Two Athos'?
That one movie that they had settled down to watch had turned into two and then three and by the time they had finished watching the Santa Clause three it was well past midnight and Aramis was having difficulty keeping his eyes open, head lolling on Athos' shoulder where he was curled up practically on top of him. When he had admitted to Porthos that he had never seen The Santa Clause, the big man had been utterly scandalised and had stuttered briefly before surging to his feet, charging into his room and returning with a DVD case clutched in his hand and so the movie marathon had begun. To be completely honest the movie was great but he hadn't really paid that much attention to it, it was much more entertaining to watch the larger man throw back his head and roar with laughter or sit there grinning helplessly like a little child and the short chuckles it drew from Athos that made his body shake where they were connected was way better.
They had eventually called it a night when Aramis had actually fallen asleep, mouth hanging slightly open and arms curling around his torso. They had switched off the TV, chucked out the leftover popcorn much to the horror of Porthos and had returned to scoop Aramis up off the settee where they had allowed him to settle as they tidied up.
"You do know you're going to have to get up early and tidy before Tom gets here" Porthos murmured quietly with arms full of Aramis, "you know what Angelique gets like if she sees mess"
Athos tipped his head back with a groan, "of course I am familiar with how my brother's wife deals with mess. Loudly and with much too much complaining" he had been looking forward to a nice long lie in on boxing day, his brother not being due to arrive until one in the afternoon. Pleasantly late in Athos' books. But no, now he would have to get up at least three hours earlier to tidy because bloody Angelique could give someone with OCD a run for their money. This was his house damnit, it could be as untidy as he wanted it to be!
"You're gettin angry in your head again love" Porthos teased as he gently nudged the door to the guest bedroom open with the toe of his boot.
Athos' shoulders slumped as he sighed heavily, "you know me too well".
"Yes I do, that's why I know that you secretly love it when Angelique comes in and compliments you on 'how lovely your flat looks Athos dear'. Otherwise there would be no draggin you out of bed before mid day regardless of how much shouting awaited you, Mr Snugglemonster" Porthos ribbed gently, chuckling at the flush creeping up Athos cheeks.
Both men reached the bed at the same time and he carefully pulled the covers back on the bed, whilst Porthos gently lowered his precious burden down onto the mattress. Aramis was already cosy in a pair of borrowed pyjamas and so they didn't have to disturb him in order to get him changed, but as Porthos attempted to pull away an unhappy whimper dropped from his lips and the fingers attached to his collar tightened their grip.
After gently prising Aramis' fingers off him, Athos and Porthos carefully tucked the covers up to his chin, Athos resting one hand cautiously against his forehead too feel for any fever returning. Once satisfied they stood in the doorway, lent against each other and gazed at the sleeping man in the bed. Dark eyelashes rested like smudges of ink or tiny black feathers against porcelain cheeks, fluttering ever so slightly in sleep, pale pink lips parted slightly and soft exhales of air drifting musically through the air.
"He's so perfect" Athos whispered in awe, "I can't believe he's actually here"
"I know love, I have to keep pinchin myself" a short shake of the head accompanied his words, "I can't believe that people left him there in that alley"
"It's too cruel to even contemplate" the slighter man grabbed Porthos' hand and began to draw him slowly down the corridor towards the bedroom, squeezing gently to try and dispel the morose expression that seemed so out of place on his usually jolly face. "But we know that from now on he will never be in that position ever again, there should be some comfort in that"
"Yeah I know, you're right"
Neither one of them could bear the thought of sleeping alone that night, each one knowing that if they tried within minutes one would be searching out the other's warm embrace. Wisely they decided to skip the middle man and fell into bed together, curling up in each other's arms and falling into a mostly restful slumber, that was only disturbed by floating thoughts of the man sleeping a few doors down.
The sound of obnoxious ringing was what drew Aramis from sleep, rather rudely in fact, one moment he was having the best dream about a triple cheeseburger and the next he was startled awake by a cacophony of ear bursting bonging.
Okay so maybe that was a little bit of an exaggeration and the bonging wasn't nearly as loud as all that. Unbeknownst to Aramis it was in fact Athos' quaint little doorbell for the flat that his mother had insisted on purchasing for him, claiming to be an exact replica of the bells at Notre Dame.
All Aramis knew was that it was loud and it was annoying.
The Spaniard yawned and stretched widely, the unfamiliar warmth of the bedcovers having drawn him into a deeper sleep than he was used to and threatening to drag him back down again, it felt like he was surfacing from a bed of the stickiest molasses known to man. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, his feet met the floor with a muffled thump and he contemplated his state of undress.
Thankfully that problem was immediately solved with little effort on his part as he spotted a pair of brown corduroy trousers, a white t-shirt with a blue vest and a massively oversized woollen cardigan. His skinny frame was greatly emphasised once he had pulled on the borrowed clothes, the top swamped him, sleeves hanging well past his hands and the shoulders of the cardigan threatening to slip off his shoulders with every movement. The trousers hung precariously off his hips and he found himself wishing for a belt as he padded out of the room yawning sleepily, a soft whooshing noise followed him as he walked and he realised that even the trouser legs were dragging along the carpet.
He reached the end of the corridor and emerged into the sitting room, mouth open in preparation to declare his intentions to either cut the borrowed clothes to size or demand new clothes. Not that he ever would have actually gone through with that, he had already imposed upon them enough already without making them spend money on him as well! Thankfully he was saved from having to make a decision as to what to say when he took in the two men sitting on the settee in front of him.
Aramis reached up to rub at his eyes in confusion, thinking that maybe the double vision was a leftover remnant of sleep that had yet to fade and that maybe if he rubbed them it would go away. This action was the undoing of Porthos who had been leaning with arms crossed in the kitchen doorway, tea towel draped over his shoulder and observing the proceedings with undisguised amusement.
"Aww Athos look at im"
Both men on the settee turned in unison to stare at Aramis and he gave a soft whimper of distress, reaching a hand up to grab at his head, god it was happening again! Why now, it had been months since the last episode!
"Es all adorable and mussed" Porthos cried, crossing the room in two giant strides and wrapping his arm around Aramis, removing the white knuckled hand from his hair with deceptive gentleness and giving him a reassuring squeeze. "And look at the oversized clothes, so cute!"
One of the Athos' turned to the other and raised the eyebrow, glancing briefly back at Aramis before speaking, "Athos are those your clothes?"
"Good heavens no!" the other Athos, no the actual Athos declared indignantly, "how big do you think I am! The trousers yes, but the rest are Porthos'"
"Alright, keep your hat on" the other man responded laughing softly.
Now that Aramis was slightly calmer and had recovered from the shock of everything, he was able to see that although they did look very similar, there were indeed slight differences between them that singled them out as two different people. This one was slightly younger looking and had no beard, his hair was also a little tamer, but he had the same warm eyes as Athos and the same talent with wielding his eyebrows as weapons of mass expression.
It all added up to lead Aramis to believe that they had to be brothers or in the very least related, either that or Athos had managed to somehow miraculously find his doppelganger whilst he had been asleep.
"Athos" Porthos' tone held a note of warning and he jerked his head towards Aramis whose hands had been growing steadily whiter and were beginning to shake quite violently.
Thankfully Athos was nothing if not observant and quickly caught on, "Ah Aramis, I almost forgot" he gestured shortly to the man sitting next to him "this is my younger brother Thomas, he likes to pop around early while his wife shops for last minute Boxing Day food items and have a chat, before the whirlwind that is the rest of the family arrives"
"Ah, I see" he choked out meekly, tugging at Porthos' restraining hand as the phantom aching in his head reached a higher pitch, "nice to meet you"
The next second a pair of slender hands were cupping his cheeks and gently manoeuvring his head from side to side and staring intently into his eyes, it was a little bit scary to tell the truth.
"Wherever you think you are, you aren't" Thomas began earnestly "you are here in my boring brother's flat and perfectly safe. Nothing will harm you"
"Umm what?"
He was manhandled onto the settee next to a very bemused looking Athos who merely shrugged helplessly when Aramis looked to him for explanation.
A hand brushed at his scalp where he was forever tugging and he flinched away violently, colliding heavily with Athos and scrambling backwards as much as he could. Hand outstretched to ward away any further attempts at touching.
"Sss stay away from me, ssstay away!" the panic and adrenaline flooding through his system was obvious in his stammering words and the utter terror written across his face.
"Shhh it's alright, i'm not going to hurt you... Aramis right?"
"Leave me alone please, i'm sorry so sorry please i'm sorry"
The litany of whispered words continued and finally Athos couldn't endure anymore of the heartbreaking pleas and gathered the man that was sprawled awkwardly across him up into an embrace. He was curled up on his lap, face buried in his chest as he sobbed and continued to apologise and plead to be left alone.
"Did you have to go all psychoanalysis on him Tom" Athos reproached his younger brother whose expression had fallen into one that was a little constipated, seeming unable to decide upon guilt or empathy and settling upon a mix of the two that was unfortunately unattractive.
"I'm sorry 'Thos, I couldn't help it. You know how I am when someone is so obviously suffering from some kind of trauma, he even had a tell! How was I supposed to resist?" At the genuine remorse in his brothers tone, he relaxed slightly and simply sighed, and his mother wondered why they didn't have many friends and couldn't handle social situations.
There it was right there, they simply had no social awareness and it wasn't even tempered by self control in his brother's case, he marvelled at how Thomas had managed to find such a fantastic woman to be his wife.
The next second the doorbell rang and in the tense silence of the sitting room it sounded like a gunshot, startling the already flighty Aramis who jumped as if he had been electrocuted and then began his mantra once more with increased fervour.
"Get the door would you Porthos, it's probably Angelique. I'm going to see if I can get him to calm down and then" here he shot a menacing look at his brother "then we are going to act like nothing happened and talk about happy, christmassy things. Have a nice calm Boxing Day, survive our parents and then, and only then are we going to broach this subject again... are we clear?"
"Crystal" with a mock salute and a sketched bow Thomas was up and at the door in a matter of seconds, revealing a small pixie-ish woman with long brown hair and startling green eyes.
"Alright where's my grumpy brother-in- law" she exclaimed with a big smile, hurrying into the flat with her arms spread wide in anticipation of a hug. She froze in her tracks as Athos gave her the glare and took in the sight of the stoic man cradling another, beating a hasty retreat into the kitchen she turned to Porthos.
"Spill it"
A/N: So part of the family has arrived! Next chapter, hopefully Aramis will have recovered but we'll see how that goes, and the parents finally show up. Look out for the next chapter and as usual please read and review and I am always open to suggestions! Thanks as well for all the lovely feedback, I read all reviews but am absolutely terrible at responding so I just thought I would say that you guys are all amazing and I take everything you say into account when I write the next chapter so I hope you keep reading! Thanks :D