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“Jaskier!”
His ale was slammed onto the table, as Geralt snarled at the bard.
“Oh, hush, Geralt, you’re making a scene.”
Jaskier replied flippantly, making Geralt more annoyed.
It was an argument about nothing. One of those days where they’d just spent too long in each others company and accidentally got on each others nerves.
“I’m making a scene? Jaskier we walked 50 more miles so that you could get a room in a place that had a ‘chirpier member of staff’ and I’m making a scene?”
Jaskier hmm’d back, something he did when he was in a huff and wanted to give Geralt a taste of his own medicine.
They were both just shattered. They needed sleep and all would be well. People spoke a lot about grumpy witchers, but Jaskier could get just as grumpy as them without a bath and bed routine.
They were both focused on their moods. One of those moods that they were both happy stewing in now that they were sitting down. Breaking the concentration, a girl who was sitting at another table stood up to cross the room. As she headed for the bathroom, she leaned over the table to stare at Geralt, showing that she’d obviously had a few drinks.
“Oh come on, show me a smile, pet. It can’t be that bad.”
Before she had a chance to touch Geralt’s arm, Jaskier leaned forward so that he was in the way.
“Thanks but we’re not looking for company tonight.”
He spoke as sternly as possible, hoping she got the message loud and clear that they were not up for drunken bar patter.
Jaskier sat back into the position he was in before, ready to move on and get back to their mutual brooding, when he felt Geralts legs shaking under the table.
Jaskier’s voice immediately turned to concern.
“Are you alright, love?”
Geralt’s face was pale. His jaw had started to shake too and Jaskier recognised what was going on. He went up to the bar and asked for a tea with two sugars in it, then returned to Geralt offering him the drink.
“Here, here, you’re alright. Drink this, it’ll settle your nerves.”
Geralt complied, whether he thought it worked or not, if he could, every time Geralt had a fright or panic attack, Jaskier would get him the same drink, and the taste alone now was extremely comforting.
“Do you want to talk about it? Or do you want to just leave and we’ll go and find our room?”
Jaskier kept his voice confident but calm. Making sure his words were being clearly communicated to Geralt but also trying to focus his mind on what was happening right now. Jaskier had seen Geralt have a few panic attacks before, and he knew how to deal with them. He was the only one who did.
“No, please. I don’t want to move-“
“That’s fine, love. I’m here.”
Jaskier stood behind him and pressed down on his shoulders. He pressed down quite heavily to try and get Geralt to realise how much tension he had just shot into them.
“I hate people assuming it’s okay to just go to touch you like that.”
“Geralt, it doesn’t matter how you look at it, anyone would have been uncomfortable with that. You’re right to be upset, but don’t focus this on you.”
Jaskier could see where this was going. It was important to let Geralt talk about his feelings, but not have it be as self deprecating as he was used to being.
“I feel stupi-“
Jaskier moved round before he had finished his sentence, to face him. Geralt looked into his eyes right away, knowing he would be asked to if he didn’t. It had been extremely difficult to take Jaskier’s advice at first, but the more it happened, the more he started to look for the reassurance. He started to realise Jaskier had a way of turning the bad thought processes in his head to not so bad ones. He always knew how to do that.
When Jaskier was eye height with him, Geralt subconsciously took a slow, deep breath in, held it, then let it out. Jaskier used to have to ask him to practice this, but now, when he got that look, he remembered that this would calm him down.
“That’s it.”
Two words that don’t seem like much but covered Geralt in a blanket of praise.
“We’ve talked about this before, haven’t we? If you’re uncomfortable with a way that someone touches you, or talks to you. As soon as you feel that, remember, it is your body, no one else’s. Never, ever feel stupid for making yourself feel safe and comfortable. And never feel bad about having to do that.”
Geralt nodded back.
“Sorry.”
“No, don’t be sorry, you’ve got nothing to feel sorry for. We’re both still learning how to do this, right? How to communicate comfortably? You’re doing so well.”
Jaskier gave Geralt’s arm a squeeze before sitting back down next to him. They sat silently for a minute before Geralt started to talk.
“We have no plans tomorrow, so we could go to the market and see if we could get you more ink.”
“ooooh that would be good. Yeah, let’s do that.”
And that was that. The mood they were in had been forgotten. Geralt was calm. There was no residual feeling from anything earlier. Just back to normal.
Geralt took much comfort in this. He had been used to voicing his opinion and feeling like it was a bad idea, whether it was a worse argument or a broken friendship in return. But Jaskier had been paving the way to make sure Geralt always had his voice heard without panic about what would happen later. Like Jaskier said, he was still learning, but that was okay. And having him there helping him, was indescribable.