Chapter Text
Cosette almost runs into the lady as she walks out of the lift. Marius had left his lunch, he’s prone to doing it, sometimes she thinks he does it on her day off just to have an excuse to see her during the day, so she’d taken a detour on the way to the department store, leaving Musichetta and ‘Ferre in the lobby. Marius had shot her a sheepish grin, leaning up to kiss her before she left, and then she’d ended up here, face to face with the woman she nearly crashed into. The women is only slightly taller than her, with her dark hair thrown up in a messy bun. Her clothes say job interview. Cosette murmurs an apology, then pauses as she actually meets the woman’s dark eyes.
“Éponine?” Éponine’s eyes widen a little.
“Cosette? You’re uh…”
“I was dropping off my boyfriend’s lunch.” She smiles.
“Marius right?”
“Yes…” Cosette frowns, she doesn’t remember if they’d been together when she and Éponine lost touch in her second year of university, even so Éponine’s memory surprises her.
“He’s interviewing me today,” Éponine explains. “Only secretarial but it’s very sweet of him. I was just heading up there actually…” She looks slightly nervous, like she wants to get away.
“Oh that sounds about right. We’ll have to do coffee sometime. Hang on…” She digs in her purse and finds one of her business cards. “That has my number on.”
“Oh… Thanks.” Éponine has a reserved smile, and she never noticed before. “I’d really better get on but I’ll text.”
“Sounds great.” Cosette pauses a moment, before deciding to hug her. “It really is good to see you.”
“Old friend?” Musichetta asks as Cosette approaches again.
“Éponine and I used to know each other when we were really little, though we didn’t get on so well then… But when I got to university we met again by chance and began actually talking about things and we got on really well. And then managed to lose touch again.” She sighs. “I hadn’t realised she knew Marius though…” She pauses, remembering the familiarity Éponine had used.
“I’m sure she’ll text you.” Musichetta reassures her. “Until then we have the matter of finding dresses.”
“Of course, it just threw me.” Cosette smiles, linking her arms with the two girls. “Right, lunch then dresses. Grantaire said he’d meet us later with Alexis.”
“Oh, he’s the lucky one who gets to join us in dress shopping?” Combeferre grins. “I was kind of hoping you’d have dragged Enjolras down here.”
“I thought about it, but he’s at work today. So it’s unlucky for R.”
He’s already waiting for them outside the department store when they eventually arrive, Alexis holding onto the material of his jeans. She has pigtails in today, still surprisingly in one piece given she’s inherited Grantaire’s unruly mop of curls. She recognises them a mile off, and makes a move toward them before Grantaire takes hold of the back of her dungarees, crouching down to warn her about running off. Once the girls have gotten a bit nearer he allows her to run on ahead of him, though he catches up more than easily enough.
She pauses just before she gets to them, obviously completely uncertain of which one to hug first, before turning back around to Grantaire and holding out her arms. Grantaire bursts out laughing, scooping her up in a bundle of buttercup yellow and white. Cosette suspects Grantaire’s generally the one in charge of clothing, though she may have misjudged Enjolras, as she’s always so perfectly made up whatever her clothing mood. Today it’s dandelion print dungarees, with a yellow top underneath, and matching hair bands.
“You can say hello.” Grantaire tells her, with a kiss to her temple. “You know they’re friendly.” Alexis considers this, with one of her little pouts, before holding out her arms to Combeferre. It’s hardly surprising, she babysits a lot, and grins widely as she takes Alexis and perches her on her hip.
“And how are we doing?” She asks.
“We went swim-ing.”
“Sorry we were a bit late.” Cosette tells Grantaire as they head into the shop. “Marius forgot his lunch and we bumped into an old friend.”
“Oh that’s alright, we’d only just got here ourselves what with getting dry and having lunch.” Grantaire reassures her. “Alexis was very excited to see you all though.”
“We noticed.” Musichetta chuckles, holding onto Alexis’s hand when she holds it out to her. “Hello you.” Grantaire smiles fondly, then looks back around to make sure he doesn’t walk into the door – only just in time. Then he pauses.
“Um… Where do you even start with this Cosette?” He asks, frowning at the floors they're confronted with.
“Well, first we find the bridal shop, pick out a few dresses in the correct sort of colours and styles and get trying on.”
“You have the colour scheme already?” He asks warily.
“You know nothing about weddings do you? We have to have the scheme before we can shop for dresses. God you’re going to be terrible if you ever get married. Hire me okay?”
“Who said anything about marriage?” Grantaire raises an eyebrow at her but doesn’t look even half as freaked out as she might have expected.
“Well I am sorry.” Cosette pouts, looking teasing.
“Colour schemes Cosette.” Combeferre prompts.
“Dark greens and pale peachy pinks.” She says proudly. “I have a whole things of swatches and it looks gorgeous.”
“Sorry you had to be dragged along.” Musichetta leans across to Grantaire. “You’re going to hear so much wedding talk.” He considers it a moment, plotting.
“Mmm… How about I take Alexis, Cosette, and we can go find some stuff she likes and then show you.”
“Are you up to that?”
“Well I’m not going to be much help with you. You want to go try on some fancy clothes?” He asks Alexis with a grin, who nods. “And then we can come back and these girls will be all beautiful.”
“You charmer you.” Combeferre chuckles, placing Alexis down so she can take Grantaires hand and begin toddling off in the opposite direction of anything else.
“This way.” Grantaire nudges her with a kind smile. “Right, we’ll be back in a little bit.”
The three of them soon set to work trying to find dresses in green, because that’s the colour that suits Musichetta and Combeferre best they decide after a short while of deliberation involving the make-up counters and lots of swatching. They begin making their way through the surprisingly small selection, finding a long green sleeveless dress, then a layered dress that one of them holds up and then they all veto entirely.
“How are we feeling about lace?” Chetta asks, pulling out a full length dress with lace sleeves. Combeferre studies it for a while, considering.
“What’s your dress like again Cosette?”
“V neck, cap sleeves, lace back, fish tail.” Cosette lists off the basics quickly.
“So maybe not lace for us? I feel like it would be hard for me to layer too…”
“True… Uh…”
“I found these two, they’re slightly different styles too so we wouldn’t completely match.” ‘Ferre holds out two dresses, both with corsages at the waist, but one has a V-neck with a mesh strap sleeve and the other has a higher neckline in the same mesh.
“Those are nice, put them in the maybes.” Cosette agrees.
“Any others?”
“There are an unfortunate lack of greens…”
“Not unless you want khaki.” Musichetta sighs.
“Do they do multiway dresses?” Combeferre enquires.
“Oh that’s true!” Cosette vanishes to find an assistant, leaving the other two to shrug at each other. Eventually she returns with two emerald green dresses over her arms. “These two are the best colour wise, you fancy heading for the changing rooms?”
Over the next twenty minutes or so they try on the dresses they found, some going straight into the no pile, there’s a couple of maybes. The multiway dresses take longer than expected to figure out, Chetta getting a little frustrated by how to tie hers. Combeferre’s proves easier, going for the so called ‘kimono’ style, giving her some sleeve and a higher neckline. Eventually Musichetta decides to go for a twisted back, and seems satisfied with the affair.
“This is a yes.” She nods, looking in the mirror. “This I like.”
“’Ferre?” Cosette asks as the other studies herself in the mirror.
“Yeah this is good, I can layer it well and I’m pretty sure I have a scarf in the right colour too.”
“We haven’t found a winner have we?”
“We may well have. Shouldn’t we check where Grantaire’s got to?”
“You two get changed, I’ll go find him. Make sure Alexis hasn’t dragged him into the toy section.” Cosette chuckles, pushing herself off of the seat and out of the changing rooms. If they’ve made it that far Grantaire will likely be leaving several pounds less well off. She finds Grantaire pretty quickly, waiting outside with a basket of clothes and Alexis sitting on his knee giggling. “There you are, we took longer than expected.”
“Nah, we’ve been having fun haven’t we?”
“Yeah!” Alexis grins up at her. “Found lotsa stuff.”
“Ooo, let’s see. I hope it’s all relevant.” Cosette teases, settling next to her, and Grantaire begins extracting things.
“We have a white dress,” He holds up a dress with a lace top, then a long chiffon skirt. “A suit, because Alexis loved it,” It’s grey, with either a green or dusty pink waistcoat and tie. “And finally another dress.” This one has a cream lace top, then a dusty pink skirt cinched in with a ribbon.
“Oh they’re all so cute. You’re really getting an eye in for good clothes.” Cosette grins, studying them. Grantaire shrugs. “I think I like the suit… And the pink dress.”
“You want to go try them on? So Cosette can see how you look?” Grantaire asks Alexis who nods with a grin, hopping off of his lap.
They emerge with the two green dresses, and both the pink dress and suit with pink accessories.
“I thought she might like to choose.” Cosette defends herself.
“You mean you saw her in both and decided she was too precious to say no to?” Grantaire grins. Cosette pauses with a twist of her lips. “Come on, you can admit it. She’s my kid, I know she’s too precious to say no to.” Grantaire hikes her back on his hip to properly balance them. “You want me to pay?”
“No it’s fine. I was the one who asked her to be flower girl. And chose both outfits…”
“Actually we may have encouraged her.” Musichetta chimes in.
“Enjolras is going to have another talk to the group about ‘not spoiling her rotten.’” Combeferre mimics with a supressed grin.
“Oh she’ll be fine.” Grantaire laughs. “Say thank you to Cosette.” He adds to Alexis who smiles shyly.
“Thank you Auntie ‘sette.”
“That’s okay.” She smiles, dropping a kiss onto Alexis’s hair who squirms happily. “You’re going to look perfect.”
“Well, if you’re not going to let me pay for the clothes then I’m buying us all coffee.”
“That sounds perfect, but first we need jewellery quickly.” Cosette reminds him. “It won’t be long.”
“It’s your wedding, it’s fine by me.”
The jewellery they pick up is simple, basic pearl drop earrings and matching necklaces, along with a simple floral hair comb for Musichetta. Cosette herself is having a larger comb, she tells them, with similar pearl flowers but layers of string pearls beneath. Alexis, already bored by the whole affair sits, legs straight out, watching them poutily. That is until Cosette finds a small tiara and places it, with some relish, atop her head.
“There! You look just like royalty.” She grins, fishing out her phone to take a picture as Alexis bites her lip as she grins. Grantaire chuckles as he watches.
“She’ll want one you know.” Then, in addition as Alexis looks up expectantly. “Maybe for your eighteenth.” She considers arguing for a moment, but Cosette finds something else, lifting her up to look at the hairclips Musichetta’s trying to choose from. “Don’t ever let me mention ‘eighteen’ again.” Grantaire mutters to Combeferre, who pats his arm.
“You’ve got a while yet.”
“You see you say that…”
Once everyone’s content with their purchases they make it to a small café for coffee and cake, which turns out to be much more oversized than expected, so they sit around chatting, slowly making their way through their slices. Grantaire has Alexis on his knee, sticking her finger in the butter icing of his cake slice and licking it off with relish.
“Oh! Éponine texted.” Cosette grins. “She’d like to go for coffee.”
“Éponine? Isn’t that Marius’s friend?” Grantaire asks and Cosette frowns.
“How did you know they were friends and I didn’t?”
“Uh… Well when he was living with Courfeyrac she popped in a couple of times. She seemed lovely.”
“She is…” Cosette sighs, typing on her phone. “She just never mentioned him before we lost touch.”
“When was it?” Combeferre enquires, spearing a piece of cake on her fork.
“Beginning of second year or so. I guess Marius and I had only just started going on dates but we knew each other before then…”
“I’m sure there’s a reason, and it won’t be anything sinister.” Musichetta adds. “Things slip people’s minds.”
In Grantaire’s arms Alexis begins to get grouchy, grumbling to herself as the conversation continues, before breaking into quiet sniffles. Grantaire rubs her back gently, shifting her so she can rest her head on his shoulder.
“Okay, okay I know you’re getting tired.” He finishes the last mouthful of his coffee. “Shall we go and see if Daddy’s home yet?” He gets a small nod and an ‘hm’ in return.
“Thank you for the coffee Grantaire, and putting up with all the dress picking.” Cosette chuckles.
“Eh.” He shrugs his free shoulder. “It’s fine, we had fun.” There’s another mumble from Alexis and Grantaire pushes himself up, pressing a kiss to her hair. “Okay, we’re going. We’ll see you next week.” He tells the rest of them with a smile. The girls wave their goodbyes, smiling fondly.
“I’m still amazed at how well those two have settled into fatherhood.” Musichetta comments.
“It’s so adorable.” Cosette leans on her hand. “I want one…”
“You’ve got a wedding to get through first.” Combeferre chuckles.
“I know, I know! Not right now, but… Some when.”