#Eponine would have avoided Cosette a lot harder than Cosette avoided her

[cossiefauchelevant]

Ok, so I see a lot of people saying that Grantaire and Eponine should be best friends, and I agree, but I also see a lot of people saying that Grantaire and Cosette should be best friends, and I agree with that too, but then there's also the people who think Eponine and Cosette need to be friends, and I love that too, so hear me out:

An R/Cossie/'Ponine trio.

Causing havoc at Les Amis meetings, having inside jokes that no one else understands in the slightest, Cosette and Eponine plotting to get R and Enj together. Cosette and Eponine who have an unspoken agreement to check up on R when they know he's not doing so well. Ep and R teasing Cosette mercilessly for her relationship with Marius. R drawing both of them.

I am in love with this idea now, leave me alone.

[hms-chill]

@owlface28 also asked for #5 and #36 for Les Mis, so have some useless wlw because I love them

5. “Why do you hate me?”

36. “I’m so in love with you.”

It happens after an outdoor meeting, in the gathering twilight of a summer night, a bonfire slowly dying behind them. The stars are just starting to come out, and she’s walking down a park path toward home when she hears a sound behind her. When she turns, Cosette is there.

“Eponine? Can...” she’s not sure she’s ever seen Cosette like this. Cosette is usually so sure of herself, so open and happy. She’s always small, sure, but usually that smallness is eclipsed by her excitement at the world. Now, though, she just looks small and unsure, and Eponine isn’t sure what she’s supposed to do other than turn, stepping off the path a bit in case anyone else needs to pass.

“What is it?”

“Why... why do you hate me?” 

It’s such a bizarre question that Eponine has to fight the urge to take a step back. “What?”

“I... I know you probably have lots of reasons to be upset, and I’m sorry things were so hard after I left, but is... is there anything I’ve done personally to make you mad, or anything I can do to fix things? I... I’m sorry for everything growing up, but if we’re going to be friends now, and I... I do want to be friends, and keep having the same friends and doing things like this a lot, I... I think maybe it’ll be easier if I can fix things.”

“I don’t hate you, Cosette. I don’t think anyone could hate you,” Eponine says gently. “You... you’re such a good person, even after everything growing up... if anything, you should hate me. I was awful to you.”

“No, you... you were hurting, too. You didn’t deserve parents like them. Neither of us deserved that,” Cosette says. Eponine is staring at the ground, but she sees Cosette’s dark hand reach for her, then pull back, hesitating. “But if... if you don’t hate me, then why... you avoid me. In meetings, and at rallies, and that day we did the mural, and even tonight, you ignore me, or you leave when I show up. Tonight as soon as Grantaire started playing his guitar for me to sing to, you left to get more marshmallows and all but waited until we were done to come back. I... I thought you hated me still, from when we were kids. But if... if you don’t, why do you always leave?”

Eponine wonders briefly if this is some new kind of hell dimension. Maybe she’s fallen through a portal out of the shitty parents circle of hell and into this one.

She risks a look at Cosette, her pink braids and her brown eyes and the earnestness in her face. And every last one of her brain cells dedicates its final moments of life to studying this goddess in front of her. Cosette frowns a bit, and Eponine realizes she’s staring. She’s being weird. Oh god, she needs to stop being weird. She needs to say something.

“I... I don’t... when I’m around you, it’s like... like I can’t think? it... I don’t know, my brain gets all...”

“Ponine? Am... am I a trigger for you? I’m so sorry; I can--”

“It’s not that. It’s not... it’s not a bad thing. It’s like everything...” Eponine takes a second for a deep breath, trying to get her thoughts together. “It’s so much. In my head, I mean, there’s always so much happening. Because there’s work, and class, and where we’re going to get food or rent money from, and if we can afford to keep the lights on this month or if I’ll have to pick up a shift, and if I buy this textbook will we be able to make rent. But when I look at you, that all... stops. And I... a lot of times that’s scary. Because if I’m not thinking about the things that are going to keep me and Gavroche as stable as we are right now, then I don’t... but now, it’s... I don’t hate you, I just... I’m sorry; can we sit?”

There’s a bench nearby, and they do sit, but Cosette still looks worried. She’s turned to face Eponine, one leg on the bench itself and her back resting against the arm.

“I’m... if you don’t want me around, that’s alright. I won’t be--”

“I do. I do want you around. But I just... ugh, I don’t know how to say it.” There’s a hand in hers, tentatively, giving it a little squeeze.

“Take your time. I can be patient,” Cosette says gently. Her thumb is rubbing the back of Eponine’s hand. Eponine’s entire brain narrows down to that one point of contact, the gentle earnestness and sincerity. Slowly, it all fits into place like the pieces of a puzzle. Cosette’s kindness. Her patience. Her quiet strength. The way she makes Eponine’s mountains of stress all but vanish. It’s something Eponine’s known for a while, but she’s never let herself consider it, never dared to imagine...

But Cosette is holding her hand. Cosette is being patient and thoughtful and gentle, and she’s always those things, but it feels different this time. Bigger.

“I think... I think maybe it all feels like this because... because I’m so in love with you.” The words tumble out one after the other, and Eponine realizes them a minute later. She shoots to her feet. “I’m sorry. I... I’ll just...”

“Ponine, wait.” Cosette’s hand is on her wrist, and she could physically pull away, but she’s rooted to the spot. Cosette tugs her back to the seat gently, and Eponine sits like a puppet whose strings have been cut. She can’t look at Cosette, not after something like that. She can’t do it. 

There’s something on her temple. A split second later, she realizes it’s a kiss, and she’s turning to look at Cosette incredulously. Cosette just smiles.

“I... I like you, too.” Cosette’s skin is too dark to tell, but she might be blushing. Behind her, a firefly twinkles, then another, tiny stars hidden in the grass.

“You... you do?” Eponine bites back the ‘why’. Cosette nods.

“Ever since we met again. Maybe even as kids, but things... things were harder then. But when you first came to a meeting with R, and I saw how tough you were, and how... how smart, and good at things, and how you loved people so fiercely, I... I wanted that. I wanted to be someone you would fight for.”

Cosette’s small. She’s always been small, even if she hides it behind an abundance of love and joy and excitement. But right now, her smallness means that it’s easy for Eponine to pull her into her lap, easy for her to kiss her like she’s the most beautiful being alive. Cosette smiles into the kiss, and Eponine smiles right back.

On AO3

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Someday I’m going to write a fic of these two coming together and healing from their shitty childhoods and finding peace and it’s going to be beautiful.

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