The Musketeers doesn't belong to me
SPOILERS
To Love Again
Athos touches the wounds on Sylvie's back carefully. The blood has long been cleaned away and she is no longer in as much pain as she'd been before.
It seemed to him as if the whole day's happenings were just a dream. Going after Grimaud and failing to catch him – again, seeing Clarick de Winter, the woman he'd thought he'd never be able to stop loving, again, and finally seeing Sylvie strung up and being beaten while the crowds cheered.
He is very tired but he can't sleep.
He touches her face again; brushing her curls out of her face and watches her sleep…at last she is sleeping soundly.
As he gazes at her he recalls Constance's words as she and D'Artagnan and Porthos had left the room, 'where does this end?' she'd wondered aloud, 'are they going to go after all the people we love?' He occurs to him then that he loves Sylvie. He sighs; he can't even remember when that happened.
What it when he first saw her, or after their third disagreement or when they kissed? He doesn't know but then these past few months since they returned from the front line have been crazy.
He knows that he thinks about her all the time, that the only time he can ever really sleep and be at peace is when she is near and that dreaming about her calms him down. He won't admit to Aramis, who teases him about it all the time, but dreaming about her when he was poisoned was the thing that saved his life, he couldn't let himself die without seeing her one last time.
He remembers the King saying that if he had had his way Sylvie would have hang instead of just being publicly flogged and in that moment even as he'd walked out on the King, Athos had known if he'd had any doubts before then, that he loved Sylvie. He could admit to himself, now that she was here with him, that seeing Clarick had shaken him, and for a few moments he had let himself dream that things were like they'd been in the beginning and then she'd brought up Sylvie and Athos' world had righted itself again.
He loves her.
"Athos," Sylvie murmurs.
"I'm here," he whispers back. "I'll always be here."
She smiles softly and closes her eyes and goes back to sleep.
He drops a kiss on her head and settles down next to her.
He sleeps.
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