Father's Day

Disclaimer: I don't own the musketeers... though I wish I did. *sighs*

Here's a small one-shot of an idea I had last night in honour of Father's Day! (Let's say there actually was such thing as Father's Day in the 17th century!)

Set in early season 3.

This is also my entry for the June Fete des Mousquetaires competition "Fathers."

Hope you enjoy!

Father's day. A day the musketeers would rather forget.

It was difficult to even think of this date when none of them had fathers. D'Artagnan's had died in his arms the day before he arrived in Paris, Porthos' had turned out to be a horrible man who had neither cared for his mother or himself, and both Aramis and Athos had broken contact with their fathers years ago. They could be dead for all they knew, but to be quite honest they didn't care.

It wasn't that the musketeers hated the idea of a day where you could spend a nice time with your father, it was the idea that they had no fathers to spend it with. The day was considered just a normal day for them.

Until now.

"Lemme see it," Porthos said.

The four musketeers were sat around a table in the tavern, drinks in their hands as they talked.

Athos nodded at the musketeer before pulling a long object out from underneath the table and placing it in front of him. It was covered with a purple cloth, which Aramis pulled away to reveal what was under it.

"Athos! It's beautiful," the priest said as he leant closer, inspecting the object and grinning. "He's going to love this."

Athos chuckled. "He better, it cost us way too much to get it done."

D'Artagnan nodded, grimacing. "I'm going to have to live on what's left of Constance's plate for the rest of the year."

"That's alright for you, we don't 'ave wives to do that," Porthos grunted, but nevertheless his eyes were glinting with happiness as he looked at what was sat in the middle of the table.

"Whoever you had make this has a lot of talent," Aramis said, and the others nodded in agreement.

The four stayed silent for a while, each lost in their thoughts as they drank and studied the object.

"You don't think its weird though, right? Us doing this?" d'Artagnan asked, looking around the table.

Aramis shook his head. "Of course not. We're doing what any normal person does on Father's Day."

Treville hadn't had much luck finding love in his life. There had been many women of course – he admitted that he was much like Aramis when he was his age – but he had never found the one.

The captain of the musketeers would have loved to have children of his own. He always had, and he believed that one day he would. But he had his musketeers, so he could hold off that for a while.

Athos, Aramis and Porthos had been like his sons for almost thirteen years. He took them in and trained them to be the soldiers they were. He loved them, and he had no shame in admitting that. D'Artagnan had come into his life later than the other three, though he took no time at all for him to take his rightful place as Treville's fourth adopted son.

However, despite all this, it was a surprise to him when they suddenly walked into his office one afternoon while he was busy signing documents.

They filed into the room, looking a bit nervous yet excited at the same time.

Treville narrowed his eyes as he set the quill down and leant back in his chair, crossing his arms and tilting his head slightly as he looked at the men in front of him.

"What have you done now?" he asked.

The four looked at each other, before Athos revealed the cloth-covered object behind him and stepped forward, placing it on the captain's desk.

Treville looked up at Athos. "What's this?"

"Happy Father's Day," d'Artagnan spoke up from behind them.

The smile that slowly grew on Treville's face could not have been any bigger.

"Really?" the captain asked through his grin, standing up and walking around to the other side of the desk.

"Really," Aramis replied as he, Porthos and d'Artagnan walked forward to stand next to Athos.

"You're the only father we've got left Treville," Porthos said, "and we wanted to thank you for ev'rything you've done for us."

Treville looked down at the object on the desk and removed the cloth once he got a nod and a smile from Athos.

What was underneath the cloth took his breath away. It was a sword. A long, gleaming sword with beautiful designs running down the length of the metal. The handle was a rose gold colour, with striking jewels studded around the bottom. The captain picked the sword up and held it out in front of him, marvelling at the beauty of the weapon. Peering closer, he noticed a small infinity sign that had been engraved in the metal at the top underneath the handle. He turned to look at the musketeers behind him.

"To show that our love for you is limitless, as soppy as that sounds," Aramis said with a smile, motioning towards the sword.

Treville set the beautiful object down on the desk, stroking his finger up the smooth metal before turning and immediately enveloping Athos into a hug. The usually serious musketeer smiled and wrapped his own arms around his captain. Treville drew back, and Athos could see tears welling at the bottom of his eyes before he turned and grabbed both Aramis and d'Artagnan into a tight embrace, patting them both on the back. He took Porthos into the next hug, smiling as he felt the musketeer's chuckle rumble against his shoulder.

Drawing back, Treville looked at all three and smiled widely. "Thank you, you don't know how much this means to me."

Porthos shook his head. "We're only doing what any other sons would do for their father," he said with a shrug and a grin.

Treville nodded. "And I couldn't ask for anything more. I always thought I was stupid for not getting a wife and having children of my own, but I realize now that I didn't do that because I know in my heart I have already found my family. I need nothing more."

The five spent the rest of the day together, joking around and reminiscing old memories.

It was true that their blood fathers were gone, but they had something better.

They had Treville.

I wasn't entirely sure what happened to Aramis and Athos' fathers. I have this thing nagging at the back of my brain that Aramis' father wasn't very nice to him, so maybe I've heard that somewhere..? But I'm not too sure about Athos.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed!

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there! Please review :) ~ Gre3nleaf