Work Text:
SAAT PAAKE BANDHA - literally meaning “The Binding of Seven Loops”. In Bengali weddings, the couple walks around a fire seven times, solidifying their bond. It is said that their bond will go on to last for seven lifetimes.
---
“Last chance to back out.”
The woman smiles, soft and sweet. “Like I would,” she says, brown cheeks flushing as Yennefer leans closer. In the light of the fire, she looks like a goddess, with eyes that are darker than the Earth, hair that’s wavier than the ocean, and a smile that could rival the sun itself.
Yennefer swallows. “Just making sure,” she whispers, before taking her garland off and looping it around the woman’s neck.
---
Yennefer wakes with a gasp.
That dream again…
For years, she’s dreamed about that woman- sometimes she’s laughing, a warm, bubbly sound that’s embedded into Yennefer’s brain. Sometimes she’s crying, soft sniffles and stifled sobs that tear at Yennefer’s heart like it’s made of wet tissue. Sometimes, she’s holding Yennefer’s close, pulling her in for a kiss that still tingles at Yennefer’s lips when she wakes up- other times, Yennefer is the one holding her, sobbing as she feels the woman go limp in her arms.
...Those are the nights she hates the most.
But no matter how the dream varies, two things stay the same- one, the woman herself, and two, the way she always, always loves Yennefer.
And no matter how the dream ends, Yennefer always, always wakes up alone.
It’s still night. All quiet, save for the soft shh-shh of the occasional car driving past, their headlights lighting up her ceiling for a brief moment before dissipating like smoke. If she tries, she can almost hear the sounds of people shuffling down the street, tripping in the night like they’d left their legs behind at whatever club they’re stumbling home from.
If she tries harder, she can almost hear her heartbeat in the dark.
She groans and sits up, eyes gritty with the sleep she’s not going to get. She can already feel the headache she’ll inevitably have in the morning, but there’s nothing to be done- she knows a losing battle when she sees one, and trying to go back to sleep right now after a dream like that would be the equivalent of her taking on a whole damn army.
Might as well get some work done, she thinks, pulling her laptop over and turning it on. She squints in the dim light- the words blur and sway in front of her eyes, but she’s too lazy to get up and get her glasses
If only I could magic them over, she thinks wryly as she scrolls through her emails.
Let’s see… promo, promo, news, promo, work email she’s already seen, promo...
Why are there so many goddamn promos?
She’s about to delete the latest email- yet another fucking promo- when she notices the woman in the picture..
She pulls the laptop closer, squinting to high heaven. It can’t be her, she thinks wildly, zooming in on the picture with shaky hands. It- it can’t be...
But it is- it’s the woman from her dreams.
Those dark, soft eyes, that bouncy, curly hair...
And that smile. That damn smile.
Yennefer scrolls through the email- apparently it’s a promo for a flower shop. Not that she cares, because all she wants is to find… there.
‘Hope to see you soon!’ the email reads. ‘Sincerely, Triss Merigold .’
“Triss Merigold,” Yennefer murmurs. There’s something like butterflies and bubbles in her stomach and throat, and her heart just can’t seem to stop wanting to beat out of her chest. She bites her lip, trying not to smile, but she ends up giggling anyways, giddy and excited.
Finally, she thinks, smiling like a loon. I finally found you.
---
Triss sucks in a breath as the woman bows lightly. She’s just the slightest bit taller than her, and yet still she bows her head so that it’s just that little bit easier to slip the sweet-smelling flower garland around her neck.
“How many times was that?” Triss rasps, straightening the garland. “Two?”
“Two,” the woman confirms, rising. She looks Triss dead in the eyes- in the light of the flames, she looks ethereal, like a storm in the form of love. “One more.”
Triss nods, shaky, but so very determined. “One more.”
---
That was a new one.
Triss hums in thought, playing with her flower necklace- yes she knows it’s cliche for a flower shop owner to wear flower jewelry, but in her defense, it’s a really nice necklace!
In light of her dream, the flower necklace is even more apt.
She recognized the flowers in the garland- marigolds, for one, which, funny play on her name like that. Besides that, there were red roses, which, in her opinion, tend to clash a bit with marigolds, but they looked sweet together, especially since they’d been filled in with white tuberoses and what looked like green leaves as well.
All in all, they’d been pretty garlands. Not as pretty as the woman in the dream though.
Ever since she could remember, she’s dreamt about that woman- she’d recognize her proud violet eyes and fierce stance anywhere. And ever since she could remember, she’s had the teensiest, weensiest crush on said woman.
Which is kind of sad, given that she doesn’t even know if she’s real, let alone know her name, but such is life.
“Shit!” she says, noticing the time. She’s going to be late to her own flower shop if she keeps on daydreaming over a dream!
She dashes downstairs, quickly turning on the lights and setting up shop. Just as the clock strikes seven, she flips the “Closed” sign in the window and breathes out a sigh of relief.
“Alright Triss,” she says to herself, getting behind the counter. “No more daydreaming! You can think about her later when you’re not at work.”
“Um, excuse me?”
Shit. She must not have heard someone come in- gods, she hopes the woman hadn’t heard her talk to herself!
Nothing for it though.“Welcome to Merigold’s Blooms!” she chirps, a service smile already pulled up. “How may I help-”
It’s her.
Wide violet eyes stare at her, bewitching in a way she’s so very familiar with. There’s a sort of hesitance to her that she’d never seen in her dreams, but that still doesn’t take away the way she stands rooted to the space like she owns it.
“You,” Triss breathes out. “It’s- it’s you!”
Immediately, Triss realizes the insanity of her words- just because she recognizes the woman doesn’t mean she recognizes her!
“You know me?” the woman asks, a smile slowly forming on her face.
“I-” Triss stammers. “W-well…”
Shit, what should she say? Hi, I’ve dreamed about you since I was a little kid?! Who even says things like that?!
“I know you,” the woman says. “I’ve dreamed about you since I was a little kid.”
...Well, apparently she says things like that.
Triss stares at the woman, utterly gobsmacked. Slowly, the woman’s smile dies down, and she looks uncertain again. “You… do know me. Right?”
Triss licks her lips. “I do know you,” she admits. “I’ve uh, I’ve dreamed about you too.”
The smile comes back in full force, and gods but Triss is weak for it. “Triss,” she says then, and it feels like Triss has died and been reborn all in one moment. “You’re Triss Merigold.”
Triss swallows. “I am,” she says, voice a second away from cracking. “And you are…”
“Yennefer,” she says. “I’m- I’m Yennefer.”
“Yennefer,” Triss says, tasting the name on her tongue. It’s solid and sweet, and it feels oh so right to say. “Yennefer,” she says again, loving the way the name fits in her mouth.
Yennefer shivers and steps closer.
They’re an inch away from each other now, breath tickling at each other’s lips. This close, Triss can smell her perfume- lilac and…
“Gooseberries,” Yennefer murmurs in the space between their mouths.
Triss hums. “Smells nice,” she offers absently, too busy mapping out the face of her dreams.
Yennefer makes a small, helpless sound. “Can I kiss you?” she says, voice rough with want.
The same want punches Triss in the stomach at her question. “Please.”
And suddenly Yennefer’s mouth is on hers, fierce and longing. Her hands come up to tangle in Triss’ hair, and Triss tugs her closer by the neck, reeling with the kiss but wanting more and more and more all the same.
It’s a battle, an army thundering down from the mountains, and it’s a homecoming, a soft hearthfire on a snowy day. It’s everything Triss has ever wanted, and everything she’ll ever need again.
A car honk pulls them away from each other. They pant in the aftermath, and Triss’ hands twitch to be on her again.
“I should,” Yennefer pants, struggling to breathe. “I should leave you be- you have work, don’t you?”
She does, but…
“I think I can duck out for one day,” she says, marching to the window to flip the sign over. “What’s the point of being the owner if I can’t set my own hours?”
Yennefer smirks, and oh, that just makes Triss want to kiss her again.
It seems like Yennefer’s had the same thought because she walks over to Triss and pulls her into another kiss- this time, one so languid and slow time itself seems to drip away.
I wouldn’t mind that, Triss thinks. And then Yennefer bites her lip, and Triss is completely incapable of thought.
---
“That’s three,” Triss says when she can finally tear her wandering hands away from Yennefer’s garland. “What’s next?”
Yennefer hums. “Typically, there’d be a ceremony with a priest and everything, but since we’re alone, we can just move onto the step after that.”
“Which is?”
Yennefer doesn’t answer. Instead, she bends over and ties the sashes of their saris- ‘anchals’, she’d called them- together. “There,” she says, patting the knot lightly before standing up again. “Now we’re ready.”
‘For what?’ Triss wants to ask, but before she can do so, Yennefer takes her by the hand and pulls her close.
“Last chance to back out,” she murmurs.
Triss blinks, but then has to laugh. “You’ve said this before, Yenna,” she teases. “And I’ll tell you again- I’m not backing out of this.”
Yennefer smiles and leans in to make their foreheads touch. “If we go through with the next part,” she says, breath fanning over Triss’ lips in a mildly distracting manner, “it’s said that we’ll be bound together for seven lifetimes.”
Triss licks her lips. “Only seven?” she whispers, trembling as she keeps herself back from kissing Yennefer senseless. “That’s not enough time, Yenna.”
Yennefer’s eyes widen, and suddenly Triss is pulled into a kiss so fierce and loving it makes her head spin. Still, she’s not one to let her partner down- she tugs Yennefer closer and gives as good as she’s getting, pouring all her love and trust and want into this one kiss.
Yennefer’s kiss is a question- Will you stay with me?
Triss’ kiss is an answer- Yes.
Finally, they pull back, still panting into each other’s mouths. “Do you understand now?” Triss says, heaving for breath even through her words. “I’m not leaving you- I want this, Yenna.”
“Alright,” Yennefer says. She leans in again, but this time the kiss is short and sweet. “Alright,” she says again, whispering the word right into Triss’ mouth.
Then she pulls back- miraculously, their hands are still twined- and steps closer to the fire, with Triss following after.
“Seven turns around the fire,” she says, staring into the flames for a long moment. Then she turns to meet Triss’ eyes. “Are you ready?”
Triss smiles, helpless. “Please.”
---
“There’s still something I don’t get,” Triss says, hours later. Their mouths are sticky- both from the pastries they ended up ordering and from each other’s lips as they kissed, and kissed, and-
“You were saying?” Yennefer says. Triss jolts, coughing when she realizes she’d been daydreaming.
“R-right,” she says, blushing furiously. Thank gods for her brown skin- she’d look a mess otherwise! She clears her throat. “Did you have that dream where we exchanged garlands? And then walked around a fire? What was up with that?”
For the first time since Triss met her in person, Yennefer blushes. “Ah,” she says evasively, swallowing. “That uh. You had that dream too then.”
“Yes?” Triss says uncertainly. “Does it- does it mean something bad?”
“No,” Yennefer says quickly. “It just- ah. It’s an important ceremony.”
“For what?”
Yennefer swallows again, and now it looks like she’s gritting her teeth. Triss is about to take it back when Yennefer finally says, “It’s an Indian wedding ceremony. Or- a modified version of it. At least.”
Triss’ eyes go wide. “So when you said we’d be bound…”
Yennefer nods, jerky and sharp. “Married in seven lifetimes,” she says flatly, turning away.
Triss blinks, wondering at the thought. “Are we- are we married then? Do dream marriages count?”
Yennefer snorts. “Probably not,” she says, smiling for a brief moment before her face goes somber again. “Still, it’s not like people have shared dreams before.”
Triss hums and looks Yennefer over. She’s all tension, shoulders and jaw and spine rigid with it. For a moment, it doesn’t click- then she realizes that anyone else would be freaked out by the idea of marrying someone they just met.
...But they’ve met before.
“I wonder,” Triss says, pulling Yennefer close. She keeps her voice light and teasing, trying to sooth her. “What number life is this? How many lifetimes do we have left?”
Yennefer’s eyes go wide, but then her lips twitch into an easy smile. “Does it matter?” she says, eyes vulnerable even as she places her lips on Triss’ again.
No, Triss thinks, melting into another kiss from her dream love, she supposes it doesn’t.
Not when no amount of lifetimes would ever be enough.