College AU Frenchmen!

[road_to_calvary]

 
...this isn't his bedroom. Jean Valjean - dressed in shorts and a muscle T, covered in sweat - rubs a towel over his face, and blinks quite a lot. Then he sticks his head back through the door, and yells, 'Javert!'

'What?'

'Come look.'

Javert - mussed hair, jeans, sullen expression, a scar around his neck - slopes through the door. He also blinks a lot, and doesn't stop the door closing behind them. While Valjean spends his time staring about, his eyes fall on the leaflets nearby. He picks one up, reads it, then touches Valjean's arm to get his attention.

'Here.'

A couple of minutes later, they're staring at each other. Javert shakes his head. Valjean nods, and stretches for the door handle...which won't open. His eyes go wide as he tugs on it, and Javert has to take his wrist to stop him trying to wrench his way out.

'It's OK. We'll just get a drink and wait for it to open. It says here that it will. OK?'

'...OK.'

And so there's two wary young guys at the bar, eyeing drinks suspiciously. Well, Valjean is. Javert is eyeing Valjean, because...well. Just because.



[OOC: AU guys, obviously! Write-up on their background here. You can pretty much do what you want with them, they're only here for a week. This is open until whenever, and they'll each get an independent EP at some point. \o/]

Comments

[venerable_ibis]

There's an early-middle-agedish dude in sunglasses and a silly hat leaning against the bar not far off.

"Hey guys," he says. "You didn't go to Middle Area High, did you?" Because like he doesn't recognize them? But maybe they didn't take art? Either way, if they're in a bar they are either out of high school or pretending to be.


((halp, it's high school AU Djehuty))

[never_shall_yield]

Valjean looks around, and smiles politely.

Javert looks around, and scowls.

'No.'

What's with the hat? He glances at Valjean, who doesn't seem at all perturbed by it. He asks - far less rudely - 'why, did you?'

[venerable_ibis]

"Nah, man, I teach there. So, uh. Look, this sounds like I'm hitting on you, but I am so not, I'm just straight-up asking if you come here often? Because wow, this place."

[road_to_calvary]

Javert's scowl deepens. Not just because a man who looks, and talks, like that probably shouldn't be a teacher. But Valjean just smiles again. If you look closely, it's nervous around the edges.

'We just got here. Never been before. Hi.'

[venerable_ibis]

Yeah well, Javert is maybe not wrong. But he's actually a pretty good art teacher! He is very responsible with children!

He also picks up the nervousness, and pulls himself together a little, folding the sunglasses into his shirt pocket and taking off the hat. "Right, same here. Same here. Is this, you know...a normal...thing?"

It's not that he's never been in a real bar before, it's just that he's never been in a real bar before.

[thewidewideworld]

"Hello boys." Sinric smiles, leaning over the bar to grab some ice. He's androgynous but leaning to the feminine and dressed to accentuate that. "What brings you here tonight?"

{ooc: sorry to tag and run but I couldn't resist.}

[road_to_calvary]

Valjean glances up, and smiles. He's perfectly neutral about anyone's appearance, and doesn't appear to even notice it much.

'Hi. And, I don't know. This place just showed up in my apartment.'

Javert, on the other hand, frowns suspiciously.

'Are you allowed to just take ice?'


[No worries! Slowtime is love. :D]

[thewidewideworld]

"How convenient." Sinric grins. "A bar in your back room." He leans over Valjean to steal the flyer, giving it a quick scan. "Yeah, that makes no sense." Not that it seems to bother Sin. He's use to rolling with whatever happens.

At Javert's question, he takes a piece of ice and pops it into his mouth like a cherry, holding it between rouged lips for a moment. "I don't see anyone telling me I can't. Do you?"

[never_shall_yield]

Leaning over Valjean is never a good idea. Not because he'll do anything - he just freezes up, and leans away as best he can - but because it causes Javert to get to his feet, and scowl. His eyes are so sharp, they tend to leave people feeling skewered...though he gets the impression a guy like this won't be bothered.

'Back off him.'

Regular Eric Notthman

[onceaviking]

Someone tall and pale walks up to the bar and leans in the counter.
Really close.

"The usual," he says and the usual appears in a tall glass. A dark red liquid.

He is dressed in tight black clothes (designer, expensive) and he doesn't have a pulse.
This may not be immediately noticeable.

[never_shall_yield]

It's not, at all. Even if it were obvious, it probably wouldn't be noted. When the guy leans in close like that Valjean goes tense, and Javert gets to his feet at once.

'Hey. Back off.'

He's pretty tall too, but with an underfed look about him. His eyes could stab a man straight through, they're so sharp, but he also has a telling scar around his neck.

Valjean puts a hand on his arm. He's OK. And he's more aware than most that Javert's a weird mix of weak and tough at the moment. But Javert doesn't back down, even if this blond guy is big, and looks strong.

[onceaviking]

Eric looks up at him.

His eyes are red rimmed and very blue.
He looks Javert up and down, slowly.
And then he shifts all of a quarter of an inch to the side.

"Relax, sweetheart. There's plenty of room."

He sounds mostly American though there is a hint of something else thee as well.

[never_shall_yield]

'Don't call me that.'

He bites it out but his eyes are on Valjean, who gives him a small smile. The hand on his arm tightens a moment, then drops away. Valjean just wasn't expecting someone so close, so suddenly. He fixes the situation by simply moving one chair down, which makes Javert glower even more. Why should he have to move?

He rounds on the stranger again.

'What's your problem?'

It's a hot stranger. This registers before Valjean says, 'leave it, Javert'.

Javert normally does what he's told even if he doesn't want to. This time, he just stands there looking belligerent.

[is_the_motion]

There's a young woman about the same age, wearing a roller derby outfit, who approaches the bar and deposits her four-year-old daughter to sit on Bar's surface. They have an exchange in sign language before ordering orange juices.

They watch in amusement as Javert tries to get out, and Bonnie nods to them when they come back over.

"Yer probably Bound." she says. "But everyone gets out eventually."

[never_shall_yield]

Neither of the guys look like they're amused. Valjean because he's on the edge of panic, and Javert because he's worried about Valjean. He asks the bar for a glass of water, then nods tersely at the woman.

'Yeah, the leaflet explained.'

Which doesn't actually help, because it was unable to tell them when they'd be released.

[is_the_motion]

"You brand new as well? Tough break." Bonnie says. "It's okay here though."

Alice taps her mom on the arm and repeats a sign. Bonnie looks back at them.

"Alice would like to know if you boys would like a sweaty roller derby hug."

[never_shall_yield]

'...no,' Javert says, just as Valjean grins and says, 'sure!'

Which causes Javert to roll his eyes and step back, because not only does he not want sweat all over him - unless it's Valjean's - he also does not like children.

Valjean, on the other hand, does. He doesn't have any experience with them, but he's just the natural father type. He holds his arms out to the little girl with an openness rarely seen with an adult.

[starrydome]

Elrond walks up to the bar and orders a plate of bread and cheese and a glass of wine.

His hair is pulled back from his face, leaving his noble forehead and the tips of his ears free. The rest is partly braided, partly free, and studded with tiny, silver stars.

He is dressed in robes of pale blue, embroidered with more, stylized, silver stars.

And if he cathes the eyes of the two young Men, he nods at them. Friendlily.

[road_to_calvary]

He doesn't catch Javert's eye, because he's looking at Valjean. But Valjean is looking around, and he nods back at the stranger with a small, if nervous, smile.

Then he sees the ears, and the smile stutters a bit. Not in a bad way. Just surprise.

[starrydome]

"You are new here? "
Or maybe just unused to Elves.

Elrond's voice is rich and pleasant. And just as friendly ad his smile.

[road_to_calvary]

'...yeah. Just found this place in my apartment. We read the leaflet though.'

Javert has looked up by now. He might be staring a bit, but in a little darker way than Valjean.

[merryeccentricities]

" Mm=-- pardon me." Joly's voice is hoarse. He's still a little shaky with the last effects of a summer fever but he's feeling well enough to offer an apologetic smile as he stumbles past the two strangers on his way to the Bar. Alcmaeon, nestled half under his coat-collar, chirps a friendly "Sorry!".

[never_shall_yield]

'Don't wo...'

Javert trails off. He stares for a moment and then draws back, his face closing down to a neutral mask. Then he touches Valjean's arm, who turns at once.

'...Joly?'

His face is pure shock, and then it starts to pale.

'Joly?'

[merryeccentricities]

"Er. Yes? Have we met?" Going from their clothes, the two men can't be from his world, they-- probably aren't here to detain him at all? But Alcmaeon is up and taking to the rafters, just in case--well, in case.

[road_to_calvary]

'Uh...yeah?'

He's wearing different clothes. There's no sign of a head injury, and...he has a cold? That's weird.

'Valjean. Jean Valjean. We...you - I thought you...died.'