Work Text:
"Geralt Geralt Geralt!"
“Hm?" Geralt rolls around, blinking awake from his nap, only to be assaulted by flailing arms and nearly mauled by a flying laptop. He sets the laptop aside and gently catches his partner's wrists with his other hand, pressing them against his chest until they settle down. "What's going on?"
"I think I found my name!"
Geralt blinks. They've been on a name hunt for what feels like an eternity now. The last pick was Dandelion, which stuck for long enough that Geralt had started to think that it would be definitive, but his partner has been oddly resistant to sharing it with anyone but Geralt. "Hm?"
"Jaskier!"
"Like the flower?"
"Yes! I was looking in the wrong language, but I know it's right, now. It's perfect. Exactly the name that fits me, can you see it?"
Geralt grunts pensively. Jaskier beams at him and claps their hands, freeing them from Geralt's grasp. They grab the laptop again and turn the screen toward Geralt, showing an overblown photograph of a buttercup.
"I like it," Geralt decides, repeating the sounds in his head. "It does fit you."
"Thank you!" Jaskier squeals. They launch themself at Geralt and the laptop almost flies across the room again. "Jaskier," they murmur in Geralt's neck.
"Jaskier," Geralt repeats. "Jaskier. It's a beautiful name."
"Do you want to tell everyone?" Geralt asks later, when he's standing in front of the stove watching over their dinner.
"Hm."
It's such an uncharacteristic reaction for Jaskier that Geralt whirls around to face them. They're staring at their unlit phone, deep in thought, absently playing with a fidget cube.
"Hm?" Geralt tries. Grunts are his way of communicating, not Jaskier's.
“I don't know," Jaskier mutters.
Geralt thinks it over, flipping the omelette and catching a mushroom before it falls off the pan. "Do you want them to call you Jaskier?"
"Yes," Jaskier responds immediately. But they don't add anything more, and they still look disheartened for some reason.
"Are you scared of how they'll react?"
"No! Yes. No. I don't know. I know they're fine with... me," they make a vague gesture toward their body, "and they gender me right and everything but..."
"But what?" Geralt prompts when Jaskier trails off.
"What if they don't like it?"
Geralt stays stumped for a moment, realizing that Jaskier had no such fear with him. As far as he can tell, they told him straight away. His chest aches with love.
He pulls the pan off the fire, transferring the omelette onto a plate, and he moves over to wrap his arms around Jaskier from behind.
"Do you want me to tell them?" he asks.
Jaskier breathes out slowly, releasing their pent-up energy into the hug. They bring an arm up to squeeze Geralt's hand just the way he likes it. "Would you?"
"For you? I'd do anything."
It takes Geralt about an hour to figure out how he wants to do it, which is far too long when he knows that Jaskier is anxiously waiting and trying to keep it all in. Finally, with a muttered "fuck it", he does something that he would never normally do: he lifts his phone and takes a selfie of both of them, hugging in front of his sloppy omelette.
Bon appétit from Jaskier and me, he captions the photo, adding the only buttercup sticker he can find in the app, and he sends it to the group chat.
Jaskier is the one who normally sends everyone random pictures through the day -- in fact, they created the group chat. It's made up of mostly Geralt's family (Ciri, of course, Ciri's mother Yennefer, Geralt's brothers and Vesemir) plus Jaskier's best friend Essi, since they don't talk to their own family. It's full of banter and encouragements, bits of recorded songs from Jaskier and Essi's band, regular kitty photo battles between Ciri and Lambert, with the occasional baby goat interruption thanks to Eskel, Vesemir's homecooking and Yen's fancy restaurant dishes. Geralt rarely participates properly, uncomfortable with the group setting. He knows Jaskier mainly created it for him, during the worst of his struggles with depression and PTSD, but he's content with opening the app a few times a day and reading through the messages, feeling the love.
OMFG IT'S SUCH A PRETTY NAME 🥺 is Ciri's immediate response. Then, I'm jealous now. Of course she'd be the one to get it first.
Congratulations Jaskier!! comes Yennefer's reaction. Jaskier and her have had a tumultous relationship, mostly owing to Geralt's own issues with her between their divorce and the moment he started dating Jaskier, but the hardships of the last couple years have brought them together in ways Geralt couldn't have imagined.
JASKIER!! so lovely 😭 comes from Essi. Geralt hears Jaskier's phone buzz one more time, and he knows she wrote them privately as well.
"She's asking if I'm only trying it out or if it's time to throw me a name reveal party," Jaskier laughs tearily.
"What do you think?" Geralt asks, finally digging into the omelette, one arm still around Jaskier's shoulders. It's almost cold, but he doesn't mind.
"I know it's the right one. I'm not sure about a party."
"You love parties."
More congratulations are coming from Eskel and Lambert, both enthusiastic and friendly but devoid of the usual level of banter -- they're both unsure how much joking is okay on the subject of Jaskier's gender, Geralt knows. Lambert has put his foot in his mouth more than once before he learned to navigate some of the finer points.
Jaskier stays silent for a beat more. "I don't know," they murmur.
Geralt's phone beeps again. Vesemir. Jakie piękne imię. Geralt squints at it, needing a second to understand, and he feels Jaskier melt against him. They let out a small sob and turn to bury their face in Geralt's neck.
Of course. Of course Jaskier was waiting for Vesemir's approval. Vesemir has been nothing but welcoming to them, if a little awkward and confused with pronouns on occasions, but Jaskier's overall experience with parental figure is less than stellar. Choosing a name in Vesemir's own mother tongue, announcing it, must have been nerve-wracking for them.
Geralt hugs them tightly, giving up on his omelette, and lets them sob into his shoulder. It's good crying. “I'll take the party," they laugh through their tears, sending dziękuję bardzo 💙 in response to Vesemir's message and an assortment of emojis to the others -- which goes to show how emotional they are, as they normally never shut up even in texts.
"I love you," Geralt whispers, already wondering where he can find bouquets of buttercup in the middle of the winter.