beauty and a barricade || enjonine

10: a free will

éponine had not strayed far from the musain before she stopped and turned around, hoping to catch a final glance of enjolras; however, he had already returned to the building. she sighed: assisting her father with his 'work' was the final thing she wished to do. she had slowly been detaching herself from his crimes, but since she wanted somewhere to sleep, somewhere to keep warm, she couldn't bring herself to refuse every order.

she heard sweet laughter ringing from inside the musain. she felt compelled to walk towards the melodic noise, like a moth drawn to a candle.

there was another sound, not quite as sweet: rambunctious footsteps descending stairs. éponine concealed herself within the shadows. a group of young men she eventually recognized as members of les amis were exiting the building, but enjolras was not among them. they were so occupied by their chatter that they hadn't noticed éponine, who was still intently fixated on them.

"i still think he was lying," said one man. éponine identified him as jehan.

"he would never make that up," said another.

the students continued to filter out, a peculiar figure emerging from the building in a very ungraceful manner. it was grantaire, holding a glass bottle as he often was. éponine observed his actions, recalling enjolras's warning regarding conversation with grantaire. he was certainly drunk.

as he stumbled past éponine, he paused. with a surprisingly composed countenance, as though he hadn't ingested a drop of alcohol, he stared at her and said, "éponine."

éponine looked on him with perplexity.

grantaire smiled mischievously and reached into his pocket, searching for something. he stuck his tongue out in an attempt to concentrate, and triumphantly, revealed a crumpled slip of paper. he extended it to éponine.

"letter," he said.

éponine raised her eyebrows. "enjolras responded already?"

"no, this is from me," he answered, shaking his head. "you must have been confused because unlike certain gentlemen, i deliver my own mail."

"you wrote me a letter?"

"do you want it?"

"yes," éponine replied, growing ever more intrigued. she accepted the letter. on the front, in poor manuscript, the address read 'rainy girl'— if she was even reading that correctly. as éponine was terribly out of practice in terms of literacy, she struggled to comprehend even the clearest of fonts. grantaire was challenging her. with a puzzled expression, she said, "you know my name."

grantaire shrugged. "i was probably drunk when i wrote that."

aren't you always? éponine thought.

"whenever you get bored of enjolras's boringness, feel free to come sit with me," he said with a wink. "or if you don't want to, don't. i'm fine either way."

"thank you," éponine said, attempting to mask her confusion.

"see you when i see you, then. i'm going to grab a quick drink and head home."

"you have one already, do you not?"

grantaire raised the bottle. "this one's empty."

she watched him wander off in search of another cafe or tavern to refill his bottle. once he had faded into the streets and she assumed he was safe enough, éponine unfolded the crumpled paper in her hands.

Rainy Girl,

Bonjour! I read your notes unDer Enjolras's papers in the Cafe Monkey— yes, I was looking through his belongings, but he left them unsupervised. They were practically begging to be looked through.