I lost the prompt, but @veritasrose wanted some soft hurt/comfort with the wolves. Geralt is in pain and in a funk, and his brothers take care of him. 609 words
- - -
Geralt woke up in his bed in Kaer Morhen, in pain and in a funk. His knee and elbow ached, the room around him looked grey, and the air felt oppressive. He wanted to pull the bedding over his head and stay there, but he knew that the longer he lay there, the more uncomfortable he would get.
With a grumble he threw the blankets back and pulled himself up and out of bed, slowly tugged his clothes on, and headed downstairs.
As he walked around the table in the dining hall his knee twinged, and he bumped into a chair with a curse before dropping into the one next to it. Lambert looked up from his seat on the other side of the table and raised a brow. After silently appraising his brother for a moment, the younger witcher went to the kitchen without a word. He came back a few minutes later to find Geralt rubbing at his knee, and handed him a steaming mug.
“Drink this, pretty boy.”
“What is it?” Geralt eyed the mug skeptically.
“That tea Vesemir makes, for inflammation and shit.”
“Why?” Geralt looked at him with narrowed eyes. “What did you do?”
“Oh, shut the fuck up and drink it, would you?”
Geralt rumbled, but did as he was told.
Eskel came out of the kitchen with Vesemir, putting out plates laden with breakfast. He quietly served Geralt, then himself, and Geralt grunted his thanks. They ate a quiet meal, and after silently appraising the younger wolves while they ate, Vesemir asked Geralt and Eskel to clean and organize the library instead of continuing the repairs they’d been doing outside the day before.
In the library a few hours later, Geralt dropped a book and cursed, then kicked the shelf in front of him before letting out another string of expletives.
“You want to talk about it?” Eskel asked.
“What, dropping the book?” Geralt said bitingly. Eskel just gave him a look in response. “It’s nothing. I woke up sore. And… it’s… quiet here.”
Eskel’s lips quirked. “Never bothered you before.”
Geralt scowled and didn’t answer.
“Couldn’t be missing someone, could you?”
Geralt let out a quiet growl.
Eskel chuckled. “No, of course not.”
-
Over dinner, Eskel turned to Lambert.
“Hey Lambert, what do you say to a throwback? We all sleep out in front of the fire here, like the old days?”
Lambert spluttered. “What, are we—” Eskel shot him a look to shut up, then cut his eyes to Geralt and back, and Lambert changed course. “I mean, yeah, a good ol’ fashioned puppy pile! Sounds, uh, sounds great.”
Geralt didn’t say anything, but after dinner he went over and started piling furs on the hearth. When everyone was done with dinner and clean up, Eskel, Geralt and Lambert flopped onto the furs, bellies full. They shuffled around until Geralt had his head on Eskel’s middle, and Lambert’s was on Geralt. Eskel pulled the tie from Geralt’s hair and started combing through the silver strands with his fingers. Geralt felt tension that he hadn’t realized he was holding melt away from his body.
“You should invite him next year,” Eskel murmured.
“What? That isn’t - I mean, who—” Geralt said, and Eskel huffed a laugh.
“Just think about it.”
“Hmm.”
Lambert had started softly snoring, and shifted to curl into Geralt’s side.
Geralt laughed softly. “He always was a cuddler in his sleep.”
“But he’d bite you before he’d admit it,” Eskel said.
“Mmm.”
They lapsed back into silence, Eskel lightly scritching Geralt’s scalp.
“Thanks Eskel,” Geralt said softly.
“Any time.”
Geralt drifted off to sleep, cozy and warm and safe.
I just reached out to the OP of this tweet and asked if I could repost it here and they gave permission, so here it is! I think this is a very helpful and clear resource so I wanted to have it archived/share :)
And here’s part 2–
All credit to 4x15am on twitter!! I’ll link the original tweet in the replies too.
