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[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

Lesgle and Joly always share everything--except when they don't. And sometimes Lesgle even makes an effort not to share with Joly. (Not always successfully: see, for example, various head-colds and stomach upsets, as well as the Moth Problem of '29 and the Sitting in Unfortunately Melted Chocolate Incident of '31 and the many many instances of spilled beverages and regrettable hangovers.)

But setting that parenthesis aside: sometimes Lesgle makes an effort not to share with Joly, particularly when it comes to bad moods. And what with one thing and another, he can feel one coming on. Actually, no, it's not just a case of "feeling a bad mood coming on."

Lesgle wants to break things, kick things over, and punch things very hard.

In other words, it's a Bahorel mood. So that's where he goes now instead of the Blue Cherub Room.

Comments

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"I never said a word about too much. It's what you say. I--" He's talking over Bahorel, which is always tempting and rarely useful. So Bossuet waits, and leaves a good long silence after all the paper is on the floor.

"Feel any better? No? I just want you to--plan a moment how you talk to Grantaire. To Enjolras." He leans over for the bottle of vile mushroomy whatever-it-is. "And if we all have to spend the next decades--centuries--listening to Grantaire work this into an endless obscure speech about futility and shame and half-a-dozen names picked at random from the Greeks--now with chapter-and-verse citations to prove Enjolras's disdain--don't you dare run out of the room every time for a walk in the forest and leave someone else to listen to it all night and then get sicked up on. It's all very well to break a window-pane and then tear up a street just to see the effect but our friends--"

Oh, God. Is this the future? Forget centuries of Grantaire harangues; is he doomed to eternal bickering with Bahorel?

Laigle lies down carefully on the floor and stares at the ceiling. "I'm becoming a bore. I spent so many years scrupulously avoiding responsibility, and now here I am worrying about my friends' tender spirits."

[clayforthedevil]

It's certainly not as good as a proper blaze for settling the mood, but he does feel a little better. Enough to laugh a little at Lesgle's self assessment. "Yes, what a change; you were so callous before. Famed for it."

"Grantaire, ah..." he laughs again, and reaches for the nearest bottle, "I don't know. Perhaps he'll see the joke of the thing. Perhaps he'll take it all in the worst way. If you've advice to give on how to tell him, I will not argue it; only, if you want me to be the bearer of odd news you must give specifics." He taps Lesgle's shoulder gently with the edge of his boot. " I think you're wrong about it worrying Enjolras, you know. He's not likely to be thrown in knowing that our cause reached people years or worlds away. But then I hardly expected you to be so rattled by it; and yet here you are, an opium-pipe away from a proper dramatic collapse."

He's not trying to be provocative, now. He is trying to understand, and his voice, despite his own earlier insistence, is gentle. "Come, now, patience with a slow learner; what's troubling you, really?" About this, or about whatever-it-was that had Bossuet storming into his rooms earlier.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"Do you have an opium-pipe?" Lesgle lifts his head and looks around. "No?" Sigh. He wonders if it's one of the things the Bar doesn't provide: it might be.

"Well, as to what troubles me with this, I...give me some time. Let me read the rest of the book, or at least the relevant portions? I present myself as an example to you, Bahorel, of how even a steady man with hardly any propriety or modesty might be bowled over by your news, whether or not you think he ought to be. I'll do my reading, I'll talk to Joly, but for Grantaire, for the others--"

There's a scratching at the door, and two papers slid underneath. Lesgle rolls himself over two or three times rather than stand up, and reads the notes. "Combeferre is here--come to Enjolras's room in two or three hours--no--come to Joly and Bossuet's room at once."

Well. This is enough to make him sit up, stand up, and even abandon his bottle(s) of drink.