A/N: Thanks for the reviews! 3 Another post will be up Saturday/Sunday. Enjoy!
Dominic Bahorel still had to say, it was very funny business going on with Grantaire. Even after he and Luc'd gone to talk with Combeferre, and Combeferre had presumably gone to talk with Enjolras, he hadn't seen the man at all. It was pretty usual for them to see each other outside of meetings, given the number of different restaurants and wine-shops they both frequented, but since the last meeting he hadn't heard or seen a single thing of his friend. And where Grantaire was concerned, no news was generally not good news. He was pretty sure Grantaire could take care of himself, but still – he wouldn't pass up a chance to see him again.
At the moment, since Luc had deserted him again and all of his other friends seemed to be giving him a pretty wide berth, he was sitting drinking in a wine-shop.
Alone.
It wasn't any fun.
Ah, but here was someone to distract him! L'Aigle pulled up a chair beside him and gave him that signature offhanded grin. "Can I join you?"
He grinned back. "Absolutely. Beginning to wonder if the world was avoiding me. Let me buy you a drink?"
"Thanks. Won't argue if you insist," the Eagle said, leaning forward onto the table. Dominic ordered the drink and sat back, in a considerably better mood.
"How's it going for you, ami?" he asked.
"Can't complain," L'Aigle said fairly. "Actually wanted to ask you something."
He waved his hand. "Ask away."
"…about Grantaire," L'Aigle said with a small grin.
"Hey, yeah, about him," Bahorel said with interest. "Have you seen the bastard? It's like Enjolras drove him into hiding or off of a cliff or something."
"I saw him the other day in passing," he said, shrugging. "I doubt he wants to see us much at the moment after the meeting, eh?"
He gave a snort of laughter and leaned over slightly to accommodate the very busty waitress setting L'Aigle's wine down. "You aren't taking that seriously, are you?"
"Hey…I don't like to think that of anyone," he said, taking the wine with an appreciative smile. "And though I rather like him – don't think he's really capable of something like that."
"I don't either."
"So who'd you think did it?" That was one of the reasons he liked talking to L'Aigle better than he liked talking to Combeferre, Dominic thought. Homme preferred to cut to the chase.
"Probably the damn government spying on us," Bahorel said, imitating Feuilly's eternal paranoia. Though now he mentioned it, that almost sounded plausible. But only if you were paranoid and humorless like Feuilly was.
L'Aigle seemed to get the joke, as he laughed too. "Oh oui. That's definitely possible. Or maybe someone let something slip to one of their friends." A disarming smile that didn't quite hide the fact that he was…possibly serious about it. How odd. "...It would be my luck to have done that. I don't think I did, though."
He couldn't help but laugh at the idea. "Eh, well…that's a possibility too." He held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Accused pleads innocent."
L'Aigle laughed again and shook his head. "That's all you remember from that class, isn't it?"
"How could you think that of me?" Bahorel said in mock indignation. "You know I learned that from hanging around at scandalous trials, dear Eagle."
"Heaven forbid I should ever accuse you of going to a class, Dominic, ami," L'Aigle replied with a grin.
"Classes are for academics, and academics are boring. They've got no life in them."
"Combeferre has always seemed just a step or two away from the morgue," he nodded. "...anyway, I have to go check on Maurice, ami. He said he wasn't feeling well, so I am meant to be getting him some powders for his throat. If I see GrandR again in passing, you want I should tell him you're looking for him?"
"Yeah, that'd be real good of you," Dominic said, still feeling slightly annoyed that L'Aigle had seen Grantaire and th'omme hadn't even bothered to look him up. "Don't let Maurice dose himself to death."
"Oh I won't," L'Aigle said, and then he was gone.
And Dominic was alone again.
It was a circumstance that irked him more than he liked to admit.