Sometimes, when Enjolras is reading or watching the news or talking on the phone, Grantaire will sit next to him and take his free hand and just start drawing on his arm with whatever he can find. Sometimes it’s a ballpoint pen or a Sharpie, sometimes it’s henna that Jehan has left behind for whatever reason, sometimes it’s goache or inks and old paintbrushes. His choices are sort of dependent on how long Enjolras is willing to sit still, which Grantaire bases mostly on exactly what has captured Enjolras’s attention.
The first few times Enjolras is baffled by this, and stops whatever he’s doing to watch and ask Grantaire exactly what he’s doing, which, the first few times, made him stop mid-stroke and leave Enjolras alone. Eventually, Enjolras learns to let Grantaire do his thing and not interrupt. He will comment on the article he’s reading, maybe, or laugh at something the reporters on television have said that he disagrees with. If he needs his arm back to find a file for whoever he’s on the phone with, or to respond to an email, he will put his other hand through Grantaire’s hair and ask the person on the other end of the line to hold on a second while his computer wakes up so that Grantaire can finish his line.
One night, while Grantiare is drawing on the inside of his forearm in permanent ink, the phone call Enjolras is partaking in gets particularly bad (the other party simply will not agree to something that Enjolras thinks should be a simple matter) and he yanks his arm away from Grantaire without warning him first. Thankfully Grantaire’s reflexes are good enough that he manages not to totally ruin his design, but he is left a little shaken up about it. When Enjolras is finally off the phone he goes back to Grantaire, who has curled up on the couch to watch TV, and puts his arm in Grantaire’s lap and all but begs him to finish, which Grantaire happily does.
A week or so later, as Enjolras is wrapping up an ABC meeting, Grantaire notices that his design is still there, and, jokingly, he asks Enjolras, “Have you not showered in the last week?”
“It’s just Sharpie, it’s not like I tattooed you.”
Enjolras smiles and puts his arm out for Grantaire, “No, Feuilly did.”
And that’s the story of how Enjolras gets his first tattoo.
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