The Decade

Disclaimer: I still don't own anything. Oops.

Eponine watches as Cosette tosses the bouquet way too high for any of the girls standing there in a cluster a few feet behind her to actually catch. Her eyes follow its trajectory as it keeps going, sailing over Amelie, who is standing at the very back of the group, and watches with both fascination and horror as it gets ever closer to where Jehan's standing with Grantaire.

The man had taken his eyes off of the event to say something to his lover and take a sip of the wine he was holding. Neither man seemed to be paying much attention to their surroundings so both were completely shocked when the roses smacked Jean Prouvaire in the face. Of course the man also managed to catch the bouquet as it bounced off of his nose, because he was perfect that way.

She giggles as everyone whistles and embarrasses the previously oblivious pair. Jehan's turning tomato red and Grantaire's shoving his hair out of his face and looking away from them, as if turning away could stop the "So when are you getting married?" questions.

Joke's on the one's asking the questions; according to Azelma, Grantaire enlisted her help (along with Feuilly's) in finding a ring a few weeks ago. With which he plans to propose to his boyfriend. Eventually.

She's not too sure on the details. Although they're all trying to get along better now, the truth is, it's only been a few months and things are still awkward. Everyone's trying, though, and at least R chooses to speak to her, rather than awkwardly trying to talk to the people around her and only focus in on her when he had to (like he'd done in the beginning).

Sometimes it even feels like nothing's changed and they're both eighteen, making the same bad jokes and laughing at each other's terrible sense of humor and understand things about each other that no one else does because that's the way they grew up. Sometimes, it almost feels like they're getting back to that place.

The group of girls hoping to catch the bouquet slowly disperses now, as the reception starts going at full swing. Eponine, herself, heads over to the table near the front of the room and grabs her own glass of wine. She takes a sip and takes a seat on an overly decorated chair. The one thing she's hated about Cosette and Marius's wedding is the fact that she, as maid of honor and has had to deal with irritating decorations that don't do what you want and irritating people who don't listen to what you're saying all day. There's also all the standing in pointy shoes.

Eponine isn't much of a higher than five inch heels type of girl. She prefers the practicality of kitten heels, or even better, a pair of flats.

So she kicks off the six inch monstrosities and looks at the people around her.

The first thing that catches her eye is Marius and Cosette's slow dance which has been interrupted by her father, Valjean. The interaction's actually pretty hilarious to those who know that Marius practically worships the very ground Cosette's stepdad walks on and acts all prim and proper around him but the man is a lot more laid back than that and finds Marius a little annoying for taking his precious angel away from him.

It's been over ten years and the poor sap still doesn't have a clue about how his new father-in-law feels about him. Oh well. Valjean's probably not going to hurt him.

Fantine, Cosette's mother, on the other hand has pulled Marius away and is now dancing with him, smiling brightly; excited about her daughter's wedding and her new son-in-law. She watches as Fantine whispers something in Marius's ear. Marius, hearing this pales, nods, bows (Who bows these days?), and walks away from the woman. When he moves to sit by his grandfather, Eponine knows that Fantine has just threatened him in some way. Marius is a wimp in the way that he'll only go to his grandfather if he feels threatened and needs a nice lecture to get back on track.

Well, his grandfather or Gabe.

Her eyes immediately flick back to the other side of the room and find Gabe in the crowd of people gathered on the dance floor that's actually just a bunch of trampled grass people are calling the dance floor. He's dancing with Amelie and Sebastian. They look like a family and Eponine feels a pain slice through her chest, a stab of jealousy at the sight of the perfect family. She knows it's petty and she shouldn't feel jealous because Gabe loves her but he loves Amelie and Sebastian too and it's a hard thing to come to terms with and accept. It's one thing knowing it in her mind and another seeing it right in front of her. She's still working on the whole jealousy thing.

"What are you doing over here? Not wallowing I hope?" Her brother asks, taking the seat beside her.

She rolls her eyes, "No. I'm just so done with these heels. I can't believe Cosette made me wear them. She knows I hate these things and I can't walk in them without tripping and I can't risk walking around without them or my feet will be crushed by our evil friends."

"So you are wallowing."

"Why are you wallowing?" Gabe asks, showing up out of thin air and scaring both of them.

"Hey. I thought you were dancing with Amelie and Sebastian?"

"I wanted to dance with you too." He says, the smile on his face sincere and making her feel guilty for her previous line of thought, "So tell me, why are you wallowing? And try not to change the subject this time."

Before Eponine can say anything, Gav explains the situation to Gabe on her behalf, and both Courfeyrac and Combeferre butt in as well.

"She's right, you know, if she were to walk around barefoot like that, I'd have no choice but to stomp on her toes," Courf declares.

Eponine rolls her eyes, "Why don't you two go back to doing the do in some dark corner, hmm?"

Gavroche snickers as both men blush a red that would rival the one Jehan sported earlier.

"What's going on over here?" R asks, striding towards their little group and pulling Jehan along with him, "Are people embarrassing each other without me?"

A glass breaking behind them interrupts his mock outrage.

"Bossuet, I told you to be careful with that glass!" Both Joly and Musichetta say at the same time, as everyone bursts into laughter around them.

Azelma just rolls her eyes and tries to pick her way through the glass to her sister, "It's Bossuet, what did you two expect?" Only to have Feuilly, ever the gentleman, pick her up and place her over the mess, "Thanks, love." She says absentmindedly and Eponine rolls her eyes. If Feuilly thinks he can date her sister without first getting a proper beating, he's got another thing coming.

Gavroche seems to agree with her on this topic, and they both have a silent conversation about taking him out to…talk. Later. When there are less witnesses around.

It isn't long before Cosette and Marius show up, "Why are you all over here? This is a party! It's my reception! I just got married! Why are you all here wallowing?" An obviously drunk Cosette swings her arms around as if to punctuate how odd it is that they're all here and not out on the makeshift dance floor.

Of course, this only sets the original five of them into fits of laughter, everyone else oblivious to the joke.

"I think I have the perfect solution to your problem, Madame." Gabe tells Cosette, before bowing first to her, then to Eponine, who looks on confused. He then proceeds to lift the girl up and carry her, barefoot to the dance floor.

"Gabe! What are you doing?" She tries to protest that she's too heavy and that he should let her down before he hurts himself, there's still glass on the ground, after all.

"Killing three birds with one stone. I'm solving your wallowing problem, along with Cosette's wallowing problem, and I'm solving my own problem as well."

"And what's your problem?"

"Well," He says, placing her feet on top of his, "I want to dance with you and you refused on the charge that you couldn't with your shoes and without them your toes would get crushed. I felt as if this would be the proper solution."

"Well, aren't you a gentleman." It's more a statement than a question, but he answers anyway.

"But of course Mademoiselle, I'm nothing if not proper."

Eponine merely laughs at this and wraps her arms around his neck, not in the mood to argue the point that he was nothing close to proper a moment ago.

He hums along to the song and slowly dances in a circle, neither caring how ridiculous they probably look, Eponine like a child on Gabe's toes and Gabe with his off-pitch half-humming, half-singing.

In the glow of the soft lighting around Valjean and Fantine's large backyard, it's almost like they're in a fairy tale.

Almost like nothing is impossible and anything can happen.

Eponine closes her eyes and rests her head on Gabe's shoulder and waits for her adventure to begin.

And that's the end! Yay epilogue! Sorry it's so short but I felt like this is where it needed to end. I hope you're as happy with it as I am and you won't kill me for not adding other people's points of view. It's just that this story started off with Eponine's point of view, so I felt like that's how it should end as well.

As for 'Ferre and Courf, welp I had to add that in last chapter because I really ship them pretty hard and honestly they were basically together anyway, I figured I might as well make it official. I wasn't going to originally, but then I couldn't help myself. Don't worry, though, they're still best friends. Only now they get to make out and do the do, if you know what I mean.

I don't think Azelma and Feuilly are going to get together, that's more Eponine and Gav being overprotective crazy people. I see Azelma traveling the world and trying to cure diseases while Feuilly finds a small town where everyone knows each other and he makes little trinket for the poor children who don't have toys to play with. Who knows, maybe they will end up together.

Gavroche's going to cause mayhem and trouble and he's going to pull weird pranks (like turning his sister's hair blue) but he's also going to keep being the glue that sticks everyone together.

Cosette and Marius are, of course, going to live happily ever after (for the most part) with the occasional quarrel that Cosette will end up winning

As for R and Jehan, I bet Jehan's going to ask R to marry him first or maybe on accident or something. Maybe he'd find R's ring, but he'll definitely be the one to make the first move, despite all of Grantaire's plans.

Amelie and Sebastian will eventually move on with their lives, they'll stop leaning on Enjolras so much but they'll still remain close. Maybe they'll find someone to fill that gap in their hearts but they aren't going to move forward alone. Enjolras is going to stick around and be there for them, for as long as they want him to be and Eponine's going to try to help along as well. I feel like Amelie and Eponine go out for coffee and talk about their problems and complain about things Enjolras does. Like how loudly he snores or how he leaves the toilet seat up.

ANYWAY A BIG THANK YOU TO ANYONE WHO HAS READ THE DECADE!

ALSO A BIG THANK YOU TO lifeofthewickedwitch WHO DID THE AMAZING COVER ART FOR THE DECADE (YOU CAN STALK HER ON TUMBLR FOR OTHER AMAZING ARTS)