At one point during the campaign to build up support for the revolution, Enjolras starts sending his lieutenants out to recruit various guilds and workers for their cause. He has one last group to recruit. He was thinking of sending Marius, but he doesn’t show up anymore. (He’s despondent over having caught a glimpse of the girl whose name he still doesn’t know after all this time, and realizing he’ll never see her again.)
Grantaire volunteers.
“But you don’t believe in anything?”
“I believe in you.” *bats eyelashes* (OK, no eyelashes).
Yeah, he’s desperate to prove himself, specifically to Enjolras. It’s never entirely clear whether it’s hero worship or a crush (though in the case of the latter, it’s not as if Hugo would have made it clear in the 1860s)
Or…maybe he’s not so eager. Enjolras checks up on him later, and he’s playing dominoes with the marble-workers he was supposed to recruit.
On Tumblr (Re-Reading Les Mis)