Well, he does spend years convinced Valjean is dead and not thinking about him, because what's the point? I think we tend to get the scenes where he is thinking about Valjean because those are the ones relevant to the plot, but he presumably doesn't spend years in Paris getting paid to obsess over a supposedly dead convict. And he's capable of laughing at himself: cf the "Valjean is dead and I am a ninny" scene. There are times he comes off as obsessed and times he doesn't--by the end he's all "UGH YOU AGAIN? WHY?"

I like the more sedate male 1830s fashion...frock coats, yesssss.

And yeah, fic with dialogue in French and/or song lyrics: thing #1 I didn't miss about being in a fandom for a musical based on a French novel. Sigh.