Éponine's Not-So-Abandoned Warehouse, Saturday Morning

[filleauloup]

Éponine, at eight years old, had been away from home a few times before and to tell the truth she didn't mind much; usually she only had to go with Magnon, pretend to be her daughter, and be quiet and well-behaved long enough to convince some judge or rich gentleman or other that she was properly taken care of. She wasn't usually sent off by

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[14andseven]

Roland was not a small child this weekend. He had, in fact, managed to troubadour all the way to the warehouse district without noticing anyone ELSE was a small child this weekend. Which made finding this we girl a bit of a surprise.

"Er," he said. "Hello."

[filleauloup]

Well, that wasn't awkward or anything.

"Hello yourself, monsieur!" Éponine said cheerfully, already trying to see if she could spot anything she might be able to steal off him. Papa would be proud.

[14andseven]

Roland was a street musician. The most she'd get from him would be $3 in change or his guitar.

She wouldn't be able to take his guitar. He was not above fighting off a tiny girl for the sake of his livelihood.

"Are you . . . lost?" Small child, warehouse district, it seemed to fit, to him.

[filleauloup]

"I am not!" Well, she seemed a bit indignant about that. Lost. Really. (Anyway, he didn't seem like he had much to steal so there wasn't much point in being too nice if she didn't have to.) "This is where I'm supposed to be staying."

Besides, the guitar was possibly bigger than she was. She couldn't take that all by herself just yet.

[14andseven]

"Really?" Roland titled his head, looking closer. "I have a friend who lives around here." Or, you know, right here. And for certain, er, kid-friendly definitions of the word "friend". ". . . Are you her daughter?"

Oh, dear sweet naive Roland. He's still a little new.

[filleauloup]

"You're silly, monsieur," Éponine informed him, and held up the basket to show him the cat; Alouette looked like she was plotting elaborate revenge already. "I'm the only one who's staying here, and I've only got a pretend daughter, d'you see?"

That wasn't helping much, Éponine.

[14andseven]

". . . Cute?" Roland had very little experience with children. "What's your name, kid?"

[filleauloup]

"Éponine, of course," she said, mildly scolding. She reached into the basket to pet Alouette and got her finger nipped for the trouble.

"That's not very nice of you," she informed the cat. Everyone was getting scolded a bit here.

[14andseven]

"It won't listen to you," Roland said. "Cats are like that." Then the other thing she said registered. "Huh, my friend's named that, too."

[filleauloup]

"That's funny," Éponine decided. "She's got the same name as me and lives near here? Does she have a cat too?"

[14andseven]

"I'm not sure." Honestly, if it had come up, Roland had been too sex-pollen fogged to notice. "She had an accent like yours, though."

[filleauloup]

"I don't have an accent!" In her defense, even at her normal age she was hardly a student of linguistics. Éponine frowned up at him. "You do, though."

[14andseven]

Roland shrugged. "I guess I do. A Canadian one. Toronto, specifically. Yours is French."

[filleauloup]

"Because I'm from France, but I don't sound funny," Éponine said with the very exaggerated patience of the child who knows better and has to explain it to the adults. ""Is that where your friend's from, too?"

[14andseven]

See, and this was why Roland didn't do kids. "Yeah, kid, accents aren't about sounding funny, it's just how you talk. You talk French, so you have a French accent." He tipped his head. "And yeah, my friend's French, too."

[filleauloup]

Éponine wasn't any better with kids, really.

"That's very funny," she said after a moment of Very Serious Consideration, "since she sounds a lot like me. I've never met anyone else with my name, though!"

Possibly for good reason.

She brightened up. "But I'll be your friend, too, if you play me a song!"