He was just sending a guest out when in the distance he saw Tréville headed in his direction. Aramis felt like a child caught stealing sweets. He slammed his door with as much politeness as he could muster around his mounting panic. Tréville had been exceedingly clear when he'd bellowed that he didn't want to see Athos, Porthos, Constance, and Aramis at all for a week, yet there he was storming down the street of Aramis' residence.

Of course he reacted the way any calm, rational being would in such a circumstance: he bolted the door, locked the windows, and hid in his wardrobe. But the longer he stood tucked away amidst the coats and finer articles of clothing, the more ridiculous he felt for hiding in his own home. He was raising a hand to push the wardrobe's door open when a demanding rapping rattled his front door.

"Aramis, I know you're here."

The marksman actually pushed himself deeper into his winter coats at the sound of Tréville's proximity.

"Aramis."

He swallowed hard and crept out of his hiding place to the door. Just as his hand met the latch, the door jumped once more under the force of Tréville's banging, and he leapt back in alarm.

"ARAMIS, if you don't open this door right now, I'll break it down!"

Aramis recovered his wits and scrambled to throw the door open and prevent Tréville from following through with his promise. "Captain."

"I don't suppose you're hiding the others here as well?"

"Sir?"

"The king wished to see you four and Constance, and he's given me two days to collect all of you. So if you know where they are, tell me now."

"Have you lost d'Artagnan?"

Tréville appeared thoroughly displeased by that suggestion, so Aramis quickly donned his coat, sash, and weapons belts before leaving with the Captain.

"Honestly I've no idea where they've gone, but I'm certain they all planned to leave Paris," Aramis confessed as he settled his hat on his head. His mind wandered for a moment, and a breathy chuckle escaped him before he could contain his amusement. When Tréville threw him a moody and questioning look, he knew he was in trouble. "If we'd known our absence would convince you to play hide and seek, we would have disappeared long ago."

"Believe me when I tell you that I'm only playing your stupid game because I want to see the look on Richelieu's face when the five of you show up on time. Otherwise I wouldn't bother."

The marksman smirked, not believing Tréville at all but choosing to remain silent, at least until he could share his revelation with his brothers.

After a quick trip to the garrison for their horses, Tréville and a still smug-looking Aramis headed for the city gates. As they passed beyond the city limits, a familiar figure appeared not far ahead. A smile spread across Aramis face at the sight of the familiar bandana and build of the rider.

"Porthos."

Tréville looked over at Aramis who pretended not to notice.

"This is the part where you tell him you've found him," the cheeky Musketeer informed his captain with a wink.

Groaning as he went, Tréville rode ahead to do just that. Aramis stayed behind until Porthos twisted in his saddle to find him, and then riding up to join them he offered a mock salute to his brother.

"Why are you so happy?" Porthos' eyes shone with a pleased sort of mischief. "You were found first."

Aramis frowned as if realizing this for the first time, but then shrugged it off. "Well you were found before Athos, so you didn't do particularly well either."

"If I'd known we were playin', I'd have been long gone."

"Gentlemen, if I have to listen to the two of you bicker the entire way, I will strangle you."

"He won't really," Aramis leaned over and told Porthos as they rode behind their leader. "He won't get to see the Cardinal's reaction if he kills us."

Tréville glared at them over his shoulder and urged his horse to greater speed when he heard Porthos loudly whisper, "Does he know where he's going?"

Eventually they came to a crossroads, and there they sat for a few minutes deliberating which way Constance or Athos would have taken (if they had gone in that direction from Paris, although Tréville insisted that they had and refused to elaborate on this hunch).

"His estate's that way," Tréville said and pointed to the road on their right.

"There's a splendid little vineyard down that road," Aramis mused, peering into the distance where the road on their left vanished on the horizon.

"Then he's gone ahead." Porthos' words were full of confidence, and the others looked at him with questions obvious in their eyes. "Well, he said he hadn't decided what he was going to do. Sounds to me like he was after an adventure."

Tréville considered this for no more than three seconds before taking the road ahead of them. The trio continued on in that direction until the afternoon light began fading from the sky; then they sought a suitable place to camp for the evening. It was during that search that Aramis spotted a small fire hidden among the trees off one side of the road.

"Bottle o' wine says that's Athos," Aramis bet as he nudged Porthos in the ribs with his elbow.

"Deal."

In the end Aramis was right. At first Athos looked unhappy to have been found after being promised a week of leave, but once he came to the same realization that Aramis had come to earlier (that is, that Tréville was playing hide and seek and that he was the last of his brothers to be found) he looked incredibly pleased, one side of his mouth rising in amusement.

"Who did you find first, Captain?" Athos looked between Aramis and Porthos and eagerly awaited the name of the day's greatest loser.

"Aramis," Tréville answered without looking away from his meal.

"That is interesting."

The marksman rolled his eyes; it would be some time before he lived this down. Thus he decided a change of topic was in his best interests. "How do you plan to find Constance?"

"I don't. I left a note at her house. God only knows where that woman's gone off to, so I thought if I could find the rest of you, I would have, at the very least, found the individuals I'm actually responsible for."

"Aramis, I bet you that bottle of wine Constance shows up at the palace tomorrow."

"My dear Porthos, only a fool bets against Constance Bonacieux."

Early in the afternoon of the next day, Tréville, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis arrived at the palace and found d'Artagnan and Constance already there and waiting for them.

"Constance wins," Athos purred, causing d'Artagnan to tilt his head to one side in a silent question.

"It's nothing, lad," Porthos told him and walked with the Gascon into their audience with the king.

When the king demanded the Musketeers and Constance walk with him in the gardens and tell him how they'd managed to complete their mission when others had failed. As the party filtered out of the hall, Tréville locked eyes with Richelieu whose nostrils were flaring and his mouth was set with sour displeasure. The Musketeer Captain dipped his head in a hollow gesture of respect to the First Minister before taking his leave of the palace grounds.