This is my Bog Exchange fic! I finally finished! This is for the lovely @herostag I hope they like it!
Special thanks to Dani and Doug for beating my grammar with a stick. Ily <3
This is 2.9K words of idiots being idiots during the plague. Just pure fluff, no CW here. Modern Au.
1. Geralt had finally had enough of Jaskier complaining about all the takeout they had been consuming since everything had gone on lockdown, so here he was, watching a pot of noodles cook while Jaskier was in the living room weeding his island in Animal Crossing for the third time that week. He stirs the spaghetti around before grabbing a second pot and the jar of pasta sauce that he had bought at some point in the last few years. Geralt pours the sauce into the pot, throws some Italian seasoning in and hmms at the consistency before ladling some pasta water into the sauce to thin it out slightly. “Dinner’s almost ready” Geralt softly calls to Jaskier before going back to his noodles, fishing one out to check the doneness. Geralt bites into it and makes a face at the sweetness as Jaskier walks into the kitchen.
“Everything all right there?” Jaskier inquires, coming over to look into the pots on the stove.
“Hmmm, I think so. Taste this?” Geralt fishes another noodle out to hand over to Jaskier, who eats it with a hum.
“That doesn’t taste right,” Jaskier says thoughtfully. “But I don't know enough about cooking to dispute it.”
Geralt hums again, “Think it will be fine?”
Jaskier just shrugs and goes to set the table, leaving Geralt to finish putting the meal together. Geralt tilts his head at the pots on the stove before pulling out his phone to text Eskel ‘is pasta supposed to be sweet when cooking?’
While waiting for a reply, Geralt drains the noodles and dumps them into the sauce to stir them in before his phone rings with a call from Eskel.
“You tried a noodle and it tasted sweet?”
“Yeah, is it supposed to be like that?”
There is a moment of silence where Lambert can be heard laughing in the background before Eskel replies, “Are you sure you put salt in the water?”
“Yeah, poured a bunch of salt in there like you said to.”
Eskel hums, “Are you sure it wasn't sugar? Did you make sure to taste it first?”
The silence on Geralt's side is telling, and Lambert can be heard dying in the background.
“Thanks Eskel,” Geralt says before hanging up and staring down at the pot of sugared spaghetti.
“Hey Jask, how do you feel about getting takeout again?”
Jaskier sighs, “What happened?”
Geralt blushes “I… I may have put sugar in the water instead of salt…”
“I put some of the pasta water in the sauce to thin it.”
Jaskier starts giggling, “G-Geralt... noooo.”
Geralt sighs, wearily turning off the stove. “So takeout?”
“Yeah, takeout is fine. Whatever you feel like.”
Geralt hums and pulls up the delivery app, “Sorry, Jask.”
Jaskier sidles up to him, giving him a half hug, “Thanks for trying.” He leans fully into him so he can see Geralt's phone as they order.
2. A while into quarantine, Jaskier decided he needed some greenery in his life, since he couldn’t leave the house. This led Jaskier to order himself a cute little cactus from a local nursery for the next time they order a grocery pick up. Talking Geralt into stopping by the shop on the way back from the store proved easier than Jaskier had anticipated. Geralt had begrudgingly agreed after hours of Jaskier’s pouting and puppy eyes wearing him down.
Jaskier dances around the apartment with his new treasure before placing it on the sunny windowsill in their living room. Geralt rolls his eyes but smiles at his roommates' antics, “You do know how to take care of it don’t you?”
Jaksier pouts at him, “It’s a cactus, how hard can it be! I just water it every so often and bam, beautiful thriving mini Geralt!”
Geralt huffs at him, grabbing a controller for their gaming console, “You promised I could destroy you at Mortal Combat if we picked up the plant.”
“Yes, yes Geralt I’m coming, just let me water my precious child.”
Weeks later, Little Geralt starts looking a bit droopy, causing Jaskier to water him, but unfortunately Jaskier does not account for his ADHD and lack of calendar filling out, and proceeds to water the poor cactus every day for the next two weeks, water logging and eventually killing poor Little Geralt.
Once Jaskier realizes, he cries to Geralt only a little and has a funeral for the cactus as he throws it away, being the absolute most dramatic about it as possible. Geralt just rolls his eyes at the antics and adds a new plant to the order list to pick up the next time they have their outing to go get groceries.
Jaskier gives Geralt the biggest hug when he realises they’re heading to the plant store and talks excitedly about how determined he is to to not kill Little Geralt the Second; Geralt just rolls his eyes half heartedly but helps Jaskier set up a calendar to keep track of when he’s watered the cactus. This works for about a month before Jaskier gets busy and forgets about his little plant, frying on the windowsill, until Geralt notices about three months later.
“Hey Jask, your cactus is looking a bit… shriveled.”
Jaskier rushes into the living room “NO!” He yells as he slides to a stop on his knees before the dried up little plant “Noooooooo, Little Geralt the Second, nooooo!” he shakes his fists at the ceiling.
Geralt pats his shoulder comfortingly, “At least it lived longer this time.”
Jaskier shakes his head with a sigh. “I’m a terrible plant parent.”
Geralt hmms consolingly, “We can get you another. I’ll try to help you keep better track of it this time.”
Jaskier nods, “Thanks Geralt,” and picks up his dead plant to go throw it out.
Geralt just hmms and pulls up the pick-up list on his phone to add a new little cactus.
Three months later, Little Geralt the Third is thriving in its place on the windowsill, happily soaking up the sun on a bright spring day as a breeze comes through the window. Jaskier dances around the living room, vacuuming and dusting as Geralt cleans the kitchen of the previous night’s actually decent attempt at cooking. Jaskier sings along to ABBA, twirling with his duster mic when disaster strikes poor Little Geralt the Third. Jaskier swirls too close to the window and pops his hip at just the wrong time and the plant wobbles before being pushed off the edge and falls three stories down to the concrete sidewalk down below. Jaskier freezes at the crashing sound and turns to look out the window, staring down at his poor, broken plant.
“Nooooooo, Geralt!” Jaskier yells, and Geralt comes running in from the kitchen, startled by Jaskier’s cry.
Jaskier just points down at the sidewalk, falling to his knees “Geralt, I killed him! I killed our son! To ABBA!”
Jaskier sprawls out on the floor dramatically, mourning the fate of poor Little Geralt the Third, who had been thriving wonderfully before going splat on the pavement.
Geralt sits down next to his dramatic roommate and pats his leg, “That one was actually doing pretty well. Maybe we could get another and just find a better place for it to sit?”
Jaskier sniffles and looks through his lashes at Geralt, “Really?”
Geralt nods before being tackled to the ground in a tight hug.
“Thanks Geralt.” Jaskier whispers, nuzzling into his friend.
3. Geralt stood staring into the mirror at the red roots growing into his perfect silver platinum hair. He pouts at it, looking at his hair and then back down at his phone at the pictures of his past beautiful silver hair.
“I can do it, how hard can it be?” he grumbles, glaring back at his roots. He nods to himself before searching different bleaches, toners, and silver dyes that are available at their local beauty shop.
A week and two trips to the store later, Geralt is once again standing in the bathroom and glaring at his roots in the mirror. “How hard can it be...”
Five hours later, Jaskier comes home from the park to Geralt sitting on the couch in a hoodie with the hood on and scrunched up around his face, pouting.
“So how did it go?” he asks.
Geralt grunts in response.
“Oh it can’t be that bad,” comes Jaskier’s exasperated reply, reaching for the hood over the back of the couch.
Geralt growls and catches his hand, yanking and pulling Jaskier over the couch and partially into his lap.
Jaskier laughs and reaches up again with both hands, trying to use one as a distraction. Geralt growls again and tackles him to the floor to pin him, where they tussle around before Jaskier gets an upper hand and pulls the hood off. Geralt freezes as Jaskier stares at him with wide eyes and a growing smile.
Jaskier’s grin turns into giggles, then into full on laughter. “Geralt! Your hair!”
Geralt sits back with a pout, still sitting on Jaskier. “I know, it's horrible.”
“It's bright purple! What did you do!?”
Geralt flushes, “I forgot to set a timer and left the toner in too long. It should wash out and wear off in a few weeks,” he grumbles.
Jaskier continues to giggle. “Well at least it's not permanent, and you bleached the roots pretty well.”
Geralt sighs and nods before laying down on Jaskier for a consolation cuddle. “Yeah, at least there's that.”
4. Geralt’s birthday was coming up and Jaskier was determined to celebrate it, even if they couldn’t go on their customary birthday bar crawl that they had gone on for both of their birthdays since they had been roommates in college. Jaskier wanted to go the extra mile for his bestest friend in the whole world and decided that he was going to make Geralt a homemade cake, icing drizzle and all. Jaskier had scoured the internet for weeks trying to find a cake he thought geralt would like and that he thought he could make with his limited baking abilities. He finally found the perfect recipe for a simple strawberry pound cake that he only had to buy a minimal amount of extra ingredients for.
The day of Geralt's birthday, Jaskier sets up in the kitchen and banishes Geralt to the living room to play his new Witcher game while Jaskier makes the cake.
He starts by setting out everything he needs and getting the beaters set up and his recipe out. He preheats the oven and then gets to work measuring everything out carefully, looking back at his recipe often, so often he doesn’t quite notice that he’s grabbed the salt container instead of the sugar and measures out the three cups the recipe calls for before adding it into the wet ingredients bowl to cream together as stated by the recipe. Jaskier goes about making his cake and mixing it up, carefully pouring it into the disposable cake tin they had bought specially for the event before putting it in the oven and carefully setting a timer on his phone.
He takes a break for a moment to make a cup of tea before cleaning up the mess from the cake and mixing up the simple drizzle icing for the cake.
The timer goes off and Jaskier pokes the cake with a toothpick as he has been directed, frowning at the lopsided cake.
“Is that how it should look?” he mutters to himself, looking at the clean toothpick. “Guess it’s done.”
He pulls the cake out of the oven and sets it on the rack to cool, poking little holes in it with the toothpick to help it cool and absorb some of the icing later.
After 30 minutes, he drizzles the icing over the cake, humming happily to himself.
“Geralt, do you want to do cake now or later?” he calls into the living room. Geralt hmms and stands before replying, “Now.”
Jaskier grins and grabs them plates, forks, and a knife to cut the cake with.
Geralt stands beside him at the counter, smiling softly at the cake Jaskier has made him.
“Thanks Jask,” he says softly.
Jaskier grins fully at him. “Happy birthday, Geralt!”
They cut into the cake and serve themselves. Geralt happily eats his, reaching out to get seconds while Jaskier frowns at his slice. “Does this taste right to you?” he takes another bite while Geralt shrugs.
“Tastes fine to me,” he replies, happy to continue eating what his Jaskier has made him.
Jaskier frowns more and looks at his recipe, “I dunno, doesn’t it taste salty?”
Geralt hmms in thought before continuing to eat, “Suppose so, but it’s not too bad.”
Jaskier gasps. “Geralt! No Geralt, stop eating that! I must have mixed up the salt and sugar when I was measuring, oh! It's terrible, I’m so sorry, Geralt,” he whines, looking almost at the verge of tears.
This causes Geralt to pause his gremlin-like cake eating, setting the plate down before pulling his best friend into a tight hug, resting his head against the others. “So maybe you had a booboo with it and it’s a little salty. You know I’m not picky, and it tastes fine and vaguely like strawberries. I’ll eat it anyway, Jask.” he grumbles out.
Jaskier sniffles. “But you deserve a good cake that’s made correctly.”
Geralt hums, “Maybe, but this is something you’ve made for me with all your heart, and I think it tastes alright, and I will keep eating it, because you made it for me and that makes it taste all the sweeter.”
Jaskier sniffles again, squeezing the man in his arms tightly “Oh, you big softy! You don’t have to eat it.”
“Fine.” Jaskier sighs, nuzzling the broad chest he’s pressed against. “Love you”
Geralt smiles softly, pressing a kiss to Jaskiers temple. “Love you too, you disaster.”
Jaskier gasps and smacks his chest “You!”
Geralt laughs and grabs his cake before dragging Jaskier to the couch. “Come on, I demand my birthday cuddles.”
Jaskier puffs his cheeks but settles against Geralt on the couch, holding the controller for him “If this is my penance.”
5. Usually Jaskier did the laundry while Geralt did dishes. This was because Jaskier had many a delicate piece in his wardrobe and he did not trust Geralt to treat his clothes the right way if he were to do the laundry. Geralt didn’t care much either way who did the dishes and who did the laundry, as long as the chores ended up done in the end. This was how their kitchen, laundry nook, and part of their living room ended up absolutely covered in bubbles.
They had decided to switch up the chore rotation for the week because the dishes weren’t too bad and Jaskier hadn’t worn any of his ‘delicate’ pieces in the past week and a half, meaning there was nothing of his Geralt could mess up. The switching of chores had unforeseen consequences however, in that neither remembers exactly how to do the new chore, as they hadn’t had to in at least a year. Rather than ask the other for help, both Jaskier and Geralt decided to wing it and try their best.
Jaskier stares down at Geralt, slav squatting, staring at the bubbles that were slowly invading their apartment via the laundry and kitchen.
“So, I couldn’t remember which dish liquid was the one for the dishwasher and put the red one in, which was apparently the wrong choice…… What did you do to create the bubbles in the washer?”
Geralt grunts. “That was the dawn dish soap that we hand wash the alcohol glasses with,” he sighs. “I may have put a full cup of laundry detergent in the washing machine”
Jaskier gasps “A full- Geralt! The entire cup!? That’s at least double the amount you’re supposed to use!”
Geralt pouts. “I couldn’t remember how much,” he grumbles
“You could have asked me!”
This earns Jaskier a raised eyebrow and the stink eye.
“Fair enough,” he giggles. “We should have asked each other when we were confused.”
Geralt nods before standing. “Well I guess we should turn the appliances off before the bubbles get worse… wish me luck”
Jaskier nods and jokingly salutes him. “I’ll remember you dearly.”
Geralt chuckles and shakes his head before wading into the bubbles to stop the dishwasher and washing machine cycles.
A minute later he reappears, covered in bubbles from head to toe, looking like some sort of grumpy snowman. Jaskier laughs at him before Geralt smirks and captures him in a bear hug, causing the man to shriek. “Nooo! Geralt my clothes! Ackkkk!”
Geralt swings him, picking him up slightly. “I think if we let the bubbles settle we can clean up in a little, but we should change first.”
Jaskier pouts “The point of you doing it was so only one of us had to change.”
Geralt gives him a toothy grin, carrying him towards their bedrooms to change. “But you laughed at me, that demands retribution.”
Jaskier just sticks his tongue out at him before being set down in front of his room. “Wanna play Smash while we wait?”
Geralt grins, “What, wanna get wrecked that badly?” he winks to Jaskiers affronted gasp before going in his room to change.
guess I’ll add my tag list huh
@geraltrogerericduhautebellegarde @jaskiersvalley @jaskierswolf @dani-dandelino @wherethewordsare @softnerdypeter @thecomfortofoldstorries @dapandapod @lindianaj0nes @kuripon @elliestormfound @veritasrose
Hope y’all enjoyed it >///<
