A few weeks passed and Azelma's bump was beginning to show, she had stayed living with Joly who cared for her and who she loved dearly.
That morning Azelma has awoken with a headache and Joly being himself had fussed over her and forced her to stay in bed. "It's just a little headache Joly, I'm fine honest" she kept saying, but he insisted. Finally she gave up and retreated back to the spare bedroom were she had been living. "Can I get you anything?" Joly asked, tucking the sheets around her. Azelma thought for a while "no, thank you" she said.
Joly turned round and was about to leave the room when Azelma suddenly thought of something, "wait!" she shouted, stopping Joly in his tracks. "I don't suppose you have any paper and something I could draw with?" She asked. "I'll see what I can find" Joly said before leaving.
Joly looked through all the draws in his home until he found paper, a paintbrush and some watercolours, he then went over and got a cup of water. He went into the room were Azelma was and handed them to her, "here you go, I'm just going to go out for a bit will you be okay?" He asked, "thank you! yes just go stop fussing I'll be fine" Azelma said, shooing him out the door.
Azelma pulled up the bedside table and flattened out the paper, and began painting. The first thing she painted was a church that she used to visit a lot as a child, she closed her eyes often to recall what it looked like. She added flowers and tombstones, adding fine detail to the painting. As a child one of her favourite things to do was paint and she used to do it often, but then as things began to go downhill she was forced to give it up. Sometimes though she would find some chalk or something to draw with and would sketch the first thing she thought of into the path or into the wall, anything she could find.
Joly didn't return until mid afternoon and by then Azelma had managed to paint five paintings before running out of paper.
"How are y-" he fell silent when he caught sight of the paintings. "What?" Azelma said, "I know there bad but-" "No, Azelma, these are amazing! I didn't know you could draw? Wow" Azelma frowned as Joly picked one of the paintings up "no, I'm serious Azelma these are so good! So much detail too! Can I have one? I'll buy it off you" Joly said, grabbing some money from his pocket "here" he said placing it onto the table. Joly left the room and put the painting, the one of the church, onto his bookshelf. Azelma had silently followed him, "ha, you're not serious are you?" she said, giving a small chuckle. It made Joly jump, he had not heard her approaching. He spun round to look at her "how's your head?" he asked, lifting his hand up to feel her temperature. "I'm fine, but are you serious?" she asked, "serious about what?", "The paintings", "Azelma, of course I'm serious! you could sell them you know"
Azlelma thought about it, "hmmm". "Look, I know the owner of a shop that sells artwork, I could talk to him if you want" Joly said, insisting. "I suppose it won't hurt" Azelma said, thinking, maybe she could earn something from it and then she could actually look after the baby by herself. The thought made her smile and she rubbed her stomach.
-
The next day Azelma and Joly went into central Paris. She wore a red dress that he had bought her, it went nice with her brown eyes he had said. She felt her cheeks go red, he had noticed what colour her eyes were.
When they got to the shop, which the name of translates as 'Little Artist", they went inside. Azelma had never been inside one before and she looked at all the amazing paintings around her, a painting of a lady sitting by a river caught her eye and she went over to have a closer look whilst Joly spoke to the owner.
"Bonjour Monseiur" Joly said, approaching the counter. The man looked up, he had white hair and wore gold spectacles, "ahh Monseiur Joly!" The man said getting up from his chair and shaking Joly's hand, "how are you?" he asked. "I'm good thank you, how are you? and your family?" Joly asked, returning the question. "ah they're good, Emilie is doing well thanks to you! and is this your beautiful young lady?" the man asked approaching Azelma and twirling her round in a circle. Azelma blushed a little.
"This is Azelma, Azelma this is Gregoire, he was a friend of my fathers before he passed away and is also my Godfather" Gregoire smiled, "and Joly here saved my daughters life!" he exclaimed. Gregoire reached out and shook Azelmas hand "nice to meet you Azelma" he said, "and you Monseiur" she replied. "So, can I help you with anything?" Gregoire asked, "ah yes, you see Azelma here did some paintings and they are, if I say so myself, fantastic! We were wondering if she would be able to sell them in your shop?" Joly explained, he then pulled them out and handed them to Gregoire.
Gregoire silently examined the paintings, Azelma stood nervously and kept picking at her fingernails and Joly watched Gregoire.
After a little while Gregoire spoke, "you do have an artists eye Azelma, I must say that your paintings are exquisite" he handed them the Azelma, "thank you Monseiur" she smiled. "I will put them up after lunch and we will trial them out, will you come back in a weeks time?" Gregoire asked, "before that can I ask you to fill out some forms for me?" Azelma suddenly panicked and gave Joly a look, he understood. "Do you mind if we take them and bring them later?" Joly asked, "oh yes certainly, let me get them for you" Gregoire disappeared behind the counter, "here you go" he said handing over some paper.
Joly and Azelma said thank you and then left the shop, Joly decided to take her into a small Cafe and bought them both a cake and a coffee. They sat up a table and Joly read out questions on the form and then wrote down Azelmas answers. He made a promise to himself to teach her to read and write.
When they had finished their food and drink and had finished filling in the form they went back to the shop and handed the form to Gregoire along with the paintings, everything was sealed and Azelma's paintings were now officially going to be sold to the people of Paris. She felt slightly nervous but also excited at the same time.
I'm sorry those who are angry because i didn't write any Eponine or Enjolras in this but i quite like the change, and no i did not start off shipping Joly and Azelma but i think they kind of click in my fic, idk. R&R. I won't be updating for a good month or so because of exams and sixth form stuff so apologies xxx