"You two will be good, yes?" Jean Valjean says aloud, staring at his son in the backseat of the car through the rear view mirror. Beside him, his daughter laughs.
"Papa, of course we will," Cosette Fauchelevent smiles, and turns around to face her brother. "Right, Enjolras?"
"Of course," Enjolras repeats. "Have we ever been known to misbehave?"
"There was that time in Algebra where you insulted the teacher-" Cosette starts.
"Yes, thank you, Cosette," he glares. "Yes, Papa. We'll be good. All we need to do is pick out a new bed for Cosette and a desk for myself. How hard could it be?"
As Enjolras discovers, very hard. He stands in the centre of IKEA, with no Cosette and an abundance of small lead pencils stuffed in his pockets. He's no closer to finding a desk than he is to finding his sister.
"Shove it, kid," a stranger says rather harshly, pushing Enjolras out of the centre of the walkway. He stumbles and turns to glare at the man - perhaps he shouldn't have been standing in the middle of the walkway, but really, was there any need for that?
With a defeated sigh, he sits down in one of the display corners at a sample desk, one that he snorts at, unimpressed. Of course he got shoved into a kid's bedroom display. Why on earth would fate consider being kind to him and his almost ridiculously long legs?
He fishes his phone out of his pocket and texts Cosette, as someone says to him, "Are you part of the display too?"
He presses send and looks up - a teenager in a red beanie and paint splattered jeans is in front of him, smirking at him.
"What do you think?" Enjolras sighs.
"I'd like to think you're part of the display, because frankly, you're more beautiful than all the things in here combined."
Enjolras looks at his surroundings, plastered in tiny rocket ships and soft toys. He snorts. "That isn't that an impressive feat, really."
"I dunno, Apollo," the stranger says. "Plush toy rockets are hard to beat in my book."
"I'm flattered," he says. "And my name's not Apollo. Look, I'm trying to get ahold of my sister, who I've lost in this store right now. Can you leave?"
The stranger looks slightly upset for a second and begins to walk away, before turning back and grinning wildly. "I could help you find her, if you want?"
"How?"
"We'll walk around together. Call out her name. Interrogate suspicious characters," the stranger grins.
Enjolras pulls a face. "The first two could work. Maybe drop out the interrogation part."
"Aw, Apollo, you're no fun," the stranger says, but he's smiling anyway.
"My name is Grantaire," the stranger says as they wander around. "But call me R."
Enjolras doesn't mention that he didn't ask, and just says, "Enjolras. My sister is Cosette, and also very good at getting distracted."
"She your older sister or younger sister?" Grantaire asks.
"Twin," Enjolras shrugs.
"Yeah, but, who's the older twin?"
"Doesn't matter," he mumbles, as Grantaire laughs.
"I'll take that as a 'she is'," Grantaire grins. "No shame in being the little one, Apollo."
"My name is Enjolras," Enjolras says.
"Apollo, Enjolras, all the same if you ask me," Grantaire says. Again, Enjolras doesn't say that he didn't actually ask him.
"I last saw her in the pillow section..." Enjolras continues, pushing past a large display of colourful rugs.
"Ah. Good section, the pillow section," Grantaire says. "So what are you two doing here anyways?"
"She needs a new bed, and I need a desk."
"Yeah? And how's that shopping working out for you?"
Enjolras hums. "Not too good. Got sidetracked looking at plush toy rockets."
"I sympathize entirely," Grantaire smirks. "She texted back yet?"
Enjolras checks his phone for what must be the millionth time, and shakes his head.
"Hmm... It's getting close to 1 o'clock... How about we take a break and get something to eat?" Grantaire suggests.
"We've been walking around for two minutes," Enjolras says, deadpan.
Grantaire shrugs. "I'll pay."
"No meatballs? They're an IKEA classic."
"Vegetarian," Enjolras waves off. "Do you know what they put in those things?"
"Yep, and furthermore, I don't care," Grantaire says.
Enjolras rolls his eyes and nibbles at a chip. "So, pray tell, what are you doing here in IKEA?"
Grantaire shrugs. "I like to come here and prey on guys who have lost their sisters until they eat food with me."
"Be serious," Enjolras says.
"I am wild," Grantaire replies. Taking a drink from his cup of lemonade, he goes on to say, "I'm in need of new curtains. I covered the last set in paint doing an art piece. And I figured, why not buy curtains at a place that also has a ball pit? And stellar meatballs!"
"Incredible," Enjolras smiles slightly. "And how is that shopping working out for you?"
"Meatballs are great. Curtains are not. Haven't tried the ball pit yet, but I'm getting there," Grantaire grins. Enjolras laughs.
"Thanks for buying me lunch," he says, because above all, Enjolras is polite. "Even though this is oily overpriced food sold by a capitalist company."
Then again, maybe not.
"You're welcome, Apollo," Grantaire says, rolling his eyes. "You're gonna be a politician one day, I can tell."
Enjolras blushes.
"You could win votes by giving everyone a free plush toy rocket!"
"Sold by a capitalist company? I don't think so," Enjolras smirks.
"I dunno, Apollo, you think we'd have found her by now."
"Grantaire, we haven't really been looking," Enjolras sighs, and it's true. He watches as Grantaire shoves five more lead pencils into his socks, because they're "for an art project, it's hard to explain."
"Well, who's fault is that then? She's your sister," Grantaire says.
"You were the one who offered to help me. I was quite happy to just sit at that tiny rocket table, but you suggested we go searching," Enjolras reminds him.
"Okay, but which option was more fun? Sitting alone with tiny rockets, or spending time with me?" Grantaire points out.
Enjolras pretends to be thinking hard. "Those tiny rockets were cool..."
Grantaire rolls his eyes. "This was the path of adventure, excitement, and danger!"
"No, actually, this was the path of meatballs, free lunch, and ball pits," Enjolras corrects him.
"Enjolras!"
He turns to find Cosette standing at a display bed, looking confused. "What are you doing?"
He chokes slightly. "Looking for you... You disappeared!"
"No, silly, I said I was going to look at pillows, and you disappeared!" Cosette laughs, shaking her head. "What happened to you? And who's your friend?"
Grantaire steps forward. "I'm Grantaire, please call me R. You must be the lovely Cosette."
Cosette giggles and rolls her eyes. "You got that right. Your friend's nice, Enjolras."
Enjolras sighs and turns to face Grantaire. "Thanks for the help, I guess. And the lunch."
Grantaire just shrugs. "Hope you find that desk."
And he disappears into the crowd. Enjolras feels a little sad to see him go, but diverts his attention to Cosette and the bed she's considering.
"Could an... Onjewelrah? On... Enjolras, sorry, could Enjolras make his way down to the front desk, please?"
When he gets down to the front desk, he's in disbelief at what he's seeing.
Grantaire is in the ball pit. Surrounded by tiny children. In the ball pit. It's absurd. It's incredible. It's also against the store rules, and the workers are having much difficulty removing him.
"I won't come out until he gets here!" Enjolras can hear him say, and then Grantaire spots him from behind the glass and waves sheepishly, grinning.
He gets out, accompanied by the workers, and Enjolras doesn't really know what to say.
It turns out he doesn't have to know, because they're both kicked out of IKEA for the rest of the day. Sitting on the sidewalk beside Grantaire, Enjolras texts his sister for the second time today.
"Sorry," Grantaire says.
"Are you kidding me? You got into the ball pit, and then remained in there until they actually had to call for me on speakers because you demanded it," Enjolras recaps, and Grantaire winces slightly. He prepares himself for criticism, but instead, Enjolras says, "That was brilliant."
"You think so?" Grantaire says, looking at him closely.
"That was the greatest thing I've ever witnessed," Enjolras smiles.
Grantaire smiles to himself, looking around. Finally, he presses a kiss to Enjolras' cheek, thrusts something at him, and yells a "BYE!" as he walks to his car.
Enjolras sits, in shock at what happened for a moment, before taking a look at what Grantaire threw at him. It's a plush toy rocket, with a piece of paper attatched to it.
'Apollo, today was fun. We should do something like this again. Also, you're cute. My email is grand_r . Email me if you ever feel like going on an actual date. R x'
Enjolras' smile is wide and nothing can remove it, not even when Cosette comes out and teases him silly, not even when the people leaving the store give him dirty looks, not even when he accepts the ice cream bought from inside that Cosette got him, despite it being made by a capitalist company.
However, his smile disappears real fast when his Papa pulls up and asks them both, "So how did it go?"
Cosette's smirk is absolutely gleeful, and Enjolras thinks that he might not being swing Grantaire for some time. Not if his Papa has any say about it.