Work Text:
She’s driving her home when Eponine first says those words.
“You know, Cosette, it’s a good thing we’re not dating because if we were this would be our song.”
The song on the radio is Radioactive by Imagine Dragons.
Cosette rolls her eyes. “This isn’t even a freaking love song, Eponine. How could it possibly be our song?”
“It’s about a teddy bear fight club. How could it not be our song?” Cosette looks over at her, and Eponine’s looking back at her, pink lips curved in a smirk, one eyebrow raised, as though to say “duh”.
“It’s just not.”
“Fine, smartass, what do you think our song should be?”
They argue the entire car ride and by the time Cosette is driving down the long road to her house, they have it narrowed down to three songs. The first one is Fearless, by Taylor Swift and then I Could Be In Love With Someone Like You - from The Last Five Years and last is Anyone Else But You, you know, from Juno.
“Alright, fuck that, I’m going back to Radioactive.” she starts, and then gasps. “No! You know what? I was watching Psych the other day and I found this awesome song called Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots part 1. It’s about a girl who defeats pink robots to save her girlfriend.”
Cosette grins, and Eponine stares at her and marvels again at her strange eyes, deep, gorgeous brown, split all over with golden lines, bright and earnest and a little bit mischievous. “It’s a good thing we’re not dating because we would never be able to choose a song.”
Eponine smiles back and punches her shoulder and then thanks her for driving her home. Cosette gets out and leaves the car idling to open the door for Eponine, and she shakes her head, like she does every week and Cosette holds her hand out for Eponine like she does every week and Eponine takes it like she does every week. Then she smiles and gives Cosette her usual protest against Cosette treating her special and she tells Eponine she knows she loves it and she may as well not even try because Cosette knows. Eponine rolls her eyes and they bump fists and she walks up the driveway to her house. Just before she opens the door she turns around and looks at her, all big eyes and soft mouth and Cosette smiles at her.
The next time, it’s Cosette who says it.
“You know, it’s a good thing we’re not dating because if we were you wouldn’t have to pay me back for that sandwich.”
They are sitting outside of Andronico’s market and the midmorning light filters through the awning over the picnic benches, turning their skin golden.
Eponine tries to sound indignant. “Okay, one, it isn’t a sandwich. It is a vegan, gluten and dairy free, organic, free trade, dry lettuce wrap and it fits the fitness challenge guidelines, which you are not following. Two, it doesn’t even matter if we’re dating because you know I’m not paying you back anyway. And three, I’m sharing it with you. ”
She pulls off a piece of kale smeared in avocado and holds it out to Cosette. She takes it delicately between her teeth, chews it, swallows and then takes Eponine's thin, pale fingers into her soft mouth and sucks the avocado off, running her tongue roughly over them, suckling, licking, fellating them, and Cosette smiles when she hears Eponine's breathing catch and imagines the light pink color warming her skin.
Cosette bites lightly on her pinky, making her whimper so quietly Cosette almost doesn’t catch it and then pulls off and smiles.
“Something wrong?”
“You bitch. There is nothing wrong.”
“I’m sure. Anyway, I don’t want your foul healthy not-sandwich. It is a disgrace to the name. It’s a good thing we’re not dating because if we were I might be forced to forbid you from eating those.”
She looks so wonderful in this yellow halflight. Sandy blonde hair and that ridiculous nose ring that she pretends to be annoyed by, but really thinks is hot. (Really. Cosette has a nose ring. Eponine can't believe it, but really, she likes it.) Chapped pink lips curved in a cheeky smirk that she can’t get enough of. She remembers the feeling of Cosette's mouth on her hand and imagines what that tongue could do in other places. And she thinks to herself that it’s a good thing they aren’t dating because she would just ravage Cosette.
What she says is, “It’s a good thing we’re not dating because if we were I might have to beat you up for thinking you can forbid me from doing anything.”
Cosette rolls her eyes. She’s finally taller than Eponine (to Eponine's disgust), after years of being an inch or two shorter, but even so she wouldn’t dare contest Eponine's skill. She could definitely beat Cosette up.
What she says is, “You couldn’t beat me up if you tried a million years.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
They would probably be angry at each other if they weren’t such good friends. As it is though, each one secretly admires the other’s stubborn smile.
After that day they can’t stop making that joke. Everyone is thoroughly sick and tired of it. They get a firm talking to from their boss at the coffee shop (yes, they work out a coffee shop. Yes, it's cliche. So sue them.) about focusing while on the job and they both try to look apologetic. Eponine fails miserably, but Cosette never gets yelled at and she absolutely hates it so she actually does look apologetic.
They ride home on Eponine’s motorcycle and she points out that it’s a good thing they aren’t dating because otherwise it would be awkward for them to be so close together, and Cosette says that she might try to cop a feel from behind, which makes Eponine blush and smack her shoulder.
Eponine sleeps over at Cosette’s house and she points out that it’s a good thing they aren’t dating because if they were people would probably assume things.
Cosette’s freaking out about a test she has and she almost starts crying and Eponine sighs and puts her arms around her and lets her cry and thinks vaguely of how this reminds her of her favorite song - Let Her Cry by Hootie and the Blowfish, and also how maybe if they were dating they could make out instead of crying.
At the fair their town puts on every year they race in the giant hamster balls and run the bounce house obstacle course and they can’t stop touching each other and at the end of the day they sit on the curb by the coffee shop’s booth and Eponine puts her head on Cosette's shoulder and Cosette strokes her hair and neither of them thinks that it’s a good thing they aren’t dating.
And then it’s a Saturday morning, too early to be awake but there they are at the coffee shop, because is there anywhere else, really? And it’s raining, really hard, just pouring and Eponine pulls up on her motorcycle soaking wet and angry as a cat and sees Cosette’s little black Ford parked in her usual spot and she's sitting behind the wheel, texting. She leaves her bike under the awning and shakes herself violently, the way dogs do after a bath, and then yanks Cosette's car door open and drops into the passenger seat. She looks up and grins at Eponine, the wild soaked curls falling from her long braid and the angry light in her grey eyes, and Cosette reaches behind herself and pulls her beach towel out of the backseat and hands it to her.
“Morning, sunshine.”
“I’m fucking freezing and I have a headache and I don’t know why I’m here.”
"It's work, Ep, if you don't show up you get fired. Them's the breaks."
"Did you just say 'them's the breaks'?"
“You know you love it.”
Yeah, she does. But she doesn’t say so, just towels off her braid and then her face and her neck.
They’re quiet for a while, listening to the rain on the roof of Cosette’s car. She answers a text and Eponine carefully unbraids her hair, cards her fingers through it and then ties it back up. She breaks the silence to ask if Cosette has an extra t-shirt because hers is soaked and she says she does, because she’s one of those girls who lives out of her car, literally stores hier entire closet there, not to mention her laptop, speakers, sports gear, no end of sugary snacks, deodorant, toothbrush, and her school books. She gives Eponine this soft gray long sleeve t-shirt that she’s had forever and it’s soft and smells like her, all clean sweat and laundry soap, and Eponine appreciates the hell out of that shirt. It’s a great shirt.
“Look away for a sec.” Cosette closes her eyes (no really, she does) and Eponine strips out of her wet outer layers - plaid flannel, zip up hoodie, t-shirt, camisole - and then her bra, bent over so that no one can look in the window and see her, towels off her torso and then slips the shirt over her. It hangs all warm and soft over her skinny shoulders and she shivers. “Okay, I’m good. Do you have a sweatshirt?”
Cosette smiles at Eponine, shivering in the thin shirt, and puts her arms out instead. She slides over into Cosette's lap like a little girl, and she wraps her arms around her. Eponine's hair is wet still and Cosette runs her fingers over the braid and then reaches to turn up the heater. Eponine buries her face in her chest and Cosette laughs. “You still hate the rain?”
“Yes.” The word is muffled and she sounds put out at being laughed at, which naturally only makes Cosette laugh harder.
Eponine pulls her head away from Cosette's chest to look her in the eyes. The laughter dies in her mouth. “I love you.”
“What?”
“I said I love you.” The air is tight. Cosette feels like she can’t breathe.
And then Eponine kisses her. Soft and light, like butterfly wings or snow. Cosette can’t stand it. She pulls Eponine closer, pulling all of her to herself, kissing her hard, burning, biting, licking, hot and sweet and happy all at once. Then Eponine pulls away.
"I just thought you should know? Is that okay?"
Cosettee realizes her toes are curled in her sneakers. She also realizes Eponine's eyelashes are ridiculously long and wonders how she never noticed it before. And then she starts laughing and laughing and after a moment, Eponine joins him. She notices Cosette's freckles and the weird golden lines in her eyes and the little cut under her jaw and and how soft her hair feels soft under her hand.
“Holy shit. We just did that,” Cosette says.
“Is that even allowed?” Eponine asks.
“I don’t know! You’ve been working here longer. You tell me.”
“Would I be asking if I knew?”
“You know we’re hopeless, right? It’s been less than a minutes since you kissed me for the first time ever and we’re already arguing again.”
“You love it.”
And Cosette does.