I blame ThinksInWords. Or her sisters. Or her sisters' friends. I don't remember. But it had something to do with alcoholic-free champagne.

A few of Grantaire's friends were already busy decorating the flat he was sharing with Éponine, for his surprise birthday party. Well, Combeferre and Cosette were, while Éponine was in the kitchen finishing up the cake's frosting, and Courfeyrac was annoying Cosette, taking advantage of the fact that Marius was late and asking her indiscreet questions « to make sure she was worthy of his best friend ». Bahorel had been trying to help, but had soon discovered that he had no artistic talent and was now helping Éponine by washing the mixing bowl she had used, in his own personal way.

"Oh, God, Éponine! If you ever fail Uni, please open a bakery. You'd be a billionaire in a year!" he said sucking on his index finger, which was full of chocolate cake dough.

"And you'd be obese and broke in the same amount of time. Don't even think I'd give you anything for free."

"No risk," he said, rubbing his as-hard-as-concrete stomach. "But… Not even a special discount?"

"Don't you have balloons to blow?"

Not even a minute later, the door opened on Bossuet and Joly who had been on a food mission. It wasn't without trouble that Bossuet stumbled to the kitchen, uselessly trying to see a thing over the big box of groceries he was holding. Joly, on the other hand, was carrying two relatively light bags, as he feared he was suffering from that disabling back pain monsieur Gillenormand was suffering from, since Marius had talked about it a few days ago.

Soon after, as Joly was mandated to help decorate the flat and Bossuet was recovering on the sofa with a big glass of water, Jehan and Feuilly came in. As it was Grantaire's birthday, he couldn't be the one responsible for the drinks. Jehan took the job. Very enthusiastically, in fact.

Bahorel, bored now that the bowls were all clean, immediately proposed to help him. The math was simple, the quicker the beers were in the fridge, the sooner they could be drunk.

But the roar that came was not one of a happy man. "WHAT IS THIS SHIT?!"

Immediately everyone stopped working, even coming closer. The counter was covered with packs of soft drinks, and absolutely no alcoholic beverages.

"Tell me the beers are still in the car!"

With a soft smile, Jehan answered, "No. No alcoholic beverages here. Grantaire has been trying to limit his alcoholic consumption, and we had decided showing him our support by not drinking a drop of alcohol."

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement. Cosette even applauded.

"But I thought it was a joke! Grantaire's parties are always the best!"

Combeferre stepped behind him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You know, my friend, maybe it mean you should cut down on alcohol too."

Indeed, if Bahorel's consumption wasn't up to Grantaire's, there weren't many parties where he didn't end up drunk. His only advantage on Grantaire was that he was a happy drunk.

"Don't worry, I took something a bit fancier than soda. This is still a party!"

And took from the bag in front of him bottles of…

"KIDDIE CHAMPAGNE!" screamed Courfeyrac, as if he had met Father Christmas, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy at the same time. Of course he would be jumping like the kid he was.

Everybody was talking at the same time, recalling childhood memories, except for Bahorel who was grumbling it wasn't the same.

And Éponine who asked, "What's that? 'Kiddie Champagne'?"

"What?! You don't know what it is?! What kind of child–"

"Courfeyrac!" Combeferre stopped him, and proceed to explain the concept of alcohol-free champagne to the young woman while Courfeyrac was trying to grab one of the bottles.

"Let's open one!" cried out the bubbly law student.

"NO!" Jehan replied, a bit too protectively. "You wouldn't want to ruin Grantaire's surprise party, would you?"

"But just one! To get in the mood. That's what people do, right, a little pre-party drink…"

It was Feuilly's turn to intervene. "Do you realise, it's just sparkly grape juice, right?"

Courfeyrac was now sitting on the stool, holding himself straight and crossing his arms, sulking. "You're just a bunch of old boring people."

"Oh, come on, Courf', we still have streamers to put on the ceiling light!" called Cosette, already standing on the stepladder.

In less than a second, he had jumped from his seat and joined the young woman. They say kids have less than a four-minute attention span. But Courfeyrac didn't even have half of that.