Fanfic Recs

Jaskier has developed a nasty habit of kissing Geralt, and Geralt cannot for the life of him figure out why.

Geralt gets dosed with a love spell, and Jaskier bears the brunt of his affections. Yennefer is unimpressed. Ciri is just done with both of them.

Five months after their encounter at Cidaris' most exclusive sex party, Geralt and Jaskier run into Valdo Marx at a music festival in Oxenfurt. It goes about how you'd imagine.

“I’m a bard, Geralt,” Jaskier says, like that explains everything. “To a lot of people, there’s a very fine line between a musician and a whore. A line that’s so fine that, in fact, it doesn’t really exist." Geralt learns that Jaskier's life can be just as painful as his, sometimes.

Geralt is summoned to the court of Count Enri and called on to fight a monster - and Jaskier, of course, is right in the middle of things. Except monsters can be human, too.

“What’s that?” Geralt asks. Jaskier blinks. “It’s a tattoo,” he says. “Have you never seen a tattoo before, Geralt?” Geralt fights the urge to roll his eyes. “I know it’s a tattoo,” he says. “What’s it a tattoo of?”

Geralt returns to Oxenfurt on a bright May morning to find flowers laid outside Jaskier's rooms and a fresh grave in the cemetery. Except, as Geralt is about to learn, in Jaskier's world things are never quite what they seem.

In which Ciri suspects but cannot confirm. Or,Geralt and Jaskier get domestic. Well, as domestic as they can.

“It’s a wolf, not a dog,” Geralt says flatly. “It’s hurt.” “It’s a wolf.” “I’m helping it,” Ciri says, ignoring him, and turns back to the wolf. But when is a wolf not a wolf? When it's everyone's favourite humble bard, of course!

5 times Geralt noticed something about Jaskier without being told, and 1 time Jaskier noticed something about Geralt without being told. //Jaskier gasps and sputters, utterly taken aback and hardly knowing which part of Geralt’s speech to address first. “A tart? A backwater tart, no less! Backwater tarts wish they had half my charm and sexual prowess! And you’ve, you’ve got some nerve, Geralt, trying to, to take advantage of my nobility — um, alleged nobility, that is — right after insulting my virtue and slandering me. Imagine the outrage I’d feel if I were actually noble—”Geralt tosses a doublet unceremoniously at Jaskier, who squawks and scrambles to catch it before it can fall to the floor. Geralt stills, then, and turns to face Jaskier with a pinched expression. “Doesn’t matter to me if you’re noble or not,” he says in a low tone. “You’re still Jaskier. Still annoying; still unshakable.”Jaskier looks down at the doublet in his hands to hide the way his cheeks burn as relief trickles down his spine. “Oh, well, as long as I’m still annoying,” he says.

Jaskier marks his territory (Geralt) in subtle ways and Geralt, being an uncultured dumbass, doesn't realize it until Yennefer points it out to him.

For Geraskier week, day 7: Destiny “Better than a bottled Djinn,” she says, and smiles as if at some private joke. “Your own desires, given shape into destiny. But you can only choose one. So choose well.”

“I learn stuff about you to enrich my songs, thanks very much.” Geralt starts. “Like what?” Jaskier strums a chord. “Plenty of things. You always ask the contractor if they want the head or not instead of just showing up with it, because you don’t want to shock people. You eat normal amounts of food when eating in public, instead of your usual awe-inducing giant amount. You sleep more when you’re hurt, but that’s the only way I’d ever know. You’re a bit weird about your potions and you count them a lot.” He glances up and grins. “Shall I continue?”A handful of contracts go sideways. Recovering is easier with Jaskier there.

Jaskier takes Geralt to Cidaris’ most exclusive sex party. It goes about how you’d imagine.

Geralt's been in a dungeon for two weeks and is understandably frustrated. Jaskier, on the other hand, is what one might call... livid.

"Jaskier keeps heroically silent while they eat, commenting only on the quality of the food, which is adequate, if unfortunately bland, as is common for the cuisine in this part of the continent. When Geralt has finished, Jaskier goes around the table to sit on the bench beside him. Jaskier sees the man's entire body stiffen, but it doesn't faze him. Jaskier now has something he's never had about Geralt before: knowledge, and knowledge is most definitely power. “What do you want?” Geralt grunts, when Jaskier rests his hand on one wide thigh. “What I've always wanted.” What he never thought he could have. “You.”"

The point is, they'd better not. It wouldn't work. And when Jaskier tries something, because he's definitely going to, it'll be up to Geralt to make the right decision and save them both the trouble.Better that things should go on as they are. Better than sating Jaskier's whims and having it all fall apart after.This once, perhaps, there's a lesser evil after all. And Geralt will choose it and gladly.(Or: Jaskier starts hitting on Geralt all the time. Geralt ignores it, because that's obviously the only reasonable thing to do. Except, sooner or later, he isn't going to be able to anymore.)

Jaskier is traveling with Geralt when a hunt goes badly wrong and Geralt ends up injured. Geralt soon realizes that the bard can take care of Geralt better than he'd realized, in his own way.

Jaskier is an affectionate man. It drives Geralt mad, but in more ways than he knows how to put into words.

If these men want a monster to hunt, for what they did to Jaskier, Geralt will give them one.

Jaskier drinks some more, his lips red, red, red, and Geralt pulls himself out of his thoughts. Dangerous thoughts.Or, five times Jaskier's lips are red.

“Jaskier,” Geralt squeezes his hand tight between his own and Jaskier’s focus is pulled back by the commanding tone, “answer the question.”“Geralt,” Yennefer admonishes, “he might not even remember who you are.”Jaskier wants to laugh because of course he knows who Geralt is, but the look of despair on Geralt’s face is too much and the words tumble recklessly from his mouth.“Of course I know who he is! He’s the White Wolf – Geralt the mighty Witcher, savior of dangerous witches and bards who overstay their welcome.”

Julian is six when he realizes that he's got an astounding capacity for being an annoying bastard. He's seventeen when he finally decides to lean in.

sometimes all Geralt needs is silence

Jaskier gets kidnapped and tortured. Geralt comes to rescue him. Except it's not quite that simple.

Even the tips of his ears are rosy, maybe because of the way the girl is squirming on his lap. He's making pleasant conversation, biting his lips and then licking over them at intervals, when he's searching for words. Certainly drunk, then. He could have been in bed with the girl long ago, but Geralt knows by now that he likes this, likes whispering flirtatious nonsense, and sipping from his cup of mead, and sending winks at Geralt. Geralt wishes he wouldn't. Jaskier and Geralt fantasize repeatedly about how badly they do not want each other. Also, they do not care about each other. And any domesticity is unintentional.(Luckily, being travel partners is a temporary arrangement.)

You meet up with your soulmate in dreams once or twice every year your whole life, giving you the chance to grow up together and befriend each other no matter where you live. The catch is you only remember what happens in those dreams if you’re currently in one, or if you meet in real life and you BOTH want to be with each other, meaning your waking lives carry on as they would have otherwise with you none the wiser as to whether or not you have a soulmate out there. This leads to unexpected and wonderful tearful reunions between soulmates discovering each other in waking life, but if your waking selves don’t get along or have emotional constipation (cough, Geralt, cough cough) you and your soulmate can only watch helplessly from your dream meetings as your waking selves make things terrible for both of you without even realizing it. (Created my own homebrew soulmate!au rules to get myself some solid logical worldbuilding where the characters still have to choose each other in the end, no matter what what destiny says.)

Even after all their time together, there's a few important things about Jaskier that Geralt has overlooked.

Every year, Jaskier finds himself singing at Cintra’s court, watching Geralt’s abandoned Child Surprise grow up.

Geralt starts noticing. Sometimes he stares. Sometimes he tugs his cloak about him, breath making ghosts in the chilly night air, and lets himself see. Jaskier’s stark profile against the backdrop of the flames. The play of light and shadow over his face, cutting across his neck in a sharp line, dripping soft and golden into the crinkles of his coat. Or: Things that changed since Geralt met Jaskier. Or Jaskier found Geralt. Or- you know.