Les Misérables | Regulus A. Black [1]

Chapter Thirty-Five

[Chapter Thirty-Five]

"He kissed your what?!"

Emmarentia instantly sat up on her bed with a bewildered look, fighting back the strong urge to laugh.  Éponine stood at the end of the bed, with the usual flustered expression as her face was red but she was doing her best to hide it behind her hair. She had come in after her date with Regulus came to what she considered an embarrassing end and needed someone to talk to about it. Emmarentia was her only friend outside of the boys and thankfully the first person she had come upon when entering the dorms.

Everything was going so smoothly on the date, Regulus holding her hand, the two of them confessing things to one another and even just sharing at that moment that occurred just before two people were about to kiss. Éponine never had anyone look at her the way Regulus looked at her and while it was intimidating to some, she just wanted to melt. As she stood nearly chest to chest and eye level with him, she could see his eyes venture down to her lips which caused her lower lip to tremble.

Slowly, he lifted up one of his hands and had the edge of his thumb touch the lower part of her lip to hold it still. One would have been completely oblivious or stupid not to see what was coming next as his eyes were focused on what he had planned. At first, Éponine found herself dreadfully nervous with the idea of kissing Regulus but the longer she stood there, she actually was becoming more and more relaxed. Unfortunately, for Regulus, it was quite the opposite as the longer he stood there in front of her, he was getting riddled with fear. He should have just acted when he first thought about it instead of hesitating. 

Instead, he lost the moment and his feelings got the best of him as he lowered his hands and moved away from Éponine. She could see the disappointment on his face and maybe for some, they would have pitied Regulus, but she found it incredibly sweet that his confidence had dwindled at that moment. Perhaps she had stolen a bit of his confidence because she actually took the opportunity to lean in towards him. His eyes widened and the little spurt of confidence that she felt disappeared.

If anyone had been watching them from the distance, it would be incredibly painful to witness the two just try to come to terms with sharing in a simple kiss. Éponine was confused because she didn't feel those nerves when Emmarentia went to kiss her but she didn't find herself exactly wanting the kiss at the time either.  She figured that it would probably be just better to talk through it but just as she went to move away again, Regulus had enough of the back and forth and gently grabbed her face. He leaned in quickly but Éponine hadn't been prepared, caught off guard as she stumbled forward.

So instead of sharing a romantic first kiss on the lips, Regulus ended up kissing her eye and the entire moment had come to a very awkward ending. Éponine would have laughed, however, it honestly felt like she had been poked in the eye leaving her to cry out and clap her hand over it. Regulus began apologising and in his own state of panic, practically ran off, leaving her to stand there, using her hand as an eye patch.