I'm so sorry that this update has taken so long - I thought I would have had this chapter posted weeks ago, but I've been crazy busy and time just ran away from me. I should hopefully be updating much more regularly from now on.
As always, thank you so much for taking the time to read :-]]
"What do you know about Enjolras's parents?"
"Hello to you too," Grantaire said, as Eponine slid into an empty seat beside him.
"Hi," she bluntly replied. "So, tell me everything you know about his parents."
Grantaire had always been the first one to arrive at the Musain for the weekly Friday night carange, and Eponine was relieved to find that this was still the case. Back in the day she wouldn't have been too far behind him, but she hadn't even been back in the place since that night a few months ago when she had discovered she was bleeding in the bathroom.
"I know that they don't just announce themselves upon me when I'm trying to have some quiet alone time," Grantaire replied, gesturing to the half empty bar.
"Now is not the time for jokes R, I need to talk to you about this before everyone else shows up," Eponine replied, not even trying to hide the sense of urgency from her voice.
"If you want to know about Enjolras's parents shouldn't you be asking him about them?"
"I don't want to ask him about them."
"Why?"
"I don't want to push things."
"So let me see if I've got this right: you're growing his child inside you but you don't want to 'push things' by asking him about his own parentage?" Grantaire sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Sense and sensibility right there Ep, sense and sensibility."
"You know what he's like about them," she sighed. "You'd think he was a feral child or something."
"He does look feral sometines," Grantaire said, winking.
"Seriously Grantaire," Eponine said sternly, "I'm really not in the mood for a berage of Enjolras jokes right now, so can we just push past that?"
"Someone is overly-touchy with pregnancy hormones today."
Eponine glared at him.
Grantaire held his hands up in mock surrender. "OK, OK, sorry preggers. I won't make anymore jokes about Enjolras, or mention anything to do with your homones for the rest of this conversation," he said, realizing it was probably wise to back down. "Please continue with whatever it was you were saying before I began to behave so poorly."
"So he's never divulged anything to you about them?" Eponine asked, deciding that she didn't have enough time to be annoyed at Grantaire and try to extract the information that she needed.
"Not really. I really don't know much about them to be honest, but from what I do know I would say that his dad sounds like a pretty controlling asshole." Grantaire grabbed his beer from the table and took swig. "Why the sudden interest anyway? You worried your spawn is gonna inherit some of their characteristics?"
"I have to go meet them."
"What?"
"I have to go meet them," Eponine repeated. "We're leaving in the morning."
"Holy shit, he's actually going to see them?" The news that Enjolras was making the effort to go and see his parents was the last thing Grantaire had been expecting to hear. "What the hell has brought this on?"
"His mom has cancer."
"Oh shit."
"Yeah I know, it's really fucking shit. He met some old family friend at Marius and Cosette's wedding and she told him."
"Is she going to be OK?"
"I think so, they caught it early apparently, but I guess we'll know more once we actually see her."
"And he only found out about this due to a chance meeting with some randomer?"
"Yup."
"Jesus," Grantaire exclaimed. "How shady to not even bother getting in touch to let him know about the health of his own mother."
"I have to go meet these people R, I have to spend two whole days with them," Eponine said, sounding beyond passed herself.
"Do they know that you're with child?"
"I don't think so," she shrugged. "He told them I was coming with him, but as far as I know he didn't tell them about the baby."
Grantaire glanced at Eponine's stomach. "Well I don't think you're gonna be able to fool them by claiming that you just had a big lunch."
"I don't want to go," she whined.
"They mightn't be that bad Ep," Grantaire replied, trying to sound as reassuring as possible.
"Would you want to go and meet them?"
"Well... no."
"Well then, there you go."
"But you're gonna be popping out their grandkid, surely that means they have to be nice to you?"
"And Enjolras is their only son, you would think that meant they had to be nice to him."
"How is he feeling about this whole thing?"
"He says he's OK, but he's so clearly not. He's pissed about the fact that they kept this from him, but he feels like he needs to go and be there for his mom. I know that he's really worried about the reception he's gonna get; I kinda got the impression that when he called to say we were coming the news wasn't exactly met with parades of joy."
"I'm sure it'll be fine once you actually get there and can discuss everything face to face," Grantaire said, trying to keep the tone of reassurance in his voice.
"I've never even met a boyfriend's parents before in normal circumstances; you know when I haven't been walking right ino the middle of a long standing family fued whilst six months pregnant."
"Well you used to always complain about not wanting your life to be normal and boring..."
"This isn't exactly what I meant R."
"It's only for a couple of days; when you think about it, two days really isn't that long."
"Maybe they'll have forgotten we're coming and will have gone away for the weekend," Eponine desperately surmized.
"Well, there's nothing like wishful thinking Eppy," Grantaire replied.
"What are you wishfully thinking about?" Courfeyrac's voice called out from behind Eponine, as he rested his hands on her shoulders and kissed her on the top of the head.
"Eponine has to go and meet Enjolras's parents," Grantaire answered on Eponine's behalf, causing her to glare at him across the table as Courfeyrac took a seat beside her.
"Holy fuck," Courfeyrac grimmaced. "Rather you than me Ep, I met his dad once and he was the scariest man I've ever met in my entire life."
Eponine spun round to face him. "His dad came here?"
"Yeah, a couple of years ago," Courfeyrac replied nonchalently.
"And what happened?" Eponine asked.
"He just showed up one day during our final year exams, demanding to speak to Enjolras," Courferyrac said. "All I did was open the door and the man is standing there yelling at me about how he wants to see his son. Scared the shit out of me."
"Then what happened?"
"Enjolras appeared, they went into his room and yelled at each for like an hour, and then his dad stormed out. He slammed the front door so hard that he broke the lock."
"What were they argueing about?" Grantaire asked, leaning across the table.
"The fact that Enjolras didn't want to go back to that craphole town he's from," Courfeyrac replied.
"But I don't get why his dad was so pissed about the whole thing?" Grantaire mused. "Like sure, maybe his parents were annoyed because they just wanted Enjolras to come back, but to be that annoyed about it and then just not get over it seems a bit much to me."
"Me too," Courfeyrac agreed. "There's definitely more to it than meets the eye. I did try to evesdrop to the best of my ability that day but it was hard to figure out exactly what was going on when I didn't know the whole prelude; but from what I picked up his dad was pissed because Enjolras had gone back on something he had apparently agreed to before he came to Paris, but I wasn't able to work out what it was because I was terrified that if his dad discovered me listening too closely he might kill me."
Grantaire noticed that the color had now almost entirely drained from Eponine's face. "You alright Ep?"
"I'd better go," she said, standing up.
"You want me to walk you back?" Grantaire offered.
"No, I'm fine," she replied, flashing him a weak smile.
"Hey Ep, don't worry about the whole Enjolras's parents thing," Courfeyrac said, worried that maybe it hadn't been the best idea to share the story of his encounter with Enjolras's father. "I'm sure everything will be fine when you meet them, you really can't judge people on first impressions eh?"
"Yeah," she replied, sounding entirely unconvinced.
"Give me a call tomorrow," Grantaire said, "let me know how things are going."
"Sure," Eponine replied. "I'll see you guys later."
"Good luck!" Courfeyrac called.
The two men sat in silence as they watched Eponine leave.
"She's shitting herself," Grantaire said as soon as she was out of sight.
"I don't blame her," Courfeyrac replied. "She's walking right into the lion's den."