His Dreams of Memories

18

Time seemed to stop. Conversations around the two faded as they stared at one another.

Julian could see the pain in his eyes, the expression on his face was hard and clouded. A feeling deep inside him said that he was trying to hide it all- but the pain could not be hidden from him. No- he had seen and felt too much of it.

"Damien, stay in line." The brunette watched the silver-haired man take his coffee and make his way over to the door- there was only one way out. Damien watched his friend wiggle his way out of the line and over towards the man. He mumbled a series of apologies to the people he cut through that had just decided to arrive. Perfect timing.

The man left the café first, he had pushed through the people without a 'sorry' or 'excuse me'. A part of Julian thought that he would at least stop and talk to him.

"Excuse me!" Julian called out, trying to keep up with the man's pace. "Please, I just need to talk to you!" People passed by him with confused expressions, one even scowled and cursed for being loud.

But how to get his attention? At this point, the man was making his way into a crowd. If he truly is Geralt, why is he running away? Oh. That's it.

"GERALT- YOU DAMN BRUTE, STOP RUNNING FROM ME!" Julian shouted, ignoring the dirty looks he received from the people around him- a woman covered her child's ears and kicked the brunette's shoe. But that stopped him, he stopped. "Just... just let me talk to you!"

Soon enough, people were stopping to stare at the scene. One man screaming at another in the middle of the street- it was bound to catch others' attention.

The man's jaw clenched, the crowd was annoying him. He glared at the people around him as he made his way toward Julian, that got them to move out of the way. He grabbed Julian's hoodie collar and dragged him towards an alley, away from others. "Can I help you?"

Julian gave him a look, that question didn't need to be asked. "You sure can, Geralt." He wanted to say everything on his mind: the pain of dreams, the scar on his chest, where he's been for the past 700 plus years. "Do you know... do you know who I am?"

"Most likely a figment of my imagination," Geralt growled. His tone sounded as if he was in pain like this had happened before. "Another trick from Yennefer."

A pang of disappointment hit Julian's heart. "What can I do to prove to you that I'm him?" Geralt flinched but stood his ground.

The silver-haired man thought for a moment. There were so many things he could do, but that wouldn't prove anything. Yennefer knew most of the actions the brunette did, none would really work.

"Why did they kill you?" He adjusted his grip so that Julian wouldn't move an inch. "I was gone for twenty minutes- then they told me you- he had killed himself over something."

Julian licked his lips, not wanting to recall his last memory, but Geralt needed to know that it was him- because he had a feeling that the Witcher didn't know the full story either.

"I was talking to the innkeeper after performing. My neck was covered in hickeys that you had left a few days earlier- he asked about the woman that was rough with me. I slipped out the word 'he'...

"The town was homophobic or some shit like that. I was being chased into the woods, I was surprised that you didn't hear anything happening.

"A boy threw a dagger at me, which at pierced my chest..." Geralt's grip had loosened, so Julian was able to lift his hoodie and shirt up, showing the scar that the wound had left. "I told the stars I'd meet you in the next life, and it looks like they didn't tell you in some way."

Tears had started to fall from Geralt's amber eyes. He didn't know the full story- and he sure as hell hadn't believed the suicide part. He also knew that such a story wouldn't come from the witch- she wasn't that creative.

"I'm s-so sorry, J-Jaskier," Geralt cupped the brunette's cheeks and brushed his thumb across them. "I-If I had been there-"

Julian shook his head and let out a small laugh, starting to cry on his own. "Don't do that to yourself, it wasn't your fault." The words didn't feel like his own, they were Jaskier's- not his. "You're here with me now, and that's what matters." Those words were both of theirs. Julian had wanted him so bad, and Jaskier had been waiting for hundreds of years to see him. "I'm here, and you're here. That's what matters."