Work Text:
The sun was going down when Eskel first saw Kaer Morhen in the distance. He was thankful to arrive before dark, he didn’t want to sleep outside one more night. The first thing he did when he enters the castle was to bring his horse to the stable. Lambert’s horse was already here. The younger witcher must have arrive shortly before him. When he enters the castle Lambert was indeed here, seated at a table and seemingly preparing dinner.
“Hey Lambert, you are here early”
“Well, I finished my last contract a week ago and didn’t found any on the road”. Eskel merely nodded to that response and seat at the table to help Lambert with whatever he was doing.
“Wanna have a drink ? I can prepare some white ghoul”.
“I arrive five minutes ago and you’re already proposing alcohol”
“Like you don’t want it” without waiting for any sort of confirmation, Lambert stood up and went to the kitchen. He came back a few minutes later with a few bottles. He placed one in front of Eskel and another in front. Meanwhile Eskel asked, “Why did you buy that many fish”
“I went fishing”
“And since when do you know how to fish?”
“Since I know how to make bombs”
Eskel took a large sip of his drink and said “… Well, that explain all the fish”. They stay silently drinked for a while until Eskel heard a noise coming from one of the chambers. “You heard that? Sounded like a portal” Eskel was already getting up.
“Yeah that’s Yennefer”
“What? She is here and you didn’t mention it? What is she doing here?”
“Said something about coming for Ciri and Geralt. I didn’t really listen”
Eskel let out an exasperated sigh.
“Hey I have and idea, if she left we could go into her room and check her stuff”
“This is a bad idea”
“It’s my idea so it’s obviously a good one”
Eskel just looked at him without saying a thing.
“Oh maybe you are afraid of her?”
“I am and you should be”
“Pff I’m not a pussy. If you don’t wanna come, I’ll go alone”. Lambert got up and with much excitement start heading into Yennefer’s room.
“I’ll come with you, so you don’t do anything stupid”
“What does that mean?”
“You always do something stupid”
“Fuck off!”
They were now in front Yennefer room’s and Lambert carefully opened the door. When they entered the room, Eskel said, “This is such a bad idea”
“You can’t chicken out now. Come on check that side of the room and I’ll check the other one”
“What are we looking for anyway”
“Cool sorceress stuff, what else” Lambert said while going through a chest.
Eskel inquired, "You found anything"
"Makeup, dresses"
"Tell me you aren't planning on putting on a dresses"
"Man, I forget you could be that stuck up, do you ever have fun?"
"Sometimes"
Lambert turned around to face him, "Hey, I found something, looks like a magical artifact". Eskel came closer to him "Well be careful we don't know what it is". At those words Lambert shook the artifact "what could…" the artifact glowed before vanishing, "What the fuck?"
"I think we are in trouble let's get out of here"
Lambert nodded silently, as a portal opened in the room. The sorceress Yennefer came out of a portal, she was fuming, "What are you doing in here? What did you do?"
Both men stood silent before her. Eskel knew that nothing they would say would calm her so he chose to stay silent hoping that Lambert would do the same for once. His thoughts were cut short when Yennefer opened her mouth again, "You are going to regret this!"
__________________________________________________________________________________
Eskel blinked, he had a hard time seeing in front of him. He tried to remember the last thing that happened to him. He only remembered Yennefer muttering something and then nothing. As for now, the only thing he knew was that it was the morning, since he could feel the sun on his skin, and that he was laying on the ground. Then he heard a noise. He tried to get up but something was pulling on his right arm.
" What the fuck man?"
"Lambert?"
The noise was coming closer, "You heard that? It sounds like a foglet" Eskel doubts were soon confirmed when an unusual fog started coming toward them. Lambert interrupted his thought, "Shit I don't have my sword". This is when Eskel noticed he didn't have is sword neither, "We need to run, now" both of them got up, but as soon as they moved, they noticed something.
"The fuck are we handcuffed?!"
"Don't know will worry about it later" Eskel grabbed Lambert hand and they both started running. They could see the castle from where they where. They could be there in ten minutes if they run but this was without taking the foglets into account, foglets that were getting dangerously close to them.
"Fuck!" At the same moment Lambert pushed him down and throw a queen shield, avoiding the blow of a foglet. They instantly got back up and start running again. For five minutes they run and dodge the blows of the foglets. Even by using their signs, the foglets were still too close for comfort. Eskel knew they needed to find a sword soon. But even if they found it, they would still have some trouble to use it since they were attached to each other.
Eskel concentration was interrupted by another noise, one that wasn’t coming from the foglets, "You hear that, sounds like a horse". Lambert nodded. They were getting closer to noise. Then they saw a horse, and the man on it. It was Geralt. As soon as Geralt saw them, with the foglets at their tailsn he got off his horse and rushed on the monsters. With a few swift movements he managed to get rid of one of them while Eskel and Lambert were keeping the other two at bay with signs. Soon the monsters were dead.
"That was so cool!"
Geralt sighed and looked at the little girl, "Ciri I told you to stay on the horse". She innocently looked at him, "But technically I'm safer if I'm closer to you?".
Geralt sighed again and noticed that Eskel and Lambert were handcuffed. "It's nice to see you but… Huh why are you…". Lambert cut him off before he could finish "Why don't you ask your girlfriend?". Eskel quickly added "We might have gone through her things and she might have caught us". Geralt sighed again but this time he put both hands on his temples, "Let's get back to Khaer Morhen, will discuss there".
Once they got back, Eskel and Lambert explained everything to Geralt while Ciri was getting settled in her room.
"Why would you even have this idea?" Geralt said while massaging his temple.
"We were drunk" Lambert said.
Eskel sighed "do you know if we can take them off".
Geralt cut him, "No you can't"
"We haven't even tried how would you know?" Lambert replied.
"Well Yennefer is the only one that can take them off, she is the one who created them for… Nevermind"
"Why would she… Oh, kinky" Lambert winked at Geralt.
"We are not talking about this. Anyway, if you have pissed her off you are going to stay like this for a while"
Ciri choose this moment to come back "Geralt I want to train"
"Sure, Eskel and Lambert will do that"
"What no!"
"Shouldn't we be focusing on getting out of these?"
"I'm taking care of this, I'll try to find Yennefer and talk to her. Meanwhile you are taking care of the kid"
"I'm not kid"
"Yeah you're a little devil". Ciri hit Lambert on his shoulder while he was smirking. Eskel rolled his eyes and looked at Geralt "You think she will listen to you?"
"Probably not but it's worth a shot. I'll be back in a week if I can't find her"
"And if you can't find her or convince her to take these off". Geralt looked at Eskel and turned to Ciri "Bye Ciri". "Bye Geralt" and with that Geralt was off to find Yennefer.
Both Eskel and Lambert were already sighing when Ciri burst between them "let's go do some training". "Don't do that kid" Ciri pouted when Lambert called her a kid again. Lambert turned to look at her and said, "Okay we can do some training".
"Yeah!" she happily rushed to the door before Eskel called her "Don't think you are forgetting something". "Oh yes my sword" she run again to her room.
"I won't be able to handle this situation much longer"
"I'm sure Geralt will convince Yennefer"
"You believe the shit you're saying?"
Ciri was suddenly there again, "I got everything!", she ran outside.
"Well at least you can pass the time doing something you enjoy"
"I don't like training the kid"
Eskel said with a smug smile "Never said you enjoyed training Ciri". When he said that Lambert hit him in the stomach with his elbow while Eskel laughed.
__________________________________________________________________________________
The three of them were now in the courtyard. Eskel was sharpening his sword has well as he could with a hand attached to Lambert who couldn't stop fidgeting. Eskel didn't say anything though, because even if Lambert would probably never admit he enjoyed teaching Ciri and he didn't want to disturb either of them. Ciri was working on her foot work while Lambert was yelling orders. "No you're doing it wrong, if you put your feet like that you'll lose your balance! Put your right feet first! Not the left one! And now you launch forward! Yeah no that's not it try again!"
Not discouraged by Lambert way of teaching Ciri retried the move again and again. "That one was good" Lambert said. Ciri stopped and looked at him "Whoa did you just give me a compliment"
"No why would I, must have been the wind". Eskel looked at him and smirked "Pretty sure you said that one was…". Before he could finish Lambert was already slapping him in the back of the neck. When Eskel looked back at him, he saw someone slapping Lambert much like he just did. "Children all of you"
"Uncle Vesemir!" Ciri said when she saw the older witcher before dropping her sword to go and greet him.
Lambert looked at Vesemir, "Pretty stealthy for an old man". With huff Vesemir told him, "You are the one who isn't sharp enough for a young man". Vesemir then looked at both Eskel and Lambert and saw they were bind to each other by handcuffs. He sighed heavily and looked at both of them "What happened?"
Eskel and Lambert exchanged a glance before Eskel said "We might have irritated Yennefer".
Vesemir sighed again "Have you try to get these of?"
"No Geralt said it wouldn't work"
"Why wouldn't it?"
Eskel looked at Ciri before looking back at Vesemir "It's a long story you probably don't want to hear"
"I think I'll without the details"
"I want to know that story, why can't you get them off?" Ciri said. Lambert answered her "You'll have to ask Geralt he can explain that better than us". Ciri was pouting but before she could say anything Vesemir gave her his swords and said, "Would you be so kind as to bring them into my room?". Ciri knew she could not argue, so she took the swords "Yes uncle Vesemir".
When she was out of sight Vesemir turned to the two younger witchers and give them a death glare. "How and why would you do anything to enrage Yennefer?” Before either of them could answer he continued “You know what nevermind, do you have any plan to get them off?". Eskel answered "Geralt went to find her and ask her to take them off since she is the only one who can do it"
Vesemir rolled his eyes and said, "I'm too old for this" after a pause he continued "Make no mistake boys, this situation doesn't prevent you from doing your duties. You will still have to do the cooking and cleaning and some walls of the keep need to be repaired before winter"
Lambert asked him " How to you want us to do this while we are attached?". "Not my problem" before any of them could say anything Vesemir was gone.
"Fuck this"
"You don't say…"
__________________________________________________________________________
"Why are we even repairing this wall?"
"Because Vesemir asked us to do it and we already had enough trouble for one day". Lambert only glared at the wall in front of him when he heard Eskel answer. His brooding was soon cut off by Eskel who gave him another brick to fill in the hole of the wall.
"You think the repair are going to hold?"
"Well we are witchers, not masons so no". Lambert was visibly getting more annoyed by the minute. He was starting to pull on the chain more frequently. Eskel noticed but did not say anything. He was also on nerves because of the situation but he was trying his best not to worsen it by saying something he shouldn't to Lambert. They were halfway through the work when Lambert said, "Fuck this I'm not touching another mother fucking brick today!". Eskel silently nodded.
"I need a drink"
"You sure this is a good idea after what happened yesterday?"
"Can't get worse than this"
Eskel was silent for a moment, "Yeah, would be hard"
Lambert got up and pulled on the chain so that Eskel would follow him. They arrived in the kitchen and Lambert start rummaging through the cupboards. He emerged with two cups and a bottle of what looked like wine. He poured the liquid in the two cups and gave one to Eskel. While Eskel was cautiously drinking his cup, Lambert drunk his in one go. "This certainly is one hell of shitty day"
"Could have been worse"
"How?"
Eskel smirked, "You could have been attached to Vesemir and you probably would have killed each other by now"
"Damn you're right"
Ciri's head popped up through the kitchen door. "Vesemir is asking how the repairs on the wall are going". Lambert answered her "It's going smoothly". Ciri looked at him "So it's probably not then" and she left. Eskel laughed while Lambert was dumbstruck. He finally looked at Eskel "Who taugth the kid to talk like that?". "Well Geralt, Yennefer and you I'm afraid. Wait till she starts saying swear words, now that’s something I want to see". Lambert smirked "What make you think she doesn't use swear words already?". Eskel nearly spit on his drink "What? You taught her some and I don't know?"
"We have a deal I teach her some of them and she doesn't used them when either of you are around"
"If Geralt learn about this he's gonna kill you, you know"
"I can take him on". Eskel tried not to laugh which did not go unnoticed by Lambert. "What?"
"Nothing" Eskel said while taking another sip of his drink. Lambert looked at him and swallow the rest of the bottle, "Oh fuck you". Once again, he was pulling on the chain and Eskel followed.
____________________________________________________________________
Thankfully for them Vesemir agreed to make dinner that night so they did not have to do yet another task tied to each other. But as the sun went down another problem arose. "Where are we sleeping tonight my room or yours?" Lambert pondered "I don't know who has the bigger bed?".
"You". They both silently agreed they were then going to sleep in Lambert room. When they arrived in the room, they start undressing, at least they tried. "How are we going to take of our shirt and vest with the handcuffs?"
Lambert looked at him and only blinked "I dunno and don't care, I'm to tired to think about it" after a pause he said "Let's just sleep with our armor on, it's not like we haven't done it before" Eskel nodded. They both took of their shoes and got under the cover. Eskel was trying to sleep but it was hard since Lambert couldn't stop fidgeting.
"You okay?"
Lambert turned to face him "I'm fine it's nothing" he then turned again trying to avoid Eskel gaze. Eskel didn't say anything, he knew if he wanted Lambert to open up, he had to let him do it on his own terms. But he didn't drop his gaze from Lambert. After a while, the younger witcher turned to face him "Stop looking at me like that". Eskel didn't. They were now looking at each other. Lambert sighed and closed his eyes.
"It's just… The last time I was in bed with someone else…" Lambert opened his eyes again. Eskel saw that he was holding back tears and he knew why. Slowly he took Lambert hand into his own. He then start stroking Lambert's hand while still looking at him. He knew what this was about, Aiden. Lambert had only mentioned him once a few months back and from what he understood he and Lambert were close, very close, but now he was dead. Eskel stayed silent, nothing he could say would soothe Lambert's grief.
"I just… I miss him". Eskel could hear Lambert's heart beating faster. The hold on his hand tighten.
"Fuck" Lambert his face with his free arm, he did not let go of Eskel hand. People said witcher could not feel any emotions due to their mutations. Eskel knew it was wrong. It's not that they could not feel anything, they just did not know how to deal with their emotions. And often time the easiest way to deal with it was to just ignore them. But sometimes they could not ignore their feelings. It was one of those time, and Eskel hated that he did not know how to deal with feelings. Maybe then he would know that to tell Lambert to soothe his pain. The only thing he could do was hold onto his hand. They stay silent after this. After some time Eskel could feel himself dozing off, he quickly fell asleep, feeling Lambert fingers intertwine with his.
Eskel woke up feeling something scratching his chin. His eyes opened slowly. He looked at the widow, the sun still was not up. Now that he was thinking about it, he could feel something on his torso. Lambert moved during his sleep. Both of his hands were now on Eskel torso. Even if they had moved, their hands, that were attached by the handcuffs, were still intertwine. But what really surprised Eskel was that Lambert head was now in the crook of his neck. The scratching he was feeling was coming from Lambert short hair. It was one of the few times he saw Lambert completely relaxed. He looked at him for a while, but soon he was feeling himself dozing off again. Before falling asleep he put is free hand on the back of Lambert's shoulder and pull him closer to him.
__________________________________________________________________________________
They did not talk about what happened that night.
The next few days passed much like the first one. Vesemir was forcing them to do a lot of menial tasks in the castle. They were taking care of the cooking, cleaning, repairs and training Ciri. They still had not heard from Geralt on the fifth day, and even if they were getting better at moving around attached to each other they still wanted to get rid of these handcuffs as soon as possible.
At the end of the fifth day, they just got in bed when Lambert said "How do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Ignore your feelings for Geralt?". Eskel was taken aback "I… Don't know what you're talking about"
Lambert looked at him and raised an eyebrow "I don't know if you thought you two were being discrete about it but everyone knows. Hell even Ciri must have noticed"
Eskel sighed "There is really nothing to talk about now that he's in love with her"
"But how do you handle it? Since Aiden's death I feel like…"
"Something is missing"
"I was gonna said like shit but yeah" They both smirked at that response even though they were both holding back tears. They stay silent for a few minutes. "I don't really think I'm handling anything" Eskel said "I just try not to think about it to much".
"And… Does it get better?"
"Not really"
Lambert sighed and shyly took Eskel hand. Eskel squeezed Lambert hand and sighed. "If you want to talk about this or anything you know that I'm here"
Lambert looked at him "Yeah I know… But I'll live without talking about it" Eskel nodded. Lambert continued "You know… I'm here too if you want to talk" Eskel smiled, at least as much as a witcher could smile, and put his free hand behind Lambert's back and pull him closer to him, while the young man did the same. They fell asleep soon after that.
__________________________________________________________________________________
On the sixth day they were training Ciri in the courtyard when they saw Geralt appear and behind him was Yennefer. Ciri lively has always dropped her sword to great both of them while Eskel and Lambert stayed where they were. Yennefer was smiling when Ciri came to hug her but as soon as she was gone to great Geralt, Yennefer stared at the two other witchers. If a glare could kill, they both would be dead. When Eskel thought about it they were lucky to still be alive after what they had done. They own their salvation only to the fact that they were important to Geralt and Ciri, if they weren't… Eskel didn't want to think about it.
Geralt murmured something to Ciri, she nodded, took her sword and left the courtyard. As soon as she was out of sight, Yennefer started walking to them. All this time she had not stop glaring at them. Geralt came between the two witchers and Yennefer before she got to closed. At that moment she turned to glare at him before glaring back at Eskel and Lambert.
Geralt was uncomfortable, but he looked at his fellow witchers and said “So, Yennefer agreed to take off the handcuffs at two conditions… First you need to apologize”.
Eskel was the first to talk, “Obviously. We are sorry for going through your stuff Yennefer”. Lambert reluctantly said “Yeah, we’re sorry”. They both looked at the sorceress. She opened her mouth “That will do, now to the second condition. I need a few ingredients you will find them”. She gave them a list. They both looked at it. All the ingredients were really rare and hard to find. Lambert was the first to talk, “And you expect us to find higher vampire blood while attached to each other?”
“No, even If it would bring me great pleasure to see you fight a higher vampire like that…” She snapped her fingers and the handcuffs open and fell to the ground “… I need you to stay alive to bring me all of the ingredients. You have three months. If you haven’t found all of it by then, you will regret it” Before she finished her phrase, she was already opening a portal. Before either of them could protest, she was already gone.
“You owe me a drink after that” Geralt said.
“You’re right thank you”
“Don’t thank me yet, you still have to find the ingredients”
“You’re right we better get started”
__________________________________________________________________________________
3 months later
Eskel and Lambert were finally back to Kaer Morhen. A week ago, they delivered all the ingredients they were supposed to find to Yennefer, and they were still alive. The sun was going down when they arrived at the castle. When they entered, they saw Ciri and Coën sited by the fire. Coën was the first to notice the two witchers. Ciri noticed soon after him and went to great them both.
“You’re finally here, I’m going to tell Geralt” and with that Ciri was gone. Coën greeted them both after her “I heard what happened with Yennefer”.
Lambert said, “Don’t we’re not talking about this ever again”. Geralt arrived with Ciri trailing behind him and said with a smirk “Why was it that bad?” Both Geralt and Coën snort at the remark while Ciri seemed completely lost in the conversation. She looked at Lambert and Eskel “What happened with Yennefer?”. Lambert kneeled and signed Ciri to come closer. He whispered something in her ear and when he finished, he took Eskel by the arm and they both took their leave.
“Geralt why do you and Yennefer need handcuffs for?” Geralt was speechless. Coën could not hold back a laugh and give him a pat on the back before leaving.
“Lambert! Come back here!”
THE END