#straight up this is enjolras freshman year

[dammitradar]

Throwback to this post 🙏he looks like a teenager haha

[kjack89]

Personal Gain (Chapter 4/?)

This chapter got long, so I decided to split it. This may have one or two more parts after this, depending on how writing the rest of it goes.

My personal appeal is that if you are an American reader, please make sure you vote if you are able. Seven days to go!

Modern magic AU, developing E/R and Courferre. Read Chapter 1 here, Chapter 2 here and Chapter 3 here (or catch up on AO3).

Courfeyrac waved his apartment’s warding spell off with a distracted hand, barely noticing that Combeferre had apparently been in his apartment at some point. He had spent the entire meeting wracking his brain for things to try next, and he was drawing a blank.

He didn’t like drawing a blank.

He flopped down on the couch, barely glancing up when he felt the warding spell tingle as Combeferre came in. “Come to gloat some more?” Courfeyrac asked sourly, staring up at the ceiling.

“As much as I may love gloating, no,” Combeferre said, hanging his coat on a hook and heading over to the couch, lifting Courfeyrac’s feet and settling them on his lap like he had a thousand time before. “I come bearing inspiration.”

“Oh?” Courfeyrac said mildly, propping himself up on his elbows. 

Combeferre nodded and pulled a bottle from his bag, setting it down on the coffee table with a clunk. “Yep, inspiration in the form of a bottle of Jägermeister.”

“Jäger?” Courfeyrac asked, wrinkling his nose. “The only thing Jäger ever inspired was bad life choices.”

“Yeah, but Grantaire gave it to me forever ago, and besides, it was between that or a bottle of absinthe, and seeing as how we’re not characters in a nineteenth century French novel—”

Courfeyrac laughed. “Fair point.” He held his hand out and Combeferre pressed the bottle into it. 

“Do you want a glass? Or a mixer, or—”

He broke off as Courfeyrac screwed the cap off and took a gulp straight from the bottle. “Oh, God,” he rasped. “Tastes like freshman year.”

Combeferre grabbed the bottle and took a swig, making a face. “Tastes like a frat party,” he said, handing the bottle back to Courfeyrac, who sat up, looking intrigued.

“When did you ever go to a frat party?”

“Despite what you may think, I didn’t spend my entire college career in the library,” Combeferre said.

Courfeyrac snorted and took another sip of Jäger. “So you say,” he muttered.

Combeferre rolled his eyes but didn’t push it, instead leaning forward to grab the Book of Shadows off the coffee table. “So what are you thinking?” he asked, flipping idly through the pages. “What’s your next grand plan?”

Courfeyrac sighed somewhat mournfully and cast a baleful look at the grimoire. “Would you believe me if I said I didn’t have one?”

Combeferre hesitated. “Would you be mad if I said I wasn’t surprised at all?”

Courfeyrac groaned and took a gulp of Jäger before passing the bottle back to Combeferre. “Just shut up and drink,” he sighed. “And let’s hope the inspiration hits us soon.”

Combeferre wisely chose not to say anything to that, just raising the bottle to his lips and taking a sip.

----------

“What about lightning?” Combeferre asked vaguely, the now almost-empty bottle of Jäger sitting between him and Courfeyrac, who had swung his legs up over the back of the couch and was resting his head on Combeferre’s stomach. 

“Lightning?” Courfeyrac repeated.

Combeferre waved a hand. “Yeah, you know, like the, uh, coup de foudre.”

Courfeyrac turned his head to look up at him, looking amused. “I don’t think an actual lightning strike will help with that,” he said, with a slight hiccup. “Besides, I thought the point of the Jäger over absinthe was so that we wouldn’t get our inspiration from French fairytales.”

“Nineteenth century French novels,” Combeferre corrected, before sitting up, almost knocking Courfeyrac off the couch in the process. “Wait a second – fairytales.”

“Ow,” Courfeyrac complained, sitting up as well. “What about fairytales?”

Combeferre ignored him, flipping through the Book of Shadows, before landing decisively on a page and pointing excitedly at it. “Here,” he announced, shoving, the book at Courfeyrac. “Like a fairytale!”

Courfeyrac blinked down at the page, finding it difficult to focus enough to read. “Draught of Living Death,” he read outloud, before looking at Combeferre incredulously. “You want me to kill them? I don’t think we’re that desperate.”

Combeferre rolled his eyes. “No, don’t you see?” he said excitedly. “Give one of ‘em that, and then the other can wake him up with True Love’s Kiss! Like a fairytale!”

Courfeyrac started at Combeferre for a moment before bursting into laughter. “Ferre, True Love’s Kiss is not a real thing,” he said, reaching out to pat Combeferre’s head patronizingly. “That is a fairytale. So the only thing I’d be doing is putting one of them in basically a coma. Which I’m not gonna pretend I haven’t thought about. Especially Enjolras.”

“You’re not wrong there,” Combeferre muttered.

“But that magical coma can’t be broken by Grantaire kissing him. Not to mention you were the one all concerned about consent.”

Combeferre sighed, looking crestfallen. “Well, I thought it was a good idea,” he said, slumping against the couch cushions and grabbing the bottle of Jäger. 

“Better than anything I’ve come up with,” Courfeyrac sighed. “Since all I can think of is locking ‘em in a room together.”

“And casting a spell on them?” Combeferre asked interestedly.

Courfeyrac sighed. “No. Just making them stay in there until they either confessed or...I dunno. Something.”

Both men fell silent, Combeferre staring at the Book of Shadows as if it might somehow reveal something to him, while Courfeyrac played absently with the crystal he wore on a chain around his neck, feeling the gentle flare of the spells his father had placed on it, spells of charisma and luck and strength and…

“Wait a minute,” he said slowly. “Lock ‘em in a room together.”

“You said that already,” Combeferre sighed.

“Right, but not put a spell on them.”

“You said that too.”

Courfeyrac shook his head. “No, but I can put a spell on the room.”

Combeferre glanced over at him. “Like your worthless warding spell?”

“It’s not worthless,” Courfeyrac said impatiently. “But yes, kind of like that. I’ve trying to cast the spell on them directly, and that hasn’t worked. So maybe I need to try spelling a location they would both go.”

“Like the Musain?” Combeferre asked doubtfully.

Courfeyrac shook his head. “No, that gets too much traffic from outside parties, it’d be impossible to limit the spell effects.” He fell silent, wracking his slightly drunk brain for an alternative before brightening. “Enjolras’s apartment!”

Combeferre nodded slowly. “That would probably work,” he said. “But, uh, what spell would you use?”

Courfeyrac grinned. “The exact same spell I was gonna use from the beginning – the attraction spell that I used for Marius.”

Combeferre didn’t look convinced. “Ok, but Grantaire already hangs out at Enjolras’s apartment all the time, frequently without Enjolras, because it’s closer to the Musain and his work and because he claims Enjolras’s couch is more comfortable than his bed—”

“Having seen Grantaire’s bed, I believe him.”

Combeferre was undeterred. “Right, but my point is that Grantaire is there all the time anyway, which brings us to the same problem we had when you originally suggested this idea.”

“Exactly,” Courfeyrac said. “Which is why the attraction spell won’t be focused on Grantaire. It’ll be focused on Enjolras.”

Combeferre blinked. “You want to attract Enjolras to his own apartment?”

“Yep,” Courfeyrac said with a confidence only alcohol could provide. “Because that man barely spends any time there. This way, he’ll want to spend all of his time there. With Grantaire and away from Les Amis or anything else to distract them.”

He was so confident in this idea that he was actually taken aback when Combeferre asked, still sounding doubtful, “Ok, so we get him to spend time with Grantaire at his apartment, and then what? What if that’s not enough?”

Courfeyrac frowned slightly. “Well, if they’re spending that time there without any distractions, maybe it’ll just...happen?” he suggested, wincing at how weak it was.

Combeferre gave him a look. “They’ve been spending time together for years. That’s the whole reason why we’re doing this.”

Courfeyrac sagged back against the couch. “Damn, I really thought we had something there,” he said mournfully, leaning over to rest his head against Combeferre’s shoulder.

Combeferre sighed. “Well, we can always go back to my idea.”

Courfeyrac made a face. “Draught of Living Death?”

“No, not interfering.”

“That ship has long since sailed,” Courfeyrac reminded him, glaring up at him. “Besides, you’ve done enough interfering already that you should probably let that idea go.”

Combeferre half-smiled. “Fair.”

“You know, that reminds me,” Courfeyrac said, lifting his head off of Combeferre’s shoulder. “I know why I’m doing this, but why are you? You’ve been against this from the beginning, but you keep coming back.”

“Well, someone’s got to stop you from making a complete fool of yourself,” Combeferre said lightly.

“Ha ha,” Courfeyrac said dryly. “C’mon, I mean it – why’re you helping me?”

Combeferre glanced over at him, something unreadable in his expression. “You really want to know?” Courfeyrac nodded, and Combeferre took a deep breath. “Well, honestly—”

“Wait, that’s it!” Courfeyrac burst, realization hitting.

“What’s it?”

Courfeyrac grinned. “An honesty spell. I can cast an honesty spell on Enjolras’s apartment along with the attraction spell.”

“You can do that?” Combeferre asked.

“Oh, sure, you can layer all kinds of spells to work in tandem.”

Combeferre nodded slowly. “Ok, so you do a truth spell, and—”

“An honesty spell,” Courfeyrac corrected. “Truth spells tend to backfire and make people confess all kinds of deep dark secrets, and I don’t think sending Grantaire down that path will lead to the kind of confession we’re hoping for.”

“Grantaire?” Combeferre snorted. “I’d be more worried about Enjolras confessing his plans to violently overthrow the government.” 

Courfeyrac considered it. “Fair point,” he allowed. “But in any case, I’m taking chances this time, so no truth spell, just a mild honesty spell so that they can’t lie to each other. That’s as far as my magic can go. The rest’ll be up to them.”

Combeferre was silent for a long moment before he nodded again. “You know, this just might actually work.”

“What was that?” Courfeyrac asked distractedly as he grabbed the Book of Shadows.

“I said, this might actually work,” Combeferre repeated, slightly louder.

Courfeyrac looked up from the grimoire, grinning at him. “Oh, I heard you the first time,” he said smugly. “I just wanted to make you say it again.”

Combeferre scowled and punched Courfeyrac lightly on the arm. “Well, I’m certainly not going to say it a third time,” he said, slightly petulantly. “Not until it actually works, at least.”

“Trust me, this time, it will,” Courfeyrac said, his confidence less fueled by Jäger this time and more by sheer determination. “It has to.”

>>Read chapter 5 here>>

[youarestellarverse]

God there are so. many. things. I need to tweak.

A substantial portion of which are because I never learn my lesson about not showing numbers which is a problem because I like Jason am dyscalculic 😬

revisions for clarity:

get rid of all of the damn numbers that are not vitally important to the plot

fix contradictions across different fics

tweak throwaways that should, in retrospect, be significant

Things I still have to do on a housekeeping front:

post the f-list profiles

masterpost of fic links

masterpost of information that is actually relevant

maybe take the last (ultimately irrelevant) masterpost and make it a headcanons etc post?

answer comments (partially complete!!)

creatively:

cAST THE REST OF THE DAMN SHOWS

(I have thoughts but I'm saving some of them; I know who Annabeth, Rachel, Jason, Percy, Leo, Reyna and Michael Yew are playing, and Leo, Reyna and Annabeth I haven't yet ~disclosed~...I may leave some spoilery spaghetti-throwing under a cut)

get over myself and follow through on an idea I had for sharing art while being slightly less self-conscious

and yup.

Spoilery bits:

Annabeth (singing out of her range) is Mrs. Lovett, because she and Jason have excellent chemistry.

Percy is Anthony.

Rachel is Johanna.

Leo is Toby.

Reyna is Pirelli.

I don't know who's playing the beggar woman (Piper may be the only mezzo left?), I'm not sure who's playing Beadle Bamford, I'm not 100% sure on who the ballad ghosts are— though Clarisse is one of them.

I also have Beauty and the Beast:

Piper as Belle

Jason as the Beast

Annabeth as the Witch

Percy might be Lumiere, but I feel like Leo would also excel, so I'm undecided.

I made Michael Yew a basso profondo, which limits his roles— though I'm fairly certain he plays Gaston.

Reyna is Mrs. Potts.

Rachel is Madame de la Grande Bouche.

The Apollo kids fill in the leads I can't figure out how to fill. Still missing Le Fou and Cogsworth.

And The Scarlet Pimpernel:

Percy as Percy Blakeney (he specifies in his bio that his name is Perseus, not Percival)

Piper as Marguerite St. Just

Jason as Citizen Chauvelin

Potentially Leo as Armand St. Just, since he and Percy are the tenors at that moment (freshman year; they both mature into baritones)

And Into the Woods, which I've shared the cast on already (but revised slightly):

Jason and Percy as the Princes

Piper as The Baker's Wife

Leo as Jack

Hazel as Little Red

I still reeeeeally want Reyna as The Baker but Frank could pull it off too, I think

Rachel as Cinderella

Annabeth was originally Cinderella's Mother, but I think I might want her for Rapunzel

I don't have a Witch, Narrator, whichever soprano Annabeth ends up not playing, or like, any of the ensemble

I don't have a Spring Musical for Sophomore, Junior, or Senior years, but I have two Freshman shows that must be in Freshman year because of the timeline (Piper and Jason actually have very good chemistry until they start dating halfway through the run of the Freshman Spring Musical, which is Pimpernel, and Thalia vows to NEVER EVER CAST COUPLES AS COUPLES EVER AGAIN EVER)

And of course lastly, we have Les Mis:

Nico as Jean Valjean

Reyna as Javert

Piper as Fantine

Percy as Enjolras

Frank as Marius

Leo as Courfreyrac

Clarisse as Feuilly

Jason as Grantaire/The Bishop of Digne

possibly Beckendorf as Combferre

Cosette may be either Rachel or Annabeth, but

I kinda want Rachel for Madame Thenardier, on the basis of being fucking hilarious

Harley as Little Gavroche

Hazel as Eponine (because a. everyone in the world would bawl their eyes out over A Little Fall Of Rain with Frank and b. she can practice at home and Nico can stew himself into chowder over how much it hurts— "he was never mine to lose; why regret what could not be? These are words he'll never say; not to me, not to me, not to me.")

No idea who's playing Thenardier or Young Cosette.

And that's not even fucking getting into the Shakespeare and the other non-musicals, such as The Importance Of Being Earnest

Jason as Jack

Percy as Algernon

Piper as Gwendolyn and Annabeth as Cecily, or the other way around— depending on whether they do the show before or after Piper starts dating Jason. (I like the idea of Annabeth usually playing ingenues because of the thing where she deliberately attempts to make people think she's a dumb blonde so they let their guard down, so I'm leaning towards the before.)

Plus Much Ado About Nothing, which I haven't cast at all, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, which I have cast but again it doesn't fit the damn timeline:

Annabeth as Titania

Reyna as Oberon

Percy as Bottom

Leo as Puck

Piper as Helena

Jason as Demetrius

Hazel as Hermia

Frank as Lysander

And Romeo and Juliet:

Frank as Romeo

Hazel as Juliet

Percy as Mercutio

Jason as Benvolio

Annabeth as Lady Capulet

And then I just have a bunch of holes.

Ideally, I wanted two musicals and two straight plays per year— one Shakespeare and one not-Shakespeare— but I don't even know if that's possible anymore lmao 🙃

This for the record is one of the things that is tripping me up lmao.

[idiopath-fic-smile]

have you ever put any thought into what's going on with the ABC gang in WAR a decade on? like, a lot of high school aus that use homophobia as a plot point are deliberately set in the 70s or the 80s, so it gets a little depressing because they'll have to wait decades for things to really get better - but you set WAR in 2006, which is *so cool* because in less than 10 years it goes from, well, 2006, to obergefell v. hodges.

this question is a bit complicated by the fact that i’m still working on adapting WAR into a novel, and the characters are a little different (i combined a lot of people, and also made most of them female) so this is specifically for the Les Mis fanfic version. 

also, this is more just my overall headcanon for the epilogue of WAR. take it with a grain of salt, none of this is True Canon, death of the author, etc

-it is my cherished secret headcanon that the members of the ABC gradually realize (in some cases, YEARS later) that actually none of them were straight, cis, and allo, with the possible exception of combeferre. 

ex) high school jehan ID’s as gay, but once they’re in the place to have more vocabulary for it, they come out as trans, nonbinary but femme-leaning (while continuing to be mostly into dudes). i think that eponine is bi (and also realizes pretty late that she’s nonbinary.) joly and bossuet are both bi. cosette is a lesbian. marius is ace. (their relationship worked in part because neither ever pressured the other, for anything. it was kind of more like playing house.) bahorel ID’s as straight for the longest time, but there’s a couple of male celebrities he jokes about as his “exceptions” until he realizes one day, hmm not really a joke. courfeyrac in high school considers himself gay, but after jehan comes out, realizes in retrospect he doesn’t fall perfectly on one end of the kinsey scale, either.

-molly keeps the ABC alive once the others graduate. gavroche joins when he becomes a freshman, and by his senior year, the club is double its original size. (he jokes it’s because he made LGBTQ rights cool, but really, a tide is turning.)

-enjolras stays politically active and does a lot of nonprofit and organizing work all throughout college. in ‘08, he joins one of those groups that goes door to door registering voters (so does jehan, who attends the same university). enjolras’s experiences with other people, people NOT from affluent suburbs, open his eyes in a good way and make him a little less intense about his own point of view.

-most of the ABC kids are swept up in the excitement of the first obama campaign. combeferre actually gets emotional, talking about it; he writes some very eloquent op-eds in the school paper about what obama means to him, and how fucked-up all the racist scrutiny really is. joly, musichetta, and bossuet phone bank. eponine starts taking photos at rallies, one of which becomes kind of well-known and helps launch her interest in pursuing photography for real. courfeyrac organizes theatrical productions to raise money for the campaign, which are a weird and wild success. bahorel is a minor social media star, and he leverages his dubious fame to try to help get out the young people vote.

-(eponine is gavroche’s legal guardian, and she balances work with community college. she was honestly more of a hillary girl, but obama wins her over eventually.)

-grantaire and enjolras stayed together post-high school, and after a year of attending a nearby community college, grantaire has the grades to transfer to the same university as enjolras. 

grantire spends most of his early college years bouncing from one major to another; he likes art but more as a release than as an area of academic focus. like, getting a bad grade on an art project is fucking devastating. they start fighting a lot that first september in the same school because enjolras is so sure of his path and grantaire feels guilty and defensive for not knowing where to go with his life. it makes grantaire feel like a worthless burnout again (which is frustrating because he thought he’d WORKED THROUGH IT, dammit), but he also resents enjolras’s attempts to help him, which eventually makes enjolras pull away in hurt, which terrifies grantaire so much that he pulls away too, and they break up very early sophomore year of college.

-the night obama wins the election in ‘08, even despite the blow of prop 8 passing, all the old ABC members are calling each other, yelling into their phones with delight. combeferre is literally crying.enjolras is jubilant, but grantaire, who had never seriously thought that obama had a chance, honestly feels like he’s high again.

enjolras and grantaire wind up at the same celebratory party and, under the influence of all that victory, they hook up. holy shit have they missed each other. they briefly get back together, but it’s not like it was in high school, before they knew quite how badly they could hurt each other. when enjolras does study abroad for a semester, they break up again, amicably, rather than do the long distance thing. they drift apart even when he gets back. it’s nobody’s fault.

-jehan switches to they/them pronouns and puts out a chapbook of poetry about feeling connected to the words of dead authors. bahorel becomes a college radio DJ, and is so good, his show gets picked up by local stations and he eventually starts working as the “bad boy of NPR”. courfeyrac realizes that more than acting, his real joy is stage managing. musichetta goes into business, advocating for greater diversity. 

-grantaire winds up at the last minute, majoring in psychology. studying this stuff in an actual class makes him realize just how dysfunctional his family dynamics have really been, and how little of it had to do with him. it’s both freeing and terrifying. he makes friends in his advanced psych courses (mostly idealistic young feminist women), and dates one for a while. ironically, she’s also bi. he has more of a chance to unpack all the stigma he’s been carrying around for years, how frustrating it was to be seen as “the gay kid” in high school when that wasn’t really true.

-combeferre decides to get dreadlocks after graduating undergrad and becomes “that hot World Lit TA with the dreadlocks”

-grantaire starts kind of considering going into counseling. the members of the ABC he’s still in touch with keep urging him to write Mr. Myriel a letter, and grantaire keeps dragging his feet, but one night he’s in town to visit Eponine, and runs into Mr. Myriel at the grocery store, and basically word-vomits all this gratitude, and the two become penpals. Mr. Myriel eventually writes one of the recommendation letters that gets grantaire into a sociology master’s program.

-combeferre gets fed up with the ivory tower of academia and joins a startup that teaches coding to kids, particularly girls in low-income areas. (He’d long been interested in coding, but more as a fun side hobby.)

-grantaire moves to the city (uh, let’s say chicago) to get his master’s, where he also reconnects with bossuet, who by then is a hippie engineer and just a solid, low-stress friend to have. they become super close in a platonic bros way, and grantaire may actually be the one to say, “oh btw, did you have a crush on joly, or did you guys both just like musichetta?” (answer: YES and YES). grantaire rents a bedroom in bossuet’s apartment (bossuet has more space than anticipated because he just had a rough breakup) and in his starving student days, grantaire pays some of his rent to bossuet by cooking him dinner and stuff. in this time, grantaire actually learns how to cook, beyond just fucking up the occasional frozen pizza.

-kind of to his surprise, grantaire winds up really enjoying counseling (or at least, finding it rewarding; talking to people with such intense problems be rough) and particularly working with youths. they never expect his sense of humor, which turns out to be a pretty useful tool in connecting with them.

-bossuet sometimes, long-distance, donates his time to combeferre’s coding project. grantaire hears through bossuet, through combeferre, that enjolras is moving to chicago for law school.

-at first, grantaire and enjolras are awkward around each other, but the weird thing is, their positions are kind of reversed because grantaire by now feels pretty confident in his role as a counselor, and is doing good work, while enjolras is under a ton of stress in law school and still not always 100% sure it’s the right move. grantaire is living alone by now, and he misses hanging with bossuet (who is in a complex poly triad now, and has a lot less free time) (part of me feels it’d be way too big of a coincidence if it’s joly and musichetta, part of me yearns for it, so you decide for yourself i suppose). so grantaire starts coming over to cook dinner at enjolras’s apartment as enjolras studies. this is partly because grantaire’s own kitchen in his studio is really insufficient, but mostly an excuse for them to hang out in a low-cost, low-pressure way. they eat and watch Parks and Rec.

-in theory this is a great system, and in practice it’s the same kind of agonizing romantic tension from high school. enjolras is really into this more confident, happier, more balanced grantaire. grantaire appreciates that enjolras has gotten  a little less overbearing, a little lighter even as he’s also so clearly fraying at the seams. grantaire just wants to, like, give him a massage, but whoa boundaries. they sit on the same couch and SOMETIMES THEIR ARMS BRUSH.

-enjolras decides first that he wants to get back together, that they’ve grown enough in the time they were apart that they could build something healthy and balanced now. he’s not totally sure how to make his case to grantaire, and he feels a little weird being the less stable one of the pair. 

-enjolras decides that he’s gonna make grantaire dinner. grantaire doesn’t really get why; enjolras generally does the dishes so it’s not like anything’s really owed here??? enjolras slips into way overachiever mode and prepares like a whole three-course spread of painstakingly researched recipes. grantaire is VERY confused. “I thought I was hot shit, dude, where did you learn to cook like this?” enjolras has to shamefacedly confess he taught it to himself for this night. “Damn, are you proposing or something?” grantaire blurts in an ill-considered joke, and enjolras’s ears turn red. they get together again. it’s really good this time.

-in 2013, when the supreme court rules that gay marriage is legal in all 50 states, enjolras actually finds out because grantaire texts him the minute the news breaks with simply, “Holy fuck, you were right all along!!!!!” and then some hearts.

-they’re married a year later. one of their wedding photos is them kissing, both raising a middle finger to the imagined haters, like “bring it on, assholes” you’d think this would’ve been grantaire’s idea, but nope, enjolras. it’s framed over their mantle.

-by november 2016, enjolras is a lawyer for the ACLU, and grantaire is a counselor at an organization that primarily works with LGBTQA youth. after the election, enjolras doesn’t get out of bed all day. then he’s a whirlwind of activity. trump-era enjolras is a hybrid of the wisdom and confidence of obama-era enjolras, and the “fuck these motherfuckers” pinpoint focused ferocity of bush jr-era enjolras. grantaire’s work is frequently draining as hell, but he’s drawing again (making a webcomic with joly, actually), and they’re getting by.

-sometimes, at low moments, they remember how it felt at their wedding reception, when bahorel cued up Ted Leo’s “Shake the Sheets” and all those friends and loved ones danced their brains out (enjolras’s parents have some MOVES as it turns out), and grantaire got super choked up, and then enjolras leaned over while they were dancing and whispered in his ear, “Probably better that he didn’t go with our prom song,” (which, as you’ll remember, is Fifty Cent’s “Candy Shop”) and they both burst out laughing in the middle of the dance floor. If they survived high school, they can survive anything.

-bossuet, grantaire, joly, eponine, musichetta and sometimes enjolras have a long-distance D&D game wherein a ragtag crew of outcasts battles the odds as they attempt to take down an evil totalitarian kingdom. (joly’s already got notes for the graphic novel version.)

[textsfromumbridge]

Can you do the second reunited au with the singer for Enjonine? :D

“this is so unfair there’s this song getting popular and the singer sounds like you and all these lyrics almost sound like they could be about me but you’re singing about lost love and you weren’t in love with me wait I’m watching the music video and crying and hey that’s definitely you wtf” au

(for you, always, even doing this TWICE because my laptop fucked up and closed the wrong thing and made me lose EVERYTHING)

…

Her arms are held tightly behind her back by a burly security guard, while his comrade talks into a walkie. It leaves her free to kick at him, but she doesn’t appear to be doing much damage to him, seeing as he’s a head taller and about three or four times her weight. 

“This is a violation of my rights,” she hollers as loudly as she possibly can. “I didn’t do anything and then mister Gorilla just grabbed me.”

How she ended up like this? Well, that is quite a story. 

This whole thing started back in freshman year of high school, when she had a stupid crush on her old neighbor Marius. He’d just always been nice to her even when everything went to shit. 

Not the point. 

So, to make him notice her, she started hanging out with his friends, all guys and most of them pretty damn cute. And she figured, why not make Marius jealous by hanging out with these boys and talking to them and maybe doing a little flirting?!

Well, it only worked with one guy. The only times Marius ever got annoyed was when she talked to Gabriel, the friend Marius only referred to as Enjolras. 

The first time she backed Gabriel up in a discussion, Marius about had a coronary before dragging Eponine off to lecture her about how Enjolras was a bad influence and she should not be hanging out with him. 

These guys were surprisingly hostile towards each other for people who were considered friends. They yelled at each other about most everything, from general political theory to popular culture to the merits of Napoleon. Gabriel usually made more sense than Marius, but she was never going to say that to her stupid crush. 

So she continued to side with Gabriel (when he wasn’t blatantly wrong about everything), figuring that Marius would soon figure out that he was just jealous of Eponine’s support and attention. She continued to think that until Marius showed up with a pretty blonde girlfriend Eponine recognized from a girl she’d been in a group home with after the first time her parents got arrested. 

She didn’t get along with the little bird then, and she knew that was not going to change - Marius was already lost to her. 

But by then she’d actually started to like Gabriel as a person. He was her friend, even though he was the epitome of a rich, privileged white boy and there was no way their worlds were supposed to collide like this. 

Still, he made sure to listen to her point of view, and he did not try to force any charity on her and her siblings. Most of the kind things he tried to do for them were framed as being a part of a decent friendship, and she let him do that - because there had been many a time when she’d hidden him from a debutant his parents were desperate to set him up with. 

His parents were terrible elitist snobs and she occasionally wondered how they even managed to spawn such a sincere son - until she realized what a terrifying force of nature Gabriel could be. All for the sake of a better world, of course. 

The friendship lasted all through high school, but by senior year her now best friend started keeping secrets and keeping his distance from her. Clearly he’d figured out that she’d started having not so platonic feelings for him and was trying to let her down gently and with her dignity intact. 

When they went to colleges on opposite sides of the country, the damage was already done. He’d helped her so much with applications and scholarships, but they couldn’t manage to bring their friendship back to where it used to be. 

She hadn’t seen him in six years, not since that dreadful Thanksgiving sophomore year of college, and while she did miss the boy he used to be quite terribly, she’d managed without him. Even though that stupid crush had never quite gone away completely. 

That and her college friend Chetta, while amazing, could not quite replace her Gabe. And he was hers, in a lot of the ways that mattered - that nickname was hers and hers alone. But now, after six years? There was no telling how many boys and girls would have been allowed to call him that over the years. 

Even though she definitely worked with a big part of their target demographic, she’d barely heard of Les Amis de L’ABC - only to understand the French pun inherent in their name (her high school fosters had taught her that language). But they were obviously a boyband, so she hadn’t actually bothered with the band members or the songs. 

Until fourteen year old Claire, one of her favorite clients and a big fan of the Amis, had a terrible day and all she wanted was to listen to her favorite band with her social worker. Eponine figured she could tune out for most of it - she’d put herself through a lot if it helped her kids. 

And then Claire played the first song, the latest single “The First To Fall”. It seemed slightly different than the average boyband fair, but it was obviously still a love song - it had to be. 

When the lead singer started to sing, Eponine just about choked on air. It sounded like him, like that time in junior year when he revealed that he was actually quite the singer and he made her blush by crooning a classic in the secrecy of her bedroom. 

“Is something wrong?” Claire was always astute. 

“Just a bit of a cough,” Eponine tried really hard to sound casual. “Just start again at the beginning.” 

Claire listened well, for once, and Eponine steeled herself. She just had to get through this one song without choking on the memories of a high school crush and her first real love. She could do that. 

Until she heard the lyrics to the chorus: “I was the first to fall / you built your barricade / I fight here in your name / feelings won’t be betrayed”. 

Feelings? How did this song sound so much like him, like them? How did this singer manage to sing her high school experience back to her?

It couldn’t be! 

“So, what did you think?” Claire asked. 

“Not bad for a boyband,” Eponine shrugged. 

Of course, Claire considered that very high praise from her usually so stoic social worker, and pulled up the music video, just to torture Eponine some more. Oh, she wasn’t doing it on purpose, but Eponine really did start to believe in karma at that point. 

She obviously deserved this pain. 

Ferre was the first one she recognized, dorky glasses exchanged for a model that was a little more hip, and his pin straight hair styled into a messy just out of bed look. He’d come a long way from the geek he was in high school, unlike Courf, who looked basically the same as he did back then. 

And then the screen was filled with Gabriel Enjolras himself.

That and a single ticket to an almost sold-out concert is what led her to this point, being held by Burly Security Dude right at the entrance to the backstage area. 

“I just need to talk to Gabriel,” she is trying to explain to Walkie Guy. “I went to high school with these idiots. You can just tell him Eponine is here.” 

Burly Guy continues to have a tight hold on her hands, and she knows that there will be bruises. She is not a fangirl, but clearly they think she is out here for nefarious reasons. 

It should make her happy that Gabe and the boys are so well-protected, but right now she just sees it as a giant annoyance. She is someone they actually know, and someone Gabe will actually want to see - or so she hopes. 

“I promise to leave if he won’t see me,” she vows. “I’d cross my heart and hope to die but I’m losing feeling in my hands.” 

That finally loosens Burly’s grip, and he actually appears to look a little guilty as he sees the state of her wrists. She would feel triumphant if she wasn’t exhausted and in pain, but at least Walkie is finally trying to get in touch with Gabriel for her. 

She waits for only a minute or so, but it feels like three days. 

“Apparently she’s cool,” Walkie only seems slightly skeptical. “You can follow the PA and he’ll take you straight to Mr. Enjolras.” 

With some muttering about how he isn’t aware Mr. Enjolras even has a first name, Burly holds the door open for her. The PA boy - is he even old enough to buy his artists alcohol? - is already waiting for her, motioning for her to follow him down a partly lit hallway. 

There’s a door at the end of the hall, and just like the last one it is opened for her. The PA waits for her to enter the room before closing it behind her, leaving her in a dressing room with just… Gabe!

“Eponine,” his voice is deeper than it used to be as it wraps around her name. 

His blond hair is longer than the spikier look he had in high school - he looks more like Danny Zuko now than he did in their version of the musical. There are hints of laughter lines around his bright eyes, and it looks like he finally filled out his formerly gangly form. 

But his bright smile is somehow exactly the same - it even has the same butterfly-inducing effect. 

“Gabe,” she almost whispers. 

He hears her, judging by how his smile gets impossibly wider. He’s pretty much giving the Joker a run for his money at this point. 

“I can’t believe you’re here,” he breathes. 

Before she can say another word, he pulls her in close for a hug that isn’t quite like the ones they used to share. The smell she breathes in is similar but not quite the same, but her head still ends up snuggling into his neck business. 

Oh, she still remembers that ridiculous rant fondly. 

Just when she relaxes in his arms, her arms having rediscovered their old familiar place around his waist, he pulls away slightly. They are no longer hugging, but he still pulls her into his side. 

“I missed you,” he is somehow still smiling. 

Can they really just slip right back into a friendship after six years of nothing, and does she even want that? Sure, she’d be lucky if he still wants to be her friend, but after that song she’s wondering if maybe, just maybe, there is more still in the cards for them. 

“You were in love with me?” she has to ask about the song. 

It’s been going through her head ever since she heard that damn song - he did have feelings for her then. Unless it’s all for the song, but she doubts that. He never used to be that kind of guy. 

Gabe has always been open and genuine about his feelings - except for senior year. She thought it had been about her crush - but maybe not. 

“You didn’t know?” Gabe appears stunned. 

“Of course I didn’t know you felt the same way,” she is exhausted and the words just slip out. 

He freezes briefly, and then he presses a soft kiss into her hair. 

“We’re idiots,” he mutters. 

“Not so much anymore,” she grins as she finally pulls him down to kiss her. 

[inktaire]

Okay but can you imagine Courfeyrac and Combeferre pining for each other.

They are literally the cliche, boys-next-door, I-can-see-your-room-from-mine, climbing on each other’s rooftops kind of people. It all started when Courfeyrac moved over to the neighborhood from Brazil. They were both in 5th grade and ended up walking to school together most of the time.

They bonded over exploring the forest next to their neighborhood. Combeferre went to find different types of moths and Courfeyrac pretended he was the king of the woods. They would spend warm nights laying on top of the roof with Combeferre pointing out different constellations. They spent winter sledding on a hill nearby their houses.

When Courfeyrac came out to Combeferre as pan during their freshman year of high school, he very carefully did not mention that he had feelings for him. He had relationships, but they ended because his heart was never fully in it. He kept reminding himself that falling for someone who was straight, and his best friend, would never end well.

Combeferre took longer to figure out his sexuality, labeling as demi-romantic bi sometime during college. He also avoided the fact that he came to this conclusion by his feelings for Courfeyrac developing over time.

They met Enjolras their freshman year of college because they were all in the same political science class. All three of them instantly bonded, and it resulted in Enjolras getting insight into both of their feelings.

It isn’t until their senior year when Enjolras, more than slightly tired of being in the middle of his two friends’ obliviousness, practically shuts them in a room together and forces them to talk about their feelings.