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Combeferre was nervous, there was no other excuse. His dissertation had won an award and he was now asked to present and speak at an educational conference. It was a big award with a lot of prestige and the potential to get him into a very good position to be offered great jobs after getting his degree. The only problem was Combeferre had a slight case of stage fright.
Sure the activism group that he was involved in held rallies and did speeches and such, but most of the time, Combeferre stayed behind the scenes or as support. He just got nervous talking to a large group of strangers, especially without a familiar face or two to help keep him calm and grounded. Sadly, the conference came at a rough time for everyone else and they all had something else that was going on. Enjolras was swamped with schoolwork and the work that he did helping out for a few of the local political campaigns was growing to a near frenzy with elections approaching. Courfeyrac was also swimming in schoolwork and getting things put together for his senior seminar, not to mention his sister's birthday and everything else going on. The others in the group were all busy with schoolwork and family things and such, so Combeferre simply kept a smile on his face and reassured everyone that it was just a little presentation and nothing to worry about.
The day of the flight, Combeferre rode to the airport with Courfeyrac and Enjolras (the others had wished him luck and said their goodbyes the night before). Combeferre smiled and hugged them both, reassuring them again that it was fine that they had to miss the presentation, that it would just be mostly a bunch of other academic types discussing things that neither of them were really interested in. He kept the smile and carefree act up long enough to pass through security, then let his shoulders slump slightly. He pulled out his headphones and turned on some light jazz music, sitting in one of the chairs, waiting to board the plane.
The flight was fairly uneventful, the seats too close without enough leg room and a particularly chatty girl in the seat next to him, a small kid seated somewhere behind him that started to cry after takeoff. All in all, nothing out of the ordinary. He took a cab to the hotel, checking in and deciding to rest. The conference was set to start the next day with registration a sort of open-ended thing tonight, but for now, he was feeling drained and wanted to just curl up for a quick nap.
Combeferre's presentation was scheduled to be in the afternoon the second day, and he spent the first day taking everything in, keeping to himself and soaking up all of the new ideas and discoveries. Back in his hotel room that night, he settled in bed, calling Courfeyrac to ask how his performance that night went and talk with him and Enjolras. He didn't mean to, but ended up falling asleep while talking to Courfeyrac, listening to him practicing one of the songs he was working on. Combeferre woke up with his glasses pushed crookedly on his face and his cell phone battery nearly dead. He plugged it up to charge while he got ready, spending more time than normal adjusting his tie nervously.
After spending longer than he could really afford without making himself late to the morning panels and meetings, Combeferre grabbed his phone, sending a quick text to Courfeyrac asking him to pass along birthday wishes to his sister for him, before tucking it into his pocket, grabbing his bag with notes and presentation cards and hurrying to the conference.
The morning rushed by and Combeferre was soon standing backstage at the seminar where he was to present. He was pacing slightly and trying to take a few calming breaths to help, but all he could do was to nervously run a hand over his face. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he frowned slightly before pulling it out and opening the text from Courfeyrac, blinking at the slightly blurry picture of Enjolras, Courfeyrac, and his sister all smiling happily. Although the caption that came along with the text made Combeferre even more confused. "tell her yourself later, we are busy trying to learn about some obscure sciencey teacher stuff. I was told the next presenter has a great ass, some kind of definite hot prof ;)" Combeferre blushed furiously, nearly dropping the phone. He quickly went back down to the audience and glanced around, a bright smile spreading across his face at the sight of the three of them in the audience. Courfeyrac, waved and blew a kiss before motioning back to the stage where the coordinator of the conference was giving his introduction.
Combeferre grinned as he hurried back up to the stage, glancing to his friends again before starting his presentation. Any time he felt the flutter of nerves again, he glanced out and smiled slightly to himself at the sight of his friends (and nearly laughing a few times at Courfeyrac's overly enthusiastic smile and thumbs up).
After finishing his presentation, there was a break in the conference for dinner, and Combeferre headed back down to the audience. He glanced around to look for his friends before nearly falling over at the feel of someone grabbing him in a hug from behind. He turned to smile at Courfeyrac, giving him a proper hug and dropping a kiss to his cheek before hugging Courfeyrac's sister and Enjolras. "I didn't know you guys were coming! I thought you were busy! And it's your birthday, why would you want to sit through some boring presentations?" Combeferre absently rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous habit he could never quite seem to break.
Enjolras just shook his head with a slight frown. "You're my best friend. Why wouldn't I be here for you?" Combeferre smiled, ducking his head. He knew that while most people might think Enjolras a cold and heartless type of person, but really Enjolras was very kind and loving. He adored his friends and would do anything for them.
"Oh my gosh, they have mini burgers!" All three boys turned to the plate of food that Courfeyrac's sister had brought over with exaggerated looks of excitement and confusion and wonder.
Something else most people didn't know about Enjolras, he was as silly and ridiculous as anyone else when with his best friends.