Fandom: Les Miserables
Characters: Bahorel, Jehan, Grantaire, Enjolras, Feuilly
Pairing: Bahorel/Jehan
Rating: PG
Word count: c.850
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.
A/N: A gift fic for Kii's birthday! <3
***
The first thing that Jehan notices about Bahorel is how neither the black eye nor the split lip can keep the wide smile off his face. Bahorel shakes his hand, ignoring the exasperated, but not surprised, look that Combeferre gives him when he sees his injuries. "Prouvaire, right? Enjolras mentioned he was dragging you to one of our meetings. I'm Bahorel."
"Just call me Jehan." He blushes when he hears Enjolras' indignant protest at Bahorel's implication. "Enjolras didn't need to drag me here, I was happy to come."
Bahorel grins and leans in to speak in Jehan's ear. "We all are. But it's fun to tease him."
Courfeyrac sweeps him away for introductions with all the others after that, but sometimes Bahorel will catch his eye from across the room and give him a slow smile that makes Jehan blush even more.
⇐~~~⇒
Jehan fits in with them all from the very start. It's not hard for Bahorel to see why -- he has Enjolras' passion, Combeferre's gentleness, Feuilly's generosity. He's shy and soft spoken, but underneath the blushes he has a spine of steel, and Bahorel can't seem to look away. It's not like with Enjolras, who draws eyes towards him wherever he goes like a beacon; Jehan is more subdued, but Bahorel's eyes seem to wander to him anyway, unintentional but frequent all the same.
He likes the way Jehan's cheeks flush a little when their eyes meet almost without fail, but he doesn't look away.
⇐~~~⇒
Their meetings are always at the Cafe Musain, but sometimes Jehan joins Bahorel and Grantaire and Feuilly afterwards for drinks, and for a while he's amazed at how Bahorel seems to know everyone. It doesn't matter that they're in a different place each time; Bahorel still knows every bartender by name and innumerable others call out to him or come up to chat for a few minutes throughout the night.
"It's because this is what he does when he's avoiding class, which is all the time," Grantaire tells Jehan, mock-confidingly, grinning and dodging when Bahorel tries to punch him in the arm.
"For someone who spends so much time avoiding the law school, you're friends with an awful lot of students there," Feuilly chips in, and Bahorel gives Jehan a wink.
⇐~~~⇒
Bahorel is admittedly not the most subtle person - Grantaire catches him watching Jehan more than once, when he's settling a debate or scribbling lines of poetry on whatever is available, and Bahorel's wondering what his hips would feel like under his hands, if Jehan would bite if he kissed him hard.
"Try not to start a fire or anything," Grantaire says dryly, because Jehan's noticed him staring and is staring right back.
"Shut up," Bahorel says, because it's not like Grantaire can talk, with the way he and Enjolras carry on, but it's almost an absentminded protest, an afterthought. He's still fixated on the curl of Jehan's hair at the nape of his neck, the light freckles on his skin, and the way he refuses to tear his gaze away from Bahorel's first.
⇐~~~⇒
He likes Bahorel's hands -- broad palms and calloused fingers, knuckles almost perpetually bruised. They rest lightly on Jehan's knees, who is sitting in front of him, cleaning the cuts on Bahorel's face from the latest brawl he's jumped into, ready and eager.
"Shouldn't Joly be doing this? Or Combeferre?"
"You're not as fussy," Bahorel says, eyes twinkling. "I might get away without a lecture."
Jehan opens his mouth to disagree, but then Bahorel is moving his hand aside and leaning in to kiss him, and Jehan finds he has no objections at all.
⇐~~~⇒
Jehan may be shy and Bahorel almost too bold, but neither are a restrained kind of person. They're more compatible than one might think at first glance, but they have their own share of arguments. Jehan is tall and Bahorel is even bigger, but Jehan can hold his own, and that's exactly his point.
"I'm not weak, Bahorel," Jehan snaps.
"I know."
"But you still try and shield me when things get messy, standing in front of me like I'm--" Jehan stops abruptly, frustrated. "You can joke all you want, but I'm just as capable of you, and I want you to remember that."
For once, Bahorel isn't smiling as he takes Jehan's hand, just open and sincere. "I couldn't forget it."
⇐~~~⇒
Bahorel leaves bruises on his hips, and marks that Jehan's fingers wander to automatically, remembering how Bahorel pressed his fingers and his lips to his skin the night before, and his face heats when Enjolras notices the red marks that Bahorel has smugly left on his neck.
Enjolras' lips just curve into a smile, almost sly. "Bahorel looks pleased."
He tilts his head towards Bahorel, where he's sitting across the cafe. He's completely oblivious to the conversation that Courfeyrac and Bossuet are having around him, eyes just on Jehan -- grinning like a shark, but with warmth in his eyes, and Jehan blushes more at the look Bahorel is giving him and Enjolras' amusement, but can't help smiling in return.