Hugs Before Toast
Chapter 1

Within the first ten minutes of starting the new school term and stepping into his dorm room that was just outside the school , that at the age of thirteen he had decided that was going to be his dream school , Enjolras had decided that he had made a wrong decision. As Enjolras walked into his dorm room, packed like a donkey with all of his bags, he walked through the door and he found out that the main room resembled a pig sty that had not only been tormented with not only a hurricane but a tsunami as well, as there was clothes in every possible location, and on the two tables there was a small mountain of clothes and other rubbish on each of them. A desk had been knocked over and there was a cup of mysterious pink liquid that was dripping on the floor into an increasingly large pink puddle, that could either be blood that was rather funny coloured or it belonged someone with a rare and undiscovered disease or it was either strawberry milkshake.

However this wasn’t the problem as Enjolras could cope with the mess, as messes soon could be cleaned up and with a good few hours the room could be clean again. The problem was that there was a naked man in his room, standing with a sandwich that was leaking cheese onto the floor that was only adding to the mess that seemed to be growing by the second. Enjolras looked up at the man and he stared at the man’s eyes in the attempt to prevent them from drifting downwards as when someone is naked, and that someone is a man, you somehow always look at their penis. Enjolras doesn’t understand why people do that, maybe there was a magnetic pull that forced someone to look down there, an animal instinct of some sort to see who would be the alpha male.

The thing that made Enjolras the most uncomfortable, wasn’t the fact that the room was a mess, or that there was a naked man in his room, but it was the fact that the man seemed to actually be rather comfortable being naked in the presence of another, and he lifted up a hand as a greeting when Enjolras walked in to the room and stared at him with his jaw on the ground with his shoes.

“Wrong room!” Enjolras squealed as he covered his eyes with one hand and with the other he picked up his bag and left the room as fast he could without bumping into the door frame too many times. Once he had slammed the door behind him, Enjolras threw his bags on the floor and lent against the wall and started to rub the sore spot that he had on his hip that he got from the door handle from when he tried to make a hasty exit. Enjolras tried to think about what was happening, but his brain had turned to mush and it was running slow like a virus filled Windows product that had just gone into the blue screen of death and it was still trying to reboot.

When he had eventually had been given the gift of having his thoughts back, they were running slow and the software that his brain was using, was now Windows Vista with Internet Explorer on to boot. Enjolras dove into his pocket of his red jacket and pulled out the napkin that had the number of his room scrawled on it. It took Enjolras a few moments to find the napkin as it had travelled into the inside lining of his jacket through a hole that hadn’t been sewn up properly. Enjolras could have gotten himself a new jacket, but he loved his red coat that was exclusively worn for the occasions where he felt he needed a bit more luck, such as when he went out to get signatures for a petition or if he was wanting France to win the world cup, and since today was a rather momentous occasion in Enjolras’s life, he felt that he could use a little red jacket karma to help him on his way. However the jacket seemed to have lost its magic or Enjolras had done something rather pure evil that caused Karma to place a naked man into his dorm room.

Enjolras looked at the napkin in his hand and back at the door and repeated the action several times, just to make sure that the numbers on the napkin hadn’t suddenly merged into a new set of numbers in front of his eyes. The napkin had the numbers of 302 scrawled into them and the door had the same numbers on it. Enjolras must have gotten the wrong numbers as room 302 couldn’t possibly be his , as he was rather adamant to the office staff and the school that he would be having a single room, he was rather persistent and made the boy in the office cry as he made his demand for having a single room rather clear. Sure Enjolras felt a bit bad for making him cry, but at the same time he didn’t really care as having a roommate was his own personal form of hell, as he would have to put up with the issues of loud music, unwashed dishes and the roommate having sex on the shared sofa or even them just walking around naked. And it was for his own sanity and everyone else’s sanity who lived in the same apartment block as him, so having a single room was a win, win situation for him and his potential neighbours. He gets a room by himself where he doesn’t spend the year going insane, the neighbours get to keep their hearing as they are not subjected to their neighbour shouting at his roommate all the time.

As Enjolras was about to load all of his bags onto himself so that he could waddle like a father penguin looking after his egg, down into the offices to complain about his room situation, the naked man appeared at the door, however he was wearing a green tartan bathrobe. Enjolras would have made some complaint about the guy being basically naked again, but he thought that the bathrobe was better than him wearing no clothes again as there was some coverage and if the guy didn’t do a Marilyn Monroe impression over an air great, Enjolras would be as happy as he could be in this situation.

The man lent against the door frame and looked at Enjolras with a smirk appearing on the corners of his mouth, as he took a bite out of his sandwich instead of actually offering to help with the bags or doing anything productive with the time, there are 5,25,600 minutes in the year and the man wasn’t using them to any great use and it was just a pity on human life, where a man would rather eat a sandwich instead of helping his fellow citizen with anything, it was clear that society was going downhill. Enjolras shot the man his best glare, and the man held up his hands defensively.

“You know that you should knock before you go into a room, someone might be naked.” The man said, barking out a rough laugh at his own joke.

“Oh , just piss off.” Enjolras growled as he picked up his last bag and threw it on his shoulder, he turned around on heel and started to make his way back to the administrative office before the man could say anything else to him. Clearly this was the ultimate sign of the worst that could possibly happen to him and the only way to solve it would be bugging Combeferre to make him a chocolate cake with extra icing so that he could eat it with a spoon and complain about the injustice of the world to him and Courfeyrac, as they would know what to do, and they could pat his head sympathetically and tell him that everything would be okay, that is all he really needed right now and lots of extra icing.

“That is not my room.” Enjolras repeated to the office boy for the seventeenth time in the past half hour. “What part of it do you not understand?” He asked the office boy who looked as if he was about to burst into tears at any moment and ruin the stupid looking tie that had a pattern of llamas covering a bright green background with his tears warping the colours and drenching the llamas on his tie. It wouldn’t be the first time that the office boy had cried when he was in the face of Enjolras, and if Enjolras wasn’t getting his way, he would make sure that it wouldn’t be the last time the office boy shed some tears.

“I...I told you, Mr Enjolras, your room is three hundred and two.” the boy stammers repeating the words that had become a bit of a catch phrase to him as he had to repeated the same sentence over and over again. This wasn’t worth minimum wage.

“Well it can’t be my room,” Enjolras says with a sigh. “Because there was a naked man in it and I especially made sure that I was having a single room. Do you understand what the word ‘single,’ means? I can use it in a sentence if required.”

“That will not be necessary.” The boy says as he wheeled himself to the back of the room on his desk chair and spun around on it several times as he reached for some files from the filing cabinet. Enjolras could tell that the idiot that dealing with him was a bit of an idiot as he looked as if he enjoyed spinning on the chair and he made the effort to do so, when he could just walk. With a triumphant noise the office boy pulled out the desired file and launched it onto the desk with a loud bang. “These are all the rooms that were assigned this year.”

As the office boy was starting to go through the file, humming to himself happily as he was doing so, Enjolras thought that he recognised the boy. He wasn’t too sure what made him think that he knew him, but it could have been due to the fact that he was wearing one of the most hideous ties that Enjolras had ever seen in his life time or how the boy screamed the words ‘nerd,’ and ‘dork,’ without even having to even try. And the only person who seem to be able to do that as effortlessly as the office boy was the boy who stayed with Courfeyrac in high school after his grandfather kicked him out for some reason that Enjolras couldn’t remember. He could only remember the boy, mostly as he was mostly rather annoying and he tried desperately to be liked by him and Courfeyrac, and the fact that for his finial history and language project, he combined both subjects together and made a play written in German about the battle of Waterloo. Enjolras couldn’t even remember the boy’s name, but he knew it was something that started with ‘M.’ Marco? Maurice? Mario?

“Look Marco,” Enjolras says with another sigh, as he decided that maybe he should try playing nice to see if that got him any further. “All I am asking you to do, is to tell me what room I am meant to be in.”

The boy closed the file and looked up at Enjolras with a confused look. “First of all, my name is not Marco, second of all like the other times that I have told you; your room is three hundred and two. It is written down in three files and two documents on the computer. And finally; we were in high school together less than five months ago and you don’t even know my name?”

“Are you sure about the room?” Enjolras asks as he dove into one of his bags and pulled out his wallet and gave the boy a note. “I won’t tell anyone if you shift some things about, Maurice, it can be our little secret.”

“Do you honestly think that money is going to work?” The boy asks with a sigh, but when Enjolras looked away he put the money in his desk drawer. “I can’t change anything on these records and if you want it changed you can go to Javert, but I wouldn’t do that I were you. He is in a bit of a bad mood today. And my name is not Maurice.”

“Are you just doing this because I didn’t come to your birthday party?” Enjolras asks.

“That is right Enjolras, this is me punishing you for not going to my party.” The boy says rolling his eyes with his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I am so upset with you not turning up even though the party was two years ago. You missed such a great party; there was ice cream cake and karaoke.”

“You sang Karaoke?”

“You will never know.” The boy replies as he spun around on his chair once more and shoved the file back into the filing cabinet and closed with a kick that made a loud noise that echoed through the office. “I think that you should go and unpack Enjolras, and maybe you might remember my name. I was one of your best friend’s roommates, you should know about me at least.” As the boy turned around on his seat once more as he seemed to be enjoying spinning around on his chair, he looks over to Enjolras. “Fun fact, Karaoke means empty orchestra in Japanese.”

Enjolras didn’t know what the boy was going on about; he knew some things about the boy, so it wasn’t as if he was a complete and utter arsehole. He might not have known the boy’s name, but he knew lots of things about him from the stories that Courfeyrac had told him. Such as one when the boy got chased by a peacock and ended up getting stuck up a tree. Enjolras also knew the story of how the boy decided to confess his love for Cosette, one of the most popular girls at their school, by spray painting a love heart on her driveway with their names tougher. He also knows that after that happened. Cosette’s father wasn’t too happy with that and sent out his peacock to attack the boy.

“Once last question Mario.” Enjolras said as he started to load up his bags onto himself again. “What happened to my single room then?”

“There was a bit of a fire from someone’s science experiment. He had the room before you and he mixed some chemicals together and burnt the place down and he lost his hair from the chemicals.” The office boy said as he walked over to the door and held it open for Enjolras. Enjolras thanked the boy and made his way out of the room, wondering if he should have asked that question sooner than he did, as if he did he would have been out of the office a lot quicker than he did and he wouldn’t needed to have wasted his breath speaking to

“And by the way Enjolras, my name is Marius.” The boy shouted down the hallway once Enjolras was half way down it.”

Enjolras made his way up back to his room with two thoughts in his head. He wondered about how much on a grudge someone can hold for not remembering their name and not going to their birthday party. Enjolras also wondered about how he was going to cope with a roommate, who he was rather unpleasant to with no good reason. Actually there was a good reason, as he was naked and he made a mess of the room, but matters aside was there a Hallmark card that said, ‘I am sorry that I was rude to you as I thought that you were an intruder in our apparently shared room?’ There probably wasn’t one, so instead of that Enjolras decided to think other ways he could say that he was sorry without having to resort to using a shop bought card that may or may not exist. In simpler terms, Enjolras was screwed.

From years of experience and being friends with Courfeyrac, Enjolras had learned that the best way to get to a man heart or close enough to make him forgive you again was through his stomach. Enjolras thought that he might have gotten on the wrong foot with his roommate, but in his defence he didn’t know he had one and his roommate was naked, so it was a reasonable response for his behaviour of the situation. But as his roommate could make the rest of the year a living hell for him, Enjolras decided that he would hand over an olive branch and hopefully thinks would be reasonably okay, only if Enjolras was lucky enough.

Before he went back into his room, Enjolras stopped by the local corner shop that was only ten minutes away, and he bought a random selection of food that was available in the shop, mostly as he had no idea what his roommate liked. Enjolras knew that he liked sandwiches and strawberry milkshakes, due to the fact that he saw his roommate with these items. He wasn’t too sure what else to buy or how much he should buy to make up for the fact that he was rather rude, but after shoving several items into his basket, that included; a cheese and chutney sandwich, a Snickers bar, a packet of processed cheese slices, strawberry jam, a jar of gherkins and a strawberry milkshake, Enjolras left the shop with another bag starting to dig into his sore side from when he walked into the door handle.

When he got back into the dorms, Enjolras didn’t go back into the room straight away. Instead of that he hovered around by the door way, occasionally making the move to go into the room by placing his knuckles on the door, but they would soon be removed as soon as they were placed on the door as if the wood of the door was red hot and had burnt him as soon as he touched it. As Enjolras was osculating by the door, several people had made their way past the dorms, all of them loaded with several bags as they made their way to their rooms. Several of them looked at Enjolras with a mixture of looks between curiosity and pity, as they believed that he had been kicked to the doorstep as his roommate was having sex, and some even patted his shoulder and told him that he would find someone one day, and Enjolras didn’t even bother to shout at them for making assumptions as to be honest, he was a bit lost at the moment on what to do.

Enjolras reached over to touch the door once more, but he removed his hand again, and he started to build up a wall of courage by thinking about the worst that could happen if he went into the room. He could be banned from entering the room by his roommate and he would be forced to find refuge for the year somewhere else, and Enjolras didn’t know where else he could go, as he had a rather shockingly small address book of people who he could go to. He would either be shouted at and that was probably the most likely think that would happen and the rest of the year would be filled with uncomfortable silences and the occasional good morning from his roommate, to be honest, Enjolras could live with that as it meant that he didn’t need to participate in the social norms of having a roommate and he could use the time that was reserved for three in the morning conversations about nothing to get school and political work done, so really it wasn’t the worst thing that he could happen.

Deciding that it would be now or never, and the fact that the hallway was starting to get rather chilly and Enjolras was worried about having his spine snapping in half with the weight of his bags and he didn’t want to spend the first day of classes in hospital. Enjolras decided that he would knock on the door and try and get inside.

With a deep sigh, Enjolras closed his eyes flinched for the punch that may or may not happen when the door opened, as he knocked on the door several times. Within a few seconds the door opened and the man who was in the room before and was previously naked was fully dressed, with clothes that were covered in paint stains of different colours and sizes in all areas of the clothes and he looked as if he hadn’t run a comb though his hair for at least a week, with the dark curls on the top of his head that stuck out in every direction possible. The most noticeable thing that Enjolras could see about the man was the fact that he had ink that was on his face and his hands, staining the skin with blue.

Enjolras took in a deep breath in the attempt to calm himshelf down, but it failed and he lost all calmness when he opened up his mouth to speak. “I’mreallysorrythatIwasanarsetoyouandIamyourroomateandIbrought food.”

The roommate just blinked and looked puzzled as he looked as if he was trying to distinguish what words he could make up from the rushed sentence that came out of Enjolras’s mouth. “Could you say that again, my understanding for gibberish is not brilliant.” He replied in an amused tone. Enjolras let out a sigh of relief as it meant that he wasn’t that deep in the pile of shit that he had created when he told his roommate to ‘piss off.’

“I am sorry that we didn’t get off on the right foot, and I am sorry that I was rather rude to you. I found out that we are roommates and I brought you food as a peace offering.” Enjolras said as he reached for the plastic bag with all of the food that he bought from the corner shop and he passed it to his roommate, who looked inside it with a look of amusement as he pulled out the packet of cheese slices.

“You know that most people just buy booze to make friends.” The man said as he opened up the door further and gestured for Enjolras to walk into the apartment, that was still a bit of a pig sty but it was considerably cleaner that it was before. “You don’t need to apologise for telling me to piss off, it happens all of the time and I am pretty much used to it. If you have a face like mine, you get used to comments like that all the time.”

Enjolras didn’t say anything for a few moments and looked at his roommate’s face, he didn’t know what his roommate was talking about, his roommate wasn’t ugly as you might say, but he wasn’t like a model. He just looked average, but his nose looked as if it had been broken several times and there was the faint scaring that was from acne from what must have been his younger years. But he wasn’t ugly, with his brown eyes, they weren’t like chocolate or hazel brown but the colour of mud. But in his eyes, Enjolras wouldn’t consider his roommate to be bad looking.

“I know that you are wondering how I turned out so ugly.” His roommate said with an air of nonchalance to his voice. “This is what happens when you do boxing, it messes your face up. “

“Were you any good?”

“I think that I was rather good, but it made my face the way it is, but you should see the other guy.” The roommate said with a chuckle to his voice that resembled a bark.

Enjolras didn’t say anything for a few moments, mostly as he didn’t know what to say. Actually that was a lie as he had things that he was wanting to say, but he thought that it would be strange of him to apologise or to ask his roommate why he was naked and eating a sandwich. And Enjolras had just met the guy and it was probably too soon to ask questions about nudity when he didn’t even know the name of his roommate. Enjolras had sunk the ship of introductions when he told his roommate to piss off instead of ‘Hi, and your name might be?’ Perhaps asking for his roommate’s name would be a good idea and a starting point for a positive start of the year.

“My name is-“

“Enjolr-ass.” His roommate said cutting him off, his voice sounding rather muffled due to the fact that he was eating the cheese and chutney sandwich that Enjolras had bought him. “Do your parent’s want you to go through a life of substitute teacher’s butchering your name and not having your name on a keychain?”

“It is Enjolras.” Enjolras muttered with a sigh, due to the fact that he would have to go through the painful process of having to teach people how to say his name, once again. Enjolras knew that he was getting his hopes up when he thought that people might be able to say his name by some miracle or some force, after years of having people just looking at his name and calling him ‘Mr Enchallades,’ as apparently that was easier to say than Enjolras. But that hope soon came crashing down when the realisation that no one was ever going to pronounce his name right on the first go. It was a fact of life, such as pigs would never fly not unless they were on an aeroplane in first class, and Enjolras would need to learn to accept it or he was going to experience some serious Dukkha. “It is pronounced, ‘Ahn-Jahl-Rah’” Enjolras said pronouncing each syllable carefully, so that his roommate would understand, and as he did this, he considered getting a name tag that had his name written phonetically so that he didn’t need to go through the rather tedious routine on teaching people to say his name and to be honest it was rather annoying having to do it a minimum of five times a day.

“Should I be writing this down?” The roommate said through a bite of sandwich as he started to go through the mountain of boxes in the search of a pen and something to write on. After a few minutes of fruitless searching, roommate seemed to give up his search and he sat back down on the beanbag that he was sitting on before and continued to eat his sandwich. “Do you have a nickname or something? Enjy? Apollo?”

“If you call me that again, I will rip out your balls.” Enjolras muttered as he removed his jacket and tried to find a suitable location to put it that wasn’t the floor or on an area that didn’t look rather sus pious.

“Oh aren’t you the charmer, I can see that the women have to cut off their hands to keep them off you.” His roommate said as stood up and went into the mini fridge and pulled out and pulled out a can of soda that was some generic store bought brand that probably tasted like a mixture of acid, chemicals and disappointment as it wasn’t actually real Pepsi. “Are you wanting one, Ahn-Jahl-Rah.” The roommate asks with a smirk on his lips as he makes the effort to drawl out each part of the name with a sense of laziness that only someone who was the queen bee in high school can manage.

Deciding that he would like to have his taste buds remaining and not having them doused in the chemicals of a generic soda that could cause him to get a rare illness or attain superpowers, Enjolras refuses one. “There is one thing that I want to know.” Enjolras says as he throws his jacket on top of the television, “Do you mind telling me your name?” Enjolras asks in an attempt to change the subject as he is not fully comfortable about talking about women or any one in that fashion. He has little interest in people in general not unless they are interested in his political views or are just Combeferre, and Enjolras is fine with that. He can’t change the way he is, and he doesn’t see the point in suddenly being interested in someone for the sake of being normal.

“I am Grantaire, or you can call me Taire or R. And if you understand the joke, I congratulate you” The roommate or now Grantaire says, looking at Enjolras’s outstretched hand for a moment before high fiving it. “I can pronounce it for you in case that will be needed, but I doubt that you need my assistance.”

“I think that I can manage on my own, if I can get into a politics course, I can certainly learn how to say your name.” Enjolras snorted at Grantaire’s offer.

“Well we weren’t all blessed with difficult names.” Grantaire sighed dramatically as he collapsed onto the beanbag chair, with a mock air of defeat about him as he placed his hand upon his heart. “First of all you tell me to piss off and then you tell me that my name is not difficult to say, oh how you wound me, Enjolras.”

“I am positive that you will get over it. Like the hit song from Frozen that has been bothering me for nearly two years, here is my advice, let it go.” Enjolras grumbled as he threw his bags on the floor for dramatic effect to show his dislike for Grantaire, he would slam a door as he went into his room, but unfortunately he couldn’t do that as the bedroom was a room with two beds on either side on it, so throwing his bags would have to do.

“I can tell that we are going to get on swimmingly then.” Grantaire points out as he takes gulps a sip of his generic store bought nastiness and then somehow produces a loud burp that echoes through the dorm room, bouncing off the yellow painted brick walls in a rather impressive fashion. As Enjolras sighs about how disgusting his roommate is and wonders if he slips the office boy some more money, that he would be able to get him a new roommate at the least, someone who can’t burp the alphabet would be nice.

“You look like the fussy type.” Grantaire points out, once he finishes his sandwich and he moves to the jar or jam that Enjolras bought for him and he pulls out a spoon from his pocket and starts to eat it straight out of the jar. Enjolras looks at him with a look of complete and utter despair as Grantaire shoves the first spoon in his mouth and manages to get jam down his shirt. The way that Grantaire eats, absolutely disgusts Enjolras, but for some reason, he cannot look away from it. You would think that Grantaire would be full from just eating two sandwiches, but he is not. It wouldn’t surprise Enjolras if he finds out that his roommate discovers that he has worms during the year.

“What about it?” Enjolras asks

“Nothing, just pointing something out. Just wondering if you would be the guy who has a big roommate agreement or something. ”

“You know most people don’t tell others that they ‘look fussy,’ Enjolras mumbles as he stares at the wall that has a poster of some random man who looks as if he has one the genetics lottery with a fake smile that make him look like a Ken doll. What makes the man look as if he is more like a Ken doll is that he is on a pink motor bike, that makes it look as if Barbie has given him permission to drive to the mall on it, while she has a manicure getting done. The poster makes Enjolras roll his eyes when he looks at it, on the ridiculousness of it, however he would rather look at it, than Grantaire who is still eating. “Also when there roommate is speaking to them, they tend to stop eating.”

However despite his best efforts to gauge Grantaire out of eating and to force him to at least look up from his food, he doesn’t stop.

“What is wrong with you? Do you have worms or something?” Enjolras exclaims as he checks his watch. “I have known you for less than an hour and all the time you have not stopped eating.”

This seems to grab Grantaire’s attention as he does look up from his food, and up at Enjolras for a brief moment. If Enjolras looks carefully, enough, he can swear that Grantaire’s eyes look sad for a brief second, but only in the light, as it goes away soon enough. Maybe he was a little cruel to Grantaire, but he was being honest. Besides, Enjolras was positive that he doesn’t look fussy. He looks like Enjolras. It would be something to ask his friends later on.

“Are you wanting some?” Grantaire asks, gingerly shoving the jar in Enjolras’s direction as he pulls out another spoon from his pocket after a few moments of silence that only involves Grantaire playing with his spoon and Enjolras staring at Grantaire in disgust.. Enjolras takes the spoon, as a way to show that he has forgiven Grantaire for his nakedness, but makes no effort to eat the jam, claiming that he has allergies, when in reality, he doesn’t want to have the opportunity to catch something from Grantaire just by eating some jam. Plus they have just met and it would be a bit soon to be doing something this intimate, sharing a jar of jam together. If he was going to share a jar of jam with Grantaire, he would want Grantaire to buy him dinner first.

“I’m sorry for going off at you like that.” Enjolras says with a sigh as he throws the spoon into Grantaire’s direction. Grantaire manages to catch the spoon expertly in one hand and shoves it back into his pocket with a fluid motion. Grantaire still doesn’t say anything and he just moves his eyes to the jar of jam, not eating but instead he just stirs it around with his spoon. “It was wrong for me to do so. Everything has been crap for me recently and this day has been terrible and I was wrong for me to take it out on you. You can eat as much as you want; it is your apartment as well as mine. I don’t want to deny you of a human right, as I am for justice and all that.”

Once he has finished speaking, Enjolras lets out another sigh. It was probably the most shit apology that he has ever given in his life, but it is probably the most heartfelt one that he has given. He is not good at apologies, he is not even good in the area of feelings. This is why he has Combeferre and Courfeyrac. Combeferre is his brain and he can do the functions for him, such as doing long division and apologising for him, while Courfeyrac is his heart and he deals with all of the emotional stuff for him, as Enjolras is positive that he has the emotional range of a really small teaspoon, as he is part robot and ice man. It was a shame that Combeferre and Courfeyrac weren’t here as the two of them together could create the best apology that could ever exist, and Enjolras is positive that without them, he would end up just being alone, and that is rather fighting possibility that could actually happen any day. As to be honest, who would want to be friends with a robot, other than the gang from Star Wars?

“It is fine.” Grantaire states as he places a smile on his face that might not be real in the slightest. “What kind of stuff that has been causing you problems?” He asks, seeming to forget about what happened only a few moments ago.

“Just family stuff.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.” Enjolras says as he draws himself in and folds his arms over his knees, being in the beanbag helps him go into a smaller ball, but Enjolras knows that being in a bean bag isn’t going to be good on his back and he is going to pay for it later on. But he really couldn’t care. He takes in a deep breath and another and he prays that Grantaire just changes the subject and doesn’t make him, ‘Evaluate his emotional state,’ which Combeferre has gotten rather fond of doing so lately, Enjolras is at the point that he wouldn’t be surprised if Combeferre attaches wires to him and asks him questions about ink blots. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to burden all of his crap on Grantaire, who he has just met and he has just been a complete and utter arse to in the short time that they have been together. Enjolras likes to keep his life private and he doesn’t exactly want to put his whole life on the table for everyone to see and to judge. He doesn’t do it for anyone else , and he doesn’t expect or have the desire for anyone else to do it to his life.

Grantaire leans forward and places a hand on his shoulder and gives it a firm squeeze and looks at Enjolras and gives him a small smile. From this small action, he can tell that Grantaire is trying to say, ‘If you need to talk, I can and I will listen to you.’ Enjolras nods at Grantaire, mostly as he doesn’t know what to say. But Enjolras doesn’t think that he will take Grantaire up on his silent offer, but he appreciates the sentiment neither the less.

“Have you met any of the neighbours yet?” Grantaire asks after a few moments, Enjolras supposes that it is an attempt to brighten up his mood.

Before Enjolras can take him up on his question, there is a knocking on the door and soon two voices echo through the wooden door, both shouting Grantaire’s name, as if they have been waiting outside the door for this que go make themselves known. Before Enjolras can even make his way out of the bean bag to open the door, the door bursts open to reveal two boys who are laughing hysterically upon entrance and they both go over to Grantaire and perform a complex handshake that involves finger snapping, jumping up and down and for some reason some Beyoncé dance moves. Once they get through the routine they hug each other as if they haven’t seen each other in several years, and it makes Enjolras feel like the fourth wheel that shouldn’t be there.

Grantaire manages to pull himself away from the two boys and when he speaks, he shouts a bit, just so he can get heard over the two of them. “Enjolras, these are two idiots who managed to get my arse through high school and hopefully they will do the same for university. They have managed to get me through my first year, let’s hope they can do it through the rest of the time here. ” This results in the three boys laughing hysterically, one of them, the smaller boy has tears in his eyes and he is clinging onto Grantaire’s shoulder and his cane as if they are the only things from keeping him from floating off the floor, with his knuckles turning white. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FɪndNøvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Enjolras, this is Joly.” Grantaire says as he points to the boy with the cane. The first thing that Enjolras notices about him is that from underneath his shorts, he has a fake leg with dinosaur stickers on it, but Enjolras doesn’t pay much attention to that as he has a bright pair of yellow shoes with hot rod flames on them to make them look cooler, Enjolras wonders. He is wearing a buttoned shirt that is covered in cats and Enjolras notices that he is wearing a horrendous pair of socks that are covered in lady bugs with umbrellas that are in different neon colours. He is the shortest out of the two, but he has the loudest laugh out of all of them and for some reason he is wearing a scarf and a cardigan, despite the fact that it is still summer. Joly stops laughing for a moment, looks at Enjolras and gives him a small wave before he continue to laugh at something that the other boy has said to Grantaire, probably an inside joke that was told years ago.

The other boy steps forward from the group and the first thing that Enjolras notices is that the boy is bald, underneath the fedora that he is wearing . Enjolras is not too sure that the boy being bald is a fashion choice or that something has caused it. He is the tallest one out of the three of them and well-built with the shoulders of a rugby player. The other thing that Enjolras notices is that the boy’s clothes are covered in stains and there is a hole in his jacket. That looks as if he has caught the sleeve on something sticking out as he brushed passed it.

“My name is Lesgle, but I tend to get called Bossuet a lot.” Bossuet says as he removes his hat and points to his bald head as if it is an explanation for his nickname. Clearly it was meant to be a funny nickname, as it sends Grantaire and Joly into fits of laughter once Bossuet says it. Maybe it was a in joke of some sorts or that would have to be something for Enjolras to Google once he unpacked.

Enjolras doesn’t say anything, but he thinks that he must have a confused expression on his face, as Bossuet replaces the hat back on his head and places a hand on Enjolras’s shoulder. “It is fine if you don’t get the joke, many people don’t. Grantaire thought that he would be kind enough to give me a nickname after an old guy.” Bossuet shakes his head and lets out a chuckle in Grantaire’s direction. “It is certainly better than being called Mr Clean or Charles Xavier all the time.”

“Well it is nice to meet you.” Enjolras says to both Joly and Bossuet, with a nod in each of their directions. He decides that Joly and Bossuet are rather nice, but they tend to be rather loud, especially Joly, who has the most contagious laugh in the room and he even manages to bring a laugh out of everyone, even from him and that is a rather high achievement. He learns that Joly is studying medicine and is wanting to become a prosthetist , even though he has just met Joly, Enjolras can already tell that Joly will be liked by his patients, as he has the charm and the ability to get liked by everyone as soon as he opens up his mouth. He finds it easy to talk to Joly and he doesn’t feel that he really needs to try to do so, and conversation flows between them, and it somehow manages to push the thoughts of how horrid his day has been out of his head. He notices that Joly will often whisper things to Grantaire and hobble about on his stick to look at the cupboards and Grantaire’s things, as if he is looking for something. Enjolras doesn’t know what it is he is looking for, as Joly doesn’t say. But under his breath Joly keeps muttering about Grantaire not having a proper diet.

Talking to Bossuet is completely different to talking to Joly. While Joly is out going and is the light of the room, Bossuet is quieter and more reserved, but when he doesn’t speak, he is laughing and he always have a smile on his face. Enjolras is happy to find out that Bossuet is studying law, as it means that he can have someone to debate with if the time comes. He also learns that Bossuet has changed his area of learning and subjects, several times in his time in university and has had dreadful luck with them all, but law seems to be the best subject for him and it is the class that he is doing the best with. Bossuet is a few years older and he is going to be leaving at the end of the year in the hopes that he can get a job in a law firm. He discovers that Bossuet seems to have bad luck with quite a lot of things. Bossuet never tells any of these stories, Grantaire and Joly do instead and Bossuet only goes red and just laughs at them; however he refuses to even let Joly mention the story about the evil chicken, as apparently that one is far too embarrassing.

Grantaire doesn’t say much about himself during the time that Bossuet and Joly are in their apartment, however from the odd comment that he heard from Joly, he finds out that Grantaire is also rather athletic as well as a boxer he is a gymnast and he occasionally fences. Enjolras be lives that the reason that Grantiare doesn’t say much about himself, if that Joly and Bossuet already know everything there is to know about Grantaire, and Grantaire doesn’t see the point in retelling new information, when two thirds of the people he is with already knows him.

Joly and Bossuet soon leave, but as Joly heads out the door he stops and bangs his cane against the door to grab Grantaire’s attention as Grantaire switches on his music player, plugs himself in and he starts reading a music magazine the moment that his friends stand up and make their way to the door.

“What is it Joly?” Grantaire asks as he removes his ear phone, with the music still playing , the music is too loud and from the noise he can hear, Enjolras can make out the lyrics to one of the songs from the wicked soundtrack. “I was trying to get inspired and you are preventing me from doing so.”

“I was going to invite you to soup and board game night tomorrow, as it is Monday and I want to keep up the tradition from high school.” Joly says as he leans against the door frame with an air of non-chalice. “ But if you don’t want to go, that is fine. I just don’t want you to starve and Bossuet has brought Hungry, Hungry Hippos with him this year.” Joly says as he shoots a smile towards Bossuet.

“You guys are like one of those couples that have been married for twenty years and the honeymoon magic hasn’t worn off yet.” Grantaire says as he rolls his eyes at his friends.

“Well you are only jealous.” Bossuet says as he pokes his head though the door. “I am positive that Joly and I won’t ever have a friendship break up or a proper one. We are simply too cool to have one.”

Joly swats Bossuet’s shoulder and tells him to shut up, but Joly’s cheeks have gone red and Bossuet is chuckling as he gives a final wave and he goes into his apartment. Grantaire only rolls his eyes at the behaviour of his two friends, but he doesn’t say anything, but Enjolras can tell with the way that Grantaire keeps opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish that he really wants to say something, but he is too polite to say anything.

“So are you wanting to come or not?” Joly asks after a few moments once he manages to get the colour of his cheeks to turn to a more normal and natural shade. However Joly’s ears are still pink, even after a few moments.

“Fine.” Grantaire sighs as if he is being forced to climb up Mordor with the ring by himself. He closes his magazine and he looks at Joly with the equivalent of puppy dog eyes that are in the human form. “But it better be tomato soup you make.”

“What else would it be Taire?” Joly says as he walks to bean bag that Grantaire is on and ruffles Grantaire’s hair, even though it makes no difference to Grantiare’s hair as it looks like a bird’s nest already. Grantaire lets Joly do it for a maximum of two seconds before he grabs Joly and starts to tickle him. Joly’s laughter echoes through the apartment as the two of them play fight. Enjolras watches for a brief moment, before he looks away as he just feels that he is being a spare part and he is almost intruding on the two them. He looks at his bag and he starts to pull out his jumpers to refold them the right way, so he can put them in the dresser, in the attempt to look busy.

Once he has gotten to folding the fifth jumper the correct way and into his drawer, Grantaire and Joly stop fighting. Grantaire’s hair looks five sizes bigger than it should be and Joly’s cat shirt looks as if could do with a good iron. He looks at the two of them, and as if they are identical twins, Joly and Grantaire point at each other and say in unison. “He started it.”

“I should be going.” Joly says as he stands up, moving slowly as he holds onto Grantare’s arm as he does so. Wobbling once he actually gets to his feet. Grantaire doesn’t say anything but he lets Joly hold on to him for as much as he needs to until he gets his balance. Enjolras picks up Joly’s cane that has somehow managed to get to the other side of the room and it is lying on the chair Grantiare has claimed for himself, and he hands it to Joly, who thanks him once he gets the cane. “I look forward to seeing you tomorrow R.” Joly says with a large smile on his face. Just as Joly leave the room once more, he goes back inside for a brief moment. Enjolras lets out a sigh but he keeps it hidden as he thinks about how Joly and Bossuet never seem to leave the apartment. “Enjolras you can come along if you want, the more the merrier and maybe you can beat Grantaire at Hungry Hippos.”

“Do you need help with the stairs?” Grantaire asks as Joly is about to leave the apartment.

“I think that I will be fine.” Joly says with a shake of his hand. “ I will need to get used to getting up and down these ones anyway. I got a new leg not too long ago and I will need to practice on it, plus the elevator smells of urine and I don’t want to get ill from stepping in pee.”

“If you are sure.”

“Grantaire, I have managed to tutor you in maths, I am positive that I can make it up the stairs by myself.” Joly says with his voice having a bit of an edge to it. “I should and help make dinner. Try and not scare your roommate too much.” The smile goes back onto Joly’s face as gives a final wave and leaves the apartment and doesn’t come back this time.

“They seem nice.” Enjolras points out once Grantaire sits himself back down on his bean bag. Enjolras doesn’t sit down and he continues to fold his jumpers and put them into his drawer one by one. He is only on jumper number six and he has another ten jumpers to do before he can finish and move on to his shirts.

“They the best people that you will ever meet.” Grantaire says fondly as he picks up his magazine that he was reading before. “They have the ability to make anyone laugh, even when there day has been very shitty. Speaking from experience.”

“Are you fine with me coming around to their soup night?” Enjolras asks as he puts the jumper that he was folding into the drawer. He turns around to face Grantaire and looks at him before he speaks. “ I don’t want to intrude on you and your friends. And I shouldn’t be the one to do so, I have been horrible today.”

“Joly said that you are invited and I recommend that you go because he will whack you with his stick if you don’t.” Grantaire says, with a bark of a laugh. “He is making extra soup and everything. Besides it some other people who will be there as well. It is going to be a block party, but there will be no drinking or anything. It is not Haram and Joly is not really keen on drinking.” Grantaire says with his voice trailing off as if he forgotten the other half of his sentence.

“If it is alright with you.” Enjolras says. “Joly was rather interesting to talk to and he said that he was going to show me an article about cats having physic powers.”

“He is. And if you are going to apologise again for earlier on, just don’t.” Grantaire says as he has a bit of a tone to his voice as he picks up his magazine and holds it to his face. He doesn’t sound angry about it, but he sounds really fed up with Enjolras repeating the word sorry to him. “You have apologised enough for the whole year and I don’t think you will need to say sorry to me again.”

Enjolras only sighs but there is a smile on his face, as he knows that this might be the sure sign that he is going to get along with his roommate.

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