So it's currently 20 to 4 in the morning and I've read the whole fanfic in one sitting... as always, your writing blows me away and keeps me hooked until the last chapter. I found myself reading through my fingers as d'Artagnan made so many "mistakes" in the first few chapters, then grinning like an idiot at the screen at all the lovely, brotherly moments (especially between Athos and d'Artagnan, those are my favourite brotherly moments). The way you capture emotion through your writing is just beautiful. As always, a pleasure to read, and I look forward to your next story.

Came late to this story but followed it dutifully over the last chapters. Very well done.

Nice ending !
I agree with the boy, dying was probably the best thing Richelieu could do at this point of the story

The Cardinal's death solved this situation... but before he died he ordered to silence all persons involved in this. Jalousy is a bad trait... indeed!

Thank you for this wonderful story! :)

I really enjoyed this story and I'm certainly looking forward to whatever you decide to share next!

Great story, thanks for sharing

Well done, I recognised The cuckoos calling from the TVs mini series. Thank you so much for this thoroughly enjoyable fanfic. Merry Christmas.

Well, you certainly met the challenges set before you. A nice early Christmas gift in the ending.

Now...where will you take us next? Looking forward to further endeavors of our boys.

Superb.
Merry Christmas

I did enjoy this story very much, especially characterisation and all that awesome brotherhood. Thanks for writing it and a merry Christmas to you as well.

Porthos-tiger is awesome!

'Grudgingly' or otherwise, Treville is lucky any of his Musketeers forgave his gross mistake that nearly cost their youngest his life. He may be their Captain, but is also a fellow brother-in-arms, so that means no secrets. He carried enough of those around after Savoy, didn't he learn anything from all that? And he didn't really expect the guys to not tell Athos, did he? 'Cause that would be just foolish on his part.

Waaaait a minute here... just wait; LeTit is has been dead 'weeks ago' and it just now occurs to Treville to tell the guys?

Apparently Aramis' mind is as great as mine, 'cause he just asked the same question I did. Good. Although I'm not sure Trevilles answer suffices. The Musketeers may not be able to talk back to Treville as they'd like, but I sure can.

Treville may acknowledge his 'mistake' and hope he 'won't soon repeat' it, but he hasn't exactly asked for forgiveness, either. So the slates not clean as far as I'm concerned.

Aww, ya mean they can't go pay their respects to the Cardinal? Oh darn.

Happy Birthday once again to AZgirl and isn't it wonderful that we all got to enjoy her present, too!

That is amazing! You got everything in and it was effortless. Merry Christmas! Looking forward to more in the New Year

Least the hosers are dead! and d'Artagnan and Athos are back to where they need to be.. giggling you nailed the book refrences oh sooooooooooooooooo well!.. Cant wait till the next fic :-)

Wonderful fic it was!

And you sure succeeded in including all the prompts very impressively: wow!

Thanks for sharing and Joyeux Noël, chère!
:-)

List: Would have loved to be a fly on the wall with the discussion between Treville and Athos re not warning of danger to d’Artagnan; reminder that LeTit got away; Riout squandering his second chance; Evidence linking attack on d’Art coming too late to condemn the Cardinal in this life. Hope he’s having fun in Purgatory!; Cardinal seeking revenge over an embarrassment; Athos jinxing their lives by saying the world is safer just because the Cardinal is dead; End of awesome story.

Awesome: Descriptions of the 3 older Inseparables standing at attention; Imagining Porthos as a lazy tiger; Treville detecting in d’Art how he has changed since joining the Musketeers; Athos having forgiven (mostly) Treville for not warning about danger to d’Art; Dead perpetrators!; Love that LeTit was killed in a card game; Riout finally matching his nickname of DieOut – yay!; Prompt almost complete, now 3 out of 4; Evidence linking attack on d’Art to Cardinal; Poor d’Art singled out because he embarrassed the Cardinal; Prompt completely filled, 4 out of 4! Yay!; Aramis’s comment about the Cardinal as a man of God; Athos giving d’Art a brief side hug! Thanks for fitting that in!; Getting to miss paying respects to the Cardinal’s corpse; Athos’ concern for d’Art’s well-being; d’Art saying “I’m fine” and it actually being true by most everyone’s definition; Hand pat and grin ending; d’Art’s confidence that Athos would be there for him; Awesome longer than the List; Awesome endings to awesome stories!

Thank you so much for writing me this birthday story! I never thought it would be this long and appreciate you taking the time out to do it! And thank you for working in my prompts - even the difficult one! I guess I have my work cut out for me on that one for next year. No pressure, but I look forward to your next story. Thanks again!