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Cosette has always hated the stars.
The stars don't care about anything. They wink at her and stay high in the sky, up where she can't get to them. They flocked together and perched in their nest as she tripped through thorns and couldn't (or wouldn’t) glow any brighter to keep the little lark safe from her demons.
They never listen, no matter how loud she chirps, and they never answer, no matter how much she pleads.
She can never quite reach them.
Now, the moon? Cosette's always been on good terms with the moon. She sweeps aside the satin skirts of the nighttime, twinkles and lights up the little hollows where the lark lives.
Although, sometimes the moon leaves. Sometimes, she abandons Cosette, and then Cosette has nowhere to turn but to the stars, and they won't answer her, and then they leave too and Cosette's all alone.
Cosette's used to being alone.
(Cosette thinks she's tired of being alone.)
But now, Cosette's not alone anymore. Hasn't been for a long time. Alone was okay, but alone can be sad, and Cosette doesn't like to be sad. Now, Cosette has a papa, and she thinks the moon sent him to make up for when she had to leave. Her papa is kind, and he smells like sugar, and he lets her eat as much bread as he can give her. He doesn't make her beg the stars for light, because he always carries a candle and comes with Cosette, and he goes first in the dark so she doesn't have to.
The moon brought Cosette something else too. Cosette's not sure exactly what to call it yet, but she'd like it to be a friend, because she's never had one before.
Her friend's name is Éponine , and Cosette thinks that Éponine might like the stars. Éponine was always the one to go out in the night before Cosette came along, and so she fledged into a nightingale. Éponine’s a nightingale because she likes the dark, and so it makes sense that she'd like the stars since stars are quiet and gentle and they listen to you without talking back.
What's confusing, though, is that if Éponine likes stars, wouldn't she be like the stars herself? Cosette never knows much of anything for sure, because she thought she knew the Thénardiess, but then she always made Cosette hurt and screamed at her and made her go out when the moon was gone. One thing she does know for sure is that Éponine is nothing like the stars. Éponine is warm, and brilliant even if she doesn't realize it. Éponine is soft and listens to Cosette and shows her that she's listening, and always answers her. Éponine makes Cosette feel things she doesn't think she's supposed to feel, and Cosette can't make herself care because Éponine is just Éponine, and she's become as important to Cosette as her papa.
So how could Éponine be a star?
Cosette's never asked Éponine which one she likes, of course, because that's too odd, and Éponine doesn't like odd. She likes normal, because her family is not-normal and she doesn’t like her family, so Cosette tries to be normal. Occasionally, normal is too hard; but Éponine doesn't leave when Cosette's not-normal. That's another reason Cosette thinks Éponine likes stars, because if she liked the moon she'd leave, and Éponine hasn't ever left.
So now Cosette perches on the edge of her window and she thanks the moon. She thanks her for her papa, and she thanks her for her Éponine, and she thanks her for leaving sometimes, because Cosette wouldn't have learned how to fly without being nudged out of her nest.
Cosette thanks the moon, and sings to the stars.