Chapter Text
Enjolras was a day away from turning 30 and his life was fine. Good even. He had a fulfilling job as a civil rights attorney. He had a few close friends that he saw regularly. He had a decent apartment not too far away from his office. He got to argue cases, some of them in front of the state supreme court, and be responsible for changes to the legal landscape.
He was good.
He was fine.
And no, he wasn’t lonely, no matter what Courfeyrac said.
Enjolras had a fulfilling life, he didn’t need romance or a boyfriend. It would only slow him down and his work was far too important for that. Sure it would be nice to have someone to come home to at the end of the day, instead of an empty apartment. Or to have a partner to bounce ideas off of, someone to help center him when he was down, but he had Courf and Ferre for that. And the physical side? Honestly, didn’t particularly appeal to him and never really had. He’d gotten through nearly 30 years without sex and didn’t feel the need to change that now.
Relationships were distractions. They were loud and messy and full of him disappointing the people around him. Being accused of loving his case load more than them. He’d never gotten past a few dates before things fizzled and it just didn’t feel worth trying anymore. He was perfectly fine being alone.
‘Especially if relationships look like that’, Enjolras thought as he observed the firm’s newest attorney, Marius, turn bright red and sputter as he tried to hand one of the assistants, Cosette, a coffee. All ability of speech seemed to have left Marius’ mind at the first sign of a pretty face.
Cosette noticed Enjolras’ presence and sent him a quick smile and wave, prompting Marius to turn around and look at who she was acknowledging. Somehow, he turned even redder seeing it was Enjolras standing there.
“Oh, hello, uh sir?” Marius squeaked out, still somehow unsure of how to address Enjolras despite having been at the firm for over a month already.
Enjolras just raised an eyebrow in response. What was he supposed to say to that?
Marius shifted around awkwardly for a moment, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Well, I’ll uh just go away now?” He murmured before fleeing down the hall.
Cosette sent him an annoyed look and opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by the arrival of Enjolras’ least favorite coworker.
“Terrifying the tropes so early in the day?” Grantaire, one of the paralegals, laughed as he walked through the doors. Great. Perfect. Just what Enjolras need this morning.
"I wasn’t—” Enjolras started to speak but was cut off, sending a fresh wave of irritation through him.
“Oh you very much were,” Grantaire replied. “I think most people would prefer a cup of coffee to wake them up but I’m sure your way works too. As long as you don’t mind adding yet another coworker to the list of people too scared to talk to you, that is. What does that bring us to? The whole office now?”
‘If only you were counted among them,’ Enjolras thought.
“If he can’t handle me then he won’t be able to handle court. Better to learn that early.” Is what he actually replied with.
“Oh you can be much scarier than a court room, you’re all avenging angel ready to go out in a blaze of glory, judging all us common folk for the crime of being normal humans.”
“You can’t be serious,” Enjolras ran a frustrated hand through his hair. Talking to Grantaire always riled him up and he could feel the irritation bubbling beneath his skin.
Grantaire sent him a sarcastic grin, “I’m wildly serious. Even half the judges are terrified of you.”
“Sure they are,” Enjolras suppressed the urge to roll his eyes but couldn’t quite contain his sigh. “Now if you’re done I have actual work to get to today.”
“Oh the Woods case?” Grantaire stood up a bit straighter at that, “I pulled some—”
“I’ve got it. Thanks.” Enjolras muttered as he turned and walked towards his office. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Cosette shooting Grantaire some sort of pitying look, but Enjolras ignored it. Grantaire should really know better than to try and butt his way into Enjolras’ cases at this point. Enjolras always did his own research and compiled his own briefs. He was busy enough he didn’t have time to comb through and cross-check someone else’s work. Especially Grantaire's.
Safely shut in his office, Enjolras was finally able to unwind. He took a moment to take a deep breath then booted up his laptop and let himself slip into the zone. He had a complicated harassment case he was building and hours passed as he dug through old precedent and legal rulings from around the country to put together an airtight argument to sway the judge and help his client win against her scumbag ex-boss. And he was good at this. His office was taken over by the soothing sounds of a clicking keyboard as he piled together his wall of arguments. The puzzle pieces coming together into a mosaic of law.
“Why are you being such a little snit today?”
Enjolras was suddenly jarred out of his work as his door flew open revealing an annoyed Cosette.
“Hello to you too,” Enjolras responded as his brain tried to adjust to the new situation. He wasn't good at suddenly being pulled from focus.
“Oh now you care about social niceties?” She snarked back. “You practically terrorized poor Marius this morning for just saying hi to you. Not to mention how you treated R!”
“I…” Enjolras was confused why she was speaking to him so openly; they usually kept it very professional at work. He glanced past her, looking to see if anyone was around to hear, and realized the rest of the office was dark. They must be the only two still here. He'd been too focused on his work to notice the time passing. Again. “How late is it?” he asked as his body started to come back online. It must be fairly late judging by the pangs of hunger he was starting to feel.
“7pm and that’s not the point. I know your parents, I know they raised you to have actual manners. Why do you keep acting like they’re a foreign concept?”
“Grantaire knows I do my own work. I don’t need to have to worry about if he missed anything on top of everything else I have to do for a case. It’s better this way.” He intentionally didn't bring up Marius, Cosette had a soft spot a mild wide for that baby deer of an attorney and Enjolras simply did not want to deal with it.
“R is the best paralegal we have. Which you would know if you literally ever looked at any of the work he did for you.” Cosette sent him another glare.
“It’s not my fault he keeps ignoring the fact that I do my own work! I’ve never asked him to do any of that for me!” In fact Enjolras had explicitly asked him to stop multiple times but Grantaire refused to ever listen to him. It seemed, in fact, to be his mission in life to disregard or twist every single thing Enjolras ever said. Grantaire seemed to have no greater joy in life than trying to tear Enjolras down. A pursuit he was so dedicated to, in fact, that Enjolras had more than once considered if he might be a plant from the opposition to derail their work.
“It’s his job Enjolras. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean he’s not good at it.”
“I’m not the only attorney here, there are plenty of people for him to help!”
“For the love of… you know what, as a birthday surprise how about you read one of his brief.”
“For my birthday I need to read his work?” It was probably filled with dirty jokes just to piss Enjolras off, seemed like something Grantaire would do.
“Yes. Consider it a present from me. Along with me so nicely reminding you that we have family dinner in an hour and you need to wrap up, you know, in case it slipped your mind.”
“Ah shit,” Enjolras forgot that his family was doing his birthday dinner tonight. Their schedules were hard enough to match up and he would never hear the end of it if he was late. Again. For the third time this year.
“Thought so,” Cosette smiled sweetly, “never say I’m not your most helpful cousin.”
“You’re my only cousin.”
“And you would be lost without me, now grab your stuff, traffic is going to be a beast.”
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Enjolras woke up on his 30th birthday thinking it would be another normal day. He very quickly learned he was wrong.
His first clue came before he’d even left his building. He’d brushed past one of his neighbors in the hallway. An older man who was always sending judgmental looks at anyone he passed. ‘When I was young men had proper haircuts’, the man grumbled as Enjolras walked past. Enjolras jumped a little, he wasn’t used to the man speaking but ultimately brushed it off. He'd let his hair grow nearly to his shoulders knowing it would upset a certain subset of the population. He wasn't about to start worrying about their opinions now.
Then Enjolras got on the train. It was filling up with the morning commute, and he bumped into a few fellow passengers as the ride went along but didn’t notice that as much as the surprising things people were for some reason admitting out loud.
‘Holy shit is that guy hot, why did I not put on makeup this morning?!’, he heard from a young woman on his left as she frantically checked her appearance in her darkened phone screen.
‘Wonder if my boss would notice if I spit in his coffee,’ from a man in a business suit seated in front of him.
‘I’m alive, I’m alive, I am so alive’, someone was singing off key behind him.
‘What is up with people today?’ Enjolras thought as he glanced around the car, noticing that no one else was even looking up. ‘And why am I the only one confused by this?’
And then Enjolras arrived at the office.
“And there’s the birthday boy,” Grantaire’s irritating voice greeted him as he approached the elevator banks in the lobby.
“Good morning,” Enjolras replied, refusing to engage.
“Well well well, turning 30 can really do something to a man can’t it, looks like it got you to learn pleasantries,” Grantaire grinned.
Enjolras just rolled his eyes as he reached past Grantaire to hit the elevator call button.
‘Why does he smell so good?’ Grantaire asked causing Enjolras to turn in confusion.
“Who?” Enjolras asked.
“Hm?” Grantaire looked at him with his brows furrowed in confusion like he hadn’t just been the one to comment on some random person’s scent. Well whatever, Enjolras wasn’t going to engage.
He stepped back to give some distance between the two of them, distance that vanished as the elevator came already nearly full of those coming up from the parking garage. Enjolras was forced to stand with Grantaire pressed against him from shoulder to hip.
‘Well this must be my lucky day,’ Grantaire said nearly as soon as the doors closed.
Enjolras just stared into the blurry reflection on the door and refused to engage. It was only 18 floors, he could do this.
‘Damn is that a well fitting suit. I don't know who I need to thank for three pieced suits but I would get down and kiss their boots. He looks like a goddamn model.’ Grantaire continued. Enjolras knew that Grantaire had no tact on a good day but what the fuck. This was so inappropriate. He furrowed his brows at Grantaire’s reflection, giving silent judgement. Enjolras hated when people were judged just based on their appearances, it was something that had plagued him for most of his life. Strangers refusing to take him seriously because 'he was just a pretty face'. But of course Grantaire of all people would be that shallow. ‘
'How the hell can anyone be this hot?' Grantaire continued. 'And of course he’s smart and passionate too. At least I can bask in his presence for a bit.’
Enjolras blinked. Grantaire’s mouth wasn’t moving. But that was his voice. Enjolras was positive that was his voice. He’d had that very same voice haunting him for the past 5 years. How was he hearing Grantaire’s voice if Grantaire wasn’t speaking???
The elevator beeped as it hit the 10th floor and a flood of people pushed past him to get off. There was suddenly room between him and Grantaire and the elevator was silent. Enjolras blinked again at his own reflection. ‘What was going on?’
Enjolras continued to stare at Grantaire's reflection for a moment but the voice had stopped. He didn't know what had happened. Had he been hallucinating?
“Hey, earth to Enjolras,” Grantaire’s face was suddenly filling his vision.
“Hm?” Enjolras blinked.
“Were here,” Grantaire gestured at the front door of their office across from the elevator. ‘Is he hungover? Cosette said…’
Enjolras didn’t get to hear what Cosette apparently had said as Grantaire moved away from him and the voice stopped. The voice that was saying things in Grantaire’s voice without his mouth moving. Enjolras dumbly followed Grantaire into the office not sure what the hell was going on. Was he going crazy? Hallucinating? Maybe he was still dreaming? Though any dream with Grantaire in it would qualify as a nightmare.
“—you okay?” Cosette was in front of him, Grantaire behind her looking concerned.
“I…” Enjolras started to respond but stopped when Cosette put a hand to his head and he felt a wave of concern wash over him.
‘He didn’t even drink last night, was it something he ate? Doesn’t feel like a fever.’
Enjolras was staring at Cosette’s concerned face the entire time.
There was no doubt that he was hearing her voice.
There was no doubt that she was not speaking.
Something was wrong.
“I’m fine, just a bit tired.” Enjolras said as he pulled himself out of Cosette’s grasp.
Cosette’s face got even more concerned, but Enjolras didn’t let her say anything else as he practically ran to his office.
What the fuck was going on?