Stef's birthday

The first time Enjolras sees Grantaire, he falls on his ass.

If you'd ask him about it, he could furnish a fair list of excuses in his defense, ranging from the customary, "Some idiot had spilled beer on the floor and I slipped, okay?" to the visionary, "He was dressed in fucking toilet paper and I got distracted, stop bullying me!" none of which quite flew by the pesky group of people he was unfortunate enough to call his friends, who were quite certain he literally fell for Grantaire.

Regardless, the first time Enjolras lays his electric blue eyes on Grantaire it was ironically, on his least favourite night of the year, ('fucking overhyped Halloween,' as he likes to call it) at his least favourite thing in the world, a party.

Breaking his way through the plethora of drunk people clad in horrific attires swaying their sweaty bodies to crap music, he sighed in exasperation. Desperate eyes frantically sauntered around the dimly lit room, searching for one Stefanie, when instead they found the hazel ones of a man literally wrapped in toilet paper approaching him and he fell. On his butt. Right in the middle of the dance floor surrounded by the dumb kids. And to confirm his stories, yes there was beer on the floor.

It wasn't until the toilet paper man drew closer and stretched his hand out to help him on his feet, did Enjolras notice just how gorgeous he really was. He wouldn't mind unwrapping the toilet paper off him, if you know what he means. "Way to make a great first impression, mate", Sam had laughed later.

The first words Grantaire ever said to Enjolras as he held his hand and helped him up, were, "Hey, do you want to wipe your ass? I have toilet paper", and he swears on his motherland France, he had never quite felt that infatuated in his life.

"Are you supposed to be dressed as a mummy?" Enjolras asked later, when Grantaire toom him for a drink by the snack bar, as he swayed his legs against the counter earning a few ugly stares from the bartender. "No thats lame. I'm just supposed to be a roll of toilet paper, helping people wipe their ass", he shrugged.

"And that's not lame?" Enjolras rolled his eyes, a small cackle twitching at the corner of his lips, inspite of himself.

"Who're you to judge me? What are YOU supposed to be dressed as?" queried Grantaire as he eyed his plain black hoodie and faded jeans, looking completely out of place amongst the dumb kids in stupid costumes.

"I'm dressed as myself", scoffed Enjolras, tugging at the collar of his hoodie. "Plain, awesome, marvellous me." But one look at Grantaire's contorted eyebrow and the half-paused smile on his lips was enough to say he wasn't buying it. And like the emotionally naïve and hopeless nutcracker that he was, he decides it's a good idea to spill everything going on his mind to the random cute dude dressed as a toilet paper roll who offered him a drink.

"It's all Stef's fault, really!" whined Enjolras, while on his third beer as Grantaire watched him with his elbow on the counter, chin buried in his palm. "She knows I hate parties and I especially hate Halloween but she had to drag me along to this dumb rager and then abandon me. What kind of friend does that?"

"The worst kind", nodded Grantaire, raising his glass.

"She keeps insisting she's friends with the guy who threw this party. Ugh, stupid party people. What kind of dumbasses has she been befriending lately? We all know she only came here to piss Nina off."

Grantaire didn't ask but that didn't stop Enjolras from filling him in about his best friend Stef and her girlfriend Nina who had a fight because Stef refused to go trick or treating in a horror house like Nina wanted to. In the end, she decided to go to the Halloween party and drag Enjolras along. She even put on a sexy cat costume.

By the tenth drink, Grantaire had le2arned all about Enjolras' social life including his staunch loathing for parties, his lack of love life, how Kisa is engaged and how Sam is a dumb bitch who won't admit to Hiba that she likes her and how much Nina and Stef annoy him, his smirk growing with each passing minute.

"Why am I the only one talking? Tell me something about yourself", Enjolras finally says, putting his glass down but before he could hear the hot toilet paper dude's response, he was interrupted by an all too familiar voice.

"There you are!" gasped a wild Stefanie, materialising beside him with her arms laced around - you guessed it - Nina, dressed as a bottle of coke. "I've been looking for you all over."

"Why is Nina here? When did you guys make up?" Enjolras wanted to know, eyebrows contorting in confusion as Sam and Hiba showed up right after dressed as a spoon and a fork.

"What do you know man, I'm a charmer", shrugged Nina, clinging onto Stefanie's arm. "And I can't stay more than a few hours without talking to Stef."

"Aw you really are a charmer", giggled Stef, kissing her girlfriend's cheek, ignoring Enjolras' annoyed scoff and Sam rolling her eyes coughing, "You guys are gross. When will you stop?"

"When you'll tell Hiba you're in love with her", responded Nina, dryly, receiving a blow in the rib by Stef as Hiba's eyes widened in surprise. "Ouch, slip of tongue."

"Haha very funny", laughed Sam, nervously, subtly giving Nina the evil eye. "By the way, great party Grantaire!"

"Wait what?" spilled Enjolras, turning towards Grantaire in surprise. "You what?"

"Oh you've met Grantaire already", chimed Stef. "I've been meaning to introduce you guys. He's the host of this party."

"Oh fuck", was all Enjolras said, finally dawning upon him that he'd been talking shit about parties to the very host of the party. Realisation settled in as embarrassment clouded him. "You -"

"-are the dumbass who hosted this shitty party, you got it", smirked Grantaire, winking at him.

"Speaking of which, it's my birthday tomorrow", announces Stef. "And we're not having any parties, in case anyone's about to throw me one."

"We were actually going to take you to watch this musical -" started Sam, but was interrupted with a kick in the shin by Nina who shrieked, "That was supposed to be a surprise!"

"That's what you get for exposing me", shrugged Sam.

A diversion created by Kisa showing up to the party hand in hand with her fiancé dressed as a greek god and goddess stopped Nina and Sam from breaking each other's neck as the four dispersed into the crowd to run after Kisa, leaving Enjolras and Grantaire alone.

"So this party's lame, huh?" smirked Grantaire.

"Very lame", commented Troye, the kid from his art class as he passed by the bar.

"It's actually not that bad", squeaked Enjolras, playing with his fingernails as his cheeks darkened. "Not as bad as I thought."

"You know you're lying."

"I'm not", protested Enjolras. "If I'd known earlier that the party host would listen to me rant and show up dressed as a toilet paper roll, I would totally be willing to come here."

"That's convincing", laughed Grantaire in response. Enjolras couldn't help notice how pretty his laugh was.

"So would you meet me sometime? Sometime other than Halloween? Somewhere other than a party? Like maybe a date", asked Grantaire, nervously, chewing at his lower lip.

Enjolras beamed in ecstasy. "Hmm, can I show up dressed as a tissue paper though?"

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