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“Grantaire,” Eponine’s voice is full of barely-cloaked concern when Grantaire finally comes out of the shower, and picks up his phone. “Grantaire, fuck, I’ve been calling for the past fifteen minutes! Are you okay?”
“Am I okay?” Grantaire asks, towelling his hair dry. “Yeah? I think? I’m sorry, I was in the shower.”
“Oh,” Eponine says quietly. “You haven’t seen it yet. You probably should.”
“See what?” Grantaire asks, and his mind is going a hundred miles an hour now, trying to think of what he’d have fucked up now. When Eponine doesn’t immediately reply, Grantaire’s stomach drops. “Eponine.”
She sighs. “Uh, you know how we were chatting before you left to shower? You kind of replied to my last message…in the group chat instead.”
“Oh my God,” Grantaire says in horror.
“Everyone’s seen it,” she continues.
“Oh my God.”
There is a short pause, and then Eponine sighs, and adds, “That includes Enjolras.”
“Goodbye, I’m packing up, and moving out of the country right now.” Grantaire says. And then, “Has he said anything?”
“No,” Eponine says. “Do you want him to say something?”
“Fuck no,” Grantaire replies, and then forces out a bout of nervous laughter, because the only other option would be to fling his phone out of the window, and then proceed to suffocate himself with his pillow. “I want him to have never seen it, holy shit. Do you think maybe his phone got stolen, and it’s the thief that’s read the message instead?”
“Grantaire.”
Eponine doesn’t even sound annoyed that Grantaire’s doing his denial thing right now, just sympathetic, and Grantaire loves her for it.
“You know what? It’s okay, you can probably still turn it into a joke, it’s not the end of the world, right?”
But that would require actually opening up his app, and having to witness his own embarrassment forever recorded in the les amis group chat, and Grantaire doesn’t want to do that, ever.
Maybe he should really consider flinging his phone out of the window right now.
“What if I told everyone my phone was stolen instead?”
“Grantaire.”
“I… Fuck, can you give me a moment to myself to try to process, and figure out what I’m going to do about this?” Grantaire asks. “I promise I’m not going to move out of the country.”
“Of course,” Eponine tells him. “If you need someone to bounce ideas off with, or if you just need me to sit there while you freak out a little, just give me a call.”
“I love you,” Grantaire breathes out, grateful.
Eponine snorts. “Hang in there, dude. It’s not completely unfixable.”
—
From: Grantaire
well yeah, what i want for christmas is enjolras, so you can see how that’s literally going to take a christmas miracle
—
Grantaire’s process for figuring things out is…not great, to say the least.
For the most part, all he’s done in the half an hour since the phone call with Eponine ended is to bundle himself up in his fluffiest blanket, and seriously consider never leaving his apartment again. He could easily work from home since his digital illustration work doesn’t exactly require him to go outside, and if he could be bothered looking it up, he’s pretty sure he could find a supermarket that does home deliveries.
Huh, he could actually fortify himself in his home and never leave.
The idea’s never sounded as appealing as it does now that he’s accidentally outed his crush on Enjolras to everyone. Fuck, he hasn’t even had the courage to look through the chat to see what everyone else thinks about it yet. Would they be supportive? Would they be completely sympathetic about his crush because they know how hopeless it is? Would they brush it off as a joke, and laugh about it together?
God, Grantaire doesn’t even know which option he would prefer right now. Just thinking about it makes him want to sink into his blanket burrito even more, and continue thinking about never leaving.
Realistically, he knows that none of the amis would make fun about his crush, but he really hadn’t meant to make it public knowledge. He likes to think that he’s gotten really good about keeping his crush on Enjolras under wraps, and that nobody knows. It helps him feel a lot safer, to know that nobody is scrutinising him, noticing his crush on Enjolras, and judging him for aiming way out of his league.
Except that’s not true right now, because everyone knows.
Enjolras knows.
God, who even knows what Enjolras thinks about him right now. Would Enjolras think he’s super creepy, ridiculously foolish, or both?
—
From: Eponine
have you finished freaking out yet?
From: Eponine
grantaire??
From: Eponine
R????
From: Eponine
tell me you didn’t decide to never reply to messages again.
To: Eponine
you know me so well, i love you
From: Eponine
are you still coming to the christmas eve thing tonight?
To: Eponine
yeah no, tell everyone i’m sick
From: Eponine
how many people do you think will believe me?
To: Eponine
shhh that doesn’t matter
From: Eponine
do you want me to cancel as well and then we can hang out?
To: Eponine
no don’t, i’m just going to nap through the day so my brain stops functioning and i don’t have to remember anything
—
Grantaire is midway through his nap when the knocking starts. He sighs and untangles himself from his blankets, and heads to the living room to let Eponine —it is undoubtedly Eponine because she never listens to him whenever he says anything, and he really doesn’t deserve Eponine— in, because she’s definitely not going to stop knocking just because he isn’t opening the door.
Just as well that Eponine is here. Maybe she’ll be able to take his mind off other less pleasant things.
He opens the door, and comes face-to-face with Enjolras.
“Enjolras?” Grantaire asks, aware that his face is must be flushing bright red right now, because Jesus fucking Christ, he’s still in his boxers, thank fuck he decided to shrug on a sweater before he came out. “What are you doing here?”
It could be for something unrelated, he reminds himself. It could be like he imagined, and Enjolras hasn’t even seen the message yet because his phone has been stolen.
“Did you mean it?” Enjolras asks, not replying to Grantaire’s question. “What you said in the chat?”
“Fuck,” Grantaire swears. “It’s- I didn’t mean to. I accidentally-”
“Grantaire,” Enjolras says gently, and he’s stepped closer now. “Did you mean it?”
It’s all Grantaire can do to nod jerkily at Enjolras, and hope for the ground to open up and swallow him whole.
“Good,” Enjolras says, lips curling up into a smile, reaching up to cup Grantaire’s cheek with one gloved hand.
It’s so far from the reaction Grantaire is expecting to get from Enjolras that Grantaire can’t help but to make a noise of astonishment. “Enjolras,” he breathes out, “what are you doing?”
Enjolras’ smile widens, and with it, Grantaire’s trepidation grows.
“I’m here to deliver your Christmas miracle,” Enjolras tells him, and then kisses him.