“Open
your baskets! The ingredients you must use in your dish are…”Enjolras
sets the remote control on the coffee table, next to an empty pint of
Ben & Jerry’s and two spoons resting on the upturned ice cream
lid. Chopped is a show that they can both agree on; Enjolras likes
to learn new tricks he can use in the kitchen (he really is
getting better at cooking, he insists as Courfeyrac teases him),
while Courfeyrac enjoys most any kind of reality competition show.The
two of them had been sitting together on the couch, with Courfeyrac’s
head on Enjolras’s shoulder. When Enjolras sits back again after
setting down the remote, Courfeyrac leans against him and rests his
head where it had been before, snuggling close to him. Enjolras’s
hand comes to rest on top of Courfeyrac’s, and he rubs his thumb
gently against the back of his friend’s hand.After
a moment, Courfeyrac lifts his head. Enjolras looks over at him,
curious, and the look on Courfeyrac’s face is not one he recognizes.
Courfeyrac takes a deep breath.“Enjolras.”
Another breath. “Um.”“Yes?”
Enjolras is even more curious now. Courfeyrac’s tone of voice
doesn’t worry him, exactly, but it makes him feel uncertain.The
next few words sound as cautious as Enjolras feels. “What are we?”Enjolras
definitely looks confused. But Courfeyrac barely gives him time to
think before backpedalling. “Scratch that. Don’t answer that.
I’m sorry.” His hand stiffens under Enjolras’s, and he looks down
at it, then back up at Enjolras, as if to ask if this was still okay.Enjolras
smiles that gentle smile of his, the one that warms something in
Courfeyrac’s chest, and squeezes his hand. “It’s all right.”Courfeyrac
shakes his head. “No, I’m sorry. It’s just I’ve never done
anything like this before. I don’t really do the romance thing, and
I know you’ve said you don’t either, but it’s—.”Enjolras
leans in quickly to kiss Courfeyrac on the cheek. It works as he
intended, and Courfeyrac cuts himself off mid-sentence. “It’s
really all right. Honestly, I don’t have a word for this either.
But… that’s fine, yeah?”Courfeyrac’s
eyebrows flash up for a brief moment, then sighs with relief. “Yeah.
Yeah, that’s fine.”Enjolras
nestles back into the couch and pats his shoulder. “Come on, the
judging’s about to start.”Courfeyrac
laughs and flops back down, his head finding Enjolras’s shoulder as
his hand reaches for his friend’s hand.
Tag: sometimes it’s a grey area
Enjolras and Feuilly <3
Yessssssssssss. ^____________^ OK, so we’ve discussed this many times before but Enjolras/Feuilly is definitely a ‘10′ ship for me (maybe an ‘11′ by now? XD). ^_^ They’re just too adorable because they respect and admire each other SO MUCH and can you imagine how good they’d be for each other? I mean, they both suck at self-care because they get too wrapped up in their causes, but they’d be SO GOOD at taking care of each other. *_*
But it took them a long time to get there.
They have such a slow courtship. Seriously. SO. SLOW.
When they first met, Feuilly was very closed off emotionally. He was passionate, sure, but he didn’t open up about himself much. He was quick to take up a cause, but slow to let anyone else in. He’d lost too much in his life and he’d been hurt too often and it had turned him shy of making new friendships. And he’d been so focused on getting out and doing better for himself that romance just never seemed to be in the cards.
Enjolras, OTOH, was an open book… he’d just never really thought about dating much.
There were always other things
which took precedence – school, friends, injustice. Who had time for
romance, right?
If pressed he’d have
said that he was asexual and aromantic, since a history of a lack of interest must mean something, right?
But when he meets Feuilly, they just *click*.
Pfft. No, they don’t.
(More behind the cut because this is getting long and turning into a mini-fic, good grief. O_o;;;)
When Enjolras and Feuilly first meet, they admire each other from a distance. Feuilly respects Enjolras, looks up to him as a leader and upperclassman, but he’s learned that someone who looks that good from a distance hardly ever is from close up. So, he’s afraid to get too close, even if he can’t deny that there’s something compelling about Enjolras, especially when he’s all riled up from speechmaking.
As for Enjolras, he’s absolutely floored by Feuilly’s passion and his willingness to do whatever it takes to help out, no matter how much else he has on his plate. But every time he tries to talk to him, he ends up tripping over his tongue in the worst possible ways. (Seriously, it’s SO PAINFULLY AWKWARD – think Shang in Mulan “…you fight good.” level of awkward. SO. AWKWARD.) Every bit of his eloquence deserts him.
What Enjolras doesn’t know, however, is that every single time he trips over himself trying to talk to Feuilly… Feuilly gets that much more comfortable around him. Because, hey look, he’s not perfect. He messes up. He blushes. One time he even squeaked, he was so embarrassed. (Combeferre heard about that one in great detail later. From both of them. And both had their faces buried in their hands when they relayed the story, and related it in equally high pitched tones… just for entirely different reasons. He found it hilarious.)
It takes them over a year before they can manage a full conversation that consists of more than “Hello!” and “Great speech!” and “OK, bye!” But once that ice is broken, it is BROKEN. They find that they more interests in common than they ever would have guessed. They eventually start staying after meetings for hours, often closing out the bar in their zeal for conversation. Two years after their first meeting, they’re as comfortable with each other as it’s possible for two people to be with each other. They’re each other’s first phone call when they’re in trouble, or when they have good news, or when they’re upset… or when they wake up in the morning.
And Enjolras, who never had time or interest in romance or sex, and Feuilly who was too angry and bitter to even contemplate it… find their opinions changing. Glances linger just a little longer. Touches become a little more intimate. Smiles soften just a hair. And five years after their first meeting when people start assuming that they’re dating… they simply smile and don’t bother to correct them.
anything-but-one-straight-line:
When Enjolras first meets Feuilly, Combeferre is jealous of the praise that Enjolras heaps upon Feuilly. How extensive your knowledge is! How enthusiastic you are to learn more! It’s Feuilly this, and Feuilly that. Combeferre has never felt threatened by Courfeyrac, whose abilities lean more towards common sense, or Joly, whose abilities lean more towards the medicinal. Feuilly, on the other hand, knows everything about everything, and he had learned it alone, with no mother, father, or school to guide him. Combeferre knows he’s being petty and knows he has to find a way to resolve his pettiness before he meets Feuilly, lest he make the poor boy feel bad for no reason than his own pettiness. And he’s being unfair besides – no one wants to be an orphan.
So Combeferre’s a total mess about his feelings, and hasn’t resolved them at all by the time he meets Feuilly. He’s dreading meeting Feuilly, his stomach hurts, everything hurts – until he actually meets Feuilly. And then Feuilly is just so enthusiastic about meeting this person whom Enjolras admires so much and who loves learning, and Combeferre is so excited to meet someone who is as enthusiastic about all kinds of knowledge as he is that they hit it right off.
Everyday, it’s like, “BRO, did you know that –” and “NO, I did not. Did YOU know that–” until the Les Amis de l’ABC meeting begins.
Hello! Could I ask a question about fashion? In “Dawn,” Hugo says that Cosette dressed her hair herself because it was simple in those days, but in all of the fashion plates from the era, women’s hair looks really complicated — they have it looped up on the top and curled on the sides. Were hairstyles simpler in the daytime and only more complicated in the evening? Or is it because Cosette is unmarried? Thanks :)
That is a really good question! There were of course simpler hairstyles available, but Hugo is very clear that Cosette IS a fashion plate, which means pretty elaborate hairdos. And there’s a few possible answers I can think of– take your pick, suggest others, or combine any of them:
-Cosette really does do her own hair, in all the complications then in fashion. It takes a lot of time, but practice makes it faster and as a proper bourgeois girl she’s not really allowed to do much else, so that’s one of her hobbies.
-Cosette does her own hair, but simplifies it. Everything under the bonnets that she’s definitely wearing when she heads out is pretty smooth, and she focuses on getting the visible ringlets and curls or swooping braids right. It takes less time.
– Cosette actually gets Toussaint to help, and it’s adorable.
– Cosette actually gets Valjean to help, and it’s SUPER adorable.
– Hugo does not know one single thing about how women in his era handled their fashion regiment, and he’s imagining Cosette with basically magic Style Powers. We all should accept that Cosette is Actually Magic and picture bluebirds and butterflies doing her hair like she was a Disney People’s Elected Representative.
I want to draw this, with both the Valjean helping version, and the Disney version.
yessss please do that:D
- Grantaire knows Irma Boissy well-enough that she’s personally offended by his ugliness.
- Grantaire, at the end of his first big rant, is the one noticing Louison showing up and says “Ah, c’est toi Louison. Bonjour.”
- Grantaire talks about meeting Floréal and disapproving of her new beau.
- Grantaire, albeit in manner that is very displeasing, interacts with Matelote and Gibelote.
- Since Grantaire, Joly and Bossuet are best friends, it’s not a far stretch to say that R knows Musichetta.
R is part of the lady!club and i love it so much.
you have made repeated mention of Obi-Wan doing an insane swan dive through Bothawui’s orbit in a fighter. is this in one of the clone wars episodes because i cannot remember it and cannot find it.
Nope, this is pre-Clone Wars RE canon, but after the start of the war. I’ve never written the scene out specifically, but:
There’s a blockade around Bothawui–like, full true coverage blockade of the planet, not that weird singular location like in TPM. (OMG SPACE, GEORGE, A PLANET HAS MORE THAN ONE ENTRANCE AND EXIT POINT WTF–I mean uhm, sorry. *cough*)
There’s a two day engagement where they cannot break through this fucking blockade–they can barely make a dent in it. Everything they throw at it, from gunship to star destroyer, is being repelled.
Anakin gets this *fabulous* idea that if the big stuff is all getting nailed, he can put on an EVA suit with enough fuel to get him through the blockade. Gravity will take care of the rest of his descent because of his proximity to the planet. He’s tiny, weaponless, low tech–the droids will ignore him.
(When asked how he would handle the burn of re-entry, Anakin shrugs and says it can’t be worse than Tatooine in the middle of the afternoon.)
Anakin leaves before Obi-Wan finds out. Obi-Wan discovers what his Padawan is doing, drops everything and bolts for a fighter, because no, no, and also no, Anakin, NO. Flies out and covers Anakin’s descent by basically being the bigger shiny object that the droids are all now concentrating their fire on.
And that’s how Obi-Wan Kenobi did something that Anakin Skywalker had NOT been able to do–fly a fighter through that damned blockade–earning the respect of the entirety of 7th Sky because HOLY SHIT.
That’s also the story of how Obi-Wan discovered that he now really, really, REALLY fucking hates to fly. (That fighter had to be scrapped post flight, mostly because it was so torn up from getting through the blockade that Obi-Wan promptly crashed it.)
It’s also the day that the 501st decided Skywalker was theirs forever, because someone had to make sure that crazy little shit stayed alive, because HOLY FUCKING SHIT.
It also marks the very last occasion when the droid army kept their control stations separate from their main concentration of troops, because being de-powered mid-conflict was an embarrassing way to lose a battle. *Again.*
And now you all know the story of the first Battle of Bothawuii.
I just saw a post about how Marius can be such a badass who in some cases is actually more dangerous than Enjolras immediately followed by a post about how Marius would get frustrated because he would try to push pull doors and I feel like that’s a really accurate depiction of his character
A (Printer’s) only son, and wealthy: an alternate Enjolras interpretation
A couple nights ago, @robertawickham and I were complaining that Hugo took so much from Charles Jeanne’s story to make his Ideal Barricade Hero (Enjolras) and then class-bent him to be a bourgeois student, instead of the working-class guy Jeanne actually was.
And then we realized Hugo doesn’t ..actually say… Enjolras is a STUDENT. Just “an only son and wealthy”. And he LOOKS like a student (a ‘college escapee’) but that’s in the same sentence that claims he looks like a pageboy and we’re all pretty sure he’s not that. And hey, workers can BE wealthy! Class often correlated with income (very often) but it wasn’t dependent on that; it was dependent on what sort of work a person did– manual labor was working-class, intellectual labor was bourgeoisie, to oversimplify a ridiculously complicated social strata. So after like five minutes of shouting TO HECK WITH YOUR CLASS ISSUES, HUGO, WE’RE TAKING ENJOLRAS BACK FOR THE WORKERS we realized we…needed a plausible profession?
@amarguerite mentioned that printers could, depending on their job and position, be quite wealthy, and gave us a bunch of wonderful details and info which are included under the cut. And lo, IT IS GOLD. All of it goes together to make Enjolras being the wealthy only son of print-shop owning family work SO WELL?!?
A SMALL AND ONLY PARTIAL list of the ways that Enjolras being the son of a printshop-owner makes Everything Better and Nothing Worse
-As a printer Enjolras is a logical point of connection for many interest groups; people need printing done! I cannot even believe how easy this makes plothooks!
-Also as a printer, Enjolras would be in a position to earn trust very quickly, despite his age and appearance, by printing illicit materials, serving as a message center, and so on.
-Wealthy or not, he likely wouldn’t have the formal education needed to be student; but he would have access to a lot of books and a professional advantage in learning what he could. This explains his occasional slips with Latin and the like, as well as why he’s apparently managed to get an education that so much inspires his Republican convictions–he chose his own reading material, apart from the standardized curriculum.
– He WOULD be in a position to have the kind of knowledge we see him display in Enjolras and His Lieutenants–awareness of who’s ramping up their revolutionary discussions, who’s getting cold feet, what the general mood of the radical groups in the city are. He’d know because THEY WOULD TELL HIM, with the kind of work they give him and how often and what the tone of it is. He’s as close to an internet hub as they’ve got. A GREAT person to help organize your activist group!
– Printers, whatever their more abstract politics, could hardly help knowing and caring about the various censorship and speech laws, which directly affected their business. A printshop owning family wouldn’t have to totally support Enjolras in his more dramatic views to agree with him taking dramatic action, especially in 1830; but they could still like Louis-Philippe, be more conservative– or very radical! So many options! (more on this under the cut)
– Printshop culture generally leaned heavily on the sort of jokes and teasing and goofing around the Amis are seen to love, and narratively applauded for, at least equally an evolution of working-class culture (which it really should be) as of student culture (which it still would be!)
– but as an expected heir and future manager of the shop he’d still be used to interacting with bourgeois clients and businesses! And probably dress quite well when out of the shop, in a subdued, professional way.
-Gavroche is mentioned as doing the occasional odd bit of work in a printshop. If anyone wants, this gives a really easy hook for Gavroche and Enjolras’ interactions at the barricade.
– Wait! (I panic.) Isn’t Feuilly the only workingman in this group of students?? **checks**! Wait, no, Hugo doesn’t actually say that! He only says that Feuilly IS a worker. Enjolras ALSO being a worker takes away nothing from Feuilly; a wealthy shop-owner’s only child and obvious heir will have dramatically more advantages than an orphan. But it does acknowledge that the working class wasn’t a homogenous block or single sort of life experience.
-Enjolras and Feuilly’s relationship is so much more interesting this way?? and it stops Feuilly being the Token Worker in a city full of workers in a worker-led movement. Seriously, Hugo, screw your class issues so much.
-I have an excuse to draw Enjolras in a printer’s apron with his sleeves up. :Like, ALWAYS. That is SO what I’m doing today.
Below the cut: Longer discussion and more explanation, and some Q&A with Amarguerite (shared with permission!) for the use of anyone else who wants to adopt this headcanon/alternate reading! (please consider sharing this headcanon it’s so great I am so happy right now) Warning: VERY LONG.
anything-but-one-straight-line:
Bossuet has no luck and so makes good ‘luck’ for others. When Marius does not come to class, what good luck he has that Bossuet always answers for him in roll call. When Grantaire is sad, what good luck he has that Bossuet always brings him to the Musain and sits him down with Joly. When Combeferre loses his spectacles, what great luck he has that Bossuet is interested in his daily happenings and would like to accompany him to all of them. Bossuet is everyone else’s good luck charm and he is so on purpose.
I want to write a “fake dating that doesn’t quite turn into a real dating because they don’t really date but they still keep living together and holding hands and being each other’s plus on way long after they don’t have to anymore because yeah maybe both want to do this long term for real” with Enjolras/Feuilly.
…for the record, I would read the FUCK out of that. *_* ^_^ *_* Just saying.
eirenical17 