Curtains

Summary: Raoul finds a new way to pass the time, much to his father's consternation. Baby one-shot from the 'Bitter to Sweet' universe.

A/N: This is from the 'From Bitter Memories to Sweet Havens' storyline. Reading that story isn't important to understanding this one. This stands well enough on its own, even though there is an established SLASH relationship here between Athos and D'Artagnan. Inspired by an home video of my baby brother who had the same fascination at Raoul's age here, which is about nine or ten months.

Warnings: Mild slash at the end. Extreme cuteness.

Disclaimer: The Three Musketeers and its characters rightfully belong to Alexandre Dumas. I'm just a serial borrower.

Raoul sat on a soft rug on the hard floor with his bear at his feet and the satin corner of his blanket in his mouth. It was the middle of an overcast day in April. Raoul had been fed and changed and his nurse had gone out with Grimaud to the town markets. All who were left in the house were father and son in the quiet privacy of the library. Athos sat at his desk with two ledgers open and a pen in his hand. From time to time he glanced over at his son, but gradually became more absorbed in his work.

Soft thumps on the carpet drew Athos' attention away and over to where his son had previously been. Unsurprised to find nothing there he swept the room with his sharp eyes, but didn't have to look far. Raoul had crawled over to the window and had managed to pull himself up with a grunt against the ledge of the-thankfully-closed window. The little one exhaled with his mouth open and the corners of it twisted upwards as he looked out the window at the road below.

He slapped the wooden ledge of the window with his little hand, pointed with the other, and declared, "Da!"

Athos smiled and calmly replied, "Not yet, my son. D'Artagnan will be here tomorrow."

Raoul looked over at him, uncomprehending, and sank back onto his bottom with a blank look. "Da…?"

Athos turned back to his work to redo the numbers. Not a minute later another sound drew his attention away, and it was the sound of rustling fabric. Athos whipped his head around to find Raoul tugging on the curtains of the window.

"No, Raoul," Athos warned. "Leave them be."

Raoul stopped and looked over at his father.

"No," Athos repeated.

Raoul smiled and tugged on the curtains again.

Athos sighed and got up from his desk. "I said no, you stubborn little imp," he said as he extricated the curtains from Raoul's little fists. He then picked Raoul up and carried him back to his bear and blanket on the floor where he could easily see him. Raoul cooed and looked back over to the window, and then at his father in confusion. Athos kept an eye on him until he settled down at his desk again. Raoul grabbed at his bear and Athos returned to the yearly calculations in his ledger. Athos bit back a curse when he realized there was a large discrepancy. Hadn't he just done them out loud with D'Artagnan last week? What could possibly account for such a large difference?

As if to answer his silent question, Raoul laughed in a breathy exhale…and not from where Athos had left him on the floor. Athos looked up and slowly turned his head around to the window. Raoul turned his head and cooed with a broad smile on his face as he tried to use the curtains to hide his face. A smile tugged on Athos' own lips, but he refused to find it funny.

"Get away from there."

Raoul squealed, fell on his bottom, and quickly became engrossed in swishing the curtains back and forth.

Athos calmly got up, retrieved his giggling son, and placed him back on his designated spot on the floor.

"No," he said as an afterthought. He turned around to walk back to his desk, but this time he didn't even sit down before he spied Raoul speed-crawling over to the window. In two paces Athos snatched the boy up again and put him back where he was. This time Athos crouched down, pointed a finger at Raoul, and said "Stay!"

Raoul looked at him like a deer in the woods. Then he grabbed his father's finger in his fist and smiled. Athos nearly groaned, but remained silent and tried pulling his finger free. Raoul latched onto it and refused to let go. "Boy," Athos warned. "Don't push your luck."

Raoul laughed and pulled on Athos' finger, thinking it a game.

Athos only smiled a little bit. He grabbed the bear on the floor next to Raoul and waved it in front of his son's face. "More interesting, yes?"

Raoul grabbed at it, but Athos held it out of Raoul's reach. Then he bumped the bear's fluffy head on his son's nose. The boy's reaction was one of pure delight. Athos smiled, kissed Raoul on the head, and crossed back to his desk. This time he did get to sit down and get back to his work… for two frustrating minutes before Raoul had yet again crawled over to the window and begun to tug on the poor curtains.

Athos dropped his pen and stood up in a huff. This time when he picked Raoul up he brought the boy over to the desk and sat him in his lap. Raoul didn't like it one bit. He squirmed and groaned and grunted to get loose, but Athos kept a firm hold of him while he looked over the boy's head at his work. Raoul started to whine and reach out with one of his little hands but Athos only readjusted his hold.

"No," he said.

"Da!"

"Tomorrow."

"Da-da!"

"It won't make him come any sooner so you may as well resign yourself to my company for the present."

Raoul was silent for a moment, then he pointed across the room. "Ba."

Athos didn't even spare the bear a glance. "You didn't want his company before."

"Balala!"

Athos rose with Raoul in one arm, reached down and grabbed the blanket with his other hand, and returned to his seat at the desk. Even with his beloved blanket in hand, Raoul didn't look the least bit happy. He whined and dropped the blanket, not even bothering to reach down for it. He looked back at the window and tried pushing his hands against the desk, as if he could somehow muster the strength to get loose from his father if only he could slip down to the floor. Athos paid him no mind.

Raoul started slapping his hand on the desk. And then he started slapping both hands on the paper and nearly got them wet with ink from the new calculations Athos had just done. Athos stopped writing and tried to make the boy stop, but he got a glance at the dry numbers where the boy's hand had been moments before. This time Athos did give in to the urge to groan out loud. He leaned back in his chair and thumped his head against the wooden back of it, chastising himself at his own idiocy.

Someone truly needed to come up with a better symbol to differentiate addition from subtraction.

Raoul turned around in Athos' arms and tried standing on Athos' lap, but couldn't quite manage it. Before the boy could get upset, Athos took him under the arms and helped him stand. Once Raoul was up he waved his arms and instead of trying to reach for the far away curtains again he grabbed his father's nose.

"Yes," Athos droned. "Your father is a fool."

"Papa, Dada."

"And for some reason, D'Artagnan loves me regardless."

"Don't play the innocent, Athos," D'Artagnan said with a smirk from the doorway. "It doesn't become you."

Raoul's reaction was loud and predictable. "Da!"

Athos looked over in surprise at D'Artagnan, then back at his son with a frown and chuckled.

D'Artagnan saw the look and crossed into the room and over to them both. "What?"

Athos shook his head, stood up with Raoul in his hands, and gave D'Artagnan a quick loving kiss before handing his impatient son over. "Curtains."

D'Artagnan frowned at him as he bounced a happy Raoul in his arms. "Curtains?"

Athos opened his mouth to explain, but Raoul beat him to it, pointing to the window curtains with a soft-spoken "Bwlanket."

A/N: The logic of babies. I've never known how to end this one, but I haven't been able to think up anything else, so for now that's all she wrote for that particular episode. More baby cuteness to come in other stories in this universe.