Constant
A/N: If you enjoyed, please let me know. :)
This one is set sometime before Geralt and Ciri find each other. Akela is about 18.
Summary: Akela's worried that, once Geralt finds Ciri, he'll stop caring for her. Geralt's quick to put her mind at ease.
"Have I done something?"
Akela turned her head to look up at Geralt from her place on a large rock. The daisies she'd been stringing into a chain fell to the middle of her palms. "What?"
Geralt shrugged, leaning against Roach, arms crossed. "Well, I figured… since your face looks like that of a donkey's ass—" He paused as the impossible glare on her face darkened— "that I'd done something to piss you off."
"Your existence pisses me off," she remarked barely audibly before turning back to her daisy chain. Geralt's eyebrow rose and he hummed, giving his horse a look and pushing away from her.
Akela had been in the same mood on and off for a time now, and he was beginning to get pressed. When she was the only companion he had besides an animal… well. He didn't appreciate being treated as though he were either invisible or the worst person on the world to be stuck with.
He knew she was a teenage girl, and so really it wasn't wrong of him to expect these turnabouts, but he was growing tired of them now. She could be a right pain when she wanted to be, especially when she wouldn't even tell him what was wrong. And though he had a sneaking suspicion of what it may be this time, her lack of cooperation made it all the more difficult.
Akela's rock was a big one, and yet when he moved to sit down on it beside her, she scooted even further away.
"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"
"No," was her grumbled response.
"Can you give me a word that might help me figure it out myself?"
She stared at him from the corner of her eye, brows furrowed, before returning her steely gaze to the clear nothing in front of her, daisies laying forgotten on the floor. "That's stupid."
Geralt hummed. "I know you better than you know yourself, brat. Give me a few words—even one if you'd like—and I'll get it."
"No, you won't."
"Try me."
Annoyed, Akela turned fully to face him. Geralt followed her lead almost mockingly, tilting his head a little and letting a slither of a smile appear on his face. It would never cease to charm him—and to irritate her—how amusing she unwillingly made herself look whenever she attempted to be at all intimidating.
"Princess."
And, without a single shred of hesitation: "You're worried I'll care more about Cirilla when we find her."
Her eyebrows shot together, and she stared at him. Hard. Could he… had Yennefer somehow bestowed her mind reading gifts upon him? Because those were more or less the exact words running through her head.
One of Geralt's own brows arched questionably. "Yes, then?"
Both gazes locked on each other, and the moment Akela turned away, he knew he'd gotten it in one. Despite his victory however, he couldn't help but sigh, especially when she shut her eyes a moment later, supposedly due to newfound tears.
Anyone else would not have noticed the girl's slowly decreasing mood and weird current habit of ignoring him. But he was not anyone else. He was Geralt. And, as he'd so plainly said, he knew her better than she knew herself.
He'd easily been able to figure out what was going on with her simply by pinpointing the exact moment she'd started displaying these uncharacteristic mood changes and all but rude demeanour after she'd uttered her word.
Princess Cirilla.
He couldn't blame her. She'd been very young when he'd accepted—or, rather, asked for and then plainly refused—the Law of Surprise, and he'd never felt any reason to properly speak of it with her until recent events. Though, really, it'd never been about her need not to know. She had needed to know, which was why he'd never kept it a secret, but he'd left it as an insignificant part of his life, leaving out the parts about destiny and all the things he should have imparted upon her long before he'd been forced to after she'd discovered the extent of the Law herself in a book.
He could see perfectly how it was bothering her. For the entirety of her life, it had been just the both of them, and now he was talking about finding and taking on a girl she did not know and clearly feared would steal her place in his heart. It was both endearing to him and not. Endearing in that she should know her place was set in stone, and not in that he was troubled to think she somehow had reason to believe it was a possibility. Mainly because it wasn't some foolish jealousy, it was genuine worry. And though he worried too, it wasn't about how his relationships would be affected, more to do with the fall of Cintra, and this powerful girl he would be tasked to keep from her enemies. Akela's life would be getting more difficult whether she got along with the princess or not. The majority of her stress was valid.
Geralt shook his head. "I'm offended you think that little of me," he said.
"What?" Akela spun her head to look at him, eyes red.
"Do you seriously think I could ever replace you?"
She sniffed and turned away.
"I mean, even if I wanted to, you'd follow me around like a little bug."
She rolled her eyes.
"I'd have a better chance of getting rid of my own shadow."
She put her face in her hands and Geralt smiled sombrely. Usually, she'd clap back with some sort of insult, and the sole fact that she didn't, showed him just how much it truly was affecting her. And so, with a strength only he possessed, he reached over and dragged her to him, despite her half-hearted attempts to struggle away from him.
He turned on the rock so Akela's back was leaning against his chest and his arms were wrapped around her, chin resting on top of her head. Once he'd put her in that position, she went completely slack, exhaling deeply.
Geralt spoke up. "You're a silly girl, Akela, but no matter what, you're my silly girl. I'm bound to Cirilla. I have to find her and care for her for my own peace of mind and to quench the fucking nagging at the back of my head telling me that this is my destiny." He sighed, eyes growing distant. "But you? Akela, I found you and I decided to keep you. That's where you and the Princess differ. I don't have a choice here, but I did with you."
Akela had thankfully lost enough of her irritation in order to twist to face him. Her eyes were wide circles of hope, staring at him, and he reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "There's no law bounding us together," he said. "Just love. And I don't say that often enough. Whatever happens with Cirilla, whether we find her or not, whether she remains with us or not, you have to know that the day I care more for someone than I do you will be the day the world ends." He attempted a smile and Akela mirrored it, wrapping her arms around his neck. Geralt easily returned it. "Never doubt that again, do you hear me? And if you do, speak to me about it instead of acting like I've just killed Roach."
She breathed a laugh and sat back, rubbing at her tired eyes. "Sorry," she told him genuinely, "I was just afraid of the answer, I suppose."
"I know a lot's been on your mind recently what with… everything." He sighed deeply. "But don't let it build up. Talk to me. Even if the Princess is with us. Making time for you is something I can do easily."
Yes, the road ahead was uncertain. He'd put off his destiny or fate or whatever the world wanted to call it for so long now he wasn't sure he'd ever find the Princess, but if he did, the last thing he wanted was for Akela to be afraid of losing the love he had for her.
Whatever happened, she was his constant, as he was hers, and nobody was going to put themselves in the way of that.
