If Grantaire fainted at the sight of blood, what do you think he would be feeling when he sees his friends in pools of blood, or even Enjolras standing there with a group of guardsmen around him?

yitzhaks:

i think about this a loT ACTUALLY

see, he wakes up and he can smell it before anything else. that terrible thick iron scent filling his nose and mouth, and he knows exactly what has happened, and god, the last thing in the world that he wants to do is open his eyes, but he does anyways, because he knows that he has no other choice. 

and he sees his friends — just a couple, those who managed to get into the cafe — broken on the floor, crimson-soaked, and it’s more blood than he’s ever seen at once before, and the same grey dizziness as always begins to swarm through his skull, now matched by a plummeting sickness in his stomach, because he can see joly and combeferre and courfeyrac’s faces, and he knows that they aren’t breathing. 

and he could give up there — he could let himself fall beside them; he’s far gone enough that he knows he wouldn’t feel the impact of hitting the ground. but instead, trembling, he looks up. 

and across the room is enjolras, and he is untouched — red, as always, but not with blood. his eyes are bright and steady as they meet grantaire’s, and they pierce him, right through his head and his heart, electrifying him with just enough silver lightening to hold the faintness at bay, to bring him to his feet, even. 

and of course he’s shaking as he crosses the room, but he holds onto the brightness of consciousness, and he knows that he won’t have to force himself for too long, anyways. 

he says something. something like i am one of them, or they are mine, or i am theirs. his lips are numb; he can barely feel the words upon them.

he reaches enjolras’s side and scarcely manages to get out a desperate request before enjolras’s fingers are twining with his, holding him steady, filling his tingling cold skin with a strong, gentle warmth. 

he sees enjolras begin to smile. he knows he’s done enough, and the dizziness is closing in on him. 

his knees start to buckle, then, and the bullet pierces him before he can hit the ground. 

he doesn’t feel the pain.