Red and Black~~Les Miserables One-Shots

The Aftermath

Did you see them going off to fight?
Children of the barricade who didn't last the night.
Did you see them lying where they died?
Someone used to cradle them, and kiss them when they cried.
Did you see them lying side by side?

Marius walked down the street, leaning heavily on the arm of his beloved Cosette. He was still weak from being injured at the barricades. After being bedridden for a week and house-ridden for another, he itched to go outside.

He watched a cluster of women of all ages as they kneeled on the stone. A haunting but beautiful melody, almost like a lullaby but filled to full compacity with sorrow, passed between them as they worked at something. Beside each sat a bucket, presumably filled with water, and clutched in each hand was a rag. Each rag was stained a washed-out red color.

Blood. They were cleaning the blood from the streets.

Marius turned his face away, feeling sick. He had been confined to his home for two weeks, and the blood was still not cleaned. Or perhaps the cleaning process had only just started, specifically to smack it into the face of the one remaining member of the revolutionaries.

He almost felt as if the red stains on the cobblestone should be left there. That scar on the road was made of the blood of his friends - and maybe some of his own. It should be left there as a memorial for the group which barely missed becoming historic. For surely no other remembrance of them would be left, yet had they succeeded, the names of them all would be pronounced in awed whispers or inciting shouts.

Beside him Cosette gave Marius's arm a gentle squeeze. He inclined his head toward her and she smiled reassuringly. It wasn't much in the way of consolation, but Marius felt better remembering that he had not been left entirely alone in this world.

With Cosette by his side, he could be happy. Learn to find the joy in life once more.

He turned again to face the site of the barricade. This time, he looked past the women cleaning, and found the large group of young men working to disassemble and cart away parts of the barricade.

It made Marius's blood boil, looking at them. These were men who had rallied alongside Enjolras when he made his passionate speeches in the public. These were men who had yelled "Vive la France!" alongside the Friends.

And yet, when they were needed at the barricade, they closed their doors, they shuttered their windows, and probation came crawling out on hands and knees pleading mercy for having sympathized with the revolting rebels.

And here they were, cleaning up the mess made by the silly children. Surely that was how Marius's friends were thought of, now that they had been crushed underfoot. Little schoolboys with big dreams of conquering the world.

Marius was repulsed.

He looked past the barricade to the Cafe Musain, where the flag Enjolras had held as he died still hung out the window, although his body had been removed.

"I have had enough of this," he said to Cosette in a quiet voice, "Don't let's stay here any longer."

Cosette, relieved, responded in her delicate chime of a voice, "Where do you wish to go, my dear?"

"Anywhere, anywhere but here. I do not care; all I know is I cannot take this any longer." Marius closed his eyes tightly, trusting Cosette to lead him elsewhere, away from the barricade.

Cosette gently turned herself and Marius down the nearest intersecting street. It was the one down which Les Amis had charged after Lamarque's funeral procession. There was no blood here, as guns cannot shoot around corners, but there were a few broken chairs and other pieces of furniture which had made up the smaller barricade to slow the soldiers.

Wishing she had led Marius down a different road, Cosette murmured quietly, "I think it might be best if you kept your eyes closed for a bit longer. This scene is not any better than the one we just left."

As Marius nodded, squeezing his eyes shut even tighter, something on the stone caught Cosette's eye. Without letting go of Marius, she bent down and picked it up. Holding it in her hand, she saw that it was the rosette which all Les Amis wore bearing the colors of the French flag.

Cosette turned to Marius and pinned the rosette onto his lapel where it belonged.

Confused, he inclined his head toward her while still keeping his eyes tightly closed.

Cosette whispered softly, "Vive la France."