I think i got my shit together yall! I wrote something! yay!
shoutout to @jaskierswolf for the prompt of Trisskel on holiday - apparently my brain really liked this one!
CW- proposal, stupid romantic shit, i really dont know what else to put here, oh this is unbetaed and all came out in like two hours so dont come for me if theres a typo lol
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Triss stood at the side of the sleek catamaran gracefully carving its way through the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean taking in the beauty and sense of calm the sound of the waves brought her. She’d been so nervous to take a trip with Eskel, but the whole thing had been absolute paradise. He’d spoiled her the whole time, fancy restaurants, lavish villas, a dinner cruise with just the two of them, even the gorgeous linen dress he insisted she wear on the boat. She’d have chosen it anyway, but the way he laid it out and the look in his eyes as he watched her slip into it was more than enough to keep her stubbornness at bay. Almost as if summoned by her thoughts, he appeared almost out of thin air, pressing his chest to her back and wrapping his arms around her torso, only his hands didn’t grip the flesh on her hips like usual.
She looked down to see him holding out two champagne flutes, one bright purple and one a softer pink.
“Raspberry or Peach?” he asked, humming almost directly into her ear as he proceed to place kisses on her neck and jaw.
Fuck she could get used to this. Maybe she was already a little too used to it, but right then she didn’t care, just plucked the peach drink out of his hand and melted into his embrace, muttering a soft “thank you” before taking a sip. A sense of security like she’d never felt before washed over her as they swayed in time with the gently lapping waves and watched the sunset. Her roommates had told her she’d chosen well (Yennefer emphasizing the fact that she’d be financially set), but it felt different than every other roommate-approved choice she’d made before. Eskel was rambunctious and lively and always ready to stir up shit, but he also made her feel safe. Sure he made her feel beautiful and sexy and smart and gave her space to be independent, but she’d never been so sure of being safe around someone.
Almost reading her mind, Eskel gave her a little squeeze and whispered, “Alright there love?”
It was then Triss realized she forgot to breathe and took a deep shaky breath, “Perfect. I don't think anything could make it better.”
Eskel leaned to the side, giving her a sly grin and brushing her braids behind her ear, “Sure? Nothing?”
Narrowing her eyes, Triss turned to face him, fixing the collar to his crisp white button-up even if it didn’t need fixing and giving him an accusatory quirk of her brow, “Why? What did you plan?”
Plucking the drink from her hand and setting both on the table next to them, Eskel took both her hands in his, kissing her knuckles and spending a little time lingering on the last kiss to her ring finger, “I love you. You know that? An unreasonable amount if I’m honest.”
“I do,” Triss laughed, “You tell me every day.”
He winked, “And I haven’t run you off yet.”
“No,” Triss sighed, taking one of her hands back to cup his jaw and run her thumb over the scars on his cheek, “I love you too much for that.”
“Well thank fuck. That’s going to make this a lot easier,” he breathed, sounding to Triss a lot like when he would try to play off something heavy as a joke and she frowned at his words. He didn’t give her time to get a word in before he kissed her, quick but passionate, and stood back with a slightly wild look in his eye. Triss almost asked if he was okay, but then he moved.
He reached into his pocket as he knelt down and all the air seemed to be sucked from Triss’ lungs. The shock must have shown on her face because he just grinned up at her for a moment, flicking a stray curl from his eyes.
“You’re not.” Triss breathed, one hand coming to her chest and the other covering her mouth as her knees suddenly felt weak and tears welled in her eyes.
“Watch me,” Eskel challenged before holding out the tiny deep green velvet box and popping it open, “Triss Elaina Merigold,” he had to pause to take a breath and Triss thought she might collapse with the anticipation, “Will you marry me?”
When the words finally hit her, the dam broke and she couldn’t keep from crying as she nodded, “Mhm! Yes! Yeah, get it on my finger.”
“Really?” Eskel asked without making a move, a genuine tone of disbelief and wonder cutting under the excitement in his voice.
“Yes! Really!” Triss laughed as she fell to her knees with him and held out her shaking hand.
She didn’t even stop to look at the ring now settled on her finger before pulling her new fiance into a desperate kiss. Nothing at all mattered but him, the way his hand balled into a fist over the small of her back, how he so gently cradled her neck, the slight hint of chambord and champagne on his lips. She wanted to commit absolutely every detail to memory.
When they were forced to part for oxygen, Eskel chuckled in disbelief, eyes still closed as he pressed their foreheads together, “You said yes…”
“Mhm,” Triss hummed, biting her lip to fight the massive smile that just wouldn’t stop, “Now you can’t get rid of me.”
Eskel pressed a chaste kiss to her lips before pulling back with the biggest goofiest grin, “Thank fuck for that.”
asjdnkaerhgakj yaallllll I am so so so lucky to have had @dazedandinked agree to collab with me on a fic! her art is FIRE and I’m just absolutely in love with what she drew for this fic! if yall arent following her you should be, even when im not in the fandom she creates for im just in awe.
i mean LOOK AT THIS ART!!!! ITS GORGEOUS
Pairing: Yennefer/Triss
Tags: getting together, a serries of firsts, tattoos, getting tattoos, bartender yen, student yen, lawyer triss, situationship to relationship, first date, first i love you, yennefer is a bit dramatic, side/background geraskier.
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First Meeting
“What’ll it be, Power Suit?” Yennefer tried to control her distaste in her expression, but given the woman’s eyebrows were climbing up her forehead, she had failed. It was easier with the men. They looked at her chest, not her wrinkled nose and ‘dead eyes’.
“Anything strong and cold. I’m coming from a funeral.”
This time when Yennefer scrunched her nose, it was in a detached sympathy for the poor girl. As Yennefer made her drink, she watched her pick at her nails and tug at the bun atop her head like it wasn’t usually there. Her dark clothes didn’t seem to fit well either, clearly not something worn frequently.
“Not the suit type then?” Yennefer asked, setting a terrifying mix of tequila, gin, triple sec, lime, and grapefruit juice in front of the woman who clearly needed it.
“Only in court, and never black.”
“Prosecutor or defense?”
“Defense. The current DA and I are in a pissing match at the moment actually. Don’t go into law unless you’re prepared to be disappointed in humanity,” The woman chuckled, a forced and bitter thing, as she sipped her drink and her eyes went wide, “What is this?”
Yennefer just shrugged and picked up a tray, “Regulars call it my ‘potion’. And I’m disappointed daily. You see wild shit as a bartender.”
From then till the end of her shift, Yennefer was power walking all over the bar with barely time to check on the woman in the ill-fitting suit. When 8 pm hit and the dinner rush was over (and her replacement clocked on a half-hour late) Yennefer didn’t even bother telling Geralt she was transferring tables to him. He knew. The tables never tipped. And to be honest, neither she nor Geralt had the patience to do more than deliver their beers and scribble down their orders as hastily as possible on a slow day. They wouldn’t even notice they’d been handed off. Funeral girl, however, she was going to make an effort with.
“I’m almost out of here, do you mind closing out your tab with me before I go?” Yen tried for her best charming smile, which she wasn’t used to relying on.
The woman smiled, a distractingly charming smile, and dug out her wallet, “Only if you let me buy you a drink.”
It wasn’t the first time a patron had offered something like this, surely wouldn’t be the last, but it was the first time Yennefer didn’t have a smartass declining retort. She just smiled and nodded, raising her eyebrows when the woman insisted she ring up what she wanted, not just a well drink she could suffer through.
She examined the woman as she closed the tab. Her card declared her name was Beatrice Merigold, but that seemed… wrong for the person in front of Yennefer. She was too warm to be a Beatrice. Yennefer suspected she usually wore her curly hair down, or at least in a protective style, from the way she kept adjusting it. Her eyes were a gold-flecked brown and her freckles were rather charming, adding to a sort of youthful radiance that made her clothes seem even more ill-suited to who she was the longer Yennefer looked at her.
“So, Beatrice,-”
“Triss.” The woman interrupted, though surprisingly, after a day of being interrupted and ignored it didn’t irritate Yennefer. For some reason, it almost made her happy that this woman wanted to be on nickname terms.
“Triss, what brings you to a boys club bar? Other than the funeral.”
As Triss recounted her journey into the mahogany and leather shit hole where Yennefer spent her days, the bartender unpinned her hair and let the long dark waves fall over her shoulder. It didn’t escape her notice how Triss’ eyes followed the action, or how she stumbled over her words when Yen struck her final listening pose. She knew she was attractive, used it to pay her rent with tips in fact, but she hadn’t pegged Triss as interested until then; just lonely. On the realization, she almost felt the urge to apply some lip gloss just to test the waters, but Yen found she liked listening to her talk too much to care.
“...I actually almost walked into the tattoo shop across the street. I thought that might be a fun ‘new me’ thing but I was too chicken…” Triss sipped the last of the original drink Yen had made her, “I’m sorry, I ramble when I’m.. nervous.”
Yennefer actually smiled, a genuine smile, “Don’t be. And don’t go to that shop for your first. Ivan is fantastic but not the most gentle.”
“You have tattoos?”
Glancing behind her to make sure a specific table didn’t hear Yennefer leaned in close, “Tons, just not where they can see.” she winked and sipped at her martini.
“Can I?” Triss’ smirk transformed into horrified embarrassment in an instant, “Shit. Sorry. That’s… that’s wildly-”
“Sure.” Yennefer’s nonchalant shrug turned into a laugh at Triss as she blinked in confusion, then relief, “We should go to another bar though. I find the entitled ones get a little touchy when they know I have ink.”
First Date
That one drink turned into two, then three, and Yennefer thought possibly four but it was impossible to remember when the place they went next only served doubles. Yennefer had woken an hour late for a lecture in Triss’ bed and decided the best way to deal with the frustration was more sex. Somehow Triss got Yennefer’s number and after-shift hookups became a bit of a habit.
And Yennefer was fine with that.
In fact, she preferred to keep her interactions with Triss between the hours of 10 pm and 7 am. She’d been lying to herself since her last miserable breakup that relationships just weren’t her thing so keeping things as painfully casual as possible seemed ideal. Between law school and bartending she didn’t have time for much more than hookups anyway.
Regardless, she still found herself lounging across the bed with her head in Triss’ lap as the older woman ran her fingers through her hair while reading photocopy after photocopy for a case. It wasn’t domestic if it was at 2 am. Nothing that happened after 2 am counted anyway.
“I was thinking about getting a tattoo.”
Yennefer shifted so she could peer under the papers with a shit-eating grin, “A sexy tattoo?”
“Maybe?” Triss looked at her in amused exasperation, “Can plants be sexy?”
“Hand me my phone,” Yen instructed with a wink.
“Not sentient vine plants,” Triss laughed, dragging the tip of her index finger down the bridge of Yennefer’s nose and adding a light tap at the tip, “Would you come with me though?”
Without thinking Yennefer started nodding excitedly and firing off questions in rapid succession. She somehow sent off an email to her study group meeting in the morning that she had to go into work and couldn’t make it while gushing over the pictures Triss showed her. Of course, the lawyer had gotten a peek of the design beforehand, ever the charmer. It only hit Yennefer what she was doing when Triss bought them coffee on the way to the tattoo shop.
It was after 7 am. And they were behaving like a… couple.
She kept both hands on her coffee as she mentally cursed herself. This was supposed to be casual, a booty call and stress relief. Now she was taking Triss to a tattoo shop and holding her hand? Well, Triss was taking her, but it still felt too… attached.
Yennefer pointedly kept her distance and offered little nods of approval when Triss gave her uneasy glances. She felt entirely out of her depth as she watched the artist lay the stencil over most of Triss’ upper arm. Did Triss think they were a couple? Was this something she’d ask anyone to do? Or was it just because Yen already had tattoos?
A hum of approval jarred her from her thoughts. Triss was checking out the design in the mirror and the artist was taking the opportunity to check her out in turn. Anger flared up in Yennefer’s chest and she moved without thinking. Shooting the artist a particularly venomous glare, she moved to stand behind Triss and settled her hands over her waist, resting her head on Triss’ other shoulder.
“Suits you. Do you like the placement?”
Triss gave her a confused but amused look and placed one hand over hers, “I think so.”
“It’s going to be on you forever,” Yennefer reminded her, sparing another glare toward the artist who was now quirking an eyebrow, “I want you to be sure.”
“I am,” Triss assured her, looking in her eyes for a bit longer than Yen thought was necessary, “Thank you, love.”
Through the rest of the appointment, Yennefer held Triss’ hand and murmured encouragement to her. When they left and the artist called her Triss’ girlfriend, she didn’t even bat an eye, just linked arms with her and pulled her out of the shop.
“Time for chips,” Yennefer declared, “On me.”
“You aren't going to run?” Triss asked, a tone of incredulity and a tiny hint of hope in her voice.
Yennefer just shrugged and kept walking, “What kind of girlfriend would I be if I left you like this?”
“I’m fine…” Triss mumbled, staring at Yen like she’d grown a third eye.
With a snort, Yennefer held out her hand, “Mirror me,” when Triss did and her hand trembled Yennefer just raised her eyebrows, “Chips. Then a nap.”
“Will you nap with me?”
“Of course,” Yennefer murmured as she placed a kiss on Triss’ hair. She’d expected to be angry with herself, maybe more than a little disappointed, but all she felt was relief.
She would be Triss’ girlfriend, there wasn’t much use fighting it anymore.
First “I love you”
Yennefer sat at the long mahogany bar, taking up three seats with her bag, ass, and the way she insisted on propping her feet up after every shift. Heels hurt, but a bartender in heels made so much more in tips than one in sneakers, especially in the business district of the city. As she swirled the cucumber spear around her martini, Geralt sipped his beer, counting the till and humming along to the music still faintly buzzing through the speakers.
“I think I hate her a little,” Yennefer confessed, breaking the silence and earning a surprised, almost impressed, raise of the eyebrows from Geralt.
“Hate fucking can be fun,” He mused, scribbling the totals on the bank sheet.
Rolling her eyes, Yennefer knocked back the last of her martini, swirling the thick chilly liquid around her tongue until she tasted the basil, “Not that way.”
There was a brief silence while Geralt zipped up the right bags and put the right print-outs in the right envelopes. He was meticulous with his paperwork, a great characteristic in an employee, but Yennefer found it annoying when he took a half-hour to finish his closing duties.
He sighed after he dropped the deposit in the safe and stood to see she was still looking at him expectantly, “If you want to talk relationships I need more liquor.”
“What a coincidence,” Yennefer smirked, slapping down a hefty chunk of her tips, “We’re in a bar right now.”
“How’d you meet her?” Geralt sighed, reaching for the mid-shelf vodka.
“Here.”
His hand swerved to the top shelf tequila before grabbing two shot glasses and pulling the lime out of the fridge, “No wonder you hate her.”
Yennefer scoffed, “She’s not a power suit cunt.”
Geralt set out the little tray of salt and a cup full of limes before rounding the bar and moving her bag to sit next to her, pouring each of them shots, “Spit it out. I’m not gonna trick you into it like Jask.”
They saluted each other before taking a sip of their tequila, “I am bitter,” she decided, “I am bitter and cynical and she just… floats through life. And you think everything's an accident but she’s so precise and makes everything look effortless and cares so fucking much.”
“So you hate her?”
“Well yeah,” Yennefer exclaimed, setting her glass down a little too firmly and turning toward Geralt, “It’s fucking irritating. She dresses in pastels and earth tones and she fucking smells nice and there are plants all over her fucking house! I shit you not, she takes more pro bono cases than the most prolific bleeding hearts but somehow she’s still doing just fine. And!” she paused to down the rest of her tequila, “And, she gets me excited about things. There’s this revoltingly contagious optimism that- that- fuck I don't know what to do with her.”
“You’re scared,” Geralt chuckled, ignoring the icy cold glare he received, “You’re not even out of law school and you’re already a cold-hearted monster. She’s soft and sweet and it scares you.”
“Fuck you.”
“You’re the one who wanted to talk,” Geralt shrugged, still smirking as he downed his shot.
Scared didn’t seem apt but horrified fit rather nicely. Yennefer mulled it over as she drove home, one more drink and a basket of fries later. Triss was brilliant and kind and sexy, and worst of all, Yennefer was softer around her. She had her own very precise and very harsh way of moving through a world that had never been kind to her and this woman was taking a battering ram to all of her defenses. Life didn’t seem as arbitrary and mundane when Triss had any part in it. Even memorizing landmark cases for her law history class was exciting with the curly-haired woman who giggled more than she actually spoke and traced the mandala tattoo on her thigh.
Yennefer was almost home when the realization hit her, “FUCK.”
Before she knew it she was buzzing Triss’ apartment like it was still the 90’s and she didn’t have a perfectly good cell phone. She thought about calling her as she jammed her knuckle into the little red button over and over again, but what would she say? The extra time it would take to wake Triss up this way was absolutely necessary for Yen to put her jumbled mess of thoughts back together.
“Who the hell is buzzing at 3 am?” Triss grumbled over the speaker.
“Hi. Uhm, it's me. Can I come up?” Yennefer cursed herself for how small her voice sounded. She promised herself a long time ago that she wasn’t going to need someone, but here she was. She tapped her foot and picked at her matte black acrylics the entire elevator ride up to Triss’ floor, still scrambling to think of what she wanted to stay.
When Triss answered the door Yennefer stood frozen. All the scripts she’d gone over on her way there flew right out of her head as Triss tilted her head in concern, eyes still blurry with sleep and hair in twists that were slowly unraveling as the night wore on.
“Are you alright, love?” Triss spoke through a yawn as she reached for Yen’s arm and tugged her over the threshold, “What's so urgent it couldn’t wait till morning?”
Right, they had breakfast plans tomorrow. She could have waited five hours and maybe figured out exactly what she wanted to say too.
“I- I needed to see you…” Yen stammered, letting Triss lead her to the dimly lit breakfast nook where a kettle was just starting to boil, “You were already awake?”
“No,” Triss laughed, setting her down on a plush bench to pour the hot water into a mug with Yen’s favorite tea, “You sounded upset.”
Yen took the tea offered and smiled even though she felt like she wanted to cry as she whispered, “Thank you.”
Triss sat next to her and tucked her hair behind her ear, simply watching her as she bobbed the teabag in and out of the water. Her fingers raked through Yennefer’s hair as the silence stretched on and neither of them so much as sipped their tea. Yennefer wanted to run. Or lean into her girlfriend and fall asleep, but she’d started this. For once she’d been impulsive, bordering on dramatic, and she had to suffer the consequences.
She took a shaky breath and rested her hand on Triss’ knee, “My world is cruel. It has made me an angry, cynical bitch and I am fine with that. And I- I just need you to know that. Because you’re an amazing person and you deserve someone that lights up a room like you do,” Triss made to speak but Yen squeezed her knee and talked over her, “But I’m enough of a bitch to be selfish. Because… But because I love you, I need you to be okay with the fact that I am the way I am. I can’t bear the thought that one day you’ll realize I’m nasty and run.”
“Better to get it out in the open now?” Triss laughed. She fucking laughed and Yennefer could only stare at her in confusion.
Still laughing, Triss set her mug down and held Yen’s face in her hands as she kissed her forehead, then nose, then finally a chaste kiss on her lips, “Only you would tell someone you love them while insisting you’re a horrible person. I love you the way you are Yennefer. Bitchiness and all.”
Tears started to well in Yennefer’s eyes, “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” Triss insisted, wrapping Yennefer in her arms and holding her head to her shoulder, “You told my brother to suck your dick at my birthday party. I have no misgivings about who you are. I happen to find your aggression extremely endearing.”
Yennefer finally gave a small smile, setting her tea on the bench behind Triss and wrapping her arms around her waist, “Say it again?”
“I love you,” Triss whispered, kissing the top of her head, “And I love that you feel safe enough to show up at my apartment at 3am.”
An embarrassing snort escaped with a watery laugh, “That was a bit dramatic, huh?”
“It’s okay. I find it sweet,” Triss hummed, rubbing her back in long soothing motions, “Let's go to bed, hm?”
Yennefer nodded and let herself be led to Triss’ bed where she fell asleep curled around the woman who loved her, content for the first time in a long time.
lets not talk about what day it was bogizens... 👀 this is part of the hallmark june weddings event we did in the bog!
it’s also on ao3 here!
Warnings: insecure eskel, stressed triss, honestly its pretty fluffy., could be classified as mild emotional whump.
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Triss was frantic when Eskel trudged up the stairs to the back door in the kitchen. He paused for a moment, leaning against the railing where he could just see her through the window in the door, box braids falling out of her loose bun, some sort of sauce smudged on her forehead, her arm muscles standing out and furiously beating the ever-loving shit out of whatever was in her bowl. Fuck, he thought she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. A little scary too, but that was his type.
“Afternoon, Gorgeous,” he called through the screen door, waiting for her to unlock it.
Instead of her normal ‘Afternoon, Handsome,’ he got a snappy, “If any bit of your clothing has been at the fire station, take it off out there. I just got the floors clean, and I don’t have time to do them again before the wedding.”
“If you wanted a striptease you could have just asked,” he chuckled, pulling his shirt over his head and kicking his boots off. All of him had just come from the station.
“Eskel, please,” her voice was about an octave higher than when he liked to hear those words normally, and the tightness at the end of her words made him worried.
“I’m clean, ish, can I come in?”
When she let him in she only gave him a quick peck before it was back to what Eskel could now see were egg whites.
“What’s wrong?”
That was apparently the wrong question. Triss dropped the bowl back onto the counter and braced herself against it, hanging her head. Her shoulders looked so tense Eskel thought the muscles might snap, “Fucking everything. Yen’s parents are getting in tomorrow and I only have the middle floor flipped because Annalee called in sick and Taylor is nowhere to be found, and I have to get this breakfast prepped because I have to make sure there’s food for the girls to eat while they get ready. Then I still have to call Jaskier and see when he’s bringing the cake and décor over and I have to run into the store to get the food for the next three days while they’re here and one of Yen’s aunt’s is allergic to everything under the fucking sun! Oh! And I also need to tell Jask to do everything last minute as far as the cake goes because I don’t have the fridge space and-and there’s still a goddamned molehill in the backyard where they’re having the ceremony and-“
Eskel wrapped his arms around her from behind, placing one hand over her sternum and one over her stomach, and held her tight while he whispered, “It’s gonna be okay. We’ll figure it out. Just take a minute to breathe for me?”
She took a shuddering deep breath and let it out as she rested her head back against his chest, brushing a stray braid out of her eyes, “…and I have a headache…”
“That,” Eskel mumbled, pausing to press a kiss to her forehead, “we can fix quickly.” He pulled them over to her medicine cabinet and handed her some ibuprofen and a large glass of water, also insisting she sit and eat something.
After a minute or two of Triss picking at some leftover pasta salad she groaned and shoved it away, “ and my mother called.”
“How’re Sheila and the dogs?”
“Fucking unbearable,” she grumbled, pitching her voice up and scrunching her nose to imitate her mother’s nasally voice, “ When are you settling down? I was so excited when you said wedding! Haven’t you hired an inn manager yet? Why do you still clean rooms? Did you read that diet book I sent you?”
Pushing her pasta back towards her after the last question, Eskel did his best to remain casual and calm, “I thought she hated me?”
“She hates all of my partners on principle, but you’ve made the top spot for ‘least hated’,” Triss shot him a little smirk as she aggressively stabbed some more pasta, “I told her I’m quite settled and we’re happy for now and to get her nose out of other people’s business- yes I see the irony .”
Eskel forced a bit of a laugh and tried not to bite his lip. He’d been thinking about this since Yen and Renfri’s engagement party. The way Triss looked at him while the couple gushed about how they were so excited to spend the rest of their lives together (and torment some relatives with making it official) had settled in the back of his mind and refused to leave. Every day, he flip-flopped on whether there was a little hope there or if she just thought it was sweet. And every day he berated himself for not bringing it up, but he had never even entertained the idea of marriage. Hell, his main relationship had been a friends-with-benefits arrangement with Geralt, and the few before that had been rocky at best. He wasn’t cut out to be a husband. Certainly not to someone so kind and gentle and fiercely loyal and sharp as Triss. What did he have to offer? A dangerous job and nasty burn scars for their wedding photos?
She must have sensed his hesitation and pushed her pasta over to him, “Eat. I need to keep cooking… and clean the top floor.”
He hooked an arm around her waist as she walked around the little kitchen island they sat at, pulling her close and stealing the keys out of her pocket, “I’ll go get groceries after I clean the top floor. Is the laundry started?”
“You’re too good to me, Teddy Bear,” she sighed, placing a kiss on his forehead.
“Not good enough.”
She frowned, resting her palm over his jaw and searching his eyes, “We’ll come back to that when the inn is ready.”
As he stood, he stole a quick kiss and darted up the stairs, “You’re taking a nap when the inn is ready!”
-
It had all come together in the end. Triss even got some impressed looks and glowing reviews from Yennefer’s family when they arrived. The periwinkle went beautifully with the gardenia Triss had woven through the lattice around the backyard and Eskel had managed to make the moles disappear and patch the grass so even she couldn’t tell where they’d been.
Eskel watched Triss dart around the property, even after her job was done, making sure everyone was comfortable and everything ran smoothly for the girls and as much as he tried to push it down, he was just reminded of how she deserved so much more. More than a scarred, overweight firefighter with a killer therapy bill and a studio apartment that looked more like a hotel room than a home.
As he was watching the different couples swooping around the tiny courtyard dance floor, hands materialized on his shoulders, immediately digging in right where he held tension.
“Now it’s really over,” Triss whispered in his ear.
“Oh? Will you take that nap now?” Eskel shot her a grin over his shoulder as he covered one of her hands with his.
She smiled at him as if he’d said something adorably cute and inaccurate, “I’ll take a dance ?”
Standing up and spinning Triss once before pulling her close to his side, Eskel sighed, “I guess I’ll have to settle for that then.”
Giggling a tad bit deliriously, they made their way onto the dance floor and snuck into a space between the other couples. Eskel did his best to relax and stay in the moment. He took deep breaths and mentally listed little observations about his surroundings, most of which revolved around Triss, and he even tried to distract himself by making some rather suggestive advances, but no matter what he tried, he was still thinking about what she deserved and how it was everything he wasn’t.
Triss rested her hand on his cheek and gave him her trademarked wide-eyed worried look, “Are you alright? Is your knee acting up?”
“M’fine,” he lied, “Just the champagne.”
“Bullshit.”
He should have known she’d call him on it, even in the middle of a wedding she wouldn’t let him get away with anything. Just another reason he wasn’t good enough for her.
Glancing around nervously, Eskel whispered in her ear, “Can we do this later?”
“Absolutely not. You’ve been acting strange for weeks now and it’s making me crazy,” Triss tapped on the point of his chin firmly, calling his attention back to her as they swayed and stepped in a small circle like everyone else.
“Been making me crazy too…” he mumbled, only receiving a furious glare that urged him to continue, “You’re… Triss you’re perfect. I love you more than anything and anyone I’ve ever loved before…”
Tears welled in her eyes as Triss brought them to a standstill, gripping his arms for dear life, “But?”
Eskel couldn’t help tucking her long thin braids behind her ear and caressing her cheek, “But I don’t know why you’re with me. Every time this wedding gets brought up I think about how you deserve someone so much more… whole than I am. Someone who can give you what you want and who doesn’t have a horribly dangerous job and doesn’t look like the Pillsbury doughboy…”
“First off,” Triss started, almost growling as she dragged him off the dance floor and in through the back door to the kitchen, “I thought you were breaking up with me so please lead with what you’re nervous about next time,” Eskel followed, absolutely dumbfounded as he was sat down on a stool like he was in trouble with the principal, “Second, I find your extra weight sexy as hell- no arguments! That is my opinion and it is final . Third- and this one is important- you are the most thoughtful, caring, kind, and gentle person I have ever had the absolute pleasure to share a room with, let alone sleep with. I decided you’re what I wanted a long time ago. No one else has ever told me to take a nap before” she giggled, pausing to hold his face between her hands, “You don’t need to be anything other than you for me to be happy.”
She wiped a tear from his cheek with her knuckles, a fond smile playing on her lips as she drew him in, hugging him tightly so his head rested on her shoulder. His arms wrapped around her waist and squeezed like he was scared she might disappear if he didn’t hold her tight enough.
“Thank you,” He whispered.
“You’re welcome,” Triss whispered back, trailing her nails over his scalp and through his soft hair, “Anytime you need a reminder you tell me. Deal?”
Eskel sniffed and pulled himself back together, leaning back to give Triss a quick kiss, “Deal.”
