For Gav

It's been a long idyll for Eponine down in the Below. She's grown a bit plumper in her time there, and seems a bit less haunted. Good company will do that for a woman.

And Eponine - who has little to no idea how to proceed in her continuing quest to become a woman - has been wandering about, trying to prepare herself for the return to Milliways, to the notion of usefulness.

She's expecting her brother to enter her guest room at any time...

For Marius

[Sometime after this]

Eponine is fully braced for the eventuality of encountering Marius after her talk with Gavroche. Preparation cannot fully, however, brace her for the reality of it.

It's an ordinary day, and she's just moved back into her Milliways apartment after a holiday in the Below, when it finally does happen. Marius will note that she seems healthier, more robust, though her eyes...

...Well, those will stay the same.