Notes: Ok so this is where I made the possibly risky choice to keep all the original French in the conversation. I'd like to take a moment to say I did this because I wanted the reader to have to experience the same language barrier Enjolras has to and have to rely on the translations in the text. There are some things in French that aren't translated to emphasize this. Obviously, if you understand French this is no matter to you, but if you don't, you do not have to go to a translator to understand (I mean, you can if you want, but it's not necessary). Thanks again to the lovely Meeni ( .com) for being a brilliant translator and beta.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Paris, France
Le Café Musain, Rue de Grès

"Je n'ai pas saisi votre nom, monsieur," Grantaire said, still leaning on the bar, almost too close to Enjolras. He found he didn't mind. The place was practically empty at this time of day, so Grantaire assumed he could have at least an hour with this guy (well, and with Jehan).

"He asked what's your name," Jehan translated. He had always enjoyed watching people flirt; it felt like a prelude to a great romance.

"Enjolras. But you spoke English to take my order, why do you need a translator now?"

"Son nom est Enjolras et il veut savoir pourquoi tu as besoin de moi si tu as parlé en anglais pour prendre sa commande."

"C'est un nom français," Grantaire said to Jehan. "Et tu connais le reponse à cette question. Tu es plus doué pour ce qui est de l'esthétique."

Jehan laughed and said to Enjolras, "He only speaks enough English to take orders, not nearly enough to hold a conversation. He also noticed your name is French."

"Yeah, my grandparents were French, but they died before they could teach me much. I pretty much only know hello, thank you, and that Les Amis de l'ABC is a pretty good pun for a student activist group."

"Ses grand-parents étaient français, mais ils n'ont jamais eu l'occasion de lui apprendre. Il fait partie d'un groupe d'activisime étudiant. Tu es sûr que tu veut continue la conversation?" Jehan asked with a raised eyebrow. "Je sais ce que tu penses de ce genre de choses."

"Activisime étudiant, hein? Demande-lui ce que font exactement 'Les Amis de l'Abaissés.'"

"What does your group do, exactly?"

"Well, we mostly hold protests and rallies for causes we believe in. We try to get transformative bills to pass through senate. We've made a lot of progress in the three years we've been active and we hope to do more," Enjolras said, his voice transforming to professional and promotional.

"Ils organisent des protestations et des rassemblemonts, essayent de faire passer de lois. Apparemment ils ont fait pas mal de choses. Ils sont actifs depuis trois ans."

Grantaire scoffed and Enjolras cocked an eyebrow in response. "Ce n'est rein," Grantaire brushed it off. "Qu'est-ce que vous amènent à Paris?"

"What are you doing in Paris?"

Enjolras laughed. "Apparently I was working too hard so my friends forced me on a month long vacation. I just flew in this morning."

"Ses amis l'ont forcé à prendre un mois de vacances. Il est arrivé par avion ce matin. Dis-moi, R, tu essaye de bâtir une relation avec ce type, ou c'est juste un coup d'un soir?"

"Qui sait, on va voir ce qui ça devient." Grantaire turned and said to Enjolras, "Donc j'ai le droit de passer un mois entier avec toi?"

Enjolras looked to Jehan for translation. "He asked if he gets the whole month with you then."

Enjolras laughed. "Now who said that?"

"Qui a dit ça?"

"Peut-être que je suis presumptuous, mais quand la plupart des gens sourient comme ça, ce n'est pas souvent un simple sourire amical entre un client et son serveur. Mais peut-être que tu décides de flirter avec tous les beaux serveurs que tu recontres."

"Tu es ridicule. Direct translation: 'Maybe I'm presumptuous, but most smiles like that are not friendly customer-waiter smiles. But maybe you flirt with all the hot waiters you come across.'"

"Maybe, Grantaire. But I doubt any of my waiters went through the trouble of having a friend translate a foreign language just to get my number."

"Peut-être. Mais il doute que tous les serveurs s'arrangent pour qu'un ami tranduise un conversation juste pour avoir un numéro. Je n'arrive pas à croire que je fais pour toi."

"C'est à ça que servent les amis, non?" Grantaire told Jehan with a laugh. "Mais qui a dit que je voulais juste un numéro? Peut-être que je cherchais une conversation intéressante."

"Maybe he just wanted interesting conversation, not just a number."

"In that case, tell me more about yourself. All I know is that you work in a café and never learned English."

"Il veut en savoir plus sur toi."

"Et qu'est-ce que tu veux savoir, exactement, Apollon?" Enjolras caught the nickname, and cocked an eyebrow in Grantaire's direction.

"What exactly do you want to know?"

"Why are you working at a café?"

"Il veut savoir pour quoi tu as choisi de travailler ici. A part pour le fait de m'avoir comme collègue, bien sûr."

Grantaire turned to Enjolras. "It is home. Je finis toujour par me retrouver ici."

Enjolras smiled at the sentiment. The chef yelled from the kitchen, "Arrête de drageur et sers-lui sa nourriture!"

Grantaire laughed and grabbed the food and coffee and set it in front of Enjolras. "Your food, mon coeur."

Enjolras definitely didn't blush when Grantaire winked at him and walked off to serve a couple who just walked in, followed by a laughing Jehan. He pulled out his French book and resolved to learn at least a little of the language for this man. As the café slowly got busier, they would exchange glances and smiles, but they didn't have a chance to pick up their conversation.
After about an hour and half Courfeyrac texted.

Dude u havent texted 4 like 2 hrs.
I'm in a café and there's a really hot waiter flirting with me but he doesn't speak English.
Wait. But then how is flirting with u?
He has a friend who speaks English and he's translating.
Wow dedication, he replied. Then another text came, is the friend hot too?
You'd like him.
Send a pic.
Of who, the friend or the waiter?
Both.

Enjolras sighed. He waited for the two men to be standing next to each other and then snapped a picture as secretly as he could. Grantaire walked into the kitchen then, but Jehan turned around and winked conspiringly at Enjolras. Enjolras avoided eye contact at that point as he sent the text underneath the table.

Tell me the friend is the guy w/ the braid cuz thats the one i like.
Yeah, he seems pretty cool.

I want to meet these men. Get them on skype asap.

Enjolras looked up then. Grantaire had come to clear his plate. "Do you want another coffee?" he asked with a smile.

"Non, merci." Grantaire's smile grew at the use of French. "Mais je veux continuer notre conversation."

Grantaire pointed at the book, "Tu t'es entrainé." A woman, dressed in the same standard black uniform walked in then. Grantaire waved to her. "Laisse-moi juste demander à Éponine de prendre ma place pour le dix dernières minutes de mon horaire."

Enjolras was visibly confused. "I didn't learn that much."

Grantaire laughed (Enjolras decided that was the only sound he ever wanted to hear again) and held up a finger in waiting as he rushed to Éponine and said something quickly to her. They glanced in Enjolras direction and Éponine laughed and nodded her head.

Grantaire walked back to Enjolras and sat down in the bar stool next to him. "Je suis de retour," he said.

Enjolras grinned broadly. Maybe this vacation would turn out to be a good thing. Grantaire's smile widened in response to Enjolras'.

This vacation was turning out to be a very good thing.

Notes: If you didn't like the way I wrote it with all the French, please tell me in comments or on my tumblr ( .com). Feedback is greatly loved and appreciated.