fandomtownies | Devil's Nest, Monday, 6/10

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Devil's Nest, Monday, 6/10

The DJ was out today; in his place, a trio of gremlins were singing Christmas Carols. Jack wasn't entirely certain why they were singing Christmas carols in June -- he hadn't known gremlins could sing to start with -- but he was disinclined to go out of his way to ask them. That way laid biting and a completely miserable day.

He checked to make sure the supplies were in order for that weekend's reunion, half listening to the creatures urging him to have himself a merry little Christmas. At least Tiny seemed to be in the spirit of things -- he was wearing a terrifying holiday sweater vest with nothing underneath.

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Jack, unable to restrain the urge to jokingly flirt, fluttered his lashes at her. "I always knew you cared for me, Eponine" he said through a laugh. "Thank you."

"Oh, I wouldn't go so far as all that, monsieur," Éponine retorted (albeit through a surprised laugh). "I'd only hope you'd do the same for me."

Joking was easy. Relating to people wasn't.

"Oh, it depends on whether the other way would amuse me more or not," Jack said, before turning more serious. "No, I'd help you. Could I take a photograph first?"

"And do what with it?" asked Éponine, dubious out of the long habit of not trusting anyone. (Never mind that she wouldn't hesitate to do the same to anyone else given the opportunity.) "That might entirely depend on what I thought I was up to."

"You know, no one ever gets that far," Jack said. (He didn't expect trust; he gave it rarely enough himself.) "It's always the joke, that we'll take pictures the next time someone embarasses themselves, but the photos never seem to go anywhere. So I suppose it'd just live in my phone."

"No one at all?" Éponine didn't even try to mask her skepticism. "Well, it is a small island, isn't it, and all of us living practically on top of each other? I suppose sometimes it's enough that other people know, and no need to go out of the way with pictures."

"I think that's exactly it," Jack said, with some annoyance at the damned tiny island in his tone. "Between gossip and the radio, we know just about everything that would be interesting. It's hardly worth flashing photographs around."

"I can't decide whether that's more useful than it is inconvenient," Éponine said distractedly, fiddling with a knotted-up rubber band she'd encountered while rummaging through her mailbag. "I don't think I care much so long as those damned things stay away from me. How do they feel about cats, do you know? I've been thinking of getting one."

She forgot to mention the logical connection wherein she thought a cat might keep the gremlins away.

"I don't know," Jack said, tilting his head a bit at the missing connection. "I've never had one. I suppose we'd hear about it if they ate pets, wouldn't we?"

"Eat pets -- oh, good God, no!" Éponine burst out with a raucous laugh. "That isn't what I was worried about at all. The other way around, more like."

"So you're worried your cat would eat the gremlins?" Jack asked, laughing as well. "How large of a cat did you want to get?"

"Yes, but d'you see, it's only that I worry if it ate the gremlins it might get sick, and what would I do then?" Éponine held her hands out approximately a foot and a half apart. "About that big, I suppose? It's been years since I had one, and I was little then."

But not so little that the poor cat had been able to escape the indignity of being dressed up like a doll.

"I'm not sure cats are big enough to trap gremlins, but I suppose you wouldn't want to find out that they are," Jack mused. "I don't know. I think it's good to have a cat if you like them. Keeps the mice down, all of that."

Éponine's smile was a little bit sly and a touch bitter. "I wouldn't underestimate them because of their size. We're not as helpless as we look, but it's just as well if they think we are."

She shook her head and continued without stopping for breath, but in a lighter tone: "And the company wouldn't be bad, either, would it?"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Someone as short as I am should know better than to judge creatures by their size," he conceded. "And -- no. There's nothing bad about having something to talk to at night. You could get a roommate, too, if you wanted."

"I don't," she said quickly. "I'd much rather have a place all to myself. I don't like it when people are coming and going at all hours and making noise and bringing all sorts of strangers with them."

She also doubted there would be many takers on an offer of moving into a warehouse, but mostly after the inn, the streets, and the Gorbeau tenement having privacy was a luxury.

"That is to say -- I don't mind people. Some of you aren't all bad, only I'd rather not live with them."

"You know, I've never lived entirely on my own," Jack said, surprising himself with it. He didn't come up with a lot of things he hadn't done. "I can't imagine life without coming and going and strangers and someone else's shoes by the couch."

"And I've had enough of it to last me lifetimes," Éponine replied, snorting. "It wasn't terrible before, in Montfermeil, even with everyone passing through the inn, but then we came to Paris and there were so many more people, even under the bridges when we were living there, and no way to get away from them all."

She paused, rolled the rubber band in her fingers until it was twisted up into a tiny ball, and tucked it into her pocket. "It's not so bad here, though. People here will leave me alone if I don't want them."

Glancing up at Jack with a smile, though it took some effort, she asked, "But you, d'you have any pets, monsieur? I know you live in that big house with Kaidan, but it seems like a lot of room for just two people."

"Oh, it hasn't been just the two of us in months," Jack answered. "A teacher named Josh moved in, then Emma came for the summer, and now we've got a new teacher, Bruce, as well. But no, no pets. I've never felt settled enough for it on the island."

Well, that was what ~~I get for not checking before I ping~~ she got for getting a job and having less time to do things like observe people's comings and goings.

"You'll leave, then, won't you, when you're done with school?" she asked. "It's a bit small for someone with your ambitions."

She was pretending not to be too envious, but it showed.

~~Sorry!~~

"Probably," Jack said, trying to dissuade her from her envy without lying. "But I still have four years to go. A lot can happen in four years. Four years ago, I still thought I was going to finish high school and go home to stay."

Fool he had been.

~~Nah, my bad!~~

"And here you still are," Éponine concluded. "Well, I've never seen much point in planning too far ahead, anyhow. It's silly, really, since one never knows what can happen in four days, let alone four years."

"You can say that again," Jack nodded. "The fact I have a plan doesn't mean I'm certain anything like it will happen."

He paused, ran a hand over his head. "Oh -- that reminds me there's a school reunion this weekend. You'll get to meet some of the old-timers."

Éponine wasn't sure how much she wanted to meet people who'd gotten to finish school and do something with their lives, but she had to admit she was a bit curious. (She'd probably be bitter, too, but that might be a given.)

"Old friends of yours, some of them?" she asked.

"I'm not sure who's coming, but I'd imagine so," Jack assented. "And even the ones who weren't exactly friends, you get to be - a bit like brothers in arms."

Devil's Nest, Monday, 6/10

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