The handshake is exactly what Claude would have expected from Geralt, so he's perfectly content with what it is. It's mostly just meant to be a sort of physical affirmation that things are settled and this is behind them now. For Claude, it had already been largely smoothed over; having said what he needed to say to Geralt, and without Geralt repeating the offense, that had been the end of it for him. Geralt had apparently needed to chew on it, though, acknowledge his shortcomings(a very admirable trait, to Claude), and get a more proper closure by actually addressing what happened. And Claude's got no objections to that; even if he'd let the matter go, there had been some ragged edges to the wound, and this allows them to heal smoothly where otherwise there might have been at least some form of scar. Geralt wasn't the only one who got something out of closing this more neatly.
At the mention of Jaskier - at the opening of the subject, as opposed to merely the offhand mention of it - Claude folds his arms over his chest, and the smile on his lips becomes a bit more distant in undefinable ways. "That makes two of us. I apologized to him for...whatever effect I had on his relationship with you. And it feels like I definitely had some significant effect, if he went so far as to hide it from our entire group just to - I don't know, prove some kind of point to me. And if his first reaction to realizing the cat was out of the bag was not to bask in the congratulations and his happiness, but to get angry about what I said, or might say. I honestly have no idea what I said or did to annoy him so much that his romantic nature took a backseat to that kind of thing...it certainly wasn't intentional. It wasn't even something I sensed."
He sighs. "But...I feel like I owe an apology to you for that, too. For...whatever I did that had him acting so unlike himself. For any souring of the happiness you two find in each other, even the smallest amount." His lips thin a bit. "Jaskier insisted it was egotistical of me to think I had any effect at all, but given how things turned out, and how something that we should have all been celebrating turned into - what it did, I'd say I did more than enough harm to apologize for. So...I really am sorry, Geralt. I still don't know what happened, but I know that you don't deserve any of the fallout from this."
He unfolds a hand from over his chest to run it through his hair. "All I ever wanted was for both of you to be happy, and I don't know where or how that went as wrong as this. I know you both are happy still, and have a lot to be happy about, and it would be egotistical to think I've somehow ruined that because I'm frankly not that major a factor, but...I wanted to facilitate your happiness, not complicate it. It's reasonable to apologize for the effect being so far off from the intent, isn't it?"
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2021-07-15 10:21 am (UTC)The handshake is exactly what Claude would have expected from Geralt, so he's perfectly content with what it is. It's mostly just meant to be a sort of physical affirmation that things are settled and this is behind them now. For Claude, it had already been largely smoothed over; having said what he needed to say to Geralt, and without Geralt repeating the offense, that had been the end of it for him. Geralt had apparently needed to chew on it, though, acknowledge his shortcomings(a very admirable trait, to Claude), and get a more proper closure by actually addressing what happened. And Claude's got no objections to that; even if he'd let the matter go, there had been some ragged edges to the wound, and this allows them to heal smoothly where otherwise there might have been at least some form of scar. Geralt wasn't the only one who got something out of closing this more neatly.
At the mention of Jaskier - at the opening of the subject, as opposed to merely the offhand mention of it - Claude folds his arms over his chest, and the smile on his lips becomes a bit more distant in undefinable ways. "That makes two of us. I apologized to him for...whatever effect I had on his relationship with you. And it feels like I definitely had some significant effect, if he went so far as to hide it from our entire group just to - I don't know, prove some kind of point to me. And if his first reaction to realizing the cat was out of the bag was not to bask in the congratulations and his happiness, but to get angry about what I said, or might say. I honestly have no idea what I said or did to annoy him so much that his romantic nature took a backseat to that kind of thing...it certainly wasn't intentional. It wasn't even something I sensed."
He sighs. "But...I feel like I owe an apology to you for that, too. For...whatever I did that had him acting so unlike himself. For any souring of the happiness you two find in each other, even the smallest amount." His lips thin a bit. "Jaskier insisted it was egotistical of me to think I had any effect at all, but given how things turned out, and how something that we should have all been celebrating turned into - what it did, I'd say I did more than enough harm to apologize for. So...I really am sorry, Geralt. I still don't know what happened, but I know that you don't deserve any of the fallout from this."
He unfolds a hand from over his chest to run it through his hair. "All I ever wanted was for both of you to be happy, and I don't know where or how that went as wrong as this. I know you both are happy still, and have a lot to be happy about, and it would be egotistical to think I've somehow ruined that because I'm frankly not that major a factor, but...I wanted to facilitate your happiness, not complicate it. It's reasonable to apologize for the effect being so far off from the intent, isn't it?"