A/N: This is a treat I've written for Sashaatthebarricade because of the Les Mis Trick or Treat. It's Prouvaire/Combeferre bookish boyfriends. This piece was inspired by the Spook Reviewsfrom BooksandQuills (Youtube) so most of the books mentioned you'll find back there. Because really, spooky books isn't my genre ;)
As always you can find me on tumblr on JJ91s
Disclaimer: The usual, Les Mis isn't mine.
"I've brought the... Jesus Christ it's cold here! What the heck are you doing?" Combeferre closed the front door, feeling the wind pass his legs. It had been a cold October day and he'd been out for a while, looking forward to coming home to a warm house. Instead he was confronted with a room that was no warmer than it had been outside.
"I needed some fresh air." Prouvaire answered as if that was explaining everything. He walked over to in to the hallway, giving Combeferre a short kiss in greeting.
"And you thought it was a good idea to just open the windows instead of going outside?" A smirk played around Combeferres lips. He shrugged his coat off, more out of habit because the temperature would've allowed him to keep it on inside.
Prouvaire nodded. "I was writing and cooking pumpkin soup so I couldn't exactly go out and as a writer I just need some fresh air every once in a while to clear my head. But I'll close the windows now. Just go and change. We can eat in bed tonight." And with that he disappeared to their living room.
Tonight was the night of the yearly pre-Halloween tradition the Combeferre-Prouvaire household had for a couple of years now. A couple of days before Halloween they'd have a night in, a date night you could call it, on which they'd read spooky books. Not exclusively thrillers or horror stories, just books that had something creepy, something peculiar about them. "To get in the mood." Prouvaire had said the first time, though it had mainly been an excuse for the both of them to buy new books.
Nowadays most of the walls in their apartment were covered by bookshelves with books piled up high. There wasn't really an order in them, it wasn't like poetry books went with poetry books. Next to a bundle of Sylvia Plath, you'd find a book on the human body. Next to The Ethics by Spinoza you'd find the third part of the Hunger games Trilogy.
They loved reading, but most of all they loved books. There were several copies of their favorites. All with different covers from different editions. Some books were dog eared, spines that showed that the books where opened many times. Some books where barely read, just as new as on the day they'd been bought. And just as the tradition started, every year there were some new books added to the shelves in the week before Halloween.
Half an hour later found Combeferre and Prouvaire in bed. Both in sweatpants and hoodies, covers around their legs, cuddled close to fight of the cold in their apartment. The room was mostly lighted by candles, bowls of soup on the nightstand. A thermos of cinnamon tea for later. Combeferre raked his fingers to his boyfriends short curls, pressing a kiss to his lips.
"Ok, stop distracting me now so we can eat and you can show me what you brought for tonight." Prouvaire said after a couple of short kisses. Eager to see the new additions to their collection.
Combeferre smiled, kissing him another time before complying and spreading the books out over the covers. After that he grabbed his bowl of soup and snuggled back against Prouvaire.
"Ok, so I got the things we'd already decided on and I got some extra stuff." Those words coaxed a laugh out of Prouvaire, letting Combeferre know it wasn't a surprise to him he'd come home with extra's.
"But really, most of them because of you my love. Like this book by H.G. Wells was on sale, The Island of Doctor Moreau and I know you've read things by him before you liked so... I just had to take that one for you. And this one." He grabbed another book out of the pile, putting the H.G. Wells one aside.
"This is Say her Name by James Dawson. It's about the legend of Bloody Mary. I thought you'd enjoy that. You always like these folklore stuff so yeah I had to get that too." Prouvaire took the book with a smile, pressing a quick kiss to Combeferre's cheek as a thank you.
"Last one, Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix." Combeferre said, only to be interrupted by his boyfriend.
"Oh, I know this one. Grantaire showed it to me on his computer the other day, said he liked the design so much." And Combeferre had to agree on that one with Grantaire, the design was wonderful, almost exactly like an Ikea catalogue including a map of the fictional store and an order form.
They ended up inspecting the design of the book some more while slurping their soup. It would be hard to pick which one they'd read first, but it seemed that despite everything, it would become a warm evening of reading and being together no matter what.