after the fall festival

[every_blossom_blooming]

Nina couldn't remember the last time she had fun like this. She'd had fun, happy moments, but all of them against the backdrop of something moving beyond her control. Maybe Darrow was no different, in the end, but at least here she wasn't coerced into debt, she wasn't constantly waiting for the next thing she would have to do for the gang that offered her protection. She still worried: she worried about Ravka, about the moment she left behind, about her friends.

But all day today she had not let a single one of those things bother her. She'd danced until she felt like she would drop and only then did she let Geralt guide her away from the square and the music, and she happily pressed against his side, her arm draped around his waist.

"Thank you," she said warmly; in the dying sunlight her eyes had become a deep green. The gratitude was heartfelt, the feeling infused each simple word. Her cheeks were still flush from their joyous exertion. "It's been a long, long time since I danced like that."

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[worstsin]

It was hot. Not hot enough to scald, but hot enough that if you sat still, it would pull the ache right out of bones and muscles. Perfect. Geralt stepped in with one foot and then the other, before lowering himself, slowly and carefully, into the water. Nina had a deep tub, and he was grateful for it. Especially now that cold weather had started to set in.

He knew he never looked quite as old as he did when he was getting into a bath. He chuckled a little at his own slow slide. And then, settled, he rested his head against the smooth curve of the back of the tub and let out a very, very long sigh, eyes closed.

Darrow had some good spots. Baths on demand in moments, that was one.

[every_blossom_blooming]

Nina watched Geralt sink into the water and used her hand to spread the oil around. Once the water was high enough, she turned it off and eased into the tub with him.

"Saints," she sighed as she melted against him, lounging against Geralt's chest with her head against his shoulder. "Oh, can we just sleep here?"

She'd been accused, by more than one person, of being too indulgent to be a suitable soldier. What soldier, after all, looked like Nina Zenik? But all of them could go pound sand for all she cared. She was not giving up having hot baths when she could get them.

[worstsin]

"Unfortunately not," Geralt murmured from beneath her. He was perfectly content with Nina cradled in front of him, leaning back against his chest and shoulder.

The smell of the oil bloomed in the humid air, released by the heat of the water.

"Although if I've got to go one day, drowning in a tub with Nina Zenik isn't a bad way to go."

[every_blossom_blooming]

Nina laughed. One hand lazily lifted from the water, fingertips drifting across Geralt's cheek. "You're damn right it isn't."

She took a deep breath and let it go slowly. She was quiet for a long moment, listening to the sound the water made as either of them moved, however subtly. She listened to the sound of Geralt's heart, his breathing.

"Matthias thought I indulged too much. How could I possibly be a soldier, he said. I like to sleep late, I take long, hot baths whenever I can get one. I'm hardly all hard muscle. Even Zoya never got on me about any of that and she found fault in everything else I did."

Maybe because Zoya Nazyalensky, she knew, liked lavender oil baths whenever she was in the Little Palace.

[worstsin]

"I can't say. I'm not a soldier."

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, her thick brown hair.

"And I like that you want to sleep late and take long baths. What else is life for?"

He brushed his fingers through her hair, expertly removing any little tangles, and working the water through the strands.

"Your soft parts aren't bad either."

[every_blossom_blooming]

Nina closed her eyes, enjoying his touch. For as hardened and scarred as Geralt was, he was gentle with her.

A smile quirked her lips. "I think you're bias on that end. But I won't argue." The thing was, Nina liked herself. Having that coming under assault had never been easy to endure, but she did endure. Why should she be anything less than herself?

"Now and then I wonder if I could have been anything else. I went to the Little Palace when I was so young." And she had, rather promptly, learned how to deal varying degrees of bodily harm to to others, and had spent most of her time honing those skills.