1The Misadventures of the Two Who Traveled through Tales 2 (Les Mis Edition)
A/N: This is a re-post,...There were a few plotholes which we have fixed.
This is also very different from the first one I posted so if you guys have read that one I think you'd enjoy this one as well
Disclaimer: we don't own Les Mis or any of it's awesome characters, we only own Julian and Anne. And anyway, do either of us look like Victor Hugo to you?
hope you guys enjoy this:)
Chapter 1: New Friends or New Enemies?
"We're here," a cloaked figure said, his companion's arm draped over his slight shoulders. With his face hidden in shadows and soft voice, it was nigh on impossible to discern any age or gender.
His companion, on the other hand, was unmistakably female, her clothing offering no hindrances in identifying otherwise. She grimaced, leaning even more on her friend's small frame, easing her weight off her left ankle. "Just as well," she said, slightly annoyed, no doubt due to her untimely injury. "I don't think I can handle strolling around Paris at the moment," she added.
The other mysterious person grunted. "You know very well I'm completely opposed to this idea, however necessary it is."
The young girl chuckled lightly, obviously amused at her companion's annoyance. "Well, it's not like you have a choice," she told him.
He grumbled under his breath. "Fine, fine. You win," he told her before pushing the door open.
"Vive la France!" Enjolras bellowed, raising a fist in the air. His comrades roared in reply, echoing their leader's words in powerful cry.
He leaped down from the table he was standing on, receiving praise and claps on the back from his friends, accepting their encouragements and complements with his regular stoic face. He merely nodded his head at them in acknowledgement, weaving his way through the crowd to his usual place at the back of the room. It was only when he had seated himself with his numerous books and papers that he felt he was not alone.
He stiffened, immediately on his guard. The police had not caught him, or his fellow rebels yet, but after a year, it was only a matter of time. Discretely, he turned in his chair, scanning the room for any unfamiliar faces...
...only to meet the dark brown eyes of a young girl.
He jerked in his seat, obviously shocked at this, but relaxed visibly. At least it wasn't a gendarme.
But what was a girl like her doing at these meetings?
The thought crossed his mind only a moment after catching sight of the odd young lady. Yes, there was Éponine and those mistresses of Courfeyac that he would sometimes bring with him, but as a general rule, no women were allowed into the back room of the Musain. It was simply not done!
And, quite frankly, Enjolras did not have that good an opinion of women. Especially the women of his class. Being a bourgeois himself, as soon as he had turned eighteen, his parents had repeatedly forced other ladies of his class on him, trying in vain to do away with his radical ideas. Unfortunately for them, these actions only served to heighten his ideals and lessen his already low opinion of his class. Needless to say, only a few choice females had gained his respect ever since that time, a fact that was severely perverse to his own statement that all people, men or women, were equal.
He held the young lady's gaze for only a few minutes more before averting his stare. Out of the corner of his eye, he could have sworn that he had seen the girl smirk.
He turned to his work, hoping that the young woman would go away soon after her curiosity was satisfied. To his aggravation, she did not leave. Even worse for him, the others were starting to notice her, and the mysterious cloaked stranger who had suddenly appeared by her side.
After another ten minutes of the girl's incredibly distracting presence, and his friends' murmured comments, he finally resolved to do something about it. And fast. Before the situation could get out of hand.
He got up from the table abruptly, startling all those near him, and menacingly stalked over to the seats the two peculiar people were occupying, hoping to frighten them away so as not to have to deal with the situation.
Disappointingly, they did no such thing. The young woman was leaning forward over the table, looking bored and very drowsy. Her companion, on the other hand, was leaning against the back of his chair, his legs crossed and seemingly without a care. He was twirling what appeared to be a pen in his right hand.
He stood imperiously-for there was no other way to describe it-over the two. The young lady looked up, a spark of interest lighting up in her bright brown eyes. Her odd friend seemed to carry on with what he was doing, not minding the new addition to the small party, but the slight shift in his position said otherwise.
Enjolras cleared his throat, before asking.
"Mademoiselle, considering you are currently within the premises of a private meeting, may I be so polite as to inquire your name?" he said stiffly. The young woman grinned up at him, laughter glinting in her expression. It was quite unsettling.
"Yes Monsieur Enjolras, you may. In most circles one would refer to me as Mademoiselle Julian, but to you and the rest of the Amis, you can just call me Julian," she said, a large smile on her face. Enjolras, though, was not amused in the slightest, stumbling back in his evident shock. How in the name of PATRIA did this girl know both his and his group's names. She couldn't possibly be a spy. Could she?
Seeing his pale face, the girl's companion threw away all semblance of carelessness, leaning forward to whack her head lightly with his hand.
"I told you to be careful," he hissed before leaning back again, appearing to pinch the bridge of his nose with his free hand. It was hard to be sure, what with the cowl of his cloak and whatnot.
The girl-Julian-merely rolled her eyes in response. She was about to retort when Combeferre, who had snuck up on the scene when Enjolras wasn't taking notice, interrupted her, addressing her friend.
"And what of you Mademoiselle? What is yours?" he asked. To be honest, he was only guessing when he said mademoiselle. It was almost impossible to tell the gender of the other person, seeing as he was covered from head to toe, and his voice was too soft to be able to tell. It seemed a safe bet, though, seeing as his, sorry, her, companion was a girl.
Obviously, Julian's companion wasn't expecting such a question. Her head flew up, revealing an unmistakably feminine face, her unnervingly black eyes appearing a blood-like red in the candlelight. The edges of her mouth turned up in a small smirk.
"You could tell, Monsieur?" she asked, a dark humor tinging her words. "It seems, then, I have to find a new disguise. Being a woman in this world of men is not safe at all. Especially those as young as us," she said, her expression appearing to be amusedly resigned.
Enjolras looked at her in slight confusion. "Why would you need to hide yourself from the world, mademoiselle? And one of men, nonetheless. We are all equal here, especially in the eyes of the Law. Man, woman, and child. There is no need for distinction among genders or ages. Just because you are of a different sex does not mean that you are lower than the other. Surely you can see that we men will still acknowledge and respect your rights, be you male, female or children. That is what we, the Amis, stand for," he exclaimed heatedly, a righteous fire burning in his eyes. A resounding cheer came from the Amis behind him, who had gathered around the peculiar party at the sound of their leader's voice. They seemed impressed at the young man's words, but the two girls, to whom they were directed at, were not.
"You say that, monsieur, but you do not mean it," the yet unknown young lady retorted smoothly, like she was but telling them the time of day, as she menacingly rose from her chair, her mottled cloak making her form shimmer in and out of focus. "I could see it in your face and hear it in the tone of your voice. You may think you're an egalitarian. Who knows, you may even 'be' an egalitarian, but you obviously have a very low opinion on women. Look at the room!" she made a sweeping gesture with her hand. "Do you see any women in here, because I only see one, as well as one child. You may have ideals on equality Monsieur, but I find it is more convenient to do away with any unjust prejudices before lecturing others about their own," she hissed in a voice steeped in venom, the slightly malicious smirk still on her face.
Taken aback and angered by the girl's blunt reproval, Enjolras face suddenly turned stormy, his icy blue eyes glaring at the two. But they did not balk at him. Rather, they seemed to stand up even staighter. "Out," he growled, his hands at his sides in a vain attempt to control his profound annoyance.
"Pardon?!" Julian exclaimed in surprise. She knew her friend had an uncanny ability to aggravate practically anyone-generally male-she came across, but wasn't this reaction a bit much for a few flippant comments?
"Out. Now." he said, more loudly this time, flinging his arm out to point at the door of the much too small room. Julian look mildly disturbed at this, but the other girl had a large, frightening, grin on her face.
"As you decree, Monsieur," she retorted, bowing mockingly. "But Julian must stay here for a while longer. I fear she has done herself an injury and cannot be moved at the moment. I, on the other hand, shall be off." Sure enough, she turned towards the door walking contemptously-if that were even possible-towards it. "I'm afraid I must find a place to stay for my friend and I. As I mentioned before, it is not safe for us to-"
All the Amis were stunned to silence as they watched the young woman fall to her knees, letting out a bloodcurdling cry of pain. Her eyes flew wide and she arced her back, bending her body to unnatural lengths. Julian let loose a barrage of shockingly unladylike words as she tried to maneuver her way out of the chair, but to no avail. All she could do was look in horror as her friend writhed on the ground in unmistakable agony.
It was Joly who reacted the fastest among them. He darted forward, pushing his way through the throngs of students. Combeferre, as the only other medical student there, quickly followed suit. They approached her, swift but cautious. They were but ten feet away before they were stopped by a pair of haunted midnight black eyes.
"Come no closer," she snarled through gritted teeth. There was a faint feral air surrounding her that made all the others back away in fear. But there was something in her eyes. Vulnerability, pain, grief, and...fear? The two seemed to hesitate for a bit, but they pushed on. Until they were stopped by a pair of long, feminine hands.
Julian, limping slightly and leaning on the two for support, walked forward to her friend. Once she passed the two, she kept a hand on the wall to steady herself. The rest of the Amis observed that she was favoring her right to her left, which was wrapped in an expertly-done makeshift bandage. Standing up, her outfit was easier to see as well. Unlike the ladies of the students' restrictive pris-ahem-class, instead of wearing a dress, she had on a pair of dark grey breeches and a leaf-green tunic. Her straight, long, light brown hair was down and draped across her back like a curtain.
Reaching her friend, she knelt down, putting pressure only on her right leg. She stared at her companion for a long moment before letting loose a very unladylike curse.
"Damn it Anne! I though Malcolm said it was healed already," she exclaimed. Anne looked up at her, an unreadable expression appearing on her face.
"Malcolm said nothing of the sort. He said that if it doesn't pain me for one year, then it was probably healed. It's only been seven months, and if it did reach twelve of them, it would only probably have been healed."
Julian shook her head in exasperation. "What am I going to do with you," she asked, sighing.
"Nothing," Anne grinned. "That's exactly the point." the Amis watched in amazement as she rose to her feet, dragging Julian up with her as if she hadn't just collapsed in pain a few moments ago. Julian slapped her friend's hand away as Anne tried to support her, for she was leaning on her side to take her weight off of her left foot. Anne just rolled her eyes and helped her anyway, leading her back to her seat. She herself made to go back to the door, until she was stopped by a rather frantic Combeferre.
"Stop," he said, pushing his glasses back up his nose with one hand, the other held up before him, as if to ward her off. "You can't possibly be debating roaming the streets, AT NIGHT, WITH AN INJURY, can you?"
Anne huffed. "Of course I am. Why do you think I was moving towards the door? Anyway, your leader does not want me here, so it would be best for us all if leave before things can get out of hand." She made towards the door again, but was stopped, to everyone's surprise, including his own, by Enjolras himself.
"Stay mademoiselle," he said in a tone that offered no argument. "You are in no state to walk out of that door. We will arrange something for both you and Mademoiselle Julian, but for now, sit."
Anne raised an eyebrow at him, but obediently took her seat again. Enjolras turned away from them, slumped slightly, as if tired, and gestured for all of the Les Amis de l'ABC to gather around him. They moved farther into the room, out of the earshot of the two young women.
"What do you propose we do?" Enjolras asked them once they were far away from the two. He looked behind him. They were whispering to each other, but about what, he was not sure. There weren't any tell-tale glances that implied that they were talking about him or any of the Amis. On the other hand, they could just be hiding it. His attention suddenly snapped back to his friends as Joly had started talking.
"... not an ordinary wound, I think. If it was, it wouldn't have caused her that much pain, and I'm quite sure Mademoiselle Julian's ankle is either sprained or broken. I say we let them lodge with one of us for the time being," he finished? Courfeyac shrugged at this.
"Well, they could always stay with me. I should have enough room if I clear away a few things...," he started to say, but Feuilly quickly cut in.
"Couldn't we just find an inn for them and pay for the room? It would save us a lot of trouble and rumors. They would be safe and their virtue would be intact. We could visit them everyday to see how they are. They seem to be able to take care of themselves fine." The other Amis seemed to dwell a bit on his suggestion, but Jehan quickly jumped to the girls' aid.
"But remember. All of you. These two are women. No matter how they dress or bear themselves, they will always be women. It would be both unsafe and hazardous to their health if we leave them alone in a strange place while they're injured. Gallantry indeed!" he said with a certain huff to his tone of voice. This time, it was Éponine, the only other female in the room, who interceded, letting out a slight snort of derision.
"Just becuse we are of a different gender does not mean we are weaker than you Monsieur. We women do have the ability to defend ourselves on our own. Those two seem especially capable. I don't know if you noticed, but that Anne was twirling a throwing knife in her hand a few minutes back. I'm quite sure they can handle themselves," she said, a bit of pride mixing in with her voice. The other Amis stared at her in astonishment. Just a few weeks ago, when the young gamine first joined them, she could only speak in broken syntax, her speech mixed with incomprehensible argot. Now, she was rattling off these long, complex sentences in perfectgrammar. These lessons with Enjolras after meetings really paid off, she thought, as the other school boys gaped at her. She could get used to this much attention.
Enjolras cleared his throat, and they all turned their attention back to him. He stared at all of them before continuing.
"Now that you're all finished oogling over Mademoiselle Éponine's words, could we perhaps return to what we are supposed to be discussing?" They all nodded their heads. "Good. Have you decided what to do with the two mademoiselles?" They nodded again. He raised an eyebrow, much like how Anne did only a few moments ago.
"Well. What are you lot waiting for then? Go tell them."
A/N: so what did you guys Think? Please R&R!