A/N: it's been a month and i just wanted to write more of these two so here's this, if anyone's interested :)

Ch.4. Bashful Blue

Children are a handful.

But Yennefer has two hands and she craves for them to be full.

(For her heart to be full.)

And the small boy who'd wandered into one of her houses without even ruffling the feathers of her wards? He helps.

He also wakes her up by jumping so hard on his bed that he ends up tumbling off and landing on the floor with a rather worrying thud.

She wouldn't have bothered to wake up at such a noise usually but the deathly silence that follows said noise tugs at her heart until she finds herself standing in the doorway of Buttercup's room.

He looks up at her with a sheepish grin. "I think I hurt my wrist," he informs her casually.

(Too casually for her liking.)

Yennefer frowns at him, wondering why he isn't crying like most children. But she puts that concern aside in favour of kneeling beside him with a soft smile, taking his wrist in her hands and checking for a break.

It's nothing serious, just a sprain, but she heals it anyway.

He gasps as she does, snatching his hand back.

For a second, she thinks he's angry, but then he looks up at her with wonder in his eyes and flexes his wrist happily. "How did you do that?"

Before she can reply, he continues: "Can you teach me? Is it a learning thing? I want to… I want to fix- well, I don't know but can you teach me?"

Yennefer smiles.

(Not that she realises she's doing so.)

"Maybe when you grow up."

He nods solemnly, inhales deeply, then closes his mouth with a frown.

"Yes?" she raises an eyebrow.

"Can I, um, jump again?"

He looks so worried that she's tempted to say no just to see what he does but she finds herself unable to potentially hurt him in such a way, simply nodding her head.

"Thank you!" Buttercup grins and throws his arms around her again.

But instead of pulling away, she feels his tiny hands playing with her hair, twirling it around his fingers.

(It feels nicer than she'd expected.)

She holds her breath, acutely aware that he's closer to her than most would dare to be. She wonders, for a fleeting moment, whether her transformation had denied her this because it had been obvious that she would go soft when presented with it.

She clears her throat when her leg starts to go numb.

Buttercup springs back from her with alarm in his eyes along with something soft and hazy, something that shouldn't belong in the eyes of a child. " Sorry," he mumbles, promptly running past her, out of the room.

(She misses him immediately.)

She stays where she is for another moment, lifting her hand to her hair and letting her eyes fall shut as she sighs almost wistfully.

She's only just stood up when Buttercup comes stumbling back into the room, wrapping himself around her leg and hiding behind her before she can ask him what's wrong.

And then she senses Triss in the living room and it sort of makes sense why he wouldn't want to be there.

(What doesn't yet make sense is why he chose to seek her protection.)

"Yennefer?" Triss calls from where she is.

"I'll be there in a minute!" Yennefer replies, knowing she can't exactly walk if there's a child attached to her leg.

"Hey, Buttercup? Triss is my friend, she won't hurt you."

He shakes his head, his grip tightening. "Wanna stay with you, please."

She sighs, slightly frustrated. "You can stay with me, I just need to talk to her, okay?"

He removes himself from her leg but stands in front of her with a frown on his small face, saying nothing, absolutely still until he hesitantly lifts his arms up.

She blinks at him.

"Please?" he reaches up at her.

(It's not often she's genuinely shocked but she can't deny her shock at that.)

"What?"

He doesn't seem deterred by her confusion, simply stepping closer and curling his fingers in grabbing motions until she can't in any way mistake what he's asking from her.

Wordlessly, since she's not sure what she's meant to say, she kneels and lifts him up.

He settles in her arms immediately, wrapping his legs around her waist and curling his arms around her neck, burying his face in her neck, under her hair, as if seeking shelter in her embrace.

(She has to force herself not to sigh softly at the feeling.)

Once she's sure he won't fall, she makes her way to the living room, where Triss is waiting with an amused smile on her face.

"Yes, what is it?" Yennefer asks, totally bypassing the elephant in the room.

Triss, however, has other plans. "You're not getting out of this one… Who is he?"

She feels him stiffen slightly but he stays quiet.

"He's… the wards let him in."

Just as she had done, Triss frowns in concern. "Do you need me to help you redo them?"

Yennefer scoffs. "I can repair my own wards, Triss. And no, there's nothing wrong with them. I felt it when you arrived."

(She hadn't, but that was because she'd been distracted, not because of the wards themselves.)

"If you say so. Does he have a name?"

Yennefer pauses, considering. "I'm not entirely certain but he's happy to be called Buttercup."

At the mention of his name, he curls his hands tighter in his hair and she can almost feel him smile.

"And he likes your hair, it seems," Triss comments, a knowing smile on her face.

Yennefer rolls her eyes. "Oh, spare me the lecture. What is it you came for?"

Triss glances over the two of them once more before nodding, her expression turning more serious. "The treaty you amended recently. It wasn't… received well."

"Yes, because your King would rather see coin in his pocket than life on his streets. If he has a problem with it that he can convince his people to agree with, then he can write me a formal complaint. If not, he can-"

She cuts herself off before cursing at him, taking a deep breath and curling her arm around Buttercup. "He can simply deal with it."

"I'll pass the message along," Triss says quietly, amusement evident in her voice, "and I'll leave you to it. Until we meet again, Yenn."

Yennefer nods her farewell, noting how Buttercup relaxes almost entirely once Triss has portalled out, lifting his head and grinning at her so widely she can count his tiny teeth.

(They seem rather sharp but she doesn't know enough about children to question it.)

"Why were you scared of her, Buttercup?"

He shakes his head quickly, but then bites his lip and nods slowly. "They- She was mean last time."

They? Last time?

Something in her warns her not to ask but she does anyway, unsure of how Triss could ever be considered unkind. "How was she… mean?"

He frowns at her, an ancient emotion raging on his face. "The forest didn't like it."

It doesn't make much sense but she assumes he means she was manipulating nature in some way or the other, as she does. But that doesn't explain why the forest seemingly didn't like it, or why he would know such a thing.

Yennefer frowns at him. "Triss didn't recognise you, how did you recognise her?"

Buttercup shrugs, his distress now palpable. "She didn't see me."

She's debating whether or not to ask him what he means when his eyes start watering and his shoulders start shaking so hard she almost drops him.

(She would never let herself drop him.)

He starts crying before she can figure out what to say, clutching onto her dress and her hair like they're his lifelines, small, choked sobs escaping his lips before he cuts them off.

Yennefer doesn't know exactly what to do but she's filled with an intense, inexplicable urge to find whoever it is causing these tears and burn them from the inside out until they're weeping blood, and all she can do about that is hold him closer, letting magic spill from her fingertips to calm him down.

"It's okay, I won't hurt you. I won't… I won't let anyone hurt you… I promise.

(She doesn't deal in promises but this will have to be an exception.)

Her words seem to help more than her magic and he sniffles into her neck before lifting a hand to rub his eyes, blinking up at her with a burning hope.

"You promise?"

"I promise, little one."

He smiles, and the knot inside her stomach instantly unravels.

(She hadn't even realised it was there.)

where this going, you may be asking. i started this fic with one scene in mind and i seem to be writing side quests instead of the main quest but i am slowly getting there!

thanks for reading! leave a review with thoughts? x