wait ok it doesnt have anything to do with the halloween thing BUT. one day jaskier discovers fairies exist... when a little winged man all dressed in black starts making his life hell. small things like moving his keys after he sets them down, but bigger things like breaking his sugar bowl and knocking over his CD shelf, turning all his eggs and milk the day he buys them. he doesnt say anything, except the one time he INSISTED jaskier destroyed his home, which jaskier is certain he didnt do and therefore doesnt deserve such cruelty and ire.
he spots this fairy around his house one day, certainly there to cause trouble like always, and he reaches out and grabs him before he can do anything. there's a moment of terror on his little face, and jaskier has a split second to realize he could crush this little being right in the palm of his hand, which must be rather frightening indeed, and hadnt been quite the threat he was trying to make-- when it visciously bites his hand and curses him. "everything you touch shall wither," he's told, as pain shoots up his arm, so intense he drops the little man, giving him time to scurry away. he cant even open his fingers properly, the whole arm spasming, and he rushes to the doctor to find he has a severe case of carpal tunnel. it doesnt respond to treatment of any sort, and any food the hand brushes wilts into a rotten mess in second. he cant play or write or eat with it, and it throbs ceaselessly no matter what he does.
he stomps out into his yard one day, irritated and in pain, and paces to let off steam. as he does so, he sees a little crushed mushroom in his path. he almost steps on it, but then something catches his eye and he bends down to peer at it a little closer. crushed into the dirt is bits of the mushroom, leaves, detritus... and a little pair of black pants, so muddy and torn as to be useless. there's a tiny bit of copper that mustve once been /something/, but now it's just a useless crushed heap. and there's half a leaf which appears to have the tiniest painting he's ever seen in his life-- presumably only possible with proportionally small hands.
it was a little home, with something living in it. and worse still, he remembers stepping on it. it had just been on a whim, he saw it and he wanted to smash it, so he did. he hadnt realized it belonged to anyond. he wonders if his new little adversary had had anywhere warm or safe to sleep since his home and belongings had been destroyed. guilt eats at him as he looks down at the meager pile of once-loved items. he makes up his mind to do something, and goes down to the local hardware store.
despite the pain in his arm, he works to build and carve something like he never has before-- a little tiny house, as a replacement for the one he destroyed. he even waterproofs it, so it'll last, and stakes it outside beneath a tree. he calls out, explains what it's for, but doesnt get a response. he sighs, pats the little black roof, and heads back inside his own home for the night.
when he wakes up, however, the pain in his arm is miraculously gone. when he rushes outside, he finds the little door he'd left open shut tightly, and he swears he can just barely see the edge of a face peering out at him from one of the windows he'd(rather badly) included on the sides. he profusely thanks the fairy, bemoaning the fact he never even bothered to learn its name, and even leaves a little thimble full of warm milk and honey outside it's door, just to share something nice with it.
afterwords, he finds that he never misplaces his keys while he's home again
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