Title: Tomorrow
Fandom: Les Miserables
Author: AoiTsukikage
Rating: PG-13 at most, for implications
Characters/Pairing: Enjolras/Marius
Chapter: 1/1
Word Count: 1799
Summary: Sequel to 'Selfish'. Tomorrow would still come far too soon, and there was nothing he could do to change that.

Notes: A couple of people requested this, or just more fic with them in general, and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get this out but writing's been giving me trouble lately so I hope this is acceptable, at least?

Tomorrow

"I told you," was what he said once the thrill of the night had worn off, once plans had been made and every soul had dispersed, waiting to meet at the allotted time the next day to put those plans into action. "You chose not to believe me, so many years ago, but I told you."

"You did," Marius admitted, smoothing out a piece of red fabric over a tabletop and sighing heavily. "But did you...did you doubt my loyalty? Did you truly think that after everything I would just abandon you?"

"I would not have blamed you," Enjolras replied, staring out the window into the darkened Paris street. "How could have I? You know I do not believe in love, Marius, but knowing that you've found somebody that makes your heart sing...I would not have begrudged you had you chosen to stay far away from this fight."

"Have you so little faith in us?"

"I know well enough that the masses follow the large crowd, but when it comes to life and death they'll desert like cowards. Sometimes I wonder if we're in the right, or if I am leading them all to their deaths," he knew it was morbid, but they were thoughts that were on his mind.

And was it really so bad, to die for a cause you so passionately believed in? To die knowing that, somehow, you made the world a little better for the people that could not make it so themselves?

He was not sure, but he knew that in a scant couple of days he would find out if he felt the same while staring death in the face.

"They follow you because they believe in the same cause," Marius sounded pensive, almost as if he could read the other man's mind in that moment. "None of them are forced to stay, and yet they all will."

"I've never doubted them," Enjolras said firmly. "But we're only ten, Marius. Nine, for the most part, because Grantaire is never sober enough to hold a gun, and nine young men cannot win this fight alone."

"Others will come," Marius sounded so sure, so trusting, and Enjolras had to stop himself from scoffing at the younger man's false hope

He knew it was false, but he also knew that they couldn't wait any longer, and now was the best chance they might ever have, now when Lamarque was dead and nobody higher than mere students were left to fight for equality. "I'm glad you feel that way," he settled on saying, leaning back on the window ledge and looking out over the streets. He felt rather than saw Marius step up beside him, too close to be comfortable, and he glanced to the side before directing his gaze to the window once more. "Should you not be with your..." he stopped, not wanting to make it worse, and Marius laughed softly.

"She's not there. I went back to her place, but it was deserted. I don't know..." he lifted his shoulders in a shrug, looking lost.

"So that's why you came. Because she was no longer an option?" it came out somewhat harsher than he'd first intended and he saw the younger man cower away from him.

"Of course not. I came because this is where I belong, not...fate brought us together once, I have to believe that if we're meant to be we'll find each other again, wherever she is," he had a tiny smile on his face, his eyes only half-focused, and Enjolras exhaled heavily and kept looking out at the street, not thinking about anything else.

This would be the worst time to let his emotions get the best of him, and he'd been expecting this day for years now, if he was being quite honest. What he and Marius had...was enjoyable, undoubtedly, but never anything more than mutual comfort and he was hardly going to pine like a young girl over something that was never his to begin with.

He felt Marius' hand on his arm and resisted the urge to shrug him off, allowing himself a small bit of comfort that soon, whether it be by his own death or Marius marrying this girl, he would never have again.

"We should get some rest," Marius said softly, but his intent was obvious and Enjolras turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

"Your girl..."

"Is not here with me right now. Yes, I...I think we could..." he stopped as if he knew that Enjolras hardly wanted to hear it and averted his gaze. "But you and I...what we have isn't to be so easily brushed aside. I hope you know that it meant more to me than just you being another warm body."

"I know that," Enjolras moved away, leaning over the table and counting supplies in his head as he looked around the room. "I do, but I also know that what we had was hardly anything deeper than mutual companionship, and it has never bothered me before so it will hardly start now."

"You know it's not evil, to admit that you feel something deeper," Marius sounded thoughtful, and not at all like he was assuming anything. "I know that you're not nearly as...free of emotion as you pretend to be."

"It hardly matters. One way or the other this will all end in a day or two, and then…" he smiled grimly and let his fingers trail over the body of a rifle laid on the table.

"Which is why we should take advantage of the one night of peace we might ever have," Marius spoke softly, and although at times he could be almost insufferably obtuse, there was such clarity in his eyes in that moment that Enjolras felt his walls start to come down.

"I don't…my place?" his hand was formed into a loose fist on the tabletop, his mind telling him not to be a fool but perhaps it was the last time in his life he could ever afford to be one.

"There's not much at mine," Marius shrugged one shoulder, smiling a little tentatively, and when he crossed the space between them and reached up to cradle Enjolras' face, bringing their lips together lightly, the older man let his eyes slide closed and breathed into it.

This, this time he spent with this boy, was perhaps when he allowed himself to feel the most human. He could hardly afford it in his everyday life, not when he had a cause to fight for and emotion could be the death of him, but in these moments…he could let the world wait for a few hours.

"Come. In case somebody comes back for something," he whispered, pulling the young man into a quick embrace before he let go.

He could hear Marius following him as he made his way downstairs and smiled grimly as he walked out onto the street, mind already figuring out the best way to construct a barricade in front of the café (although, he would admit, he'd leave that mainly to Combeferre and Feuilly, because he trusted them to it more than anybody else).

There was time for planning in the morning, he reminded himself as Marius matched his stride and walked close enough that their elbows brushed.

For now, he let his mind go blank.

000

"Do you truly think that was the…the last time?" Marius still sounded overwhelmed, his eyes dark and his body glistening with sweat in the hot room as he let himself fall back onto the sheets. "That is, do you…"

"I have to tell myself that it is, because hoping at this point is foolish. Over-confidence will get you killed much faster than wariness," he replied, sitting up and moving to open the window. The early June night air was sticky and stifling, and it felt like the whole of Paris was pressing down on him.

"I'm aware, and I don't plan on getting myself killed," Marius sounded almost affronted but Enjolras knew he was tired of being looked down upon, that just because he was markedly younger than the rest of them hardly meant he was incompetent.

"I know," he promised, sliding back under the thin sheet and lying close. It was almost too hot to touch but Marius rolled toward him, smiling.

"I know you do," he leaned up to kiss Enjolras again, resting his hands on the other man's chest and closing his eyes. "Do we have a plan for tomorrow?"

"We're all meeting for one last breakfast in the early morning, and then…"

"The funeral," Marius all but whispered, his eyes flickering open as he reached up to trail his fingers through Enjolras' golden hair. "We…"

"Don't," Enjolras forestalled his words, his false reassurances, and Marius nodded in understanding. "If I'm wrong…and we survive…you can use it against me later. But not now."

Marius said nothing, merely nodded, but Enjolras wasn't ready to hear anything that he knew could not be true.

"We should sleep," he said after a few moments of silence, but it was comfortable, Marius still idly stroking his hair. "Tomorrow, one way or another, will be long, and going into this tired is only asking for trouble."

"Hmm," Marius hummed thoughtfully and kissed him once more, lingering as if he feared it was one of the last times he would ever get to, and Enjolras decided once more to let his heart take over and wrapped the other man tightly in his arms, nose pressed against his dark hair as he held him. "Are we sleeping like this?"

"If you don't terribly mind," Enjolras couldn't find it within him to speak louder than a whisper, but he could feel Marius smile against the skin of his throat and the younger man embraced him in a similar fashion.

"I don't," he promised, sinking into the embrace. He was almost asleep mere moments later, his breathing even, and Enjolras closed his own eyes and prayed that slumber would come as easily to him.

He didn't want to think about tomorrow, about gunshots and blood and screams and his friends and comrades maybe not making it out alive.

He didn't want to, not when he still had tonight, with the night breeze blowing in through the window and a boy in his arms that he perhaps cared much more deeply for than he would ever admit, even to himself.

"Stop thinking and sleep," Marius ordered, his words slurred and soft with exhaustion, and Enjolras laughed quietly and attempted to do just that.

He knew, though, that whether he fell asleep instantly or stayed awake with his mind racing until the sun rose, tomorrow would still come far too soon.

And there was nothing he could do to change that.