S1 Viktor + S2 Jayce, A Developing Modern Classic

A young, horny Lambert sets his sights on an older hunk of Witcher beef. CW: age gap, flirtation.

"I'm going for it."

"Lambert, don't be a fucking idiot. They'll laugh at you."

"They might, but he won't. You miss all the chances you don't take, right?"

"Your funeral."

Lambert licked his lips and smoothed his hair back as he stood. He hadn't torn his eyes away from his mark for a single second since said man had swaggered into the hall a few hours before. This was the winter he'd do it. He was a man himself now, which meant he had every chance of bagging himself the hunk of good-lookin' he'd been coveting from the moment his dick had started getting hard at night and hair had appeared on his jaw.

Eskel.

It wasn't just that Eskel had two decades on Lambert or that he was becoming a seasoned witcher. No other Witcher in the keep compared. Sure, some tried. They might step toe to toe during drills or try to outflame Eskel's igni, but they never could. The only one that outmatched Eskel was his pale shadow, Geralt. They even looked a little similar. But cream puff was a fucking bean pole of a man, and that shitty headband...

N'aw, Lambert wanted big. He wanted heat, and honey eyes, and that thatch of dark hair he'd seen on Eskel's barrelled chest in the baths, and that huge fucking d--

"You lost, Lambert?"

Lambert blinked. Gweld, the ginger prick, was frowning at him, ale tankard halfway up to his mouth. The others had paused their card game; Clovis looked drunk, Geralt was slouched back trying to see Clovis' hand and Eskel was watching Lambert speculatively.

Watching, with those honey-coloured eyes that turned Lambert inside out. The words caught in Lambert's throat; shit, fuck, why was he so fuckin' stupid the moment Eskel looked at him?

He took a breath, conscious of Clovis elbowing Gweld with a chuckle, while Geralt looked over with a smirk.

Lambert found his words. He folded his arms, thrust his chest out, widened his stance and put on his best cocky smirk. "Was just wonderin' whether Eskel wanted some better company. You losers can't handle your beer at the best of times."

They laughed. Gweld elbowed Eskel who cocked a half smile, eyes rolling not at Lambert, but his friends, proving Lambert's point. Obviously.

"Is that right?" Geralt asked, amusement turning his narrow face bright with a toothy grin. Lambert had been told that as witchers matured they honed their sense of smell, could identify a man's emotions from his body language, the flush in his skin. Lambert knew Geralt had him sussed. "And what kinda company are you offering?"

"Geralt..." Eskel growled in warning, and it went straight to Lambert's groin. Fucking hells.

"Whatever he wants. I'm a man of many talents."

More laughter--"little man has game, shit; fuck, I'm chokin, too funny"--but Lambert wasn't put off. Eskel's eyes were on him, warming him like the sun. The lines around those eyes were wrinkled with mirth, and damn if that smile wasn't snatching the breath right out of Lambert's chest.

"Does your master know you're out?" Eskel asked, placing his cards face down. He leaned back in his chair and slung his elbow onto the back of it, knee turned out while a hand tapped at his drink.

Lambert tried to keep his eyes level and resist the urge to... look. Eskel's codpiece put on an absolutely fucking heroic effort, but it could only hide so much and that was when Eskel was soft. "What he don't know can't hurt him. No business of his who else is in my bed as long as I am."

Eskel pressed his lips together to smother his smile while the others guffawed. More was said but Lambert didn't really hear; he was too focused on keeping his heart from beating out his chest and appearing suave.

Eskel hummed. "Aren't you a little young to be lookin' for that kinda fun?"

"Worried you won't be able to keep up, old man?" Lambert felt momentum. He could do snark, he could meet Eskel on this well worn ground, toe to toe, and the way Eskel's head tilted to the side and his eyebrow rose. It wasn't a no, right? He looked interested. Amused, but he didn't dismiss Lambert outright.

Gweld slapped Eskel on the shoulder with a bark. "Eskel here's got stories that'd make your balls shrivel up into yer belly, lad. I don't think he's a good choice for yer first ride, best drop your ambitions."

"Fuck off, Gweld," Eskel said, but there was no heat to his words. Just wry amusement.

Geralt snorted into his drink and Clovis made a vulgar gesture with his hand, but before Lambert could respond a familiar voice barked through the hall and sucked all the building sexual tension into a vacuum. "Lambert, get your arse to bed, you missed roll call!"

Lambert clenched his teeth, shoulders lifting towards his ears. For fuck's sake...

Three of the witchers in front of him groaned in mock empathy. "Oof, tough break, Lambino. Cock blocked by Vesemir," Gweld said, shaking his head while Geralt and Clovis snickered. "Don't worry, we've all been there. Ain't that right, Gerbear?"

Geralt guffawed in protest and smacked Gweld on the shoulder. It quickly devolved into a wrestling match on the floor, one which Gweld was definitely going to lose. Eskel watched them briefly before he looked back at Lambert. "Another time perhaps," he said, toasting Lambert with his ale. "G'wan, before he decides the target dummies are a little light on straw."

Lambert grunted, frustrated, but stalked away. He'd made inroads, and the way Eskel's eyes had shone, and that crooked grin. Eskel hadn't outright rejected him, hells, he'd--well, that smile... Eskel didn't smile at everyone like that.

Lambert laid in bed with that smile behind his eyes and a hand under the sheets, determined that it would be Eskel's instead of his own by winter's end.

Everything between Jayce and Viktor can really be traced back to their childhood inciting incidents and it’s killing me.

Jayce: a miracle saves him and his mom, forever imprinting him with the certainty that miracles do exist, they can be controlled, he can save his loved ones no matter how awful things get, if he can just be smart and bold and quick enough.

Viktor: he saw the horror of what Singed had done—of forcing a creature to live against its will, of the degradation and terror of being fundamentally changed. For a while he thought he understood Singed, when he decided that he was willing to throw away all his principles to survive his own body. But he didn’t, really. He didn’t understand. There was still a line he would not cross. He wanted to die human.

It’s fitting, then, and unspeakably tragic, that Jayce is the one who played Singed’s role in the end. Because you can’t ask Jayce to let a loved one go, when he knows there’s a miracle that can save him, the solution is right there, it will work if you will just let him try—and so he forces a change onto Viktor against his will. He traps him into the Arcane, takes apart and reassembles his body, strips him of his selfhood and humanity. All so that Viktor will live. Singed wasn’t talking about the desperation not to die—he was talking about the desperation not to lose someone you love.

And so Viktor is…changed. He lives, whether he wants to or not.

And so Jayce loses him anyway.

When your *impulsive thoughts won

Post canon jayvik yearning in a hot spring, inspired by the lovely fic The Line is Covered in Jellyfish by @yunuen

Thinking of an omegaverse scanario where an alpha goes into a violent rut and the omega in their presence, trying to avoid getting a knot shoved where no knot has ever been, tries to redirect the situation by pretending to be weak/hurt/afraid so that the alpha will channel their sex drive into a drive to protect.

And it works. But it requires the omega to constantly reinforce their own vulnerability, because the alpha is out of their mind (sex-pollened or something to that effect). And it's one thing that the omega isn't in general a person who is fine with being vulnerable - they are getting hives but this is life or death situation, so they have no choice. The other thing is that the longer the situation goes on, the omega's buried instincts start to take in the alpha being all aggressively protective over them and react accordingly, welcoming the chance to be vulnerable.

Which leaves the omega in a situation of fighting on two fronts - the alpha and their own brain, because someone has to keep their head. Right?

Dunno, but I see it absolutely working with Fengqing xD

say gex

[reference I used]

Well… so… yeah. This post, that's why this Arthur. You can imagine your MC beneath, because I clearly can see my Liam there lol

Lambert/Aiden (slightly angsty) reunion snuggles!

Smut under the cut.

For all Geralt was absolute crap at reading the room when it came to his own relationships, he was an expert when it came to those of his family. Something Lambert had never been more thankful for when the White Wolf made some absolute bullshit excuse and left Lambert and Aiden alone at the inn in their shared room after a shared dinner to "Talk or whatever. I'll be back in the morning."

He owed the older Wolf big time. First helping in tracking down Jad and then Aiden after they heard mention in a tiny village of a green eyed Witcher passing through some months ago. They'd worn no medallion and armour seemingly cobbled together from scraps, but Lambert had been adamant it couldn't possibly be anybody else.

He had absolutely no idea how he was even going to begin paying brother back, but that was a worry for when he wasn't sat in the middle of the narrow bed, stark naked and knuckles deep in his lover.

Aiden keened from where he was straddling the others hips as Lambert's need to take this slow warred with just pure need. The new scars criss crossing the Cats body - more sinewy than the last time they'd seen each other but no less appealing - were covered in red and purple love marks, the pupil of his remaining eye blown wide as damp strands of hair clung to his forehead and neck. The other had given as good as he'd got and had left Lambert's nipples deliciously tender from where he'd played with them until they were raw and he was pretty sure his back was absolutely covered in scratches by this point in the proceedings.

"Shit, Lambert please. I'm ready."

"You sure?" He asked, giving a shit eating grin as he twisted his fingers and caused the other to bite out one of the Elder curses Lambert remembered teaching him.

"Yes, I'm fucking sure. It's been almost two years. I'm not waiting a minute longer to have you in me."

Despite his insistence, Aiden's face still pinched in discomfort, followed by a brief bitter-sharp undercurrent of pain to his scent as he was breached.

"Woah, woah. You sure you're ok?" Lambert asked, stopping the others descent with a firm grip on his hips.

"I'm fine. Like I said, it's been almost two years."

Neither of them were sure how much time had passed until Lambert finally bottomed out, Aiden arching his back with a moan and a satisfied smile, "I missed you."

It was then it slammed into him like one of the mountain avalanches: This was Aiden! Aiden whimpering and writhing in his lap, Aiden tight and warm around him and so, so alive. Aiden was alive, and he was here!

"Lam?" A hand cupping his jaw brought him back. Concerned, green eye searching his face, "Where did you go just now?"

"Sorry, I -" Lambert faltered, fighting to keep his voice steady.

"Do you need to stop?"

"No! I mean." He buried his face in Aiden's shoulder, "I don't want to stop but can we....just stay like this for a bit?"

"Oh, Lam. Come here." Aiden said, changing his bruising grip on the other to a gentle hug whilst Lambert pressed his nose hard against Aiden's neck, feeling the other press kisses to the top of his head.

"Pup, you're shaking."

"I'm fine, I'm fine. S'just you being here. Doesn't feel real."

"... Lambert, I need you to listen for a minute. Alright?"

Lambert nodded before he felt Aiden gently guide his head until one ear was pressed over his Witcher slow heart.

"Hear that? I'm real, this is real. I'm here."

Lambert gave a small whimper in response, still trembling with the sudden emotional upheaval as his hands wandered over every part of the other he could reach, the Cat only pausing in his litany of reassurances to give a small gasp when Lambert's fingers brushed over where they were joined, "That's it. You feel that? Me and you together again. Just as it should be, and that's how it's going to stay now."

"You promise?"

Aiden tilted the Wolf's head up, amber eyes full of emotions usually banked deep, deep down as he brushed their noses together.

"I promise."

Hiii! I've read your tags about how wwx wouldn't probably do the core's transfer with lz because in his mind they are equals. So, do you think in some way wwx thinks less of jc? I am just very curious because it seems an interesting interpretation!

I mean, yeah, kinda, he does! He loves Jiang Cheng immensely, but there is absolutely a dynamic between them where Wei Wuxian considers it his job to protect Jiang Cheng from all forms of harm, whether Jiang Cheng wants to be protected or not. It’s complicated, and I think it’s kind of multifaceted. There’s an Older Sibling element to it (although it is canonically unclear exactly what the age difference is between them, and it’s not more than a year at most), there’s a your-father-took-me-in-and-I-owe-him element to it, and there’s the part where WWX has always been a step ahead of JC in all their mutual accomplishments (never mind that JC’s own accomplishments are very impressive! The view looks different from inside a sibling relationship, trust me on this one).

And also, I think there’s also the three-way mutual awareness between him, JC, and Jiang Yanli of how much emotional harm the Jiang parents are managing to inflict on each of them, and a deliberate effort on each of their parts to try to shield one another from that harm—but of the three of them, JC shows those emotional wounds the most overtly, because WWX and JYL repress their unhappiness (out of the shared, destructive belief that showing negative emotions to your loved ones is bad) while JC channels his into anger, yells, stomps off and openly sulks about it, etc, which is more recognizable as unhappiness. I suspect WWX has spent a lot of time doing what he does leading up to the Twin Prides speech/promise to be JC’s right hand man when he’s the sect leader: running after a JC whose feelings have been hurt, and giving him a hug or otherwise trying to cheer him up, because he can’t stand the sight of Jiang Cheng’s open unhappiness, and has to try to fix it.

The core transfer was objectively an insane extreme—so insane no one suspected it, because there was no precedent for it!—and one WWX was driven to not just by fear for JC, but also the overwhelming guilt from the belief that he was responsible for bringing the Wen to Lotus Pier in the first place (wrongly, of course, but Madame Yu spent her final words explicitly blaming him for it, JC repeated those words when he was having his own grief breakdown immediately after seeing his parents’ dead bodies, and then JYL dodged the question when WWX asked her if it was true, so you can understand where WWX’s head’s at at that point), and then guilt that he’d failed Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan in their explicit command to him to protect Jiang Cheng, by letting JC run off all headstrong and get caught by the Wen. The core transfer is both a OTT gesture to Fix Jiang Cheng, The One Who Must Always Be Protected, and a way for WWX to punish himself for failing to protect JC leading up to this moment (getting JC’s family slaughtered and home burned, letting JC get captured and tortured and maimed, because obviously the only person with any agency or control in this situation is Wei Wuxian himself!). There’s really no other character in the whole narrative that could push all the right buttons to get WWX to do something as extreme as the core transfer, not even Jiang Yanli (who on paper is physically softer and squishier than JC, but who is also clearly someone WWX views first and foremost as a caretaker) because Jiang Cheng is the only person he loves that much AND fundamentally insists on viewing as unable to take care of himself.

(In contrast to all this, five minutes after WWX meets Lan Wangji, he’s excitedly declaring that he’s finally met his equal in life. It’ll be a while before Wangxian get to developing the big swoony romantic feelings, but right from the start, WWX affords LWJ a level of personal respect he never shows to Jiang Cheng, Baby Brother.)

I will also add that Jiang Cheng is clearly aware that WWX sees him this way, and it drives him up a fucking wall. He obviously loves WWX and he absolutely wants him around, but I think he also wants an equality in their relationship that WWX consistently denies him, and that that is definitely part of his angst over the core transfer when he finds out—to him, it’s kind of the ultimate statement that WWX thinks JC is too weak to make it without him.

I do think there’s hope for them, post-canon, since they’re now alive and their relationship has the chance to continue to mature! But it’s going to require WWX to take JC out of that mental box he’s constructed for him marked “Fragile: Handle With Care” and to learn to respect JC’s choices and autonomy. Recognizing that JC managed to survive without him and continued to build the Jiang back up from nothing to being a great sect again will probably help!

Hello! For the prompts, either Geralt/Jaskier or Dandelion/Priscilla, hand-holding #13?

Hand-Holding 13: linking hands together during sex