beauty and a barricade || enjonine

4: no one is invisible

he had written to her again.

of course, enjolras hadn't given éponine the letter directly. this time, combeferre had delivered it to the gamine. this confused her, because they were always in the musain at the same time.

éponine scanned the room, searching for the author of the letter. she was looking for a glimpse of red or a head of blonde curls. and she had found him.

he wasn't busy, nor was he speaking to anyone. he was there, returning the gaze, but quickly turning his head away. it was brief, but meaningful.

there he was. he was actually there.

but éponine couldn't bring herself to approach him. not yet.

once again, she was puzzled. enjolras could come up to her and they could speak. he was entirely capable of it. it would save paper, ink, and labor of les amis.

eponine decided against opening the letter and reading it in front of enjolras, as he had the ability to watch her. she hated to be watched. that called for an awkward, nonverbal situation that she did not wish to be involved in. she chose to leave the musain, and it didn't hurt that marius was about to leave as well.

"going home early, 'ponine?" he asked playfully, meeting her at the doorway.

éponine tucked the letter away into one of the loose rags on her dress. "i could say the same about you, monsieur." one half of her mouth curled into a gentle smile. "where are you going? it is only five. you normally stay much, much later, do you not?"

a grand smile grew on his freckled face. "i am going to visit my lovely cosette!" he exclaimed.

éponine sensed her body burn with envy. "oh, that's right."

an uncomfortable expression was contorting her features. "i guess i'll see you tomorrow."

"until then," marius nodded.

there was nothing more to say.

éponine cut the corner, wandering aimlessly in the streets. despite the miserable weather conditions and ominous parisians, she felt a stronger sense of freedom being by herself in the city. no matter how sinister or lonely.

she suddenly recalled the letter and pulled the envelope. she stopped in an alleyway to look at it.

more words from the leader in red.

éponine quickly opened it, an excited smile on her face.

Mademoiselle Eponine,

Your political view, name, and illnesses have been noted. Thank you. My friend, Joly, was concerned. He has problems with illness. He's... special.

I also discovered that you feel as if you're a stranger to everyone? No one is invisible, Mademoiselle, even though it may seem so. Marius talks about you often, though there's another woman he's fascinated in... Anyway, I apologize if I insulted you. I only meant to insult Marius. I just don't understand how insulting someone else angers you so greatly.

Do you really think that Marius will stand with us? You have more faith in him than I do, so I'm genuinely asking your opinion. He's told me about your knowledge of our government, which impresses me. I do not believe that women are naive or don't have enough intelligence to participate in anything, including the government. It's clear that we're lacking female supporters. You would give us something to stand for.

I am a student, so I have written my share of papers, but I am wondering- how did you learn to write? You are clearly not of the upper class.

Vive la Révolution!

Enjolras

P.S. Feuilly was very impressed with your folding. He was continuously folding and unfolding your letter.

there was a lot of information for éponine to process at once. many new names: she had just matched enjolras' name to its owner, and she hadn't yet met joly and feuilly. they must be peculiar people if they obsess over illness and paper folding.

in the letter, many things stood out to her.

obviously, the fact that enjolras didn't much like marius itstill bothered her, but not as much as it had initially. it must have something to do with politics rather than personality. after all, enjolras referred to marius as an 'idiot bonapartist' in his last letter.

then, there was the fact that he didn't belittle women. he seemed to support éponine, though she had nothing she stood for. he seemed to believe in gender equality.

but every thought was overpowered by one sentence.

'No one is invisible, Mademoiselle, though it may seem so.'

these words had some strange effect. enjolras could very well have said that to anyone. she imagined all of the people he had spoken to— who he had possibly said that to.

he had written an entire paragraph all to make her feel better.

this gave éponine a warm feeling.

finally, at the end, he asked her a question. this indicated she was encouraged to write back. 'How did you learn to write?' seemed to imply that he was interested in her.

she turned around, heading back the way she had come from. she must have been more distracted than she thought, because she walked directly into someone.

"oh!" cried the person. he was evidently wealthy, and somewhat familiar. éponine immediately began to apologize, but he interrupted her.

"hey, you're her! you're éponine!" he exclaimed gleefully.

éponine stared.

"you know, it took him a lot of tries to write that," he smirked, gesturing to the letter in her hand. "i would know— i was there."

"who are you?" éponine managed before the next interruption.

"courfeyrac!" called a voice. another man appeared beside the first. "are you okay? are you all right? are you injured?" he shifted his eyes to éponine. "are you hurt?"

"everything is fine, joly, calm down," said courfeyrac. "what are you doing?"

joly had begun to prod courfeyrac's stomach. "checking for injuries!"

courfeyrac smacked his hand away.

"we should probably go before he gives you a full examination," he said to éponine.

he paused to give éponine an appreciative once-over and grinned at her. "since enjolras is so ridiculous, if you're ever interested..." courfeyrac winked and retreated jauntily down the street. joly trailed after him, casting worried glances back to éponine.

éponine cleared her head, determined to watch where she was going this time.

she made it home without any more incidents.

éponine quickly walked over to her family's small dining room table, pulling the drawer open to retrieve the supplies she needed to write back.

for the first time, she felt glad to have her mind taken off of marius.