"What does he keep looking at?" Aramis muttered to Athos as Rochefort glared at them from across the room.
"Eurgh, I just hate him so much." Athos rolled his eyes, "What is his problem?"
"Guys! Enough of the chit-chat, let's actually do some climbing!" Louis persisted, nodding towards the climbing wall.
"Okay, we're going." Athos sighed.
"Rochefort! You too!" Louis called across the room.
"Are you kidding me?" Aramis mumbled, sighing. Rochefort walked over to the climbing wall and stood beside them,
"After you." Rochefort smirked. Aramis and Athos looked at him, confused.
"Okay..." Athos said, "You can go first." He turned to Aramis.
"Alright." Aramis stepped in front of them and began to climb up, Athos held the string attached to his harness, ensuring he didn't fall off.
"Whoo, Aramis! You go, boy!" Louis shouted, "Keep on climbing!" Glancing down to the strange counsellor, Aramis continued to climb until he reached the top.
"Well done, mate." Athos clapped from the bottom. As he started to climb down, his harness was pulled tighter. Curious as to what was going on, he looked down to see what was happening. Rochefort was holding the harness and yanking it, Athos was trying to grab it off him.
"Just give it back, you idiot." Athos called.
"I'm not doing anything wrong!" Rochefort defended.
"Guys?" Aramis called as the harness was yanked down and nearly pulled him off but they didn't notice his calls. As he started to get lower down Rochefort yanked the roped and pulled him off. Crashing his back onto the floor, Aramis quickly jumped up.
"What the hell was that for?" He groaned, pushing Rochefort back.
"What? I didn't do anything." Rochefort called, stepping back. "You should really be more careful though, I'm sure your family doesn't want to lose another member." Aramis was shocked at first, he couldn't believed what he'd just heard.
"Don't you dare." Aramis shouted, suddenly overcame with anger. He lunged forward to punch Rochefort but was quickly pulled away.
"Don't do it," Athos muttered, holding him back, "it's not worth it." Aramis pulled away and stormed out the hall, barging into Rochefort as he left and ignoring Louis' calls.
He didn't stop walking until he reached the middle of the forest, feeling overcome with overcome with sadness and anger he broke down and fell to the floor. The tears started to roll down his face and he couldn't stop, how dare Rochefort talk about his mum like that! His mum was his favourite person in the whole world and his world broke down when she passed away.
"Aramis?" Quickly drying his eyes and trying to cover up he had been crying, Aramis glanced up to see Athos standing nervously before him. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Aramis shrugged, trying to sound strong. Athos dropped to the floor beside him and stretched his arm around Aramis.
"What he said in there was disgusting. He had no right." Athos declared.
"It's okay, I wouldn't expect any more from him." Aramis muttered.
"I'm being serious though, we should say something to Treville." Athos proposed.
"No." Aramis started, "Please don't say anything."
"We really should though, that was horrible." Athos replies.
"No," Aramis shook his head adamantly, "you should've just let me punched him."
"And have you sent home for him?" Athos chuckled, "No."
"I guess." Aramis agreed.
"Are you sure you're okay though?" Athos asked after a little while.
"Yeah," he paused, suddenly not caring about trying to hide his crying, "can you see I've been crying?"
"A little bit," Athos shrugged, "but it's fine, everyone will be busy now anyway."
"Okay, thanks." Aramis gave him a small smile as he stood up, "You don't have to stay with me if you want, you can go back to rock climbing."
"No thanks, I'm not going back to Rochefort. We can just go to the dorm." Athos suggested.
"Sure." Aramis agreed, following Aramis out of the forest.
As they entered their dorm, they were surprised to see D'Artagnan laying on his bed,
"Hey." He smiled, glancing up, "What are you guys doing here? I thought you were doing rock climbing."
"We were," Athos started, "but," he paused, "I hurt my ankle so we had to come back." Aramis gave him a silent thank you.
"Oh, are you alright?" D'Artagnan asked.
"Yeah, I'm getting there." Athos sighed, throwing himself down onto his bed.
"What are you doing?" Athos asked, nodding towards D'Artagnan's bed which was covered in contents of his bag.
"I'm trying to find something, some socks." D'Artagnan confessed, "I know I packed some more but I can't find any."
"You've already run out of socks and it's only our second week?" Athos laughed.
"Haha." D'Artagnan replied sarcastically, "I'll just steal yours."
"No you won't." Athos ordered.
"Nah, I'll just take Porthos'." D'Artagnan joked, he turned to Aramis, "Are you alright, Aramis? You're very quiet."
"I'm fine." Aramis shrugged, forcing himself to smile. D'Artagnan smiled back but it was clear he didn't believe, he shot a subtle confused look to Athos but he just shrugged.
Right now, Aramis just wished to be alone.
"I don't know about you guys," Porthos groaned, "but I'm really tired, I want to go to bed."
"Yeah, I'm pretty tired too." Aramis agreed, "I'm just gonna change out of my clothes." He told them. He hid behind his bed and began to undress, quickly pulling his pyjama bottoms on, as he reached for his top, he realised he'd left it round on the other side. As he turned to get it, he heard Porthos gasped,
"Aramis, what is on your back?"
"What do you mean?" Aramis asked, trying to look over his shoulder.
"Jeez," D'Artagnan exclaimed, "that looks like it hurts."
"What?" Aramis asked, "What are you on about?"
"You've got a massive bruise on your back." Athos told him, "Go and look in the mirror." Aramis made his way over to the mirror and twisted his body so he could see his back. The boys were right, a large purple bruise was on the bottom if his spine.
Confused, he thought back on how he could have got it - the only time he had fallen on his back was when Rochefort had pulled him off the wall.
"How the hell did you do that?" Porthos asked.
"Erm..." Aramis started, he caught Athos' eye.
"He fell on his back earlier," Athos told them, "in rock climbing."
"Ow." D'Artagnan winced at the thought of it, "Was it that idiot Louis holding onto you?"
"Just tell them." Athos mouthed to them. Aramis sighed audibly,
"No, it was Rochefort."
"Rochefort?" Porthos asked, "What was he doing holding the rope?"
"He snatched it off of me." Athos explained.
"And pulled you off?" D'Artagnan asked, shocked.
"Yeah." Aramis shrugged.
"And you just let it him?" Porthos asked, looking in between Aramis and Athos in disbelief.
"Well, no..." Athos muttered, "That isn't all he did."
"What else did he do?" D'Artagnan asked, interested.
"He made a comment about my mum." Aramis said, D'Artagnan gave him a confused look, "She died." He told him.
"Oh," D'Artagnan mumbled, "what is wrong with him?"
"He's horrible." Porthos shook his head in disbelief.
"Aramis was gonna punch him but I pulled him away." Athos told them.
"You should've let him," Porthos told them, "that's exactly what he deserves."
"And that's why you came back early?" D'Artagnan asked, Aramis nodded. "I hope you're alright."
"Yeah, don't even think about it, mate." Porthos told him, "You are a million times better than he'll ever be."
"We're always here for you." Athos smiled.
"Thanks." Aramis gave them a small smile, "I think I'm gonna go to bed now."
