[ He's waiting, a little, for Sam to say more. He's glad when there's only a nod in return. Not for anything, just. It's simpler when there's no need to say much out loud. He knows Sam appreciates what he did, for the man's own reasons, and Sam knows Geralt feels the same way. Nothing else past that is necessary. Even if Geralt hasn't specified exactly what for or why, after all the help Sam has offered him over the past few weeks, he's only now chosen to acknowledge it out in the open. Maybe because things feel...unsteady. Taut. Frankly, he's less and less confident each day about how many more he'll see. About which conversations will be his last. He's left enough loose ends back home. Rather not add more while he's here.
He files away what Sam says of his family home: another piece of the puzzle that makes up the man before him. Sam is a curiosity to him. Different from nearly everyone else Geralt has met -- and Geralt's damn good at reading people. He can tell there's not anything he's missing. What he found inside that home by the water only confirms it. Sam really is just...this. He's not sure what to make of that. Or how it is he's gotten to be on the receiving end of Sam's gratitude. And he's not ready to push it away right now, this hand that Sam has extended him, but he can't help but think, either: how long before Sam realizes there's so much fucking more shadowing him than a man who hunts monsters, with the ghost of a girl and a neat little cabin on some snowy hills? Perhaps it doesn't matter. He knows himself well enough to understand how Sam looks at him will not change how he feels about Sam in return. Because he'd get it. Wouldn't blame him for it. He's not expecting anything different should they cross that bridge.
His gaze drops away again. He draws his good leg up, letting his arm rest on his knee. ] Are you worried for them? Without you there?
[ He realizes, then and there -- as the question leaves him -- that he wants Sam to go back. To that house, with his sister and nephews inside. That it gnaws at him, the fact he can't do anything. He's just trapped, with an ever-growing list of people who make it harder and harder for him to stick by his decision to do what he needs to, cost be damned, to get he and Jaskier out of this shit. Fuck, how does he always find himself here? Wanting more than he knows can be done? When he's more than aware of how these things always turn out? ]
no subject
He files away what Sam says of his family home: another piece of the puzzle that makes up the man before him. Sam is a curiosity to him. Different from nearly everyone else Geralt has met -- and Geralt's damn good at reading people. He can tell there's not anything he's missing. What he found inside that home by the water only confirms it. Sam really is just...this. He's not sure what to make of that. Or how it is he's gotten to be on the receiving end of Sam's gratitude. And he's not ready to push it away right now, this hand that Sam has extended him, but he can't help but think, either: how long before Sam realizes there's so much fucking more shadowing him than a man who hunts monsters, with the ghost of a girl and a neat little cabin on some snowy hills? Perhaps it doesn't matter. He knows himself well enough to understand how Sam looks at him will not change how he feels about Sam in return. Because he'd get it. Wouldn't blame him for it. He's not expecting anything different should they cross that bridge.
His gaze drops away again. He draws his good leg up, letting his arm rest on his knee. ] Are you worried for them? Without you there?
[ He realizes, then and there -- as the question leaves him -- that he wants Sam to go back. To that house, with his sister and nephews inside. That it gnaws at him, the fact he can't do anything. He's just trapped, with an ever-growing list of people who make it harder and harder for him to stick by his decision to do what he needs to, cost be damned, to get he and Jaskier out of this shit. Fuck, how does he always find himself here? Wanting more than he knows can be done? When he's more than aware of how these things always turn out? ]