Chapter Text
The second time he met up with Grantaire was a coincidence more than anything.
Two days into July, he had been invited by Combeferre and Courfeyrac to an arcade near their school because a hangout just between the three of them hadn’t happened in a while. Enjolras wasn’t one to visit that place often—Hell, he barely played video games in general—but he always enjoyed spending time with his closest friends. Plus, with how hot it was outside, a location with ample air conditioning sounded great.
However, it didn’t take long for the three to realize they probably didn’t think this outing through; while Combeferre and Courfeyrac were enjoying themselves to the fullest, Enjolras found himself struggling, not exactly sure how to play the arcade’s games well. Well, he could figure out how to play them perfectly fine, but it was winning games that he couldn’t figure out. He stuck out like a sore thumb next to Courfeyrac, who seemed to have the Midas touch when it came to games of luck, and Combeferre, who had his initials at the top of multiple high score leaderboards.
In an attempt to see if he’d have better luck elsewhere, he decided to head off on his own, wandering around the building and looking at all the machines it offered. He was close to the other side of the arcade when someone called out to him.
“Hey Enj! You lost?”
He turned towards the direction of the voice and found Grantaire, who was sitting down at a table near the snack bar.
“Grantaire? What are you doing here?”
Grantaire wiped his mouth and dropped the used napkin on the remains of a churro. “I had to cover a shift for someone at work this morning, but I decided to come here when I was done since I heard Courf and ‘Ferre would be here today.” He stretched and got up to throw away his trash. “Didn’t expect you to be here, though…”
Enjolras gave an awkward chuckle. “Well, it’s probably obvious I don’t come here often. But those guys are my best friends, so of course I was going to say yes when they invited me this morning.”
“If they’re your best friends, then why are you all by yourself right now?”
Caught off guard by Grantaire’s reply, Enjolras felt his cheeks warm up as he quickly tried to bite back. Grantaire laughed as he walked back to the table.
“Don’t worry, I was joking. You looked dazed when you were wandering around, though, so how about I join you? I know they won’t mind.”
He had nothing to lose, so he allowed Grantaire to tag along.
They spent some time exploring the arcade, which mainly consisted of Grantaire showing Enjolras his favorite games, telling him what to do, and then watching him try them out. Much to his dismay, his bad luck streak continued, and with the exception of a couple games he had as much success as he had when he was with Combeferre and Courfeyrac.
“Who knew the mighty Apollo’s weakness was arcade games?”
Enjolras froze when he heard “mighty Apollo”. It had been forever since Grantaire called him that. It had been his favorite thing to call him during arguments at ABC meetings, always delivered with a sarcastic tone and a shit-eating grin.
(This time, however, those were swapped out for a softer tone and grin respectively—which made it hit much differently, though in a way that was indescribable to him.)
“Why are you calling me Apollo?”
“Well, you fit the image, don’t you? Blonde pretty boy reminiscent of the Sun?”
He rolled his eyes. “Come on, let’s go look at some other stuff.”
And so, they continued making their way through the arcade, before Grantaire randomly stopped.
“Hey, you’ve gotta come play this with me.”
He dragged Enjolras to a nearby machine that had what appeared to be a giant music player and two metal pads covered in arrows in front of it.
“... Dance Dance Revolution ?” Enjolras read what appeared to be the title of the game off of the sign on the machine, sounding a little confused.
“Trust me, this game rocks.”
And so, he soon found himself on one of the pads, with Grantaire next to him.
“How do you even play this?”
“A tutorial’ll show up in a second. Just follow what happens.”
The tutorial began, and Enjolras, though initially hesitant with his movements, got the hang of it relatively easily.
“See? You’re getting it!” He turned to his left to see Grantaire give him a large smile. For a moment, he would have called it adorable, but he moved away from that thought as fast as he could.
“I doubt you’ll know most songs here, so do you mind if I choose the music?” After Enjolras nodded, Grantaire took some time to scroll through the songs available before deciding on something that sounded extremely happy and very, very fast. He made sure Enjolras had the easy beatmap of the song, while he put down the hardest possible mode for himself.
As the music played, Enjolras tried to focus on getting the notes down, but this turned out to be a bigger challenge than he expected—primarily because Grantaire was distractingly good at this game. He thought nobody would be able to decipher even half of the notes that filled his side of the screen, and yet he was keeping a full combo and showing off while he did it. Grantaire was flat-out dancing while Enjolras had trouble hitting two notes at the same time.
It appeared that other people in the arcade were enchanted by his skills as well, with a small crowd forming by the time they made it to the second song. When the round ended, Grantaire was met with applause from the mob, and he sheepishly waved. At the same time, Enjolras looked like all the energy in him was completely drained, visibly dazed and out of breath as he got off the pad.
As the crowd dispersed, Combeferre and Courfeyrac reunited with Enjolras.
“Ditched us for your own date, huh?” Courfeyrac’s joke made Enjolras yelp.
“No… I was trying to see if I’d have better luck with other games, and I ended up bumping into Grantaire.”
“How did this guy manage to be so bad at most stuff here? I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone have that much trouble with Whack-A-Mole…”
Enjolras, somewhat embarrassed, crossed his arms and replied with, “Well, you managed to miss every shot at that carnival game the other day. I guess we’re even now.”
“But this is, like, the equivalent of me missing those shots 20 different times,” Grantaire responded lightheartedly.
“Wait, Enj,” Combeferre interjected, “You were still struggling with games? I’m really sorry about that, we would’ve chosen to go somewhere else if we knew it’d be this bad.”
“You don’t have to worry about that! You guys were having a lot of fun, anyway…”
“Our son is growing up…”
The others looked at Courfeyrac as he interrupted in a comically melodramatic manner before pretending to faint into Combeferre’s arms. He kept up the act, proceeding to fake sob to the dismay of random onlookers.
“Okay, okay, you can stop now,” Combeferre replied, lightheartedly annoyed with his antics.
Grantaire laughed. “Yeah, you can get front seats at our wedding if you calm down.”
“WHAT?!”
Enjolras’ face was already red from a mix of the physical movement needed for DDR and the rest of the conversation, but Grantaire’s reply made his cheeks match the color of his sweater vest.
Eventually, the group of four were on the move again, playing games together and winning some fun prizes. The fun had to end sooner or later, though, and when a phone call reminded Combeferre of a movie marathon he planned with some of their other friends, he and Courfeyrac said their goodbyes, leaving Enjolras with Grantaire.
“Do you have a way to get home?” Grantaire asked after their friends exited the building.
“My house is only a bus stop and a quick walk away, I’ll be fine.”
“You sure? I have my car, so I can drop you off if you want.”
“I'm not going to be mugged, I promise.”
Grantaire lightly laughed before replying. “No, I just don’t think this is the kind of weather you’d wanna be walking home in, especially with long pants and layers.”
Enjolras realized he was probably right—it was already a bit of a challenge getting to the arcade that morning with how hot it was, and it would probably be even hotter now.
“In that case, can I take you up on your offer?”
“Of course!”
They made their way to the entrance of the arcade, and Enjolras was halfway through the door before his stomach growled, reminding him that he still had to eat lunch.
“...Hey, can we grab something to eat before you drop me off?”
“I don’t normally eat here for a number of reasons, but it’s the closest place to my house that won’t make me wait forever for my food.”
“I think that’s supposed to be the appeal of fast food…”
Enjolras and Grantaire sat in the latter’s car, eating McDonald’s while they were parked in the lot of the restaurant.
As he and Grantaire ate, they talked about nothing in particular, and before he knew it they were done with their food and driving off. Soon enough, Grantaire’s car pulled up in front of Enjolras’ house.
“Well, I’ll see you around, Enj. Can I text you if I want us to meet up again?”
“I don’t see why not, I gave you my number after all.”
Enjolras waved goodbye to Grantaire as he drove off, marking the end of their second time spent together as friends.