Jaskier learned early on that loving Geralt meant learning restraint.
Not because Geralt didn't care. Jaskier had never doubted that, not really. But witchers weren't made for casual touches, for absent-minded affection. So Jaskier kept his hands mostly to himself. He settled for brushing shoulders, for bumping knees by the fire, for smiles instead of embraces. He loved Geralt quietly, in the language Geralt understood.
One evening, the tavern was loud enough to shake the rafters. Jaskier stood in the middle of it all, frowning at his lute as he carefully tuned a stubborn string. Patrons called his name, tankards clinked, someone shouted for another song.
Geralt strode in, mud on his boots and fresh scratches across his armor.
"Contract done," he grunted as he walked past.
Jaskier looked up with a grin. "Welcome back. I'll just fin-"
"All right, I'll be up in-"
Without a word, he slipped two fingers beneath Jaskier's chin, tilting his face up. In front of half the tavern, in front of merchants, drunks and the serving girls who'd been flirting shamelessly with the bard all evening, Geralt leaned down and kissed him.
It wasn't hurried. It wasn't passionate.
Just deep enough to linger. Sweet enough to steal every coherent thought from Jaskier's head. Chaste enough that it somehow made it infinitely worse.
When Geralt pulled away, he rested his forehead there for the briefest heartbeat.
Jaskier remained exactly where he'd been left, one hand still gripping a tuning peg.
The tavern had gone suspiciously quiet.
Someone else whispered, "Did... did the White Wolf just kiss him?"
Jaskier stared after Geralt with the expression of a man who had just witnessed magic.
He had graduated Oxenfurt with highest honors.
He had debated philosophers, charmed kings, survived djinns, dragons, and destiny itself.
And yet, in that moment, he could not have told anyone his own name.
His lute gave an offended twang as the string he'd been tuning snapped.
"...I think," he said faintly, "I've forgotten how lutes work."
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