Fanfic Recs

"He remembers the nights that he would curl into himself, wrap his arms around his body and pretend, pathetically, that they belonged to someone else. Spent the hours rocking himself to sleep in place of a mother; someone to lie to him, to promise him that everything would be alright. The Captain never lied, not about anything that mattered." After the raid on Liberio, Hanji and the others send Eren to a remote island with Levi whilst they plan what to do next.

Geralt had a speech. He practiced it on Roach throughout his travels to Oxenfurt. He knew it by heart. “You’re my best friend. You’re important to me. I want you by my side year-round. I love you.” It’s all things he should have said this past spring, when he looked into Jaskier’s too-blue eyes and realized that he would do anything for this ridiculous, impossible, infuriating bard. But he hadn’t, and now it’s too late, because Jaskier has found himself a witcher more worthy of him than Geralt could ever be.After years of denying his feelings, Geralt finally works up the nerve to tell Jaskier how he feels, only to find his bard has found a new love— Geralt’s childhood best friend and first love, Eskel.

Soulbonds aren't supposed to be one-sided, but everyone knows witchers don't have soulbonds and Jaskier has learned to live with it, learned to be satisfied with being just Geralt's friend. But then the dragon hunt happens and they split up and the longer Jaskier is away from Geralt, the worse he starts to feel until it becomes unbearable. He decides to find someone to break the bond, but the only sorceress he knows who is strong enough to mess with destiny like that is Yennefer. Unfortunately for Jaskier, Yennefer appears to be wintering at Kaer Morhen with Geralt.

Across the years, Geralt and Jaskier have needed to share a bed. Then there was the one time they got a room with two beds instead.If you guessed which of those times was the awkward one, you would have guessed wrong.

It starts with Jaskier offering a helping hand when Geralt needs to let off some steam. The thing is, Jaskier likes taking care of Geralt—however he can—and Geralt lets him, so he just keeps doing it. And as long as they never talk about how he's in love with Geralt, they're both happy with the arrangement, right? Right.

Geralt goes along with Jaskier to meet some of his Oxenfurt friends, and comes to realize he isn't the only one Jaskier gets touchy-feely with or calls "dear heart". The realization that those gestures don't mean what he thought they did-- that he seemingly doesn't mean as much to Jaskier as he thought-- leaves him a pained, pining mess.

Geralt feels his stomach turn. “Tell me what happened,” he growls. Because something happened in this room. Something bad. “You don’t know?” the mage says. “I suppose I’m not surprised. He was very keen that you didn’t find out. That was the only thing he insisted on, no marks.” Geralt glares at him. The mage looks back, unperturbed. “Don’t scowl at me like that, beast. Everything I did was agreed to.” Jaskier would do anything for Geralt.

Maybe the worst part, Jaskier muses as he stares into his tankard, is that it’s all so horribly... cliché.The inconsequential companion – tossed aside the moment that the truly intended, cosmically wedded couple finally meet. Because what chance does he stand – what role could he ever play – that would permit Destiny to place him on the same stage – let alone in the same scene – as witchers and sorceresses?

"You'll change your mind one day," says the innkeep. "The road can't love you back."What a strange way to flatten something so beautiful, Jaskier thinks. What a small way to love.Or: When Jaskier is hit with a curse that prevents him from having sex, he's lucky that the first person he meets is a Witcher. It's even luckier that Jaskier is used to hitting the road, because Geralt isn't waiting up.

“Such a nice, beautiful sound,” the fae crooned. “If only he were this way always.” Julian’s mother stood up. She claimed she was prepared to stop the fae, to protect her baby, but in Julian’s darkest moments he doubted this part of the story. His mother loved him, of that he had no doubt, but she had been young and weary, and even years later, she couldn’t quite get the twinge of exhaustion out of her eyes when she recalled Julian’s infancy. Even if she had been keen on protecting him, the fae was too close, too fast, too set on his plan. “A gift, for the new mother,” the fae continued. He leaned a hand in to stroke Julian’s cheek. “I give you the gift of obedience.”As a baby, Jaskier was visited by a fae, who gifted Jaskier's mother with Jaskier's obedience. As Jaskier grew older, the "gift" became more of a curse.

When Geralt brings Jaskier to Kaer Morhen, the other Witchers take a shine to the bard.Too much of a shine, if you ask Geralt. Not that anyone's asked. Or that Geralt really cares. Much. Or at all. Really, he doesn't. Nope.Not in the slightest.

When Geralt loses his memories, it might be up to a strange bard to help him regain them. As Geralt travels the continent with Jaskier, he starts to wonder if he's lost something else, too. Or, obligatory amnesia fic.

"Goddess," Jaskier says quietly, almost privately, except that his lips hover temptingly close to Eskel's. "You do look just like him, if it wasn't for—""The disfigured maw?" Eskel adds helpfully, out of habit if nothing else.Jaskier puts a gentle hand on his cheek—the scarred one, gods save his soul—and Eskel leans into the touch involuntarily, like a dog starved for affection."I was going to say the hair," Jaskier finishes with a hint of kind amusement, and winks.

“Five months, Lambert. How - ?” Eskel rubbed a hand over the right side of his face. He still wasn’t quite over what he was seeing. Lambert. The Lambert. A man that cursed Gardis’ very name for claiming him as a child surprise; resented his life on the Path; resented everything about being a Witcher, including the lack of choice and free will. Had seen the devastation wrought on two of his brothers for doing the very same. That man had claimed the Law of Surprise in lieu of payment, thus condemning another living being to destiny’s clutches. It didn’t ring true. “I have the shittest luck,” Lambert looked back down at Cal, who beamed right back up at him. “And I was drunk.” Or: Lambert invokes the Law of Surprise after a bender and lands more than he bargained for.

Kiss me with rain on your eyelashes,come on, let us sway together,under the trees, and to hell with thunder.- Edwin Morgan, 'Kiss Me'A story about a witcher and a vampire finding their way back into each other's lives and arms and hearts.

Geralt of Rivia dies a witcher's death.Hundreds of years later, his soul is born again and set on the same path as it was once before.Regis finds him, and can't believe his eyes.

And then he hears it. A voice in his head. Definitely not his own.A man’s voice: soft, scared, and just a little bit posh. Oh, dear, it says.A soulmate AU, where soulmates form a telepathic bond. Based heavily on the novels.

“I would have sway, under normal circumstances, but my age means little when I associate with humans. And to associate with a witcher, well…” Regis touched the tips of his fingers together. “We live in harmony, and that will not change regardless of who I associate with, but that doesn’t obligate them to like me, nor respect me.” “What would you need to do to earn their respect?” Geralt pressed. “Denounce humans?” “With what little information you have provided of these vampires, I expect that is exactly what they would want of me,” said Regis, his voice growing grave. “My word wouldn’t be nearly enough. I would have to provide tangible proof.” Geralt and Regis have to play the part of Blood Mule and Owner to drive a group of vampires out of Toussaint's outskirts. As one may expect, it's not an especially pleasant experience.

"Look," Jaskier says, a little desperately, "you've pretended to be my bodyguard before, right? This isn't so different."Geralt says, "It's different." But he doesn't, actually, say 'no.'(For the prompt: "Jaskier has secretly been engaged this whole time (he is a viscount after all) and Geralt agrees to pretend to be dating Jaskier so his fiance will let him cancel the engagement.")

Addiction is larger than life, Regis thinks in one of his clearer moments, because it takes and takes, until there isn’t anything left. It is the ultimate consummation of a persona, inverted to eat itself away to nothingness. There are so many nightmares, hallucinations, and physical pains that he loses count. Regis is petrified he will end up hurting Geralt, because his friend is the focal point of everything Regis has denied from himself; if and when he breaks, Geralt will not be safe. When the world collapses, something new starts to emerge from the ruins of a life. Sometimes losing who you are means finding that again.

In the bustling days before the Midsummer festival, Geralt is sent into the countryside to deal with a monster - with Jaskier once again by his side. But the bard has not forgiven him, and while he's not hiding his contempt for the Witcher, he is recalcitrant about revealing his true motives for joining him. As the hunt turns into a desperate mission to save an innocent man and the monster is not what is seems to be, Geralt learns a few new things about his old friend and decides to finally attempt to mend the rift between them...

“Your heart is beating so fast, but you must understand: I am not judging you,” Regis said in a soft voice. His gaze was sharp and deliberate. “Quite the opposite, in fact. I’m propositioning you.”  What begins as an arrangement of mutual pleasure develops into something neither of them can prepare for; some things are not meant to be, some are not meant to last, and you never know what will take the place of what we break.

According to Jaskier, they've lived this day almost a hundred times. Geralt doesn't remember any of them.

"Why -" he gestures expansively towards Jaskier, his lute, the forest around them, his swords now strapped to Roach "- are you doing this?"A bard seeking fortune wouldn't watch Geralt across the fire with eyes half-full of tears that he didn't bother to blink away. An artist looking for a muse wouldn't press close, desperately close, against Geralt's side until he finally gave in and turned his head. A young man after a quick fuck wouldn't grip Geralt to him hard enough to bruise even a witcher.The way Jaskier looks at Geralt makes him think he should know the answer already, but he doesn't, he doesn't."Because I know you," he says at last. "Because I have known you. Because I will know you. Isn't that enough?"(One day, Geralt will understand that it was the closest thing Jaskier will ever have to a goodbye, and it's enough, it's enough.)

Geralt's not human. Why should he have to feel like one? In which Geralt measures his potions in careful doses—and Jaskier is like taking a drink.

“Come to Kaer Morhen with me,” Geralt mumbled against Jaskier's neck. “Next winter, come with me.” He sat up, hoping Jaskier might see the earnest request in his eyes.

Jaskier finds himself in need of Geralt's protection right when Geralt is about to head to Kaer Morhen for the winter. When Jaskier sweet-talks his way into accompanying Geralt to the castle, he doesn't realize that he's gotten himself into a full-blown case of Meeting the Family. A study of unconventional families, witcher-style domestic fluff, and Jaskier trying his best. [All works in this series can stand alone.]

Lambert finds a bard - a dying bard - and brings him to Kaer Morhen. After all, it wouldn't do to leave Geralt's bard to die in a bandit camp.If only they knew what was wrong with him, and how to heal it.

Geralt knows he's different, even among witchers. Most of those differences are obvious enough upon looking at him: white hair, ridiculously pale skin, fangs, claws. But his desire for men, his discomfort whenever he beds women—those mutations, he can keep to himself. He can keep the world from seeing just how much of a freak he really is. Except he can't, because the world includes Yennefer. Or: With a little help from Yennefer and Jaskier, Geralt discovers he's gay after a lifetime of not even knowing the word. Probably the most self-indulgent thing I've ever written.

“Well, that’s a separate issue entirely, isn’t it?” Jaskier says, clearly enthused by being taken on. “I’m opposed to marriage on principle. Would you like to know why?” “No,” says Geralt.“I’ll tell you why,” says Jaskier.