Rose Colored Girl
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.
____________________________
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.
