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She immediately decided once she stepped out of the airplane, that she does not like Munich much.
There was some sort of a smoking lounge, where you could smell the (nasty scent of the) smoke and the nicotine. It reminded Cosette of Éponine before she quit.
Cosette never liked the scent of anything unpleasant, and she almost never drank alcohol. Anything addictive got on her nerves, and made her wrinkle her nose or something of the sort.
”Ép, I don’t like it when you smoke,” Cosette whined audibly.
They were sitting in Cosette’s first apartment, on comfy beanbag chairs. They were drinking some hot chocolate since it was winter, and cold. They had just cleaned the car of snow, and Cosette got a tray of snow. Or maybe a couple. She didn’t remember. Éponine probably thought she was insane, but whatever.
“Neither do I, but I got stuck on this habit and I can’t quit,” Éponine huffed.
"There's nicotine patches and stuff at the pharmacy and stuff," Cosette said.
"I'll try and get those. But, for now, I'm sorry," Éponine replied.
Cosette pouted. “Brush your teeth, please. I don't like kissing you with your stinky breath.”
”Alright.” Éponine got up to do just that.
”Make sure you floss, too!” Cosette yelled after her girlfriend.
Once she gets outside the airport, she is forced to have noticed two things.
It was not very hot, and there were a lot of smokers in the city of Munich. For the first point, Cosette was fine. She had a jacket and many layers on. 15 degrees was nothing. As for the smoking, maybe that's why there was a smoking lounge. So that all the smokers could get their fix of nicotine and smoke. She found this odd, weird fact of a humor-ish type comforting. And something that Éponine certainly liked.
In fact, Éponine always had an eye for humor. For (seemingly, to Cosette) every chance she could get, Éponine could always crack a joke or two.
Cosette wished she had the comfort of that now.
"Grantaire, are you serious?" Éponine asked.
"I am totally serious. Relationship parties are only for serious relationships after all," Grantaire answered.
"Coco, please make him stop."
Cosette politely laughed. "Hi. My name's Cosette."
"Cosette, what honor do i have of this pleasure?' Grantaire asked.
"I am but one of Éponine's suitors, but I have succeeded," Cosette asked.
"And, pray, tell me, what do you do at night?" Grantaire asked.
Cosette was speechless. No wonder Éponine had said beware.
"We plot on the extinction of the species of men." Éponine joked.
"What species will survive then?"
"Women and children."
"What about the male children?"
"Kill them when they're men."
"Yeah, I think we're good and done now," Cosette said, ending the conversation about the death of human males.
Cosette personally found human males alright. She wasn’t attracted to them as much (as clearly demonstrated in her relationship), but she found she made good friends with human males. She wouldn’t want them to die.
The taxi was OK, Cosette supposed. It wasn't bumpy, and the speed limit was only 100 kilometers per hour. The ride was fairly uneventful, and Cosette was thankful for that. The driver probably suspected Cosette wasn't German, because he really didn't talk (or try to talk) to her the entire time, and then tried to state the amount in halting, broken English at the end. (Even Éponine could do numbers. Come on.)
Cosette gave him the amount, and got out to her hotel.
It looked nice, and didn't seem too bad. One place of comfort in a big city with almost none.
She checked in with the receptionist, who gave her the room key and the WiFi password. Good. She'd need that. Sometimes, the measures of getting WiFi were extreme. Cosette smiled faintly at a memory that she had just thought of.
"Oh my God. This hotel has no WiFi," Éponine groaned. She turned on her phone, to see if there was any cellular data. Cosette thought that it was out of Éponine's thinking that desperate times would call for desperate measures.
"And, great! There's no reception either." Éponine nearly shouted. It wasn’t too loud, though.
“Must be easy to find reception in the middle of a rural town,” Cosette joked.
“Guess I just have to use my general technology knowledge skills.” Éponine sighed. She pressed something on her phone.
”Please tell me you’re not using your computer science degree to your advantage,” Cosette said.
“Don’t worry, the restaurant across the street has free WiFi.”
”Don’t worry?” Cosette exclaimed, almost breaking her own eardrums. She calmed down a little. “How can I not worry? That stuff’s illegal, Ép.”
”Why is it free, then? Viable question.” Éponine smirked.
Cosette crossed her arms. “You can wait, can’t you?”
“Nope.” Éponine popped the p. “It’s for my job.”
”It’s vacation,” Cosette whined. “Live and relax for a little while.“
”Fine. But I did get in. Now I’m going to hotspot my phone so that I don’t have to do this same process another time.” Éponine said determinately.
“Go have fun, then,” Cosette said, airily like she didn’t care. But she did care. A lot. She knew Éponine had stuff to do, but she could put it down for a night or two! Besides, Éponine had already done her part of the tasks she had to complete. She continued,”We’re going to that restaurant for breakfast, and tipping them a lot extra.”
”Why? It was free WiFi,” Éponine argued
“I tip extra because I know the pain of service jobs.”
”So do I, but why?”
”And I’m paying.”
”No you are not!”
They spent a little while on who would actually pay the next day.
Cosette pressed the FaceTime button.
It started calling Éponine (by her email address).
”Bonjour?” Éponine said.
“Hi baby! Sorry, I’m still adjusting.”
”To what?”
”Well, right now, the iPad, but later, everything.”
”Doesn’t sound like the Cosette Fauchelevent I know.”
”The Cosette Fauchelevent you know is a false lie.”
”Good thing I fell in love with the real you.”
Cosette smiled. She would be reunited with Éponine soon enough.