I've Never Heard Him 'Oooh' and 'Aaah'

Chapter 2

As promised, Combeferre rose early the next morning, finding Enjolras face down, snoring lightly into his pillow. Looking at his alarm clock, he also found that he had just enough time to grab a quick breakfast-to-go from the cafe down the street they frequented before his first class.

Mercilessly shoving off the covers, Combeferre sat on the edge of his bed taking a minute to accustom himself to the new day. Yawning, he observed the peaceful sleep of Enjolras, not without a little envy. It appeared Enjolras had long ago abandoned his phone-centric position; his phone was now on the floor beside his bed, probably flipped accidentally off the side as Enjolras dreamt of social justice.

Still groggy with sleep, Combeferre pushed himself off his bed and made to retrieve his book bag from the table which he and Enjolras had divided in half for the purpose of serving both of them. On one side of the painted red line lay Combeferre's assorted textbooks, typical of a pre-med major, and an array of his own self-drawn diagrams which depicted everything from human body systems to the exoskeletons of insects. On the other side of the red line resided mountains of Enjolras' radical pamphlets written by various authors, among them Enjolras himself. They were piled haphazardly atop a political science textbook and innumerable books on French history. Nothing, however, was within an inch of the red line except the inscribed words, "The Liberty of the citizen ends where the Liberty of another begins."

Combeferre smiled as he remembered the whole arrangement being one of the first things Enjolras had said to him when they'd first become roommates. Then, he thought of the quote in terms of the events of the previous night and looked back at the phone so easily within his grasp.

It's his phone, Combeferre thought as he slung his book bag over his shoulder. He's entitled to his privacy.

He put a pair of shoes on but even as he leaned down to tie them, his eyes remained glued to the phone in the middle of the floor.

Remember the quote, Combeferre told himself. Remember your morals, damn it! For God's sake, even Courfeyrac knows better than that!

But even this argument, though usually enough to deter him from doing anything no matter how much he wanted to do it, could not stop him from edging closer and closer to Enjolras' phone. And finally, against his better judgement, he knelt beside the phone and pushed the home button. Immediately, he saw that a message had gone unanswered from 2 a.m. It was from Grantaire. Disgusted with his own deviousness, Combeferre opened the conversation, seeing that it had in fact gone on for almost two hours. He only dared so far as to read Grantaire's last message. It read:

When does the sun god sleep, if he spends the night fraternizing with mortals?

"Good morning." Combeferre nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of Enjolras' drowsy voice. He looked up and saw Enjolras' azure eyes stare back at him, flit momentarily downward in the direction of the phone, and then back to hold Combeferre's gaze.

"Good morning." Combeferre tried his best not to stutter despite the rapid rhythm his heart was tapping out. "I was just checking to see if Joly had texted you his plans for the day. I want to meet up with him if I can."

"Well?"

"Nothing. But I'll text him on my way to class to try to find out."

"Ok."

Combeferre quickly got back to his feet and as he reached the threshold, he called back to Enjolras, "Sorry if I woke you up!"

"Combeferre." Enjolras' steadily calm tone froze Combeferre in his tracks.

"Yes?"

"Remember: The good must be innocent."

Remaining on the threshold, Combeferre replied, indignant at his own words being thrown in his face, "I'd advise you to do the same."