If you tried to ask the members of the Les Amis what actually happened that day, they'd probably each give you different answers, but each and every one of them would agree that Courfreyac started it.
Enjolras was woken up by a banging on his bedroom door. He bolted up in bed, just as the banging stopped. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he headed to open the door, and stuck his head out into the corridor. His eyes met those of an equally sleepy Combeferre, who was squinting slightly without his glasses.
"Courf?"
"Probably."
They headed to the kitchen, where the their flatmate stood, leaning against the counter with a cup of coffee in his hands, grinning. His flatmates stared at him.
"What's got you so cheerful?" asked Combeferre slightly suspiciously. Courfreyac being this energetic in the morning was not always a good thing.
"It's a snow day!" the other boy grinned "The college canceled classes due to inclement weather!"
"Great. Can I go back to sleep now? I was up all night preparing for this evening's meeting." grumbled Enjolras.
"Now, now Enjie" Courf ignored the slight growl at the hated nickname "It's a snow day!" He pushed two cups of coffee towards his friends "drink up and get dressed, we're going sledding."
He was met by blank stares.
"Courf" said Combeferre "We don't own a sled."
"Yeah, but Jehan does, so I'm going to ask them if we can borrow it. Hell we can make it a family trip, and invite everyone!"
"Good luck trying to get R out of bed this early" snorted Enjolras
"I'll get Ponine and Bahorel on it."
"Aren't we a little too old to be sledding though?" asked Combeferre in a last ditch attempt to get back to his nice, warm blankets. Courfreyac looked pointedly at his Dexter's Laboratory printed pajama bottoms and raised his eyebrow.
"Fine, we'll go. But I'll have you know, that this show is a classic."
"Whatever"
Jehan, apparently thought sledding was an excellent idea. They even offered to call the rest of the Amis. Courf agreed that it would be a good idea, especially since most of them weren't exactly morning people, and after agreeing to meet at the local park, hung up to try and bully his friends into getting dressed faster.
They arrived in small groups. Courfreyac, Enjolras, and Combeferre first. Enjolras was still half asleep, supported between his two friends. Jehan, Marius, and Cosette were next. Jehan and Marius were dragging the sled, while Cosette walked alongside them, backpack on her back and clutching a warm pastry in her hands. Then came Grantaire, grey knit cap pulled over his curls and clutching a cup of steaming black coffee, pulled along by a laughing Eponine and Bahorel. Feuilly followed them, with Gavroche on his back. Joly, Bossuet, and Musichetta. Bossuet had a bandage above his eye, and when asked about it, just muttered "don't ask".
They decided to split up, since each of them wanted to do something different. Jehan, Courfreyac started lugging the sled up the hill, and Eponine pulled a reluctant Combeferre after them, while Cosette dragged Marius off to ice skate. Joly, Musichetta, Bousset, Bahorel, and Feuilly decided to help Gavroche make the biggest snowman ever. Enjolras and Graintaire, who still weren't completely awake, stumbled towards a bench. Everything was peaceful for about 30 minutes, and then chaos.
It started with Marius and Cosette. The boy had all the grace of a baby giraffe on firm land, so in hindsight, maybe ice skating wasn't the best choice. Still, Marius' epic faceplant on the ice was enough to get both him and Cosette off the ice and on the bench next to Grantaire and Enjolras. Cosette was smothering giggles as she fussed over her boyfriend. That was 20 minutes in, it was still relatively peaceful. Grantaire and Enjolras slept on.
There was a scream. That was all the warning they got, before the Snowman made by Gavroche and the others was obliterated by Courfreyac on the sled. No body moved for a moment. Bahorel and Feuilly exchanged a look, and then, in one quick movement scooped up some snow and lobbed it at Courf. The others got the idea and began pelting the boy with snowballs. Courfreyac's resulting scream scared a few birds, and alerted his fellow sledders of his plight.
Jehan lead the charge, with a mighty battle cry as they ran down the hill, Eponine and Combeferre following close behind. The three ran to the aid of their commrade, drawing enough fire to allow Courfreyac the chance to fight back. Cosette had by now realized what was going on, and jumped in with a glint in her eye, throwing snow at both teams, indiscriminately. Marius, not one to leave his lady unprotected, joined her shortly. Grantaire was startled out of his stupor by a snowball whizzing past his head. He took in the sight in front of him and grinned, before going to back up Marius and Cosette.
Bossuet was a machine, throwing snow like nobody's business. He scooped up pile, packing it together, drew his arm back, and let it fly, straight at Grantaire, who yelped and ducked. Time seemed to slow down as the snowball made its way toward the sleeping form Enjolras. It was like watching a train wreck, no one could look away as the frozen ball impacted with their fearless leader's face. Enjolras started awake, and blinked, confused. There was complete silence. Nobody moved. Then he grinned.
"Oh it is on!" he shouted, jumping into the fray.
The melee continued, before, shivering, bruised, and soaked through their woolens, the group was kicked out of the park for "disturbing the peace". The stumbled into the Musain, the closest café, laughing as they ordered hot chocolate. Enjolras looked around at his friends and felt a rush of affection. Joly fussed over everyone, making sure they got rid of the wet scarves and gloves as soon as they'd gotten inside. Grantaire, Courfreyac and Bossuet argued jokingly about who had won the battle. The girls sat in a group, surrounding a slightly flustered Marius, he really didn't want to know what was going on there. Bahorel and Feuilly had Gavroche between them, and were watching a video on Bahorel's phone. Combeferre had his sleeve rolled up, and was letting Jehan write all over his arm, as he laughed at something Courf had said. Enjolras let out a contented sigh. Courf was right, going sledding had been a great idea.
