Cosette the secret Amazon Romance Author AU

nyquildriver:

• so cosette has a hobby as a self-publishing romance writer
• backstory is cosette is ill for awhile and her dad and marius are both like “please don’t overexert yourself, stay home” and she has soooo much time on her hands
• grantaire’s a freelance digital artist and his schedule is super flexible so they end up hanging out a lot during the daytime
• through sheer boredom cosette decides to write a silly romance story starring a cowboy and a city girl
• she finishes her first draft and on a whim shows grantaire and he’s like well actually this is pretty good? fun and well-written? has she ever thought about actually getting published?
• she’s not super serious about writing, it’s not a career dream or anything (she does have a non-writing job she’d like to go back to eventually) but wonders if people would be interested in it so she decides to try self-publishing
• she needs cover art though
• she jokingly asks grantaire if he’s good at like photoshopping beefcake photos
• a few days later he comes back with a stunningly photo-realistic digital painting of her cowboy, shirtless. with like, water droplets clinging to his sculpted abs
• she spends a moment being kind of amazed because she’s used to seeing his work in a graphic design capacity, mostly pamphlets or whatever for les amis; she didn’t know he was some kind of wizard with a tablet pen
• and then… “oh my GOD R, IS THIS COMBEFERRE??????”
• “this is TERRIBLE I am never going to look at him without wondering if he really looks like this under his grandpa cardigans”
• but she decides the image is actually perfect for her story so she might as well use it
• R tries to give her a friend discount, but is met with a flat, “no, sit down, you need to eat and I can afford your full rate”
• she ends up getting a few sales for this first submission?  so she keeps writing.  it comes easily to her after a childhood of making up stories to comfort herself
• and it turns out that while cosette is not stunningly popular, she does surprisingly well. she at least ends up making back R’s commission fees
• soooo she keeps writing.  and she keeps comissioning covers.
• they end up not telling anyone about this
• not because they’re ashamed of it, far from it, but it’s become their private project that’s brought them closer together as friends
• and while they’re not ashamed of it, they’re not sure people would quite understand?  and while sexy cowboy combeferre is loose in the world, it’s just easier not explaining that
• and anyway after that first cover, grantaire actually rarely does full-on likenesses of their friends for her heroes and heroines, but he does likes to give them like, assorted recognizable features
• for example, the mermaid prince with courf’s dimples
• or the warrior maid with a stunningly accurate rendition of enjolras’s amazing sophomore year haircut
• the regency rake somehow pulling off jehan’s steely-eyed look of determination
• I like the idea of cosette doing this for the fun of it and just going from genre to genre
• (for example, there’s like a badass steampunk pirate queen one that she did purely for the worldbuilding
• and interestingly enough, R didn’t model the heroine’s physical features off of anyone they know, but she exudes a badass air that reminds them both distinctly of musichetta
• after receiving this cover, she heavily revises her outline and suddenly her steampunk pirate queen’s romatic subplot is about her having feelings for both her first mate and ship’s doctor. can they get their act together AND defeat the evil Earl of Seville and his Marmalade Automatons????)
• one day she decides to challenge herself and write a paranormal gay romance
• “ravaged by the bearwolf”
• said bearwolf has a very recognizably bahorelian upper body physique
• I just… really like the idea of her staring at his art trying to figure out what friend’s features he’s included this time
• it’s like a game for them
• for her birthday, he does a joke alternate cover where her billionaire elf businessman is marius
• he’s in shirtsleeves but rumpled and unbuttoned, his body twisted in a classic like, comic book T-and-A pose but with a bit less spine breakage
• “you know his freckles don’t actually go down that far?”
• “honestly cosette, please don’t critique me on my accuracy because I don’t actually want to know”
• she has it pulled up one morning because she just. loves looking at it.  and then the phone in the kitchen rings or something so she leaves it
• and marius pops in because he left a folder on his desk and then is like
• WHAT. IS. THIS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!!!!!!! D8
• for extra comedy marius is, besides the expected amount of shocked and horrified, also super confused because grantaire is, as I said, a photorealistic wizard
• and he’s like WHAT IS THIS PICTURE I DON’T REMEMBER EVER HAVING DRESSED UP AND POSED LIKE THIS
• I’VE NEVER WORN ELF EARS