Les Couleurs du Monde (An Enjolras Les Misérables Fanfiction)

Chapter VI ~ A Choice Between Family and Belief

Three days after Meg's passing, Elise sat at a table in the Cafe Musain during one of the students' meetings. She found herself constantly blanking out and thinking about Meg. But she always reverted her attention back to the meeting. She had to make sure this revolution succeeded. It was what Meg would have wanted.

Éponine and Elise were sitting together. Éponine had found out about Meg's passing soon after it occured, and she softened her attitude considerably towards Elise.

"We need a sign. We need the perfect moment to rise up against our government." said Marius to the students.

"And when we do, we need to have a last protest, and, when violence is needed, we'll build a barricade." declared Enjolras.

"Our next big protest will be in two weeks in Saint Michel. We need to congregate together and speak out!" announced Marius after a quarter hour of more speaking.

"Vive le France!" the students chanted as usual, thus ending the meeting. Éponine and Elise drifted over to where Marius stood.

"That was a good meeting." said Elise politely to Marius, who grinned.

"Merci." he said.

Éponine spoke up, "I completely agreed with you while you were speaking."

"Thanks, 'Ponine." he smiled casually at her. It was getting frustrating for Elise, seeing Éponine's fancy not even noticing her.

'Talk to him,' mouthed Elise to Éponine while Marius wasn't looking and she slipped away from the two of them.

Elise was stopped just as she exited the Cafe's doors. "Mademoiselle Rosier," said a familiar voice.

"You don't need to call me that!" she said, turning to Enjolras.

"Well, Elise," said Enjolras, "How was the meeting for you?"

"It went rather well," she answered.

"Well, I wanted to know whether you'd like to take another walk with me soon. I rather enjoy talking with you." he said, a soft smile on his face.

"Why not?" Elise said, removing her cockade and holding it in her hands.

"Tomorrow then?"

Elise slipped the cockade into her pocket and started walking away. "Sure. But it has to be earlier than last time. How about around six?"

He nodded, "Great."

"Take care!" he shouted after her as she reached a distance of about five meters away, causing her to smile.

~•••~

The next day, of course, Elise showed up at the Cafe, in a causal frock she had, holding a light parasol. The summer sunlight shone brightly onto the city of Paris. It seemed as though the clouds that haunted the skies for so long had died along with Elise's stepmother. Instead, the blue sky above was almost impeccably cloudless. The warmth the weather seemed to bring had seemed to seep into Elise herself. She had mostly recovered from Meg's death, telling herself to carry on.

Elise smiled at the blonde who approached.

"Bonjour, Enjolras." she said, smiling warmly.

"Bounjour, Elise. And how are you?" he said.

"Fine. So," Elise said as they started walking. "The protest. Do you think this might be the one that they'll actually listen to?"

"I hope it is." he said, "But if it's not, we'll keep trying until they do."

She nodded, walking with him quietly, simply enjoying his presence.

They passed Notre Dame, the grand cathedral. Elise was the first to break pleasant the silence.

"Imagine what life in France would be like when we succeed. We'd have our vote and our poor would be better off. We'd be all equal. The rich wouldn't have all the power and it'd be distributed to the whole people. There'd be less of the lower-class on the streets. It'd be lovely." mused Elise, gazing up at the sky.

"Yes, it'd be fantastic." agreed Enjolras. After a brief moment's silence, he added, "Elise, do you really feel so strongly about the students' ideas?"

"Of course!" Elise said, nodding. "Why?"

"Well, most people don't appreciate our acts."

"Well, they're blind to the lower class' suffering." She put his hand in hers in a supportive way, "And if they did, they wouldn't say anything because of their 'beloved' king."

Enjolras murmured, "True."

"At least this revolution is going to change that all." she said pleasantly.

They both grinned, walking back to the Cafe Musain.

As they approached the cafe's doors, Elise said, "I must go home now." And as she was pulling away her hand away to walk home, Enjolras held fast to her hand. When she raised her eyebrow at him, he said, "Let me escort you home. The streets of Paris are no place for a lovely woman like you. Plus, it's getting dark already."

It was indeed. Elise's cheeks pinkened. "You don't have to!"

"I insist." he said, walking her in the direction he'd seen her go when she usually went home. Elise knew that he was going to be stubborn about it, so she gave in. "Fine."

After a quarter hour's walk, they arrived at her home's doorstep.

"It was a pleasure to walk with you," Elise said smiling.

"No, the pleasure was mine," he said, politely bowing.

"See you later, Enjolras,"

"Au revoir," he said, walking off.

Elise creeped into the house silently, and was just slipping past the halfway point of the stairs when her father called her name from the first floor suddenly, which caused her to start, since he wasn't there before.

"Yes, father," she said, peering over the stair's railing to Javert, who had a suspicioning look on his face.

"Who was that, Elise?" he asked, causing Elise to clench the railing the slightest bit tighter.

"No one, papa," Elise piped, smiling and trying to appear gleeful, but her real nervousness caused her voice to quiver.

Javert squinted and his gaze seemed to look into her soul, which was something he did whenever he thought something weird was going on.

"Very well," he said, finally deciding that there was nothing wrong. Nevertheless, he'd keep an eye on the young blond man. It seemed as if he recognised him from somewhere, but where exactly, he didn't remember. Finally he nodded, dismissing Elise, who went up and enclosed herself in her room.

Soon Elise would have to make a decision. She pitied her father, but she also pitied the poor. Would she abandon the only family she had left or abandon the revolution? She was in a perplexing situation, one that caused her to turn her cockade over and over again in her hands; it was a habit she had when thinking deeply.

If she decided on continuing with the revolution, the only thing her father was thankful for would be gone, and Javert would be driven into misery. But... if Elise were to stay at home and leave the students, the handsome young man she had come to adore would be forever out of her reach. Enjolras was the one to really enlighten her political views, just as if he were a candle that someone happens to be carrying.

It was as if she was a simple marionette, being pulled from the left and right from each side of her consciousness. When one idea started pulling on her left, her right jerked her in its direction. Soon enough, she'd be bound to break.

No.

She won't leave the poor just for an unfortunate old man. She won't abandon her country just for her father. She wouldn't leave Enjolras. For anything.

And so occurred the moment of decision in her inner political revolution. She had decided on following it all the way instead of doing "all she could". It didn't matter to her that Javert was wholly incapable of understanding it, wanting it, of changing it, or tolerating it.