It's just another Tuesday afternoon and Grantaire is almost halfway through teaching the 2p.m. Zumba class at the gym. Behind him the girls are following his movements as he slides to the right in time with the beat of Uptown Funk. He hums along with the song under his breath, soft enough for his microphone not to pick up on it.
Grantaire looks at himself in the mirror, his shirt clinging to his body with sweat. Though this job was a great opportunity and he's still thankful for Bahorel recommending him, teaching 3 classes right after each other without a break takes its toll. And so by the last class his shirt is pretty wet with sweat.
"Ok ladies we're half way through. Drink some water and then we'll start the next song. You're all doing great."
Thirty girls turn on their feet to grab their water bottle while Grantaire fiddles with his phone to find the next number.
Most of the girls are already back to their place by the time Grantaire is done so he starts with some simple sidesteps until all the girls are ready to start again. He turns his face to the girls and shares a smile with Cosette. The Tuesday class is his favorite. It's full of regulars who love to joke with him and it makes the class that much more fun. Cosette is there, Éponine, Musichetta, all the familiar faces. He winks at one of the girls before turning around and start the actual steps to the song.
Grantaire counts the rhythm out loud for the group as he introduces a couple of new moves to them. They follow him quickly. Some more successful than others, but that doesn't mind. For him it's just about the enthusiasm as they moved their hips to some upbeat music. Classes like this should be about fun, not about being the best.
He makes it half way through the song before he notices a guy standing in front of the window. He looks at him through the mirror, blonde curls, bright eyes, sharp features. Grantaire is immensely grateful right now for knowing the steps by heart, because it means he doesn't falter in his moves even though the beautiful blonde distracts him a little. It's not just distraction though, it's also annoyance. While he doesn't mind the view for himself, he does mind people watching the girls shaking their hips like they're putting up a show instead of working out. Which is why when the current song ends and the next one starts, he tells the girls to get the guy inside.
"Come on, go get him. Ask him if he wants to join."
He sees Éponine running to the door, dragging the guy inside who looks a little caught. His cheeks turn pink as the girls cheer at him.
"Hey, I saw you watching the girls and I think that you owe it to them now to show them your moves as you watched theirs. Come on ladies, make some space in the front for our viewer." The guy looks a little tongue tied but Grantaire ushers him to the front before restarting the song again.
"I don't go easy on the girls so I won't go easy on you ok? Come on every one, let's start with a double side step. Two to the left, two to the right."
They start with some simple steps, but soon Grantaire has them shaking their hips, twerking, doing everything on full speed. He's not holding back and he sees the blonde guy next to him working hard to keep up. Were his cheeks pink of embarrassment earlier, now they're pink from exertion. Drops of sweat run down his face and the blonde curls bounce in time with his movements. Blondie, Grantaire decides to call him in his head, shakes his hips when Grantaire does and well, Grantaire enjoys the view so he makes him do it again.
The song ends way to quickly for Grantaires taste but there's nothing he can do about that, which means he has to let the guy go.
"Well done everyone. That was it for you Blondie. Girls, give our guy an applause for joining in." All girls start clapping and whooping as the blonde guy walks out of the room. Grantaire shakes his head at their antics before concentrating again. He still has to go through two more songs and cooling down before the end of the hour.
For the last twenty minutes Grantaire doesn't see Blondie anymore in front of the window and he doesn't know whether he's disappointed or not.
At the end of class the girls leave the room and Grantaire walks to retrieve his phone and his backpack. He waves at a couple of them as he picks up his stuff. Humming under his breath he checks if he didn't forget anything before turning off the lights and locking the room.
When he looks up he comes face to face with Blondie. Who doesn't look too happy with Grantaire.
"Ehmm hi, do you need anything?" Grantaire asks awkwardly. He drags his fingers through his hair and regrets it immediately when he feels how wet it is. Gross.
"You shouldn't assume every guy looking in there does it for the girls you know. That's pretty heteronormative of you. I really get so sick of that bull shit. I look in to your room and right away it gets assumed I'm some heterosexual douchebag who looks at those girls like they're some kind of meat. Not every guy likes girls. You shouldn't assume." Blondie glares at him. His eyes look on fire as he rants.
"Ok, thanks for the speech. But if you weren't looking at the girls. Why were you hanging out in front of the window?" Grantaire fiddles with the strings of his backpack, watching Blondie intently.
Now it's Blondie's turn to look awkward. His cheeks turn pink again and Grantaire realises he likes them that way. Not that he doesn't like them when they're not pink. He really can't imagine a way in which he wouldn't like Blondie. The guy's looks like some sort of Greek god, a classical beauty. And let's just say... Grantaire loves his classics.
It takes a while before Grantaire comes back to himself, realising Blondie still hasn't answered him.
"You know, usually when someone asks you a question you answer them." He mutters.
"Oh... yeah.. well.." Blondie stammers. "Well... your shirt it was clinging to your... well you know. And it looked really... well it looked... It was a nice view."
"Oh my god. You were staring at me sweating like a pig and you liked it." Grantaire exclaims. He wouldn't have thought it possible for Blondie to turn more pink, but the way his cheeks color even more it seems like an option after all. "Ok, sorry that was rude. Ehm... thanks I guess, you know... for the compliment."
Blondie nods. "My name is Enjolras by the way."
"Grantaire, or R. Most people here call me R." Grantaire holds his hand out for Enjolras to shake it and he realises Enjolras looks a lot less secure of himself when he isn't on a rant.
"R, I'll remember that." Enjolras shakes his hand firmly and Grantaire likes him even more now. He loves people who give a firm handshake.
"You should." It's something that he says without thinking. The words just tumble out of his mouth.
Right away he hears whooping coming up from behind him.
"Maybe he should remember your number too."
"Grantaire and Enjolras, sounds cute to me."
"Yeah you should Blonde guy."
When Grantaire turns around the entire group of girls from his Zumba class are standing there, watching him. He wonders how long they're there already.
"Where they there the entire time?" He whispers to Enjolras.
"I don't know. But you know, maybe they're right." Enjolras whispers back.
"About what exactly?" Grantaire heard the girls say several things of which he reminds nothing standing this close to Enjolras now that they're whispering at each other.
"Your number, that I should remember it. If you want to give it to me, that is." Enjolras says.
Grantaire just nods. He feels something tapping on his shoulder and someone, he guesses one of the girls from his class, hands him a pen. Enjolras holds out his hand and Grantaire writes his number on the back of it.
"Thanks, I'll text you." Enjolras says as he moves to walk away.
Grantaire nods absentmindedly. What the fuck was that?!
Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the fic. If you did (or did not and have some tips) leaving a comment would be appreciated.
So yeah, this sort of happened at my Zumba class a couple of weeks back. I take a Zumba class once a week and there were guys watching us so the teacher called them in to the room and made them dance along for an entire song. He didn't go easy on them and he even made them twerk. And then I thought of how this would go if Grantaire was the teacher and yeah... this kinda happened.
As always by the way. I don't own Les Mis. The characters are all Victor Hugo's.