The Shop on Iris Lane: fic by @iam93percentstardust and betaed by @ad1thi, art by @dls-ao3 for @witcherbigbang
Iris Lane is one of the oldest streets in Oxenfurt or, depending on which tour guide you speak to, the oldest street in Oxenfurt. It runs about ten stores long and includes, among other things, a small café, a bookshop, a bakery, a yarn supply store, and of course, A New Leaf, most of which have been there since the town’s opening. Iris Lane proudly boasts being entirely locally owned, no insidious corporations anywhere to be found. There have been a few attempts by Walmart to undersell them but the people of Oxenfurt adore Iris Lane. Those stores aren’t going anywhere.
Jaskier’s store is located across the street from Triss’s Treats, a bakery that specializes in the most unusual—and best—flavors of cupcakes Jaskier has ever had. Triss is particularly good at guessing which flavor each customer is going to order; Jaskier suspects witchcraft. To his right is a bookshop, so old that the sign faded two centuries ago. These days everyone just calls it The Bookshop. Whenever Jaskier passes it by, he always makes sure to wave to the large grey cat that naps in the window. The left side of his shop used to be bordered by a record shop but Valdo Marx (and Jaskier will never admit to helping with this) was run out of town two months ago and the shop’s been empty ever since.
Jaskier knows each and every person who works on Iris Lane, from the shop owners to their employees. He grew up with most of them, was there when they inherited the business from their parents. He knows what they’re like, knows that they’re his kind of people. So he feels pretty confident in saying that there has not and never will be a tattoo shop on Iris Lane.
No matter what his sister or his best friend claim, Jaskier isn’t lonely. How could he be? He’s got his shop and his regulars and brunch with the other shop owners on the street, what’s to be lonely about?
So maybe he sometimes wishes he could hold someone at night. So maybe he’s getting tired of the constant one night stands. So maybe this isn’t the life he envisioned for himself when he was younger. He’s perfectly happy, right?
At least, he is until a tattoo artist with the most unusual eyes moves in next door with his daughter and shows him that there’s more to life than selling flowers and strumming his guitar.