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Crane is not the only one who leaves the great hall in a bit of a daze this evening. The few snippets of conversation he catches from his brothers and cousins are not as loud or cheerful as they usually are, but more subdued, almost awed. Some almost sound - and smell - like they're in a bit of shock.
Crane absolutely gets it! He feels kind of in shock himself. They’re going to change the training! Their new little brothers won’t have to suffer the pain and exhaustion and just, plain misery that the training has been until now.
Crane doesn’t look back on his childhood with any sort of fondness, but he’s come to realize that he hadn’t actually thought about how awful it really was a lot of the time. Not until Aubry brought it up last night. Crane had thought they’d removed the most awful part of becoming a witcher when Triss had made the testing potion, and they got rid of the old mages.
It takes a moment before Crane realizes he’s found himself standing by a window, staring down at the training grounds outside. He can see a number of witchers out there, running drills or demolishing some training dummies. He supposes that’s one way to work out their feelings. Crane’s also pretty sure there is a fair number of witchers roaming out somewhere on the slopes of the mountain, too. But neither training or going up mountain feels like a thing Crane wants to do. But he also doesn’t feel like he’ll be able to just go to bed and sleep right now, either.
He wanders away from the window and walks aimlessly for a while. He’s not very surprised to find himself outside Jaromir’s door. Spending the night wrapped in his Bear’s arms does feel like a thing he wants to do.
“Jaromir?” he asks, knocking gently on the door. There’s no answer. Crane waits another moment, then carefully opens the door and peeks inside.
“Jaromir, are you here?”
A quick look around tells Crane that no, Jaromir is not in here. Doesn’t smell like e’s been here since morning, actually. Somehow, that makes something like loneliness curl in Crane’s chest. Jaromir isn’t the only person he could go to, of course, but e is the person Crane wants to go to!
He shuts the door again and sets out to find his Bear. He checks his own room first, in case Jaromir had the same thought as him, and went looking for Crane in his room. E isn’t there. Crane continues to look elsewhere in the keep. The library, the baths, a few of their usual spots in the common rooms, even out on the training field. Jaromir isn't in any of them. Crane even asks some of the other Bears if they know where e might be, but they mostly just shrug and grunt at him. Which is very unhelpful. But finally, Crane figures that Jaromir has to be one of the people who decided going up mountain was the way to deal with things.
Standing at the gate, Crane glares up at the mountain peaks, far above the keep. Black against the deep blue sky. It’s a big mountain. And there are a lot of paths Jaromir could have gone, and many places e could be. Crane isn't mad at Jaromir for leaving, not at all! He just really wants eir company tonight.
Crane closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, but there are too many mixing scents here for him to parse anything. With a sigh, Crane trudges out the gate and towards a path he and Jaromir have taken together occasionally. With any luck, he’ll be able to pick up Jaromir’s scent along it.
It takes nearly half an hour before Crane finds Jaromir’s scent, and he follows it for another half. By now, the moon has risen, shedding a dim, silver light. It’s more than enough light for witcher eyes to see perfectly fine. And with how many witchers there are roaming around out here tonight, Crane doesn’t feel too stupid about having left his swords at the keep. He does have a nice, curved and serrated dagger hidden at the small of his back, at least. And three small flash bombs in a pocket. He’ll be fine!
A sound breaks Crane from his musings and he stops to listen. He’s not quite sure what it is, at first. It's not a sound he is at all familiar with when it comes to his fellow witchers. It’s not until he sticks his nose up and scents the air that he realizes what he’s hearing, and then he’s running.
He finds Jaromir in a small clearing. The Bear is sat on the ground, curled into a tight ball, arms around eirself, eir massive shoulders heaving with sobs. Crane feels a lump in his own throat at the sight.
“Jarek,” he rasps quietly, not wanting to startle em. Jaromir doesn’t really indicate that e’s noticed Crane, but Crane is pretty sure e know he’s there. He moves closer slowly, and kneels down at arm’s length, hands flitting through the space between them. What he wants to do is launch himself at his partner, to cuddle em close and kiss em until the tears are gone. But he’s not sure if that would be welcome right now.
“Jarek, can I touch you?” Crane asks as softly as he can. It still comes out whinier than he would want. Jaromir finally looks up at him, but just barely. Eir face is splotchy and eir eyes swollen and red. Another heaving sob shakes eir shoulders and e nods jerkily. Crane shuffles closer and wriggles his way into Jaromir's lap. He wraps his arms around eir shoulders and tucks eir head into the crook of his own neck. Jaromir’s massive arms slowly encircle his own waist and clings.
The sobbing continues for another while, Crane isn’t quite sure how long. He simply buries his face in Jaromir’s hair and holds em. Slowly, the tears and the sobbing subsides into an occasional sniffle.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Crane asks. Jaromir gives a tiny shake of eir head.
“Okay,” Crane nods, and presses a kiss against the side of Jaromir’s head. “Will you come back to the keep with me? It’s getting cold out here, and I don’t want to sleep alone.”
“Mm,” Jaromir nods.
They untangle from each other and get to their feet. Crane takes Jaromir’s hand and presses in close against eir side as they slowly start walking back.
The keep has gone mostly still and quiet by the time they reach it. They only see about half a dozen other witchers scattered about.
“Your rooms or mine?” Crane asks. Jaromir shrugs. Crane steers them towards Jaromir’s rooms, figuring that will help putting em at ease.
They don’t get all the way there. They round a corner, and nearly collide with Bern. The Viper jumps back and looks between them with something in between warmth and sadness.
“I was looking for you two,” he says quietly, “the others are in the eastern common room. Do you want to join us?”
Crane looks at Jaromir. Personally, Crane thinks that sounds rather nice, but if Jaromir doesn’t want to, he’ll stay with his partner. Jaromir hesitates for a moment, then e exhales slowly and nods. Bern smiles and turns to walk ahead of them back to the common room.
There’s a fire burning warmly in the hearth and there’s a large pile of pillows, furs and blankets in front of it. Aeik and Lucan are curled up together in the middle of the pile, with Kostya using them as a pillow. Bern goes and plops down between Kostya and Bartek, who both immediately wriggle closer to him.
Badri and Andrei are back to back on Aeik and Lucan's other side, with Salim wrapped tightly in Badri's arms. Janko is sitting in a chair beside the pile of witchers, chewing on the stem of his pipe and staring into the fire with a faraway look on his face. He looks up at Jaromir, expression softening, and the two Bears nod solemnly at each other.
The only ones missing are Eisbjödhar and Crebhan. Crane figures Eisbjödhar is probably off in his workshop, tinkering with something. Crane will check on his little brother in the morning. And Bern has probably already checked on Crebhan. The other Viper has never struck Crane as the cuddly type anyway. So for now, Crane tugs Jaromir over to the spot next to Andrei and lies down with his head on Andrei's stomach, and Jaromir draped along his back, arm across his waist.
Crane has to marvel at the situation for a moment. If anyone had told him two decades ago, that he would one day find himself in a cuddle pile with a bunch of witchers from all the different schools - and a human who smells like love and not fear! - he would have either laughed in their face, or thought them completely insane! Maybe both.
None of them talk. Crane doesn’t know if any of them really have the words for it, yet. He sure doesn't! But when they do, Crane knows they’ll all have each other to lean on. It's what family is for!