"Jehan, Marius and Grantaire, you work on pamphlets, Joly and Combeferre, we need bullets. And Courfeyrac, we need to check these maps and schedules". As Enjolras gave out the list of instructions to the various members of les Amis, he watched them rush to their area of the room to carry out their jobs. Gavroche sat curled up by the window, hoping that maybe the leader would want him to do something whether it was gathering flags or delivering messages. He wanted to be helpful, to aid the fight, rather than just be that little boy who came along because his best friend was Courfeyrac.
Watching Enjolras move a large mile of rolled up maps from one table to another; Gavroche noticed that the removal of the maps revealed a neat pile of folded fabrics in the flags red, white and blue along with rolls of thread. He smiled brightly to himself. He could be useful. He could make cockades. The small tricolour rosettes that all of the Amis wore was the sign that they supported the upcoming revolution, and wore very important to the cause.
With a cheeky smile, the gamin jumped out of his seat and ran to the table, sitting down quickly without attracting any attention to himself. Everyone seemed so busy around him, no one looked at him. Jehan, Marius and Grantaire sat folding pamphlets as the dark haired Grantaire took large swigs from his bottle. Joly and Combeferre, the two young doctors sat melting down tankards and pouring the liquid metal into moulds to form bullets. Courfeyrac and Enjolras stood at the table, drawing over maps for the placement of barricades. Gavroche, the little blonde gamin, carefully unfolded the sheets of red fabric first picking up the pen knife to cut it into shape.
He hummed to himself a revolutionary song as he cut the red, blue and white fabric into messy circles pulling a thread along the side of each one to curl it like he had seen Jehan do many times. There was just one issue. He didn't know how to sew. Picking up the needle, he cut off a length of thread carefully knotting the end before attempting to slip the thread through the needle. With a look of determination in his eyes, the ten year old gave a slight pout. Jehan and Fueilly made it look simple as they made many cockades in one night.
As everyone worked around him, Gavroche finally threaded the needle and began to attempt to sew his three curls of coloured fabrics into a cockade. His tiny fingers worked as concentrated, messily attaching the red to the white in an untidy rosette. There were gaps in between the colours where frayed thread held the fabric together but he was happy because he had made it.
"Ow" he hissed as he stabbed the needle into his finger again as he unsuccessfully attempted to attach the blue curl of fabric. Gavroche leant back in his chair, holding the stitching close as he worked. It was when he pulled the thread and it didn't move that he noticed his mistake. The black thread that was holding his messily made cockade together was looped in a tangled mess through the sleeve of his coat, holding the fabric of free coat to his wrist. He pulled it in attempt to break it; the gamin did not want to ask for help. He wanted to show he was useful on his own.
As he pulled at the thread with no success, he grumbled to himself, admitting defeat as he threw the cockade he had managed to fix together onto the table, still attached to his sleeve by the thread. "Courf?" He asked looking at the table where his best friend stood with the leader.
Courfeyrac looked up and noticed the boy sitting at the table with cuts of fabric around him "what are you doing petit?"
"Helping" Gavroche said in a little voice "it's not going well"
The young man chuckled walking to him. "Are you tangled up there?" He asked with a cheeky smile
"No" The little boy lied "just confused"
Courfeyrac cocked an eyebrow "oh really" he said sitting beside him "then why is there a thread through your sleeve?"
Gavroche looked down, ashamed. "I wanted to be helpful, so I thought I could make cockades. Jehan and Fueilly make it look easy. I couldn't do it and now I'm stuck"
Courfeyrac smiled reaching over the table to ruffle his hair "aww 'Roche that's alright" he smiled. "It's good that you want to help"
"Enjolras gave everyone something to do, except for me, so I wanted to do something" Gavroche said looking up at him. "Courf, can you help me get this thread off of me?"
"Yes come here" Courfeyrac smiled picking up the pen knife and carefully cut the tangled thread away from his sleeve "there we go"
"Merci" Gavroche sighed "do you know how to make these, I can't sew"
"You want me to teach you, so you can do it?" Courfeyrac asked "so you can help?"
"Please, I don't like being useless" Gavroche said picking up the needle again
"You are not useless Gavroche" Courfeyrac said strongly "don't think that, it's just that there was no messages needed tonight"
The little boy nodded "if you say so"
"Good, now watch me" Courfeyrac said with a kind smile. He first cut out a circle out of each colour, making three different sizes before pulling threads around the edge to ruffle them. "Once we have these, we just see them together, the white to the red then the blue to the white"
"That's where it got messy" Gavroche said holding up his untidy attempt
"That's alright, it was your first try" Courfeyrac smiled taking the needle from the boy and showing him how to run stitches through the centre of the circles to neatly fix them together "there we go" he smiled cutting the thread and pressing the centre of the cockade to fold it into shape "do you think you can do that?"
Gavroche, with a determined look in his eyes, nodded picking up the pen knife and cutting out the three circles. It wasn't neat like Courfeyrac's cutting, but he managed to get them the correct sizing. Courfeyrac watched as the young street boy pulled the threading to create the ruffles and layered them on top of each other to remind him of the order.
His little fingers gripped the needle hard as he concentrated on fixing the fabric together in messy little stitches through the centre with a large knot of black thread on the back. "It's not very neat" he said looking up at Courfeyrac and letting the young student cut the thread and secure it for him.
"Perhaps not, but look, it's much better than this, see you can do it" Courfeyrac smiled showing him the messy first attempt with its tangled mess of cut threads next to the new cockade with its circles of ruffles fabric. "You just need to practice your stitching, it will be perfect in no time petit"
Gavroche smiled "so I can be helpful?"
"Very helpful" Courfeyrac chuckled removing his dark brown newsboys cap and setting in the table before picking up one of the metal clips and attaching it to the back of the cockade. "And here we go" he added putting the finished rosette on the front of the hat.
Gavroche smiled brightly "looks good" he chirped
Courfeyrac smiled "indeed it does" he said with a chuckle leaning over the set the hat on top of Gavroche's head of unruly blonde curls.
The little boy beamed.