Chapter Text
It had taken a few weeks, but Jaskier’s mood was improving alongside the weather. The more sunny blue skies and warm balmy days, the more Jaskier was feeling like himself. He had found himself venturing out into the light more and more, just sitting out in the courtyard while the men fought or atop one of the towers where he could just be in the stillness and compose with the beauty of nature all around him. It seemed to be helping, especially when he was able to head back inside and spend several hours around the others without feeling as if he needed to go and hide under all of the blankets he could find.
He was so glad to see the clouds of sadness starting to roll away, even if it meant that he still had bad days. He knew that if he woke up some mornings, barely able to talk let alone get out from under the sheets, then Yennefer and Geralt would be right there beside him offering their support. It made it much easier to accept those days, knowing that there would be someone there to help him through them. They were so good to him, and on his better days he tried to make sure that they were aware of just how much he loved them in return. It had led to several very adorable blushes from the pair of them, as well as several days spent wrapped up in each other in bed.
It did mean that when Jaskier wandered down for breakfast one day and Borch started talking about taking a family trip out to stretch their wings, he didn’t react with absolute panic. Instead, he had managed to smile and nod along as if there was not a part of him that was terrified of being away from his lovers. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Borch to keep him safe, but he couldn’t help the knee jerk reaction at the thought of being separated from them. He was determined to be more than his fear and his sadness, so he pushed any doubts that he had down and helped make plans for their trip.
“Are you sure that you don’t need some company on your trip?” Geralt asked, studying his hands to hide his awkwardness. Jaskier loved this darling man, he really did.
Borch frowned at the pair of them. “I am sure that we will be fine. Téa and Véa will accompany us, and that should be more than enough protection for us. After all, the three of us are also dragons, with the accompanying natural weaponry. We should be more than a match for whatever we encounter, and I don’t plan on allowing either of them to go off on their own.”
Geralt made an unintelligible noise under his breath at that, pulling Jaskier closer to his side and shoveling more food into his mouth. While Yennefer cackled on the other side of the witcher, clearly interrupting her conversation with the other mages to delight in the man’s pain, Jaskier pressed a kiss to the man’s chin in consolation. The poor man was just being protective, as always. It didn’t help that both men were insanely worried about Jaskier’s safety, or that Jaskier was still delighted by the unfamiliar warmth in his chest at the thought of people caring for him this much.
“It sounds great, Borch. We can see if we can find some deer or something as well if we head a fair distance from the keep. Something to bolster up the reserves for the last few days before it all starts warming up enough that we can head down to the nearest village for more supplies. Saskia hasn’t had much of an opportunity to see how well she can hunt, and she should be big enough now to take something down without too much help.”
That had Saskia grinning at him from across the table, Ciri’s matching smile practically beaming with her pride in her friend. He poked his tongue out at the pair of them, glorying in feeling enough like himself that he could have these moments with his family again.
After that, it was a blur until they were all ready to head out, standing in the courtyard in their draconid forms while Yennefer headed back into the keep to console a sulking Geralt. Jaskier couldn’t even reprimand Borch on his undisguised joy in Geralt’s reaction to it, too busy trying to keep Saskia somewhat calm as she bounced around the courtyard chattering away at top speed. Véa and her sister were no help, too busy laughing at the pair of them to help corral the younger dragon.
“Can we just get going already? I don’t want to have to put up with miss hyper for a moment longer than I need to,” Jaskier teased. He launched himself into the air to avoid his sister’s retaliation, laughing and twirling through the sky to escape her while the others got themselves organised and then took to the air as well.
Jaskier took one last sweep across the front of the keep, trying not to swoon when he saw Geralt and Yennefer both watching him from one of the walls, and followed along behind Borch. It was a beautiful moment, soaring through the air with his family and enjoying the moment. It was beautiful, the valleys and mountains looking majestic against the backdrop of the slowly fading snow. It was like a picture that he had once seen back in Oxenfurt, one that had sparked his desire for travel when he had still been trying to decide if he would be able to travel the Continent like he had dreamed about or if staying at the university would have been safer for him.
After a few hours of travel, they reached a clearing that Borch seemed to think was the perfect place to spend the day. He slowed and landed in the snow, lowering himself to the ground to allow the girls to disembark. Jaskier alighted next to him, laughing when Saskia dropped from the sky to barrel into him and knock him to the floor. The pair of them tussled for a few minutes, throwing each other around while Borch watched indulgently and the two women called suggestions from the sidelines.
“Children, are you quite done?” Borch rumbled, the smile on his face giving lie to his mock serious voice. “I was going to suggest that the girls see if they can hunt while we have a chat, Julian, but it seems like you two would prefer to play around with each other than to do anything else.”
“No! I want to bring down a deer and then Lambert can cook it for us all tonight!” Saskia yelled, bounding away from Jaskier. She immediately started twining around Téa’s legs, almost pushing her over in her excitement.
The two women laughed, leading Saskia off into the trees as they muttered to her about hunting techniques and how she should best track her prey. Jaskier couldn’t help the way he watched her go, eyes going soft, before turning to look at Borch.
“You wanted to talk to me?” he asked.
“Yes. With your mage and witcher about all the time, we never get a chance to speak, just the two of us. I wanted to have a moment to tell you how proud I am of you, and of how far you have come.”
Jaskier was so glad that he was still in his draconid form, as he was physically unable to cry. Instead, he tried to suppress the choked noises that were forcing their way out of his throat by clearing it instead, scanning the treeline to hide the expression he knew was in his eyes.
“You were such a lost soul when I first met you, Julian, in pain both from the way you were unable to be the dragon that you were always born to be and the way that you gave so much of your heart and expected nothing in return for it. You were so preoccupied with how you could help others that you allowed that to determine your whole sense of self worth. While you still need someone to protect you from your more altruistic moments of stupidity,” the last was said with a teasing smile as Borch bumped his leg against Jaskier, laughing as it sent the smaller dragon stumbling indignantly, “You have become so much more settled in who you are and you are starting to learn just how much you deserve love and family. You are such a special individual, Julian, and I am so proud to consider you a part of my family.”
That was the end of Jaskier pretending to be in any way in control of his emotions. He flung himself at Borch with a sob, winding his neck and tail around the man and clinging to him. The elder dragon cleared his throat in a very tell tale sign, holding Jaskier to him with one massive clawed foot. The pair of them stood there for a long minute before a crashing in the trees and the sounds of Saskia squealing in triumph had them breaking apart guilty.
“I CAUGHT A DEER!” they heard her yell, Téa’s comments about her needing to carry the deer back seemed to fall on death ears as she came charging through the trees in her excitement. “Did you hear me? I caught a deer! We can have deer for dinner and I can tell Ciri that I caught it all by myself!”
Jaskier laughed, ignoring the slightly strained tone to his voice that indicated he had just been indulging in a rather hearty cry, and smiled at her. “Well done, darling. Now, if you can help the girls, we can get it back and then you can tell everyone all about it. Will you be able to carry it back, or do you need me to?”
Despite Saskia’s loud insistence that she would certainly be able to carry it back herself, Borch settled the matter by gripping the deer in one clawed foot, the Zerrikanian women having already settled themselves on his back in preparation for the return trip, and leaping into the air, laughing when Saskia let out a frustrated little scream and launched herself after him, twirling around in the air in front of him and telling him all about how she was more than big enough to do it herself and she wasn’t a baby any more. Jaskier decided to add to the chaos by barrelling into her at top speed and then darting away, delighting in the aerial acrobatics he was able to perform as his sister chased after him with a series of threats that she must have learnt from the witchers.
When they arrived back at the keep and Saskia had made sure that everyone had seen and appreciated her kill, Jaskier found out that apparently the whole outing had been little more than a ruse concocted between Borch and Yennefer while she had a little chat with the other mages. The fact that he found out about this while she was staring at him with one of her terrifying little evil grins on her face didn’t really fill him with enthusiasm, but that was short lived when she explained why she looked so incredibly excited and proud.
“You kept saying how much you wanted to see the coast, so I’ve organized for all of us to go there for the rest of the day. Even Vesemir agreed that the keep would be fine unattended for a few hours if we put a few wards around the place to defend it and let us know if there were any intruders, so everyone can come along and have a moment away. Geralt kept saying he wished he had gone with you that day, when you suggested it, so I thought, better late than never. Unless you don’t want to go, in which case I will have to eviscerate you for wasting all of my time and effort.”
Yennefer's excited look turned into her carefully studied vicious indifference, and Jaskier couldn’t help himself. He surged forward to kiss her, shifting into his human form before he reached her and ignoring the catcalls from the Zerrikanian women who were still in the courtyard with them and. He was far too excited and appreciative. To think that she had taken the time to organise a trip that he had been telling Geralt he wanted to go on for years and years.
By the time that he was finished showing her his appreciation for all that she had done for him, and Yennefer was a rather ego boosting puddle clinging to his arms to stay upright, the others were all assembled in the courtyard and ready to embark on their next adventure. Geralt pulled him into a rather toe curling kiss of his own, muttering about how he would only go through a portal voluntarily because he loved him so much before heading into the portal that Tissaia and Triss had opened. The other witchers followed him through, Coën talking with the Zerrikanian women as the three of them stepped through together and Lambert coaxing Saskia to go with him with the promise of teaching her how to swim. Borch trailed after his daughter, smiling indulgently at his son before he disappeared through the haze of magic towards the beach.
Yennefer patted him on the arm before stepping towards the portal with a smile. “Come on, sweetheart. You managed to bring us all together, so now you need to make sure that none of us kill each other on what should be a nice day out. You deserve this, and I for one am determined to make sure that you have a spectacular day, followed by some mindblowing sex. Don’t make me wait too long.” With a final flirtatious wink, she strode through the portal, already yelling for someone to find her the perfect spot where she could lie in the sun.
Jaskier took one more moment to look back at the keep, to see just how far it had come from the broken shell of a place that it had once been. He smiled softly, turning to look back at the portal, and then took a step towards his friends, his family, his lovers, and his brighter future, all wrapped up in his dream of travelling to the coast.