Upon opening the door to his flat, Javert nearly stopped and turned around, for the atmosphere was not inviting in the slightest. But, never a man to shrink from a confrontation, he closed the door carefully behind him and met the bloodshot, angry eyes of the man sitting stiffly at the table.

"Where have you been?" demanded the man with a growl.

"Where I always am, at my job," Javert replied, calmly.

"Well, yes, there is that. Always working, never here, yes we know all about that, don't we?" raged the man.

Javert rolled his eyes in reply.

"So, what was it that kept you this time? Some pretty young thief? Some awkward boy in trouble? Hm?"

"I can't imagine where you get these things, Valjean, I really can't," said Javert, folding his long, lean form into the chair across the table from the other man. "Stop being stupid."

"Oh, now I'm being stupid, am I? You leave, you do who knows what all day, and you expect me to just be here when you get back!" snarled Valjean.

Javert grinned a monstrous grin. "You sound like a frustrated ninny of a pampered wife. It's not at all attractive, you know." He stood and slipped behind the other man. "Not attractive in the slightest," he murmured as he slid his hands down the other man's shoulders.

Valjean shrugged him off irritably. "Don't expect that you can win me around with a back-rub, thank you."

"Fine!" said Javert, collapsing back into the chair. "What the hell do you want to talk about? My inadequacies? Must we? It's been a long day."

"I saw you, you know," said Valjean, with deceptive calm.

"Saw me. Saw me what? I'm too tired for these games," snapped Javert.

"I went out today, and I saw you collar that pretty, dangerous boy with the knife and I saw... I saw what I saw, and you know what you did. I won't describe it further."

"What are you going on about?" Javert demanded, his eyebrows bristling.

"I know what I saw," said Valjean, his eyes glowing vengefully.

"I wish you'd just tell me so I could apologize for whatever it is and we could stop having this very tiresome conversation."

"Oh, so now I'm tiresome, am I?" cried Valjean as he leaped from his chair and charged the other man. "Is there no end to my offenses?"

"Well, this is new and different," smirked Javert. Valjean, his eyes blazing and his hands twitching in fury, towered over Javert where he sat. Surprisingly, Valjean then reached over, almost gently, and placed his hand on the side of Javert's face.

"You are an insufferable man," said Valjean calmly, and with that, he yanked his hand away, bringing with it a handful of gray, bristly sideburn. Javert roared.

"What the hell was that for, you crazy lunatic?"

"I think it will insure that you will never again act in such a way with that young criminal, won't it?"

"I think it will insure that I will never speak with you again," snarled Javert, jumping to his feet in outrage, his large hand to his deeply offended face.

"I don't require you to speak," said Valjean, stepping closer and softly stroking the still-intact sideburn, a mischievous light deep in his bloodshot eyes.

"You're insane. Certifiably out of your mind," replied Javert, but he made no motion to move away.