With A Little Help From My Friends

A/N:

Hello, I'm LESbiansMISunderstood, and I hope you enjoy this oneshot!

((also published on my tumblr.))

Pairing: E/É

Words: 7K+

Warning: Contains swearing and sexual themes (and a teeny tiny bit of light smut, if you squint), mentions of abuse.

Beta: None (last edited by me 01/09/13)

Type: Modern AU; high school

The story of how "Marble-boy" became "Tampon Chief"

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, gonna try with a little help from my friends

(With A Little Help From My Friends - The Beatles)

Freshman Year

He is running laps with his track team when he first notices her. She is sitting at the bleachers with her arms around her knees, staring intently at him. No, not him, but at Marius running next to him, he realises.
Enjolras doesn't mind, he had never met her before, and, frankly, he had no interest in women (or men for that matter.) He didn't care about anyone's lonely soul. Not his, not hers and not Marius'.

They finish their laps and start stretching when she walks across the field with her ripped jeans and big hoodie covering her gangly limbs. Marius' face lights up at the sight of her. He runs over, and for someone who was so excited to see someone, Enjolras finds it strange that he would barely exchange two sentences with the girl before running off in the opposite direction.

He looks curiously at the girl. Their eyes meet. Blue and brown, and he averts his eyes, uncomfortable with all the pain and troubles he found in hers. Finishing his stretches, he makes his way to the changing rooms.

He doesn't speak to her, but he keeps seeing her around. She pops up wherever Marius is, but only when Cosette has tennis practice or Marius is alone. He learns that her name is Éponine, and all the other track boys simply call her the shadow. He doesn't exactly feel bad for her, but he sympathises. He understands. It is horrible to always be in someone else's shadow, let alone be known as one.

The track team have all started to call him their marble boy, because he doesn't like to smile. (His brother used to tease him relentlessly about his braces before running off to college.) And he knows how well meant or light hearted nicknames can still leave a bitter feeling in your stomach whenever you hear it.

Sophomore Year

He is no longer known as the marble boy. He came back after his growth spurt during the summer break, and his braces came off. He is now the marble man. Along with his now longer limbs, came better speed and strength, and he moves up on the team. He gets his varsity shirt two weeks after track starts.

He makes friends among the other track boys, his dorky appearance last year is now gone, and Marius left him all alone on the team to play tennis with his precious Cosette. They have been 'going steady' for about half a year now. Marius is very old fashioned, and even stated that before 'going steady' he was 'courting' her. The sap.

He notices that Éponine's appearances are fewer now than before. Either it is because Marius is never without Cosette for longer than a bathroom break, or maybe it is because she has realised he loves Cosette too much to ever return her feelings. Enjolras thinks it is the latter, he saw the utterly broken and dejected look in her eyes when Marius excitedly told her about when Cosette loved him back during homecoming.

It isn't until right before Christmas that he sees her again. She making out with Courfeyrac, one of his track friends, against the lockers after school. They date for a few weeks before they break up and he starts dating one of Cosette's tennis friends.

The third quarter starts and she becomes his chem-partner. His old chemistry partner, Marius, managed to somehow change his schedule to have more classes with Cosette. Éponine had opted to have all the half-credit classes during this year, meaning her whole schedule was shuffled around when the first semester ended. They were the only ones without partners, so during the first lesson they simply accepted each other and sat quietly together.

He quickly learned that she was smart, incredibly so. They would take notes in chemistry, and after he had copied down what the teacher had said, he would sneak a peek at her notebook. It was always filled with the same notes he took, and also small notes in the margins connecting it to things they had learned earlier, and the formulas were already solved. Whenever they did a lab together, she would pull the right answers seemingly out of thin air, and she never had any problems with any of their in-class projects.

He had a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that she was failing. She should be getting A's on all her tests, but she kept getting C's and D's.

She went to the bathroom once when the teachers handed their tests back to them, and although Éponine had answered exactly the same as him, she had gotten a C – and he had gotten an A +. He had taken this up with the teacher, furious that the teacher didn't take the time to grade students properly, and suggesting that she either gives up on her own private life, or assigns less redundant and excessive assignments.

This resulted in her grudgingly giving Éponine an A+, and happily giving him lunchtime detention.

Éponine had been pissed, and after school she was waiting for him by his locker, telling him off for doing something she never asked him to do, and also for looking at her test when that was private and none of his business. He had answered that she would have had to keep her C's unless he had stepped in, and then started to rant about the unfairness in the grading and about how teachers shouldn't favour some students over others.

After about fifteen minutes of him basically holding a speech about the injustice in the school, he had finally realised that he had just complained about the fact that pads and tampons were more expensive to buy in the girls lavatory, than in a shop, and that they should be given out free because women can't help it if they bleed once a month. It was silent for a minute before she burst into laughter. Enjolras blushed until his face was the same colour as his red hoodie, and wished the ground could open up and swallow him whole.

They didn't become friends but friendly. Her chemistry grades went from a D+ to an A – after she had made their teacher go through all her old test and point out that she had actually gotten all the answers right. She awkwardly thanked him later.

Track started back up in the spring and Enjolras was made co-captain with Combeferre, a senior, and after a weekend meet where the buss broke down and they had to organise transport themselves, they became great friends. Enjolras realised he had missed that. He had friends, but they were more school buddies, not the kind of buddies that met after school and did things on the weekends.

Enjolras had ever really had Marius for that sort of friendship, but that had ended along with Cosette's curfew being set for ten o'clock at the start of the year. Combeferre was level headed and smart, and a lot of his time was dedicated to volunteer work at the soup kitchen. Not because he wanted his college application to look good, but because he actually cared. Enjolras started volunteering as well and found that he rather enjoyed it.

He was so incredibly busy with debate club, soup kitchen and track, along with keeping his grades up, that he almost didn't notice when Éponine stopped showing up to class.

Almost.

He missed her input in chemistry and he wished she would just come to class a bit more often. He usually found it easier to understand chemistry when she was there. But lately, whenever she was there, he would just get annoyed. She had stopped taking notes, and stopped paying attention, instead opting to stare blankly at her hands and constantly pulling on her sleeves.

He didn't comment, and when she got her third test back with an A, although she had not gotten all the answers right (the teacher was now afraid to be reported for giving Éponine bad grades), he decided to stop trying to work with her during class.

His debate team won, his track team won most of the branches, and the school year ended.

During the summer break he worked in the soup kitchen, alone now, because Combeferre had to leave for a summer internship. They stayed in touch. His mother and father were quite disapproving that he would spend his summer with the poor and the dirty, but he assured them it was for his college applications, so they let him be.

He befriended the new volunteer workers there, Bahorel and Feuilly. They were attending the community college in the fall, after getting scholarships. Both had been eating in the soup kitchens at least once a week before they got the scholarship and Enjolras was fascinated by their stories. Fascinated and agitated that the government wouldn't do anything to change what they had to go through.

This resulted in his summer nights mostly being spent in his room, writing angry letters to the government and joining multiple online forums about the running of this country.

Bahorel taught him how to fight and Feuilly taught him how to improve his handwriting, claiming he only got his scholarship because his application essay looked almost typed. (Bahorel claimed it was because his their best friend, Jehan, had helped him write it.)

All in all it was a great summer, except for the day when Éponine showed up in the soup kitchen, accepting her portion without looking up at him. She ate her bowl while chatting with Bahorel; it was obvious that they knew each other. And Enjolras was glad to see that she was smiling again, that is until Bahorel made a comment about the rich boy's terrible first attempt at throwing a punch, and claiming that hers was still better even after weeks of him training. She laughed and looked over at the rich boy, but the laughter stopped and her face turned to stone when she recognised him.

He greeted her with a nod, and she ran. In the split second he had gotten a good look at her face, he was shocked to see a black eye and a split lip. Bahorel refused to mention Éponine, only stating that it was her business and to drop it. Which Enjolras eventually did. The last few weeks of summer, he threw himself into his fighting training with twice the intensity, if only to blow off steam.

Junior Year

The first day back to school, he found Éponine in both his physics and pre-calc class. He sat himself next to her in both, and they both pretended nothing had happened during the summer.

He was getting a lot of attention when track started again. Not only had he grown another couple of inches, his voice was low and had stopped cracking at awkward moments. He had broader shoulders from his hard training that summer, and generally more muscles all over. His face had also lost most of his puppy fat, and the girls were noticing.

The cheerleaders would flock around him and fawn over his skills as co-captain of the track team (along with his good friend Courfeyrac) and Enjolras didn't like it one bit. It was quite annoying and his friend all laughed at him and joked about the little marble boy with braces that barely reached their shoulders, and how they would have never guessed that he would turn into such a handsome 'fellaaah'.

They tried to get him to come out for double dates with them and their girlfriends. Marius was hinting that he wanted to hook him up with Cosette's senior friend Musichetta, not realising that Musichetta was doing both Joly and Bossuet (sometimes at the same time). Enjolras refused, he still felt no interest in dating.

Éponine had gotten a boyfriend. Enjolras would see her around school with a cigarette between her lips and a boy wrapped around her. He had tattoos covering his chest and arms, and piercings covering his face. He still heard the girls gossip about how hot the bad-boy was, and how well he dressed. He even saw some or the braver cheerleaders try to chat him up. It sort of worked, because her boyfriend flirted back, until Éponine told them off, making herself even less popular.

Whenever her boyfriend, Montparnasse, was absent (which was almost never), Éponine would hang with Courfeyrac and Marius. Until Montparnasse found out and they had a loud argument after the powder puff. Éponine started becoming distracted in in their shared classes.

Bahorel didn't like him, and it put Enjolras on edge, knowing that Montparnasse was treating Éponine like some sort of possession. Once again, he put his frustration into both track and the punching bag his father got him for his birthday.

He doesn't realise why though, until a month after Christmas, when Éponine showed up to school, her right arm wrapped in a makeshift sling and a bruise on her cheekbone. When he forces her to go to the nurse, they discover that she has broken her arm in three places, and Enjolras knows it was Montparnasse that did this, no matter how many times she insists that she fell down the stairs in the science building. Enjolras know she is lying, and it makes his anger build even more.

Enjolras beats Montparnasse into pulp the next day and tells him to stay away from Éponine. It feels good, and it scares him how much he wished he had Montparnasse hanging in his basement instead of the punching bag. But he finally has a good night's sleep for the first time in weeks.

He throws away the hoodie and knitted hat afterwards, not wanting Montparnasse to know who had jumped him in the parking lot.

The next week, Éponine comes up to him and slaps him, hard. Especially considering the hit him with her left hand. She tells him that he had absolutely no business mixing himself into her life, and that he was lucky that Montparnasse didn't know it was him that night. She made it clear that Montparnasse was her boyfriend, she fell down the stairs and if Enjolras even thought about laying a hand on him again, he would get what was coming for him.

He wonderes how she knew it was him, and asks her during calc. She passes the note back to him with; 'the attacker had a red hoodie, and you haven't worn yours in a week'. The fact that she had noticed made him get a queer feeling in his stomach for the rest of the period.

For the rest of the week Enjolras couldn't stop thinking about the fact that his ambush on Montparnasse had resulted in nothing, he starts having troubles with sleeping again.

She ignores him for days before pretending it never happened. It has started to become a pattern for them, and Enjolras doesn't want that, so he tells her to continue to ignore him or get away from Montparnasse. After a reply that cut him deep about what a shitty friend he was being, Éponine went back to ignoring him.

He hadn't known they were friends, but now that he knows they are not anymore, he immediately regrets giving her the ultimatum.

Éponine quits smoking, and Enjolras don't see her sucking face with Montparnasse all over school anymore, but he knows they're still together, and he keeps ignoring her. She does too, and he hates it, especially whenever he sees a red mark on her face. He doesn't comment, but sends anonymous tips to the police instead.

Éponine breaks up with Montparnasse, but she still doesn't talk to Enjolras.

It takes 8 weeks for Éponine's arm to heal. And just as long before she starts talking to him again. It helped that Montparnasse went to prison and she was no longer living in constant fear of him smacking her about. They were almost back to scratch, and they started to become friends. Until she found out that Enjolras was the reason her ex went to prison.

She corners him on his way home from school, and they have their biggest fight yet. They scream and they both stand their ground. She has too much pride to ever admit that she ever needed his help, and he is too stubborn to back down, saying she bloody well needed his help and she should never get hit ever again by anyone. But it gets eerily quiet when she admits it wasn't only Montparnasse slapping her around, and shows him the healing wound on her shoulder.

His hand comes up, to stroke her skin, just to make sure he is not imagining it, and she pulls away, letting go of her collar to hide the healing skin. But he refuses to make them fall back into their pattern of fighting and ignoring, and his hand darts out to grab her wrist. Gently, he draws her too him, and awkwardly envelops her in a hug. There is nothing romantic about it, and to outsiders it must look like two awkward people standing a little too close with arms a little too loosely wrapped around each other, but he knew she needed it.

She breaks down, and it is the first time anyone has seen er cry since she was thirteen. She admits parts of her horrible home life and he insists on buying her lunch every day. She flat out refused at first, saying she didn't want his charity, and he compromised, convincing her to help him with his physics homework, because she is just miles better than him at that. This also gives him an excuse to take her away from her home, if only for a few hours after school.

At first he tries to convince her to get an emancipation, or to move in with someone, anyone, hell, even him. But she refuses, telling him she wants pepperoni pizza for lunch, and to drop it. She also makes it clear that if he goes behind her back ever again, he will not be forgiven. This time he listens. But he doesn't like it.

And that is how they develop a new pattern. Every lunch, he would buy two of whatever he was having and then sit down at an empty table, where she would join him five minutes later. They would get out their books and start on the homework for the easier subjects, always forgetting their food until the homework is finished. Then they move on to talk about other things.

After school, they would walk to his house, where they would start on their physics and calc homework, only stopping when dinner is served. They have debates and discussions about rights and government. Their views are mainly the same, but their approaches and priorities are different.

They love picking fights, but now they don't go back to ignoring each other after. And it is refreshing, and different. And although his mother doesn't approve of 'poor scum' spending time at their house every day, he doesn't care. Because Éponine is now his friend.

Enjolras starts devoting all his free time to skyping with Combeferre about injustice, and writing petitions and articles and sharp worded letters to anyone and anything that he thinks should be changed again. It is quite a big list, and he is thankful for Feuilly's calligraphy lessons making his handwriting readable without excess effort, because he can now take notes and actually understand them later. But if Éponine comes knocking on his window in the middle of his skype, he stop what he's doing and make up his sofa for her.

He notices the changes. Firstly, the cheerleader girls have started to leave him alone more, after Éponine starts hanging out with him in school. He hears the rumours that she is fucking him, like she fucked Courfeyrac and Montparnasse and apparently half of the school's male population.

But they are not having sex, and he confronts everyone who dares to utter a word about Éponine being a harlot. He starts petitions against slut-shaming, and Musichetta gives him a free coffee from the cafe she works at, but is too proud to openly say she shares his views, especially because her feminist friends would eat her alive for agreeing with a male.

He knows the only girl being more slut shamed than Éponine is Musichetta, but according to Joly and Bossuet she really loves them and was really thankful that his activism in school actually made the slut-shaming die down a little.

Joly swears it is because half the school wants to sleep with him and stopped slut-shaming in hopes that it will give them a better chance of getting in his pants. To his embarrassment, Éponine overheard and agreed with Joly, making Enjolras, once again, wish the ground would swallow him whole.

After two weeks of him making passionate impromptu speeches to anyone spreading rumours, the rumours almost stops completely. His friends start teasing him, saying he might not be made of marble after all. But that is not the most concerning change; the most concerning is that he actually agrees with them.

After she started to get hot lunch every day, as well as dinner at his house and an apple right before 1st period pre-calc, Éponine is starting to fill out. Her face does no longer look sickly hollow, and her petite physique does no longer look like a twelve year old boy. He catches himself looking at the way her big shirt hugs her curves when she is walking in the wind.

He wakes up with a raging hard on after another one of his quite graphic dreams about her.

About them.

Doing not-so-platonic things.

To each other.

It's only because she's there, he says to himself. If he had been hanging with Cosette or Musichetta, the dreams would have been about them. Sometimes he wishes they were, because he feels guilty, especially those nights she crashes on his sofa. Luckily she is gone before dawn, terrified that his mother would find her there, and he doesn't have to see her in the mornings.

Or face the embarrassment of having to hide the evidence of his dreams from her.

The week of the spring sports signups, he was in town, buying a new pair of trainers, when he sees a girl run past the shop window. Instantly recognising her, he hurriedly pays for the trainers and starts on a mad dash after her, but she is quick, quicker than him and the day after, he signs her up for the track team. She is pissed and they fight. But she still shows up for practice on Monday.

Enjolras loves competing with Éponine. She is a quick runner, setting school records and winning races, and also an excellent fighting partner. She offers to help him train after his physics grades are perfect, still not wanting to be his charity case. If he gave her something, and she gave him something, who needed charity?

She had apparently taught Bahorel everything he knew, and Enjolras knows she is tough enough to take a hit. Not that he hurt her; he would never slap her around like Montparnasse had done. But he also knew she wasn't fucking made of glass and he tried to beat her at boxing. Keyword being: tried. She avoided his hits and knocked him down time and time again by deflecting his own attacks against him.

He followed the book and she went more freestyle, fighting dirty. It becomes an even match.

Bahorel and Feuilly are the ones to make him realise it. They were all chatting and cleaning up after their shift at the soup kitchen, when Bahorel starts one of his impromptu play-fights. He throws a punch at Enjolras, which he easily avoids, and prepares to tackle him. But Enjolras went over this with Éponine only days before and uses one of the dirty tricks she taught him, to deflect this type of attack and use it against the attacker. They drilled the block over and over for hours and Enjolras reacted on instinct leaving Bahorel laying flat on his back.

Feuilly comments that he has only seen Éponine do something similar before, and when Enjolras mentions that Éponine taught him it, the rest of the clean-up shift becomes an interrogation about his intentions with her. It only end when Feuilly cracks a joke about Enjolras having feelings for her, and Enjolras starts to protest, only to stop mid-no and think about it.

And yes, he had to admit that he did. Especially ten minutes later, when she slips into the kitchen and smiles that beautiful dimpled smile at him.

Bahorel gives him the silent treatment for a week and Feuilly brings him poems written by his bestfriend/boyfriend Jehan, that could help him woo Éponine. Enjolras was never going to use them, but that didn't stop Bahorel from shoving them into the blender. He says he doesn't want no preppy boy for his 'little sis'.

Marius and Cosette break up. After two years together, they have a big fight about something stupid, and Éponine has her chance at getting Marius. Enjolras had thought that the silly crush she had on Marius would have died in the past two years, but he was apparently wrong, because Marius and Éponine now spent all their time together.

She often cancelled their plans and stopped showing up at the soup kitchen after his shift. She even stops sneaking in his window for a kip on his sofa. Enjolras is jealous and at loss as to what to do, and he doesn't like this feeling.

During the last month of school, Éponine starts making time for him again. But he is still annoyed that she went running to Marius the moment he was free, and basically ditched Enjolras for weeks. He is pissed that he isn't her first option, and he knows it isn't her fault, and he know his anger with her is irrational, but he can't help it.

He is even more annoyed at the fact that she doesn't like him like he likes her.

They stay friends, but there is a little bit of tension in their relationship. A bad tension, not the type that would make him feel excited and happy, but as if anything will rip them apart. Neither wants to address the issue.

They go to a graduation party hosted at Courfeyrac's and he promises her that he won't drink, because she needs a lift home, but when he finds her passionately sucking face with Courfeyrac, he angrily chugs a beer.

They are both a little drunk at the end of the evening, and have another fight. And he feels all the pent up frustration and energy and tension drive him on in a frenzy of verbal assaults, and she gives as many back.

An hour later, he is dropped off in front of his house and turns back to the car to offer Éponine something, anything, as long as he doesn't have to apologise, because his pride will not let him. But she is just as proud, and her pride fuels her to ignore him and she tells Joly to drive her home instead. Enjolras can hear Joly's merry laugh as he drives away.

She ignores him the last week of school. Cosette and Marius get back together. Enjolras realises he might be falling a little bit in love with Éponine.

During the summer, he becomes friends with Grantaire, a boy that went to the private school on the nice side of town. He was caught damaging property and was given community service, 'communally serving soup for the summer'.

Unlike Bahorel, Feuilly and Enjolras, he is acting very pessimistic and sarcastic, and it brings down the morale of the workplace. But oddly enough, he becomes a good friend and he is even starting the same school as Enjolras after summer break, due to being thrown out of the private school.

Grantaire and Enjolras start to do everything together. Grantaire sort of takes over for Éponine, and becomes his boxing partner, but he is nowhere as good as her. And Grantaire gets Enjolras a fake ID and takes him to his usual watering holes.

Thankfully, Enjolras' parents are more focused on his brother changing his major to care when he comes home drunk at two in the morning. The alcohol numbs the bitter feeling Éponine left behind, and he knows why Grantaire would choose to drown in it.

After a late night, Grantaire tells him there is only one place to go if he wants to cure a hangover, so they step into a café that Enjolras had never noticed before. Grantaire orders their hangover cures and Enjolras sits himself in a shadowy part in the back. Grantaire makes a joke about the anorexic, addict waitress, and how he would still fuck her (because his humour is dark and pessimistic.) but Enjolras doesn't find it funny enough to even fake a smile, especially when the waitress hands them their orders and Enjolras looks up into the eyes of Éponine.

He understood what Grantaire meant by anorexic drug addict. Éponine had apparently not been eating since their fight, and it looked like she hadn't slept much either, and her lip was cracked. She simply looked starved and tired. Enjolras doesn't quite know how it happened, but somehow, she is in his basement with him and Grantaire four hours later. He thinks it is because the first thing he did was to swallow his pride and apologise.

With her friends' help, Éponine moves out of her parents' house. They had been mentally abusing her for years as well as physically for the past nine months, but she could take it, until Montparnasse was let out of prison and everything went downhill. She now lived in a crappy little apartment with Bahorel since her 18th birthday.

They celebrate together. Éponine, Bahorel, Feuilly, Grantaire, Joly, Enjolras and even Combeferre, who had been in touch with Enjolras almost every day for the past year and was visiting for the week. Éponine begged him to visit, saying she was fed up with only talking to him on skype with Enjolras, and when Éponine begs, everyone knows the only options is to lay down and obey.

They all had a great dinner at Enjolras' house and Feuilly had helped Enjolras' mum make the most prefect cake in the world. His parents were warming up to his friend not being from the same social class as him, and for that, Enjolras was thankful. He was also thankful that he wasn't the oldest son, and for the first time he was feeling good about being constantly in his brother's shadow. Because with all the weight that came with their family name on his brother's shoulders, Enjolras got to keep these amazing people in his life.

Senior Year

Cosette and Marius got engaged, everyone thinks it is ridiculous, and bets are made about whether or not Cosette is pregnant. She is, but she is actually happy about it, and Éponine grudgingly admits that she would never have been right for Marius.

Enjolras think she is madder about losing the bet, than admitting that she would never become Mrs Pontmercy. Enjolras takes his winnings from his friends and when they asked him how on earth he knew, they regret it when he starts on a ten minute rant about overprotecting parent raising their children to be ignorant about preventions and life outside their religious and safe bubble in general.

Éponine defends Cosette, saying that it could hardly be her upbringing that magically made their condom break, and he wonders whether it was Cosette or Marius that told her this new piece of information. He had noticed that ever since the pregnancy was official, Cosette and Éponine had become somewhat friendly, maybe even borderline friends.

Cosette and Éponine fight. Pregnancy hormones must have been in play, because Enjolras has never seen Cosette angry. But there she was, screaming at Éponine and Éponine was screaming back, then she was crying and Éponine was enveloping her in a hug and that is when they became friends. Marius and Cosette are shaky for days, but make up.

Enjolras comes to terms with the fact that he will never understand women, and fries to avoid Cosette whenever she 'looks emotional' much to Éponine's amusement.

Enjolras and Éponine were made co-captains on the track team. Éponine was busier now than ever, constantly juggling full schooldays, track, and work. She oftern wondered out loud how Enjolras had managed since sophomore year, but also stated that: if he could do it, it couldn't be too hard.

They didn't spend as much time together after track starts as they did before, but when they were together, they were inseparable. So it came as no surprise to anyone when they drunkenly made out at Grantaire's New Year's Eve party. Neither did it come as a surprise when they started dating two weeks later.

In the precious thirty minutes between their last periods and track practice, they would take a breather from their responsibilities and just relax with each other, often stealing away to make out (or 'discuss' as Enjolras calls it). Enjolras thought he could never be happier than he was in those moments, but he was wrong.

Their first time was awkward. Even though they had managed to perfect their kissing in minutes, the first time was a big mess of accidental hair pulling, and too many questions and hesitation.

It was not her first time, she admitted. Her first time had been with Montparnasse when they were thirteen and fifteen, and she had not been ready, leaving the whole experience unpleasant for her. She also admitted to having slept with Courfeyrac (it was alright) and Marius (not what she had though it would be).

This made everything worse for Enjolras, and he had never felt this awkward. But it was to be expected, it was his first time after all, and he didn't need to hear about the others. He regretted asking, because he knew Éponine would be honest if he did, and not mention it if he didn't.

But after a make-out session and making her come once with his fingers and twice with his tongue to her detailed instructions (making him more turned on than he had ever been before) before she sucked him off, he was content to just hold her as they slept.

The morning after, with the memories from the night before fresh in his mind to boost his confidence, he was more sure of himself, and their second time was perfect. Especially when she, (in her post sex haze, she defended when he called her a sap later on) whispered that she loved him. He felt like he could die right there and then and be happy. He whispered it back as he kissed her.

Repeating the words, and her name, over and over as his lips traveled from her neck to her stomach. He had always been one for taking notes, and he made many of all the places that made her gasp and hiss. Her pulse, her breasts, her collarbone, her hipbone, the ticklish flesh of her waist. He was spurred on by hearing her echoing his love professions back, along with his name and a lot of profanities, as her thighs wrapped tighter around his head and her fingers tangled into his hair. Her whispers turning into shouts and squeals as she neared her climax.

Their third and fourth times were even better. And waking up with her in his arms again on that Sunday, he realised he would never be happier than this. Enjolras couldn't wait for the next time his parents were out of town.

The school year passed quickly, and Enjolras helped Éponine apply for every single scholarship out there. She got the best one for track. A full ride to a university four hours away (the one Combeferre went to) where she was going to study science, just like she had always wanted. Enjolras got accepted to the same university. So they planned on moving in together after high school.

Enjolras had actually planned on going to that university ever since Combeferre started there and told Enjolras all about the classes, teachers, programs and campus life, he assured her it was his first choice anyway when she told him to go to Princeton instead.

Prom was eventful. Everybody got drunk, and somehow, Éponine got him to dance. Her red dress was revealing and although he could see her scars, Enjolras was pleased that since she had gotten away from her parents and her abusive ex, the only fresh mark on her body was a lovebite he left on her collarbone from their sexcapade in the ladies room.

(He had bought every single tampon and pad from the machine on the wall, and placed them on the counter, using her lipstick to write 'free feminine hygiene products for you feminine hygiene needs as needed' on the mirror above. She had laughed at him, like she had when he first talked about this issue three years ago, but instead of getting embarrassed like last time, he had hungrily kissed her, and proclaimed that they were creating a tampon revolution. She had dragged him into the nearest stall and they had fucked against the door.)

Thinking back on it, it was probably his greatest moment in high school, and he would never have done anything had it not been for Éponine. He was actually pretty sure that he wouldn't even be at prom if he wasn't with her.

The climax of the evening (outside the ladies room) had been when Montparnasse crashed right before midnight, and Éponine had given him her best right hook, and in the excitement, Cosette went into labour.

She had a beautiful baby daughter that she named Fantine, after her deceased mother.

Graduation came, and Éponine and Enjolras graduated with near perfect GPA's and bright futures. On their last night in their hometown before they had to leave for college, Éponine woke him up at three in the morning.

"'Jolras," she whispered as she turned to him.

"Whazza'?" Enjolras mumbled into her shoulder

"Well aren't you articulate in the morning." She muttered back and left the bed to dig through the bags she packed hours before.

"'Poni-ine!" He whined and peeked at his alarm clock, "Izn'a mornen, iz two." He grumbled, shivering when she wasn't in his arms to keep him warm anymore.

She ignored him, and threw his clothes at him. "Shut up, and get dressed." He did, although half asleep still.

"I want to be remembered." She said, and he smiled, knowing why.

She left through his window. He rolled his eyes and followed after her. It wasn't as if his parents didn't know she was there, but he let Éponine live with this little illusion. He climbed down after her and they ran to the car, and drove to the school.

Grantaire was there, and Joly, Bahorel and Feuilly, even Combeferre. Sitting under the bleachers, and passing around a bottle of Jack. "Glad you made it." Bahorel shouted when he saw them.

"He means: glad you decided to show instead of shagging in the car." Said Joly. Éponine laughed

"Glad Grantaire is sharing." She quipped back and snatched the bottle from said friend.

"You got it, right?" She then asked Feuilly, who nodded and threw her a bag. They all gathered around her, and took a can of spray paint from the bag before awaiting her instructions.

This was her idea after all. Nobody but her, and Grantaire maybe, would think it would be perfect to meet up at three in the morning. Not even Enjolras; and he could be overenthusiastic enough to make them meet up at five in the morning to carpool to different protests staged all over.

"I spent most of my high school career thinking I was nobody, just another person to drift through with mediocre grades, and that nothing was special about my life. That I would end up working in a dead end job at the local café or something. And I was happy with that at first.

"But then I met all of you, and you, you showed me I could stand up for myself, raise myself above the other mindless sheep in this shitty place and heal. But mostly, you showed me that I was loved." With this, her eyes burned intently into his, and Enjolras felt a shudder go through him as she continued.

"And although I went through a lot of crap over the past few years, I would not trade that for anything, because then I would not have had you guys." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and she leaned into him.

"So now, I want to go out with a bang. I want people here to remember me, not just as a shadow, or the poor girl that fucked a rich, hot guy." She winked at him.

"But I also want them to remember you. And that is why I asked you all to meet here tonight. Because I would not have tried to become who I am today, if I didn't have you guys around. And I would like to thank you for all your help, and tell you that you are the shit, and I fucking love you.

"So, to us!" She raised the bottle and took a swig, before passing it around. (Joly drank from his own hipflask, refusing to share a bottle.) They then got to work, and when dawn arrived, they admired their handiwork.

It was a beautiful piece of art, mainly thanks to Grantaire and Feuilly being artists, but also because the concept was too darn good to be ignored. The back wall of the bleachers was signed by the Wine Cask, the Hypo-Doctah-riac , the Guide, the Fan(ny) Maker, Fightclub, the (Tampon) Chief and Miss Shadow-Killer-Extraordinaire. They spent the next two hours passing the bottle until it was empty and swapping jokes and stories.

Enjolras' alarm went off at eight, and he switched it off, content to just sit there with Éponine in his arms. She flipped around and stared at him.

"You know I love you, right?" She asked softly. He smiled.

"Of course, and you know I love you back, right?" She smiled, still needing confirmation from time to time after years of being told she was unlovable.

"Just checking that you didn't changes your mind when I added 'tampon' to your pseudonym." She joked, not liking when they got too deep around other people. He chuckled and hugged her closer, and she kissed him, both expressing just how much they loved, wanted, and needed each other in that kiss. They completely forgot about their friends around them, until Bahorel interrupted them.

"Oi! Break it up! Sex under the bleachers, was sooo high school!" They broke apart and laughed, before Éponine stopped their leering her next comment.

"Good thing we already did that then. Wouldn't want to be caught doing that out of high school…" They all laughed at her joke, and almost made Joly faint by insinuating that they had done it where he was sitting.

"I wish! It would have been a much better spot than the stupid support column we did it against!" she mock-complained, sending their friends into a new round of hysterical laughter. Enjolras blushed slightly behind her hair and muttered in her ear.

"Twice, and you liked it."

AN

eep, hope you liked that!

And please do not think I hate Cosette, Marius, or Courfeyrac, because I don't!
Courf was the womanizer that Éponine used to try to get over Marius, they used each other, and they were okay with that, neither were looking for a long term relationship.
Cosette is one of my favourite characters, and she is just as kind and sweet as always, but this is Enjolras' point of view, and he doesn't have much time for Cosette, so there is not too much about her. I added the pregnancy, because, yes she was sheltered, but I wanted to somehow convey that she was also adventurous and brave. And Marius strikes me as the "bella-swan-type" who would spend all his free time with his significant other. He also would have been there for Enjolras if Enjolras sucked up his pride and asked him, because he is also loyal, but Enjolras didn't ask, and alas, we didn't get to see too much of my favourite part of Marius (the loyal part, whoops)
oh, and Eponine had sex with Marius at the end on Junior year, when he had split with Cosette. He instantly regretted it, and Eponine got over him after that. And that was what she and Cosette had a fight about.

Also I love R so much that I didn't want him being hurt pining over Enjolras. (it's hard when two of your otps include the same character...)

Please read and review, I want constructive criticism so that I can improve!