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“You know how much I love my family. My mum is the greatest and I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I don’t want to hear them going ‘Ah why are you still single?’ for five days.”, with a groan Jehan let his head fall back against the edge of the bathtub, dripping water on the floor with his long hair.
“And that’s why you are in my bathroom?”, Éponine asked unimpressed from where she was sitting on the floor, rubbing her eyes tiredly. It was too early for this.
“Uh yes? Courfeyrac’s bathtub was uhm occupied...", Jehan shrugged and blushed lightly. To be honest he hadn’t known the bathtub in Courfs and Enjolras’ apartment had enough room for two people. But he also hadn’t known, that Enjolras was able to let out such an undignified squeak.
At least Grantaire had kept his cool.
And, because Éponine’s bathtub was his second favorite one, he had given it a try.
His friend only shook her head. “Well, but you know, that there was a faint chance that not I but Montparnasse would walk in here, don’t you?”
“Wait, he’s home?!”, Jehan shrieked and the shock made him lose his balance and slip under the water. When he came back up it was spluttering and with wet strands of hair in his face.
“Yeah, you graceful creature, he’s home.”, Éponine laughed, while Jehan tried to keep his cool. Some weeks ago while being completely drunk, he had told Éponine about his crush on her flatmate. Apparently, it had included an impromptu poem, with an overuse of the raven. Since then, she had been teasing him and had dragged Montparnasse along to some of their study sessions. It was the reason, she wasn’t his favorite person anymore.
“And you know what? I have an idea, that might solve your problem.”, she continued and damn Jehan mentally scratched the last thought, she was back to be his most beloved!
“You do?”, Jehan’s eyes lit up. Really, he loved his family, but he had 8 aunts and uncles, who were constantly asking him about his love life and it was exhausting, to say the least.
*
Éponine was a bad person, a cunning and bad person.
Not much later Jehan found himself on her sofa and much to his joy joined by Montparnasse.
The latter had come out of his room, not wearing much more than boxers, and muttering something about sleeping in on the weekend and stabbing somebody(probably Éponine, who had woken him up). It wasn’t until he saw Jehan, that his whole expression changed. Jehan wasn’t sure, but he could have been sure, that the other man had been blushing.
“What is he doing here?”, Montparnasse asked, not unfriendly, just confused.
“He took a bath.”, Éponine said, without further explanation and Montparnasse stared at her and then at Jehan, his expression growing more quizzical.
“Yeah, I need a shirt for this kind of shit.”
When he tried to turn around, Éponine grabbed him by the arm and maneuvered him to the sofa, where she pressed him into cushions. Then she stood in front of the two men, who tried pointedly not to look at each other.
“Oh god. Guys, you know each other.”, when Montparnasse opened his mouth, she shut him up with a dismissive gesture. “Yeah, I know ‘Parnasse you are very uncool before your first cup of coffee.” Then she added something that somehow sounded like ‘pining idiots’.
“Okay, before I get killed, I have an idea.”, she then continued. “Gentlemen. ‘I need a date for Christmas’ meet ‘What do you mean you’ll invite your siblings? I need a place to stay for Christmas.’”
Jehan had to give her that, her imitation of the two men’s voices was amazing. He would have told her that if he hadn’t understood what her idea was.
“Wait, do you mean… Should I take Montparnasse to my family? As my boyfriend??”, if his voice was higher than usual than it meant absolutely nothing.
“Yes. Or his fake-boyfriend, or whatever. But look, both of you have been whining and I don’t exactly want to have to put up with you on Christmas, ‘Parnasse.”
The black-haired man sneered in response and then scrutinized Jehan next to him as if he hadn’t been looking at him all the time, whenever the two of them were in the same room.
“You know what? I’m in.”, he said with a wry grin. “Everything is better than Gavroche on a sugar high.”
*
And so one week later, Jehan found himself on the train next to Montparnasse and on the way to his family. When he had told them, he would bring his boyfriend over the phone his mother had let out a scream and had called for her sisters to ‘come the fuck down here, my child is finally getting laid!’. Yeah, Jehan really loved his family.
After that, he had spent four hours on the phone answering their questions as vaguely as possible.
They two men sat there in companionable silence, although Jehan knew they should work out a story, something to tell the others. Maybe something believable. It would be interesting enough to see his family react to Montparnasse. If anybody thought Jehan had bad fashion taste (that had been the first thing Montparnasse had ever said to him), then his family could be kind of a shocking revelation. They kind of were stuck in some hippie-lifestyle, at least his mother and her sister were. He had no idea Montparnasse, with his perfect composure and fashion sense could fit in there.
Jehan watched the landscape outside rush by when Montparnasse broke the silence.
“So, what did you tell them?”, he asked, his eyes half closed. He looked tired and weirdly young, with his hair down and a relaxed expression.
“Not much, just that I’ll bring my boyfriend.”
“So, no great story, I should have memorized?”
“Oh, no. But maybe we should work on that?”, Jehan felt the heat in his cheeks and he was glad, that Montparnasse’s eyes had fallen completely shut by now. The other man only hummed in agreement, prompting Jehan to start.
“Okay, how about we say, we got to know each other trough Éponine?”, that was the truth after all. “And I don’t know? We were just attracted to each other and then we ran into each other more and more often and one day I don’t know…”, he trailed off. Up until here, the whole story was the truth, at least for him.
“And one day, I found you at arse o’clock in my bathtub and I decided to join?”, Montparnasse suggested with a wolfish grin. “Close enough to the truth for you?”
And before Jehan could find out what exactly he had meant, the man had drifted off to sleep.
*
“Ah look at you!”, the booming voice of Élisabeth greeted the two men as so as they had gotten out of the cab. It was soon accompanied by the sight of a small woman in a dress, that was way too big. She almost stumbled over it, twice before she reached them.
“Look at you!”, she caught Jehan in a bone-crushing hug, before releasing him and looking Montparnasse up and down.
He didn’t seem to be put off by the greeting, with a swift motion he took her hand and placed a kiss. Anybody else would look ridiculous doing, but seeing Montparnasse act like this made Jehan’s knees buckle and he cleared his throat. “I think we should get to the house, you’re not wearing any shoes.”, he pointed out. And true his oldest aunt was indeed not wearing any shoes in the snow.
With a shrug, she grabbed both him and Montparnasse by the hand and led them to the house.
Usually only Jehan’s mother and his aunt Marguerite lived in the house, but over the holidays all of their sisters came together to celebrate. So as soon as they stepped through the front door Montparnasse was surrounded by seven small women, in colorful dresses. If he was honest, it reminded Jehan a bit of Snow White.
Montparnasse with his pale skin and black hair between the women, who were guiding him to the living room already bombarding him with questions, truly looked like a picture from a children's book.
This was going to be hell.
Jehan decided to follow his family and was greeted by the sight of Montparnasse on the old orange sofa. He truly looked out of place between the plants, that were taking up every free space, the books and the many mismatched quilts.
As he took the scene in Jehan felt a tug at his heart. He could definitely get used to this. Before he could get lost in daydreams he was pulled on the couch and the interrogation began.
*
It wasn’t until late that night when the two of them were finally able to get away. On the way to their room, Jehan apologized. “They are a bit much, I am sorry. It’s… they are very excitable, I guess I got that from them, but really I am sorry…”
Montparnasse interrupted him with a snort and put his finger on Jehan’s lips. “It’s okay. They are nice, I mean they have no sense of interior design or clothing, but I got the impression that runs in the family.”
“I have no idea, what you mean.”, Jehan retorted.
“Yeah, I can see that you have no idea.”, Montparnasse was smirking and if Jehan were braver and if they really were in a relationship, he would grab him by the collar, press him against the wall and his him, until they both weren’t able to stand.
But he wasn’t and they weren’t so he was left with a frustrated huff, as he opened the door to his old room.
And shit, he had forgotten about that.
They had to share the fucking bed.
“Mum!”, he shouted and it made Montparnasse jump in surprise.
“Yes, honey?”, five voices came back from the ground floor and Jehan groaned. He sometimes forgot, that he somehow had seven mothers. They all like that at least.
“I mean Jeanne!”, he shot back.
Soon enough his mother came up the stairs and leaned against the doorway. “Is something wrong?”, she asked innocently, but the twinkle in her eyes betrayed her.
“Uhm…”, Jehan started looking at Montparnasse for help. He couldn’t very much ask for them to sleep in different rooms. That would definitely blow their cover, but Montparnasse was busy unpacking.
“Uh…” “We would probably need another set of bedsheets. I hog the blankets.”, Montparnasse was a saint!
He stepped beside Jehan and put one arm around his hip. Yeah, he could get used to this.
His mother was more than happy with that. “Ah yes, give me a minute, I’ll go find them.”
“Thank you!”, Jehan blurted out. “I had no idea what to say.”
“It’s fine. I don’t about you, but I don’t have a problem with sharing…”, Montparnasse added absentmindedly and Jehan only nodded dumbly.
“So your mother’s name is Jeanne? And she called you Jehan?”, Montparnasse asked later that night when they were lying back to back in Jehan’s bed.
“Yeah, why?”
“I don’t know, I just thought Hippies were supposed to be… more creative.”
“That’s why it’s Jehan.”
*
The next days were filled with awkward and also wonderful moments.
On the first morning, Jehan woke up basically clinging to Montparnasse, who was thankfully still asleep. When Jehan tried to move away, the other man’s grip on him tightened and Jehan let his head sink back on Montparnasse’s chest. He had nowhere to be, so he let the steady heartbeat he heard clearly lull him back to sleep.
Spending time together also turned out to be fine, the two of them got along really well and Jehan allowed himself to dream, that this was real.
Whenever they had met before it was with a bigger group or at least Éponine, but now they spent their days exploring the big property of his family and the small town nearby. Surprisingly enough eh could talk to Montparnasse about anything. He even listened t him rating about poetry, although he had admitted he knew as much about it, as Jehan knew about fashion. Still, he listened and offered his opinion, whenever prompted.
Sometimes his mind wandered. When they were sitting with his family at the big table in the living room playing card games, he wondered how it would be if he brought Montparnasse along more often. How they would spend summers here lying in the grass trading lazy kisses. And yeah, he needed to stop.
*
He had wondered, why nobody had complained about the lack of PDA. Usually, his aunts were the first to demand a kiss. He had seen enough of their weddings to know this, but with him they were calm.
But of course, this couldn’t last forever.
When he and Montparnasse made their way to the living room on Christmas morning they were greeted with loud giggles.
“Stay right where you are lovebirds!”, Marie demanded and Éléonore started to clap with a gleeful expression.
The two men were still sleepy and Jehan didn’t manage more than a confused: “What?”, before Catherine pointed at the doorway.
A mistletoe.
“I…”
“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!”
Well, there was the chanting.
“Marie, get the camera!”, Isabeau threw in, from where she was sitting on the sofa knitting a colorful scarf.
With a horrified expression, Jehan turned to Montparnasse.
“I am, sorry, you don’t have to. They are…”
But once more, the other man put his finger to Jehan’s lips.
“It’s fine.”, then he winked and leaned forward.
The kiss was better than Jehan had imagined during hours of daydreaming. It was surprisingly soft. After a short moment of shock, he kissed back, pushing Montparnasse against the wall, and taking the lead.
If this was the only time, he’d better make it count.
They broke apart eventually under applause. Talk about awkward.
Jehan was blushing and breathing heavily, but when he finally met Montparnasse’s gaze, the other man smirked at him and leaned down.
“I have wanted to do this for months.”
Jehan gasped in surprise, but before he could utter a response Montparnasse kissed him again.
And again.