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“Ah Fuck!” Enjolras hissed, sitting on the pavement, squeezing his eyes shut in an effort to keep the tears from escaping. He didn’t cry. He never cried. Not in front of people. Grantaire hurried to his side and crouched down beside him, pushing his bike away, revealing Enjolras’ mangled leg.
“What happened?” Grantaire asked, taking Enjolras in his arms. Other members of the 5-K bike ride fund raiser had begun to stop and investigate. Enjolras forced a smile and waved them on.
“Stopped short for a little kid.” Enjolras explained, struggling to keep a straight face. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
“Can you stand?” Grantaire asked, taking his hands and tugging in an attempt to stand him up. Enjolras hissed, and Grantaire’s eyes widened when he saw his right leg. The bottom half was almost completely backwards, and his ankle was bent the wrong direction.
“What?” Enjolras asked, making to follow Grantaire’s gaze, but he grabbed his chin and forced Enjolras to look at him.
“Don’t look.” He said with a meek sort of smile. “Your leg is definitely broken.”
“Dammit!” Enjolras hissed, the pain becoming overwhelming. He let Grantaire pick him up.
—o0o—
Five hours later, Enjolras was back in the apartment he shared with Grantaire, laying on the sofa in a full leg cast. He had been put out to have it re-set, but the anesthetic had long since worn off, and now he was hyped up on Vicodin for the pain. Grantaire sat down beside him carefully, offering him a sleeve of saltines.
“How ya’ doing, Sunshine?” Grantaire asked. Enjolras’ eyes fluttered open, but he only grunted in reply. “Are you all loopy?” he smiled.
“I don’t know.” Enjolras replied, not catching the humor.
“Want a saltine?” Grantaire asked. Enjolras looked completely and totally confused.
“Did I do the want what?” he asked. Grantaire laughed.
“Go back to sleep. Tell me if you need anything.” He said, leaning over to kiss Enjolras’ temple before standing up and taking the kitten off of the countertop before wiping it down.
—o0o—
“Grantaire, I want to go to the volunteer meeting.”
“Enjolras, you can you can hardly sit up! It’s okay! You can miss a week.”
“Grantaire, this is not debatable, I am the president of the group, and I have to go.” Enjolras insisted, trying his best to get up off of the couch. Grantaire hurried to his side and sat him back down, knowing he would hurt himself if he tried to stand with the full leg cast. He was so small, Grantaire thought, the cast probably weighed more than he did.
“Grantaire stop it we’re going.” Enjolras protested when Grantaire sat him down.
“Alright, alright, we’ll go! Just let me get the wheelchair and I’ll—”
“No.” Enjolras said, his tone just slightly harsh. “I am not using a wheelchair.”
“Why?” Grantaire asked, heading over to the closet to get the folded wheelchair out.
“It’s…degrading. I don’t want to have to sit in it all night. Everyone will look at me funny.” He admitted, looking down at his lap. He felt terribly shallow for saying it. He was always the one speaking out against judgment and treating everyone equally despite disability or any other adversity, but when it came to himself, he just couldn’t let it slide. He knew people were judgmental, and didn’t want to be on the receiving end of the stigma.
“Not to worry, Apollo.” Grantaire said, lifting Enjolras up bridal-style and sitting him down in the chair. “Nobody will look at you funny. You broke your leg. There’s nothing wrong with that.” Enjolras shrugged, looking up at Grantaire as he pushed him out of the apartment and into the elevator.
—o0o—
When Enjolras and Grantaire entered the university library for their volunteer meeting, Jehan was the first to rush to his side.
“Oh baby what happened?” he asked, taking Enjolras’ hands.
“Fell off a bike trying not to run over a four year old.” Enjolras smiled.
“Oh Sweetie! Does it hurt terribly?” Enjolras smiled.
“I’m alright.” He replied. Jehan took the flower crown off of his own head and placed it gently on Enjolras’ golden curls. He smiled.
“Can I write on it?” Combeferre asked, pulling a sharpie out of nowhere. They always seemed to show up when there was a cast to sign. Enjolras shrugged.
“I don’t see why not!” he smiled. Feuilly grinned. “Nothing inappropriate.” He clarified. Feuilly’s smirk vanished relatively quickly. Combeferre went to town on his leg, which was propped up on the footrest of the wheelchair. He wrote his name and ‘get better soon!’ on his ankle.
“I want to write something too!” Courfeyrac said, taking the sharpie and writing his own name, along with a smile. Jehan found his own powder blue sharpie and wrote his name and a quick little poem he made up on the spot:
My lovely Apollo
Don’t ever be blue
Get better soon!
I love you!
~Love Jehan
Then he drew a flower with a smile
“You’re so cute, Baby Doll.” Feuilly whispered to Jehan, holding him close. Bossuet signed his name right next to Joly, who wrote his name on Enjolras’ knee in Jehan’s blue pen. Feuilly didn’t write his name. Instead, he drew a little blue fan near the hem of his short pants.
"The wheelchair sucks, huh?" Joly asked, sitting on one of the nearby library tables. Joly lost his left leg as a seven year old, and spend about a year of his childhood wheelchair bound. He remembered hating it, and thought Enjolras probably did to. Enjolras shrugged.
"It's alright...It's just for a little while."
“Could I sign it, Enjolras?” Cosette asked, playing with one of her braids.
“Of course!” Enjolras replied with a grin. Cosette smiled and took a pink pen from the desk in the library and wrote her name in her curly script. Marius took the black sharpie from Courfeyrac and wrote ‘and Marius’ just under Cosette’s name. Marius had the most horrendous handwriting, made worse by the plaster covering Enjolras’ cast. It looked like a four-year-old had tried to write ‘moose’ across his knee, but Enjolras grinned. He would know it was Marius, and that’s all that mattered.
“Alright, now to business!” Enjolras said, feeling terribly small sitting down in his wheelchair. He was usually standing on a chair at this point, to get everyone’s attention, but that was obviously impossible. Even so, everyone quieted down. “What’s the next fund raiser? It’s coming up on July. Has anyone spoken with the librarian at the middle school about tutoring over the summer?”
“I have.” Courfeyrac said with a smile, raising his hand as he sat on one of the many tables in the large room. “He said he’d love to have us, and that lots of the kids need help with mathematics and literature.”
“Thank you, Courfeyrac, do we have any volunteers to help with math? I’d do it, but I’m deplorable at arithmetic.” Enjolras said with a smile as Combeferre tapped away on his laptop. He would later post the record of the meeting on their Facebook page for later reference.
“I’m good at math.” Bossuet said, “But I don’t fancy going alone…Those kids can get nasty.” He said with a meek smile. Joly grinned up at him and took his hand.
“I’ll go too. I suppose I can help with middle school math.” Joly said with a grin.
“Thanks, Love.” Bossuet said, kissing Joly’s hair briefly before writing down his task on his hand. “What date will that start?” he asked.
“Next week on Wednesday.” Courfeyrac said, consulting his phone and reading from the email the librarian had sent him.
“Kay. I can make that happen.” He smiled.
“Make sure you bring a calculator. Sometimes they don’t bring their own.” Marius said. “I’ll help with history, if anyone needs it…Or French. I’m good at languages.” He smiled.
“Alright, put Marius on call for language and History help.” Enjolras instructed Combeferre, who tapped it into his notes. “What about literature? I can help with that, but at least one more would be nice for help.” He smiled. “Come on, I know you all want to spend time with me.” He smiled.
“I want to help!” Jehan cooed, standing on his toes as he was wont to do when he was excited. Enjolras smiled.
“I expected as much, Jehan.” Enjolras replied with a grin. “Can anyone else help? Anyone want to be on call for other subjects?” he continued.
“Can you tutor art?” Grantaire asked.
“I could do that, if that’s a thing.” Feuilly said flatly, his usual tone. “That’s about all I’m good for when it comes to tutoring.” He smiled. Feuilly had never attended a proper school. Enjolras smiled.
“I’m not sure if that’ll need tutoring…but we could talk about starting a summer arts program, if you’d like. Kids would like that, I think.” He suggested. Grantaire smiled.
“That eighth grader kid Gavroche said he wanted to take lessons when I tutored him in history last year.” Grantaire said.
“The little blonde one?” Jehan asked. “Yes I like him he’s funny!”
“Let’s try to get that rolling, Combeferre.” Enjolras said. He wrote it down in the minutes.
“Oh I can’t wait to start! I love the little kids!” Jehan cooed.
“The little girls love you too, Jehan.” Bossuet joked. Everyone laughed, except Feuilly, who held Jehan close from behind.
“That’s because I am a fairy princess.” Jehan replied, holding Feuilly’s wrists as he held him.
“You’re my fairy princess.” He said, kissing Jehan’s head.
“Does anyone have anything else they’d like to suggest?” Enjolras asked. The general consensus was that there was nothing else to add, so Enjolras adjourned the meeting and sent everyone on their way. They all walked out together.
“It must be hard to get around, huh Enj.” Joly said as he walked, holding Bossuet’s hand.
“The wheelchair draws some unwanted attention, but I’ve got my Grantaire.” He said, reaching back and holding Grantaire’s hand as he pushed him.
“That’s me.” Grantaire said with a goofy grin.
“Do you need any help, Enjolras?” Jehan asked. “I mean, I’m sort of smallish to pick you up, but I’m sure Feuilly wouldn’t mind.” He grinned. Enjolras laughed.
“I’m alright. ‘Taire’s got me covered.” Grantaire smiled, pleased at being needed. When they reached their car, he lifted Enjolras up and carefully placed him in the back so that he might prop his leg up across the seats. Enjolras’ parents had bought him a shiny red Fiat 500 for his birthday, which was far more convenient than Grantaire’s old Vespa for grocery shopping and, well, injuries.
“Night everybody!” Courfeyrac called out the passenger window as he and Combeferre headed back to their apartment.
“Bye lovely!” Jehan called back, sitting in Feuilly’s pickup truck. Bossuet waved. Cosette giggled and Marius tapped his horn.
—o0o—
“Could we go to bed now?” Enjolras asked later that evening as the credits rolled on their weekly episode of ‘The Pillars of the Earth’, staring a young actor who looked oddly like Marius. Combeferre leant them the DVDs, stating that the book was fabulous, but that he knew Grantaire would never actually read it.
“’Course we can, Sunshine.” He said, lifting Enjolras up off the sofa and taking him into the bathroom where he helped him change clothes, which was relatively awkward for Enjolras. He was usually so independent, and felt odd having to rely on someone for something as simple as changing clothes. Then Grantaire helped him hobble to bed, lifting him up at the last moment and kissing his cheek, then his nose, then his upper lip, making Enjolras smile.
“I really don’t need that wheelchair.” He noted, leaning against Grantaire’s chest as they sat down in bed.
“You can’t walk, ‘Jolras.” Grantaire grinned. “I know you’re an all powerful God, but sometimes even Gods fall…or, in your case, fall off a bike to avoid flattening a small child.” Enjolras laughed.
“I know, it’s just that…I much prefer your arms.” He said, closing his eyes. Grantaire smiled, turning with Enjolras in his lap and tucking him into bed, carefully lifting his leg and positioning it comfortably under the covers before kissing Enjolras’ forehead.
“Love you, Sunshine.” He said, laying down next to him, looping his arm around Enjolras’ waist, how he always slept. Enjolras took his hand and snuggled up against him.
“I love you too.” He replied.