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“You play the guitar?”
Grantaire nodded. The boy beside him, whose name was Joly, had asked him the question like it was the best news he had ever heard.
“So, what do you play?”
“Ehm, covers, mostly.”
“Do you have a favourite song to play?”
He had only met Joly five minutes ago when the brunet had sat down at the desk beside him, but despite the rapid questions, he had taken a liking to the boy’s happy nature.
“Hallelujah, have you heard of it? It’s a beautiful song.”
A big grin appeared on Joly’s face as he leaned back in his chair.
“Yes, yes I’ve absolutely heard of it.”
He pressed his lips together, and when Grantaire thought the boy had gotten lost in his thoughts, he spoke again.
“There’s these meetings that I go to, every Friday night, about things that need to change in France and such,” he waved it off like it wasn’t important.
“Please come join us, I promise you it will be great.”
The word ‘meeting’ immediately sent his mind to those so called ‘soulmate meetings’ and he groaned. “Listen, I don’t really keep myself busy with soulmates-”
Joly immediately held up his hand and shook his head. “These are not that kind of meetings, I promise. Enjolras is the head of the group, you must have seen him around the school at some point. He organized a lot of protests, still does, he made a 5 step plan to deal with bullies which teachers still make use of, and he got the price of the school lunches to go way down, among a bunch of other things.”
He certainly had seen Enjolras around the school. On his very first day he saw the boy with the golden locks and eyes that carried a storm debating the principal right in the middle of the hallway about the lunch prices. He had not backed down, despite how many people were staring, despite how the principal’s eyes were bulging and the vein in his forehead was about to pop at any second.
Grantaire had fallen in love with him that day, and that love only grew every time he heard Enjolras speak, and saw him fight for his cause.
“Yeah, I think I have seen him around.”
“I think you will fit right in with the group.”
Before Grantaire could ask why Joly thought that, the boy had already jumped to a different topic.
“By the way, if you had the chance to meet your soulmate, would you take it?”
Grantaire had already come to terms with the fact that no matter how much he wanted it, his soulmate wasn’t going to be Enjolras.
Meeting his actual soulmate might just be good for him, as it would pull him out of his infatuation with the blond.
Grantaire shrugged. “Sure, whatever. But the chances of meeting your soulmate are not that big, I believe.”
At that moment their teacher walked into the classroom and quickly quieted the students down.
Grantaire went to grab his math book out of his backpack, but Joly grabbed his arm before he could.
“Please come to the meetings Grantaire, please please please-”
“I’ll come.”
Joly picked him up at his home on Friday evening, and he walked them towards the community center where the meetings were held.
“Joly?”
“Hm?”
“Have you met your soulmate?”
A bright smile appeared on his lips, which provided Grantaire with the answer.
“Bossuet, he goes to the meetings too. We were talking at one point about music, and he said he loved listening to rock. I hear rock all the time in my head, especially at night, the same songs over and over. Then he told me he listened to rock all the time, especially at night, the same songs over and over.”
“You didn’t mind hearing rock music at night?”
He shook his head. “It is my soulmate's favourite music, so I like it too.”
“And what did you subject your soulmate to listen to?”
Joly’s face turned red, and Grantaire realised he might have stumbled upon an embarrassing story.
“What kind of music do you listen to, Joly?”
“I ehm, like to listen to lullabies.”
Grantaire burst out into laughter, and Joly jumped to immediate defense. “Well, he didn’t mind, he actually started appreciating it, being forced to listen to the music in his head every evening, he thinks I'm adorable!”
They reached the community center, and Joly excitedly pulled him by his arm up some stairs, nearly tripping over himself as he did so.
“We are early, I don’t know why you are rushing,” Grantaire mumbled as he tried not to trip himself, and he bumped into Joly when he came to a sudden halt at the top of the stairs.
“Enjolras! And everyone else too I guess, this is Grantaire.” He stepped aside to show him to the group.
The room was small, with a couple of tables in a variable of sizes scattered across it. Several of the boys that were already there got up from their chairs, walked over to him and introduced themselves.
Enjolras remained where he was, standing behind a larger table with a stack of papers in front of him. As Grantaire shook hands with boys whom most he already recognized from school, he kept half an eye on the blond.
The blond eyed him up and down, inspecting whom Joly had just brought in. It wasn’t until everyone else had returned to their seats, that the blond came forward, and he held out his hand.
“My name is Enjolras.”
He really was the most beautiful person Grantaire had ever seen.
He shook his hand. “Grantaire.”
“So you think you make a good addition to this group?”
He still didn’t quite know what was expected of him, but if he could look at Enjolras and listen to him for an hour, he would push himself to be as good of an addition as one could be.
“Yeah.”
He sat down at a smaller round table by himself, and as more boys poured in, he remained sitting alone.
‘Perhaps Joly would come sit with me’ he thought. But then he noticed him sitting with Bahorel and Courfeyrac at a table at the other side of the room. They were whispering to each other, laughing, and every once in a while casted a glance towards him.
Grantaire sank back in his chair, and focused on Enjolras as he began the meeting.
He truly did not understand why Joly had wanted him to come here, and started to feel like they might be taking the piss out of him.
That thought lasted until the meeting had come to an end, and Joly’s hand shot up when Enjolras asked if anyone had any questions.
“Yes, Joly?”
“I wondered, now that the meeting is over, if we could still hang around for a bit here.”
Enjolras frowned. “Yes, of course. Don’t we always do that?”
Joly shot up from his chair, nearly knocking it over. “You don’t mind if we play some music?”
Enjolras seemed caught off guard for a moment, and he wasn’t the only one. Every boy, apart from those who sat at Joly’s table, seemed entirely confused by the question.
“Well, no, but none of you can play an instrument.”
“Grantaire can.”
All eyes went towards him, and he gave them an awkward smile.
“Well, yeah I can play the guitar, but I didn’t bring mine with me.”
“He’s amazing,” Joly said as he speeded towards a closet and pulled it open. From where he was seated, Grantaire could see the closet mostly contained board games, but had one guitar stacked away in the corner.
Joly grabbed it, and hurried over to him, a satisfied smile on his face.
Grantaire eyed the boy suspiciously. “You never even heard me play-”
The guitar got shoved in his hands.
“Do play for us.”
“Let me tune it first,” he muttered. Joly nodded, his smile never wavering, and he went back to his seat.
“What are you up to?” He heard someone say. Grantaire glanced up to see if it was directed at him, but saw that Combeferre, who had asked the question, had directed it towards Joly.
“The boy just wants to hear some music,” Bossuet answered innocently.
Courfeyrac nodded in agreement. “I think Grantaire ought to play the song that is his favourite, if he wants to of course.”
Either it was getting very hot in the room, or Grantaire’s nerves were rising rapidly.
With his trembling hands he finished tuning the old looking guitar as best as he could.
He had never played in front of anyone, and he wasn’t sure if this group even had the best intentions based on how weird Joly was behaving.
He contemplated leaving, but as he scanned the faces in the crowd, he noticed Enjolras had a smile on his lips as he had his eyes on Grantaire.
He took a deep breath and began playing Hallelujah.
He closed his eyes, fully concentrating on the music, feeling the vibration of the strings against his fingers.
He knew how to play the song by heart, and so played it with ease.
When he had finished playing, he opened his eyes again, and nearly jumped out of his skin as Enjolras was now standing right in front of him.
“Sorry,” Enjolras mumbled. He was completely red in the face, and the smile he once carried was completely gone. No one in the room said a word, and all eyes were on the two of them.
“What music do you hear?”
Grantaire cleared his throat. “What music-”
“Yes, what music do you hear in your head?”
Grantaire stared at him blankly, and Enjolras’ eyes widened.
“If you rather not say that’s completely fine of course," he threw out.
Grantaire put down the guitar and leaned it against the table. “It’s fine. Ehm, I hear classical music, mostly, and when I do it’s usually quite late at night. Although whoever my soulmate is doesn’t listen to music all that much.”
Behind Enjolras, Combeferre’s puzzled face turned to one of understanding, and he looked at Joly with a huge grin on his face. He moved over to them, and Courfeyrac, who was staring intensely at the scene in front of him, got his face gently turned away by Combeferre.
“Let’s give them some space guys.”
He returned his gaze to Enjolras, who was rubbing his neck excessively.
“I love this song,” he pointed at the guitar. “It’s one of my favourites, ever since I heard it for the first time last year.”
“Oh.” Grantaire went with his hand through his hair. “Well, it’s one of my favourites too. Where did you hear it?”
“In my head.”
All at once, it clicked for him. Grantaire quickly made eye contact with Joly, who gave him a smile and a thumbs up.
That’s why Joly had been so excited when he had told him he played the guitar. Grantaire smiled widely, so much so that his cheeks began to hurt.
Enjolras was his soulmate. This certainly wouldn’t help against his infatuation.
He turned back to Enjolras, who was still standing in front of him.
“I like your music choices, classical is great.” Grantaire said, and for the first time since finding out they were soulmates, Enjolras smiled, and Grantaire’s heart started beating faster than ever before.
“I like yours too.” Enjolras answered, and sat down in the chair beside him. “No other version of this song beats yours, it sounds even better when you play it in front of me.”
They both blushed heavily, and their eyes met.
After a few seconds they both started to laugh, averting the other person’s eyes.
“Ehm,” Enjolras began, softly moving his hand forward until their fingers touched.
“Could you play it again, for me?”