Geralt has no idea what kind of crisis he just inspired in Jaskier with five short words.
Between his daughter's pleas and both Yen and Jaskier's assurances, though, there's no good argument for him not to attend the parade. Which is fine, he doesn't have a problem with going, so long as he's not going to be overstepping any boundaries, that it's open for anyone to attend regardless of whether they belong to the group or not.
Something about Jaskier still seems... off, though. Forced, maybe. There's tension in his shoulders where there wasn't any a few minutes ago, and he keeps doing this odd little fidget with his fingers, rubbing the tips of them against his thumb. He had been just as vocal as Yen in his insistence that it would be fine if Geralt was there, but... maybe he wasn't as all right with it as he said. It's a large event, at least, so they could avoid each other if Jaskier really didn't want to see him there, right?
"No reason not to go, then," he says, and Ciri beams at him in response.
Yen meddles a little more, as she's wont to do, and tells Jaskier when his birthday is, but otherwise brunch passes relatively easily. After food and drinks, he and Yen and Ciri hash out her schedule for the next few months, making sure that there's time for her both at the ranch and going on Yen's trips with her. She has overseas clients that she sometimes has to go and meet in-person, and it's easy to take a few more days to spend with her daughter and sightsee.
The time leading up to Pride is, undoubtedly, far more hectic for Jaskier than it is for Geralt. Aside from Ciri claiming that they needed to have face paint, all Geralt really needed to do was figure out where the fuck he was going to park when they got into the city that day. And while that is a logistical concern, since a number of roads were going to be shut down for the parade, it's a relatively small one.
The day of, Ciri asks him to paint a flag on her cheek-- pink, purple and blue. He sits down with her at the table with the face paints and puts careful stripes on her face, as big as she wants it, trying to keep them as neat and even as he could. When it was done to her satisfaction, he put the lids back on the paints and cleaned up a little smear of blue on her chin with a tissue.
"Something you want to talk about?" he asks, and she shakes her head and says maybe tonight. He presses a kiss to her forehead and tries not to think about how quickly she's growing up.
When they get to the parade, after at least twenty minutes of Geralt trying in vain to find a decent parking spot and having to settle for a several-block walk, it's packed-- throngs of people in the streets, dressed riotously in rainbow colors and waving all manner of flags around. Geralt can identify most of them by now, after he'd done a little research so that he wouldn't make a complete ass of himself at this thing.
He carries Ciri's bag for her while they move through the crowd, his hand in hers so that they don't get separated. There's time until Jaskier's show, and Ciri already read through the events planned for the day and marked off the things that she wants to go to, some speakers and some other DJ that she wants to catch and such. Everywhere she goes, people are friendly and celebrating like it's Mardi Gras, and she collects an impressive collection of pins and stickers that are being handed out. She tucks the stickers into the bag to put on notebooks later, and latches the pins onto the straps of the horse backpack that Geralt has slung over his shoulder, until there's no more room for them.
When it gets close to the start time for the show, the two of them make their way over to the venue where he's playing, with enough time to squeeze in before the place hits its occupancy limit.
no subject
Between his daughter's pleas and both Yen and Jaskier's assurances, though, there's no good argument for him not to attend the parade. Which is fine, he doesn't have a problem with going, so long as he's not going to be overstepping any boundaries, that it's open for anyone to attend regardless of whether they belong to the group or not.
Something about Jaskier still seems... off, though. Forced, maybe. There's tension in his shoulders where there wasn't any a few minutes ago, and he keeps doing this odd little fidget with his fingers, rubbing the tips of them against his thumb. He had been just as vocal as Yen in his insistence that it would be fine if Geralt was there, but... maybe he wasn't as all right with it as he said. It's a large event, at least, so they could avoid each other if Jaskier really didn't want to see him there, right?
"No reason not to go, then," he says, and Ciri beams at him in response.
Yen meddles a little more, as she's wont to do, and tells Jaskier when his birthday is, but otherwise brunch passes relatively easily. After food and drinks, he and Yen and Ciri hash out her schedule for the next few months, making sure that there's time for her both at the ranch and going on Yen's trips with her. She has overseas clients that she sometimes has to go and meet in-person, and it's easy to take a few more days to spend with her daughter and sightsee.
The time leading up to Pride is, undoubtedly, far more hectic for Jaskier than it is for Geralt. Aside from Ciri claiming that they needed to have face paint, all Geralt really needed to do was figure out where the fuck he was going to park when they got into the city that day. And while that is a logistical concern, since a number of roads were going to be shut down for the parade, it's a relatively small one.
The day of, Ciri asks him to paint a flag on her cheek-- pink, purple and blue. He sits down with her at the table with the face paints and puts careful stripes on her face, as big as she wants it, trying to keep them as neat and even as he could. When it was done to her satisfaction, he put the lids back on the paints and cleaned up a little smear of blue on her chin with a tissue.
"Something you want to talk about?" he asks, and she shakes her head and says maybe tonight. He presses a kiss to her forehead and tries not to think about how quickly she's growing up.
When they get to the parade, after at least twenty minutes of Geralt trying in vain to find a decent parking spot and having to settle for a several-block walk, it's packed-- throngs of people in the streets, dressed riotously in rainbow colors and waving all manner of flags around. Geralt can identify most of them by now, after he'd done a little research so that he wouldn't make a complete ass of himself at this thing.
He carries Ciri's bag for her while they move through the crowd, his hand in hers so that they don't get separated. There's time until Jaskier's show, and Ciri already read through the events planned for the day and marked off the things that she wants to go to, some speakers and some other DJ that she wants to catch and such. Everywhere she goes, people are friendly and celebrating like it's Mardi Gras, and she collects an impressive collection of pins and stickers that are being handed out. She tucks the stickers into the bag to put on notebooks later, and latches the pins onto the straps of the horse backpack that Geralt has slung over his shoulder, until there's no more room for them.
When it gets close to the start time for the show, the two of them make their way over to the venue where he's playing, with enough time to squeeze in before the place hits its occupancy limit.