[ CLOSED ] just look across and see

[gynvael]

Who: Geralt + Various
When: September
Where: Cadens, Nocwich, Horizon
What: September catch-all
Warnings: Standard Witcher canon; season 3 spoilers. nsfw marked.


(( starters below. plot with me discontinued. ))

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[gynvael]

[ When he breathes in, her scent fills his senses. She's always taken up space in his world. When he'd thought her dead, she was there, haunting him, following his footsteps in the darkened halls of Kaer Morhen. It isn't effortless, even now, being with her. What she did still hurts. What she said still hurts—words that came weeks ago and months ago all at once. But it is a wound that he's stopped picking at. That he's started to allow to scar.

The memories do not change what happened. They haven't completely broken down the walls he's built. It's just...in understanding what they could be, what they tried to be—for Ciri, for themselves—it gives him hope. That they can do more than cause each other pain. That what he feels for her needn't always be a heavy, constricting weight.

Perhaps things can be easier between them more often than they are hard.

He exhales upon hearing her magic has returned. Good. That's good. Amidst all this shit, there are spots of brightness. ]

I, ah— [ His hesitation says more than words. Geralt isn't good at consciously masking himself in the Horizon. His injuries follow him here and now is no different. He is better than when she saw him. Stronger. She and the dryads did everything they could. But it would be a lie to claim he's been put back to what he was. He is not unchanged. ] It's healed all it can.

[ For now. The rest may come with time, or it may not. He doesn't know, but he intends to find out. He hasn't much of a choice. There are people he needs to protect. Threats to face. He won't lay still because his damn leg is stiff some mornings, and he can no longer sleep as comfortably on rocky ground. ]

[vixening]

[ yennefer watches geralt inhale, watches the once-again-familiar way she knows he is centering himself on her. she has, many times before, used that focus to her own advantage - to pull his attention, to keep it only on her. right now she just revels in seeing it again, in the way it feels to have his whole of his senses on only her; without the complications of before. there are new complications now, things they've each done, each said, things that have shifted the path of them away from the one they were taking on the continent - but she doesn't feel the same anxiety with it, now. that he is seeing something reflected in her that she doesn't know.

what it is they have was never, and will never, be so simple as together or not. she still feels the pull to him as strong and all-consuming there as she does now. but with it, the memories of their years spent here, too. complicated, entertaining, but perhaps - as he said - they do not need to be as painful. doesn't not need to be so heavy.

at his exhale, yennefer's smile grows. a small thing, perhaps a selfish thing, but it is no longer a liability. is is no longer something worth so much that she would- well. make the same mistake.

and it is something she has to remind herself, too; that her magic has returned, that she no longer needs to hear him say the answers she's looking for. she could just as easily probe into his mind to find what he means, to know exactly to what extent his injuries have followed. it concerns her, how the singularity could have so much of a hold on each of them - if it really is just of the mind, or something greater.

but he hesitates, and she can read it across his face, and in turn her own expression shifts. she wishes she could do something more, and she says as much in the way her thumbs continue to brush - back and forth. just to feel him, just to remember these small moments. it is another few breaths before her hands move to the front of his chest, lay flat against him. ]

It is unusual- that we would all share dreams on the same eve. All but Ciri. [ who is already from a time much further down the path, she knows. ] Do you think it means anything?

[gynvael]

[ And that's a change, too. Isn't it? She doesn't try to siphon every inch of his attention for herself, nor does he feel the need to let her—to want it, even, the way he used to. As if it would untangle the threads between them or, perhaps, give him a reason to leave before she could wake. A reason to tell himself that he only becomes so lost in her because of some magic wish. That there is no point in staying to search for more.

It's different, he realizes. Not that he and Yen never had their moments of calm—those were the memories that kept him coming back, that filled his nights with more than his turbulent dreams—but it often came with an edge. A storm on the horizon. Waiting, always, and striking without warning.

For once, the storm has receded into the yawning distance.

He seldom bothered to shield his thoughts from her—she's well aware she'll find nothing he would not say aloud—and it's the same in this instance as she peers up at him. Sometimes, it's easier than searching for the words to explain. Sometimes, he simply wants her to understand without needing to say it. But he knows when she asks, she's searching for a genuine answer from him, something beyond what might tumble through his head. So he answers about his wounds, and he answers for the downpour of memories that's caught them all. ]

I'm not sure. [ He lowers his hand to his side. Once, he thought the visions might've come from Ciri. Others have experienced the same since, though. ] Perhaps we're meant to glean a lesson from what we've learned.

[ A touch of wryness suggests he isn't buying his words. More likely, it's a twist of irony from Destiny's hand. Or the Singularity's hand. Whether this is supposed to mean anything, he hasn't any idea, but it doesn't matter. They can make it mean something. That's always what they've done, together and apart, and it's what they'd intended to do on the Continent for Ciri's sake. Nothing has changed where creating a safer world for her is concerned. ]

[vixening]

[ it is one change, that's for sure. yennefer feels it even now, how the pull between them doesn't feel like it's taking out her knees under her. and maybe that says more about where they left things, how some part of her had genuinely thought that night in brokilon would be the last she saw of him, and how seeing him now feels like a relief. how the distance that she has felt so intensely between where they are now feels...less. both physically, and otherwise.

ciri is safe. the continent and all of its complications, its threats, are far from here. and yes, she is aware this one has just as many forces here that can come for ciri, but it feels.

perhaps calm is the exact word she's looking for. perhaps the storm has passed, for now.

it's not what it used to be, they are not what they used to be, and yennefer is aware that some part of her will miss who it was they used to be. what they used to be. but a larger, older, louder part of her can look at this and think that perhaps there is somewhere new for them to go. I'm not sure he says, and yennefer understands the feeling. the uncertainty, yes, and also the fear that maybe this can be something new.

she does hear the wryness to his words, does know what it means for him. still, yennefer feels her own wry smile tug at her mouth for entirely different reasons. perhaps we're meant to glean a lesson. ]

Perhaps for some of us more than others. [ it wasn't up to her where the singularity had seen it fit to leave her dreams last time, but now that she knows, now that she's felt herself make the decisions and face all that came after, she knows the distance she had to travel to get to this place. knows it more than any of them, really - what it is she's gleaned from these dreams.

so no, perhaps it doesn't mean anything at all. perhaps the singularity, or destiny, or whatever it is that's pulling strings here in abraxas doesn't have any reason behind it. but she has reasons, now. she has ciri, even if she's across the continent. she has purpose even here.

another moment passes, and then yennefer lets her hands slip from geralt's front. she isn't pulling away from him, exactly, but acknowledging something else. acknowledging them, here, rather than where they were. ]

[gynvael]

[ More than others indeed. Geralt isn't sure what to call it. A chapter closing? Yet another piece in the intricate, often tattered, tapestry of their past? Like her, he misses what they were, and at the same time, he recognizes what they were could never be. They'd wandered in circles around each other for so long they'd nearly forgotten what it was to journey forward.

As her hands fall away, he catches them in his. On the peaks of Caingorn, he'd been desperate not to let her walk away. At the edge of the Blue Mountains, she was desperate not to have him do the same. For once, it doesn't feel like they're on the cusp of losing each other to their own pain.

Here is where they can be. Over the seasons, he'd made an effort to trust her where Ciri was concerned—between Istredd, the queen, her small circle of allies—and now he knows he can. Concerns over what rash acts she might take in Thorne have long faded. ]

I need you to be sure that any plans laid in Thorne by the others won't happen unless we're ready.

[ She will understand his meaning. He's aware of the shift in sentiment by Thorne's Summoned. Once occupied by hungry vipers who remained behind for a reason, Thorne is now primarily filled with those who want anything but the monarchy in place. Ciri will be no safer if the Free Cities fill the power vacuum left behind by Thorne. He'll do his part—and he's already formulating his next step—but he is not at home in politics. Yennefer is.

Beyond that, though, he is telling her he trusts her with this. It's the first time he's asked her to do anything in Thorne since that night over a year ago. ]

[vixening]

[ it does not pass yennefer by what this means. if anything, she feels like she's holding on to ever detail, every passing breath. it's a mirror image of coming back together outside of aretuza before the ball, more still than desperate, but still them. yennefer pulls away from him to recognize that what they might both remember does not define who they are here, but geralt does catch her hands as they fall. hold onto them between his own.

it feels...not quite like a promise, not quite like an olive branch, but an acknowledgement. yennefer curls her fingers around his, as if he tries to tell him that she understands. that she doesn't feel the break anymore, the distance she'd put in deciding to stay in thorne and that he'd reinforced until he knew he could trust her; but instead the weight of his hands around hers. of this.

her eyes are on his face when he speaks, and she does know what he means. what he's asking of her, and how long it's been since he has. ] I will. [ she answers, squeezing his hands gently and giving him a small nod.

part of her wonders if there's more that needs to be said - that she will keep him updated, that she's no longer scared, no longer worried her very presence would be a liability for ciri. but the truth is - she suspects that geralt already knows without it being said. ]

[gynvael]

[ When they spoke in Brokilon, he could not promise her they'd see each other again. He makes no such assurances now, but he feels like he could. There's more to hope for in this world, more that they can secure for Ciri's future. More places they each belong.

When she answers him, he releases a breath. His eyes are fixed on hers. Ciri said they found each other again. He believes her, but the unwritten spaces leave him wondering. How did he get to her? What did he do? And he and Yen, how long were they apart?

He should be patient. Ciri's answers do not come easy, for good reason. Geralt has kept much of what happened at Thanedd to himself, unwilling to lend more weight to an already crushing burden. Guilt will not take him far. Yen knows enough. He understands what she leaves unstated, too.

When he leans down to kiss her temple, just above her brow, it's slow, deliberate, neither thoughtless nor tightly restrained. It simply is.

His chest feels a little less taut. Much remains that he's uncertain about; he still doesn't know where and how they fit. Not so soon, not when only days have passed. But those questions no longer have him trapped in their whirlwind. He's not afraid anymore of what she might drag from him, of saying more than he means to in a flurry of emotions. There is, he thinks, a lot more time—a lot more grace—for them to find their way than they once believed. ]

[vixening]

[ there is a new feeling somewhere in the back of yennefer's mind that she's not quite sure what to make of; something that tells her that maybe, just maybe, she doesn't need to know. how it is they get back together, how it is they find ciri, what happens to ciri after losing her in the chaos of it all and everything - perhaps, in some ways, it doesn't matter to her right now.

what matters is this feeling, slotting into place. after seeing ciri, after finding him. she'd been searching - before, for a way to have a child. and then after, for her chaos. she feels like she's spent the majority of her life in search, and now - somewhere in the falling ash and imposing trees around them - she feels like what it had been she was missing might finally be found.

it is not about being whole, it is not about getting back what was taken from her, but perhaps it's simply about feeling like she isn't running out of time. like maybe what this could be could still come together, with time. with grade. with patience. geralt leans down to press a kiss to her temple, and yennefer lets her eyes fall closed, lets herself lean into the press of lips to her brow.

she does not know everything that geralt goes through, back home. they both know she could read it right from him, if she needed to. but she doesn't, just as she doesn't offer her own side of things. there isn't much reason to it anymore. instead, yennefer lets a small part of her wish this moment didn't have to end, even as she looks back up to him with a soft, tired sort of smile. ]

You should be careful with your leg. [ she knows he won't be, not necessarily, but it a kind of goodbye as she pulls back from him. ] And ask Jaskier what it was he did with your hair, in Brokilon. It was nice.