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The idea for everyone to get tumblr accounts is Courfeyrac’s idea. “It’ll give us a way for the people that come to rallies to get to know us, and you can use it to post your ideas on hot topics in the media at any given moment. It’ll give you access to a larger audience, Enjolras!” And with that, Enjolras is sold and spends the next thirty minutes coming up with the absolutely perfect tumblr username. (He settles on Barricades_of_Freedom.)
Grantaire, Jehan, Combeferre, and Joly take turns grumbling at Courfeyrac about why they need tumblrs as well. Bossuet, Musichetta, Bahorel and Feuilly ran as soon as Courfeyrac started his hard sale of the idea. Grantaire is starting to regret waiting around for Enjolras now.
“Enjolras having one is plenty, Courfeyrac.” Grantaire bemoans as they sit around the Musain after a meeting. “See” He points at the blond, “He hasn’t stopped typing since you told him he could rant to the entire internet in five minutes or less.”
Jehan chokes on his coffee.
“There are things you would like on there!” Courfeyrac says, excitedly.
“Poetry for Jehan. There is an entire section of tumblr made up of writers.” Courfeyrac now has Jehan’s attention, “And more flower pictures than you could imagine. Flowers from all over the world!”
Jehan pulls Grantaire’s laptop in front of him and starts typing. (He picks IntrepidObserver for his URL.)
Courfeyrac grins as another of the Amis caves to his idea.
Combeferre is trying his best to ignore Courfeyrac by turning his iPod up louder.
Joly concedes when he realizes he can make a happy tumblr full of funny cats, inspirational words, and happy thoughts for when he gets nervous. (His user name is Happy_Doctor_InTraining.)
Courfeyrac turns his attention back to Grantaire. “C’mon, R.”
“Fuck you, Courfeyrac,” Grantaire replies, not even looking up from his sketch.
Courfeyrac huffs and turns to Combeferre.
“Combeferre! You want to play, right?”
Combeferre ignores him.
Courfeyrac pulls the earbuds out of Combeferre’s ears.
“Dammit, Courfeyrac!”
“Now you can hear me though!”
“I heard you before, I just ignored you.” Combeferre snaps.
“You could share pictures of your bug collection!” Courfeyrac sounds like a kid trying to sell his parents on his Christmas demands.
Grantaire chuckles to himself, and then stops as Combeferre opens his laptop to start typing. He isn’t sure of Combeferre really wants a tumblr, or if giving in is the quickest way to shut Courfeyrac up. (A few minutes later, tumblr has a new user – MothManFerre.)
Now, Grantaire is the lucky owner of Courfeyrac’s undivided attention.
“Give me one good reason to make a tumblr, Courfeyrac. Beyond cute cat pictures.” Grantaire says pointedly.
Courfeyrac grins. “You can annoying the shit out of Enjolras online, as well as meetings.”
“Sold,” Grantaire smirks, “Jehan, give me my damn laptop back.”
“What’s your user name, Courfeyrac?” Jehan asks.
“The_Courfeyrad!”
That receives with groans from everyone left in the Musain and it makes Courfeyrac pout dramatically.
“Ohh! I got a follower!” Enjolras shouts.
“Who?” Courfeyrac asks.
“BaneOfApollo.” Enjolras reads off, “Oh fuck you, Grantaire!”
Grantaire chuckles, “Maybe later, Enjolras.”
The sound of typing filled the room for a few minutes, before Grantaire speaks again, “Courfeyrac, this might just be your best idea yet.”
Before Courfeyrac could reply, Jehan glares at him, “When this blows up, you are grounded – along with Enjolras and Grantaire.”
“Pessimist!” Courfeyrac mutters, but he is grinning.
“Nope, I just know these two.” Jehan replies
“You have to admit, it’ll be interesting.”
“No shit, Courfeyrac,” Combeferre interjects.
“Ohhh, I found an entire blog full of cute adorable kittens.” Joly outright giggles. “LOOK! Jehan!”
It’s a picture of a black kitten peeking out over the edge of something – a box, maybe? Almost everyone ends up reblogging it - even Combeferre - but Enjolras refuses to taint his blog with a picture of a cat.
“It’s a kitten, Enjolras.” Grantaire corrects.
“It’s still a cat.”
“Technically, it’s a baby cat,” Combeferre can’t resist adding in.
Enjolras refuses to talk to any of them for the rest of the night.
__________________________
The next week is the most fun Grantaire has had in a while. He posts some photographs he has taken, as well as rebuttal some of Enjolras’ ideas. Grantaire will chuckle when Enjolras yells at him from whatever room he is in at the time.
One day, while Enjolras is in the shower, Grantaire notices that he left his tumblr logged in. Grantaire proceeds to hijack it, reblogging cat pictures from Joly’s tumblr, poetry from Jehan’s, some freaky bug from Combeferre’s, a picture of a party from Courfeyrac’s, and a painting from his own.
Biting his lip to keep from laughing, Grantaire calls out, “I’m going to a walk, Enjolras.”
“Love you,” Grantaire hears from the shower.
“Love you, too, Enjolras.” Grantaire slips his phone in his pocket, waiting for it to buzz with an angry text when Enjolras checks his laptop. He also grabs his camera before heading out.
_____________________
It’s a breezy early spring day, so Grantaire decides to walk through the park. He spots a girl with blonde pigtails sitting off by herself near the fence that borders the park. She is playing on a big construction truck toy and kicking dirt with her hello kitty shoes. The little girl intrigues Grantaire with how engrossed in her own world she is. He snaps her picture from a distance, but she catches him.
“I see you,” she calls out.
“I am caught by the fair princess!” Grantaire replies as he walks over to her.
“I’m no princess! I’m a super hero!” She snaps back, pointing to the Captain America on her t-shirt.
He smiles at her, “How old are you, little one?”
“Four! Almost five, well, I have a few more months to go.” She holds up four fingers. “How many are you?”
Grantaire chuckles. “I’m 24. Why are you playing by yourself?”
She points over to a group of men that look to be Grantaire’s age. “They won’t let me play football.”
The little girl’s blue eyes go cold with frustration. “I’m sorry, little one. I’m guessing they don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I know that, but still! They also said that girls can’t play football. That is SO WRONG! Girls can do anything we want. Boys don’t get to make all the rules.” She puts her hands on her hips and glares at the football-playing offenders.
Grantaire literally falls over laughing from his kneeled position. Between the blonde hair, blue eyes, and fierce attitude, he swears he has just met a miniature female Enjolras. “You remind me of my boyfriend, little one.”
“Ohhh? You have a boyfriend?”
“Yes. He has blond hair like you. Blue eyes, too and hates when people tell him he can’t do something.” Grantaire can’t stop smiling at this girl.
“I don’t have a boyfriend, yet.” She says very matter-of-factly.
“I wouldn’t rush into that. Boys are complicated!”
“You don’t seem complicated!”
“Oh trust me, I can be.” Grantaire’s cell phone beeps four times in a row before he can get it out of his pocket.
The little girl is curious and peers over his shoulder.
“Who is it?”
“My boyfriend,” Grantaire grins. “I need to head back home. Will you be okay by yourself?”
“Yes, my mom and dad are right over there,” she points to a couple that has been watching.
Grantaire nods at them. “Your daughter is adorable.”
As he is walking back to the apartment, Grantaire re-reads the text messages from Enjolras.
E: You are so dead.
E: I hate you.
E: Why did you do that?
E: How do I make them go away from my blog? People are reblogging them from me. HELP R!
He taps a reply out and hits send.
R: I’m on my way back home. The world isn’t going to end if someone reblogs a cat picture from your blog, Apollo. =P
Grantaire ends up calming Enjolras down with a few kisses when he gets home, and he shows him that he earned a few new followers. Enjolras decides to loosen his stance on – only – political topics, and he starts to reblog some pictures of different places around the world. This is Enjolras, so baby steps like this are huge!
______________________
That weekend, at the next meeting of the group, they decide to hold a contest to see who can get the most notes on something. Courfeyrac is running it, so he isn’t participating.
Grantaire, Enjolras, Jehan, Combeferre, and Joly all strive to make their best posts.
Grantaire picks the picture of the little girl and includes a small write up of their conversation.
Jehan blogs his latest poem and adds on a picture of the flower that inspired it.
Joly finds a cute panda picture.
Combeferre posts a pink moth thing that looks like a piece of candy with legs.
Enjolras, however, takes a solid hour to write a massive post about the latest unjust new rule at their college. He looks so proud of himself when he is done; Grantaire just smiles at him.
When all of the posts are up, Courfeyrac reblogs them. He makes a post to his followers (he has the most of any of the bunch) about their little contest, and that the five posts have a week to run to see who can get the most notes. They all close their laptops and head home for the night.
______________________
Grantaire wakes up the next morning to Enjolras still in bed, but he is working on his laptop.
“Morning.” He smiles at Grantaire. “I got notes on my post and some new followers!”
Grantaire curls up to Enjolras, who is too perky to deal with right after waking up, “That’s awesome. How many?”
“5 new followers and 15 notes!”
Curiosity kicks in for Grantaire, and he grabs his laptop from the floor on his side of the bed to check his tumblr. The first tab that pops up is his email - which is overflowing. Grantaire turns his laptop just a smidge so Enjolras can’t see it.
“How did your picture fair?” He asks.
“Good, I got 5 notes and 3 new follows.” Grantaire fails to mention that he left zeroes off those numbers. (50 notes and 30 new followers. Apparently, his story about a girl wanting to play a boys’ game, but being told she couldn’t, had resonated with the tumblr populace.)
Grantaire shuts his laptop and changes the subject. “So, breakfast!”
“Sounds good.” Enjolras shuts his laptop as well.
_______________________
The ruse about how many notes his photo has lasts for three days before it crosses Enjolras’ tumblr dashboard. Grantaire is in the kitchen washing dishes, when he hears Enjolras stomping towards him from the bedroom.
“You lied to me!”
Grantaire swallows hard. “About what?”
“The photo! Why?”
Grantaire turns around from the sink. He pulls Enjolras into a loose hug. “Because you were so proud of your results that I didn’t want to burst your bubble.” He kisses Enjolras gently.
Enjolras wrinkles his nose. “But how did you make your photo so popular! It’s up to 500 notes.”
“Shit! I didn’t realize it got to that.”
“It also has all this extra commentary people have added on to it.” Enjolras pouts and sounds jealous.
Grantaire, literally, bites his lip, to the point of drawing blood, to keep from laughing at Enjolras pouting his bottom lip out. “All I did was just post the photo and the story. I’m sorry you're not winning.” A chuckle barely escapes his lips, and he can’t control it anymore.
Enjolras jerks away from him and walks off. “I’m mad at you. I wanted to win with something important!”
Grantaire takes a deep breath. “Did you read the story that I put with the picture?”
“No.” He is still pouting, which adorable. Marble shouldn’t be able to pout, but he is pouting.
“The little girl wanted to play football with the boys, but they wouldn’t let her. Some of them even said girls shouldn’t play, because it was a boys’ sport.”
“Girls should be able to play if they want, too!” He interrupts.
“And that is why I told her she reminded me of you. She went off on how boys don’t get to make all the rules, and that girls can do anything they want.” Grantaire still thinks Enjolras and the little girl would make instant best friends.
“She sounds like a fantastic young girl. How old was she?”
“Four. I fear for any teacher that tries to argue with her in school.” Grantaire tries to imagine four-year-old Enjolras.
“That little girl gives me an idea.” Enjolras walks back to the bedroom and his laptop.
__________________________
The next meeting sees Grantaire declared the winner and newly tumblr famous thanks to his photo. Enjolras waves Courfeyrac off so that he can start the meeting.
“We have a new topic for the next rally – Equal access for women to all sports on campus.” Enjolras says proudly.
Grantaire chokes on the drink of wine he just took.
“You okay, R?” Joly asks.
“Yeah. I think – I think hell just froze over. Enjolras got an idea for a cause from me.”
“Leave it to you two to need a competition to end up working together,” Jehan interjects.
“When have they ever done anything normally, Jehan?” Combeferre chuckles.
“Point taken.”
“So, see, my idea wasn’t so horrible. Enjolras and Grantaire worked together for once without attempting to kill each other!”
“Whatever you say, The Courfeyrad.” Grantaire laughs.
“Admit it, I am something awesome.” Courfeyrac boasts.
“You are something, for sure.” Enjolras replies.
Everyone breaks into laughs, before Enjolras settles them all down. For once, Grantaire doesn’t interrupt Enjolras, and he makes note to let the little girl know what her picture made happen if he ever saw her again.