"You have got to be kidding me," Enjolras grumbled, putting his head in his hands. "Why is this meeting just you, me and Grantaire? Where the hell is everyone?" Marius shrugged and returned to the book in front of him.
"Oh, I'm not here. Just grabbing a bottle or two," Grantaire said, a mischievous smirk stretched across his lips. Enjolras looked up from his hands, narrowing his eyes.
"What on earth is more important than this meeting? Than the revolution?"
"Don't look at me, I'm just meeting up with the others." Enjolras's eyebrows furrowed deeper in confusion. After a few moments of staring at the drunk who was looking for a bottle of wine, he grabbed his red jacket and stood.
"Then I suppose I'll have to go with you to knock some sense into our friends." A smirk spread across Grantaire's lips, knowing the leader was going to love why they were all skipping the meeting. "Lead the way." He took a deep swig from the bottle, the smirk still spread across his face.
"Of course, right this way, monsieur." The two walked down the dark Parisian streets, further and further from the Café Musain. The blonde's head whirled thinking of what best to say to his friends. Very rarely would they miss a meeting, and now, they were all skipping. Grantaire held the door for him to enter an unassuming building, it very quickly turned out to be anything but. The second they entered, music and chatter filled the small entryway that then opened up to hundreds of seats facing a stage. The dim lighting of the audience made the red lights and spotlights on the stage stand out. The air had an overwhelming stench of alcohol, smoke, and cheap perfume. Enjolras let out a defeated sigh. Out of all of the places the men could have ended up, the blonde didn't expect that he would need to drag the entirety of Les Amis de l'ABC out of a cabaret.
"Please tell me this is a joke," Enjolras whispered to Grantaire as he followed the man up a back staircase, searching for his friends. Before he could get a response, he saw all of them sitting at the front of the balcony, staring at the stage, mouths ajar. He rolled his eyes, not being able to understand how easily they could be distracted. They had meetings every night for months and they entirely forgot when they saw some girl on stage. How could they let themselves become distracted from the real goal; Patria? That's what his life had become and yet the people who swore to fight beside him were sitting in a cabaret looking as if they were all in some sort of trance. As if nothing, not even the revolution, mattered except for a girl.
"I have returned. Unfortunately, I don't think we're going to be able to stay for long," Grantaire announced, causing all of the men to look at their leader. The drunk sat down in the empty seat he sat in earlier and stared at the stage shamelessly, ignoring the man in red.
"What are you all thinking? Skipping a meeting for a cabaret?" A storm brewed in his ocean-blue eyes as he looked at each of the men before him.
"Enjolras, you don't understand-" Before Courfeyrac could finish, the blonde cut him off.
"I don't understand? What I don't understand is why some girl on a stage can distract you from the revolution!" The music started to play, but he ignored it. All of the men he was scolding, however, did not. All of their heads snapped to the stage as if their lives depended on it. As if they couldn't bear the thought of missing a single word from the woman's mouth. "This is exactly what I'm talking about!" This singer was able to get the men's attention more than Enjolras and that made his blood boil. She stood on a stage for a living while he was fighting for a better France. Why on earth were they so captured by her? What would make them turn their attention away from him to her? That was his mistake. Trying to find reason in a situation that seemed absurd. Because little did he know, their reason would soon become his own.
When his blue eyes shot to the stage, the furrow on his brow melted away as if it were never there. Something like a gasp escaped his lips, but he didn't do so intentionally. It was as if all of the air in his lungs was ripped from his body. This was entirely foreign to the man made of marble. He never was able to look away from his Patria long enough to find a woman attractive and yet he was agog. So what happened to him? He was expected to be strong but one look at her and he was crumbling.
Even though he couldn't deny that she was beautiful, it wasn't her beauty that struck him; it was those sapphire eyes of hers. He was on the balcony and she was on the stage, but when she looked in his direction, he felt as if she saw through him. As if the marble exterior he spent years shaping shattered along with his composure.
Looking at her sapphire eyes, he had the unconscious thought that he could spend the rest of his life looking into them and never grow tired of it. He tried to push away the thought, but then she began to sing and he was back at square one. Her voice was smooth as honey and sounded as if an angel had come down to earth. Her voice felt like sitting in a field on a warm summer day with your eyes closed, basking in the sunlight. Even though the room was full of hundreds of other men, all just as taken as he was, it still felt as if she were singing to him and him alone. He knew in reality, she couldn't even see him up this high due to the lights, but he still felt as if it was just the two of them.
He was so taken with her, that he didn't notice Grantaire stand and make his way over. Only when the drunk clapped a hand on the shoulder of his red coat was Enjolras able to snap out of the trance he had been in. He stared at his shoes as if fearing if he looked in her direction again he wouldn't be able to look away.
"Even our Enjolras who only has eyes for his Patria can't look away!" Grantaire laughed, but none of the other men joined in, too distracted by the angel impersonating a human on the stage. The leader clenched his jaw and forced his marble exterior to harden.
"Come on, all of you. We have a meeting to attend." The only thing that was strong enough to free them from the hypnotism they were under was the glare from their leader. They all hesitantly grabbed their coats and slowly started from the balcony, refusing to look away from the stage. The leader stood at the top of the stairs, making sure they all went down before making the mistake of looking at the stage one last time. Even though he had already seen her, he knew what to expect, his breath was still ripped from him. He shook his head, trying to shake all thoughts of those sapphire eyes from his mind. And yet, he knew it wouldn't be that simple. There would be no forgetting those eyes.
YOU ARE READING
Smoke Screens
Fanfiction"How am I supposed to die at the barricades when I see my future in your eyes?" Love had never been in the cards for Enjolras. He could never take his eyes away from his beloved Patria for long enough to notice women around him. At least, that was...
