【ER】Golden Rule

Grantaire woke up to the sound of the bed.

This is so strange, he usually sleeps so deeply, three alarm clocks ringing in succession, ten calls come in one after another, and at least twenty knocks on the door can wake him up.But at this moment, he woke up because of the rustling of the mattress, because of the small sound of another person sleeping beside him - such a quiet sound, woke him up.

He opened his eyes slightly and looked at the ceiling.It was daylight, but it looked like seven o'clock at the most.He didn't sleep much, but he developed a sense of well-rested satisfaction.The morning light shone on his ceiling through the curtains, and the ceiling turned light yellow, and those fluorescent stars were light green.He turned his head and saw Enjolras lying on the pillow beside him.

Enjolras.

Just the name alone made his heart beat silently.He turned his head sideways, just looking at the other person's sleeping face.He inspected the shaggy blond hair he now knew felt good to the touch, the eyelashes that were almost all gold in the morning light, and the front teeth that protruded slightly on the left than the right on his full lower lip—knowing that Enjolras also Not quite perfect, but it made him even more attractive to Grantaire.A strong sense of euphoria and security filled him.He had never known before that one person could get so much satisfaction from just looking at another.

This would have been hard to imagine just a day earlier.Imagine that he could feel the touch of Enjolras' lips, breathe his body, imagine that Enjolras loved him—at least for who he had been.He is not greedy, which has surprised him.He reached out and brushed the lock of blond hair that fell from the bridge of Enjolras' nose behind his ear, and smirked at him.

Enjolras woke up because of his movement.

He opened his eyes, blue eyes that at first had a waking bewilderment and soon took on a usual sharpness as he tried to discern the situation—a look that made Grantaire wince, and he He almost retracted his hand and apologized loudly for last night - fortunately, Enjolras' expression immediately changed again: after recognizing Grantaire's face, his eyes softened again, revealing a very shallow smile (It's a sleepy, languid smile that seems almost overwhelming to Grantaire).

"Morning," he said, looking at Grantaire. "What are you looking at?"

Grantaire refrained from giggling even harder.

"Wondering if you're going to sue me," he said seriously—mostly in jest, but partly true.

"Oh," said Enjolras.He looked amused. "Don't worry."

They were peacefully silent for a while.Enjolras' expression became a little hesitant, as if he was not sure whether to lean over to touch his lips or make an apology speech.

"We last night..." he said carefully.

Grantaire pursed his lips.What would Enjolras say?Does he regret it?

He looked into Enjolras' eyes and nodded.

"We went to bed last night. That's right."

"Oh." Enjolras continued, "So, I..." He paused, "Are you going to be angry?"

Grantaire froze at the words.

"What?" he said, relaxing a little. "Because of what? Because you kissed me or because you slept with me?" That made him laugh out loud, "No. No. Although I've had too much to drink , I’m still a fully competent person. Don’t worry.”

Enjolras shrugged under the quilt.

"I don't know. I'm afraid you will."

"Someone has to come and explain the rules of human society to you." Grantaire looked at his expression and said half-jokingly, "Enjolras, you go and look in the mirror. Who would sleep with you because of no compulsion?" And angry?"

"You're drunk." Enjolras pointed out.

"Not drunk enough to make me sleep with someone I didn't want," Grantaire said.The worry that Enjolras would regret was gone. "Oh. Well. I was the one who was worried that you were going to sue me. Now it seems we share the same worries." He laughed again. "Ah, Advocate. I swear I'm willing. And you? Are you willing?"

"Of course." Enjolras said immediately.

oh.Grantaire thought.Enjolras said he was willing.He had no regrets, and was even worried that Grantaire would be angry.Is this a dream?This is real.

This is real.

"...You're so frank that I'm embarrassed." Grantaire said softly.He sank into his pillow, thinking if this wasn't a dream, it would be the happiest moment he'd had in days.He must have done something good recently to get this kind of luck.

"In that case." He leaned towards Enjolras and raised a hand tentatively, "Come to kiss me? We humans usually do this the day after we go to bed."

He's sure Enjolras rolled his eyes (he nearly laughed again at the incident), and took his hand, pressing it back on the quilt.

"One more thing," said Enjolras gravely, "and about Épone Thénardier. Are you not angry about it?"

Grantaire looked awkwardly at the hand that was pushed back on the quilt.

"Well, this thing..." he said slowly, trying to figure out how to express it—or to hide the sense of failure he felt in Éponine, "I wasn't mad at you at all. Ah , angry at myself would be more accurate." He paused, overwhelmed by the fact that *Enjolras* was asking for his forgiveness. "I think I should do better for Eponine. You know, I've been feeling powerless for many years, and finally I have a case that I want to do well..." He stopped, waved his hand, and didn't intend to Let's move on to this matter.What are you doing saying such things at this moment? "Come on. It's not a big deal. I seemed a little emotional last night. Tell you some life story. . . Ugh. So silly."

"No." Enjolras said immediately, "I should consider the impact of the witness's incident on you. But you know, I can't tell you this first, after all..."

"Shhhhhhh," Grantaire said, stopping him.He made up his mind not to talk about it again—at least not yet—and quickly thought of a way: he dared to grab Enjolras' other hand under the covers. "I know, Patronus of Justice. Don't talk about the case now, it's too bad."

Enjolras fell silent.Instead of pulling away his hand, he curled his fingers and hooked Grantaire's knuckles instead.His blue eyes look over, as if waiting for Grantaire to say something that won't spoil the scene.

Grantaire smiled.

"It's time for the prosecution's questioning." He lifted himself up from the pillow, grabbed Enjolras's hands, and looked at him pretending to be serious. "Are you willing to swear that what you say next is true and that you understand the consequences of perjury?"

Enjolras froze for a moment, and then, a look of tolerance and uncontrollable laughter appeared in his eyes.

"I swear," he said.

Grantaire nodded gravely.

"Mr. Enjolras," he said, "you did meet Grantaire seven years ago?"

Enjolras nodded. "Yes, sir."

Grantaire swallowed.

"You had—something about this Grantaire?" he asked.

Enjolras pondered for a while.

"Yes, sir."

Grantaire paused.He wanted to ask Enjolras if he still favored him at this moment, but the words were too embarrassing, and he thought for a while, then decided to change the method.

"Well, Monsieur Enjolras," he said, leaning his elbows on the bed and approaching Enjolras.This sentence required too much courage. If he didn't support the mattress, he might fall down by himself. "would you like……"

He's stuck.What if Enjolras said no?There was an Enjolras between him and the window, not far enough for him to jump down and escape as soon as he rolled over.

"Will what?" said Enjolras.

Grantaire took a deep breath.He bit his lower lip to beat himself up for a moment.

"Would you like to try dating me?" he said as if he was dying.

Enjolras smiled.His eyes curled up at the smile.

"Yes, sir," he said.

Enjolras lifts his chin toward him before Grantaire has time to be dazed by his smile and answer—he lifts his head, and Grantaire ducks his head.They shared one, two, then three kisses.

"I know one place that has really good Mexican food," Grantaire said as they parted, putting an arm around Enjolras' ear and looking down at him—he was so happy he wanted to share all the good things. The place was introduced to Enjolras. "There's a theater next door. I'll take you out to dinner when you get off work, and then we'll go to a show. Oh, what time is it? I must be early today. I'll take Courfeyrac My jaw dropped."

"Sounds good," Enjolras laughed. "I mean food, theater, not Courfeyrac... oh."

He was about to say something when a phone ring interrupted him.

"That's my phone." Enjolras recognized it. He raised his head and looked under the bed. "It's on the ground. Can you give it to me?"

Grantaire groaned.

"Now?"

Enjolras nodded.

"Probably work," he said.

"That's why I don't want you to pick it up," Grantaire said with a grimace.He bent down, found his cell phone from Enjolras' pants, and handed it to him.

Enjolras took the phone and pressed it to his ear.

"Good morning, Combeferre," he said into the receiver. "You're back? . . . what?"

His previous brisk expression froze on his face, replaced by a solemn expression.

"Are you sure?" he continued, glancing at Grantaire, but quickly turning his head away again, "…no. I wasn't paying attention. I didn't realize it at all at the time…"

Well, it seems like a tricky case.Grantaire thought, deciding not to continue listening to other people's work secrets.He found his mobile phone in another piece of clothing on the ground, and pressed the screen to turn on.

63 unread messages from Courfeyrac.

"...what?" He frowned softly.Although Courfeyrac is indeed an information maniac, he will never be...

He clicked on the mailbox, scrolled to the top of the unread messages, and began to swipe down the screen.The first dozen or so lines are meaningless "R!" "R!" "Are you there!" "Look at your phone!" "R!" Swipe across them quickly until a picture appeared in his line of sight.

Watch this news site, Courfeyrac said.The picture is a screenshot of a news account of a local media. The headline of the news contains words such as "witness conversion" and "victim's daughter"-obviously, this is their case.This is a piece of news reporting the progress of yesterday's trial.Grantaire quickly flipped through a few screenshots. This news roughly reported the status of the trial and the testimony of Eponine's temporary change of direction. At the end, he asked: Why is the prosecutor's scheduled witness—the victim's daughter? , suddenly help the defense?

Grantaire shrugged his shoulders, which is normal, and Eponine's behavior is abnormal, so people will find it strange and the news media will discuss it.He continued to scroll down, and another picture appeared in front of him: still a screenshot, showing that a picture appeared in the "most popular" reply of that news account, and had been reposted thousands of times.

It was a picture he was familiar with—he and Enjolras standing at the door of his house in the dark, embracing and kissing.Two tags bearing their names appear next to their heads in the photo.

The person who posted the photo captioned the text: I think these dead glass (faggots) are why.

"...fuck," Grantaire cursed.

He felt his hands tremble a little.He scrolled down and saw the reposts and comments under that photo, some homophobic remarks-such as dead glass, pussy, scum, etc.-It is conceivable that he has not seen these.He slid past the insults quickly.Then he saw a comment with a very high approval rating: "The defense must have gotten a witness by sleeping with the prosecution, congratulations" - no.No, he thought, don't.Just don't want this.He quickly turned off the screenshot.He scrolled down to Courfeyrac's last message: Wake up and come quickly.The boss wants to talk to you.

He put the phone down on the bed and looked up at Enjolras.There was an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach, like someone was grabbing him from there and dragging him down.

"...Okay, I'll go now." Enjolras said into the receiver.His face was not good-looking either.He took the phone away from his ear and ended the call.

"It's also about the photos?" He asked with difficulty.

Enjolras nodded.

"I didn't notice anyone taking pictures last night. Maybe they were in a passing car."

"Fuck," Grantaire cursed again.It's pretty much a matter of privacy, he thought, but he still felt uncomfortable.Enjolras got up from the other side of the bed and began to dress.Grantaire sat on the bed watching him.

"Shall I take you?" he said.

Enjolras shook his head.

"This morning is not a good time," he says—yes, what am I talking about, Grantaire thinks, the day after he's been photographed. "Next time. But thank you." Enjolras said, got dressed, and leaned towards Grantaire, as if wanting to kiss him on the forehead.

His fluid movements froze for a moment: He glanced out the window, as if worried that there might still be a camera there.This movement was obviously subconscious, and the whole process didn't take more than a second, but Grantaire noticed it.Then, Enjolras' lips pressed against his forehead, but this less than a second of vigilance was enough to ruin the joy it brought.

"See you tonight, shall we?" Enjolras said.

"Of course," Grantaire said.With all his strength he smiled at Enjolras.

Grantaire arrived at the County Prosecutor's Office in the early eight o'clock, his most punctual morning in recent years.When he walked through the lobby on the first floor, he felt that everyone was looking at him.

No, calm down, Grantaire—they're probably not paying attention to you, he said to himself.Not everyone checks Internet hotspots in the morning.Don't make a fuss, they don't have time for you.He walked quickly to the elevator, still unable to resist putting on the hood of his hoodie.He ran into the floor where he worked and opened the glass door with an employee magnetic card.Here, as usual, the secretary sat in the cubicle outside, typing on the keyboard of the computer.Prosecutors and assistant prosecutors came and went from office to office, chatting in whispers or yelling for a typed document.A thin young man was standing in the doorway of an office, talking to Marius—Grantaire recognized Joly, a local medical examiner, a little nervous, fragile, but always enthusiastic, because I always come to the procuratorate to do business, and I have a good relationship with them.He probably came to deliver some appraisal report.If he's here, maybe there are police here too, Grantaire thought, oh please, not Javert.Then he saw Courfeyrac leaning against the reception desk, chatting with the girl and looking at his watch, as if waiting for someone.

"Courfeyrac." He shouted hastily, walking towards him, "are you waiting for me?"

As soon as these words came out, the whole space fell silent.

Courfeyrac bounced off the reception desk, put down his watch, and looked at Grantaire.The secretaries who were typing on the keyboard stopped typing, and Grantaire recognized one or two young people who quietly raised their heads from behind the partition between the cubicles, and looked at him cautiously.Marius and Joly stopped talking, and together they looked back at Grantaire with worried eyes that could only be interpreted as worry or concern.

Well, Grantaire thought - they all know.

"You are here at last," cried Courfeyrac, breaking the silence with a whistle.He quickly walked towards Grantaire, hooked his shoulder and patted him, "What do you think, I'm not the first to know about the progress of your love life?"

"...oh," Grantaire said, feeling a little better.If Courfeyrac was still joking, things weren't so bad.Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the gazes sizing him up slowly turning back to the computer screen, and the sounds of conversation and keyboard tapping slowly filled the room again.

"I won't settle accounts with you for now." Courfeyrac said, he looked around to make sure no one was staring at them, and then lowered his voice, "...the boss is waiting for you in his office. And You don't know, Madame Thenardier, that she's been standing outside all morning cursing and wanting to see you, and we had to let her in. Thanks to her, half the population is now gossiping about you."

"I'm not surprised," Grantaire said dryly. "She tried to teach me a lesson yesterday, and kept yelling at me during the adjournment, asking why I didn't 'watch' her daughter."

"Troublesome," said Courfeyrac, "and, another unfortunate tidbit, that Javert is in it."

"My God," Grantaire said.

"What can you expect?" said Courfeyrac. "The police are taking this case very seriously. He was in a rage, and he had been clamoring that not a word of the testimony of the people who spoke for Valjean could be trusted. It's better now that they all I feel that Eponine changed her attitude because of some kind of manipulation by you."

"Oh," Grantaire said.That uncomfortable feeling returned to his stomach, "...I know. I looked at the screenshot you sent me this morning."

Courfeyrac sighed.

"I picked good comments for you to intercept." He said, "Come on, just to prepare you, go in, they've been waiting for you for a long time. Imagine Madame Thenardier, Javert The detective and our boss are in the same room. What do you think it looks like?"

"I think it's Dante's three-headed Satan, trying to bite me with every mouth." Grantaire shook his head and said.He stared at the office door, feeling a growing weight in his stomach.Just then, he thought of something.

"Courfeyrac." He seized his friend's arm, knowing that the words meant nothing, but he must have wanted to ask. "Do you think I did? Inciting Eponine to change her testimony to please Enjolras..."

Courfeyrac smiled at him.

"Come on, you want me to believe that Éponine will listen to you?" he said, patting Grantaire on the shoulder again. "Go in, be careful not to get fired."

He was in that office for over forty minutes, but it felt like forty hours.Madame Thenardier yelled at him, even pointed her nose and scolded him, and almost jumped on him and scratched his face with her nails, but Javert stopped him.Although the detective himself maintained enough courtesy, he was definitely not polite to him.He has always hated Grantaire, and Grantaire knows this well, or rather, he doesn't know who Javert doesn't hate in this world.Javert still had a troubled expression when the court adjourned yesterday, and he was probably conducting some mental torture on whether to refresh his views on Valang.But today he's confident and contemptuous -- the detective's psyche is temporarily saved by the anecdote about Grantaire and the defense attorney, which casts doubt on the credibility of defense witnesses.Javert asked him to withdraw from the case, and Madame Thenardier clamored that the prosecutor's office should dismiss him.Grantaire sat there with nothing to say, nothing to say.He thought to himself, wondering what Enjolras was facing at this moment?

When he left that office, he found Courfeyrac, Joly, and Marius leaning against the wall, not bothering to conceal that he had been listening to the corner.Seeing Grantaire walk out, Courfeyrac immediately changed his posture, propped one arm against the wall and put the other on his waist, looking like Alan Tveit who picked up girls in "Grease" come over.

"Did you get fired today?" he asked.

Grantaire smiled at him. "Not yet."

"Ah! what a pity," said Courfeyrac, looking relieved.He came over and hooked Grantaire's shoulders, "I bet they try to kick you out every day, but you're an asshole with an incredible winning percentage."

"Excellent," said Marius, who seemed to be stuttering again from overjoy, "Cosette told me about them. I believe Éponine is not lying, it's not... Not your problem."

"Jawei really didn't come here with me." Ruo Li also interjected, "I just came here for a visit, and I'll be going back soon. There's also a man and a woman waiting in line for me."

"Waiting for you?" said Courfeyrac.

"Line up in the freezer." Ruo Li said, "The weather is hot, time waits for no one."

They all laughed.Grantaire stopped laughing.

Courfeyrac touched his neck and turned to look at him.

"So, what did you say? What are they going to do with you?"

Grantaire shrugged.He tried hard not to sound bitter. "Let me take a vacation."

"Nonsense," said Courfeyrac immediately. "You've already used up your paid time off. You use it up every year."

"Well, okay," Grantaire said, "this time it's unpaid."

His friend's eyes widened.

"You have been forced to leave without pay!"

"What's wrong with that?" Grantaire smiled as nonchalantly as possible, "I brought it up myself. They've been arguing too much. If you don't do this, Thenardier won't stop. But it's also Nothing, anyway, I didn't want to pursue this case in the first place."

"How long is this going to last?" asked Courfeyrac.

"I don't know either. At least the case is over," Grantaire said. "Well. They want me to—reflect for a while."

"Fuck them," Courfeyrac said. "Are you going home now? You can wait for me and I'll have a drink with you during our lunch break."

"I can also make my men and women wait a little longer," said Joly.

Grantaire waved at them.

"No—really no," he said, trying to smile. "I'm fine. It's actually a good thing, isn't it? I can have a stress-free...well, stress-free date. Right?"

His friends were still worried, but Grantaire did his best to reassure them.Courfeyrac sent him and Joly downstairs, and he left worryingly after Joly left.Grantaire watched his figure disappear into the elevator, and felt his stomach constrict empty - he hadn't eaten breakfast yet.

He bought a bagel from a roadside breakfast cart, put his hat over his head, walked into a nearby park, and sat down on a bench.While eating, he took out his mobile phone. "I still picked good comments for you to cut off" - he thought of Courfeyrac's words.He took a deep breath, opened the browser, and started searching for the news.He soon discovered, however, that there was no need to look for that piece of news—the photo was already everywhere, very prominently, accompanied by comments and opinions of all kinds, their names carefully marked with "Defender" and The explanation of the "public prosecutor" seems to be worried that some people will not recognize it.

"This is the most disgusting thing I've ever seen," read one comment. "Our taxes are being used by the prosecutor's office to feed these assholes who fuck with men." Grantaire quickly crossed the line.Can I bear it, he thought.

"Obviously there are more disgusting ones," replied another. "Remember when defense attorneys say some justice bullshit? Actually defending a murderer while on the other side of the bed. Justice, though It's dirty stuff." . . . oh.Enjolras wouldn't like this, Grantaire thought.And he hated this article more than he thought, not because someone questioned justice, but because someone questioned how much Enjolras believed in judicial justice.

"Apparently lawyers have found the mouth to be used more effectively elsewhere than in court. Garbage." That's the next line.

"It has nothing to do with sexuality, it's because these two guys are rotten." Another long comment said in a very sensible tone. "Poor That Thenardier girl. Obviously someone is doing it for himself Selfish desires manipulated the witnesses. I wonder what they said to the girl that made her willing to lie."

"That Thénardier girl is a whore," another quickly replied below. "I think she took the money. It's clear she's too heartless to care about her biological parents."

"If my daughter was dressed like her I would break her legs."

"I think the defender has won a lot of cases with his face and his blond hair. Easy."

"What do you expect from this prosecutor? Check out his previous bar for drinking: (a long list of documents)"

"Can't believe the local courts are such a dump."

"Dead glass rots in hell. (A picture of a raging fire with the two of their heads clipped inside)"

……

Grantaire's hands trembled again as he swiped through the unsightly comments one by one.On the screen, Enjolras' face was edited into the most obscene dynamic picture he had ever seen.He took a deep breath and closed the browser.He put aside the unfinished half bagel and tucked his hands into the cuffs of his clothes.At this time, the sky was clear and clear, but he was like falling into an ice cellar.He put the phone in his pocket and looked around nervously.There weren't many people in the park. Those doing morning exercises hurried past, and those taking a walk talked to each other, but Grantaire felt that they were all looking at him.He thought of Enjolras' house with broken windows half a month ago.He remembered the time when he was beaten and kicked in the alley.I don't like this, he thought.I can't stand it.I don't know what Enjolras is doing at this time?

"Hey," said a man next to him,

Grantaire jumped up from his chair.His hands and feet were cold and he was sweating profusely.He turned his head and saw a five or six-year-old girl standing beside the bench.

"You lost your breakfast, sir," she said timidly, clutching Grantaire's half bagel wrapped in paper.She was clearly taken aback by Grantaire's reaction.

"Thank you." Grantaire whispered.Panting heavily, he should have apologized to the girl, but he just grabbed the paper bag from her hand and left as if fleeing.

Why should I be afraid?It's not fair, he thought as he fled.Someone stood at my door and secretly photographed me, but I was like a frightened bird.He remembered Enjolras' watchful glance outside the window in the morning.It's not fair.Enjolras loved people so much, believed in them so much, and was attacked and ridiculed by them, putting his head on those disgusting pictures.And Eponine, she must have worked so hard to muster up her courage...

Grantaire put a trembling hand over his mouth.He wanted to scream, and he ran into the garage, got into his car, and scurried toward the house.

Enjolras didn't come back until after eight o'clock in the evening.He seemed to have come back in the car of a colleague, a polite man with a gentle face and what appeared to be a pair of glasses that didn't seem to be very strong - Grantaire remembered him, he had seen this face from a distance in the courthouse .Both of them looked a bit serious. After Enjolras got off the car, he stood there and had a brief chat with him for a while before saying goodbye.

Enjolras walked in, and Grantaire was waiting for him in the corridor.

"Hi," Enjolras said, smiling at him, looking tired.

"Hi," Grantaire said.

"Sorry," Enjolras said, "I'm late. I may not have time to go to the theater tonight. But we can still go to that Mexican restaurant you mentioned."

Grantaire said nothing.He looked at him, trying to remember him standing on his own porch.

"You should move, Enjolras," he said.

TBC