Title is from "The Rockrose and the Thistle" by The Amazing Devil.

It all starts in a tavern. Said tavern is fairly ordinary, if perhaps a little bit cleaner than many taverns Geralt has seen, and nothing about it seems special from an outside perspective. Jaskier is singing, of course, and Geralt is watching him from the corner, silently eating his food. Someone's requested a tale of star-crossed love, and so Jaskier is playing a slow, sad ballad about a poor human boy who falls in love with an elven queen. Geralt is fairly certain none of this actually happened, but the lines are poetic and Jaskier delivers them with so much emotion it's brought tears to more than one man's eyes. The song ends with the elf queen mourning her lost human lover, who aged and withered while she remained forever young. The words are quiet and haunting, and they set Geralt to thinking.

More accurately, they set Geralt to brooding.

The specific events of the story may not be true - Geralt highly doubts they are - but the basic concept of a long-lived being outliving a mortal lover... That happens. That's not simply poetic license. And now that Jaskier has sung about it, Geralt can't help but think about how that's going to happen to them.

Witchers live much longer than humans, after all.

How is it that Geralt's never thought about this before? How much longer does Jaskier have? How old even is Jaskier? How can Geralt not know that? They've been lovers for years, and they'd known each other for years before that; how can Geralt not know how long they have left?

Maybe he can talk to Yennefer about it. Maybe she can come up with some sort of magical remedy. She and Jaskier get along well now, and Yennefer knows that Jaskier is as important to Geralt as she is. Perhaps, she'd be able to come up with something that'll elongate Jaskier's life, for Geralt's sake, if not for Jaskier's.

And Cirilla! How has it never occurred to Geralt how much it'll hurt her when Jaskier ages and dies? No one is entirely certain how long Ciri will live, but her lifespan will almost definitely be longer than a normal human's. Most children outlive their parents, but watching Jaskier wither while she remains youthful and strong? Geralt would wish that on no child, especially not his own.

By the time Jaskier is finished performing, Geralt has worked himself into something of a state. He's not really listening to Jaskier's babbling as they head up to their room - which, to be fair, isn't entirely unusual - and he hardly pays attention to Jaskier taking off his doublet, which is unusual. Jaskier must be able to tell something's up, because after he takes off his doublet, he sighs, sits down on the bed, and says, "What is it?"

"Hmm?"

"Oh, don't you 'hmm' me," Jaskier scolds, which Geralt should have expected. Both of his lovers tend to get huffy when he doesn't actually respond to them, especially when they're asking serious questions. "You're brooding. More than usual, I mean. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Geralt tries. Jaskier gives him a supremely unconvinced look. "I was just... thinking."

"Thinking," Jaskier repeats.

Geralt nods.

"Ugh, getting you to talk about your feelings is like pulling teeth," Jaskier groans. "What were you thinking about?"

"Your song," Geralt says, hoping it'll distract Jaskier.

It works, at least for a moment. "I knew you liked my music!" Jaskier says delightedly. Then he frowns. "But why would thinking about my music make you brood like this? This isn't happy brooding, Geralt."

"Your song wasn't a happy song," Geralt counters.

Jaskier frowned. "I closed with Toss A Coin To Your Witcher, that's a pretty happy song. Especially for you, with all the money it gets you."

"I wasn't talking about that song," Geralt grumbles. "I was talking about the other one. The one with the elf queen."

Jaskier's eyebrows shoot up. "The love ballad?"

Geralt scowls. "Do you want to talk about this or not?"

"No, right, of course," Jaskier says quickly. "I'll be quiet. Look." He mimes stitching his mouth shut, which he finds amusing and Geralt finds disturbing, especially since people have threatened to do exactly that to Jaskier on two separate occasions. The silence won't last, Geralt knows, but at least he might be able to say a few things before getting interrupted again.

"I was thinking," he says, "about mortality."

Jaskier nods, his head bobbing.

"And about the song," Geralt adds, now almost wishing Jaskier would speak and put the pieces together himself so Geralt wouldn't have to say it aloud.

No such luck; Jaskier just nods again.

"And I was thinking about... about outliving people you know. People you... care about."

Jaskier nods, looking like he's waiting for Geralt to get to the point.

"And I was thinking about... us."

Jaskier frowns slightly and nods again, looking confused. Geralt waits for a moment of realization on his face, a moment where he realizes what Geralt is worried about without Geralt having to tell him, but it never comes.

"Damn it, Jaskier, I was thinking about how you're human and I'm not and you're going to die!"

Jaskier gapes at him. He still doesn't say anything, though, so Geralt finds himself continuing to talk.

"Your song was about someone outliving their lover, and if I'm not killed, I'll live for centuries, and you're mortal! You're human! You'll-"

"Whoa, back up," Jaskier says, finally speaking. "You think I'm human?"

Of all the things he could have said, that's probably the thing Geralt least expected. "Aren't you?"

Jaskier stares at him for a moment, then he throws his hands into the air. "By Melitele, I can't believe anyone ever told me to watch out for Witchers. Are you all this unbelievably thick?"

Geralt gapes at him. "What do you mean?"

"Geralt," Jaskier says, putting his hands on his hips, "how long have we known each other?"

Geralt hesitates for a moment to think about it. He doesn't always measure things in human years, but Ciri is just over twenty now, and he met her when she was thirteen, so given how long he knew Jaskier before that...

"Nearly thirty years!" Jaskier cries, apparently out of patience. "We've known each other for nearly thirty years. Tell me, Geralt, do I look any different now than I did then? Have you ever known me to age at all?"

Come to think of it...

"No," Geralt says, a little wondrously. "You look just the same."

"Exactly," Jaskier agrees. "Would a human look exactly the same thirty years later? No, wait, don't answer that, you'll probably get it wrong. The answer is no, they wouldn't." He gives Geralt a significant look. "Ergo..."

"You're not human," Geralt finishes slowly.

Jaskier throws his hands out dramatically. "Give the man a prize!"

Geralt stares at Jaskier. "Then... what are you?"

"Ah." A flicker of nervousness crosses over Jaskier's face. It's not an expression Geralt likes to see there, especially when it's directed at him. "Well, before you start reaching for a silver blade, do remember we've known each other for thirty years, and I've never done anything to hurt you, ever. So-"

"I'm not going to hurt you, Jaskier," Geralt says, forcing his tone to be as gentle as possible. "No matter what you are. I just want to know."

"Well," Jaskier says, looking a bit mollified, "in that case, I'm half vila."

Geralt frowns. "Vila are female."

"Hence the half part," Jaskier replies. "Sometimes vila have children with humans, and normally, those kids are girls. But very rarely, they have a son, and..." He gestures sweepingly are himself. "You get someone like my amazing self."

Geralt's not sure he's ever heard of male half-vila before, but he also never claimed to be an expert on vila. If that's what Jaskier says he is, he probably knows better than Geralt.

"So what does that mean?" he asks. "You don't age?"

"Not really," Jaskier agrees. "I mean, I do, but just very slowly. I'm definitely not going to die as quickly as a human would. And I've got some limited powers from my mother, but the immortality thing is the big one."

"What sort of powers?"

"You think my voice is this amazing without magic?" Jaskier replies. "Vila like to sing. If I really concentrate, I can imbue my songs with magic, but I don't do it that often. It's not as easy as it sounds. That is what I did with Toss A Coin To Your Witcher, though. Sang it with a little bit of magic to make it catchy and beloved. Perform it a few times, let it spread, and voila! The Witcher's reputation is saved."

Geralt has the feeling this was a much bigger deal than Jaskier is making it out to be, but he doesn't call him out on it. Instead, he just reaches out and pulls Jaskier into his arms. Jaskier allows himself to be pulled, settling into Geralt's embrace.

"Have you been worrying about this all night?" he asks. "Foolish man."

"I was thinking about how to fix it," Geralt admits. "I thought of asking Yennefer, although I'm not sure what she could do."

"Yennefer knows," Jaskier replies. "We've talked about magic before. Apparently, the way I use magic is very different from the way she does."

"Yennefer knows?" Geralt repeats in shock. "Does Ciri know?"

"I think so, yes. We've never discussed it in as many words, but I think she knows the basics, if not the details."

"Then how come you never told me?"

"We've been traveling together for thirty years!" Jaskier cries indignantly, pulling away from Geralt just enough that Geralt can see his face. "I figured you'd caught on!" He shakes his head sadly. "I suppose I expected too much of you. Sad, stupid Witcher, unable to see what's right in front of his- Mph!"

Geralt chooses to do the one thing he knows will shut Jaskier up and kisses him. Jaskier, as always, melts into the kiss. When Geralt finally pulls away, Jaskier stares at him with dazed, lovestruck eyes.

"You're mine," Geralt says in the deep, rough voice he knows Jaskier loves. "Always."

Jaskier grins at him. "Well, at least you're smart enough to know that."