Hmm. Geralt bringing someone with him to Kaer Morhen is kinda viewed in the fandom as bringing home your girlfriend/boyfriend right?
And he is feeling that, very much thank you?
Before bringing the bard (which is very much showing a potential girlfriend/boyfriend to the family right) he gotta work up a nerve?
So every now and then he brings someone else? That’s not the bard?
Practicing to ask, right?
Practicing to share his space?
Practicing to handle the family?
Now, all Jaskier knows is that Geralt never asked him. And kept bringing others there. Hurtful, right?
But then he finally asks???? And Geralt is just nerves and super tense and, to be honest, Jaskier is not taking it well. In ten years he is the fourth to be invited.
Him?!? The best friend?!? Fourth?!
Of course he goe, but Geralt didn’t really understand the reaction? Like, it’s not the happy squeak Jaskier usually would give whenever Geralt relents? And the trek up is really rough and Jaskier understands why he didn’t ask before but. Fourth?!? For the best friend?!?
And when he gets to meet the family it’s all a super anticlimax, he already knows Lambert and Aiden. Eskel and Vesemir is fine company and Jaskier spends most of the winter sulking as he learns what previous winters with guests are like.
And finally, when spring is closing in he relents. Geralt has been looking like a kicked puppy for months. He still doesn’t understand why, actually neither of them understands the other's reaction.
The next winter, Geralt invites him again.
Jaskier lifts his eyebrows to this, but accepts. Why not? They were good company and honestly much less work than Oxenfurt or at court.
Lambert is smirking when he realizes Jaskier is back and punches Geralt's shoulder. Geralt is blushing and gruffing and telling Lambert to shut up. This year has a much friendlier feeling to it, but all of Geralt's brothers are smirking every time they see them together and Jaskier doesn’t understand why.
Then Geralt asks Jaskier to join him a third time. A third winter together.
This is when Jaskier is starting to feel really good about it. From what he learned of Lambert (the traitor, as Geralt calls him) Geralt never asked anyone twice.
This is also a year when Kaer Morhen actually is rather crowded. Triss and Yen also join them, together with a friend of Vesemir from the Bear school. Aiden is still there, and he brought another cat Witcher with him. Bedrooms are quickly disappearing and as they have done before, Geralt and Jaskier get to share a room.
Only, they never shared such a small room for so long before?
So one month in, they fight. And Jaskier rooms with Eskel instead.
And Geralt is desperately lonely, even though he may never admit it. It takes Eskel yelling at him and Aiden to drink him under the table to finally admit it to himself.
He knows why he invited Jaskier. He knows, and still pretends that he doesn’t.
Finally it’s the Bear Witcher who makes Geralt snap. Another night, another drinking session. Triss and Yen are sitting in a corner, smirking and enjoying themselves at Geralt's misery.
The bear witcher is not-so-very-subtly subtly hitting in on Jaskier. And Jaskier glares at Geralt (neither of them really have figured out why) and flirts back.
The Bear witcher's hand is on Jaskiers thigh, and Lambert can swear on his life that he hears the snap.
Geralt stands up, furious, and pulls Jaskier up from the couch and drags him out of the room.
They have another spectacular fight.
“Why does it matter to you Geralt?! He is not even from this school!”
A beat of silence, and they never speak of it again. But Jaskier moves back in Geralt's room.
Eskel says nothing the next morning when Jaskier comes for the few things he brought. Eskel never commented on why Jaskier still left most of his things in Geralt's room. They both know why anyway.
There is a certain freedom in the middle of the night. A friend at your back and the darkness to mask your vulnerability. Eskel knows.
Things are different now. A new kind of tense. The bear Witcher is awkwardly apologizing, scratching his neck and giving them both a disarming smile. He didn’t know, he says.
Geralt and Jaskier say nothing, because they can’t. The other is standing just there, and to talk about it is just not their thing.
They don’t talk about how their backs touch as they sleep. How it crackles under the skin when their fingers accidentally touch while handing over a plate, a book, anything.
They never mention the first time they wake up, Jaskier pressed against Geralt's back.
The others are finding this increasingly funny and annoying and most of all awkward. Frankly, it’s hard to be around the two of them. The Bear Witcher is once again our catalyst.
Spring comes and both our boys are cowards. Triss and Yen leave. Then Eskel. Both cat Witchers get called away. Geralt has decided that he wants the road down the mountain to be easier before they go down. Lambert stays because he is a little shit.
The Bear Witcher is about to leave, they have gathered to say goodbye by the gate. Lambert and the Bear (Geralt refuse to learn his name) are talking and then the burly man gives a roaring laugh, throwing his head back.
And when he bids them farewell he picks Jaskier up. Just like that. Gives his bum a squeeze and kiss him, a big fucking smooch right on the mouth.
And puts him down.
And then pats Geralt a shoulder and calls him an idiot.
Lambert is roaring with laughter when the Bear man gets back to him and Geralt is prepared to fight them. He clenches his fists and feels that hot jealousy going nowhere. It’s so time to talk about it.
However, we know them both to be fools.
So they. Don’t. Talk about it.
They actually avoid each other. Why? Who the fuck knows? (Vesemir knows, he has lived far too long for this). And at the earliest opportunity given, Vesemir it’s them out. He keeps Lambert for another few days, because that is drama he will not deal with. Not on his mountain.
You should know alcohol is the solution. Very much so. As Jaskier and Geralt part ways under the weirdest of terms, and with nothing but a hangover to show for it, there are stiff words.
Take care. Be safe. See you soon.
The fourth winter Geralt comes alone.
There is a Noble. Of course there is a Nobel. Jaskier caught their eye at a summer festival and they offered him obscene money for him to stay with them at their winter residence. And you do not deny a noble without seeing your head on a spike. So he accepts and promises to join them by the first snow.
But Jaskier is miserable. He acts as he usually does, all dashing colors and flourishing movements all autumn.
And he starts thinking. And writing, as is his outlet. And when they reunite, before Geralt can ask him, he tells him that he found winter lodgings this year.
And his heart fractures in his chest at Geralt's expression.
It takes them a week. It’s a starlit night, chilly but not cold. They sit by a crackling fire, close together for warmth.
And Geralt can’t stand it anymore.
He says nothing, doesn’t look up, just slips his hand into Jaskiers. Slender, slightly cold fingers between his own rough ones.
Jaskier smiles and looks at Geralt in the light of the fire. How things have changed, but also not.
They sit there like that for a while. And then Jaskier leans against Geralt's arm, laying his head on his shoulder. Geralt's other arm wrapping around his back. They need nothing else.
And when it’s time to sleep they push their bedrolls together. They face each other, and again, Geralt can’t stand it. He pulls the bard against his chest, tucking his head under his chin.
They fall asleep like that.
And in the morning they find their legs are tangled together. They share their first kiss, morning breath and all.
So yes, Geralt spends the fourth winter without his bard. But no winter there after.
