I mean, chronologically, that would make Feuilly a bit too old, but what if Valjean’s sister survives and has other children later in life? And she told them about her brother whom she never saw again after he tried to save her from starvation? And Feuilly grows up with these stories, until his mother dies when he’s around five, and he’s sent to an orphanage.
His mother’s stories about injustice and people getting punished for doing the right thing fuel him. Feuilly grows up wanting to change things, so that people won’t have to grow up in poverty like he did.
The night of the barricade, in the midst of a long lull, the calm bfore the storm, he finds himself smoking Combeferre’s pipe next to Valjean, though he doesn’t know his name.
“What makes you want to be here, boy?” Feuilly is hardly a boy. But, perhaps, in the eyes of an old man, he is.
“My mother. My uncle. He was arrested because he stole a loaf of bread to feed my mother and my sister. It was brave of him, and he paid an unfair price for a fair action. I don’t want it to happen ever again.”
Valjean looks at the boy, his heart beating in his chest. He recognises that jaw line. He sees the same in the mirror.
A few hours later, Feuilly’s green eyes have lost their light. That’s one more thing Valjean will blame himself for.
You know what the modern au Les Amis fics need? More Jean Valjean.
Being a politically aware and a diverse group of young people, not all the Amis have great relationships with their own parents. So, well, let’s just say that for a guy who only has one daughter, Jean Valjean gets one heck of a pile of Father’s Day cards every year.
Bahorel challenging Jean to wrestle with him whenever he sees him. Over and over again, and Bahorel always loses but keeps trying and is kind of offended that one time Valjean lets him win on purpose.
Jehan and Jean share a terrible fashion sense, they know it and they are proud of it. They take care of complimenting each other’s outfits and then snicker together when everyone else is irritated.
Jean Valjean once made the terrible mistake of saying something self-derogatory in presence of the Amis. From there on they made it their official mission to let him know that he is a good person. They joke about it, for example Courfeyrac makes vines in which he films Valjean doing something nice and comments sarcastically “Ugh, that Jean Valjean. Here he is baking cookies again. Disgusting” or “I truly hate that Valjean, look at him here planting vegetables with Prouvaire, he’s such an awful human being”.
Valjean once sees Grantaire painting, so he looks over his shoulder and notices that it’s a wonderful portrait. So Jean demands that R paints him a picture of Cosette to put on her wall, you know, what the heck, he should draw ten pictures while he’s at it! Valjean will pay well for each.
Jean Valjean is basically a honorary barricade boy.
Whenever Joly, Bossuet and/or Grantaire are drunk and they don’t know how they will get home, they can always call Valjean and he will find them and drive them home safely without judging them. One night when he was driving the three of them Joly threw up on his backseat (Valjean made them clean it up the next day) and more than once Grantaire has been so drunk that Valjean has taken him home with him and let him sleep it off on his couch.
Jean Valjean will always listen to them. Even thought it’s an acknowledged fact among the Amis that Monsieur Jean is a middle-aged virgin who has never even dated anyone, they somehow always end up telling him about their crushes and heartaches. He’s also a great person to come out to. And after years of practicing with Cosette, his hugs are rare but pretty darn amazing.
Cosette sometimes reminds the other Amis that her papa really isn’t used to being loved or liked by so many people, and that they should try their best to show Valjean how much he means to all of them. They do. Valjean is overwhelmed but happy.
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