The Streets of Fandom, Monday Evening

[filleauloup]

Well, the weather was doing strange things again and, as usual, Éponine was out in it. She was distinctly not happy about this, particularly since her work shift was over and she had someplace warm and . . . well, 'dry' wasn't exactly a concern right now, but she hadn't been able to pass up the price she was offered for a private delivery. It was

Comments

[wildandbrave]

Cosette had just come from the mainland, where she'd had dinner with her father; he had, as she'd expected, wanted to know all about how her first few days had gone and how she was settling in, and although he would never admit it she could tell he was lonely without her around. She would have to teach him how to use a phone soon, which made her all the more determined to master the things as soon as possible herself

[filleauloup]

Éponine, for her part, was preoccupied with trying to pick bits of clockwork out of her mailbag and wouldn't have bothered to take notice of anyone standing around on the sidewalk if not for the brass winding key that slipped out of her fingers and landed at her feet.

She sighed, bent to scoop up the key, and in straightening to fling the thing away somewhere looked up and saw the girl. She was illuminated faintly in the light of the streetlamps, not quite clearly enough for Éponine to make out her features, but something about her seemed very familiar. Éponine slipped a little further into the shadows and kept watching.

No. No, no, no.

[wildandbrave]

Cosette hadn't yet moved from the spot where she was standing, and she was unaware of anyone's presence nearby. She tried to think of those early years of her life as some sort of void, a confusing and vague nightmare full of spiders but little more than a dream, but here in the deepening darkness of the evening, hearing her own voice made that nightmare just a little more real.

Another bit of metal, this time with gear teeth, fell to the ground beside her.

"They leave me alone. But I don't have many toys. Ponine and Zelma won't let me play with their dolls."

She firmly tried to tell herself that she was being silly, but she couldn't quite muster the resolve to keep moving.

[filleauloup]

This girl was younger than the one she remembered, more of a schoolgirl than a fine young lady, but there it was: the confirmation Éponine hadn't wanted. Which, she thought bitterly, meant that it had probably been inevitable.

Because of course it was inevitable that Cosette should end up here, should get the classes and the castle to live in while Éponine only looked on from outside. Again. Well, served her right for being stupid enough to hope.

"You oughtn't to be out here," she spoke up in the darkness, confident that her harsh voice wouldn't be recognizable. "Weather like this won't be very kind to your pretty little face."

What was she doing? She had no idea whether she wanted to scare Cosette off or help her.

[wildandbrave]

Bizarrely, that was exactly the jolt Cosette needed to snap out of her haze before despair got the better of her.

"I should think I'm old enough to know how to take care of myself," she said, sounding mildly offended as she squinted into the darkness past the streetlamp.

[filleauloup]

Éponine laughed harshly. "No doubt, you've done awfully well for yourself, haven't you? It isn't everyone who has your luck."

Right on cue, another piece of clockwork fell from the sky.

"We've had an education, my sister and I. We weren't always what we are now."

Scowling in the darkness, she kicked it away.

[wildandbrave]

"How you talk, as if you know anything about me," Cosette exclaimed, but some of her indignation was blunted by what she'd just overheard from the falling clockwork. She hadn't made any kind of conscious connection between 'my sister and I' and the 'Ponine and Zelma' from her younger self's earlier words, just a mild and indescribable sense of unease.

Another piece of clockwork fell, and with it came the younger Cosette's voice, shrill and terrified: "Forgive me! Madame! Madame! I won't do it anymore!"

[filleauloup]

"What is it to me whether somebody picks me up tomorrow on the pavement of the Rue Plumet, beaten to death with a club by my own father?" Éponine's voice demanded from the bit of metal that fell a split second later.

Éponine moved out of the shadows into the circle of lamplight, but only partway.

"Perhaps I do," she said, watching Cosette for any sign of recognition.

[wildandbrave]

There was no such sign -- it would have been a good year and a half later that she and her father would have visited the Jondrette garret, completely unaware of who they were really dealing with -- but Cosette couldn't stifle a sharp gasp of surprise. Could you blame her, when someone had appeared out of nowhere so suddenly it was as if this figure had just formed out of the shadows

[filleauloup]

Éponine watched her go, torn between visceral satisfaction and a sense of guilt that was, in her opinion, absolutely stupid.

"She's likely to get lost," she commented to herself in a low voice, "new here and all, and running around in the dark." Maybe she ought to follow Cosette, and make sure she got back to the school all right? Maybe. After a minute or two she started along the same route Cosette had taken, intent on doing just that.

But what would be the point of that? Some kind of self-imposed penance?

It was stupid of her to even try, so after two or three blocks she broke off and doubled back toward home.