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 herself. (Were she aware that Magnon paid her father a few francs for these loans, she'd wonder how much it was worth this time.)

She wasn't going to complain, though. She didn't at all mind being away from the noise and funny smells of the inn, or having to try and stop Gavroche's crying because Maman certainly didn't bother, and now that that strange man in the ugly yellow coat had taken Cosette away she definitely didn't mind not having to be home. It meant more for Azelma to deal with but, well, perhaps next time it would be Azelma's turn so it was all fair anyhow.

And there was a cat for her to play with, at least! Alouette had not expected her human to suddenly be tiny, and therefore had been at a disadvantage, which meant that now, well . . .

There was a nicely-dressed, clearly rather pampered little girl sitting on the front step outside the warehouse, singing to the basket on her lap, in which a rather disgruntled cat was dressed up in doll clothes and wrapped up in a blanket.

[OOC: I never thought I was going to get a chance to play around with an excerpt cut from the early drafts of the book. (Read it, though, it's hilarious.) Open, but SP until evening probably.]

Comments

[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.

[throughaphase]

"Oh, well, it's a changing world," Kitty said because she'd probably heard her parents say that, and then she looked at Eponine to see if she was on the right track.

[filleauloup]

"Mmmmm," agreed Éponine vaguely. Alouette mewed plaintively and squirmed around in the basket. "You can hold her for a bit, if you like?"

[throughaphase]

"Ooh, can I, can I?" Kitty asked excitedly. Seriously she was getting to play with animals all day!

[filleauloup]

Alouette was thrilled about this, really. Somewhere, the ghost of Éponine's childhood cat sympathized.

"Yes, but you must be careful to be gentle with her," she said, adopting a bit of a bossy tone as she handed over the basket. "She's very little still."

[throughaphase]

"Okay, I will," Kitty promised, making sure to sit down first because she didn't want to lose her balance or fall while holding the kitten-daughter. Then she took the basket very carefully and said, "Like this?"

[filleauloup]

"Yes, yes, that's exactly it!" Éponine actually had no idea how to hold a baby, but nobody had to know. She paused to eye Kitty's roller skates speculatively. "What're those?" she asked, pointing.

[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.

[14andseven]

"Really?" Roland titled his head, looking closer. "I have a friend who lives around here." Or, you know, right here. And for certain, er, kid-friendly definitions of the word "friend". ". . . Are you her daughter?"

Oh, dear sweet naive Roland. He's still a little new.

[filleauloup]

"You're silly, monsieur," Éponine informed him, and held up the basket to show him the cat; Alouette looked like she was plotting elaborate revenge already. "I'm the only one who's staying here, and I've only got a pretend daughter, d'you see?"

That wasn't helping much, Éponine.

[14andseven]

". . . Cute?" Roland had very little experience with children. "What's your name, kid?"

[filleauloup]

"Éponine, of course," she said, mildly scolding. She reached into the basket to pet Alouette and got her finger nipped for the trouble.

"That's not very nice of you," she informed the cat. Everyone was getting scolded a bit here.

[14andseven]

"It won't listen to you," Roland said. "Cats are like that." Then the other thing she said registered. "Huh, my friend's named that, too."

[filleauloup]

"That's funny," Éponine decided. "She's got the same name as me and lives near here? Does she have a cat too?"

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

"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.

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Silly kitty. Those look ouchie." Kenzi shook her finger at the kitten-- at ten was no more reasonable about that kind of thing than Éponine, for much the same reasons. "If you give her treats, she'd be better, I bet." She flopped down to sit next to the other girl and said, "I like your dress too, it's pretttty."