When his friend and leader walked into the café, Combeferre immediately sensed something was off about him. He seemed to move slower and looked a little too pale for his liking.
"Are you okay, mon ami?", he asked when Enjolras walked towards him.
"Me? Yes, i feel fine. Why are you asking?", the young blonde answered.
Combeferre looked at him and shrugged. He was probably imagining it. If Enjolras claimed to be okay...
"No reason, you look a little pale is all", he said.
Enjolras was slightly annoyed with himself. He was fine, just a headache. Why would his pallor fail him now.
He sighed. "Just a little headache 'ferre. We had a bit of a fuss during my speech earlier. I'll tell you later, when everyone's back here."
Combeferre watched as his friend took a seat in a nearby chair and started working on his notes.
"Can I get you something to drink maybe?", he asked.
"Enjolras?! A drink? Hah, have you gone rather mad my friend", came a voice from the bar. Both Enjolras and Combeferre looked up as Grantaire came walking towards them.
"He can have my drink if he wants", slurred Grantaire drunkenly. "Though I myself have not yet had enough".
"I beg to differ", Enjolras whispered annoyed. His head ached and Grantaire's shouting only intensified it. "I'll have some water please 'ferre. That classifies as a drink for some of us as well."
Grantaire snorted at that and took a seat opposite of Enjolras. "Take some time to relax Apollo. You just got back and already you're working. Do you even know how to, you know, not work?"
Enjolras looked up and answered Grantaire tiredly. "In a time where my fellow people has to suffer; where they have to work themselves nearly to death; have to worry every day again if tomorrow there will be enough food to feed the little ones; a time where my fellow people has no time whatsoever to relax without there being a price to pay; no Grantaire, in a time like that I can not imagine a better way to spend my time than working towards a better future. And I pitty those who care so little about this that they simply drink their time away every single day."
Grantaire raised his eyebrows and snorted again. "Whatever Apollo, you need to relax."
Enjolras got irritated but willed himself to stay calm. "And you need to put the bottle down." They looked at each other. Then Enjolras continued: "and if you're not, which I assume is going to be the case, then at least leave me alone and let me work."
Grantaire wanted to respond, but Combeferre returned at that point and shot Grantaire a warning look.
"Fine, I'll go. I'll let you work yourself to an early grave for a people who don't care anyway."
Enjolras slammed his fist down angrily and was about to raise his voice to Grantaire, but Combeferre beat him to it.
"Grantaire will you please do what you do best, mind your own drunken business and leave our friend alone if he wishes you to. Your drunken talk makes no sense and only adds to his already present headache." He gave the man a warning glare.
Grantaire stood and stumbled away, already occupied with a woman as drunk as himself, as if nothing had happened.
"He drives me crazy", said Enjolras. "He believes in nothing and yet he stays and annoys me. I do not understand him. Why does he not just leave if it does not interest him."
Combeferre watched Enjolras for a second and sighed. "Would you want him to leave?", he then asked.
Enjolas thought about that. Admittingly somewhere he did care for Grantaire. "I just really wish he would believe in what we try to achieve."
Combeferre nodded and decided to let it rest and give Enjolras his chance to work on his notes. In the next hour the other friends slowly made their way back to the café. Some of them joined Grantaire, had a drink and a laugh, others discussed the progress they made or failed to make that day.
When everyone was present, Enjolras prepared himself to report to the rest what had happened that day, although he made it a slightly different story. He was not planning on sharing his little nose dive with them.
"So now we do not only have to worry about the police, but we also have to be on the lookout for a group of robbers who take advantage of us gathering the people together just so they can steal from those who already have nothing?", Marius asked after Enjolras was finished.
"It seems so, mon ami. They are an easy target. I fear poverty has driven these people to turn to the wrong path. And if that is the case, who knows how many people start turning towards criminality. What if they simply do not have a choice? This development seems again to prove the fact that it is most necessary that things must change." He looked around his friends. "Now more than ever we need to prepare the people of what is about to come! The time for change is near my friends!"
He then paused, feeling a rush of nausea and dizzyness attack him. "We..we will discuss this matter more in our next..." He had to close his eyes for a moment. Why was the world spinning? "We'll discuss it in our next meeting." He tried to steady himself, not to worry his friends but it already seemed to late. He heared them talking. Or were they shouting? What was that loud ringing in his ears?
Suddenly he felt himself falling. Not again...what? He never felt himself hitting the ground nor hear his friends' frightened shouts, for everything suddenly was black again.
tbc.