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Éponine’s always had a love/hate relationship with the rain.
She loves it because she can stay inside, read a book, watch TV, or generally do whatever the hell she wants. She can cuddle in that fluffy blanket she didn't expect to win at that stupid fundraiser raffle thing at Gavroche's school and just sit there. She can, if she has nothing else to do, look at the window and watch the rain drip down the window and see which drop(s) reached the bottom first.
However, she hates it in situations like this, when she's outside, and unexpectedly without an umbrella. She decides to go to a nearby café.
She notices someone. She's intrigued by this someone, this pretty, beautiful someone. This someone has long dark brown hair, and gorgeous caramel skin, as well as beautiful brown eyes that are surrounded by rose gold wire frames. She's wearing a yellow sweater and jeans. She looks at this someone's name tag. Her name is Cosette.
Éponine now knows what "love at first sight" feels like. It felt amazing.
"Can I get you something?" Cosette asks. Her voice is sweet like candy and silvery, pleasant to hear, and oh God, Éponine was getting lost.
"Uh, um, what's in your iced coffee?"
To be fair to herself, that was the first thing that came to mind. It was random, and iced coffees were more for summer, but they had one.
"Well, coffee, both milk and sugar on request, as well as ice cream on request."
"Can I get one of those?"
"That will be €4,30."
Éponine hands over €5, trying not to stare.
"By the way, your sweater is cute," Éponine remarks, trying to make small talk. Besides, saying 'your sweater' was a lot safer than saying 'you.'
"Thank you!" Cosette chirps. There's the smallest hint of pink on Cosette's cheeks that wasn't there before and Éponine allows herself a small smirk for placing that there.
Only a couple minutes later, the iced coffee is served to her, and she can't help but think this rainy day is pretty good.
Slowly but surely, that becomes Éponine's rainy day routine. She seeks out the Café Musain and goes in hopes if seeing Cosette.
One day, though, Cosette isn't there.
"Hello!" someone with a nametag that says "Musichetta" chirps.
Her voice is a bit annoying, shrill, fake, and trying to impress. She just decides to take her iced coffee to go, even if it does get ruined along the way.
"Hi, hi! Sorry that I'm late," Cosette says to Musichetta.
"No problem. Let me just log out of the register, and you'll be all set," Musichetta says back.
Éponine just stands there like a fool, waiting for the thing to end. She mentally curses herself for doing so, but she thinks it'll be alright.
"So, your usual then?" Cosette addresses Éponine, catching her off guard.
"Uh, yeah," Éponine agrees, and hands over a 5.
"Um, your shirt looks really cute. Where'd you get it?" Cosette compliments while she's getting the change from the register.
It says "Humans Aren't Real" in English, and it's in the corner. The rest is plain back. She had just picked it out from the closet (anything went with black capris, after all).
"I got from a friend who went to America."
Cosette nods. "Cool!" She hands over 70 cents.
"Anyways, it's probably rude of me not to introduce myself, when I've known your name for a couple weeks now. My name's Éponine."
"That's a nice name."
"You've taken my line that I've been meaning to say for two weeks."
"Cosette's my nickname. My parents gave me a first name that is horribly old-fashioned: Euphrasie." Cosette wrinkled her nose at this, her eyebrows furrowing adorably.
"I don't mean to insult your first name, but Euphrasie sounds like a cat, weird flower, or a paint color, maybe all combined together."
"I totally agree."
"It also completely rolls off of the tongue, quite like my name," Éponine jokes.
Thus, their first conversation went by passing the time about their names.
Today, it wasn't raining, but it looked like it was about to with grey, imposing skies and large, dark clouds.
"It's been so rainy this past couple of months," Cosette laments, with a big huff at the end of the sentence.
"I guess that spring just does that," Éponine jokes.
"Yeah, well, at least it isn't the torrential downpour, "cats and dogs", almost hail-y rain this year."
"Can I-" Éponine says, before getting cut off by Cosette.
"€4,30. You got it," Cosette finishes.
"What if I order something different one day?" Éponine teases, handing over a 5.
"Oh, please. At this point, you would have ordered something different already," Cosette says, laughing.
"You know me too well."
Cosette hands over the change. "That totally isn't my fault. And, besides, I literally don't know anything about you except that you go to this café everytime it's raining or that it looks like it's raining, and that your name is Éponine, and that your favorite color is probably either black or navy blue."
"Other than my name, those are oddly detailed things to know about me, but I guess I am an oddly detailed person."
"Isn't everyone? Think about it. Who isn't oddly detailed?" Cosette asks, smiling.
"What fantastic utopia have you been living in?"
"Paris, I guess." Cosette seems extremely confused now, trying to make sense of the situation."
"Ah, I see, in Paris." Éponine tried to make an evil, villainy voice. She switched back to her normal voice. "Yeah, I have nothing."
"That's fine, but what pessimistic dystopia have you been living in?"
"Also Paris?"
"Then where are all of the simpletons? I haven't met any of them." Cosette's smiling now, like she's winning the game of this conversation. Was it a game? Maybe. Did Éponine really love Cosette? Yes. Did Éponine back down from a challenge? No. So she formulates her response.
"That's because you're cool and interesting, as well as detailed. I, meanwhile, am only detailed, and 'cool and interesting' doesn't attract not detailed people, because they're only used to their own kind."
"I think you're cool and interesting. You've just had the misfortune of being around not-cool and definitely-not-interesting people," Cosette defends.
Like my parents, Éponine thought. But, it was too dark and she really didn't want pity during this easy conversation.
"Have you ever considered a career path as a therapist?" Éponine asks instead.
Cosette laughs again. The laugh is so sweet and amazing, and just made Éponine's heart beat faster and her body tingle a little.
"No, why?"
"Because I feel as if you would make an excellent therapist," Éponine says this clearly and somewhat snootily in a posher accent.
"Huh. I always thought I was too naïve to be a therapist."
"You almost made me spill a deep, dark secret. Therapists do that," Éponine says matter-of-factly.
"Too dark?" Cosette asks.
"Yeah, almost," Éponine says in a normal voice.
"I apologize."
"There's no need."
"Anyways, what do you like to do for fun?" Cosette asks. She obviously is trying to change the subject, and Éponine doesn't blame her, because if she were Cosette (God, she'd love to be Cosette), she would too.
"Um, read and play music? And hang out with my friends. This," Éponine waves her hands around wildly (there's no one else to see her, it's almost fine), "Is also fun."
"Well, I mean we have the same interests, but I love shopping, especially window, online, and thrift, as well as napping."
"Ah. I forgot that last one."
"This job is fun. It's not totally 'for fun,' but yeah."
"No, no. I totally get it."
By the end of their conversation, she had learned a lot of things about Cosette. Her favorite colors were dark yellow, baby pink, and navy blue ("I can't decide!" Cosette said, well, exclaimed, of the matter.), her favorite food was crêpes ("I know it's a bit lame and very stereotypical, but they're so versatile and go with anything."), her favorite drink was hot cocoa ("I guess I'm childish like that."), and she learned that Cosette was bisexual. She also learned Cosette's phone number.
Éponine isn't totally proud of this, but she saves Cosette's phone number as "Cosette <3 <3."
She also isn't proud of how late she stayed up texting Grantaire and Courfeyrac.
"€4,30."
Éponine gives a 5 as usual, and Cosette prepares the drink for her.
"Here you go," Cosette beams.
"Thank you so much. God, I needed this," Éponine says, sipping from the straw.
"What happened?" Cosette asks, with what Éponine perceives to be as some worry in her expression.
"I had a couple of friends over last night for a TV show marathon that ran late into the night. Or is it early in the morning? I have no idea. Either way, the point is that we stayed up super late."
"Yikes." Cosette's expression now offers sympathy, in a way.
"So, anyways, are we going to ignore the fact that this now has a large baguette in the room? Literally?" Éponine asks, chuckling a little.
Cosette laughs as well, "Yes, for now, until my shift is over, and we can laugh about in text form. Or in real life, if you want."
"In real life, if I want? I totally want."
She thinks that her response to the coolest and most chill invitation to go on a date is probably not the coolest and definitely the least chill of responses. However, it just is what it is, and she has to go with it.
"Great! Would you like to go to, I don't know, the Orangerie once my shift is over?" Cosette asks.
"An art museum. Classy. When is your shift over?" Éponine replies. She didn't work there, so she had no idea.
"Um, I think around 16:30?"
"That's a really long shift. But, yeah, OK."
"I know! Stay and keep me company, please?"
"Alright."
It was now "around 16:30," and the two were near ready for their first date. Cosette gathered her stuff while a male worker named "Marius" took over the register. A couple of her friends would definitely enjoy the looks of him.
"Can we hold hands?" Cosette asks, tentatively, and Éponine's heart just melts.
"We're a couple now, Cosette. You don't need to ask for innocent things." Éponine says.
"Yeah, but I want to respect your boundaries."
"Fair point."
They walk hand in hand to the museum. Once they had gotten there, it started raining.
"Oh my God, thank God it wasn't raining while we were walking there," Cosette says, giggling.
The rain is fine by Éponine right now because the rain was how they met. And the rain was forever a blessing to the both of them.
And Éponine's relationship with rain now? She'd say that rain and her were on pretty fucking good terms right now.