Work Text:
The first time Marius meets Cosette, he only manages to say two words to her.
Grantaire is walking Marius to class, because without fail Marius always takes a wrong turn somewhere and gets lost, when Marius stops suddenly because -
She’s handing out flyers, trying to get passing students sign up, and she’s the most beautiful person Marius has ever seen in his whole life. Later he will spend hours telling Grantaire about the kindness of her smile, her golden hair, her luminous eyes, but for now all he can do is stop walking and stare.
“Marius?” Grantaire waves his hand in front of his eyes, “you’re going to be late, come on.” He follows Marius’ line of sight. “Oh.”
“What do I do?”
“Well, I would start by going up and talking to her instead of just standing here being late for class.”
Marius looks like he’s about to have a heart attack. “What do I even say?”
Grantaire runs a hand through his hair. “Okay, how’s this for a deal: I’ll come up with you, we’ll talk for like a minute, then we go to class. Deal? Nothing that bad could happen in a minute.”
“Okay.” Marius takes another breath, and repeats more steadily, “okay. Just a minute. Of talking. I can do that.”
“Sure you can!”
Grantaire pulls him until they’re standing in front of her, grinning. “Hello!”
She smiles back, a little uncertainly (Grantaire tends to have that effect on people early in the morning). “Hi. Would you like some information on Les Amis? We’re just starting out, but we hope to become the voice of the student population.”
She’s looking straight at Marius, but Marius has already gone bright red. He makes a small squeaking noise (it could have been “thanks”), so Grantaire decides that it’s probably time to jump in.
“And do you have meetings?”
“Sure,” said Cosette, managing to look away from Marius, “we meet every Friday at the Musain, you guys should come! New members are always welcome.”
“We’ll be there, definitely, won’t we Marius?”
“Yes! Sure!” said Marius, his voice strangely high-pitched.
“We’ve got to get to class, but we’ll see you Friday! Nice to meet you …”
“I’m Cosette.”
“Nice to meet you Cosette, I’m Grantaire and this is Marius, and we are late, but we’ll see you Friday!”
Grantaire pulls Marius away. Marius can’t speak until they’re around the corner. He slumps against the wall.
“Please tell me I just imagined all of that.”
“Oh, come on, it wasn’t that bad! You know her name, she knows your name, you know where she’s going to be this Friday night, and she couldn’t stop looking at you.”
“Probably because I looked like an absolute idiot,” says Marius, pressing his hands to his face, “my face feels really hot. Oh no, did I go red? Please tell me my face remained a normal human colour.”
“Sorry, I promised I would never lie to you.” Marius groans. “Oh come on, I think she liked you.”
“Really? Do you really think so?”
“Well, I guess we’ll find out on Friday. Seriously though, come on, you’re going to be late.”
Marius panics intermittently over the meeting all week, picking out outfits, repeating various conversation topics, changing the outfit, and generally working up into a panic attack. Grantaire, for his part, helps Marius find the “perfect sweater”, talks Marius out of using conversation-starter cards, and finds out as much as he can about Les Amis.
By the time Friday rolls around, Grantaire has basically managed to convince Marius that Cosette, in her infinite kindness, will have forgotten all about their first meeting.
They get to the meeting about fifteen minutes before it’s about to start, but Cosette’s not there. Grantaire recognizes a few people – Feuilly’s there with his flatmate Bahorel, and he knows Courfeyrac from Saturday nights out.
Courfeyrac approaches them, slinging his arm around Grantaire like they’re old friends. “Grantaire! Welcome! And who is this?”
“This is Marius. We heard about your little group from Cosette actually, is she coming tonight?”
“She should be, she’s probably just running a bit late. Eponine, that’s her roommate, she’s giving her a lift here, and she probably only just finished work. She should be here before it starts though.”
Courfeyrac starts talking about his plans for tomorrow night, getting half-way through before Marius flails one arm in the air (Grantaire has to dodge quickly).
Cosette has just entered, with a brunette girl who must be Eponine. She smiles when she sees Marius.
“See,” Grantaire says quietly to Marius, “I told you she liked you.”
“You came! It’s good to see you again,” says Cosette.
She’s doing that thing again where she talks only to Marius. Women might not be Grantaire’s area of expertise, but he’s pretty sure that’s a good sign.
What’s not a good sign is Marius’ spreading blush. Grantaire figures he probably has about 60 seconds to get Marius engaged in conversation or risk him loosing the powers of speech.
“It’s such a weird coincidence that we met you actually, Marius was saying the other day how he wanted to join a club that could make some sort of real difference, right Marius?” says Grantaire, nudging Marius with his elbow.
Cosette’s smile widens. She still hasn’t looked away from Marius.
(Neither has Eponine. That could be a problem.)
“Really? That’s great! I think it’s really good to approach this sort of thing with a positive attitude.”
“Yes, exactly!”
And just like that, Marius manages to keep up a conversation with Cosette for a full ten minutes. He stays a sunburnt-pink colour for the entire conversation, but he does manage to use full sentences (Grantaire tells him later that he’s very proud of him.).
A serious-looking man with glasses approaches the café’s small stage. “Excuse me everyone, if you could take your seats? Thank you. Enjolras is running a little late, so I’ll just take care of a few housekeeping things before he gets here. I notice there are a few new faces, which is great, welcome to all of you, and thank you for coming. Enjolras and I realise that you all have other commitments, so we really appreciate you taking the time to …”
Grantaire tunes it out. He does feel slightly guilty, but this is so completely the opposite of His Thing. Really, the only reason he didn’t leave after Cosette arrived (and after Marius started actually talking) was that he’d have to walk home.
He starts sketching (Jehan’s braids are very intricate today), so he misses the leader’s entrance. He doesn’t even really register that the speaker has changed until a burst of applause breaks through his concentration. He looks up and –
He can never make fun of Marius again.
(It’s the most beautiful man he’s ever seen, maybe even the most beautiful person. His face is glowing with righteous fury, he’s the most alive person Grantaire has ever seen, and for a moment Grantaire can’t even breathe.)
Unfortunately, he fundamentally disagrees with everything Enjolras is saying. He tries to just tune it out, but he just can’t seem to do it (Jehan’s hair changes into a rope, which turns into a flag, held by –
He makes a noise of annoyance.
“Yes? Did you have something to add?”
He looks up, and everybody is looking back at him. Enjolras is looking back at him.
And all he can think is, fuck it, he was never going to like me anyway.
Their first argument becomes something of a legend. “On a scale of one to Enjolras-and-Grantaire’s-first-meeting, how bad was it?”
Marius gets in between them before Enjolras takes an actual swing at him (although he looks like he would sincerely like to), and he leaves without saying goodbye to Cosette.
(“I’m sorry my being an idiot got in the way of your True Love,” says Grantaire, after about an hour of ranting about Enjolras.
“I did wave to her! I’m sure she understood. Besides, I can see her again next Friday!”
“You are just an endless ray of sunshine.”)
Grantaire almost doesn’t go to the next meeting (it’s been a long day, and a long week, and there’s a six-pack of beer just waiting for his company back at their flat), but Marius insists.
“You’ve just got to get back on that meeting-new-people-horse!”
“I don’t think it’s meeting people that I have to problem with, it’s more that meeting one particular person apparently destroys my ability to be civil.”
“Enjolras? He’s a good person R, he’s just very,” Marius searches for the right word, “passionate.”
“More like idiotic. I mean –“ off Marius’ look he stops, “sorry.”
“No, it’s okay. Not everyone has to believe the same thing.” He bumps shoulders with Grantaire, but leavers their sides pressed together. “It would be a boring world if we all did, right?”
Grantaire smiles crookedly. “When did you get to be so wise?”
Marius leans his head against Grantaire’s shoulder. “I guess it started when I got a wise friend.”
“Good answer.”
Grantaire goes to the next meeting and manages to only interrupt twice, when he feels Enjolras is being particularly wrong in his views. He gets the feelings Enjolras isn’t used to being interrupted.
(He’s right. Enjolras thinks it’s infuriating and rude. Combeferre thinks it’s probably good for him.)
He goes the next meeting, and the meeting after that, and the meeting after that.
Sometimes he’s late, sometimes he’s early, he argues with Enjolras almost constantly, and he’s openly doubtful about their ability to actually affect change, but he’s there every week.
And no matter how much Enjolras glares at that particular corner of the room, Marius sits next to Grantaire every week.