A Revolutionary Job Prospect
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this.
He's a good man, he swears. He knows that he does what he does for good reasons and because it's the only choice he has. It's not like Enjolras set out to become a conman.
It started when his parents cut him off in college for mixing with "the wrong sort". In others words, actual people who lived life with their heads not permanently stuck up their asses. After that money started to become tight and no matter what jobs he worked, Enjolras just couldn't make enough.
Combeferre and Grantaire faced the same problem and all three of them complained to each other on a cold day in the Cafe Musain. Complaining about money troubles led to complaining about how much money the rich squander.
Combeferre notes that the knickknacks and spare change they keep in their safes amounts the salary of a normal worker for a year. It's then that Enjolras mentions that every house has the same safe because what one of them has, they all have to obtain. Grantaire, surprisingly, is the first to realise it.
"So, if we figure out how to crack one of them, we could crack all of them," he says and the other two freeze and stare at each other. Silence falls over the table and almost as one; the three of them huddle forward and lower their voices to a whisper.
"It's stealing," Enjolras exclaims before the others run away with the idea.
"Not if we give half of it to the poor," Combeferre points out, "We take whatever money keep food in out fridges and a roof over our heads."
"It's still stealing!"
"I am actually completely ok with that," Grantaire says, "I'm ok with anything that inconveniences those rich snobs."
Combeferre folds his arms on the table and looks at his friend. "You know first-hand how much the rich steal from the poor. And everyone is pretty much aware that most of the money coming into those families' bank accounts is illegal anyway."
"We could really help people," Grantaire mutters quietly, "Even from just one job."
Enjolras looks at the two of them and his jaw tightens. "Just one job!"
They rob the house of his mother's best friend's son. It's awesome. The guy was always an entitled idiot and the large party he throws for no good reason proves it.
They spend the last they have on upscale rental tuxedos and there's no going back. Combeferre disables the security system thanks late nights spent analyzing a copy of it and Enjolras cracks the code.
It's surprisingly easy because he knows these people, even if they don't recognise him. He can tell the code is either the guy's own birthday or the address of his villa in Italy. The safe is filled with bills and jewellery and Enjolras knows both are for the women this guy uses and gets rid of when he's bored.
By the time Combeferre and he slip back into the crowd like they never left, Grantaire is finished doing his part: causing a distraction. There is broken glass everywhere and even the curtains are ripped. No one will remember who exactly threw the first punch but neither will they remember seeing three handsomely dressed men exit the party.
Of course, they don't stick to one job. House after house, safe after safe. They begin to gather a bit of a reputation. From there, they realise that to continue like this, they have to change their tactics so they don't get caught.
And they have to continue because people around the city are counting on them; shelters, orphanages and even schools. The Robin Hoods of Paris they are called.
So they move onto bank accounts. The rich have side accounts with smaller sums of money and it's safer to target them. Grantaire can get them drunk and they spill every secret; Combeferre is in charge of the computer side and Enjolras is the one who impersonates and takes the cash from the bank.
It's works as stunningly as the safes.
Selling things like the jewellery and the paintings led them to their new friend Feuilly, who trades expensive objects to the highest bidder through his fan shop. He makes good money from it; in fact Grantaire unfolded one of his fans once and a bunch of bills fell out of it.
Bahorel is another friend who is a bouncer at the most high class nightclub in the city. He lets them in for free and it's the perfect place to lighten the purses and wallets of the young rich crowd that party there.
Grantaire assigns himself the task of "keeping their cover" by getting as drunk as possible and Enjolras and Combeferre have to carry him home at the end of the night.
Through their charity work, they all meet Joly, who is trying to run a free clinic for the poor. He's a complete hypochondriac but that just makes him all the more hilarious. He doesn't care much when he finds out where they get the money from, mostly because thanks to them, he's saved countless lives already.
It's nearly two years since the "one job" and they now know that it's time to stop. The police are closing in, especially this one called Javert who almost has it out for them.
Grantaire suggests that they hide out in the Caribbean; Combeferre says they couldn't trust him around drink and so much water. They decide Australia; a nice coastal small town that has good waves for surfing. It will be good to get away; to feel safe. Their bags are packed and the apartment is sold. All their cash is ready to be transferred.
But before the head off for their flight the next morning, Enjolras decides to spend the late evening in the cafe where it all began. He wants once last night in the cafe where he grew up; once last look at the streets imprinted with his life's story.
He sits beside the window and the waitress looks slightly put out at having a customer so near closing time. He orders a simple black coffee and she walks off with the click of her tongue and a huff.
Enjolras frowned after her and glances around the cafe, seeing that there are in fact other customers and wondering why she was picking on him. There is a man very close to his age, sitting at the counter texting over a half filled latte. He has dark curly hair like Grantaire but this man seems younger. Another guy sits at a small table in the middle of the room, reading a poetry book and scribbling things down in a notepad at the same time.
It's only when his coffee arrives, that he sees her. She's partially hiding by a grotesque light fixture but once he sees her, he's stunned.
Dark hair sits across her shoulders and matches her brown eyes. Her skin looks soft and he wants to know if that's fact. She's wearing a blue jacket with a stripy top underneath and her jeans cling to every inch of her long legs. The boots on her feet are light but sturdy. He sees all of this after he notices that she's shuffling cards. Fast movements and sleight of hand mean that he can barely keep up with the objects in her small hands.
He realises that she's staring at him while she's doing it. The cards stop with snap, all pilled neatly into her right palm.
They both stare at each other for a moment before she slides her chair back and strolls over to him. Enjolras is caught between wanting to pull the chair out for her and hearing everything she could possibly say and getting up and walking away. He is leaving the country in the morning and he's a conman. He can't let a nice girl get caught up in all of that. Yet, the girl sits down across from him and gently places the stack of cards on the table.
"Hello Enjolras."
The world freezes.
Her mouth curls into an easy grin and she says, "Don't look so surprised; you and your boys have made such a name for yourself, it only time before we ran into each other."
Enjolras' eyes flick to the door and then back to her and he can see that she's caught onto what he's thinking. Her head tilts and he gets momentarily distracted by the way her hair falls.
"You can leave if you want but I so wanted you to hear my proposition."
Enjolras stays where he is, even though his guard stays too. "And what proposition could a random girl have for me?" He leans forward slightly and quietly says, "If this is your first time dealing with the sort of life you think I'm involved in then I would suggest for you to walk away."
The girl giggles-yes, actually giggles- before leaning forward too, her face close to his. "Oh Enjolras, I was born into this life. Thenardiers were bred for this life."
His mind started to race back to a late night with the boys, where Feuilly tells them of the city's infamous con artists-the old ones, the new ones and the legends. Thenardier is a name that comes up; a couple whose entire inn was a den of stealing and switching and leaving people with nothing but confusion and lighter pockets. Sometimes they even took their pockets.
But recently, their daughter is the one who has made a name for herself. Eponine Thenardier who became tiered of the clear beatings her family gave her and her siblings, got each and everyone one of her parents' gang locked up and got her parents themselves caught on serious fraud charges. From there, the girl took over the empire and managed to evade the police like shadow in the darkest night. Feuilly says that she must be the richest woman in the city but no one has seen her since she was fifteen, so her face is unknown. In Enjolras' honest opinion, keeping that face from the world was crime in itself.
And here she was, sitting right in front of him. So he brings his expression back to neutral and replies, "Alright, what do you want to ask me?"
Eponine looks over to the two men in the room and they both get up from their chairs and walk over. Enjolras notices that the waitress is not in the room now.
"This is Courfeyrac and Jehan," Eponine announces, "My right hand boys."
"Essentially, her willing slaves," Courfeyrac says with a grin.
They don't sit down; instead Jehan just hands her a folder and Eponine set it down in front of him. He pauses at first but when Enjolras opens it, he sees rows and rows of numbers and what are clearly passwords. He looked between the three of them. "What is this exactly?"
"Don't pretend you don't know," Jehan says with an easy smile, "You are far too talented for that."
All he wanted was to reminisce for one night; yet, here he is, being reminded that he is now considered "talented" in the world of conning.
He glances down at the folder again before looking at Eponine. "This is quite a list of personal information; who does is belong to?"
Eponine turned her brown eyes to Courfeyrac and Jehan and they walk away to a table by the door. Suddenly it's just the two of them again and he can't tell if he's happy about that or not. Eponine takes the cards and in one swift movement, spread them out in an arch across the table.
"You are very good at conning people Enjolras; the problem is that you've picking the wrong people." She picks out a 2 of diamonds and a four of spades, placing them in front of him.
"You've been stealing from the outer circle of the bourgeois; you've been taking their spare change and their side accounts." She tosses a five of clubs and six of diamonds into the pile.
"I have been planning something however that goes beyond what you and your boys have been doing." Her nimble fingers pick out three cards that he can't see; Eponine holds them in front of her face but her eyes stare at him.
"Those are the passwords and bank accounts of the richest and most corrupt people in this city. And I want to drain them of every last cent."
Enjolras is already calculating how much that would be but he gets lost when he reaches the billions. "And what exactly would you do with all this money?" he asks.
Eponine gazed over the cards in hands for a moment before she replies, "Well, it'll have to be split equal portions and from there people can do as they wish. Although my boys and I have decided that vast sums of our cut will go to the people who really need it. As for the rest...well, I was thinking of retiring the countryside with my siblings and never seeing this city again."
Enjolras watches her carefully, trying to gage wither or not she is lying. He can usually tell if someone is but this is Eponine and he can already guess that she is nothing like anything he has ever come across. "This sounds like a revolution; the rich will be crippled, society as we know it may fall."
Eponine tilts her head and asks quietly, "Is that a yes?"
Enjolras grins and nods once. He had been hesitant about running in the first place. Running was not a life; always looking over his shoulder, never sleeping well at night. He also knew that a life on the run was the only outcome for him. At least this way, he would have something worth running for.
Eponine smiles and places the cards down on the table. The Jack, the Queen and the King of Hearts stare back at him before she slips them back into one deck with the sweep of her hand. Eponine stands up and Enjolras follows her.
"This is a perfect time as any to meet your partners in crime," she says and he leads her and her two right hand men out the door.
Eponine and Enjolras walk ahead, their hands in their pockets and their shoulder brushing now and again. Courfeyrac and Jehan hang back, almost on purpose.
Eponine stares at her new partner out the corner of her eye. When she had heard talk of this Enjolras who making a name for himself in her circles, the one word that popped up the most when describing him was "handsome".
She hadn't known how accurate that was until she saw him. Blonde hair that made her fingers itch to touch it and eyes that seemed to stare right through you. He had a strong jaw and lips that distracted her. Those clothes did nothing to put her off either. And he was smart; that was something else she liked about him. In that short conversation, Eponine knew he could keep up with her.
But he was a partner in this final, grand job; nothing more. She had a focus; getting incredible rich, giving the most she could to the poor and finally getting her siblings the life they deserved. Enjolras was not going to become part of that focus.
Jehan sighs happily and Courfeyrac rolls his eyes as he says, "You're shipping them already, aren't you?"
"Of course," his dreamy friend answers, "It's so romantic."
Courfeyrac gives his friend a confused look and he mutters, "You know that they are going to go their separate ways after this last job right?"
"No; they are going to fall in love, run off to Australia and have beautiful conning babies."
"Oh my..."