Bahorel threw his fists in the air and let out a loud and irritating screech of victory as Feuilly moaned and put his head in his hands. "I give up, how the hell are you so good at this?"

The boxer grinned wolfishly and twirled his paddle with one hand. "I am the Ping-Pong king. Anyone else wanna give it a go?"

Bossuet stood up from where he was sitting with his roommates, gently pulling Musichetta from his lap and making his way to the table. The girl and Joly both began to cheer on their friend as he snatched the other paddle from a relieved looking Feuilly. "If only to shut you up, 'my liege'."

"En guard, 'peasant'."

Ignoring them, Jehan made his way through the group and sat next to Musichetta; the woman smiling knowingly and putting an arm around his shoulders. "Alright, little man. What's wrong?"

The poet scowled and slumped in his seat. "Courfeyrac's got his girlfriend over at the apartment and they were being all 'touchy' in the living room. I can't believe that I got chased out of my own house."

Joly rolled his eyes, "I figured you and 'Rel would be used to that crap by now."

"Doesn't make it any easier." Bahorel muttered as he plopped down on the couch next to his roommate; the three-person seat becoming crowded with the addition of the larger boy. "You know that's why he's living with us right? He tried it with 'Ferre and Enjy and our fine leader put the fear of God into him. Of course I could have told you that it would happen; 'Rac and Enjolras living together? Yeah right…"

"Weren't you playing Ping-Pong?"

"Bossuet broke the paddle."

The large man looked sheepish as he sat on the floor in front of them. "I'll pay them for it."

Feuilly had settled next to him on the floor, looking a little uncomfortable about being in the University's rec room. Musichetta looked up from where she was braiding Jehan's hair. "Speaking of your 'fearless leader', has anyone thought about maybe telling him to back off on that project of his?"

"That's a little bit like telling the grass to stop being green." Joly sighed. "Let's face it, we can't talk him out of it and he'll do it no matter what anyone says."

Feuilly frowned. "The thing about your analogy is that grass does change color; when it dies during the summer. If we don't say something soon, he's going to be forced to stop when he collapses from exhaustion or stress. Remember when I tried to juggle three jobs and ended up in the hospital?"

"My point exactly." The woman finished tying off her friend's hair and turned to the rest of the group. "You lot need to get him to take a step back for a while."

They all exchanged looks that quite clearly said 'easier said than done'. Feuilly sighed. "Doesn't help that none of us can really stand up to him in a debate."

"'Taire!" Cosette hopped out of her boyfriend's car and hurried up the driveway, dodging puddles and pulling her pale pink windbreaker tighter around her.

Grantaire looked down from the roof and smiled at her. "Hey, Princess. How was class?"

"R, can you come down? I wanna talk to you about something."

The cynic rolled his eyes and went back to his task; but not before playfully dropping some gunk near the girl, who squealed and darted out of the way. "If this is another attempt to get me to 'engage with others'…"

"You. Down here. Now."

The young man clambered down the ladder and leapt lightly to stand before her, eyebrow cocked. "May I help you, madam?"

"Inside."

They walked into the house, the man rubbing furiously at his hands to get the gunk off as the girl opened the door for him frostily. Cosette allowed him to duck out to change into clean clothes and made herself some tea as she grumbled under her breath. Once Grantaire had wandered back over, in a clean gray t-shirt and jeans, she turned to him and pointed with her stirring spoon.

"There's an Amis meeting tonight. You should come." Grantaire sighed and moved to the refrigerator, ignoring the younger girl; but she wasn't going to take no for an answer. "R, it's been a very, very long time. They miss you. You heard everything Jehan told you last night. You can't stay a ghost; you need to get back into…life!"

Pulling out a bottle of coke, Grantaire kicked the fridge shut and moved toward the table. "Cosette, no. We've talked about this; going to a meeting would be a step back."

"No it wouldn't!" She sat next to him and grasped his arm. "I think it would be a step forward. You can't fully heal unless you address… Well…"

"I know." He shook his head as he sipped from his drink. "But… Not yet; I'm not ready."

She sighed and began to flip through one of his sketchbooks. "You're never going to be ready."

"Hey now…" He reached over to put a hand under her chin and forced eye contact. "Why the gloomy mood?"

She pouted, running a finger over the delicate brush-strokes of one of his better paintings. "I just want to help you all, but everyone's so stubborn."

"Who else is having trouble?" Grantaire sipped from his soda and leaned back, looking curious.

"Papa's been… Acting strange lately. He saw something on the TV last week and…"

The young man understood. He too had noticed the odd behavior from the man.

He smiled and leaned over to kiss her on the forehead. "I'm sure that whatever it is, Jean has it under control."

"But…"

"No buts." He glared. "Go on, you've got a paper to finish."

The young man leaned back in his seat, staring off into space and holding the bottle loosely in his hand. It had been a while. Cosette and Marius kept him busy and entertained but he did miss some of the others; seeing Jehan again had been fantastic and not as uncomfortable as he'd thought. He placed his drink on the table and moved his head into his hands, sighing in frustration. Grantaire knew full well that sooner or later he needed to face his old friends; he loved them too much not to. He'd come so far, grown so much in the last six months and he had nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing. Not a thing.

So why the hell was he so nervous?

Sighing again, the artist pulled his chair closer to the table and rested his head on his arms as he closed his eyes.

"Enjolras… Enjolras!"

The activist's head snapped up and he blinked owlishly up at Combeferre's smiling face before realizing he'd fallen asleep again. He straightened in his seat and looked around the room. "Sorry, late night."

It had taken a couple hours for him to fall asleep and he'd woken early in the morning to find himself crying. Needless to say, that had freaked him out slightly and he'd gotten up immediately, trying to remember what he'd seen in his dreaming that had shaken him so badly. Enjolras was beginning to hate the sight of his petitions and papers, they seemed to laugh at him in their stacks, reminding him of how much work was still to be done. Needing a break, he'd gone out that afternoon to get his mind off of it and met up with Combeferre, Courfeyrac, Bahorel and-

"Marius?"

The young man looked up from his notes and smiled at the perplexed look on his friend's face. Enjolras pushed away his book and looked around the café. "Where…"

"They went to get food." The boy admitted. "You were pretty out of it and we decided to get some pizzas or something before the meeting starts."

"Ah." Enjolras nodded, rubbing at his face. Combeferre watched with a certain amount of concern.

His best friend's behavior was becoming more and more erratic; though he'd never admit it to him, he'd woken to distressed sounds from Enjolra's room that morning and been rather frightened. Enjolras never had nightmares and it was just another of many small inconsistencies that had the man wondering if an intervention was needed. He was pulled out of his thoughts by the return of their companions. Soon the whole group had arrived and they began a heated discussion on the upcoming rally.

Feuilly was shaking his head nervously. "I just think we ought to tone it down a little, you know?"

"We can't afford to be subtle anymore." Enjolras snapped. "We're running out of time. If we don't get some public support soon, we'll loose the building."

From his seat at the activist's left, Courfeyrac frowned in annoyance. The meeting was almost half over and it had been completely spent as an argument between some of the boys and Enjolras. This wasn't working; the blonde's temper was holding them back from reaching any sort of agreement. The young man leaned over to whisper to Cosette. "Any clue what 'Jol's problem is?"

The girl looked up from her phone. "Why do you ask? Why would I know?"

"I dunno. Woman's intuition?"

"If we weren't in a meeting I'd slap you."

Grantaire paced the length of the dining room, rubbing at his face. He looked up at the clock, noting that the Amis meeting was most likely half over at this point and drummed his fingers against his leg.

It's a bad idea.

He gritted his teeth and leaned against the wall.

It won't make a difference.

Eyes shut tightly, he tried to ignore the pounding in his head and jerked toward the kitchen. He scrambled for his sketchbook, opening to a blank page and scribbling absent-mindedly. As he finished shading what was shaping up to be a garden wall, the pounding was almost gone and he began to breathe a little easier. Pushing the book away he grabbed his soda and took a long drag as his eyes trailed over to a piece of paper lying near the phone. He pulled it over and looked it over with a small smile; Valjean's handwriting was messy and the notes he took when he was on the phone were always choppy and never made sense to anyone but him. The cynic was about to shove it away when his eye caught a small bit of red writing on the notepad.

"Great Things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."

...There's an Amis meeting tonight. You should come. You can't stay a ghost; you need to get back into life. You can't fully heal unless you address… Where the hell have you BEEN?! You're our friend. I have been worried SICK about you! Your friends will support you no matter what you decide next. We love you!

You're not alone, child...

Grantaire stared at the paper for a long moment before groaning. "Oh… HELL."

Cosette sighed and slumped in her seat. The meeting had ended five minutes ago and STILL the boys were arguing. It didn't help that some of them had downed a couple drinks and Enjolras was starting to snap. The girl turned to bury her head on her boyfriend's shoulder and blinked at the astonished look on his face; his warm eyes lit up and a huge grin spread across his face as he looked down at her.

She followed his gaze and her jaw dropped at the sight of Grantaire slowly entering the room, looking from one person to the next with a wistful smile. She put a hand over her mouth and felt a pricking in her eyes as he caught her gaze and grinned nervously.

Courfeyrac noticed the stiffening of the girl next to him and looked up to ask what was wrong, catching sight of the cynic hovering nearby. Without a word and grinning like a loon, the young man practically vaulted over the table and tackled Grantaire even as Joly and Bossuet turned and sprang to their feet with excited shouts. All four boys toppled to the floor as they clung to each other, laughing and squeezing tightly. The rest of the boys were a bit more subdued but showed their excitement, even Combeferre smiled broadly and nodded at the cynic.

Bahorel and Jehan managed to pull the boys off of Grantaire and the poet hugged him tightly. "Thanks." He mumbled into the dark curls as the cynic kissed his cheek.

"Just don't leave me alone with these people."

Grantaire enjoyed the laugh that Jehan had to stifle in his shoulder as stood up, waving awkwardly at the group. "Hey."

"Hey." Feuilly grinned back. "So where the hell have you been?"

"Oh you know." Grantaire laughed nervously. "Around…"

"He's been staying with me." Cosette said calmly. "Sorry not to tell any of you but he wouldn't let me."

The look on the cynic's face screamed betrayal as she stared calmly back and a few of the boys laughed. Combeferre drew up a chair and nodded. "Come on then R; have a seat. We can get you a drink."

Swallowing hard, Grantaire accepted the seat between Jehan and Bahorel and shook his head. "I'm good. Actually, do you guys have any water?"

"Seriously?" Bahorel asked, raising an eyebrow and scoffing. "Since when do you pass up a free drink?"

Cosette, Marius and Jehan all looked at Grantaire with a little concern as he straightened and took another deep breath. "Since about two months ago."

There was a long moment of silence and then Joly managed. "So… You haven't had a drink in…"

Grantaire smiled shyly.

Enjolras could pinpoint the exact moment his brain stopped working upon seeing Grantaire enter the room. The excited yells from his friends sounded muffled and hazy as he stared at the cynic. He barely heard Cosette's explanation and the response from his best friend went over his head as he stared at the dark haired boy.

"You are quite possibly the most ignorant, irritating waste of space that I have ever met!"

Why was he remembering this now? He managed to pull himself from the fog in time to hear the comment about Grantaire's drinking and see the tiny, strange smile on the cynic's face. That was a weird smile, it looked real; which lead to him realizing that the smiles he was used to seeing on the older man were fake and why did that matter?!

Joly was ranting at Grantaire, checking his forehead and rambling on about withdrawal symptoms as the cynic laughed. He managed to push the redhead off of him and disentangle Bahorel from the crushing hug he'd pulled him into. "Yes, trust me, I know all about the downsides of sobriety." He sighed and accepted a cup of water from Feuilly. "That's why I sort of cut myself off from you all. Trust me, you didn't want to see that."

"I think you should have let us decide that." Courfeyrac looked horrified. "My uncle went cold turkey; he really needed support during the withdrawal phase."

"I had Cosette and Jean. I was fine." Grantaire assured him. "Look, I'm sorry guys. I didn't mean to interrupt."

Bahorel put a hand over his forehead. "Either he's actually sick or he's a pod person."

Marius grinned. "It's him, we promise. It's alright R; we were done anyway. Hey, show them the tat."

Blushing, Grantaire pulled up the sleeve of his shirt and revealed a small tattoo on his wrist. It was a beautiful, swooping script in black ink that read December 22 2013. As Bossuet and Bahorel looked it over appreciatively Grantaire explained. "It's the day I went cold turkey. Well, I tried a few other times but this is the time it worked. When I hit a whole year of being sober I'm getting another one on my other arm."

Feuilly grinned. "That's a great idea. I'm really happy for you."

"Yeah, well." Grantaire shrugged. "It was time to commit to being part of life instead of distracting myself from crap by drinking myself to death."

"If you're not going to commit and just waste our time then I don't want you at the meetings. You're just a distraction."

Enjolras felt like he'd been physically punched at that and made the mistake of looking up and catching Grantaire's eye. They stared at each other for a moment, Enjolras' mouth dry and for the first time in a very long time unable to think of something to say. Grantaire suddenly grinned.

"Not that I've started thinking that most of the crap you guys talk about is reasonable. I mean come on; Cosette says that you're still working on that condemned building. Seriously, it's been six months!"

"It's a worthwhile cause." Everyone jumped as Enjolras finally responded. He voice was steady and held that irritated undertone they were all used to at this point. Combeferre looked at him nervously.

"Yeah, don't get me wrong." Grantaire shrugged. "All for it, but after six months, you'd think you'd take a hint and see that these people aren't going to get on board. I really think the ship's sort of sailed at this point."

"That's why we have to fight for it." Enjolras snapped. "If people just gave up when things didn't got their way then there'd been many important movements that would never have seen the light of day and-"

"Have you been watching those 'underdog' movies with Jehan again?" The cynic leaned back in his chair. "Hollywood loves the idea of small groups of kids overcoming huge obstacles but I think we all know it's harder than that in real life."

"Not with effort." Enjolras was practically on his feet. "As long as someone is willing to start the fire and be a figurehead there will be interest. In the end the people will always-"

He was cut off by the unexpected sound of Grantaire slamming his head onto the table and laughing loudly. The blond stood there frozen and tried to wrap his head around what he was seeing. Grantaire was giggling into his hands as Combeferre shook his head slowly. "Are you two seriously doing this after six months of not seeing each other?"

This made Enjolras blush and Grantaire cackle even harder. The activist cleared his throat and looked away. "He started it."

"So now we're in preschool?"

"Shut it." Enjolras looked away before the other man could see the twitch of a smile on his face. Grantaire didn't seem interested in continuing the conversation anyway and leaned forward to grin at Bahorel.

"So been keeping out of trouble?"

"Hardly." The bigger man laughed. "Dude, even if ya aren't drinking anymore, we gotta hit the club scene. It's not as much fun without you."

"So in." Grantaire grinned and knuckle bumped him before looking at Joly. "Classes coming along?"

"Pretty well." The redhead shrugged. "I missed a couple of classes last week 'cause I thought I might have had-"

"Bronchitis." Bossuet laughed. "The idiot thought he had bronchitis. Musichetta and I practically had to tie him to the bed to keep him from running to the hospital. It was just a stupid cold."

Everyone laughed at Joly's blush and Grantaire turned to look at Feuilly and Marius. "Hey, I wanted to ask, the police contacted you about the break-in?"

"Not yet." Feuilly admitted. "We're not holding out much hope. There's been a lot of these break-ins going around."

"Damn, that sucks."

Enjolras watched as Grantaire turned his attention to Courfeyrac and began asking about his girlfriend. The cynic had been gone for months and yet he seemed to know more about their friends' day-to-day lives than the activist. Enjolras tried not to stare at Grantaire too obviously but Combeferre was smiling at him a little too smugly so he was probably failing miserably at that. He finally managed to growl at his best friend. "What?"

"He's fine." Pushing his glasses into place and still smiling, the man nodded to where Grantaire and Jehan were laughing. "Just like we said. He's better than fine. So enough with feeling guilty."

"…'The hell are you talking about?"

Combeferre didn't say any more but still smiled to himself.

Cosette lifted her head from Grantaire's stomach and peered up at his face. "Hey."

He looked down at her; she was sprawled out, her head on him and her legs on her boyfriend's lap. Jehan was curled against the cynic's shoulder and Courfeyrac was sprawled over all of their legs. Amidst the pillows and blankets that they'd purloined from pretty much every room in the house the five friends had spent the evening eating pizza, watching movies and cackling over jokes that would have made little sense to anyone else. Grantaire sighed and ruffled Cosette's hair. "What?"

She grinned. "Told you so."

He rolled his eyes. "Yes you did, Princess. Now go to sleep."

Courfeyrac hauled himself up slightly to peer at them. "Were you seriously trying to get out of coming back?"

"Not really, just wasn't looking forward to incurring the wrath of Apollo." The cynic laughed, running his fingers through Jehan's hair. Courfeyrac snorted and flopped back.

"If you were trying to 'avoid his wrath' then wasn't your little outburst back then a bit counter-productive?"

Grantaire's smile became a little smug. "I couldn't resist. I saw him and it was this automatic reaction. I couldn't help myself…"

"Well it was great for us." Marius admitted, rubbing his girlfriend's calf soothingly. "We didn't want to say anything, but he's been a real pain lately. At least when he lets you have it, you can fight back. He rips the rest of us to shreds."

Grantaire looked up at that, his brow furrowed a little in confusion. Before he could speak the door of the study opened and Jean stepped through, looking at the pile of Amis with a cocked eyebrow. "This looks cozy."

"Hey Mr. Valjean." Courfeyrac twisted around so he could look up at the older man. "I'm Courfeyrac, don't believe we've met."

Jean's eyes roved over each person before settling on the brunet with a small smile. "I believe you're right, pleased to meet you. There's a large futon in the game room if you'd like to pile in there. I believe Cosette and Jehan have already abandoned you for the dreamland."

They looked down at the two slumbering figures, trying to calculate how to disentangle from the cuddle-pile without waking them. They managed to huddle Cosette into her father's arms and Grantaire effortlessly began cradling Jehan like a baby. Carrying the poet was easy; getting him to let go so they could put him down was the tricky part. He left Courfeyrac and Marius trying to avoid becoming a teddy bear and stumbled toward his own room. He nearly ran into Jean as the man exited his daughter's room and mumbled an apology but the man reached down and pulled him into a hug.

"How'd it go?" He smiled as the young man melted into the contact and gave a long-suffering sigh. "That well?"

Grantaire smiled into his shoulder and shrugged. "Actually it went a lot better than I was expecting."

"They took you back without question?"

"Yeah."

"They were happy to hear the news? They were proud of you?"

"…Yeah."

"We TOLD you."

Grantaire groaned and pulled away, throwing his hands up. "You two are impossible!"

Jean kissed him on the forehead and left the young man on his own. As Grantaire flopped onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling. He smiled to himself, a soft laugh escaping as he put an arm over his eyes. "They told me…"

Quote is from Vincent Van Gogh.

This took too long and I apologize but the 'reunion' drove me crazy. (But was fun to write.)

I made a blog for this series with an ASK section in it so if any of you want to ask the Amis questions of any kind, check out the link on my profile. I'm going to draw the answers and it'll be fun to practice the appearances of all the characters.