Title: The Chemicals Keeping Us Together
Author: AoiTsukikage
Rating: T for now, but will probably increase
Characters/Pairing: Enjolras/Marius primarily, other secondary pairings
Chapters: 2/?
Word Count: 2091
Summary:Modern!Amis!AU. Both of them are willing to write it off as just a drunken mistake at a party, but with friends like theirs nothing is ever quite that simple to let go of. And maybe, for once, that will turn out to be a good thing.

Chapter Two

"Should you get that?" Jehan asks as his phone goes off again for about the fifth time in the last two minutes. "I mean, if it's important, we can take a break…."

"It's fine," Feuilly debates turning his phone off but knowing Courfeyrac he'd probably come over to make sure he's getting the messages and he doesn't need that right now. "It's not important."

"Is this about the party last night?" Jehan stops from where he's pacing and sits down beside the other man, leaning on his shoulder as he stares at what he's sketching. "That looks really good. Thank you again for helping me out with this. I might be adequate at the writing portions of the course, but I think having hand-drawn slides instead of pulling stock photos off of google will give me an edge in the presentation."

"I'm happy to," Feuilly assures him, because really, being useful is something that he enjoys doing. They both start as Jehan's own phone vibrates and he reaches to grab it, frowning as he flicks it on and then off again. "Courfeyrac?"

"What's this about his roommate and Enjolras…"

"I knew he'd still be on about that," Feuilly sighs. "Yes, it's true, but I don't know why he won't let it go. Marius wants to and I'm pretty sure Enjolras could care less," he tucks his pencil behind his ear and stares down at the sketchpad as Jehan starts damn near vibrating beside him. "What is it?"

"Don't you see? This has all the makings of a romantic story! A tale of…"

Feuilly sighs and lets him go off, hands gesturing wildly and a light in his eyes that's only there when he starts talking about love and it's oddly endearing although Feuilly's seen too much of the real world to ever lose himself in fantasies the way Jehan does. "You know it's not like that."

"But it could be," the young poet counters, rifling for some papers and grabbing a pen before he starts scribbling something out. "It just could be."

Feuilly bites his lip and looks back down, wondering just what they've all gotten themselves into with this.

Because Courfeyrac's not going to let it go. That's one thing he knows for sure.

000

"So what's the plan?"

Combeferre nearly drops his textbook as Courfeyrac bounds up, all insatiable energy and expectant eyes, and he knows ignoring him won't do any good. "There is no plan. Enjolras doesn't want to think about it anymore, and from what you've told me, Marius did it as some…grief response to his crush moving away. If neither of them want to turn this into anything more than a drunken mistake, I see no reason why we should be interfering," he knows that the other man's not going to back down but the less involved he is in whatever crazy scheme Courfeyrac's bound to come up with, the better.

"You're not any fun," Courfeyrac actually pouts at him as he merely shrugs and goes back to studying. "I'm serious! Between you and Feuilly…"

"You have to know that, aside from Enjolras, Feuilly and I are the two people who are going to care the least about whatever matchmaking shenanigans you're trying to pull," he pulls another textbook over and starts working on a new assignment. "They obviously don't want to take this any farther, and I think as their friend you'd respect that."

"I think as their friend I'd realize that this is something that could be really good for both of them so I should help it come true in whatever way possible," Courfeyrac counters, and Combeferre can tell that he's not going to give up.

"Then go ahead," he shrugs. "But if you're looking to Feuilly and myself for help you're probably out of luck."

"Both of you have no concept of romance," Courfeyrac snorts but Combeferre can tell that he's hardly all that annoyed. "I'll find somebody that'll agree with me…"

"Mm-hmm," Combeferre murmurs, jotting down a few notes (honestly, sometimes he wonders if he's half-crazy taking medicine and philosophy both, but as long as he has time and quiet to work it's usually not problematic).

"I will," Courfeyrac says it as if he expects Combeferre to challenge him, but the other man doesn't take the bait and instead goes back to taking notes, leaving Courfeyrac shifting uneasily beside him as he quickly gets bored. "Well, I'll see you later. I'm sure somebody will appreciate what I'm trying to do!"

And he's out of the room in a flash, leaving Combeferre to nod and continue working on his assignments.

He'll never understand how the other man's brain works, after all.

000

"So you had fun last night."

Enjolras looks up as a pretty girl drops into the seat across from him, unslinging her bag from her shoulder and crossing her legs. "Did Courfeyrac tell everybody?"

"No. Well, he did, but he didn't need to, because I witnessed it with my own two eyes, and you and that boy of his? Hot," she smirks, tossing her hair over her shoulder as Enjolras tries to figure out what to say.

He's never been great around women, because most of them stare at him as if he's something they're going to devour, and quite frankly it's intimidated him to the point where he doesn't know quite what to say. But Musichetta is different, incredibly liberal and intelligent and brimming with beauty and confidence in a way that makes it easier to think of her as less a woman and more just another person.

Of course, the fact that she's not interested in him romantically is somewhat of a plus, but since she's got two men already (by all accounts) he's fairly sure she has no complaints in that department.

"You were there?" he realizes what she's said and looks at her more closely as she nods.

"Mm-hmm. For part of it, anyway. How far did it go?"

"It didn't," Enjolras waves a hand in a quick motion. "We realized what was going on and that was it. And that's all it ever will be, except Courfeyrac's apparently decided to make life hard for all of us by not letting it go."

"Is that…such a bad thing?" she looks honestly curious and Enjolras has to think on that for a moment.

"In that I have issues with him taking a vested interest in my personal life? Yes," he finally decides on, because anything else is getting in too deep and, well, he doesn't owe anybody an explanation.

"No, honestly," she leans forward. "Enjolras, I know you have some…reservations about talking to girls, and I get it, but you can trust that I'm not going to start swooning over you," she laughs brightly. "You're very attractive and people notice, but that's something you're always going to have to deal with."

He gives her a half-smile and doesn't respond, because yes, he's aware of his appearance, but unlike Courfeyrac who seems to use his looks to lure people into his bed he's never quite seen the appeal of being considered some kind of sexual object.

"But that's not the point of this," she steers away from that subject abruptly. "The point is, even if Courfeyrac's out of line, is getting to know Marius really such a horrible thing? I mean, you must think he's good looking…"

"He is," Enjolras says without preamble, because it's not as if it's a secret. "He is, but I'm not the type of person to…get sexually involved with somebody I don't know,"

"So get to know him," she says as if it's the most obvious response in the world. "It's not like it'd be hard. He lives with Courfeyrac, after all, and you're over there enough anyway that there's no harm in seeing if you get along as friends and if there's still that something more…" she clicks her tongue and he's forced to admit that she has a point.

He won't say that to her yet, though, so he just shrugs non-committally and asks, "So why were you at the party last night? It seemed to be more of a singles crowd and you're, well, not," he has to point out and she laughs.

"Well, true enough, but I needed to get out. I don't know what Joly and Bossuet have been arguing about for the past two days but it's getting on my last nerve and I swear if I didn't know better I'd think they were the ones that were dating," she smiles thinly and shrugs her shoulders. "And I heard about the party and figured it was as good a place as any to spend a few hours, so I went. But speaking of those two…" she digs out her phone and sighs. "They want me to come back and settle whatever argument they've got going on so I'd better do that before this turns into an even bigger thing. You're coming tonight?" she asks quickly and Enjolras shrugs, because yes, Saturday is their typical night to go out to a nearby nightclub, but after last night he doesn't even want to look at alcohol.

Still, if he doesn't go, somebody will no doubt come and drag him there, so maybe it's better to just bite the bullet.

"Probably," he doesn't want to commit but she nods anyway and scoops up her bag.

"I'll see you then. Hopefully with whatever those idiots are having an issue with resolved," she throws over her shoulder as she walks away, and Enjolras drops his head onto the table and thinks that even though she's probably right about Marius, that doesn't mean he's going to do anything.

000

"Hey, c'mere."

Marius looks up to where the voice is coming from, seeing a man who looks a little too old for the typical university crowd. He's got a faded leather jacket on and a cigarette clenched between his fingers, smoke trails lazily drifting up into the sky and Marius is, quite frankly, a little intimidated.

"You're Pontmercy, right?" the man presses and Marius nods quickly because he doesn't think lying will do him any good. "I'm Bahorel. Courfeyrac may have mentioned me," he grins and smokes for a while, leaving Marius deep in thought.

Because yes, Courfeyrac had, and mostly what he knew of Bahorel was that he didn't always run in the…well, best circles, but he was a fine enough person on his own.

"Don't look so scared, man," Bahorel laughs. "I'm not going to hurt you, I just…didn't think it was possible anybody could get Enjolras to actually kiss them, so I feel like I should be congratulating you," he smirks and Marius blushes because honestly, did Courfeyrac tell everybody?

"Well, I…" Marius stammers, and the other man thankfully shakes his head.

"I'm really not that concerned about his love life, don't worry. I mostly wanted to ask you what you were doing tonight?" his smile is congenial but his tone strongly implies that he's about to tell Marius what he's doing tonight.

"I don't really have any plans, but…"

"Come to the Musain," Bahorel says quickly and Marius blinks at him. "You know it?"

"The nightclub?" the younger man asks, because yes, he knows it's close to the campus and Courfeyrac's talked about going there before, but he's never been himself. "I don't…"

"We'll all be there. Mostly. And since you live with Courfeyrac and you'll be around you might as well hang out with us. Just tell the bouncer you're with me and he won't card you or charge you cover or anything. Perks of knowing a lot of people," he smirks and goes back to smoking as Marius tries to process this. "You can trust me. I know that some of the guys I spend time with are…well, not the most model citizens, but do you really think Enjolras would be letting me hang around with all of you if I was a bad person?" he raises an eyebrow and Marius has to admit that he has a point.

"No, but…"

"He'll be there, too. Probably," Bahorel winks now and Marius smiles weakly as he makes his exit, not sure what else they could have to talk about. He's back at home before he realizes it, rooting through his closet for something suitable to wear to a nightclub, and it only hits him then that he's not sure if Enjolras being there is something that's enticing him to go or something that's telling him to stay far away.

Notes:

1. Thank you to those that reviewed the first chapter :) Next chapter the two of them will actually speak to each other, I promise, but I really enjoy writing a lot of these characters so that's probably why more of them are involved. Please let me know if you're enjoying this!