Chapter Text
At least it’s not raining, Jaskier thought to himself as he led his kids through the undergrowth. The air was hot and humid in the forest, the trees grew thick around them, no sunlight came through the treetops so he couldn’t really tell whether the sky was hung with clouds. But the forest was foggy by the mist that evaporated from the moss on the ground and slowly it went to his head. The mosquito spray was his best friend this week.
“You really have to be careful in this pristine area,” he called out to his kids over his shoulder. “Keep watching everywhere and walk behind me so you don’t - AARGH!“
They immediately learned what Jaskier meant when they witnessed his scout leader getting snapped from his feet and lifted into the air with a sharp cry.
The world turned upside down and pain shot through his right leg down his spine. Or up? He wasn’t sure. Everything was spinning. He screamed and his kids were screaming, running around in panic underneath him and trying to reach up to him. But even the tallest of them was just big enough to reach Jaskier’s outstretched hands and stop his swinging.
“Alright, alright, everyone! Calm down! Calm down, Rainbows! Everything will be alright if we JUST. DON’T. PANIC.”
The kids fell silent, except for Misha, the youngest, who sobbed quietly in his hands. “Trix, darling, could you give Misha a hug and sit down with him? Thank you. Okay.”
With his kids sorted and calm for the moment, Jaskier took a minute to evaluate his situation, which got harder the longer his blood gathered in his brain because he hung upside down. Right, he was hanging upside down from a tree by a rope around his ankle in the middle of the woods. Great. And none of his little scouts were tall enough to help him.
“Should we go and look for help?” Cylus offered and was already about to turn and leave the little clearing.
“NO! No, no, no. No one’s leaving. We’re all staying together.” He couldn’t risk losing any of his kids here. But he had to get down somehow. “Abigail, the cooking knife, please.”
The girl startled out of her shock and put her backpack down to retrieve the biggest and sharpest knife they had. With little shaking hands she gave it to him and quickly stepped back again.
Jaskier took a deep breath. He really should have stuck to that abs workout longer than three days. Too late for regrets now. He swung his arms a few times and tensed up his petty muscles to fold himself in half and tried to reach his ankle with his hands but fell back down right away. His kids followed his every movement with wide eyes, gasping when he almost reached his knee by his second attempt. The rope cut deeper into his skin and the pain got sharper every time he failed.
“Jaskier, are you sure that there are no bears living here?” Cylus drawled and Misha picked up his sobbing again.
Annoyed, Jaskier let go of his pant leg he’d tried to use as a climbing aid and let himself fall back down. The knife slipped out of his sweaty hands and got stuck in the soft forest ground, right next to his backpack that had fallen down. “Yes, I’m sure!” he snapped. At least 95 percent…
“Okay, and what is that then?”
Jaskier frowned but then he heard a branch cracking in the distance and turned his head in the direction Cylus pointed at. He couldn’t stop his momentum and swung too far but for a second he might have seen a silhouette moving between the tree trunks towards them.
The kids screamed again and started to run to hide in the woods.
“NO! STOP!” Jaskier shouted but they didn’t listen to him. He spun around again and saw a dark figure approaching him. “Fuck!”
That wasn’t a bear, he was sure. Was it a sasquatch? Jaskier always had a liking for cryptids and mythical creatures but he didn’t really want to meet one. Least of all while helplessly hanging upside down from a tree. Plus he was a responsible adult and didn't believe in those stories anymore. Normally. And how was he supposed to be responsible when his kids were strewn about the forest while he still dangled from that tree?
"Hey! Come back here! We're supposed to stay together. Your parents will rip my head off!" He would go to jail if he'd lose anyone of his group but before that, the parents would already strangle him themselves.
But he got the feeling he wouldn't live long enough to face any parents revenge as the maybe-sasquatch came even nearer, grunting to himself as he fought his way through the undergrowth directly towards him.
Jaskier shut his eyes and sent a desperate prayer to any deity that would listen.
A loud crack followed by a throaty huff was all the warning Jaskier got that the creature had finally arrived at the small clearing.
"Ahh!" A short, high pitched cry escaped his mouth. He opened his eyes and came face to face with two legs. Some very muscular, but human legs he realized with great relief. His gaze wandered over high leather boots and leather clad thighs, that were almost as thick as the tree trunks surrounding them, and further up over a well worn, gray lumberjack shirt that struggled to contain all the muscles underneath it.
He still wasn’t so sure to not have some cryptid in front of him when he looked at the grim face with its stern, amber eyes watching him with a skeptical glow, framed by long, white locks that shouldn’t look so soft.
“Hmm, you’re no deer,” the stranger rumbled with a deep voice and a thick accent.
“And you’re not a sasquatch,” Jaskier squeaked back. His heavy beating heart pumped more and more blood in his head, he feared he would pass out soon.
The stranger huffed. “A what? What are you doing in my trap?”
The nerve! “Oh, I’m terribly sorry, Sir. I didn’t know it was yours!” For a second Jaskier thought his sarcasm would finally get him killed but then the stranger chuckled, stepped forward and grabbed Jaskier by the shoulders. With one strong arm he held the scout leader to his chest, so his body was at least horizontal again. With his free hand he fumbled with the knot on the rope until it came loose and Jaskier’s foot was freed from the snooze.
“Thank you,” Jaskier sighed deeply relieved but hissed as he examined his ankle. The rope had left an angry red burn-mark and blood was slowly oozing from the wound. It burned but at least his head wasn’t throbbing anymore. Only now he registered that the stranger still held him bridal style in his strong arms.
Jaskier looked up to his unique face, which was quite beautiful the right way around. The other man frowned down at his ankle and murmured, “this needs to be sanitized.”
He was already turning around but Jaskier yelled, “No, wait! My Rainbows!”
“Your what?” The stranger’s eyes widened in confusion.
“My scouts. I - I have to find them! RAINBOWS!” he cried desperately. The world stopped around him. The only thing he heard was the pounding of his own panicked heart.
Until finally he heard the cry of the snow owl in the distance. “Fuck’s sake,” he whispered and slumped back against the warm, broad chest next to him. “You can come out!”
“Is the bear gone?” came a high pitched voice from somewhere between the trees. The stranger raised an eyebrow at Jaskier, he just grinned sheepishly and shrugged.
“Yes, Cylus. No bears here. Please, come back now.”
One little head after the other popped out from the undergrowth and his little Rainbows gathered back in the clearing, staring up at the intimidating man that still held their leader.
“Told you it wasn’t a bear,” Cylus nudged Abigail with his elbow and the little girl squinted at him like she was just about to strangle her older brother.
“Ok, ok! Please count once for me, kids,” Jaskier interrupted them and the children started calling numbers until a small “thirteen” came from Misha.
Jaskier clutched his chest. Everyone was there. He didn’t lose a single Rainbow Scout and wouldn’t die by the hands of an angry mob or a heart attack for now.
The stranger cleared his throat and Jaskier looked back at him. “Hmm, what are you doing with these kids in my forest?”
Your forest? Jaskier gestured at the group with their uniforms, badges, bandanas and backpacks. “We’re scouts. We’re scouting nature.”
“And you wanted to show them how a sling trap works? By walking right into it?” The stranger grinned at him.
“I - well, I didn’t think…” he spluttered, his cheeks flushing from embarrassment.
The other man chuckled. “There are more traps here. I can guide you around them to my hut. I can look to your leg there. You don’t want to risk an infection out here.”
Jaskier swallowed. Should they really follow this stranger to a lonely hut in the middle of the woods? But his leg really hurt and the wound needed to be cleaned. Plus the man looked at him with such soft, amber eyes Jaskier was tempted to let him take him right to hell and back, so he nodded.
“Follow me, dzieci. Watch where you step with your little feet.” He turned around and Jaskier gestured to the kids to pick up his backpack and follow them.
“I’m Jaskier by the way,” he batted his eyelashes and smiled up at his savior.
“Geralt,” he grunted and smiled sheepishly back.
It was a rather short walk until they emerged from the undergrowth and stepped into a bigger clearing. In the middle of nowhere stood a beautiful, romantic log cabin, overgrown with vine tendrils and surrounded by vegetable fields and berry brushes. Next to it stood a stone bordered well and from somewhere behind the cabin Jaskier could hear some goat bleating.
“Wow,” Jaskier breathed, “you live here by yourself?”
“Hmm.” Geralt carried him over to the hut, the kids followed suit with open mouths. When they reached the cabin, he sat Jaskier down on a bench on his porch. “I get my emergency case. You can camp here tonight, if you want.”
“Thank you,” Jaskier breathed, overwhelmed by the hospitality. Geralt nodded and went inside. Jaskier turned to his scouts with a big grin. “Well, you heard him. Set up the camp, Rainbows!”
A well practiced chaos broke out as his kids started to unpack their gear. They shouted at each other, little feet stomped around everywhere but they had a sophisticated system, like a bee colony. There was an empty fireplace in front of the cabin and they routinely set up their two group tents next to it.
While they worked Geralt came back outside and sat down on the bench, carefully placing Jaskier’s foot in his lap. He smiled softly at the busy kids as he opened his case and grabbed some gauze and antiseptic. “This will hurt,” he warned seriously but softly. Jaskier braced himself and nodded.
He tried to concentrate on the colloused but tender hands on his skin, hissing and breathing through the stabbing pain, while Geralt thoroughly cleaned and bandaged the wound.
“Why rainbows?” Geralt suddenly asked to distract him.
Jaskier blinked at him. “Huh?” Very eloquent…
Geralt gestured to the hoard of kids. “You called them rainbows and your uniform is rather… loud.”
Jaskier chuckled and looked fondly at his colorful mob of diligent kids. “Oh, cause we’re all rainbow children.” Geralt frowned at him, cocking his head to the side. “They’re all from queer families or queer themselves, you know.”
Geralt shook his head, white strands falling in front of his beautiful eyes. Right, the man lived secluded in the middle of the woods.
Jaskier took a deep breath to hold himself back from touching the other man's hair. “Uhm, Cylus and Abigail over there were adopted by their wonderful dads. Trix identifies themselves neither as a boy nor a girl. Misha has two lovely moms, though I think it will be three in the near future and yeah, most of them have two dads or moms or two moms and one dad and the other way around or only one mom or dad and - “
“I think I get it,” Geralt watched him amused and Jaskier blushed. “And you?” he asked softly.
“Oh, I have one mom and a dad,” Jaskier laughed bitterly, “but I’m queer.”
The other man frowned again as he wrapped a clean bandage around his ankle. “Sorry, I don’t know this word.”
“It means everything but hetero,” Jaskier waved his hand nonchalantly.
“Okay,” Geralt smiled at him, “finished. You should keep your leg elevated. I think your ankle got a bit sprained, too. It will bruise but you will be alright.”
Jaskier finally gave in and grabbed Geralt’s hand. “Thanks again, for your help. That’s really nice of you.”
Geralt’s cheeks blushed as he looked back down at his leg. “Of course. It was a bit my fault after all. I set up the trap. Though I never thought I would catch such a pretty prey.” He smirked and gazed at Jaskier from the corner of his eye.
A nervous giggle escaped Jaskier’s mouth and he clutched his hand in front of it. Was the beautiful, strange hermit flirting with him? Jaskier looked around to find a distraction, his eyes landed on the emergency case and his bandaged ankle. “Uhm, that looks rather professional.”
“Hmm, I was a trauma surgeon once. Back home.” Geralt rubbed his neck nervously. “I left many years ago. Because I’m, how did you say? Anything but hetero?”
They smiled at each other, still holding hands and Jaskier was sure he didn’t imagine the tension between them. “But you don’t work as a surgeon anymore?” he whispered.
Geralt shook his head. “Didn’t get along with the system. And the people,” he chuckled, “I’m good now. It’s peaceful. Here, with my animals.”
Jaskier just opened his mouth to ask some other questions when Cylus called, “We’re ready, Jaskier!”