#joly/bossuet/musichetta fanfic

[jbm-week]

🗣 Calling Joly/Bossuet/Musichetta fanfic writers 🗣

💌✨💌✨💌✨💌✨💌✨💌✨💌

Hey you! This is your formal invitation to contribute to Joly/Bossuet/Musichetta week 2024!

If you're a fan of reading or writing J/B/M fanfic, you've probably noticed that when you search for them on AO3, it's a lot of scrolling past other main ships with J/B/M as a background ship.

Next week from April 21st - 27th 2024 we will be hosting J/B/M week here on tumblr, a week dedicated to any and all fanworks for our fave throuple. We would love to see people using this opportunity to flood the Joly/Bossuet/Musichetta tag on AO3!

We will be keeping an eye on the tag "#JBM week 2024" on tumblr and AO3. If you use the tag on AO3, we will add your fic to our JBM Week 2024 Collection on AO3 and to a JBM Week 2024 Fic Masterlist post here on tumblr.

If you don't want your fic added to the collection or post but still want to use the tag, please clearly state so in the summery or tags of the fic. You can always change your mind later and message us if you want to be added to or taken off either list.

We accept all fanwork's including NSFW, we will tag #NSFW and any triggers where appropriate. Please don't use AI, we want to celebrate fanwork made from the heart 💖

thank you @softerhour for creating this banner 🙏🏻

[chrysalismandtea]

more les amis headcanons! (help)

enjolras and grantaire don’t really dance at parties, but they make an exception with dancing in the moonlight. no one else knows, but it was the song that was playing when R first confessed his feelings for enj

musichetta adds safety pins to all of her clothes, because “they’re very vivienne westwood”

courfeyrac starred in lots of musicals in high school, his most memorable role being tanya in mamma mia (they were short on girls and he could 100000% pull it off)

ferre plays the saxophone and he’s rather good - every friday evening he joins a jam group at a jazz bar

obviously joly is a hypochondriac, but jehan is the complete opposite. at their house, the five second rule is often stretched at ten seconds

cosette is infuriatingly good at shooting pool, and bahorel is not-so-jokingly a little bitch about it every time they play. marius is a disaster and instead of participating he opts to fetch them drinks while they compete

bossuet and joly have a new year’s eve party tradition of reciting poems on top of the coffee table. the poems are all about embarrassing moments les amis have lived throughout the year

eponine always wears a bracelet azelma had given her when they were kids - they don’t talk anymore, but she cherishes the memory

feuilly and jehan are both huge bookworms but they have about 1% overlap - they never read each other’s suggestions

[sharkemojis]

alright do you wretched whores want chapter one of my touch starved/touch avoidant modern au ExR fic or what because ive been working on it for a year and a half but i won't ever convince myself to finish it unless i physically am bullied into it

[differentprincedinosaur]

Just going to leave this here

[callofthecurlew]

Yay! My contribution to J/B/M week 2024!

A modern, first meeting AU in which Musichetta plays the piano and Joly and Bossuet fall in love! (with her. They're already in love with each other)

[notearnest]

Summer, 1913. A group of men have retreated to an estate in the English countryside to escape from society and into each other's arms. Grantaire and Jehan's long-standing relationship has always been open to new lovers, and in the safety of the summer months Grantaire seeks the courage to act on a longing that he has yet to face.

(In other words, everyone in Les Amis is gay and poly and they are all having a gay and poly time at Jehan's family estate.)

Reappearing like a ghost in the night to plug my own writing, leaving it like a little sacrifice on the doorstep of the Les Mis fandom.

[lys-9-10]

HAPPY BARRICADE DAY 2023!!

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo, Les Misérables - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Grantaire & Musichetta, Enjolras/Grantaire (Les Misérables), Joly/Bossuet Laigle/Musichetta Characters: Grantaire (Les Misérables), Musichetta (Les Misérables) Additional Tags: i realized i wanted to see grantaire & musichetta ineract, so this fic happened, my first ever participation in barricade day!, b/c after years of writing les mis fics on my own ive only recently realized fandoms are a thing lol, Canon Era, Barricade Day, Barricade Day 2023 Summary:

*TW for men coming onto women and like putting their arms around their waist without consent. But no r*pe or more egregious sexual assault, so didn't use the archive warning.

---

Grantaire knocked back some more watered-down absinthe. Plunking his elbow heavily on the table, he glanced about the room through narrowed, resentful eyes. Seeking a distraction, his eyes settled on a woman’s bustle, conveniently protruding at a table a few feet away.

That’ll do.

Pushing himself unsteadily to his feet, Grantaire staggered over to the woman and snaked an arm, uninvited, around her waist.

“Saluuut, mam’zelle. Pray, tell, what a pretty thing such as your—” The woman turned and Grantaire’s forced charm immediately evaporated. “Oh,” he grunted, promptly releasing her waist. “It’s you.”

----

Or: Grantaire wrestles with whether or not to follow Enjolras to the barricades. He ends up talking about it with an unlikely friend.

[whorejolras]

as promised: jess' les amis fanfic rec list ✨

this is mainly e/r, a little bit of e/r/c and a few courferre

This is just the stuff that was in my bookmarks on ao3 when I started writing this post (months ago lol sorry it took so long). Going through I was shocked to see so many of my faves weren't actually bookmarked so I will for sure do a part two when I find them again, and have also added heaps of new fics to my bookmarks since then, but for now 25 fics is enough 😂

many of these will be rated E and will have sexual content, some are straight up pwp ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ok first is my ultimate fave that isn't even on ao3 anymore, but thankfully is on the authors tumblr, and that's:

Gnomon by luchia

50-80k words (?) (bc it's not on ao3 i'm estimating)

rating: E

Enjolras/Grantaire

terrorist/assassin Enjolras my beloved ever. My fave are the "charming young man capable of being terrible" fics obviously. This one is my #1 e/r like in my head this is it's own canon. & this series has my fave e/r smut scenes ever. I still daydream about a Gnomon tv show...

- trigger warnings bc it's not on ao3 so doesn't have tags: murder, gun and knife violence, bombs, conversations about the deaths of children. this is not healthy relationship fluff but it makes for a 🥵 dynamic that's for damn sure.

also linking the rest of the series which is up on ao3 still, even though it is officially abandoned and unfinished - i am going to break my ultimate rule right off the bat and link an unfinished series bc I like it so much.

stupid terrorist boys by luchia

series, 5 works

200k words

rating: M and E

here we have gnomon's prequels, two sequels, and some one shots in between 🫶🏻

if you're here for kinky pwp Senselessly Happy and Unsuspecting could be good stand-alone (but it's better when reading in order). I would say read Gnomon first on tumblr then read the rest in order on ao3.

Silence Is the Speech of Love by lady_ragnell

50k words

rating: E

Enjolras/Grantaire, background Courfeyrac/Marius/Cosette

Enjolras is cursed for speaking out against the gods, Grantaire is there for him.

will I ever shut up about this fic? Never. fave fave fave. the world building, the mythological/religious system, the writing, the "I love you" "I don't think you do, actually" scene URGH!!!! I think of this fic every time i hear chopsticks. Everything happening with courf/marius/cosette, and the genius inclusion of social worker Fantine my beloved. This is one of those "could be it's own novel" fics.

and the sequel from Enjolras' pov 😭 - Left Unsaid

World Ain't Ready by idiopathicsmile

185k words

rating: T

Enjolras/Grantaire

yes it's the top fic yes everyone probably knows it but it's good for a reason. THE fake dating high school au fic that I broke all my rules for back in 2015. I refused to read unfinished fics, let alone T rated high school fics, yet I remember waiting for the updates for this one as it came out, messaging mutuals on the day the last chapter was released. and every time I reread I remember why. Brilliantly written, the pining, the angst, the miscommunications. All the Joly and Bossuet scenes.

honourable mention to the scene where Joly is so excited for the battle of the bands, then next scene starts with "I think it's more of a sitting night today" the realest simple yet most gut punching illustration of chronic pain that gets my ass every time.

Lovesickness by idiopathicsmile

11k words

rating: T

Enjolras/Grantaire, Joly/Bossuet/Musichetta

(we're gonna see a fair bit of idiopathicsmile on here)

this is one of my absolute favourites. not only bc I quote "hit by a truck full of shirts" all the time. a Joly pov fic!!!!!! my beloved!!!!! I'm a BIG JBM fan (they are essential to me when I'm writing grantaire) and love fics that stay true to his friendship with Joly and Bossuet. also I love when Enjolras is a giant dumbass who thinks his feelings for Grantaire is a mystery illness 😂

Still the Same by The Librarina (tears_of_nienna)

74k words

rating: E

Enjolras/Grantaire/Combeferre

ok ok ok. listen. Yes. in this fic, Enjolras IS an fbi agent... and u know i'm the first and last to scream acab always...

that being said this is fully still one of my fave e/r/c fics. Enjolras and Combeferre are married & Enjolras needs to work with art thief Grantaire (fave) on a case. also that one bit at the end when Grantaire *redacted* 👀🫣

cupbearer by illuminate*

*this one is locked, you need an account to view

series, 4 works

124k words total

ratings: T, M & E

Enjolras/Grantaire

this series!!!!!! VAMPIRE ENJOLRAS!!!! thrall Grantaire!!!! canon era AND modern au! REINCARNATION!!!! i'm eeeeaaaaattiiiing 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

More Than Just a Game by ecaitlin

36k words

rating: E

Courfeyrac/Combeferre

Fake dating courferre 😭 this one is so good for the desert scene alone 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻 one of my fave courferre fics

Good Intentions by ecaitlin

95k words

rating: E

Courfeyrac/Combeferre, background Marius/Cosette, Joly/Bossuet, Bahorel/Feuilly, and Enjolras/Grantaire ofc

THE les amis hogwarts au. 95k of Courfeyrac pov is always a treat for the system. in their last year at hogwarts, Courfeyrac decides to play matchmaker for all his friends. shenanigans!!!! fuck jkr, but whenever I wanna reread harry potter again I read this fic 🫶🏻 fave courferre ever, and also fave background e/r

if you remembered me by nightswatch*

*this one is locked, you need an account to view

40k words

rating: M

Enjolras/Grantaire

one thing about me is I love an amnesia fic! Enjolras loses his memory and Grantaire helps him recover 👀 this one's for the hurt/comfort and miscommunication/not being upfront about shit fans. also there's some past Grantaire/Combeferre and i'm always a fan

Beautiful Music Together by lady_ragnell

31k words

rating: E

Courfeyrac/Marius/Cosette

a rare Courf/Marius/Cosette fic for your palette. established Marius/Cosette need a little help from their good friend Courf with their sex life 👀 while the three of them also work on a musical assignment together 😭 prequel to You Dance Dreams kinda 👀

You Dance Dreams by lady_ragnell

61k words

rating: E

Enjolras/Grantaire

(you can tell when i've found a writer who has a fair few fics and just gone nuts lol, lots of lady_ragnell too)

BALLET AU I LOVE YOU!!!!!! so set in the same universe as Beautiful Music Together, Combeferre ropes everyone into working on his opera, a Midsummer Night's Dream sequel. Grantaire dances as Puck alongside Enjolras singing as Oberon 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

In Defiance of all Geometry by idopathicsmile

51k words

rating: T

Enjolras/Grantaire/Combeferre

this is a top fave E/R/C fic and a top fave les amis fic of all time! Them living in a co-op and all the little details of how they make it work is sooooo real and anyone who wants to see accurately written community organising in les amis fic it's here! now for the ✨romance✨ - Grantaire moves in to the amis co-op and starts crushing on both Enjolras and Combeferre, who have both been pining for each other for years.

Years Since It's Been Clear by lady_ragnell

10k words

rating: E

Enjolras/Grantaire

Enjolras offers his spare room to grantaire - or the one where enjolras chases the sun across the living room floor like a cat. That image has lived rent free in my head for and I am not exaggerating here, 10 years.

Gonna need (a spark to ignite) by FinditAgain*

*this one is locked, you need an account to view

47k words

rating: M

Enjolras/Grantaire/Combeferre

soulmate au! soulmate au with E/R/C!!!!!!! enjolras and combeferre are soulmates who lost their bond as children. when combeferre and enjolras find each other as adults, enjolras is already in an established relationship with grantaire 👀👀👀

secret agent man by goshemily

30k words

rating: E

Enjolras/Grantaire

yes another cop one haha 😭 bc if ur not able to contradict urself with the media u like are u even a person? but also I wouldn't recommend if it wasn't a good read for the stairs scene alone 😅 Enjolras and Grantaire need to go undercover as a married couple in a small town.

Leaves in the Void by myrmidryad

16k words

rating: M

Enjolras/Grantaire

this is one i've found since rejoining tumblr late last year that 😭 fully broke my heart bro 😭 space au, enjolras writes letters to everyone when he's accidentally isolated on a ship for what to him was eight and half months but was two hours for everyone else.

Blame Delicate Artemis by hyenateeth

22k words

rating: E

femslash Enjolras/Grantaire

posting omegaverse on main? more likely than you think!

this is porn with a tiny bit of plot, but also one of my fave for femslash e/r and also..... girl dick. that's all.

omega enjolras alpha grantaire canon era lesbians.

that's enough description to find its right audience I feel

Eyes to Serve, Hands to Learn by myrmidryad

94k words

rating: E

Enjolras/Grantaire

Grantaire runs into Enjolras at a kink club. enter 94,000 words of bdsm porn and pining. mostly dom Enjolras and submissive Grantaire, mostly.

Never Be Satisfied by torakowalski

15k words

rating: E

femslash Enjolras/Grantaire

dental dam mention! win!

Grantaire gives Enjolras some advice, lends some toys, and then offers some hands on help when she learns Enjolras has never come before 😏

potentially lovely, perpetually human by myrmidryad

20k words

not rated, does contain smut

Enjolras/Grantaire

lots of myrmidryad here too lol

two of my favourite tropes here. 1: supernatural Enjolras who's in control of his abilities except when it comes to Grantaire (see cupbearer series) and 2: nonbinary Grantaire my beloved!!! Enjolras has psychic empathy triggered by physical touch, so he refuses to touch anyone: until his touch starved ass accidentally touches Grantaire and feels what they're feeling 🥹

Witchboy by tothewillofthepeople

series, 8 works

84k words

rating: T, M

Enjolras/Grantaire

this one is a more recent recommendation that I loved, the world building and magic is so good, there's some great background eposette and patron minette which I'm always a fan of.

i'm not the moon (i'm not even a star) by serinesaccade

40k words

rating: M

Enjolras/Grantaire

amnesia fic and fake dating 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻 this time we've got Grantaire losing his memories and waking up in a world where he has a really hot boyfriend, but apparently his 1.5 year relationship with Enjolras isn't what it seems 👀

and let's round this out with a classic

Thirty-Two Times by Ark

7k words

rating: E

Enjolras/Grantaire

the bottom R canon era bible 🙏🏻

i'm sorry i feel like my emoji use is very millennial. jsyk 👌🏻 is me clicking with my nails ok bye 😘

if you want more i'm whorejolras on ao3 go nuts 🙌🏻

[ronniesart]

Can I get a fic rec list?

Ofc!!! All of these are on AO3 because that’s my main fanfic source.

On Going

Let's Fall in Love (for the Week) by @pumpkinspice-prouvaire

Ships: Eposette, ExR

Concept: Enjolras and Éponine have to fake date for a week because Enjolras’s parents are homophobic.

L’embrasement by LesbiansdelABC and Titteringcat (i don’t know if they have tumblr)

Ships: ExR, Cosette Fauchelevent/Marius Pontmercy, Combeferre/Courfeyrac, Eposette, Joly/Bossuet, Laigle/Musichetta, Montparnasse/Jean Prouvaire, Grantaire’s Sister/Azelma

Concept: Hunger games AU

(There’s updates every Monday)

One Shots

And I Reach For Eternity in Damnation (A Moment's Peace Will Suffice) by @mariusslonelysoul

Ships: ExR

Concept: Grantaire doesn’t wake up until after the barricade falls

Karma And Girls Love To Bite Me by Zeldainhiding (again I don’t know if they have a tumblr)

Ships: Eposette, Courfeyrac/Marius Pontmercy

The Wolf and the Lark by @arofili

Ships: Eposette

Concept: Werewolf Éponine

[rosesutherlandwrites]

First Ten Lines game

Rules: Share the first line of ten of your most recent fanfics (edit: or original fiction) and then tag ten people. Don't have ten? Not to worry, just share what you have. Thanks for the tag @mysunfreckle and for doubling down on it to remind me. I’m going to come in with a mix of fanfic and original works, some of which are still only wee snippets in my ideas folder

1) The ship was burning. Original, A Sweet Sting Of Salt, aka Salty—my debut novel, coming next year from Dell/RHC!

2) As soon as I touched him, I knew the man was dead.  Original, WIP currently titled Venus In Ashes, aka Ashy. I’m on chapter 25, and about 2/3rds finished.

3) The man, the thing, was not human. Les Mis fanfic, And You Will Have Your Hearts’ Desire. The one that started it all, really. Grantaire accidentally gives his name to a murderous fae entity bent on gifting him the deepest desire of his heart.

4)We were murderous children. Original snippet, no clue what it wants to be yet but I suspect it might be a portal fantasy which is not my usual lane.

5) This is the way you make brioche. Original.  No plot only vibes, but it has a name: Babas. A baba is a kind of cake, it is also what some people call a witch. This is not an accident.

6) Joly froze, halfway into the carriage.  Les Mis Fanfic WIP, Weekend at Blondeau’s, aka the Weekend at Bernie’s AU no one asked for.

7) The church at Saint Merry was, for a wonder, entirely empty.  Les Mis fanfic WIP, Every Seminarian A Firecracker. Rarepair Enjolras/Bahorel which (as with 6) I really must finish because I promised @pilferingapples I would.

8)The Inspector looked around the empty room again. Les MIs Fanfic, Clickety-Clackety. Yes, it was me, I did it, I wrote that fanfic where Cosette’s haunted doll eats all the bad guys. Including the director of BBC les mis.

9) Musichetta knew something was wrong the moment he kissed her. Les Mis fanfic, Bossuet/Laigle. The one where Joly does not hesitate, a moment which was not meant to be as funny as apparently everyone finds it.

10)Marius Pontmercy was not unaware of his status as a noodle. Les Mis Fanfic, Entre Chien Et Loup. Somehow it’s a fix it fic for the Thenardier kids, but in the most disturbing way possible. I always get weirdly anxious about tagging people? So if you’re reading this, and write, and haven’t been tagged in it, consider yourself on of my ten and go for it!

[chrysalismandtea]

i did it again!!!!!!!!!! i got too emotionally attached to a fanfic and now that i finished it i’m an empty shell of a person!!!!!!!!!!

also, to everyone that recommended world ain’t ready: you’re officially on my favourite-people-in-the-world list, and i didn’t even have one before now anyway THANK YOU

[combeferres-mothematics]

👶(hehe), 🐸, and 👄 for the fanfic ask!! :DD

:) I OPENED MY ASKS AND FORGOT ABOUT THIS, BUT HELLO

putting it under a cut because it got LONG because I'm yapping away XD

👶Fankids: How you do you feel about them? Would your OTP have kids? Oh, I'm sure you know my feelings about this LMAO, but I'll always jump at the chance to talk about the Blorbos and babies >:D

Marius and Cosette, I definitely think would have kids, my current headcanon has them with three kids eventually, Madeleine-Catherine, Fantine, and Georges.

JBM also, they have a son, which I'm pretty sure I've decided to call Camille, it seems to fit well enough. >:3 Joly and Bossuet have no idea he even exists in canon era though, because they DIED I currently have a fic where Combeferre impulsively picks up a toddler off the streets after the dissection of the little boy at Necker, and he and Enjolras are now platonically raising Alexis together :P

I also think that Feuilly, while he doesn't actively adopt/have children (maybe adopt. someday though), his door is always open to any of the gamins in Paris, should they need a meal, or a safe/warm/dry place to stay for the night if they want it

🐸 If you incorporated your OTP into a Disney movie plot, which would it be? Oh this is a hard question, because I don't really watch any disney movies XD (I pulled a Hard "Absolutely no princesses, and all disney is princesses so it's bad" when I was little, and I'm just now starting to see all the ones I missed) I think if I had to choose though, It would be the Atlantis one, with Milo XD. I think Joly/Musichetta (and Bossuet if I can figure out how to get him in there) would be fun for that one, with Joly as Milo (I think he's eccentric enough to suit him :P), and Musichetta as the girl I can't remember her name, but she was cool Or maybe Marisette, since languages. It could go either way I think XD 👄 Your OTP are having their first kiss. What song do you imagine is playing? Oh shit. Okay, I really only have one for Joly/Bossuet, and fair warning it's REALLY cheesy XD But. Puns.

[lesmis-fanworkchallenge]

Les Misérables Fanwork Challenge!

What is it?

It's an art challenge where we aim to create works based on Les Misérables. The catch: everything is art. YES, IT'S ART! *insert the gif here (you know which gif)* So you can join with whatever really, not only drawings and fiction, it can be cooking, sewing, dancing, singing, sock puppets —omg please someone do sock puppets and i will love you forever — and any kind of creations that you can imagine. SKY IS THE LIMIT.

How long does it run for?

It's an ongoing challenge that will run until we get bored of it or whatever. It's separated in 4-week Sprints, which doesn't really mean anything, just means that every 4 weeks we come up with 4 new prompts and we have new challenge images and cover image for the blog and stuff, but that doesn't mean that you can only join at the beginning of a Sprint. You can join anytime, and drop out anytime, and come back anytime too.

Who can join?

As I said before: ANYONE. As long as you're creating something (anything at all!!!!) you can join. Like really, if you want to do your hair inspired by one of the prompts and post a picture of it for the challenge, go ahead!! that is exactly what this is about.

It originally started as an incentive for me to draw more, and regularly, but I thought: what if this could motivate people to be creative regularly for the Les Mis fandom? And Boom. This happened.

This is Sprint 1, which will run from June 21st to July 18th. Each week we will have a different prompt. The prompts for this Sprint are as follows:

Week 1 - meal

Week 2 - kiss

Week 3 - crossover

Week 4 - argument

You can post your creations at anytime during the week for that prompt. Every Monday we start with the new prompt, and so on.

How is this different from other art challenges and big bangs and whatever?

Because this is ongoing. It will run for an indefinite amount of time and the goal is to keep a consistent flow of Les Mis creations being shared. That's it.

AND don't forget to use #LesMisFanworkChallenge in your tags! That way we can find your post and reblog it!

(and if you post nsfw creations please tag it too!)

Happy Sprint, everyone!

[goosebasedcryptid]

Things I would write about Les Mis and especially Les Amis de l’ABC (canon era) if I had any motivation

(feel free to steal any of these ideas for your fanfics. lmk/credit me if you do use them) (also some things might not be historically accurate, so if you have corrections to add please do so!)

- Feuilly and Bahorel meet at a strike organized by Feuilly's workers' union. Bahorel is originally just here for some good old shouting at cops and fistfighting factory owners, but then gets absolutely blown away when Feuilly starts explaining to him the details of the union's demands and he really starts caring about equal rights for the working class. They have been absolute bros ever since.

- Jehan takes Joly to the opera or a concert of some sort, with the firm intention of setting Joly up to meet the *very charming and talented* new singer in town, Musichetta, whom Jehan says they know. Ofc Joly has an instant crush on her when she looks him right in the eyes while singing (the same stare that actors give a bootleger they just spotted, but like, a sweet version, you know that look).

- Combeferre has a younger sister and is protectiveTM. And ofc, said younger sister falls in love with Courfeyrac, and Combeferre has to decide between protecting his sister from being just one of Courfeyrac's mistresses he'll eventually forget about, and letting her live out her first love. Much crying ensues, from all parties. (Feel free to throw some courferre angst into the mix)

- Cosette has The Crush on Marius in the garden but when he starts writing letters that Eponine delivers to her, Cosette realizes she doesn't actually like him, and she's much more interested in the cute girl who sneaks into her garden every other day. Wlw shenanigans happen, maybe Toussaint helps them sneak out... She disapproves, but what can she do? Cosette looks so happy with that girl.

- Montparnasse steals Jehan's fancy leather notebook, and doesn't open it for a while. He thinks about selling it, but when he opens it, the things inside are just too beautiful to let go. He holds on to the notebook for days, until he sees Jehan again, sitting in a tree in some park. He doesn't talk to them, but when Jehan gets down from the tree, they find their lost notebook with a note inside...

- Musichetta is absolutely done with her lovers' friends acting like they're better than her just because they're all men. She decides to go with Joly and Bossuet to an ABC meeting, despite both of them telling her it's probably a terrible idea. But she's determined to call everyone out on their sexist bullshit. Enjolras does NOT like being face to face with a woman questionning his values...

{I will certainly add more but that's all I have for now, I'm also making a modern AU version}

[leonor-h-art]

My casting for characters from Les Misérables, as I picture them in my fanfic "Even If It's A Lie".

The post that no one asked for but that I needed lmao

[aflamethatneverdies]

Fleeting Glimmers (Of Hope)

@pilferingapples prompted me with Joly and the barricade cat. This ended up being five times Joly and Bossuet spent time together and one time they did not. I hope this is satisfactory, Pilf. Also thank you to @kcrabb88 for looking this over. 

I. 

1822

Joly had been rattled enough in the diligence over a journey of several miles from Avignon to Paris that he felt as if all his nerves were on edge. He walked a few steps feeling nauseous before vomiting on the sidewalk. He considered that the miasmas of this new city must be playing havoc with his constitution, which was used to the airs of Avignon. In short, he felt homesick which he described as feelings of nausea which called for wine to settle them. There were two cafes nearby for this particular purpose, Cafe Momus was the nearest in his view, but outside Cafe des Sept Billiards, some yards away from Cafe Momus, sat a majestic black cat with piercing eyes, which reminded him of his parents’ cat. The cat had a splendid fluffy tail to match its silky body and seemed to respond to Joly’s voice, he rubbed his face against Joly’s trousers and followed him as if he seemed to recognize in him a kindred spirit or a friend from a different place. 

His mind was made up, he dodged a carriage which was going to splash mud on his person and walked into Cafe des Sept Billiards to order a pint of ale to settle his nerves, while the black cat leisurely strolled inside. In the mirror hanging in the cafe, he checked his tongue as well as took a note of his pulse. 

Besides Joly’s table were two young men who were partaking of a hearty lunch. They introduced themselves and invited Joly to join them in disposing off oysters, cheese and ham and together made a merry party.

He met them several times that year as he started his medical studies, and they lessened the homesickness and brought him back to easy cheerfulness, in turn he and Lesgles cheered up Grantaire after his bouts of drinking. 

A year later they were all inseparable friends, it happened so quickly that Joly had acquired several new friends and had sworn his commitment to the Republican cause by climbing up on one of the tables to cheer loudly after a rousing speech at one of the political meetings Lesgles and Bahorel had taken him to, and then found himself being promptly overtaken by a cough.   

II. 

1827

Lesgles did not remember when he started sharing lodgings with Joly, it happened so naturally. He had become so used to the soft glances, the feel of his hands in Joly’s hair, the way Joly’s face animated as he pored over texts that it felt like they had known each other forever and had been settled into comfortable domestic bliss. And yet it had been only seven years since he had been in Paris after the loss of his father and the post-office. Laigle de Meaux for his part no longer had to move around from one lodging to another, or else to live under a roof of falling tiles as he so often joked. 

Joly was surprised that they had not been sharing lodgings for more than two years and he said as much to him, how could he do without Bossuet’s cheerfulness, his sensible advice and his warmth when he was in the throes of a worsening pulmonary infection or a cough which threatened to become severe and cause inflammation in his throat. 

This week he was trying the herbal properties of mint by making them both mint tea and they drank it sprawled on the couch, their feet touching as they each read- Joly a medical pamphlet, Bossuet a treatise on law to help a friend who had been recently arrested after a riot. 

-

Joly’s love of experimentation and his meticulous habit of recording observations in journals was in part inherited from his father, though Joly’s interests very obviously bent towards medicine from an early age. 

Joly’s earliest memory was of being three years old, having fallen ill with a fever and having his entire family gathered around him. Now when he read the medical texts, he sometimes found the symptoms which had lingered from that childhood illness: a limp in his left leg that flared up after a fever, and pneumonia that had weakened his lungs to infections. He kept a meticulous diary of each symptom and the side effects of various concoctions he had tried. The science must be rigorous and replicable, this adage was second nature to him, he believed that men should be governed by science. 

‘Surgery is painful and the patient many times dies,’ Joly said one day as they were lying in bed talking about their day. Joly had spent another long day on surgical rounds, which exhausted him, and had put in a request for a transfer to another specialty which he could rotate in. ‘Why not try a different way to cure someone, without cutting them open or using purgatives that harm the body?’

Bossuet did not understand much about magnetism (’Do we have to keep the bed positioned at such angles? To take advantage of the natural transference of what by what? Joly, I’m afraid you will have to explain it all again. I am but a poor student of law.’), but he would support Joly’s experiments and would make puns at the Academie de Medecine and at Joly’s professors if they turned up their noses at cures that were unconventional. Joly was satisfied as he curled up on the bed with a blanket beside him.   

The occasional cadaver and the resulting smells were harder to become accustomed to, sometimes Joly would acquire a corpse at a bargain, but more often he complained about the cost. Then there was Pierrot, the cat. Pierrot needed more convincing to be won to Bossuet’s side. Joly had had a few cats as a child. It was his mother’s habit to adopt every stray and Joly inherited her talent and her soft heart. Pierrot, the Musain cat, had attached himself to Joly and Joly wholeheartedly to Pierrot.

Musichetta and Joly still quarrel sometimes, mainly over trivial things, sometimes over Joly’s experiments following Dr. Hahnemann’s approach of trying medicine on himself before recommending it to patients, that left him sometimes in worse health than before, some purgatives were particularly strong and sometimes he would be laid up in bed for a few days. He countered that experimentation led to knowledge, he now knew several cures that did not work and their side effects. 

Musichetta was given to the flair for the dramatic and for poetry, which was then surprising that she did not appreciate the smells and explosions that sometimes arose in Joly’s lodgings or various jars full of powders that Joly had concocted. She preferred sharing a separate flat with two of her friends and visiting Romantic salons and Joly’s lodgings. 

That was fortunate because Joly and Musichetta’s arguments ended up in both parties sulking for a few days before things became amiable. Nevertheless Joly was truly smitten by her and had written to his parents about her as well. Lesgles had sometimes compared them bemusedly to a pair of cats. Joly took delight in pouncing upon the metaphor. Musichetta mildly annoyed at Bossuet’s comparison, aimed several puns at Bossuet’s and Joly’s heads which they took good naturedly. Bossuet exclaimed that puns simply bounced over his balding head.

Joly found himself still pondering cat metaphors a day later. ‘It is not easy to win a cat’s affections, but having once succeeded it is then impossible to carry any other activities, I wonder if our ancestors also felt the same way.’ he began as once more Pierrot had laid claim to his lap and Joly did not have the heart to move him. 

Lesgles who had been occupied by the arrival of a gamin with a message, passed on a small missive from Enjolras as well as a small pistol in his coat pocket to Joly, ‘There are going to be barricades erected everywhere in Paris tomorrow. We will finish breakfast at Corinthe and then find the others. Some of us are planning to erect barricades on the street opposite Enjolras’ printshop.’ 

Joly who had been absorbed in memorising the different bones and making several expressive faces to go along with the names, closed the anatomy book with a visible sign of relief and scratched behind Pierrot’s ears, ‘That solves my problem of not wanting to go to Dupytren’s surgical lecture tomorrow morning to endure his ire at not having revised enough. Bossuet, you have failed to give a suitable funeral oration for my professor.’

Bossuet, not one to refuse a challenge, stood up, cleared his throat, gave a flourishing gesture and began, ‘....

III. 

1831

Their apartment was already filled with a skeleton named Marcel, several of Joly’s medical textbooks and vials as well as a dozen leeches, and at present times with the Musain stray, the white, majestic Pierrot who was prone to clumsy antics; and for some inexplicable reasons, a goat. The goat it must be said was not their fault entirely, but rather of Bahorel, and Grantaire for encouraging Bahorel, and of Joly for agreeing to keep it at their place. ‘it was only for a day,’ Joly began apologetically. 

Bossuet was lying on the bed with a throbbing headache despite the noon sun streaming through their window and making the room stiflingly hot, and all attempts from Joly to draw him out into conversations had been in vain. The loud sound of the goat wreaking havoc in their lodgings did not help. Goats are plundering our little Republic, like the Royalists they are. 

‘Hm...I do not think goats are Royalists,’ Joly murmured absentmindedly, ‘Perhaps they are Republican since they want free and open space and fields of grass- they long for liberty.’ 

‘Then we should get on well, although I am paying for the liberties and liberalities taken yesterday by all parties concerned.’ Bossuet replied holding his head in his hands and wincing in pain. 

Little by little Joly received snippets of Bossuet’s adventures and pieced them together. 

Bossuet had spent a hundred francs on supper, ‘All to make a pun?’ Joly asked as he stretched and yawned, causing Pierrot the cat to imitate him. 

‘It was a very good pun and we parted amicably, though she aimed several hits at my balding head.’ Bossuet conceded from under the covers. Joly kissed him on his forehead before bringing him tea and Musichetta’s letter to read aloud.  

Joly giggled as he read the first few lines, admiring the phrases of a sexual nature Musichetta had managed to thread in her letter in reply to their letter which was also full of innuendos, ‘She also sends two tickets to her latest drama next week.’

Bossuet looked around their apartment, ‘Well, it is fortunate that she has been away this week, since the apartment is the way it is. Jolllly, how do I stop the goat chewing all my papers? Jolllly?’ 

Joly’s giggle from underneath the covers was the only reply. 

‘I do think that you are heartless despite your innocent, cheerful look.’ Lesgle said hiccoughing and still feeling the effects of the large supper and wine that he had consumed,

‘The goat will eat everything in sight and will grow several sizes larger than our lodgings.’

‘Oh Bossuet.’ Joly clicked his tongue and the goat named Mademoiselle trotted to him looking innocent enough and a normal goat size, ‘Whoever heard of goats the size of houses. Anyway, Bahorel is going to be here in a couple of hours to collect Mademoiselle.’ 

‘Well the goat has destroyed some of the seditious pamphlets I was supposed to deliver tomorrow, a very Royalist character she seems to have, your previous argument of her being a Republican is therefore not supported.’ Bossuet started laughing at his luck as he picked up half eaten pamphlets. 

‘How lawyerly of you.’ Joly smiled, his eyes twinkling. 

‘That was cruel, though perhaps well deserved after last night. You know I have given up any pretense of attending law school?’

Joly became thoughtful, ‘We will print more tomorrow when we pass by Enjolras’ printshop. I want to see a herbalist, M. Mabeuf about a plant root for one of my experiments as well.’ 

-

The riots intensified that year and Joly and Bossuet spent little time in their lodgings, much less with each other. Joly abandoned his studies on magnetism  for a while, not having the time to follow through with the observations, besides how could he continue without Bossuet’s invaluable observations?

They missed the little shared intimacies, eating breakfast at Cafe Sept Billiards or at Corinthe with Grantaire, sharing an umbrella together as they waited for an omnibus, making jokes only they could understand. They missed sleeping with their bodies tangled together. Joly missed Bossuet’s sallies, Bossuet missed Joly’s cheerfulness and his habit of checking his tongue in the mirror. 

Joly received several letters and an unexpected visit from his older brother who arrived in Paris for two days because his parents were worried about their youngest son living through unrest. 

Joly’s brother was amused at the account of their activities and told him to stick with medicine instead of getting himself killed in a riot. It was sensible advice, Joly considered, but he missed Bossuet making irreverent jokes about both of them dying in a riot. He tried to be patient all through the visit and was relieved when the stage coach departed for Avignon with his brother inside.   

Bossuet temporarily moved in with some of his other friends, Bahorel and then Courfeyrac, who teased him mercilessly about having drifted apart from Joly and gave him advice to win him back, including Courfeyrac’s offer to curl the little hair that was left on Bossuet’s head. Bossuet had tried rearranging Courfeyrac’s bed in the same manner that he was used to living with Joly and Courfeyrac had not appreciated it.  

Joly in his turn saw Musichetta several times who often brought news of Bossuet until she became tired of transferring messages between them and told them to talk to each other.  

It was Pierrot who brought them together again after a week. Pierrot, who missed Bossuet’s presence, or so they both claimed and would scream angrily at Joly until Bossuet had returned.

‘Pierrot is a tyrant. Pierrot is a mischief maker. All cats have figured out how to charm their owners. Down with the tyranny of cats and of Jolys who make delightful expressions.’ Bossuet said, pretending to fend off Joly’s affectionate hug the next time they met. 

The truth was that neither of them could do without the other’s company for longer than a week and that was a fact known to all their friends who had been having a wager on how quickly the two would come together. 

‘For shame Courfeyrac that you laugh at another man’s misfortune,’ Bossuet glared at Courfeyrac, who was laughing hysterically till his sides ached. The sight was enough to send Joly into an infectious laugh and he pressed Bossuet close to him.  

IV. 

Night of 4 June 1832

Bossuet returned via an omnibus to their lodgings. He was excited and out of breath, had lost his hat and his cane. He knocked on the door and had a sober looking Joly open it cautiously. ‘I have brought the carbines, cartridges and some news, Feuilly was hopeful that we will receive reinforcements and it will not be a repeat of the heartbreak of 1830. I believe him, the air is full of sparks, I believe even Guignon smiles,’ he whispered. 

Joly kissed him, his optimism restored, now that Bossuet had returned several hours later than expected, but present before Joly was Bossuet’s warm form and Joly hugged it, ‘I am so grateful to have you back, everything felt cold and empty without you here. The state at the hospitals is getting worse with cholera. Combeferre is still there, he would not leave the poor child, we did everything we could but the child died anyway. Do you know, a young woman who reminded me so much of Musichetta, died some weeks ago from the same causes, she was a poor seamstress who lived near unsanitary sewers liable to spread miasmas. Cholera affects the poor and labouring classes much more disproportionately. Dr. Hahnemann writes in his excellent treatise about unsanitary conditions. We know a lot of what causes this illness, but I would like to use my extra ailes to eliminate this wretched illness sooner.’ 

Bossuet put his arms around Joly’s tired form, ‘We will poke some holes in the coat of the monarchy tomorrow again at General Lamarque’s funeral, all the preparations have been made and solemn oaths exchanged. Come my friend, I know Mother Hucheloup will be pleased to see us at Corinthe for breakfast dismantling her oysters, ham and cheese, before we dismantle streets.’

Joly’s face lit up at the thought of breakfast and a blush crept on his face as Bossuet stroked his hair tenderly. He stared in the mirror at his reflection and observed his tongue and face changing colour and then worried if he was coming down with a cold. Bossuet kissed him sleepily and Joly returned to cheerfulness. 

‘If I have a cold, you will end up with it too.’ Joly said, sniffling into his handkerchief. 

‘That is a risk I am willing to take for your company is too valuable for me to lose a precious moment of it.’ Bossuet replied, burying his face in Joly’s arms. 

‘I thought we were going to sleep,’ Joly rolled around and straightened his tousled hair in the mirror as he realised that dawn had broken on the horizon while they had been talking. 

V. 

6 June 1832 

Dawn broke out in a palette of reds. Some torches and candles were still flickering, pale spectres trying to illuminate the partially dark barricades. Joly was intently observing the stray cat and its movements on the tiles to stop his mind from wandering towards how many cartridges they had left and how much he could do with a breakfast of bad oysters at that moment. 

Dawn had brought all his friends to chatter, he could feel the pulse of the barricade and it beat with a loud hum of voices dear to his heart. A few steps beside him Combeferre was remembering the dead and Joly’s mind went back to all of them, including the botanist Father Mabeuf from whom he had brought certain plants for his studies in homeopathy. 

He did not want to think of his friends’ deaths, his own death he cared little about, but he did not know if he would be able to bear his friends’ deaths. In his mind friendship or Fraternite was closely tied to Republicanism. 

He had read of hearts withering of grief, such things occurred sometimes during his medical rounds, when one pair of the elderly couple died, the other one soon followed, and he felt that if Lesgles died while he survived, his heart might stop entirely.  

Prouvaire always talked about death in terms of metaphysics and took pleasure in discussions of the afterlife. Joly was not Romantic at all- a fact which stung Prouvaire in one of his moods, and thought of death scientifically, as something inevitable but also many times preventable if you reach the patient sooner. But he could not think of his friends’ deaths in such a cavalier fashion. His mind drifted to memories of Jehan Prouvaire and his eyes filled with tears. 

Prouvaire had enthusiastically participated in several experiments on electricity with Joly, including trying to replicate Galvani’s work. Joly had excitedly noted all the observations and the uses that this could be harnessed to in treating medical illnesses. 

Prouvaire was disappointed that the frog’s leg twitching due to the current (Joly had tried to explain the mechanics behind it but he was not paying attention), did not follow Mrs Shelley’s excellent book by reanimating the frog. He had rather hoped to have harnessed electricity for something more exciting, and he would have loved the creature as a dear friend should he be brought back to life, unlike Victor Frankenstein, who was defeated by his own hubris at creating life. 

A lump appeared in his throat as he thought of Prouvaire and his conversations. Well, if we were to focus on the cat, he thought. A second lump, as he remembered that Bahorel had been delighted at his doeskin trousers from Staub and had given him tickets to the premier of Hernani and always treated him as a younger brother.  

He blinked away some recollections that were causing tears to spring to his eyes. ‘What is a cat?’ He tried to focus on the stray who looked at him with a mouse in its mouth. ‘A mouser. A….a corrective.’ Mouse being the monarchy, it does not matter that traditionally cats have not been given their due in stories, something which Joly considered to be a tragedy, ‘Cats are correctives. We need correctives in society. Cats do not respect the monarchy and its rules, they would prefer to violently end the monarchy by pouncing on its throat. I will say to Pierrot the Second, for this cat reminds me of my own Pierrot,  you must accept Louis-Phillippe as your bourgeois king and he will look at me in puzzlement, as if asking why Pierrot the second should care about a king. Pierrot the Second, would be most happy in a Republic, citizen Pierrot, the most charming of stray cats. You and I do think alike.’ 

The cat dubbed citizen Pierrot the Second, was busy washing its paws and paying no attention to Joly’s speech. 

Bossuet heard the speech from his post on top of a pile of paving stones, and climbed down to be beside Joly and squeeze his hands in his. He loved Joly’s eloquent wonder at the lives of the small creatures, even at such a time. 

Joly was wise, for cats are mysterious creatures who open a window into the mysteries of the universe and of the presence of God at the barricade. 

‘Do you remember our sweet life?’ He echoed Prouvaire’s poem. Prouvaire’s death was at the front of Bossuet’s mind even as he argued against the cannons. 

Joly buried his face in Bossuet’s shoulder, tears that he had been trying to hide, became visible dew drops on his face. Bossuet stroked Joly’s face and hair and comforted him, ‘Why my Jolly Joly, it has been a delight to share this adventure with you, my old friend.’ 

Joly hiccoughed and rubbed his swollen eyes, as Bossuet continued, ‘Remember the first time we met? How you seemed so uncertain and out of place, all the way from Avignon and away from your family for the first time, but had a kindly look on your face, a way of touching your nose with your cane, and a concern for cats. I knew then that we would be friends for as long as we lived. And everything since then, the riots and barricades, the grand despair of 1830, the joys of small victories hard fought and won- remember the time we all survived those raids and arrests? We truly have shared everything including each other’s clothes. And everyday I am a little bit more and more in love.’ 

Joly giggled as Bossuet cleared his throat and started singing, in a voice not unpleasant to the ears and one which had seen some singing in the past. 

‘No longer fear those days of courses vain/ in which our destiny alike was fixed-/Those days made up of pleasure and of pain/When rain and sunshine were together mixed./Soon must I doff my coat for ever here-/That way my thoughts will tend-/Hold on, we’ll close together our career:We must not part, old friend./And promise to stay friends and meet every time.’

Bossuet sang a Beranger song as he stroked and kissed Joly’s forehead.   

Joly was at once laughing and crying as he kissed Bossuet, ‘Even as ghosts?’ 

‘Absolutely.’  

‘Well, when you consider that we could have died of a cold or of cholera or of typhus or pneumonia any of these years.’ Joly began philosophically, ‘this isn’t that terrible a way to die.’

Bossuet smiled and glanced at the sky, ‘Indeed not, my dear Joly.’

He nodded towards where his friends were scattered. They studied Enjolras’ serious face, Combeferre’s philosophy even at such a time as this, Courfeyrac’s cheer, Feuilly’s message on the wall, Grantaire asleep in the upper floor of Corinthe and felt that they has been blessed to know these wonderful friends and he would follow them all anywhere. Most of all both of them would never forget the man standing beside him. Bossuet was his companion of many ill advised adventures many of which would have shocked his very respectable parents. The thought made him smile. He had never been more glad to have stayed on in Paris all these years and had never been more glad that their paths crossed. 

‘I am the most fortunate man in Paris to have met you.’ Lesgles said in answer to Joly’s thoughts which they had become in the habit of doing for several years, ‘Everything else has been worth it.’ 

‘The leeches.’ Joly remembered, ‘Can we keep the leeches as ghosts?’ 

‘Absolutely not.’ Bossuet was firm on this account. He shuddered at the remembrance of the time that Joly’s leeches escaped and they had to spend several hours hunting them all down and at all the times that he had accepted Joly’s experiments with leeches and bloodletting. Joly pouted slightly, causing Lesgles to laugh. 

He kissed Joly on the forehead, thinking that he would have liked to have seen the two of them grow old and share many more jokes and arguments. But he would not change anything in the world for how their lives ended up. 

He reflected that he came to Paris with his father’s old coat, some vague Royalist sentiments inherited from his father, and several sous in his pockets, having lost his inheritance to a family friend. 

What a metamorphosis, he thought, he had become as thoroughly Republican as one could, lost all the remaining hair on his head, and his pockets felt much heavier, not with sous, but with the things that mattered to him: friendships, good company, and a committed desire to change their world in such a way that no one should go hungry or stay poor despite trying their best. Bossuet laughed as he remembered running into Bahorel for the first time at Lallemand’s funeral, all those years ago.  

‘Soon I must doff my coat for ever here/ but my dearest friends we must not part,’ he sang softly as he took his place beside Courfeyrac and resumed insulting the cannons. The stray cat of Joly’s speech which had disposed of the meal of a mouse was walking on the tiles again staring at Bossuet. The scene made him burst out laughing and he nodded at citizen Pierrot, one of the revolutionaries. Courfeyrac loudly wondered if the cat had metamorphosed into a man.  

+1. 

8 June 1832

The days that followed had no colour except a dull grey for Musichetta. 

She found Joly’s diary and his meticulous records of his daily activities at his apartment as well as the various letters they had written to each other over the years. Everything else she could not carry with her, it was both intangible and weighed heavily on her at the present moment: the way Joly would pout, the way his smile lit up his face, the way...well, grief is a strange creature, it put its tendrils around her slowly as she gazed at the empty apartment, Joly’s clothes were carefully folded, while Bossuet’s were more scattered. She picked up some of the clothes and folded them up carefully.  

Bossuet’s threadbare coat still smelled of him, Musichetta clung to it in the hopes of imagining that Bossuet was only away for a few days. It was not so, her mind was telling her that it was an untruth. She gave way to her grief for the first time since she had heard the news. Her breath came in small sobs and for a while she believed that the pain should stop her beating heart, but it did not, her heart stubbornly kept pumping blood and her lungs breathing in the air. Outside the world existed somewhere, unencumbered by her grief and she thought of such a thing in fascination. 

She had done as much as she could for the widow Hucheloup who talked fondly of both Bossuet and Joly and of her shop now in ruins. The Corinthe shop would take several months to return to its usual hustle and bustle. She wanted to keep supporting widow Hucheloup and Matelote and Gibelotte during this time. 

Sophie would be arriving presently, she took a deep breath to let the grief settle within her as dust in the room, she knew from experience that it would always be present somewhere within her even after the years had tried to remove traces of it. The summer air bled with pain and memory as well as with heat. Inside, the stillness haunted her, and phantom figures swam in her recollection. There was Joly’s cane, there was Bossuet’s favourite book, there were Joly’s leeches in a jar, there was the recollection of Bossuet leaning against the door, laughing quietly to himself, reminding her why she had fallen in love with him as well. 

It was the stillness which grieved her. She was always expecting Joly or Bossuet to emerge from the empty rooms and make a pun and then everything would be right with the universe again. Pierrot came out of one of the rooms and rubbed his face against her as if asking where Joly was and she had no answer for Joly’s beloved cat.

-

She collected all of Bossuet’s and Joly’s favourite possessions, while Pierrot followed her mournfully, gave one sweeping look at the clean rooms and then walked downstairs where Sophie was waiting for her, also dressed in mourning black. She too had lost someone dear to her: Bahorel. Her face was set in a determined manner, but her eyes were red. Musichetta felt comfort in the presence of Sophie whose grief she could understand. Sophie cursed under her breath, calling it a damned inconvenient time for Bahorel to shuffle off this mortal coil, which made Musichetta laugh despite herself. Sophie saw the look and smiled. 

Sophie looked crisp and clean even in mourning with a veil over her face, as they entered the carriage and she fell to reminiscing, ‘Bahorel always talked of having buried too many friends across the years and a surprise that he had been around for much longer than he expected. He made light of the matter, but I knew it was something that was always in the back of his mind. You cannot be as much involved in violent riots, without expecting something like this to occur.’ 

She gave a small laugh which Musichetta felt was tinged with pain, ‘I wonder how many more friends we will need to bury in the future. We will build up a movement again I have no doubt, but I will always miss them all.’ 

Musichetta said nothing, she was absorbed in thoughts of the past. The sun burst forth with its splendour from behind the clouds, blinding the view for a moment as they rolled along in the direction of Jardin des Plantes. 

The carriage dropped them off at Sophie’s lodgings in the Latin Quarter. Musichetta observed that Sophie’s rooms were filled with Bahorel and Prouvaire’s effects, including a printer at the back of the apartment and fresh tears sprang to her eyes. Sophie dropped her gloves on the sideboard and headed to the kitchen to prepare coffee. 

‘We ran a clandestine Republican newspaper for several years. It was not successful, it could hardly be successful when the government enforces censorship as Charles X did. My brother, Bahorel and Prouvaire faced arrest several times for the newspaper. Louis Phillippe’s government was more arbitrary, sometimes it would be shut down but sometimes they would let us print Republican material.’ Sophie snorted as she drank the steaming hot coffee in a gulp, ‘Citizen king, my ass. There is no such thing, call Louis Phillippe and the monarchy what they are, violent oppressors. You read how many National Guards were gathered beforehand for the General’s funeral? No, we cannot pause, we cannot allow ourselves to be in mourning for long, as is expected. I do not know what the future holds, I do know that they all gave their lives for an ideal. I will not rest until their work, their dreams are realised. That is my proposal, we live and work for the Republic, it is not entirely unusual to find women involved in such activities. At any rate, I have never cared about what people might say. Will you join me?’ 

‘I would love to.’ Musichetta smiled as she stirred the coffee, aware of the headache forming around her temples and her eyes but feeling another kind of emotion, hope which buoyed her up. ‘I want to continue their work. Joly always said I was very literary--I do think he meant fanciful,’ she blushed, ‘I have dabbled a fair bit in writing, mainly letters and stories that get published in unremarkable newspapers, but I am willing to learn how to write pamphlets.’  

Outside two birds were murmuring in the trees  and Musichetta, her heart heavy, felt comforted by their song.  Pierrot, who was now an inhabitant of Sophie’s lodgings- Musichetta did not have the heart to leave him behind, echoed their song and searched for Joly and Lesgles in every room before settling down near Musichetta’s feet with a mournful look.