Pour another round

[aspecialkindofwoman]

There are many descriptors that can be applied to Milady deWinter. Perhaps the most important is the term survivor.

She will always do what she needs to do to survive. She's not surprised that things turned out how they did. Not really. She has learned to expect the worst.

But here she is back in this place. This strange, modern place where she can, if she wants, be anything she wants to be. Milady supposes now is the time to figure that out. Surely, it's only a matter of time before Athos lives through what she has. Will he still want her?

Someone will. Surely.

She sits at the hotel bar, draining one glass of sharp, bitter alcohol and signalling for another, her skirt - the finest Parisian silk - covering the barstool, the curve of her shoulder gleaming in the low light.

Comments

[armedagainstlove]

Athos kisses her deeply as he comes, feeling like his whole world has fallen away. He closes his eyes as he lets the pleasure wash over him, bliss filling him up with every passing second. He collapses, curling up next to her, and staying inside. "I have missed that."

[aspecialkindofwoman]

So has Anne, though she can't bring herself to say the words: it's too revealing. Instead, she holds him close, arms and legs around him as she kisses his cheek.

[armedagainstlove]

Athos buries his face in her neck with kisses, his body shaking as if he's experiencing withdrawal the likes of which he hasn't in years. "I don't suppose now is the time to talk?"

[aspecialkindofwoman]

Ah, if they could put it off indefinitely, Anne would. She sighs, too, but turns her head to look at him, still holding him as he shakes. "What do you want to know?" she asks, voice low.

[armedagainstlove]

"What it is you aren't telling me," he says, idly playing with strands of her hair as they lie there, comfortable on bedding that Athos doesn't have back in the war.

[aspecialkindofwoman]

After a long moment spent studying the new lines in Athos's face, Anne says, "there is someone else."

He may think she speaks for herself, but her expression will tell him otherwise. He loves someone else, not her.

[armedagainstlove]

"For you? Or for me?" Athos wonders, thinking that if she is the one who's moved on, he's not sure he wants to know what man she's cheating on with him.

[aspecialkindofwoman]

"You," Anne replies, her face an dd mix of defensiveness, hurt and longing. She cannot move on, no matter how she tries. She will never be free.

[armedagainstlove]

"Ah." In the midst of war, he cannot imagine meeting anyone else, so something must have changed. He gives her a curious look and strokes his fingers through her hair, slowly. "I assume this is in Paris?"

[aspecialkindofwoman]

In reply, Anne nods. Yes, Paris. "How much do you wish to know?" she asks, eyes taking in his face. If this is the last time they are to be like this, she wishes to remember each moment. "Of your future? For, surely, you'll live it soon enough." Can it be changed, she wonders?

[armedagainstlove]

"Not for some time, I presume. It's only been two years since I last saw you. Porthos says it's been longer," he points out, which means there are a great many months to spend in between. And that is if he returns, which he knows he must, but cannot help but wonder if they could not solve it by vanishing into another door.

[aspecialkindofwoman]

"Stay with me," she finds herself whispering, hands tightening on his skin again. "Will you? Stay with me."

[armedagainstlove]

"Here?" he asks. For there are many doors and he thinks, perhaps, maybe there is even one that he could find back to Paris and the war, but they could write a future. "Or can you follow the door and come back to Paris, but earlier. Find me," he coaxes. "And then it will be us."

[aspecialkindofwoman]

Is that possible? Could that work?

"Would you have me? Captain of the Musketeers ... as your wife?" she asks, both wry and curious and wanting all at once.

[armedagainstlove]

"If you were to truly be reformed, then yes," Athos says, watching her cautiously and giving her a look that says he expects a great deal from her. "Anne, you would have to repent on the past. And if the slate were to be unclean, I don't know that I could protect you."

[aspecialkindofwoman]

"I to - "

Anne swallows the words back, biting back her bitterness of the accusation. She had fully intended on being a new woman. Then Athos hadn't come, or had missed her at the crossroads. Then she had done what she needed to, to survive.

"If I can be your wife, truly, I'll do it."

She can do this. She can be good.

[armedagainstlove]

He nods and buries his face in her hair. "I will work to change, too," he vows, though he knows that the majority of support is going to have to come from her, given her past. He will have to work to support her, but that will be no hardship. "I will give you what you need."

[aspecialkindofwoman]

Perhaps it's just shock on her face; is this really happening?

Surely, this can't work. But Anne wants it enough to grab it and hold it with both hands.

She leans up, kissing him fervently, then holding close. Perhaps. Just ... perhaps.