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In the beginning it’s just Enjolras. Just him alone in the castle. One might say it’s a lonely existence, but as Enjolras does not have a heart he doesn’t mind being alone. He just trains himself to be a magician and use his powers to their full potential.
Its by chance that he finds Combeferre. He’s out protecting villages and towns from the war when he is too tired to make it back to the shop in the village and lands a few streets away unable to stand and move from the pavement.
Combeferre has been working late with his window open and see’s Enjolras land near his house, at which point he goes and helps him. He half carry’s Enjolras back to the shop where he is fascinated to find that it’s not a shop at all, at least beyond the first room.
Enjolras thanks him and sleeps by the fire.
The next day he goes to find Combeferre and thank him for help, and the two soon become friends, sharing many common interests and opinions on politics and those in charge.
He finds out that Combeferre makes violins in his spare time, as well as enjoying reading books about medicine and philosophy. He invites him over to see the castle and they spend the next year visiting each other in between work and studies and fighting for the good of the world (as Enjolras considers this his job. So much so that he won’t give himself a break, and work himself until he collapses from exhaustion, and until he met Combeferre he never had a reason to have a break) and eventually he suggests that Combeferre uses the shop to sell his violins as then ‘it’s actually useful’ in Enjolras’s words.
Combeferre puts his heart and soul into making violins and uses the castle as both a shop and a workspace and, after falling asleep there many times, he moves in, moving out of his parent’s home. The arrangement works surprisingly well for both of them, as they both spend a lot of time working, but also it gives them company and they enjoying taking a break and relaxing with each other as much as work sometimes. They’re very adept at communicating with each other, sometimes no words need to be said, they both understand what the other is thinking and feeling. Combeferre knows when Enjolras is giving up hope and spends those nights holding him and occasionally kissing his forehead in reassurance. They usually fall asleep like this because on these night Enjolras needs Combeferre. And Combeferre is happy to look after Enjolras, as he’s never known anyone to be a passionate as Enjolras, and work so hard for something which at times seemed so futile. It’s fair to say that he loves Enjolras.
The sentiment is also returned, as Combeferre often struggles with his work, the violins not being quite right, and this winds him up and then makes him disappointed in himself, and at these times its Enjolras who looks after him, letting him vent and giving him suggestions, and sometimes using magic to help him (when Combeferre lets him that is).
Enjolras does love Combeferre, but he’s not sure how as he doesn’t have a heart. It doesn’t matter though, as the two boys are happy together in their co-dependent relationship.
They become used to their quiet little routine, and every so often they move villages bringing new customers and problems to help with, however it provides refreshment from their routines. So when Enjolras takes on a boy to train, the change is quite disturbing, having another living body in the castle, but somehow the arrival of Courfeyrac completes their trio. Courfeyrac is noisy where the other two are quiet, and he’s dramatic when the other two are reserved, but he’s just as intelligent (when he’s grown up a bit) and just as invested in what he believes and is so very caring for both Combeferre and Enjolras. Courfeyrac makes the castle feel like a home in ways it hasn’t before and the three of them now feel like a family. Courfeyrac grows up learning about life from Enjolras and Combeferre and he is the one who goes and explores the villages and towns that before now the other two have only inhabited vaguely, and used for business. Courfeyrac goes and makes friends with people and grows up to be a very sociable person as the older he gets, the less he depends on Combeferre and Enjolras to look after him, and the more they work and the more time he has. So he spends his time learning about people and places and learning how to use the magic that he’s been taught by Enjolras.
When Combeferre gets stuck in one of his medicine textbooks it’s Courfeyrac who introduces him to his friend Joly who is a new doctor. Joly and Combeferre become good friends very quickly (not as good as Enjolras and Combeferre though) but Joly doesn’t visit the castle. Not yet anyway. When he does, that is when his life changes.
Joly (despite having hypochondriac tendencies) is deeply interested in medicine and healing people, and more interested in the effect that magic has on illness and how effective a medicine it can be, and when Courfeyrac mentions that he see’s Enjolras (who is much more advanced in brewing potions and making remedies than Courfeyrac) Joly comes to the castle. Who takes one look at it and walks right back out the door (he returns a short while late equipped with a range of cleaning equipment and spends the next week cleaning the castle from top to bottom (and subsequently discovering the fact that it was in several places at once, the castle itself moving across deserted fields and mountains) and he absolutely loves the castle by the time he’s done cleaning it (something for which all of the inhabitants are grateful for). Joly, together with Combeferre and Courfeyrac are taught by Enjolras about the effects of magic and medicine, and Joly starts a business to do with this, using the shop along with Combeferre.
After Joly starts his business and moves in, Enjolras begins to spend longer away from the castle, and everyone see’s less of him, and also (not that they’ll tell him) worry about him more. He’s thinner than he was and he’s always tired, returning late at night and taking long baths before going to sleep. He takes less breaks than usual, now that the people living in his castle are not alone and able to look after themselves. He still sometimes climbs into bed with Combeferre (and occasional Courfeyrac as well) when he’s feeling down, or has spent too long without company, relying on his best friends to cheer him up. He often apologises for not being around, and tries to spend time with everyone every so often, which helps them to worry less, and those times are the favourite of all the inhabitants of the house.
It’s Enjolras who finds Jehan. Or rather Jehan who saves Enjolras. Jehan is a wolf. Or changes into a wolf (and believes that he is one) (he’s also being hunted by Montparnasse (who is unaware that Jehan isn’t actually a wolf)) Jehan is fighting at the same place as Enjolras happens to be protecting as they are destroying the forest which is his home, and when Enjolras is about to be hit Jehan saves him. Enjolras (being magical) knows that Jehan is human and is able to persuade him to change form (when they are safely away from the fighting and bombs and fires of the tree’s being burnt down). It’s at this point when Montparnasse (who has followed them) see’s that Jehan is not a wolf, and knows that this boy must be protected rather than hunted. When Enjolras asks Jehan to leave to forest because it’s lost and come with him, Jehan does, and comes to live in the castle and mostly of the wastes that the castle moves around. Montparnasse follows, secretly protecting Jehan from harm, as many people (including him before now) would kill a wolf. Jehan does know that Montparnasse is there, and after a while comes to realise that he will no longer harm him.
Courfeyrac is still young when Jehan comes to the castle, and instantly loves Jehan. And it’s him who over time helps Jehan to realise, and accept that he is in fact human as well as a wolf. On instinct, he had trusted Courfeyrac more than Combeferre and even Enjolras and the two become nearly inseparable when Jehan is human. It’s clear to anyone that they love each other.
Although Jehan did have his own room, he rarely used it, favouring to sleep in Courfeyrac’s room, a tradition which had first started when Jehan came. As he had instantly trusted Courfeyrac, and Courfeyrac was still young, he saw Courfeyrac as needing protecting and as he was strong and more powerful (in actuality he was a couple of years older than Courfeyrac himself) he took it upon himself to sleep next to his bed as a wolf, and as Courfeyrac slowly helped him become a human again he always went to Courfeyrac to look after him, knowing that Courfeyrac would instantly move over an create space in his bed for him and hold him whilst they slept.
They sometimes argued. In the beginning it was Courfeyrac mentioning the fact that he was human. Sentences like ‘Enjolras says that you’re not actually as wolf.’ Have him snarl at Courfeyrac, but Courfeyrac knows that Jehan won’t harm him, so it has little effect. When he gets really angry with him he’ll go outside and run around the wastes until he knows Courfeyrac is asleep and then he lies outside the boy’s door all night. To the rest of the house this is endearing and rather amusing. It especially is endearing to Enjolras who often returns late at night and falls asleep on the arm chair in front of the fire. He’ll smile at Jehan when he sees him sat outside the door.
“Another argument?” He says laughing. And smiling even more when Jehan got up and trotted over to him and sat next to him. He was allowed to stroke his head until Enjolras fell asleep. Enjolras is also happier, and sleeps better knowing that Jehan is there. Jehan’s presence is a comforting one, whatever form he chooses to be in.
This happens often to begin with and then less so. One night Enjolras says to him “Come here. Let me show you something.” And he gets up, turning the knob on the door to a new colour that he rarely uses. He opens the door to a field of flowers and lakes, in which Jehan instantly feels at peace in. He spends many hours running around in that field that night, and Enjolras tells him to let him know when he has to open the door to let him in again. It turns out he does not need to open the door, as Jehan does it himself, as a human. He smiles at Enjolras and hugs him.
“Thank you.” He says “You were right.”
“You saved my life Jehan. I have to thank you.”
“You know my name?”
“A friend in the wastes told me.”
Jehan looks concerned at this, but he cannot stop looking towards Courfeyrac’s room. Enjolras notices this and laughs. He lets go of Jehan and Jehan moves towards where Courfeyrac is asleep.
From this point onwards Jehan changes forms; first involuntarily however he learns to control this skill.
(Enjolras had been out on the wastes whilst Jehan was in the field, where he met Montparnasse and learnt what Jehan’s name was. He told Montparnasse that he was welcome inside at anytime, an offer which he sometimes uses to come for dinner, and occasionally sleeps the night, but often he makes his own way around (sometimes staying in the towns and villages and helping find things for Enjolras, Joly and Courfeyrac). The first time he slept the night (in Jehan’s unused room) Jehan had come in and given him a kiss of the forehead, for not hurting him, and protecting him from afar)
The arrival of Jehan had brought one other person to the castle.
Bahorel was a spirit of the forest, and had resided in the forest near Jehan. He follows Jehan when he leaves with Enjolras for two reasons. One, being that the forest is lost. The second being that he doesn’t trust Montparnasse, and so he follows them all the way to the wastes and protects Jehan every time he goes outside.
It’s Courfeyrac who finds him playing in the rain, one of the first times Jehan goes out in an argument (again Courfeyrac is still young) and he tells him that his name is Totoro. Bahorel and Courfeyrac spend the next few years getting up to a lot of mischief. And it’s made clear to him that he’s very welcome inside the castle, and so (when he trusts Montparnasse enough) he begins to sleep in the castle as well. (When he’s inside he sometimes turns into a human, but only on special occasions.
Feuilly finds the castle by seeing and recognizing one of Combeferre’s violins. (he grew up in the same town) and he comes in asking to see Combeferre. Combeferre is happy to see someone from his past, that he had no idea that he missed so much. He spent the day catching up with Feuilly finding out that he made things like fans for a living and selling them.
Bahorel wakes up to a new voice in the castle, and comes out of his room and see’s Feuilly and Combeferre talking.
“Combeferre, why do you live with a Totoro!” Feuilly says in shock.
“Oh he keeps the garden growing and looks after the castle.” Combeferre replies, however at the point Bahorel has changed form and is looking at Feuilly in shock.
“You know about Totoro?”
Feuilly nods.
“’Ferre, we’re keeping him.”
So Feuilly also moves into the castle, bringing his business with him, and sharing a room with Bahorel, simply because he’s comfortable to sleep on.
Musichetta has been a regular customer of the shop and the various businesses that now run, for years. She knows all of the inhabitants by name and likes to make sure that they are all okay. Joly has always liked Musichetta, and always loves her visits; however he is too shy to ask any more.
It’s not until Bossuet gets fired from his job and kicked out of his apartment that Musichetta moves into the castle bringing Bossuet with her and promising to make sure that they are all well fed in exchange for a room.
Bossuet is surprisingly good at baking, and as one of their shops is a bakery, him and Musichetta take to running the bakery.
After Joly spends several nights hesitating outside the door to their room, he’s pushed inside by Courfeyrac (who is sick of his pining for the two). From then on the three are as inseparable as Jehan and Courfeyrac.
Feuilly’s business, and Bossuet’s, and Musichetta’s bakery brings Marius and Cosette to the castle. Both of them are witches/wizards, and they run a delivery service in separate towns, of baked goods and fans, and other items which Feuilly makes. Surprisingly they don’t meet for many months until the literally fly into each other in mid air. Marius comes back with Cosette introducing her to everyone, to which they all laugh because they all know exactly who she is. Cosette thinks that it’s cute however and kisses him on the cheek, which causes him to blush bright red.
Eponine is the last one to come to the house. She stumbles in from the wastes on a freezing rainy night and instantly curls up by the fire. She wakes up covered in a blanket, and with a pillow under her head. No-one questions her presence there, so she doesn’t question anything, like a giant Totoro, or a wolf, she just accepts what she is given, and the group of friends living there accept her as part of the group.
On the first day she was there, she spends the day exploring the entire castle, and is entranced when she finds Combeferre’s workshop. She hasn’t played the violin for years, but when she picks one up, it feels familiar to her, and she experiments playing with it, only to find Combeferre watching her with a bemused smile on his face.
“You play?” She asks.
“I prefer to make them, but I can play them as well.”
“They’re lovely.”
“Thank you, but they’re not quite right yet.”
She laughs “Perfectionist.”
At this point Combeferre laughs. He wasn’t sure he’d know what to say to this girl, but she made it so very easy for him, and somehow her presence in the house was soothing to him. She could be loud, boisterous and noisy, or she could be silent, sullen, and stubborn, she wasn’t at all like him, and yet the difference was quite refreshing to him, as he now had lived the same way with the same people for longer than he had lived without them.
Eponine had quickly discovered that very few people slept alone in the castle. One was Enjolras, who bed she was frankly to scared to go near, even if it was often empty these days. And the other was Combeferre. She had been sleeping in Joly’s old room, but it’s far to clean for her liking, so when she steps into Combeferre’s room which has books littering every surface she feels much more at home, and settles herself into his bed.
(when Combeferre see’s that his bed is occupied, he sighs and decides that apparently no-one in this house is allowed to sleep on their own, and it’s all Courfeyrac’s fault for liking Jehan. However, he doesn’t mind quite so much having Eponine curled up next to him, and he might not kill Courfeyrac for starting the tradition after all).
No-one knows when Grantaire moved in. It was before Joly came to the castle, but that’s all anyone knows.
What is known is that he leaves soot everywhere. He claims it’s because he sleeps by the fire, but no-one notices him there (once or twice Enjolras has looked twice at the shadows around the hearth, and if he has seen Grantaire he won’t admit it).
What is also known is that he likes to irritate Enjolras (which is amusing to everyone, if they’re not worried about Enjolras). It is also known that however much he provokes him, or however bad the arguments between them get, Grantaire likes Enjolras. (The only person who knows if Enjolras secretly likes Grantaire is Combeferre, because Combeferre is the only person Enjolras will talk to about these things)
Grantaire does odd jobs. Sometimes he helps Feuilly; sometimes he helps in the bakery. Occasionally Cosette lets him make deliveries with her. Sometimes he goes outside to paint. All of these things he’s extremely good at, which is frustrating to Enjolras of course.
It’s Combeferre who decides to tell him.
“Grantaire, you do know that Enjolras isn’t able to love you back. He doesn’t have a heart, and no-one knows where his heart is.”
Grantaire instead of being upset smiles. “He’s not made of marble Combeferre, he does have a heart, and I know exactly where it is.”
“What!”
“I know where his heart is.”
“Where?” Combeferre says completely confused as to how Grantaire knows this. Then again, maybe it should be Grantaire who worked it out.
“It’s in the fire. Haven’t you noticed that it never goes out?”
“Yes, but how do you know this?”
“I’m a soot sprite. Of course I know this.”
A lot of things suddenly make sense to Combeferre.
“I think you should give it back to him. He needs his heart more than ever. He keeps working himself to the point where he’s dying.”
“I know. But he won’t let me give it to him. He doesn’t want his heart. If he did he would have it.”
Combeferre sighs, because Grantaire is right. Of course he is.
It’s when Joly screams at Grantaire that ‘he’s covering everything in soot and is going to take a bath right now or else ...’ that Grantaire succeeds in his mission.
He takes threats from Joly seriously, as he’s seen Joly be absolutely terrifying, so he goes upstairs and into the bathroom. Which is being occupied by Enjolras. Because Enjolras, when not out saving the world, or sleeping, is in the bath. He looks at Grantaire, sighs and then goes back to whatever he was doing (which was seemingly nothing).
After a minute of standing awkwardly in the doorway Enjolras sighs again.
“Is there a reason you’re here?”
“Joly sent me.” Enjolras scrutinises him, looking for a hint of a lie, but finds none. “Come on then.”
“Come on what?”
“Are you getting in or not, because i’m not getting out.”
“Fine.” Says Grantaire almost laughing at Enjolras’s refusal to leave the bath. He strips off his clothes and gets into the hot water. “How long have you been in here?”
“Does it matter?”
“You don’t do anything but go and fight, sleep, and sit in here anymore. Everyone misses you. And they’re all worried about you.”
Enjolras just looks at him.
“Enjolras you have to take a break at some point, you can’t work yourself like this forev...” He’s stopped when he’s splashed by a small amount of water, which hits his shoulder. Enjolras laughs.
“Enjol...”
“You really are covered in soot.” He giggles, looking at the spots on Grantaire which are now cleaner than the rest of him. Then Enjolras is on his knee’s leaning over to Grantaire sat at the opposite end of the bath to him, and runs his finger along his skin, wiping off the soot.
“Enjolras are you okay?” He asks. And then Enjolras’s face is in his shoulder.
“I’m so tired.” He says quietly.
Grantaire stokes his long hair (which is already beginning to curl) and mummers comforting words.
They stay like this for a while. Neither willing to move.
Eventually Enjolras speaks. “I know what you want. And I won’t do it. It’s too much to bear.”
“You need your heart Enjolras. It keeps you human. You can’t change this world acting like a machine. You’re human, and that’s why we believe in you. That’s why I believe in you.”
Enjolras lifts his head and stares at him in shock. “You don’t believe in anything.”
“I believe in you.” He replies smiling at the man in front of him. He reaches out, caressing Enjolras’s cheek softly, before leaning forward and kissing him gently on the lips. He then gets out of the bath and wraps himself in a towel, before leaving the bathroom.
Later that night, when everyone but Grantaire is asleep, he comes downstairs and looks at Grantaire curled up on the arm chair. Grantaire looks at him and he nods. Grantaire smiles.
Enjolras’s castle was never meant to be empty, but Enjolras had never expected to have a family. Not like the one that he has. He doesn’t mind. Not at all. He won’t admit it, but he likes having his castle full of his loved ones. It makes life just that little bit easier.