wip excerpt
a year after the confrontation on the mountainside, Geralt and Jaskier reuinte and agree to travel to the coast together
“We could - the coast.”
“... I suppose,” Jaskier agreed; Geralt had always thought of him as an open book, easier to read and even easier to dismiss. Loud, extravagant, superficial - but his expression now, sharp and blank and measured, was probably what had sat under every one of Jaskier’s gestures and songs and complaints since the moment they met. Geralt had never bothered looking closer, and had been taken in.
“I haven’t been,” Geralt offered, aware that it was a paltry peace offering, but lacking anything else. “And - new monsters, things we haven’t seen before. New stories, too - the traditions are different there. For your songs, and - and your poetry.”
“... Alright,” Jaskier agreed, eventually. “The coast, then.”
They agreed to meet at dawn in two day’s time; ample time for the farrier and the blacksmith and the apothecary to finish the orders Geralt had placed. What Jaskier did in that time, Geralt didn’t know - he didn’t see him, didn’t hear him, didn’t smell him. Given the tentative agreement they had reached, seeking out the bard unwarranted seemed like pushing his already fragile luck; nevermind that ever faint strain of lavender or sandalwood or wood polish turned his head, nostrils flaring. It had been a year since Geralt had smelt it last, after all.
excerpt from Part 1 of a longfic I have in the works :D