I'm back! Longest one yet, too!

I actually followed their progress along the walk on Google Maps, highly recommend it for imagining romantic walks with imaginary blokes in cities too far away to visit.

Still don't own Les Mis.

They looked everywhere for a cab, but to no avail. Enjolras was sobering up fast, and getting steadily more irritated at the lack of transport available. Éponine is in nothing but a thin dress and it's bloody freezing out here, where are all the taxis?! He looked over at his companion, and held back a laugh as she smiled and danced her way along behind him. She didn't look cold at all, and the temperature certainly hadn't sobered her up like it had with him… maybe she was just a more hardened drinker than he was. Or just drunker.

"Enjolras, let's just walk, seriously. It'll be quicker" she suggested.
"It's a 40 minute walk, Éponine, you'll freeze"
"Noooo I won't. Street rat over here, remember? This is nothing!"
"This is not making me feel better" he pointed out, exasperated, but it was no use: she was walking determinedly in the other direction, arms out as she yelled "last one home's a loser!"

Oh, for crying out loud. He jogged to catch up, triggering a cheeky grin in his direction.
"Nothing like a walk in the night-time, Enj, it'll be good for you!"
"If we don't die of hypothermia…" he grumbled in return.
She looked over at him, still grinning, and then started to laugh at the irritated look on his face. "Jesus, Enj, it's a stroll. Not cruel and unusual punishment!"
"Maybe it IS" he countered. His tone stayed level and irritable, but they both knew he couldn't stay mad at her for long. Her laugh rang out into the night and she took his hand, grinning up at him triumphantly.
"Knew you loved it really"
"Oh shut up."

Content with each other's company, they walked in comfortable silence. They were half-way across Pont Alexandre III before Éponine stopped, and pulling Enjolras behind her, walked over to the stone railing. She had always loved how the river looked at night, all the lights in it; just looking at it, she felt peaceful and happy, like anything was possible. She used to come to the river a lot. Looking out at the familiar gloom of the Seine at night, peppered with the fuzzy reflection of the lights on the bridge,she pondered how much her life had changed. Who'd have thought that I'd end up like this, eh? Looking out over the river in a pretty dress, free from my father and the Patron? She became aware that Enjolras was looking questioningly down at her, her forearm brushing his jacket sleeve and their fingers intertwined. And with an ENJOLRAS on my arm, no less… Éponine smiled. I guess life got pretty good. She looked up at his handsome face, all chiselled jaw and deep blue eyes, his curls ruffling in the late-night breeze. Yeah. Really good.

His eyes met hers and he returned her smile, eyes heavy with tiredness, happiness, and something else she couldn't place. They continued walking without another word.

The river made the only sound as they turned left along Quai d'Orsay. There wasn't another soul in sight; just the river, and the grand old buildings of Paris to see them.

"Did you have a good night?" Éponine asked.
"I really did, thanks, did you?"
"Yeah. I really did."
"Happy birthday"
"Thank you!"
"Does 20 feel different, then?" he teased.
She laughed. "I do feel different. But I don't think that's because I'm twenty."
"You are different" he agreed. She looked up at him, an eyebrow raised and a smirk on her face. "Well… you smell better for one thing."
Éponine burst out laughing, punching him on the arm. "Hey! I did my best, I lived in an ALLEYWAY"
"Yeah, well, you could tell" he deadpanned.
"You're such a dick" she replied, still laughing. "At least I could talk to girls"
"I could always talk to girls!"
"Oh yeah, sure. That's why you stood slack-jawed, staring at me for a good five minutes the first time we met."
"It was half a minute at most!"
"And you wouldn't even shake my hand…"
"I was just surprised, that's all!"
"By what!?"
By how beautiful you were, and how you clearly had no idea. How your entire face changed when you started to smile. How you looked so young and yet so old at the same time. "You're kind of intimidating, you know!"
Éponine guffawed "INTIMIDATING?!"
"Wait, not intimidating, more…"
"What?!"
"Just…"
"WHAT!?"
Oh, fuck it. She's drunk anyway. "You're just so tough and cool and sexy and you just looked at me with those big brown eyes and I panicked!"
"You panicked?! Wait, SEXY?! YOU think I'M sexy?!"
"You were wearing the tightest t-shirt I have ever seen!"
"HA!"
"What?!"
"I didn't believe Courf when he said that's what it was - I thought you were just snobby and awkward!"
"I am NOT snobby!"
"Well I know that NOW"
"Good!"
They kept laughing for a good few minutes, continuing along the road towards Saint-Michel.

Once they reached the Palais Bourbon, Enjolras turned to walk down Boulevard Saint-Germain, but Éponine pulled him back to face Quai Anatole France.
"Come on, let's go this way" she grinned
"But that adds about 10 minutes to the walk" countered Enjolras
"I used to love walking by the river at night, and I never get to now! Come on, it's my birthday!"
"Not anymore, its after four in the morning"
"Well, we haven't gone to sleep yet so it still counts"
"This is mad, you know that?"
"Oh my God, Enj, this is wasting more time than we'd save, let's just go"
"Fine." They started down Quai Anatole France in silence, with Éponine casting suspicious smirks up at him every few minutes.
"Are you huffing over this?"
"No"
"No" she imitated in a gruff voice. "My name is Enjolras and I want to walk the fast way but the nasty girl won't let me"
"I do not sound like that"
"I do not sound like that"
"Stop it"
"Stop it"
"You're being childish"
"You're being childish"
He tried to stay irritated and again, failed. So he decided to fight fire with fire. "Well I'm Éponine and I like walks along the river because I'm sooo mysterious" he teased in a high-pitched, sing-song voice.
"Is that supposed to be me?"
"The only thing that could make this walk better is if I was alone so I could be even more mysterious"
"I'm not mysterious!"
"I think I'll sing a song"
"Don't you dare"
"So I put my haaands up, they're playing my song"
"HA!"
"Wait, no, that song is sooo mainstream"
"Am I a hipster as well as mysterious now, then?"
"All on my oooooown… I can't remember the wooooorrrddsss"
"Did you just try and sing that song from the Rue Plumet? Seriously?!"
"It occurs to me that this may not have been a good song choice"
"I'm just impressed you remember, I didn't know you heard so much"
He dropped the accent. "I heard the whole thing"
"Oh… really? That's embarrassing"
"It shouldn't be, it was a really good song."
"Pffft, I was just trying to stay upright, it wasn't good"
"It was. Really"
"Well, thank you."

Silence fell again, lasting only a minute or so before Enjolras broke it with another high-pitched, out of tune rendition. "Ooooonnn my oooowwwwnnn…."
"Shut up!" she laughed.

The conversation flowed easily, and they strolled happily chatting for another 15 minutes along the riverside. They weren't talking about anything in particular, just enjoying each other's company on a beautiful night.

Before long, they were walking past the Bureau des Longitudes; an impressive building which only looks more so when lit up at night. Éponine's voice was quiet but certain when she broke the easy silence with "I'm never going to leave Paris."
"Haven't you before?"
"Nope. Montfermeil, then Saint-Michel."
"Wow."
"I love Paris though. It has a sort of grand beauty about it, even in the poorest places. No matter how much the government fuck up, or how hard assholes like my Pa try, Paris will always be beautiful and… proud. In my eyes, anyway. I don't know how people live anywhere else."
Enjolras just smiled. He loved hearing her talk from the heart, especially when she felt the same way as him. He wasn't used to people loving France and Paris as much as him.

She started telling stories about when she and Gavroche would pretend to be tour guides to earn money as kids, and she really enjoyed showing people Paris, but Gav would always try and trick the tourists into doing embarrassing things. Before long, they came to the turning to go back home, but neither of them noticed. They just kept walking.

They didn't notice until they were all the way to Notre Dame, and it was Éponine who mentioned it. "We've gone past the turning" she said, her voice so low it was almost a whisper.
"We have" he replied, similarly quietly. Éponine let go of his hand, hitched her dress up a little and sat on the wall along the riverside, her feet dangling over the other side. He joined her and she rested her head on his shoulder. Her hair tickled his neck in the breeze, and he couldn't hold back the smile.
"Did I ever tell you I came here the night before I left the inn? I'd had probably the worst night of my life, and I couldn't sleep so I went for a walk and ended up here. Stood on this wall and looked up at the cathedral, and just thought to myself, like… what are you doing, and why can't you stop? I stood there, and put my arms out, and it just all suddenly seemed so… I don't know. I think I saw a way out for the first time. And the next day I left."
She hadn't told him, but he already knew. He'd been walking home from the café at the same time and heard her sobbing, then followed her as she walked up here, singing her heart out. He'd never known why, or told her he was there. He couldn't think of a non-creepy way of saying "oh yeah, I know, I was hiding in the shadows just behind us, watching you" so he just asked her why it was the worst night ever.
"I don't know, really… I think it was partly the comparison, because I'd had a really good day - it was the first day I met all the guys and OH MY GOD, remember R's impression of you with the noodles!?"
"THAT WASN'T EVEN REMOTELY AMUSING!"
Éponine laughed "it really was."
"Whatever" Enjolras couldn't help but grin. They sat there in silence for a while, content with life.

Éponine spoke first, and when she did, her voice was quiet but sincere. "I think you're going to do it, you know"
"Do what?"
She looked up at him and smiled. "You're going to fix it. I know it."
And in that moment, his way with words escaped him completely, and he could think of nothing to do but kiss her… on the forehead. It was quick, but gentle and soft, and it said everything he couldn't say. If she was surprised that her friend and room-mate had just kissed her, she didn't show it. She just smiled, and said "come on, you. Home time."

They strolled home through the cold streets of Saint Michel, walking just close enough to each other so they couldn't help brushing arms every now and then and smiling. It was only as they entered the apartment that it occurred to Enjolras he probably should have kissed her properly, and he silently kicked himself inside. He was so busy kicking himself for that, he forgot to do it when they said goodnight, and instead watched her disappear into her room with little more than a "happy birthday, Éponine".

Éponine had thought he was going to kiss her when they'd been sat by the river, and held in the disappointment all the way home. Not trusting herself not to say something stupid, she said goodnight before hiding away in her room as soon as possible.

Closing the door quietly behind her, she sighed, and sat on the bed. A small rectangular parcel, neatly wrapped in red paper, lay on her pillow. She picked it up, to find a note on the top which read

I knew what I wanted to get you for your birthday a long time ago, but the no money rule made it pretty difficult to do. I found a way, though.

I hope you have the perfect birthday you deserve.

Underneath, at a slightly different angle to the rest of the neat cursive, as though it had been added later, was a post-script.

P.S. you looked beautiful tonight, Wendy.

Wendy? Éponine thought with confusion. She opened the gift to find a Moleskine notebook, filled cover-to-cover with the same neat handwriting, dotted with the odd sketch. This must have taken someone forever! The first page said 'Peter Pan, by J M Barrie. Presented to Éponine Thénardier on the occasion of her 20th birthday. Copied out in full to avoid present-related cheating.' Neither the note nor the book was signed, but she knew who it was from. A smile played at her lips, and she had to fight the urge to run next door and thank him. A sudden image of throwing her arms around him and kissing him soundly on the mouth flashed across her mind. What?! Nonono. No. Bad idea.

God, I must be drunker than I thought.

She carefully hung her dress on a hanger, then climbed into bed with her notebook and began to read.

Best birthday ever.

Finally finished! Please review and let me know what you think! :D

I wrote this as a companion for Singing in the Rain, my much-longer-than-expected multi-chapter, so if you don't get any of the references, that's where they're from. Would love it if you read that too :D (will help with any GAAAH THEY NEVER KISSED feelings. Fairly shortly after this happens in it, actually.)