Madeleine Delbené

Je suis Madeleine. I heal, I snark, I keep Athos in line.

[thequeenrexx]

Colorful, witchy aesthetics for spooky season 🎃🔮

[babesoftheblade]

[lebelledamemadeleine]

My brother is hella gay and insanely in love with his best friend, and if you hurt them, I will find you and make you wish it was the Spanish Inquisition.

❤🧡💛💚💙💜

Love you, Rene.

@capitaineathos

[capitaineathos]

A Letter from Aramis to his Sister

(Letting Aramis muse free to write a reply to @lebelledamemadeleine, his sister and Athos’ lover)

Dearest Maddie,

The good news is that La Rochelle has fallen. I write to you from our campsite and shall be sending this letter to you with our fastest rider. Within a day or two, you shall know that we have been victorious and are on our way back to Paris. We travel slowly; we hope to be there within a week. It is so nice to be able to breathe again; away from the smoke and gunpowder and the constant threat of death looming over our heads. The air is so fresh out here in the countryside, and the stars shine so bright. Each time I look up at the moon, I know that you will be looking at it too and I almost feel like I am home. It will be so good to see you after all this time, hermana. Te he echado de menos mucho.

I hope you have not been worrying about me all this time, Mads. I know how you can be. I hope it eases your mind to know that my nights have not been spent alone. A certain dearest friend of mine has held me through the nightmares and kept me safe through the battles of arms and of mind. I have confided many things to him over these past months, and he has confided many to me. You understand that I cannot share these here, but I can tell you that we have grown even closer than before.

Now, I know you better than to even attempt to hide any bad tidings from you, and so I shall just be frank; our dear friend Athos has been injured. That is the reason why our unit travels so slowly - we fear for his injuries if we move any quicker. And yet, he desperately needs to be home, where we have the proper methods of healing his wounds. I have done my best with what we have, but my abilities are nowhere near yours, dear sister. I do not see the point of trying to keep you from worrying, as I know that you will in any case, so it shall be more beneficial to relay the events of that evening to you, so that you may be prepared.

It was the final push to La Rochelle. Enemy soliders were falling back, all were taking refuge inside the city. We could not breach the gates, but they were quickly running out of food. We knew that the end was near. However, our ever impetuous young pup was growing impatient. He wanted the seige to end more quickly. Much as he has grown into his role as a Musketeer and has learned to follow orders for the most part, he still has a wild streak in him. It can be his greatest asset, but it can also be his greatest downfall.

Whilst on patrol, our Gascon friend found an unguarded entrance to the city, through a sewer grate. Taking it upon himself, he entered and found himself caught in an ambush. Athos, of course, took it extremely hard when he heard that D’Artagnan had been captured. Seeing no other option, he offered our enemies an exchange; himself - the second in command of our unit, surpassed only by Captain Treville - for the hotheaded farmboy who was of no tactical use to them. Oh, if only they had known exactly how tactical their lucky capture had been, as there was no better way to get under our Athos’ skin. So, of course, our enemies agreed, and we had to stand helplessly as Athos entered La Rochelle. D’Artagnan was returned to us, unharmed other than his pride, and furious that Athos had risked himself for him.

We knew we had little time, and quickly rallied our troops to breach the gates. We knew it would cost many casualties, but what choice did we have? The entire operation could have been in danger with Athos as a captive. And even if it wasn’t, Musketeers do not abandon their own.

It took much effort, but we finally breached the gate and began our search for our friend. The enemy troops were ready for us, and it was a long and bloody fight. By the time we had finally cut a path through the enemy and made our way inside, we were already too late. We found Athos in the dungeons; chained, bruised and bloodied. I assume they had tried to extract information from him, though we haven’t been able to rouse him enough to find out if that is the case. A shot had been fired into his abdomen, and he’d been left for dead.

I was able to remove the bullet, and I have stiched and cleaned his wounds as well as I can. He seems to be stable for now, but I still fear the infection may come, and we do not have much medicine here.

I am truly sorry that my writings bring you such dreadful news, but I am hopeful that he will survive; so long as we take the journey carefully and monitor him for any signs of the fever. I pray to God for him every morning, and every evening as I watch over him. I trust no-one else to watch him; only Porthos, D’Artagnan, Treville and myself. And I fear for the boy - he has not been himself since Athos was taken. I try to speak with him whenever I can, but it does not help. He hardly sleeps, and he refuses to leave our friend’s side. I do not know what else I can do…

I truly hope that all has been well for you, hermana, and I truly look forward to seeing you again soon. Hopefully, the news will be better in our next correspondence.

Your brother,

Aramis

[lebelledamemadeleine]

Upon receiving her brother's letter, Maddie hung her head with a heavy sigh. "God dammit, those four idiots will be the death of me."

[lebelledamemadeleine]

A Letter to Athos from His Lover

(Because the amazing @capitaineathos wrote a thing for me, my character Maddie had to respond. Love ya, dear.)

My dear Athos,

That I have slept four nights without a disturbance should be of more comfort than it is. Instead it is a reminder that you and the others are so far away. There is only a skeleton contingent left in the garrison to perform daily maintenance tasks. I believe Constance and I have cleaned the infirmary more thoroughly than it has ever been cleared before. It is a harsh reminder that all is not right.

It is too quiet, too still. I expect every moment to feel your arms around me, your breath at my ear, distracting me from my work. I brace for it, I wait for it, but it doesn’t come. Then I am reminded of where you are, my darling, and I wish to forget. I pray to any god that will hear my prayer that you return to me safely. It is, of course, the prayer of all partners and lovers and wives of soldiers, to have their men home safely to them, but it is not a prayer I have ever offered before. Not before you, my dearest Athos.

I find myself reaching for you in the night, our bed too cold for just one. I look for you in the garrison, I listen for you in the courtyard, I expect you every minute to be at my door, watching me like I am the most beautiful creature the gods have ever put upon the earth. How often I have rebuked you for saying such things, though now I would welcome them, for it would mean my beloved is home.

Make no mistake, my love; I do not begrudge you your soldier’s life. I understood what I was accepting in loving a Musketeer; indeed I had resigned myself to it long before I knew you returned my love. I accepted that I would have to be near you, touching your skin and tending your wounds, without a word of my feelings for you. I did not hide them well, as you know. I do not think it was more than a week before Aramis’ teasing began. But when I learned you felt for me as I did for you, I allowed myself to hope.

I am a marked woman, Athos. I have been since I was barely out of my youth. You have remarked the scars on my neck before, and I know they bother you with memories of the one before me… Were it not for Treville, I believe I would not have been allowed to remain with the Musketeers. I doubt very highly that a heretic would have been tolerated. Yet at the garrison, I do not feel judged or unwelcome, and even less do I feel it in your arms.

My dearest love, you complete something in me that I did not know needed completion. Were all of France against me, I would feel safe if you were by my side. I miss you so terribly and want nothing more than to see you ride into the garrison, safe and sound. I have paused many times in this letter to watch the horizon, believing I heard the sound of hooves approaching.

Please come home soon, my Athos. I have loved you for ages, and I love you more every day. My heart is with you until you return.

Always and forever,

Your Maddie

[capitaineathos]

Treville, at the start of every mission; “Be good, pack some fruit, and Aramis, for the love of God, keep it in your pants!

[grimmeriemoved-deactivated20250]

Narrator: Unfortunately, Aramis did not keep it in his pants.

[enigma-the-mysterious]

[sadiehope]

[penguinpickleposts-deactivated2]

[capitaineathos]

[lebelledamemadeleine]

D'Artagnan, for his part, wondered why they expected anything different.

[capitaineathos]

A letter from Athos to his lover

(Ok, so I don’t normally write canon/oc stuff for my tumblr or my fic accounts, but Maddie is a character of my dear friend Mimi, @zeonlymimi, and I wanted to do a little something to make her smile ^-^” We rp together and Athos absolutely adores this partner, so this piece of writing was born, I guess XD)

My dearest Madeleine,

My heart aches for being parted from you. This seige is long, the days filled with the dull monotony of repetitive tasks. We see little action, you will be thankful to know, yet we yearn for it. We are soldiers, unaccustomed to such boredom.

How I wish you could be here with me, though I would never wish to place you in such danger as there is on a battlefield. I have thought of you every day since I left. In the stars I see your eyes, and on the wind I hear your voice. My one light in a world of darkness, my life seems somewhat colder without you by my side. I had almost forgotten how that felt.

Though I had truly believed that I could never love again, how thoroughly my heart has been broken, I now can hardly imagine my life without you. Your gentle hands soothe my soul and mend my wounds. Your kisses lift the burden of sorrow I carry upon my heart. My heart that now belongs to you.

For I love you, Maddie. I love you with all my heart and soul. Your eyes that speak so much more than words ever could, your eyes that I lose myself in every time you glance my way. The way you smile lights a warm fire inside of me, makes me want to smile too. Even the way we bicker, the way you shake your head and call me fool, I cannot regret a moment. For I am a fool. A fool in love. A fool who loves so deeply that it is all consuming. I entrust you with everything I am, my love, and only pray that you can love me in return.

I will come home to you soon, my dearest heart. We hope to take La Rochelle within the week, and then we shall return to Paris. How I wish it could be sooner, but I cannot abandon my brothers. I know you understand. But I long to hold you in my arms again, to feel your skin beneath my fingers and assure myself that you are not a dream. You are an angel sent from heaven, and sometimes I can hardly believe that you were meant for me. Yet here you are. And when you lay in my arms in the darkness, when you sleep so soundly, smile so serenely, when I can hear the beat of your heart in the silence, I know that I am not alone.

I am sending all of my love to you, sweet Madeleine, and I hope that you will spare a thought for me as you read this. I pray that we all make it through this final battle and that I may return to you. And if I do not, I pray that you think fondly of me, as a man who loved you as dearly as any man could.

Forever, your Athos

[zeonlymimi]

Insert ugly-crying Maddie here