#aro!enjolras

(For the "Tell me about an idea of a fic you will never finish writing" tag game).

Enjolras is a superhero/vigilante. His only problem? His arch-nemesis, his supervillain, is not interested in anything as mundane as taking over the world. No. He wants a date. Enjolras is extremely done with it. I am not sure how to finish it, which is why I have never gotten past the premise, but maybe R realizes that the way into his love's heart is not to threaten civilians if he doesn't agree to a date, it's to kidnap/threaten politicians into passing good laws.

An extract from it because it made @pumpkinspice-prouvaire laugh out loud and that's my proudest achievement in life.

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The parade was passing through and Enjolras felt like he was missing something. He wasn't as decked out as his friends; no flag around his back or flower crown in his hair, but he had his shirt off to show his top surgery scars, a "he/him" pin on his lanyard that showed information for Les Amis de l'ABC, and Courfeyrac talked him into wearing a stack of rainbow and trans flag bracelets along his arm. Yet in the place he felt the most at home - being himself with his friends - something wasn't in place.

Enjolras began perusing the stalls and stands that different groups had set up. He had made sure to keep a stack of paper money with him for donations, giving them out to community and local organizations. Les Amis had a stall set up at the Café, but they were all taking turns manning the stall versus enjoying the festivities.

As Enjolras continued walking, a stall caught his eye. The stand had a few flags hanging on it with different shades of purple, green, grey, white, and black. Enjolras recognized the purple ones as the asexual flag, but the green flag caught his eye. He steadied himself and walked over to the stall.

The stall was being operated by two college-age kids, someone who looked to be in their mid-thirties, and an older man with a thick beard. When Enjolras stopped, the man stood up and gave him a smile.

"Hey son," the man said, looking at Enjolras' pin. "What can I help you with? Flags? Pins? Maybe a few zines by these lovely people behind me?"

Enjolras looked around the stall and his eyes fell on the green flags again. "What do the green flags mean?" he asked. "I know the purple is for asexuality, but I don't recognize the green one." He felt his face flush as he asked the question. Enjolras liked to think he was in the loop of all things queer; his friends had so many labels and have taught him so much more than his conservative family taught him, but admittedly he was more aware of political theory than identities.

"Oh!" the man said, smile widening. "It's the aromantic flag." Upon seeing Enjolras' slight look of unrecognition, the man continued. "It means they don't experience romantic attraction. Some people are just aromantic and never experience romantic attraction, some use the term greyromantic because they sometimes feel attraction, feel attraction but to a very low level, or feel somewhere between aromantic and alloromantic, and some use demiromantic because they don't get romantic feelings until a very deep bond is formed." The man pointed at each flag as he talked.

Enjolras stayed quiet for a second. He hadn't realized this was an option. All his friends talked about their crushes and romantic relationships, and while Enjolras enjoyed hearing about it, he never had anything to share, and he wanted to keep it that way.

"How do you know if you're aromantic?" he asked, feeling sheepish.

The man gave him a knowing smile. "It's a process of finding yourself, but sometimes you just know."

Enjolras looked at the little green and grey pins on the table. Everything felt like it was clicking into place. All the years of trying to be in romantic relationships hoping romantic feelings would form and ending up having to break up and losing a friend because he couldn't do it. All the confusion of what he thought were crushes but the idea of being more than friends made his stomach churn. Every time he changed the subject when his parents asked him about settling down because settling down with someone was so foreign to Enjolras in a way he couldn't express. All of it was suddenly a shade of green, calming like summer trees and fresh cut grass.

Enjolras pulled out his wallet and gave the man a few dollars.

omg id love to :) a long time ago i was planning a series of various lgbt canon era minifics and aroace enj was one of them

but aro!enj id love to talk about !!

-modern enjolras has always been attractive to his peers. he winds up dating a lot of girls at his school because he's popular (not really by choice, it's just the Enjolras Effect) and he feels obligated to when he's like 12-17

-he has a lot of trouble staying attached to his girlfriends and it isn't that he's cheating, he just genuinely doesn't feel a connection to them romantically. because of this, he goes through just about every girl in his grade (and courfeyrac HATES him for it omg. courfeyrac calls him a whore when he falls face-down on courfeyrac's bed moaning about how "xyz hates him now because he had to break it off")

-by uni, he meets a lot of his friends who happen to be gay and starts thinking that he's probably the same. enjolras goes out with a lot of guys now and he honestly does like the sexual nature of it but... oh god he still can't find a way to romantically love someone the way they want him to

-enjolras, after getting broken up with by his latest bf, finds solace in courfeyrac once again and hm. courf is attractive. he'd never really noticed before. he was so used to courfeyrac wearing huge, thick glasses and being a kid that he never really noticed that either of them grew up

-courfeyrac is not picky and he and enj have sex a couple times before courf has to tell him that he's not sure that they could ever date because courf loves him and all, but he could never like him that way. the other way? oh hell yeah

-enjolras is honestly... relieved? he doesn't have to worry about ruining a relationship once again and they can still have fun. he has absolutely no problem with this

-they remain fwb for a few months before enjolras meets feuilly and oh my god this dude is perfect. he's got really nice arms, he's really smart, and his ideals match enjolras's own. this is the first time that he's pretty sure he wants to date someone and he opens up to courf about it. courfeyrac is understanding and claps him on the back to wish him luck and they end their little arrangement in a really peaceful way. only- mm maybe one more time. then they're done

-enjolras pursues feuilly for another couple months before feuilly catches on and asks him out. enjolras is so glad because he feels like he's finally found The One and his previous streak of like 100 actual relationships that ended poorly won't weigh on his soul anymore

-they start going out, enjolras listens to him talk about this and that, and they fuck like rabbits. feuilly has a high stamina lmfao

-things are going so great and enjolras is so so so so glad but... god. he likes feuilly, but he's not sure. he knows that he likes sex with feuilly and he likes talking with him, but something still feels off.

-as any Modern Man does, he goes on reddit SKNKSJDNSJDBFLKSJENDLKJSDFN

-enjolras reads up a bit on aroace spectrums and alterous attractions and it kind of really resonates with him. he spends a couple days thinking it over before talking to it with courfeyrac and combeferre. they both r trying to throw popcorn in the air and catch it in their mouths but they're also mostly listening to enj

-the general verdict is that he can experiment with labels and find something that fits to him, but he also has to go talk about it with feuilly

-he does. feuilly is mildly upset for a bit, mostly because he genuinely really really liked enjolras and it felt like the first time he could be loved in return. but he also can't be mad at enjolras because yeah, he does love him and he would rather enjolras be himself and be happy than feel obligated to go out with him just because feuilly wants him to

-enjolras wants to have a qpr with him instead (combeferre explained well enough) but feuilly has to decline because he know he'd get attached either way and it wouldn't be fair to enjolras

-so they sort of break it off together so there aren't any hard feelings and enjolras lets himself play around with labels until he finds himself feeling comfortable enough with just being aro. it isn't a bad word, it isn't scary, it's just him.

-he also plays around with sexuality. enjolras knows he likes having sex and he feels genuine sexual attraction towards others. he's sexually attracted to courf (and he makes a note to never let either of their families know this fact. it would make their joint-family holiday dinners a little weird), he's sexually attracted to feuilly, and he feels that way for other people too. he doesn't outright not feel attracted to women he finds as well. this was really shocking and weird to him after calling himself "gay" very openly all through uni, but he genuinely does feel sexually attracted to women as well

-because of this he decides to stick around with bisexuality as a label. it makes him feel embarrassed because he feels like a faker, but then he goes back online (back to reddit, modern man), and feels less anxious about telling people. sexuality is fluid and it takes a while to learn how to feel about yourself. bisexuality isn't embarrassing either- it's not any less valid than being gay

-anyway in his late twenties he settles a little further in and feels comfy with his sexuality and his aromanticism. he has a few qpr's over the years with various people and learns what he likes, what he doesn't like, and he goes to pride with combeferre and courfeyrac with a pretty green flag painted on his cheeks and he feels at ease

Damn, I haven't had one of these in a while! Well, at least this is nicer than the last anon I had about this...

Well, I feel like I need to start with the disclaimer that I think canon (as in, not fanon) Enjolras is aro, not that Enjolras is intended to be aromantic in canon. I'm pretty sure Victor Hugo didn't know what "aromantic" means. So he couldn't make a character aromantic on purpose. ^^ My interpretation of the actual text is that he intended to make Enjolras the Perfect Representation of Revolution, and as such, to have no Earth attachments, and among them, no attachment to Romance (and, being a XIXth century straight man, he equates that to Women).

But in doing so, he created a character that rings every single aro bell in my brain. The idea that he doesn't know of a thing called a woman because his only passion is Revolution. Bossuet making fun of him because he's not in love. It feels so much like those aros who are not into romance because, you know, the have other things to do. Not because they don't want to date. They are just busy. Very busy. All the time.

This is a short-ish answer because you don't seem belligerent about it and I have already answered this in so many ways before, but if you're curious about what quotes make me go "oh? Interesting!", here I talk about it, and if you want the reasons why I don't agree with the "Victor Hugo clearly considered Enjolras gay" approach, here I'm responding to a much more aggressive anon.

Damnit, now I feel like a traitor to my own header (no I don't, I'm allowed to write whatever I want). It actually does not. It has a lot of other types of angst, but no aromantic ones. This might be on my top three most romantic Enjolras ever written, actually. He loves his Grantaire very, very much.

Enjolras makes it part of his fight, wears it as a badge of pride and a challenge to question him. He knows about amatonormativity and will tell you all about it. He has a good support network and he knows it.

Feuilly wishes he had mental space to worry about it. It weighs on him, especially when he thinks of getting older and needing assistance, but those are vague, long-term concerns. He will worry about them once his papers are in order and he has a stable job.

Okay, you are right that this isn’t exactly my thing, I’m sorry it took me so long to answer this, anon (I just checked and this ask is from April!)! This isn’t exactly what you asked, either, but I hope it’s enough for you.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about “friendly exes ExR”, and it’s close-ish to a QPR, so I’m just going to talk about that.

Enjolras and Grantaire date for a while when they are in their mid-twenties. Enjolras knows he’s ace, by that point, it’s one of the first things he tells Grantaire, but he’s still working through the internalized acephobia, and that means he feels very guilty about “taking sex away from R”. He kind of overcompensates by going full in the “romance” part of it.

And you can imagine, Grantaire is over the moon about it. They power through the early stages of a relationship. There are flowers. Anniversaries. Public Displays of Affection. They are living together in less than a year.

Enjolras is trying, really trying, but after a point he can’t keep denying that the whole thing is just stressing him out. He’s not proud of the fact that his first reaction  after they break up is relief.

Not long after their breakup, Enjolras comes out as aro. Grantaire consoles himself on the fact that he wasn’t the problem.

They keep a level of physical closeness that makes R’s partners squint suspiciously at them. Grantaire has a tendency to ruffle Enj’s hair whenever he goes past his chair, and Enjolras thanks him with cheek kisses whenever he does something nice.

Because of a misguided attempt at reconciliation at one point, Enjolras is the only Ami who has met Grantaire’s father in person. The man is all the way up with fascists in Enjolras’ “would happily shoot in the face” list.

Sometimes, when Enjolras is very tired, or feeling burned out, he approaches Grantaire and goes “can I have a hug”, very quietly. Grantaire doesn’t stop what he’s doing, but he opens his arms and lets him burrow his face in his chest. R laughing and joking with Joly and Bossuet with his arms around a curled up Enjolras is a pretty common image in the Musain. He’s soft and warm, you know?

On the other hand, Enjolras has gotten very good at recognizing the early stages of a dip in Grantaire’s mental health. He doesn’t usually handle them himself, because he knows he might make things worse, but he will absolutely warm Joly and Bossuet to go give him a hand.

On a happier note, they still go out for dinner a couple of times a month, or meet at one of their places if the money is tighter. They always make sure to have a free morning the next day, because they have rambly conversations/debates that span way into the next day.

As you say yourself, I don't know if I can say anything you don't already know, but... if you want me to, I'll answer. ;)

Enjolras:

Sexuality headcanon: aroace in canon, aromantic homosexual in Modern AUs. Just.... very very aro.

Gender headcanon: Cis male. I like my Enjolrases priviledged.

A ship I have for said character: .... Courfjolras. But in a very friends with benefits way. They are pretty friends having fun. Nothing more.

A BrOTP I have for said character: Triumvirate my beloved. That said, @quillsand's fic has warmed me up a lot to fighting buddies canon era Bahorel and Enjolras. It was such a good dynamic. <3

A NOTP I have for said character: Combeferre. I'm sorry guys, nothing against the ship, but I headcanon both characters as aro and I heavily project on Combeferre's aroace-ness, it just feels icky. They are ride-and-die, brothers from womb to tomb, but not romantically, and definitely not sexually.

A random headcanon I have for said character: Once he got to university he learned to weaponize his beauty (both in an "attracting people to the Amis" way and in a "I want to get laid" way), but when he was younger he was oblivious to people throwing themselves at him to an impressive degree. Courfeyrac will never let him forget the time he got approached by a guy at a bar, accepted a drink from them, politely refused going back to his place to see his Marx essays with a "thank you, I have the German originals at home", and two days afterwards texted Courf "wait a second, DO YOU THINK HE WAS TRYING TO HAVE SEX?"

General Opinion on the character: He can be Terrible, he can be sweet, he can be a fearless leader, he can break under the pressure, he can be everything we want. And I love him so much. <3

Grantaire:

Sexuality headcanon: For a guy who is almost exclusively into Enjolras, his bi vibes are immaculate.

Gender headcanon: Cis male.

A ship I have for said character: Grantaire/therapy. Jokes aside, I guess Enjolras, because Grantaire with anyone else just feels wrong, but.... see above. x)

A BrOTP I have for said character: JBM, but more precisely Musichetta. @my-life-as-a-reader once made a post about him and Musichetta being step-siblings and it's been living in my brain rent-free ever since. I love them, your honour.

A NOTP I have for said character: I don't think I have any. He's so fixated on Enjolras that any other ship feels weird, like he's an evil doppelganger, but nothing in particular.

A random headcanon for this character: He comes from Marseille, in the South of France, and he's perpetually cold in Paris. He complains about the weather a lot. But everyone knows he won't leave Paris ever if he can help it.