Miserable Rouge! - A Les Mis AU

No Sympathy for the Duke

Montparnasse dragged his feet to the office. He knew this meeting couldn't last too much longer.

"So, that boy, Grantaire is certainly something," Thenardier said slowly.

"I know, when his mother showed up and told me he needed a job, that's what she said," Montparnasse said, rubbing his forehead. His mind was already trying to explain what happened to Jehan. It wasn't going well.

Thenardier looked at a poster on the wall of Samantha Barks. "That's a famous singer, isn't it? If I recall, she doesn't sing to my taste."

"It's Brittany, jerk," was the distracted response as Montparnasse shuffled papers around on his desk. He had met her once, and precede to forget the meeting altogether.

"So, to convert the Moulin Rouge to a theatre, I would need a contract that binds Grantaire to me so he'll be my employee--you understand, as payment," Thenardier explained. "I will have dinner with him tomorrow to get him used to me."

"Why?" Montparnasse asked suspiciously.

"It's not that I have a problem--" Thenardier's voice began to rise significantly "I just don't like other people touching my stuff! Don't you understand that?"

"That still isn't answering my question," Montparnasse grumbled. He had enough of people for the day.

"Montparnasse, it's not personal--" Thenardier began to say, but Montparnasse was done with this garbage.

"My spouse is going to want a divorce because I haven't been able to be a husband to them for weeks!" He shouted.

Thenardier rolled his eyes. "Wow."

"My spouse is going to want a divorce and it's your fault!" Montparnasse got up, paced a while, then sat back down. "Where were we, dear Duke?" He was actually thinking, I hate your face and I want to smash it.

"I would also need the deeds to this establishment, just to keep them safe, you know, and if anything goes awry, my bodyguards will take care of it in the only language your bohemians will understand," Thenardier said with a disturbing grin on his face.

Montparnasse groaned, digging through his desk and muttering, "I tried earlier to talk to you and be your friend, but that's like trying to be friends with an evil snail." He produced the papers and signed them, throwing them in a cloud of processed tree.

Thenardier nodded, picked them off the ground, and began making his way out. Montparnasse stood in their doorway, calling after him, "Just remember, you took a life today. The life of the party." He slammed the door and hurried to his apartment, praying for Jehan to still be there.