.

"What?" She said through gritted teeth.

"You heard me, I took you in and gave you food and shelter, now you're not sleeping in that dingy old cellar every night in the cold."

"I thought this was a business arrangement." She turned to him now.

"Yes, sort of, it's quite unconventional." He attempted to brush her off, realising his mistake now.

"I will not be you charity case. I will not be some sob-story example for you and your demimonde to use as a political advantage." She spat at him, daring him to continue. He screwed up his face in annoyance and rose from his seat.

"Les Amis de l'ABC are not a demimonde, who have you heard call us that?" He was irked at her offhand use of the term. She gaped at him in disbelief that all he had taken from what she had said was the mild insult she had thrown at his cause.

"Fuck this." She snapped suddenly, turned on her heel and ran from the apartment.

"Eponine!" Enjolras yelled at empty space and sighed in defeat before chasing after her. It seemed to him that chasing Eponine had become a frequent activity of his.

"Jesus Christ, Eponine, you can't just run away from all your problems." He called as he followed her down the street. "Where are you even going?"

"To the Musain, to see my friends who don't treat me like a charity case, they actually care about me." She quipped, not looking back as she shoved her hands into Courfeyrac's pockets. That did it for Enjolras, he broke into a small run and caught her by the arm before she could slip away again.

"You think I don't care about you? Is that what this is about?" He hissed at her and was given a nasty glare in return.

"I know you don't, it always politics with you, Enjolras. You and your stupid revolution, that's all you care about. God forbid I offend your precious Patria." Eponine sneered, not bothering to struggle as she knew by now that the exercise was pointless.

"Are you kidding me? You can't be as smart as you make out then. You think I wasn't going out of my mind with worry every second you were gone? Don't you think if this was all just for charity I would have picked up some random street urchin long ago? I'm sure any one of them would be more than happy to be offered free accommodation ." He had raised his voice now, not seeing the way in which Eponine had begun to tremble slightly. She would not back down though, she would not be afraid of him.

"Then why don't you? Go find yourself some other gamin to use." She spat back.

"Because this is not about charity, Eponine. It's about you."

"What exactly is about me?"

"Everything." He snapped sharply before he could stop himself. Enjolras took a deep breath and loosened his grip on her arm. "I don't know, Eponine, I'm still trying to figure it out." He ran his hand through his curls in defeat.

Eponine's anger had fizzled out, leaving behind a certain desperation for clarity.

"Prove it." She whispered intently, taking a small step back towards the man who had hung his head in shame. He looked up to meet her gaze, his fierce eyes softening to reveal their true colour of deep cerulean.

"How?" His gaze pleaded with her to drop it but she refused to stand down.

"I thought you were supposed to be smarter than that." She shook her head, unwilling to be the one to instigate their unorthodox relationship any further. Eponine turned, her arm slipping through his grasp when, suddenly, he caught her wrist at the last second, yanking her back into his arms. She stared up at him, eyes full of wonder, breathless. His hand rose to caress her cheek and then, his eyes burning with desire, he crushed his lips to hers.

A.N - Okay I'm soooo sorry about the huge wait I've just been really busy and distracted :S Thank you to everyone who has reviewed/followed/ favourited ! :)

Thanks for being so patient and for such a short chapter too :/ I didn't know how to extend it I'm sorry :( the next will be longer and have more characters in it :)

Again please comment/vote, I love to hear your comments ! Thank you!

Jess x