aprilllludgate:

i thought i would list some of The Best les mis quotes okay here goes

  • “being thus ironical and bald, he was the leader”
  • “beware! his hair filled with wrath, is epic”
  • “brushing one’s teeth is at the top of a ladder whose bottom is the loss of one’s soul”
  • “they amused themselves with puns which were considered terrible”
  • “mathematically!”
  • “to stray is human. to saunter is parisian”
  • “‘by the way, have you any political opinions?’ ‘the idea!’”
  • “mabeuf’s political opinion consisted of a passionate love for plants”
  • “i have just met marius’ new hat and new coat, with marius inside them”
  • “a leg of exquisite shape appeared. marius saw it. he was exasperated and furious.”
  • “‘that’s a queer fish.’ she replied ‘he’s a saint’”
  • “‘what a dentist!’ he cried”
  • “we get on well together, my coat and i”
  • “the oysters are spoiled, the servants are ugly. i hate the human race.”
  • “comrades, we shall overthrow the government as true as there are fifteen intermediary acids between margaric and formic acid”
  • “joly, perceiving a cat prowling on a gutter, extracted philosophy from it”
  • “it is immoral that a mattress should have so much power”
  • “glory to the mattress…!”
  • “my cake tires me”
  • “‘adorable!’ he exclaimed. then he blew his nose nosily”
  • “‘but you ought to have a maid.’ ‘have i not marius?’”
  • “‘all is explained. you understand.’ cosette did not understand a word.”

Valvert Rec List

So, I don’t know how it happened, I was just browsing for something to read and BAM, new OTP. Such is my life. (i blame @punsbulletsandpointythings and @the-dragongirl. Curse bless you both.)

Anyway, I noticed that there just aren’t ENOUGH reclists, and so I thought I might put together my own humble offering. BC I can’t be the only one interested in sad angsty middle-aged French morons. 

All these fics are complete, btw. Also, I haven’t read the Brick, and god knows I’ve only just dipped my toes into this fandom, so I will be updating this as I find more fics to carve my heart out over to adore!

my heart lies buried like something dead by Cinaed  (TEEN, 100K)
That night on the parapet, Valjean forces Javert to live. Some time later, Javert finds himself returning the favor. “Do you think,” Javert said slowly, in a tone that perhaps meant to mock but trembled with another emotion entirely, “that once you have saved a life, you must also save that man’s soul?”

“I know nothing of saving souls,” Valjean said. “My soul was bought for God, not saved. But it is my belief that you are better than the fate to which you have consigned yourself.”

Toil Until the Old Colours Fade by drcalvin (Mature, 94K)
After his leap into the Seine, Javert finds himself back in Montreuil-sur-Mer on the morning of his first appointment with M. Madeleine. He soon discovers that while his choices can change the outcome of things, nothing can stop death from delivering him back to that same morning.

Now he has to defeat the game of fate or keep returning to 1820, eternally dying without finding peace.

Three Days (or The One Where Javert and Valjean Take a Road Trip Through France and Raise a Child) by zamwessell (greencarnation) (Explicit, 36K)

Javert calls what he thinks is Valjean’s bluff about needing three days to find the child Cosette and intercede for her. The Inspector comes along for the ride – and gets much more than he bargained for, in the process.

All the Effects of Intoxication by Cinaed (Mature, 66K)

Instead of committing suicide, Javert goes on a three-day bender. When Valjean finds him, Javert assumes he’s a hallucination. Things proceed awkwardly from there.

Halfway to Halfway There by stonecarapace (Explicit, 12K)
Javert and Valjean struggle to understand each other through the years—but it gets easier, in time.

Le Carnaval des Animaux by ConstanceComment (Teen, 11K)
“It is our belief that if the soul were visible to the eye every member of the human species would be seen to correspond to some species of the animal world and a truth scarcely perceived by thinkers would be readily confirmed, namely, that from the oyster to the eagle, from the swine to the tiger, all animals are to be found in men and each of the exists in some man, sometimes several at a time.“

More Sense Than Honour by Miss M (missm) (Mature, 30K)
There are certain truths that are universal, though Javert has to learn that they are not quite what he thought. And so, when Valjean stops him from jumping, he finds that his life must be built anew.

Nurturing the Garden by cruisedirector (Mature, 8K)

Since Valjean won’t talk to her, Cosette asks questions of Javert.

The Summer Has His Joys, And Winter His Delights by Cinaed (Explicit, 5K)
The autumn after Cosette gets married, Valjean decides to close up the house in Paris and move into a little cottage he’s rented in the countryside up north. At Cosette’s insistence, Valjean invites Javert along, and to their mutual surprise, Javert agrees. Of course, three months, much less a week, is a long time with only each other for company…

this rapture and unrest by voksen (Explicit, 6K)
For the valvert gift exchange prompt Post-Seine established relationship: Valjean is feeling old and tired; Javert gives him a back massage.

"If you are an old man,” says Javert, “then so am I.” His hair may be still closer to gray than Valjean’s white, but the difference in their ages is not so great as all that, and he does not feel old. He does not think of how Toulon can age a man or how he had once mistaken a far older man for Valjean on the strength of the weary bitter lines carved deep in his face; he thinks only of Valjean as he stands here, before him, in the present. “But you would not see me suffering for the pure sake of it.”

To Tempt the Wilderness by Esteliel (Mature, 38K)
If he abandoned Javert here, he would be able to do more good – what was the life of one man who would as soon incarcerate a beggar than see him fed, weighed against the many souls that had come to depend on Madeleine?

In that moment, he felt the weight of his responsibility settle with great heaviness onto his already bent shoulders, until he felt that he would break, that certainly even his own strength was not enough to bear the weight of such a choice, that no man should be asked to make such a decision.

While travelling, a storm leaves Madeleine and Javert lost and cut off from all roads in a lonely valley in the Ardennes. But even more worrying than the need to find food and shelter is the fact that Javert is injured, and Madeleine, despite the secrets of his past, cannot leave when that might mean Javert’s death. When another accident forces Madeleine to choose between keeping his secrets and watching Javert die, or revealing himself as Jean Valjean to save Javert’s life, the already uncomfortable intimacy of being forced to rely on each other for survival becomes even more unbearable…

The Drowning Sky by zamwessell (greencarnation) (Mature, 5K)
Valjean pulls Javert up out of dark waters.

“No,” Valjean says, but Javert knows that he has planted the possibility – Valjean shoving aside the bedclothes and rucking up his nightshirt and the grim slap of flesh on flesh and those hard convict’s eyes boring into the back of his neck, Valjean’s breath on the back of his neck again, and –

The rush of blood southward catches him almost by surprise. He hopes Valjean does not notice the change in his eyes, the startled swallow. He always hopes too much. To see where he stands Valjean need only glance at the bedclothes.

This, Javert thinks, the thoughts leaden in his stomach. This, this, this is what becomes of you without the prop of your law. This is where your thoughts slink – vile and filthy, back to the gutter, this is the slimy rind that’s left of you –"

Patchwork Justice by manic_intent (Explicit, 12K)
Written for the prompt: Valjean as a caped crusader (with super strength, obviously) who gallantly saves our favorite inspector from certain doom, and as he turns to help Javert up… He gets cuffed, because vigilante justice is not TRUE JUSTICE.

The Resting Deep by fightingthecage (Explicit, 13K)

More than a year after Valjean pulled Javert from the Seine, they are entering unknown waters. AKA: Javert has never been touched before, and Valjean barely so.

The Last Duty by Pygmy Puff (ppuff) (Teen, 90K)
After the barricades fell, Jean Valjean went back to Rue de l’Homme Armé, No. 7 and Inspector Javert went to the Seine. But their paths crossed again when Valjean came home to find an empty house. Will seeking out the inspector be enough to save Cosette, and to save Javert himself?

Valjean and Javert: *are both shit at expressing their emotions verbally*

Valjean and Javert: *literally do not know how to touch other human beings*

Means of communication: ???

Me: “Alright, this relationship has to start SOMEWHERE; jfc you guys, c’mon.”