All You Need To Know

Fanfiction
Title:	All You Need To Know
Author(s):	melannen
Date(s):	6 June 2015
Length:	4098 words
Genre:	Crack
Fandom:	Les Misérables
External Links:	on AO3
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All You Need To Know is a gen Les Misérables crackfic by melannen. It was written for Barricade Day.

It has a Russian translation: Всё, что тебе нужно знать by gellavonhamster.

Author's Summary

It turns out that Marius can heal your wounds with words of love.

Don't worry, it came as a shock to him too.

Reactions and Reviews

I just realised that I have read and reblogged this fic multiple times on tumblr, but I have never written proper feedback?.. How come. It's a wonderful story, and I love how despite all its crack-ness it touches upon some really serious topics. Like, on the one hand we have Everybody Lives (which is the best kind of AU!) and, say, Marius being flustered by Courfeyrac walking around half-naked (it's okay, Marius, who wouldn't be), and on the other hand, there's the bishop, who, though long gone, is still present in the narrative - like a true saint should, and Valjean's philosophy, and Combeferre, bless him. The ending is simply the best. Seriously, Prouvaire, who would have thought?..

I don't think it's a spoiler to mention that a lot of people die during the battle at the barricade. In the musical, there's a very affecting song where Marius holds a dying friend in his arms and sings: dear God above / If I could heal your wounds with words of love!

...and in this fic, it turns out he can.

It's a crack premise, but the fic puts some serious thought into the implications (who believes Marius when he tells them, and why? does it cure all maladies? how much does Marius have to love someone for it to work, and what exactly do we mean by love, anyway?). And yet there's also that thread of humor and hope running through the whole thing.