Summary: This mere second, this fleeting embrace, was all Aramis had. Missing scene from "The Accused".
Author's Notes: Tiny missing scene from s02e09, "The Accused".
I own very little and absolutely nothing related to The Musketeers.
"I don't like this."
"Nothin' about any of this to like."
"Why you?"
"I'm expendable."
Aramis rushed at Porthos and glared up at him.
"Never say that."
"Easy...I didn't mean..." Porthos held up his hands until Aramis stepped back. "The Captain and Athos have to be there if they need to mobilize the regiment. D'Artagnan wants to get back to Constance. And you?" Porthos frowned. "Nah, it's gotta be me."
Aramis ran a hand through his hair and blew out a frustrated breath.
Porthos nodded and moved to check over his horse one last time.
Porthos wasn't wrong. But that didn't make Aramis like it any better. The rising sun brought them closer and closer to Porthos riding away, to a hostile country, alone.
On a mission that no one had called suicide.
But everyone was thinking.
"I don't like this," repeated Aramis when Porthos finally turned back to him, forged letter in his hand.
"So you said."
"Your Spanish is terrible."
Porthos let out an amused chuckle.
"If it is," he rumbled, "it's your fault."
Aramis tried and failed to return Porthos' smile.
He felt all the lost time keenly. Time he thought he'd have. To make things right, to make Porthos understand. To fix what he'd broken.
Porthos pressed the letter between his lips and opened his arms.
This mere second, this fleeting embrace, was all Aramis had.
He could only hope it communicated all the things he couldn't say.
Don't die.
Bring what we need.
Stay safe.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Please come back.