Read story A Lovely Christmas Eve by acting_is_mylife (Cassidy) with 1 reads. nb, enjoltaire, bossuet. "Joly, I think one scarf will be enough." "Frostbite and...
I was assigned to give @spearmintstardust a Les Mis-related gift this Christmas as a part of the @lesmiserablessecretsanta exchange! I decided to write you a short, fluffy fanfic including JBM, ER, and NB!Jehan. It’s posted on Wattpad at this link (and yes, I’m aware the title is generic and the cover is corny, but I hope you like the content)!
Happy holidays!!
HAPPY HOLIGAYS @swampcatkid !! you mentioned really loving jehan and grantaire, so i drew you icons of each. this is actually the very first art i’ve done for les mis. you asked to relate songs to both of them, so the two songs i listened to were “alligator sky (no rap version)” by owl city- for jehan- and “what the lonely say” by parlour steps for R. :) i hope your holiday season is fantastic!!!
So I participated in @lesmiserablessecretsanta, and I got @flowerjolras! Since you seem to enjoy both ballet and mermaids, I came up with this AU, featuring merman R and fire magic using dancer Enj. Which is probably an overly complicated mess, but I hope you like it anyway?
Featuring my probably not very good image choices (I was having a really hard time finding images this time, I'm sorry) and lyrics lovingly jacked from the Disney Little Mermaid stage version, because it seemed like a good idea.
There's a ramble about the story I had in mind under the cut, if you're interested. And happy holidays!
There's a lot of different kinds of mermaids. The famous ones are the pretty, colorful kind... R is a merman, but not that type. His kind are not as pretty or colorful, but much heartier and more adaptable. So much so that they have the biggest market for spells to transform them into humans, since they're the best at handling the side effects.
R buys one of those spells one day on a whim, just to get away for a little while. There's not a lot of merpeople in general, and they're all spread out through all the waters around the world... Which means when he's in his home waters he's around only a handful of other people. It gets dull sometimes.
The spell he buys takes the form of a pendant that gives him legs so long as he's wearing it. It's one of the cheaper spells, so it's not as good... In addition to the usual side effect of constant pain in his new legs, this particular spell will make him ill if he goes too long without returning to the water. He doesn't mind, he doesn't intend to stay.
Except he ends up liking living on the surface, and especially in the city, way more than he thought he would. He ends up deciding to live there full time... It's not easy dealing with the side effects, but he finds excuses not to walk and drinks and takes pain pills (both probably far more than is healthy) and manages to cope with it. The returning to the water is harder, but he just arranges trips to the beach often enough to keep himself from getting sick. It helps that he stumbles across some bath products that mimic his home waters enough to take the edge off.
Honestly probably one of the factors in him deciding to stay was seeing one of Enj's performances. And then meeting him face to face when one of his new friends drags him to a meeting.
Speaking of which, Enj is a fire magic user and a ballet dancer. I'm thinking he took the lessons kind of by chance as a kid (I had a whole story but unfortunately I completely forgot it) and decided he loved it. He has too many other interests/priorities to dedicate himself to it as completely as he could, but he's dedicated enough and talented enough that he's successful on a sort of small local level.
He's got a little bit of a name for himself because he uses his magic during performances. People call it a gimmick, but he insists he only does it when it's appropriate.
So... Things just go on for awhile as usual. R keeps what he is a secret from everyone because he doesn't want to deal with the inevitable disappointment over him not being one of the pretty merpeople. Also he wishes he could dance like Enj because it looks amazing and he misses being graceful (because he might not be the pretty kind, but he was always graceful in the water), but the pain in his legs won't let him.
Then at some point the group finds out the company R buys his bath products from is up to some no good shit and start promoting a boycott.
Of course they don't know R buys from them or why, and he continues quietly buying those products for awhile. He does need them after all... But then one time he accidentally runs into Enj while holding the bag and Enj expresses his disappointment and he decides to stop. It just means more trips home or whatever, not a big deal right?
Except that winter he just keeps not being able to get in the water. Something always comes up that prevents him. And it's colder than usual, which is making his health worse... He starts getting sick, and tries to hide it from the others.
They notice and, despite his reluctance, manage to force the truth from him. Everyone tells him off for trying to hide it and then helps him recover with various levels of fussing. Enj is particularly dedicated to helping him recover, feeling guilty over his part in promoting R's illness (though he maintains the main fault is R's stubbornness because of how fast their friends whip up an alternative to the bath products he'd been using that he admits works better), coming around to visit him a lot.
(I'm kind of picturing J/B/M taking R in while he recovers and there is much forcing warm drinks on him, but that not absolutely necessary.)
They get to talking over the visits, getting closer. Eventually R accidentally lets it spill about the pain in his legs and how he wishes he could dance, and Enj becomes determined to help.
He finds other merpeople using the same spell and asks them how they get rid of the pain... Except they all say they don't. They just learn to tolerate it over time. The more they use their legs, the easier it gets. A lot of them say it helps to be doing something you love.
So Enj tells this to R and offers to teach him to dance, thinking that would be a good way to help him tolerate it. R says it'll never work, but agrees anyway. And, much to a Enj's surprise, shows up to every lesson. He doesn't understand why he would continue to show up even while he's saying it'll never work. It can't be that he wants to hang out with their friends when it's just the two of them, after all.
R drops subtle hints, often involving references to mythology and/or fire and water symbolism. He still doesn't get it (though, in fairness, R doesn't actually want him to guess and his "hints" reflect that).
Eventually he does put it together, since by the time they become dance partners R starts including references to the plots of ballets in his hints, which don't go over Enj's head to the same degree. R constantly jokes that he didn't actually figure it out until just before asking him out.
(There's also a lot of beach trips with all their friends, and none of them ever actually express disappointment in R not being one of the pretty kind of merpeople. Because of course they would never and he should have known that.)
It’s that time of the year again folks! Submit your application to become a part of the 2k16 les mis gift exchange and help les mis fans like yourself have a merry christmas. Reblogging this post to get the word out would be helpful. The more people get involved, the more fun it will be! Can’t draw? No problem! Any sort of gift is fine. Fanfictions, music, playlists, edits, videos, whatever you can think of will be accepted! Apply between now and the 16th to participate!
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