Éponine's Not-So-Abandoned Warehouse, Saturday Morning

[filleauloup]

Éponine, at eight years old, had been away from home a few times before and to tell the truth she didn't mind much; usually she only had to go with Magnon, pretend to be her daughter, and be quiet and well-behaved long enough to convince some judge or rich gentleman or other that she was properly taken care of. She wasn't usually sent off by

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[throughaphase]

It was best not to ask Kitty where she found the tutu. Or the roller skates. Just know that she had them, because of course she did. She tried to stop when she saw Eponine on the steps, but stopping mainly meant that she had to grab onto a wall till she wasn't moving or falling down.

"Your cat's pretty," she said.

[filleauloup]

"She's not my cat, she's my daughter," Éponine said very solemnly. Maybe someone else would be a little bit better about playing along with this game than Azelma was; in a stage whisper, she added, "You're supposed to be surprised at how she looks now."

[throughaphase]

"Oh! Sorry," Kitty said, and cleared her throat to get better into character. "She looks so different now!"

[filleauloup]

"Well, madame, little girls look like this these days," Éponine said, back to the serious tone.

Yes. Because that was fashionable, or something.

[14andseven]

Roland was not a small child this weekend. He had, in fact, managed to troubadour all the way to the warehouse district without noticing anyone ELSE was a small child this weekend. Which made finding this we girl a bit of a surprise.

"Er," he said. "Hello."

[filleauloup]

Well, that wasn't awkward or anything.

"Hello yourself, monsieur!" Éponine said cheerfully, already trying to see if she could spot anything she might be able to steal off him. Papa would be proud.

[14andseven]

Roland was a street musician. The most she'd get from him would be $3 in change or his guitar.

She wouldn't be able to take his guitar. He was not above fighting off a tiny girl for the sake of his livelihood.

"Are you . . . lost?" Small child, warehouse district, it seemed to fit, to him.

[filleauloup]

"I am not!" Well, she seemed a bit indignant about that. Lost. Really. (Anyway, he didn't seem like he had much to steal so there wasn't much point in being too nice if she didn't have to.) "This is where I'm supposed to be staying."

Besides, the guitar was possibly bigger than she was. She couldn't take that all by herself just yet.

[regretiz4suckas]

Kenzi had woken up, had sugar bombs for breakfast, drunk as much Coke as she could in one go, played with AliasKitty, then gone off to have adventures.

So you know. Same stuff, shorter Kenzi.

She stopped outside the warehouse and beamed at Éponine and her kitty. "Cuuuuuuuuuuuute!"

[filleauloup]

Éponine did her best to emulate her mother's preening whenever someone complimented her or Azelma. The effect, had she not been eight years old, would be slightly scary.

"She's very pretty, isn't she?"

Alouette's indignant meow might be a sign of disagreement. Just possibly.

[regretiz4suckas]

"She's adooorable," Kenzi said, holding out her fingers to be sniffed. "How did you get her to sit still for the dress? My kitty hid under the carpet."

She hadn't even known it came up right there!

[filleauloup]

"Oh, she yowled and yowled and tried to get away, but I only told her that not everything's going to be as she likes, so she may as well get used to it now," Éponine said. She pushed up one sleeve of her dress to show several scratch marks, and pouted a bit. "I don't think she's quite learned the lesson yet."

This reflected rather poorly on Madame Thénardier's parenting skills. Not that this would be a surprise.