The bell on the top of the door rang out. Eponine looked up from the counter curiously. It was the coffee-shop side of the building, which was odd for a number of reasons. One, the coffee-shop side wasn't open until six am (it was 5:46) and two, the bell that sounded was the bell of the front entrance, an entrance that should have been locked right then. Eponine folded down her page in The Great Gatsby (not that she needed to, it was probably the fifth time she'd read the book) and stood up to investigate, but she didn't get far before Cosette marched in, carrying a plastic bag. Of course, Eponine should have guessed that one, considering Cosette was the other owner of the half-book-store-half-coffee-place that they ran downtown.

"Hey," Eponine said, but Cosette stepped right around her, dropped the plastic bag on the counter and paused, staring in at the mysterious contents.

"Newspapers came," she said shortly, and Eponine noticed that her voice was unusually thick and watery. Upon closer inspection, she realized that Cosette's eyes were red-rimmed, and shiny paths down her cheeks marked tears.

"Cosette, what happened?" Eponine whispered, but she barely had time to finish before Cosette ran for the back storeroom, slamming the door behind her. Books in the Paranormal Romance section tipped off the shelves from the sheer force.

Not fully understanding, Eponine fumbled with the knot of the plastic bag that the newspapers were delivered in. It had obviously been ripped open and hastily knotted back. Once the plastic finally unraveled, she picked the one on top and read the headline.

LAW STUDENTS KILLED AT RALLY AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT

The paper dropped from her hands, and pages separated from each other as they drifted to the ground. Her hand grabbed the front of the register as if it would bring her friends back from the dead, through the front of the store, chiming the bell for their meeting (technically after-hours).

It was Cosette who had first brought them into the store; a group of boys around their age. They were in law school, and Cosette was particularly close to one named Marius. Eponine had been about to close up when the blonde lead them in, saying something about how they were planning a protest and needed a place to meet. They would never come during the actual hours, they would only be here once a week, blah, blah, blah. All Eponine could think about was what a deep, fathomless blue one of the boy's eyes were, how perfectly his auburn hair hung across them.

Also, how those eyes looked at Cosette in the most adoring way.

Cosette had made it clear to Eponine a few days before she lead them in that she and Marius were not dating. However, Eponine knew her best friend, knew that the way she looked down and giggled slightly meant that she wouldn't reject the idea of not dating him.

And within seconds of meeting him, Eponine thought that she wouldn't refuse him either.

A few others stood out to her; a black-haired one who seemed more attatched to a bottle of wine than to the cause, a bookish one with blonde hair and wire-frame glasses, one with shoulder-length sandy hair and a book of poetry, and the blonde, tall leader of them all. But nobody made that distinct first impression on her like Marius did.

In fact, Eponine thought that she said yes simply so that she could see him again.

That night, she learned most of their names. The drunk was Grantaire, the one with glasses was Combeferre, and the leader was Enjolras. She had tried to give them all drinks for free, but they insisted on paying her, considering that they felt bad about using the place for free. She listened to Enjolras's speeches half the time, and watched Marius out of the corner of her eye the other half.

One night, Cosette had strep throat and couldn't come, so Eponine flew solo. That was the night that Marius asked her if Cosette was seeing anybody.

Also the first night that Eponine had truly felt her heart break.

As the rest of the group, especially Grantaire, started to tease him about his affections (Enjolras, however, thought that it was a distraction from the cause), Eponine mumbled an excuse about leaving the lights on in the Mystery section and ran for the other half of the store, because there was no way that after just two months with these people, they would see her cry.

Somewhere along the way, Eponine and Cosette began to believe in the cause, and contributed to the discussion instead of overseeing everything. After a few meetings, nobody could remember what the group was like without them. (Especially not Marius. He seemed to particularly enjoy Cosette's opinion.)

Five months along, she had been walking through the store, turning off the lights after a meeting. Once she got to the storeroom, however, she realized that the door was cracked open, and there were sounds inside. As she carefully glanced in, her eyes met with the sight of Marius and Cosette softly kissing.

That was the second time Eponine had truly felt her heart break. However, she did not cry.

The next day, Eponine pretended to be shocked and surprised at Cosette's "you'll-never-guess-what-happened-last-night" story. She laughed and shrieked in all the right places, and said that she was so happy for her. Which she was. If there was one thing Eponine cares about, it was Cosette's happiness.

But did it have to involve Marius?

More meetings came and went. Cosette did not bother to be demure anymore. She sat right next to Marius at every meeting, hanging on his every word. Marius showed up at the bookstore on days when there was no meeting planned and asked Eponine where Cosette was. Once, she gave him the wrong location just so that they would not meet, but she had felt so guilty watching him walking around with a lost expression that she hinted at where else Cosette might be. He found her no problem.

More meetings passed, and Enjolras took Eponine and Cosette aside. The protest had a date set, he said, but he didn't want them there. They had been so generous, he said, that the idea of endangering them was terrible, and all of the students agreed with him. Eponine and Cosette had reluctantly obliged.

The night before the rally, they came for one more meeting. Everybody was wishing each other good luck, preparing supplies, and laying out plans.

Marius had taken Eponine aside one night and thanked her for being such a wonderful friend to everybody, including him, and gave her a quick hug. Eponine had bitten her tounge and mumbled her usual "it's no trouble" before going to a member named Courfeyrac to volunteer her help with something, anything.

And then their faces were in the newspaper, under that awful black headline.

The clock buzzed above the door, signaling that it was six. Cosette walked out of the storage room, overly calm. Eponine let go of the counter and pushed her hair over her eyes. They didn't need to say anything. Cosette went to open the door as Eponine scooped up the dropped newspaper, keeping the headline side down. She deposited the untouched papers in the stand near the front, not taking them out of the bag.

Everyone in the town already knows, anyways.

Welcome to my imagination! I've been wanting to start this for a while, but I've been busy with my Eponine/Marius fic. Review/follow if you like it so far!