"You're in love with him."

It's dark out, the fire long since faded to mere embers. Still, Jaskier sits in front of it, prodding it with a stick. Some might say he's sulking. And what reason does he have to sulk? Because he saw Geralt enter Yennefer's tent? He knows how Geralt feels about her, has known for ages. It's a sharp pain when he breathes to think about, like a fist constricting his heart.

He doesn't glance back at Yennefer as she comes up behind him. "And you're not."

"Love is for children," she says, then sits beside him on the log. She turns her head and looks at him. "But I forget how young you are."

"I'm not a young man anymore." The words are true and they leave him bitter. He's spent two decades of his life sporadically following Geralt around, and though he's aged well, he's not the spry youth he was when he began. How many of those years has he spent in love with Geralt? Like a fool it has taken him ages to realize what he wanted, and now it's too late to do anything.

"Compared to us," Yennefer says and looks at his pitiful remains of a fire. She closes her eyes and makes a motion with her hand and it springs back to life, flames licking the wood. It should be impressive, if Jaskier were not petty enough to not be moved. How can he compete with this, when he is only human and she is powerful and beautiful and deadly?

"Yeah, you're a right old hag," Jaskier says, but there's no venom in his voice. Yennefer is gorgeous and always will be so, while he is destined to lines around his eyes, silver in his hair and eventual death.

Why on earth would Geralt choose him over her?

"I'm not what he wants, not really. I'm not soft."

There's a thread of something in her voice, something honest and vulnerable that Jaskier didn't expect to hear. He tilts his head and looks at her. "Geralt isn't soft."

Yennefer smiles wryly. "Isn't he? He's good at pretending, but he's got a tender heart. The sort of heart I break."

"Then don't break it," Jaskier says, as if it were that simple, as if people could choose not to break hearts. Geralt would surely choose not to break his, because like Yennefer said, he is soft on the inside. But he can't help not loving Jaskier back.

"I don't know how not to," Yennefer says, looks away. "I don't know how to be kind."

"Well, he sees something in you," Jaskier says, letting the bitterness creep into his voice.

"He can love me because he has you. A soft place to land. Someone to give him what he needs."

It's cruel that she would say so, so cruel. Cruel when she knows that Jaskier would do anything for Geralt, but that Geralt will never see him the way he sees her. "But it's you he wants."

It's her he loves.

Yennefer shakes her head. "He loves you as well."

"I'm his best friend."

Yennefer snorts. "It's more than that. I've seen it from the beginning. He just hasn't realized it yet."

Something like hop flares inside Jaskier's heart. "Why are you telling me this?"

Yennefer draws her knees up to her chest. In the flickering firelight it makes her look young, barely out of her girlhood. "I'm not a good person."

"I know," Jaskier says simply.

"Geralt thinks I am, or wants me to be. I'll never be what he wants."

Jaskier isn't quite sure that's true. Yennefer may not be a good person, but she isn't a bad one, exactly. That's probably enough for Geralt. "That doesn't answer the question."

"I'm selfish and I take what I want," Yennefer says. "And I want Geralt."

Jaskier laughs nastily. "So what is this? You telling me to stay away from your man?"

Yennefer levels him with an even stare. "Do you think I'm the sort of woman to fight over a man?"

No, Jaskier really doesn't. "Then what is this?"

"He needs us both."

Jaskier isn't sure where she's going with this. "Are you proposing we share him?"

"Aren't we already?" Yennefer shrugs. "We may as well do it properly."

It's not an option Jaskier ever considered but...Geralt will need someone like Yennefer, someone permanent. Someone to share his long life with after Jaskier is gone. "You'd be willing to do that?"

"I'm not some insecure little girl; I know his affections for you don't lessen his affections for me."

If she can be secure, so can Jaskier. He can share if it means getting to have Geralt. It isn't so bad; he's never been much for fidelity anyway. "Alright then, we share."