Notes: thank you for reading. This piece was inspired by an Les Mis Kink Meme; the Les Amis had no Apollo-like leader, but that didn't stop them from fighting for their beliefs or building a barricade.
(full prompt details: "Musical/Movie inspired: in an AU where Time travel is rare, but possible: The Les Amis have no leader, no Apollo with a ringing voice, but that doesn't stop them from fighting for their beliefs or building a barricade, and Gavroche is still like a younger brother to them all. Gavroche never makes it back to the barricades after he delivers his message to Valjean for whatever reason ... and thus survives the night. Cosette and Marius end up adopting and raising him. By the time Gavroche is in his late teens, he has grown up to be painfully beautiful, charming, and eloquent, and a part of him can't help but think that if the Les Amis had a proper leader, a voice to rally the people, they may have succeeded- or that he could be their voice. So Gavroche makes a deal with a local time traveler to send him back to 1828- the same year the Les Amis first began to form. When Gavroche arrives, he decides to use Courfeyrac's mother's maiden name as a tribute to his surrogate older brother. Courfeyrac and (over time) the rest of the les amis are just trying to figure out who Enjolras reminds them of those few moments he lets his guard down.")
Summary: By 1839, Gavroche has witnessed the terrible aftermath that the fall of the barricade had upon the two survivors-Marius and Grantaire. They lacked a leader to rally the people, and the Les Amis fell to the National Guard. But Grantaire and Gavroche have both thought, what if they could have rallied the people of Paris?
Gavroche decides that he can save his friends and family from their deaths upon the barricade, and he makes a deal with a mystic to be send back in time, to the months before the Les Amis de L'ABC formed. But as Gavroche plans, he's also been suffering nightmares from a time he cannot remember, standing upon a barricade he never returned to after he delivered the message to Valjean.
Gavroche travels back in time-takes the name 'Enjolras'-but can he change the fates of the student revolutionaries, a fate which is entwined closely with his? And what does Grantaire have to do with everything? Will Gavroche's struggles to rally the people still end in bloodshed? Juxtaposed timelines with time paradoxes. Character-driven.
Additional Notes: regarding pairings/shippings, this might end up being Grantaire/Enjolras, or at least could be interpreted that way. But it is definitely unrequited Grantaire/Enjolras, later on (according to that interpretation of the canon). It is a more minor part of the story, though, since this isn't quite a romance, it's more general and kinda drama-ish. Other pairings present are Cosette/Marius, Courfeyrac/Jehan implied (if you squint really hard) and unrequited Eponine/Marius. Focusses more on friendships between Enjolras/Gavroche and the Les Amis than relationships.
Story focusses on more than what the prompt details (I don't want to give away too much), and is character-driven rather than plot-driven. It explores time and the fate that binds all. Uses a non-linear timeline, with time paradoxes aplenty. Song lyrics used to aid in storytelling.
Thanks for reading, please let me know what you think, please phrase criticisms in a constructive way :) This is my first fanfiction in this fandom.
Apollon Rising
Chapter One (parts I through X) Synopsis: Gavroche remembers the fall of the barricade and the deaths of the revolutionary leaders Combeferre, Joly and Courfeyrac. The two survivors, Marius and Grantaire, honour the deaths of their mates and comrades, and Gavroche and Grantaire wonder what would have happened if they could have rallied the people of Paris.
In past times, Gavroche, adopted by Cosette and Marius following the deaths of Eponine and Courfeyrac, is growing into a charismatic and intellectual young man, with a burning passion for change. But he has begin to suffer from nightmares from a time that never happened, which he cannot remember in the light of the mornings. Grantaire is beginning to feel as though he should not be alive, and he cannot look upon Gavroche without feeling overwhelming heartache.
Grantaire passes away and Gavroche's nightmares continue to overwhelm him, leaving him with only a memory of the deceased man's words.
I.
calendrier: sometime between 1832 and 1837
Gavroche Thenardier only can imagine those moments at dawn . . .
June 1832 - Le Café Musian - daybreak: a soft whimper escapes his mouth as he hears the soldiers below them. Courfeyrac, Joly and Combeferre stand together, the blood of their mates and fellow comrades-in-arms staining their skin. In the café below, the soldiers are silent, before the commander gives the order; the gunshots sound out, and the Centre, Guide and Heart of the revolution fall. It takes only minutes for their lives' blood to begin to pool beneath them; Courfeyrac hears the hollow footfalls of the soldiers on the staircase before he eternally sleeps.
and,
June 1832 - Le Café Musian - minutes after daybreak: echoing silence welcomes Grantaire from his drunken slumber; the barricade has fallen. He chases the phantom footsteps of the soldiers to the upper level of the café; the bodies of his mates had been removed, but their blood still stains the floor. In the aftermath of a war played by children, Grantaire can only sit and drink with the ghosts of memory.
II.
calendrier: juin 1832
Did you see them going off to fight
Children of the barricade who didn't last the night
III.
calendrier: juin 1837
Gavroche slides down to the wooden floor in the corridor, with half-hearted intentions to re-read the 'equality and rights of man' textbook he inherited six years ago. It had belonged to his older brother-a surrogate brother tied to him only through blood spilt. Gavroche remembers Courfeyrac's last words, spoken in haste before he and Marius sent him away from the barricade.
He squeezes his eyes shut to keep the tears from falling and instead focuses on the voices emanating from inside the kitchens; those belonging to Marius Pontmercy, his foster-father for five years, and Marius's closest and dearest friend, Grantaire:
"Extravagant processions are not for traitors," Grantaire's words quiver and are over the edge of indistinct with alcohol.
"I know," Marius replies.
The hollow thud of a bottle resonates against the table. "Drink with me, Marius."
Gavroche imagines Marius and Grantaire drinking to the memory of their fallen friends. He cannot remember a time when the cynic isn't drowning himself at the bottom of a wine bottle, but he reckons that Grantaire's drinking becomes worse as the month of June approaches. This dawn had marked six years since the fall of the barricade and the deaths of the Les Amis de l'ABC, a student revolutionary club dedicated to political change.
He blinks through his blurry vision at the textbook splayed across his lap-years ago, the margins of the page had been covered with poetic lines written by Jehan; flowery prose in love with the ideal of love.
Marius's voice filters through the corridor again, "I think you've had enough."
But Gavroche knows his father would never take the bottle away from the drunkard; not when it's the one thing that can dull the pain of living. At times, Gavroche believes that Grantaire no longer trusts in anything besides his mind-inebriating substance of forgetting.
"Do you think it could have been different, Marius?"
"What do you mean?"
There is a moment before Grantaire collects his thoughts, or places the bottle onto the table. "Have you ever thought, what if the people had risen with us, or what if the other barricades hadn't fallen? . . . What do you think would've happened to them all, if we had a leader capable of doing the tasks that Combeferre, Joly or Courfeyrac could never do? Marius, what if . . ." It's one of the few times Grantaire speaks as eloquently he did years ago, and for a moment, Gavroche misses the man he knew.
In the resonating silence that follows, Gavroche knows that the older man doesn't speak the one thought on his mind-always on his mind-'what if I hadn't been drunk and slept through the battle?'
Still, Gavroche wonders at his words-what if . . .
What if they could have rallied the people of Paris?
IV.
calendrier: juin 1832
The time is near, so near it's stirring the blood in their veins
And yet beware, don't let the wine go to your brains
We need a sign
To rally the people
To call them to arms
To bring them in line
V.
calendrier: the time between 1832 and 1837
Cosette called Gavroche her 'golden Apollon' because he could string together riveting words on the most monotonous subject matter, like poetry and song. "It's as though we are listening to music, love. The people would believe a geocentric universe without doubt, if only my Gavroche spoke it," she once claimed, laughter in her voice.
After the fall of the barricade and the deaths Eponine and Courfeyrac, the only sister and brother Gavroche had ever known, Cosette and Marius had adopted the street urchin into their home.
Although he scorned the tutors Marius and the Pontmercy family hired for him-what use could he have with philosophy and law-with time, Gavroche found he enjoyed the lectures and knowledge. He felt that it brought him closer to the friends he had lost on the barricade, the barricade he was forced away from with a message for his foster-mother Cosette.
VI.
calendrier: novembre 1837
Sometimes, in the middle of the cold winter nights, nightmares would waken Gavroche from his slumber. Anxious dreams of darkness, which he cannot remember in the light of the dawning sun, with splinters of broken images; a barricade of furniture that he never stood upon, with a blood-red flag he never held; the upper level of the Musian Café, where Gavroche's brother died, where the young Thenardier himself never stood in the battle.
And, a shaking hand held in his, with soft words spoken, "Do you permit it?" before the gunfire rang out.
Gavroche would waken drenched in sweat on these nights, his heart heavy with loss. A loss different from that he suffered in 1832 when his surrogate family-the Les Amis de l'ABC-died upon a barricade of freedom, abandoned by the people.
VII.
calendrier: juin 1838
As dawn breaks, Gavroche catches the barest of whispers from Cosette, Marius and Grantaire as they light candles in honour of their fallen mates and comrades. The aroma of vanilla wafts through their small house, mixed with the sulphur of matches.
Six years since the bloodshed, and the nightmares burrow their claws deeper into Gavroche's mind; the worn textbook pages further deteriorate with frequent readings; and a burning passion to illicit the social change his friends had died for emergences.
Accompanied by an unsung song, words come like lyrics from his mouth; if they truly have the power to convince the people that Earth is the centre of the universe, Gavroche begins to wonder what else can be accomplish with his silver tongue.
To punctuate his thoughts, Gavroche can hear Grantaire sobbing in grief and Marius awkwardly attempting to console him. But it is his mother's voice he hears as she assuages the drunkard's guilt.
Gavroche rises from bed-nightmares drenching his skin and clinging his sleeping clothes to his body-and joins his family.
VIII.
calendrier: between 1832 and 1837
For reasons he cannot grasp, when neither drunk nor sober, Grantaire is beginning to feel as though he should not be alive. The solace he once found within his dark-red, berry-scented lover eludes him as time passes slowly from one year to the next.
He stares at Gavroche with something parallel to admiration lost in his glazed sight. But, the golden light of Gavroche blinds him and he cannot begin to understand this overwhelming sense of loss.
IX.
calendrier: nights between 1836 and 1839
Near the edge of the city, a small candle flickers in the windows. The dwelling that had been erected on the scrap of land with yellowing grass remains quiet with its straw thatched roof and mud-insulated walls; it is an abode from an era past and elderly next to the dilapidated houses of the slums.
When fogs creep through the streets, the lamps offering little light to shine upon the wet pavement, people rush past the dwelling. They bury themselves within rags of clothing and cast their eyes downward. From the windows of the dwelling, the lone candle flickers still, indifferent to their wandering souls.
At times, the people whisper of devils and black magick, and they offer a quick prayer to the Lord as they make the sign of the cross.
X.
calendrier: aout 1838
Grantaire does not observe another melancholic celebration of the deaths of his mates; he's found unconscious in an alleyway and pronounced dead hours later.
That night, Gavroche's nightmare echoes words of, "Do you permit it?" and a hand presses into his. With a small smile, he presses his hand back against the other's. But Gavroche wakes to darkness, salty tears streaking his face and burning from his eyes.
Another image flashes through his mind-Comberferre, Courfeyrac and Joly standing and fighting by his side-but not /his/ side-and dying moments before him. The same voice rings out words he cannot remember as the /other/ Gavroche raises a blood-red flag in defiance at the soldiers and the ideals they enforce.
The images of blood and death fade away as consciousness takes its hold, and for all his attempts to hold on to some sliver of the nightmare, within minutes, Gavroche cannot remember what violently woke him in the dead of the night, cannot remember what wakes him with tears and sweat, with the cupric taste of blood in his mouth.
All which remains is an echo: what if they could have rallied the people of Paris?
... to be continued