Work Text:
Antoine Saint-Just burst into the bathroom and quickly swept Maximilien Robespierre into his arms. His eyes were already wet with tears knowing what his friend had done. With a heavy heart, he felt the weight of Maximilien's limp body, cradling him like a helpless child. Panic surged through his veins as he stepped into the hallway, shouting for a medics and a doctor.
Antoine had been in the Committee room when it happened-- when Maximilien had simply snapped. With the false public accusations of him and the guilt of not being able to save his friend Camille Desmoulins from the guillotine, the pain was simply too much. He heard the sound of breaking glass-- heard Maximilien's soft pleas to no longer feel the stinging pain of his loss.
He had no room for such emotions on his run. Everything was a blur-- the grey walls, the steady streams of people coming and going, the muffled chatter from inside the Committee Room washed away the further he ran, all submerged in a deluge of guilt and sorrow. He was sure that Maximilien would have wanted the same. He clung tighter to his friend, even as his steps echoed down the hallway, desperately holding onto the illness that eventually claimed him.
The hospital didn't seem to have a light in sight, yet Antoine ran faster, faster, until the noises were muffled and distant; until he finally crashed through the hospital entryway, burdened with the weight of Maximilien's loss.
The medical staff rushed around him in a flurry, but all Antoine could do was sit there with his friend in his arms. He wept, his heart heavy with grief and sorrow, the hollowed out space left by Maximilien growing ever larger with every passing second.
This was the end. This was the end of a man who had meant so much, but who had been so quickly taken away. This was a tragedy, a black mark on the page of history, a slippery slope downwards that could never be turned around.
But if Antoine had had one wish, it would have been for Maximilien Robespierre-- his friend, his companion, his trusted ally-- to never have had to suffer such pain.