I've always had this headcanon where Maruis and Cosette are each other's first love, and it's as sickening cute as it is in the book and everyone thinks they'll be together forever. Then they both realize they're bi and not actually in love anymore (two separate discoveries). They break up, stay BFFs and fall in love with other people. (namely Courf and Ep)
Hey, this speaks to me on a veeeery personal level, friend. This post will be long and have feelings and stuff.
June.
Cosette had been thinking about things for months. Unpleasant things, things that made her mood change and her mouth curve downwards in an uncharacteristic mope.
She could deny and try to pretend for as long as she wanted. But when it really came down to the quiet moments like these, she knew in her heart that her relationship with Marius had run its course. They felt much more like friends than lovers, more like roommates than cohabiting partners.
The worst thing about it was that everybody perceived them as perfect. She’d lost count at the amount of times somebody had aww’d in their general direction, described them as goals or told them they were perfect for each other.
But they weren’t, and it hurt- but Cosette was sick of pretending. She was also sick of fantasising about dates with other, pretend people.
It was an awful call of judgement, to make such a sudden decision to break things off over a petty squabble over dinner. But it wasn’t the little thing that broke her, it was the collection of little things that became a mountain of one big unspoken thing. She was unhappy, and they had stopped bringing out the best in each other a long time ago.
There was crying and frustrated arguments and desperate attempts for each of the other to understand what they were saying, but by 9:00PM that night, they were done.
Marius & Cosette the perfect couple were no more.
Marius and Cosette the individuals were just beginning.
When Marius came to Courfeyrac’s door, eyes red and slightly swollen, an overnight bag clutched tightly in his arms and a broken look upon his face, Courfeyrac didn’t need to ask him what had happened. Instead, like any good friend, he offered him a place on his couch and a kind ear to ramble to.
“I’m never going to find anybody else as perfect as her.” He said in between sobs. Courfeyrac’s heart broke for him, and he lent a comforting touch to Marius’ shoulder.
“Marius,” Courfeyrac said with his patented ‘everything will be okay’ smile. “You’re perfect, you have nothing to worry about. You’ll find your perfect match.”
As Marius moved onto another insecurity, Courfeyrac’s smile faded only slightly.
He thought sadly how unfortunate it was, that Marius would never know those words were not of empty comfort from a friend who just wanted to make their other friend happy. Instead they were words spoken genuinely, from a man who’d been hiding an unrequited crush for his dear friend.
July.
The last month had been incredibly difficult for Cosette. People always expected the person who initiated the break up to be more okay than the breakee, but for Cosette it was as though she’d lost a large part of herself.
It had taken almost all of her energy and self restraint to not reach out to Marius and break their mutual agreement of no contact. It was hard to adjust to the change. She had invested almost every day for the past 5 years into him, into them. To suddenly not have Marius to talk to was the biggest challenge of them all. Sometimes she just wanted to reach out to him, and tell him about the silly dog she’d seen on the street. Only to pause and remember, she had no right to do that anymore.
White noise was all that was left, and all she was owed.
It had been a month now, and it wasn’t as hard anymore. There were nights where it would get lonely, but ultimately she didn’t regret her decision, and she found herself quite enjoying her time alone.
She had finally decided it was time to come out of her homebody cocoon she’d built for herself by taking a trip to the nearest thrift shop for more knitting supplies. She was absentmindedly wasting time rifling through old vinyl records when her attention was caught.
“Eponine?” She said before thinking, and Eponine turned around to face, clearly she had not intended to see anybody she knew here.
“Oh, hey.” she replied, walking over to her.
“I haven’t seen you around in ages.” Cosette said, filling in the awkward silence. “You stopped going to meetings.”
Eponine rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish look. “Yeah, I um. I was busy. It was never on when I could go.”
The truth of the matter was that it was getting far too painful for Eponine to keep coming back and seeing Marius and Cosette so perfectly in love. She admittingly didn’t know why it had bothered her so much- she’d gotten over her crush on Marius a long time ago. But for some reason seeing them both together brought out something incredibly ugly in her. An untameable monster of petty envy and jealousy.
Cosette nodded. “I actually haven’t been lately either.” she admitted. It had been precisely a month since she’d last attended. She shot Eponine a grin. “Poor Musichetta must be sick of being stuck to deal with all those boys alone.”
Eponine laughed at this, a sound Cosette was fond to hear more of. She found herself grinning from ear to ear- the first time another person had made her genuinely smile in a month.
“So, how’s Marius?” Eponine asked politely, and Cosette felt herself outwardly flinch. This was the conversation she had been dreading to have. A conversation that would possibly follow her for months on end, considering the amount of people they’d woved their lives into over the course of their relationship.
“We’ve actually broken up.” Cosette said looking down at the old unamed vinyl in her hands. The uneasiness in her stomach swelling slightly.
“Oh,” Eponine said sounding genuinely shocked. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Cosette said, forcing herself to look at Eponine’s eyes- her wonderfully gorgeous eyes- and smile despite the overpowering feeling of wanting to flee and hide in her bedroom for another month. “It’s for the better.”
They continued to talk, even after making their small amount of purchases and leaving the thrift shop, when they rounded the corner of the street where they needed to go their separate ways, neither of them seemed enthused to be leaving the others presence.
“You know,” Eponine said, a little uncertainly. “Enjolras still sends me those meeting invites like clockwork. There’s one on tonight if you wanted to go.”
Cosette thought about seeing Marius again, in a room with their mutual friends. She couldn’t do it. Not yet anyway.
Eponine seemed to know the answer before Cosette had a chance to think of an excuse. “Or if you’d prefer, I’ve got a cheap bottle of wine and a boxset of trashy TV at my apartment.”
Cosette smiled at Eponine. “I’d like that a lot.” She replied.
August.
Marius hated moving. With the exception of the time he moved in with Cosette, every time he had moved his life had been a personal tragedy. He had been crashing on Courfeyrac’s couch for a month now, and regrettably it was time he moved on.
Especially because he felt that he had crossed an unspoken boundary, and cursed his hopeless romantic heart, for making him fall so quickly and so easily in love.
“You’re going?” Courfeyrac asked when he broke the news. “But why?”
“I just... Think it’s time I stop bothering you.”
“You’re not bothering me!” Courfeyrac said letting out a sort of desperate sounding laugh. “I told you that you can stay as long as you want and I meant it.”
“It’s not-” Marius sighed, he didn’t want to explain it to Courfeyrac whilst he was still under his roof.
“Did I do something?” Courfeyrac asked uncertainly. Marius looked at him sadly. Took in his overgrown and luscious hair, the cute freckles clustered at the end of his nose and the pout that was threatening to form on his face.
“You haven’t done anything.” Marius replied dejectedly. “I just- I think I have feelings for you and I don’t want to make things weird by staying here. I need our friendship too much for that.”
When Marius finally found the courage to look up at his soon to be ex-roommate.
“Wait- so you’re not straight?” Courfeyrac asked.
“I- I don’t think so? I like you, so-”
“You’re not straight and you like me?!” Courfeyrac asked, his voice becoming high pitched.
“Yes?”
Courfeyrac was laughing in relief as Marius frowned at him. This was a conversation he would rather be having when he’d secured another place to stay and wouldn’t have to be subjected to an awkward night in his company.
“Marius?” Courfeyrac said after a while. “You’re more than welcome to stay here with me, as long as you are comfortable with the fact, that I have feelings for you too.”
“Then why were you laughing?” Marius asked with relief.
“Because Bossuet owes me 20 euros.”
September.
It was a rare day of warmth and sunniness- Courfeyrac’s favourite weather, and a well needed break from the pre-Autumn chill. Marius couldn’t help the smile he found upon his face as the took what was supposed to be a leisurely stroll through the park. Nothing was ever leisurely with Courfeyrac though, he was getting excited at every little thing and taking Marius by the hand and dragging him over to join him in excitement.
Marius couldn’t even pretend to be annoyed by this. This last month had been the happiest he had been in a long time. He had never felt more like himself in Courfeyrac’s company.
“Marius!” A voice called out to him, he turned to see for the first time since their breakup, Cosette, waving to him from a picnic blanket. Eponine was sat comfortably beside her in sunglasses and shorts.
He approached her whilst Courfeyrac busied himself at the ice cream stand, and was surprised and oddly glad to find that it didn’t hurt to see her happy, and from the way she was leaning against Eponine, with somebody else.
“Hi.” He said, and as awkward and uncomfortable as it was, it was also liberating.
“Hi.” She said back. Eponine muttered an excuse about ice cream, and left to join Courfeyrac on the other end of the park.
The small talk that followed was short and to the point. By the time Courfeyrac and Eponine had made their way back over, Marius and Cosette were laughing with each other.
When it was time for Marius and Courfeyrac to depart, Cosette gave Marius a tight hug.
“I’m glad you’re happy.” Marius said to her, and meant it.
Grantaire has as five or more cats, at least two of which are special needs (the kind that are almost impossible to adopt out because they take so much work). Enjolras doesn't know any of this the first time he goes to Grantaire's apartment.
Enjolras is utterly speechless when 4 furballs start surrounding his legs the second he steps foot into the apartment. Sure he knew Grantaire liked cats. But he never knew he liked cat that much!
Plus Grantaire is so attentive and loving to all of them, knows exactly how much food to put in their bowls, what food, what are each cat’s specific needs...
Enjolras sits on the couch and tentatively pets a blind cat who has lost both of his eyes. The little guy starts purring against him, headbutting his hand and arms affectionately.
“I never knew you took care of so many cats. That must cost you a fortune!”
Grantaire shrugs. Enjolras notices a kitten with a limp and another with a prosthetic.
“Do you work for the animal shelter?”
“No. I just think misfits should stick together. When no one wants you, you just have to create a family of your own, you know. Well... probably not. Anyway.”
Enjolras brushes off the comment by scratching the cat’s ear.
“Maybe that’s what we are, with les Amis. A family of Misfits,” he says.
“I can’t exactly conceive that no one wants you, Enjolras.”
“Well I can’t exactly conceive that no ones wants you either, Grantaire.”
I started working with a movie Art Department and I had a conversation that reminded me very much of Grantaire:"I'm probably going to cry [from the pain] when I go home." "You're officially art department! That's the age old tradition! Crying yourself to sleep." "I feel like that's the tradition of anything with the word "art" in it."
akigriffin replied to your post “actually bob belcher is canonically bi !”
There's a Thanksgiving episode! He keeps going up to the deli and the guy thinks he's hitting on him, and Bob's like, even if I wasn't married, you're not in my league??
oh shit well i’ve seen the episode i guess it just didn’t register as legit proof in my head
akigriffin replied to your post “will i not look at/apply to a promising school because the playwriting...”
Which school? And I think AP courses usually count, from what I can tell (I didn't take AP in high school, so didn't run into that personally)
it’s called drexel university. and honestly i like it so i i visit and it seems like a fit or whatever i could probably suck it up through one math class, i just wouldn’t be happy about it. idk though because ap stats is a specific kind of math so it might not excuse me from a different sort of math class, i’d have to talk to someone there bc i didn’t see it online.
