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Imagine talking with Jaskier about the future
TW: major feels
Working in Jaskier's tavern was not something Y/n ever really thought she'd be doing. Working at any tavern in Oxenfurt, actually. She thought by this time, her parents would've had her married away to some richer man they found for, as they said, 'her benefit', when it was really just theirs. Considering they had already done that to her three other sisters, it's just what she always assumed she'd be doing.
But then she met the bard.
The man came waltzing into her life, and before she knew it, the two of them were caught in a raunchy affair while her parents tried to find her someone to marry. Jaskier was all too subtle in suggesting that he be the man she marry instead, but her initial thought of their moments together were just that. Moments. She had heard of the famous Jaskier before, and had heard numerous tales of his ways with women. He'd certainly known many before her, considering he attended the academy located inside the city. But that didn't stop her heart from unwillingly falling for him when he insisted his heart yearned for her more than any before her.
How could she not? The red, swishing coat. The long brunet hair. Those cornflower blue eyes. Any girl would be on her knees for him, and many had been, should the stories be believed.
Y/n didn't want to be married away, so she took matters into her own hands and abandoned her family home. They'd thought she'd run away from the city, so they set out to find her. They didn't realize she was right under their noses, living just on the other side of the massive town with Jaskier. She got a job in the tavern he performed in nightly, and for a while, she was as happy as could be.
But the drunken men were soon to get to her nerves. All day, every day, she had to deal with the drunk, heartless, horny men that drank their lives and crowns away until all they had left was their ability to grope the tavern maiden as she worked to pass out drinks. Unfortunately for Y/n, that role was dubbed to her. She loved being with Jaskier, and she loved him more than she had anyone in her life, but she was having the most difficult time dealing with the pain that came of serving alcohol to already drunk men.
One particular day, Jaskier had just finished his set and was setting his lute to the side and taking his feathered hat off. He let out a sigh, and looked around the tavern. The sting of Geralt's anger had never left him, thus the song Burn, Butcher, Burn. But it had been mended and replaced with a love for his dear heart, although he hadn't yet told her of his true feelings, and he sighed in joy when he saw her finish her last round for the night and set her serving tray to the side. She took off her apron and tossed it, before turning and meeting his eyes.
They met in the middle, Jaskier giving her lips a loving kiss and holding her close. He pulled away, but still embraced her warm love for as long as he could manage. "Thank Melitele my shift is over. If one more guy calls me 'darling' then I swear to you and the gods I will murder them all," she rambled, and he kissed her forehead gently.
"I will heartily defend you in court, dear heart, for the only one allowed to call you 'darling' is I," he said, and she smiled up at his handsome face.
"Indeed you are," she said, and took his hand to lead him upstairs to their little shared room.
As they walked in, Jaskier stripped off his red coat and draped it over the small coat hanger in the room, saying, "You know, we don't have to stay here. In Oxenfurt." She turned to him with a tilt of her head, working on unlacing the bodice of her dress. "I know you want to leave, escape your family. I just thought, originally, this would be the easiest for you."
"Jaskier, we can't leave now. I mean, what of your transports?" she said, referring to his side job of smuggling elves out of Oxenfurt.
He let out a sigh, his face dropping, and saying, "I can still help them, but just not in the same way. I can get them out, help them escape with the contacts we have, it'll just be harder than before."
She shook her head as he spoke, saying, "I'm happy here. With you. Do I sometimes wish that our life was different? At moments, yes, but that doesn't mean I don't love our life together right now. I'm happy, just resting my head at night content knowing where my marbles are." Her light joke made him grin lightly. "They went right here, with you."
"Do you not want to think about what our future could be? I mean, we can't stay here for the rest of our lives," Jaskier said. Y/n knew he had a maddening drive in him that demanded he travel along the roads, but without Geralt by his side he struggled to get himself up and out in fear of what he had seen in the twenty years he spent by the witcher's side. "Where do you see us in... say, about twenty years? Thirty?"
"Thirty years?" Y/n repeated with a slight, although strained, grin. She had a hard time imagining such a lifespan. "Would you even want to still be with me in thirty years?"
"Dear heart," Jaskier said, his eyes swimming with the hurt of her statement. "Of course I will. I love you more now than anything in this life." His confession made her breath hitch as his hands cupped her cheeks. "The minute I met you, the colors of my life began to pour. You are the one I know that I was meant to find, and I will stay by your side even if a darkness overcomes my mind when we are older."
"I love you too," she said, her face dropped slightly. "But I'm scared of the dark. Of the future. What if you do forget me? What if at that age, these memories fade into nothing?"
His eyes roamed over her and gave her a gentle grin to ease her as he pulled her close against his chest. "If these memories don't stay, that's okay, because then I get to meet you for the first time every single day."
She reached a hand up to cup his cheek, and he pressed a kiss into her palm before taking ahold of that hand in his. "We'll see what happens here, in Oxenfurt. After a few months, we'll pack up all our things and take the road, just like you dream of, my Dandelion. We'll grow old together in a small little corner of the world we have all to ourselves, and we'll never have to cater to the likes of drunken fools ever again. Except maybe ourselves."
Jaskier chuckled, nodding his head and kissing her lips. "Nothing would make me happier."
