Enjolras x Reader

Chapter 4

Your plan was rather simple: sneak into your father's room undetected, take two or three pairs of shirts and pants that you knew he hadn't worn in years, along with a jacket and a hat and you'd be good to go. And, surprisingly enough, the plan worked.
Your new routine consisted of spending most of your day with Éponine, Azelma and Gavroche (if he was around), as usual, then you would change your clothes, which you took with you in a bag, and you'd be in the library 'till dusk.
At first you didn't think you'd succeed, considering you were noticeably shorter and younger than most men there, but they were too preoccupied with other things to take notice of you.

You see, about two months ago, a new king, Louis-Philippe, took over. This caused quite an uproar in France and especially among the students who frequented the library.
Despite being intended as a peaceful and quiet place for studying and reading, it was gradually becoming more and more difficult to do so, as most conversations held among the several groups of young men, would break out into rather loud arguments, though there were things that were not to be discussed in public.

On two occasions, you had asked them to keep it down a bit, but were instantly told off and accused of being a royalist or a Bonapartist. You desperately wanted, but weren't able to argue back.
Your father did his best to keep you away from politics, because he believed that the subject matter would be too complicated for you, which you took as an insult to both your sex and intelligence, but up until now, you weren't able to really disobey him.

In the following months, you read as much as you could about history and politics, both french and international. You never knew how much you missed out on.
After feeling pretty up-to-date with everything going on in the country, you decided to expand the range of genres you'd read. Aside from politics and history, you started picking up books about poetry, music, languages, mythology (which was  one of your favorite topics), plays and you even set your mind on learning Latin.
You would try to read at least one book of each genre every week, which became a bit overwhelming after a while.

One day, it seemed as though you caught someone's attention when you picked up "Le Malade Imaginaire", because after you sat down to read it, a man sat himself down next to you.

Upon closer inspection, you realized that he wasn't a man, not yet at least. He was about your age, if not a bit older. He had a poor sense of fashion, demonstrated by the rather questionable clothes he wore, though he seemed nice enough.
He began talking about the book you had picked and comparing one of the characters to his friend ("Jolie", you believe).

After several minutes of talking, he realized something.
"Where are my manners." he said "My name is Jean Prouvaire, though I prefer to be called Jehan."
You stalled for a moment. Then you cleared your throat and, in as deep as you managed to make your voice sound without it being too straining on your throat, you introduced yourself under the name "(M/N) Moulin".

This added a change to your routine, because now, you spent the time in the library with your new friend Jehan instead of alone.
You mostly talked about poetry and history, though the topic eventually changed to France's political and economical situation, which in hindsight was inevitable. Although your opinions occasionally differed, the two of you had agreed on one thing: Something needed to change.

He eventually introduced you to a bunch of his friends: Jacques Courfeyrac, Christophe Joly (so that was his name!), Antoine Grantaire, Laigle Bossuet and... Marius.
You thought you were done for. Marius was never one to take a hint (something Éponine never failed to bring up during conversation). You had expected him to take one look at you and, even if by accident, blow your cover. But he didn't.
While you hoped that he understood the situation, you knew it was more likely that he really was just too dense to recognize you in your disguise. Whatever the case was, you were thankful for it.

As for the rest of the boys, they were a blast to be around: Courfeyrac was a sweetheart and a jest. He even took in Marius after his grandfather kicked him out (this was the first time you told Éponine something about her beloved that she didn't know).
Joly was true to his name, as he seemed rather jolly, aside from his constant talk about illnesses and diseases, which started to make you second guess your own health. He was snapped out of this by Bossuet, who was a delight to talk to. What he lacked in hair, he made up for with his amazing sense of humor. He exchanged knowing glances with Joly whenever someone brought up a woman whose name you didn't quite catch.
Then there was Grantaire, or R, as the rest seemed to call him. He reeked of alcohol, though that could easily be brushed off once you started talking to him. He was good humored and intelligent, if not a bit sarcastic. Eventually, he started talking about Apollo, which is a topic you were all too eager to discuss, though at times it seemed as though you were talking about two different people.

Although you enjoyed talking to them, the fact that they were students was on the forefront of your mind. Even if they treated you like one of them, you knew you could never truly could be, as there was no way for you to become a student. Of course your father had the money, but no collège in all of Paris would ever let you in, because despite your disguise, you were still a woman...

You were getting ready to meet up with Éponine when your father called you to his room.
"(Y/N), have you by any chance seen my jacket?"
You were quiet for a moment, pretending to think, before speaking up. "I... don't believe I have, Papa."
"You don't suppose that one of the servants might have-"
"No! I-I mean..." Of course you knew who took it. You could easily have blamed it on a servant. This would've gotten you off the hook, but you knew what happened to people who got caught stealing. You once heard Javert talk about a man who got 20 years for stealing bread. Ruining the life of someone innocent just because you didn't want to get into trouble was out of the question.

You thought for a moment. "Ah! Now I remember! It was the beige one, vrai? You threw it out last year. You said you do not need it anymore."
He knew you were lying. He always knew when you were lying.

He stood up and cupped your face with his hands. "Mon chou," you rolled your eyes at the nickname, you were 16 now, isn't that too old for pet names? "I know you just want to help, but if you know that a servant did something, you have to tell me, understood?"
You nodded but remained quiet. He sighed and let you go. While you left, you silently prayed that he wouldn't inflict corporal punishment onto the maids and butlers.

Once again, Gavroche was nowhere to be found and you and Azelma were left to endure another one of Éponine's endless rants about Marius.

It was becoming that time of day again. You put on your father's clothes and hat and rushed to the library, where the boys were already waiting for you.
You read, argued and talked together for a while, before they quieted down and put their heads together. They then turned to you and Jehan said "Moulin, we've decided that you are trustworthy." Bossuet slipped you a folded piece of paper and said "You can come if you want to, but don't tell anyone. Everything will be discussed there."

You unfolded the paper. It read: "Café Musain at Edmond Rostand at 8pm."

On 13 March 1815, six days before Napoleon reached Paris, the powers at the . Four days later, the , , , and mobilised armies to defeat Napoleon. Critically outnumbered, Napoleon knew that once his attempts at dissuading one or more members of the from invading France had failed, his only chance of remaining in power was to attack before the coalition mobilised.

Had Napoleon succeeded in destroying the existing coalition forces south of Brussels before they were reinforced, he might have been able to drive the British back to the sea and knock the Prussians out of the war. Are you actually reading this? Crucially, this would have bought him time to recruit and train more men before turning his armies against the Austrians and Russians.

An additional consideration for Napoleon was that a French victory might cause French-speaking sympathisers in Belgium to launch a friendly revolution. Also, coalition troops in Belgium were largely second-line, as many units were of dubious quality and loyalty, and most of the British veterans of the had been sent to North America to fight in the .

The initial dispositions of Wellington, the British commander, were intended to counter the threat of Napoleon enveloping the Coalition armies by moving through to the south-west of Brussels. This would have pushed Wellington closer to the Prussian forces, led by , but might have cut Wellington's communications with his base at . In order to delay Wellington's deployment, Napoleon spread false intelligence which suggested that Wellington's supply chain from the channel ports would be cut.