The City That We Loved

Do You Like the Person You've Become?

They spent weeks, trying to come up with a plan to find Jehan. The Amis' first problem was the fact that they had no clue where he was being kept. Javert had said that they were keeping him safe, so a prison was off the table. They thought of it maybe being a safe house but they had no way of figuring the location out. They had called the Patron Minette but they had said they were done helping them.

Enjolras was driven to find his friend. He would not lose anymore friends. He spent countless hours at the cafe looking over maps, reading blogs, articles, anything that could indicate where Jehan Prouvaire could be. He rarely slept at all and he knew his friends were worried about him but they all knew he'd be too stubborn to give up.

On New Year's Eve, Courfeyrac put his foot down. He knew where to find his friend. The cafe Musain of course. Enjolras was in the back room, sweating from the fire that was lit behind him, his sleeves rolled up and his red flannel shirt unbuttoned at the top, three buttons down. He was standing over a map crossing out something in red pen.

"Alright, young man," Courfeyrac said. He went over to the map and pulled it out from under Enjolras' hands.

"Hey! Courf, I'm in the middle of--"

"No. You're under arrest for being such a stiff. The fun police are in town and we don't tolerate stiffs." Courfeyrac rolled up the map and placed it on the couch. "I'm sorry, sir, but you're coming with me." He grabbed Enjolras by the arm and pulled him out of the back room.

"Courfeyrac..." Enjolras complained. "I have work to do. Jehan--"

"Jehan would want you to have fun tonight," Courfeyrac said. "If Javert was telling the truth, the little guy is probably picking flowers in some field right now. He can wait one day more." Enjolras' blue eyes were annoyed.

"Where are we going? I hope it's not another one of your outside friends' parties," Enjolras said, tiredly.

"Nope. Even better. It's my party. But first, mister, we've got to get you into something less...sweaty. I know girls like the whole godly thing you've got going on but that doesn't mean you're approachable."

It was almost twilight. Courfeyrac took Enjolras back to his apartment where he forced the young leader to sit on his couch. Courfeyrac disappeared into the bedroom for a moment. Dame--Jehan's cat--jumped up on the couch beside Enjolras and he sneezed almost immediately. But he pat the cat anyway. When Courfeyrac returned, he had a pile of clothes in his arms.

"Courf, what are you doing?" Enjolras asked.

"Making you approachable, that's what."

***

Grantaire stood around in the back room of the cafe Musain, a drink in hand. The cafe was filled with a bunch of people he didn't know as well as the Amis.

After his argument with Enjolras weeks before, he'd still continued coming to the cafe for meetings. But he meant what he said to him and they both knew it. Grantaire wasn't prepared to lose his friends, especially not Enjolras. He wouldn't be able to bear to see the light leave Apollo's eyes.

The cafe was filled up, the televisions on for the countdown to midnight. Their host still hadn't arrived and neither had Enjolras. Grantaire suspected he wouldn't. Enjolras wasn't the partying type.

"Seen Enjolras around?" Gavroche asked, coming up beside Grantaire. He started to answer him with a shake of the head and then did a double take.

"What are you doing here?" Grantaire asked. "This is an adult party. How did you even get in?"

"Are you honestly trying to be the responsible parent here?" Gavroche asked, raising his fair eyebrows. Grantaire shrugged and took a sip of his brandy. "Well, let me know if you see him. I have some top secret ABC information for him."