I like that! However this is the 1800′s and Enjolras is canonically an only child – so I feel it would be less dating and more, ‘You are having intimate relations with someone OUT OF WEDLOCK oh my GOD?! YOU NEED TO BE MARRIED IMMEDIATELY WHAT WOULD THE NEIGHBOURS THINK?!” because Enjolras is from a wealthy family and that sort of thing would be a raging scandal.
And Enjolras would honestly probably roll with it because really, he doesn’t care, it’s just some papers and some vows, it doesn’t change anything, and it’s an excuse to move out of the family home (since a ‘woman’ would be unlikely to be sent to live alone in Paris by her parents)
So it would be more like uncomfortable shot-gun wedding au.
Like, Enjolras would go through a careful process to choose who to ask. Like, most of Les Amis wouldn’t quite be aware of his situation, save for Combeferre and Courfeyrac, but he’d think about telling one of them if necessary.
Process of elimination.
Can’t be Combeferre, because his family probably already have plans for him.
Can’t be Courfeyrac, because Courfeyrac, bless his golden heart, is canonically a bit of a tomcat and it would be deeply unfair to expect him to start hiding his romantic endeavours because he and Enjolras are supposedly happily married and it would be a scandal if Courfeyrac was caught on the arm of some girl from a wineshop.
Jean Prouvaire is also an only child, so again, his parents probably have plans.
Bahorel is just…a good soul, but the idea of him being Enjolras’ ‘type’ would be somewhat too far-fetched for his parents to believe.
Bossuet and Joly both have that thing going with Musichetta and…each other? Enjolras doesn’t want to make it weird.
Feuilly is wonderful and Enjolras would pick him in a heartbeat since he’d play the part very well, but Feuilly is a poor worker, and so his parents would never accept that as a possibility.
Marius is just a definite no.
Which leaves him with Grantaire, who actually, realistically, isn’t such a poor choice. If he can afford to drink himself to sleep every night without having to work himself to death like Feuilly does, then he must have a reasonably respectable background (even if he’s no longer welcome there…) – plus he seems very educated, again, hinting at a not entirely poor upbringing. Plus, cynical as he is, Grantaire is clearly eager to please Enjolras and do anything he can to help him. On top of all this, Grantaire is a man of the world, and certainly has friends from all walks of life and the slums of Paris; there’s no way he wouldn’t have heard about people in Enjolras’ situation, so telling him wouldn’t pose a great risk. He’d probably just shrug it off and be like, ‘Alright’.
And Enjolras would feel bad about taking advantage of…whatever it is Grantaire feels towards him, but, hey, this arrangement would benefit them both since Enjolras is set to inherit after his parents (being their only child) which means Grantaire will get the lion’s share. And besides, there’s the matter of a dowry handed to them both in the form of an allowance every month, so Grantaire could upgrade from his dirty hovel in the rough part of Paris to lodgings with at least a few less rats and leaks and murderous neighbours.
So to keep up the pretence they end up living together, keeping this information from the rest of Les Amis aside from Combeferre and Courfeyrac (since it would surely raise a few eyebrows) and going on as normal at the meetings.
And literally everything goes on as normal and Enjolras thinks that Grantaire’s misery and wallowing and excessive drinking are because he regrets the choice to be legally tied down to someone he clearly cannot stand, since he’s always watching Enjolras from the back of the Musain with these sad, betrayed eyes. And it’s not until the ‘Do you permit it?’ scene that Enjolras realises Grantaire was actually very deeply in love with him.Like five of you said you wanted a happy version so.
Instead of all the bad stuff happening, they form an unlikely team when forced to live together. It turns out they’re more compatible than first thought. When Enjolras is working himself to death well into the night and it’s starting to get light out, Grantaire will come to him in the study with a candle and urge him to go to bed. Grantaire finds himself drinking less because Enjolras’ company is actually quite enjoyable when he’s not in the Musain and fired up on revolution, and so the need to drink himself to sleep is less prominent. Their debates are calmer, since they are at home, and they see eye-to-eye on more things than they originally thought possible.
They have quiet evenings where Enjolras is reading or writing notes and Grantaire sits and sketches, and they’re generally just surprisingly comfortable in each other’s company. Courfeyrac jests that they have settled into the roles almost too well.
Eventually this comfort starts to develop into something more on Enjolras’ part, and then from that other feelings start to emerge (I will die defending Enjolras as demisexual) – Enjolras has seen the way Grantaire looks at him, and though he’s not particularly good at reading people he thinks that even he can recognise what it is the cynic feels for him. He’s just never had the time or inclination to really think on it until now.
So one night he takes a risk. Though they usually have separate bedrooms Enjolras goes to Grantaire’s instead of his own, waiting in the bed in his nightshirt, trying to distract his nerves with a book.
When Grantaire returns that evening from whatever it is that Grantaire likes to do in the day (he has so many varying hobbies he could’ve been anywhere) he is naturally stunned to find Enjolras in his bed. Enjolras, in typical Enjolras fashion, is extremely open and frank about what he feels, and that if Grantaire is so inclined to take him to bed he would be very much in favour of that, but if not, he will of course return to his own bed and they need never bring this up again.
You can probably guess what Grantaire’s response is.
After that, one of the two bedrooms becomes a studio for Grantaire’s painting, since they have no need of it. They become a secret power couple, balancing each other brilliantly. They still bicker at meetings but make up later in each other’s arms. Combeferre and Courfeyrac raise their eyebrows at it but do not say a word, of course, they never would, not on their life.
Joly and Bossuet make jokes about how Grantaire must have found a kind mistress, since he seems more jovial of late. If Enjolras smirks to himself behind his papers at this, whose to know?
And since you wanted a truly happy version; in a totally unrealistic spin, the June rebellion is a success. Enjolras is forced to fade out of his radical politics, since there’s no need for a boy with a bayonet anymore and if he was to be in the public eye there is the great risk of exposure. He writes for papers though, under a pen-name, and his works are popular discourse regarding the political atmosphere. He takes pleasure in that, and is able to have a quieter life than he imagined.
To his parents he is still their daughter, happily wed and oh, what a shame, apparently barren, for there are no children to show for it
(unless you are inclined to believe they might choose otherwise). To Les Amis, he and Grantaire are simply living together as bachelors often do – nothing strange about it at all! And if they all notice there is only one bedroom in their home, well, that’s none of their business.
Imagine CanonEra!Trans Guy Enjolras’ parents ask him why he had men’s clothing in his room so he lied and said “I have a lover and those clothes are his” and then it turns into this Exr fake dating au … yeah
Published
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