#havensyfy x OUaT

[fiore-della-valle]

for the ship meme: you know the one

I hope you meant Threegulls, Rabbitt, because left to my own devices it’s always gonna be Threegulls.  (If I am wrong, though, y’know, I can always keep guessing until I get it right.  XD )

Fake Dating:

So, really, Audrey was handling it okay, when the town was overrun by fae.  Or at least, as well as anybody could, when dealing with an inexplicable variety of beings with widely varying abilities and seriously inscrutable social boundaries.  She had retrieved three stolen children and talked two different beings into turning eight separate citizens of Haven back into human beings (and she was really hoping that she just hadn’t been paying enough attention to the grove of trees next to the park, and that there had always been nine of them, not eight) and solved a riddle of logic to claim right of passage down the main roads for everyone in a HPD uniform.

She had it under control, was the point.

Right up until one of the creatures- tall and thin and pale, with unearthly eyes and a literal glow about them, beautiful and terrible in the way of dreams- smiled at Nathan with knife-sharp teeth and beckoned, and his eyes went blank as he moved to follow.

She didn’t plan it; she didn’t think.  But she’d been dealing with the fae for two days, already, and maybe she was still struggling to figure out all the rules, but at least she’d figured out that there were rules, and she’d snapped the words before Nathan had taken three steps.  “You can’t have him, he’s mine!”

Even knowing that technically, the fae weren’t real and thus, couldn’t hurt her did not stop the shiver of fear that swept up her spine at the furious screech in response, but she held her ground, and her claim, and in the end, the being retreated and Nathan blinked in confusion when Audrey took his hand and held.

It was more deliberate, the second time.  The creature at the Gull was slightly less terrifying than the first; even immune to his glamour, Audrey could see the appeal, and his flirtations were playful, entreating rather than commanding.  It didn’t stop the swell of anger that rose in her chest when Duke flirted back, nor the flicker of fear when the creature reached across the bar as though he had a right to touch.

He argued, voice soft and reasonable, eyes hard and cold and black as night, when Audrey asserted her claim.  Warned her in a velvet threat that it was unwise to lie to those like him.  Audrey tightened her grip on Duke’s wrist, and met those empty eyes, and politely told him to find somewhere else to be.

She locked the door after him, and met the worried gazes of her boys, and lifted her chin.  “Until this is done?  I don’t care who or what you’re talking to, you’re with me.”

The glance they exchange between them spoke volumes, but they knew better than to argue.

Bodyswap:

(So, pretending that canon didn’t actually give us a bodyswap...)

The first thought they all have is exactly the same: this is not my bedroom.

The next thought varies.

Nathan has a moment of groggy confusion, trying to puzzle out how he wound up in Duke’s bed; it doesn’t quite cross into alarm, though he doesn’t remember going over to the Rouge the night before.  Still, it isn’t the first time he’s woken up there, even if he usually winds up on the couch.  It isn’t until he realizes that he can feel the softness of worn cotton and body heat that he jolts fully awake.

Audrey knows by the second breath that something is very wrong; she can’t feel it, can’t feel the sheets or the mattress that creaks when she moves, and the sense of vulnerability is staggering.  She’s still not used to her immunity being compromised, and this is not a great first Trouble.

Duke resolutely closes his eyes, and tries to go back to sleep; if he’s waking up in Audrey’s bed, he’s clearly still dreaming, and he’d like to linger in the half-awake space of infinite potential as long as he possibly can.  

Audrey calls her own phone, numb fingers trembling slightly as she dials.

Duke hears a ringtone that doesn’t belong to him, and grumbles a complaint in Audrey’s voice, and really, it’s a pleasant dream, it’s a nice thought, that workaholic Audrey might be reluctant to get out of bed.  He is definitely going to stay in the moment as long as he can.

Audrey swears, and it’s almost funny hearing the words in Nathan’s gruff tones.  She’s using Nathan’s phone, so calling that won’t help her.  Duke’s number is the next one in the call history after her own.  Convenient, since he’s her next call anyway.

Nathan hears Duke’s phone ring, and reaches for it.  The fact that he can feel the vibrations in the fingertips that aren’t his makes him grin, even if he knows he should be worried about this.  It could be worse; his limbs are all about the length he expects, at least, and maybe it’s been years since he was young enough and naive enough to  envy Duke so much that he’d want to switch places with him, but something in him is still intrigued by the possibilities.

Still, it’s a little jarring when he picks up the phone and it’s his own voice on the other end, demanding “Duke?”

There’s an uncomfortable pause after his “Not exactly,” and Nathan starts to feel a rush of doubt- he’d just assumed that if he’d swapped with Duke, Duke had likewise swapped with him.  The idea of it being anyone else in his skin is uncomfortable.

“Who is this?” his own voice demands, and it is strange to be on the wrong end of that tone.

It’s even stranger to hear Duke’s voice say his name with none of the usual weight or emphasis- he hadn’t realized just how much personality there was in the way Duke spoke to him.

Audrey is relieved to have located Nathan, at least.

Duke ignores the phone the first and second time it rings, but by the third time, it’s impossible to pretend it’s a noise out of a dream.  He turns over to reach for it, and misses that call because he’s too busy having a brief panic and briefer ethical debate at the sight of hands that are definitely not his.  Audrey’s phone shows four missed calls from Nathan- wonderful.

“You’d better be calling with an explanation, Nate,” he complains in Audrey’s voice, when he picks up the next call.

“Duke.”  The relief in Nathan’s voice is definitely not normal for Nathan.  “It’s Audrey, you need to meet us at the station.  Now.”

Duke considers that for a moment, and heaves a sigh.

“Yeah, okay,” he yields, and he really wishes it had just been a dream.  “Hey, wait, if you’re Audrey, where’s Nathan?”

Sex Pollen:

Really, they should have known that optimism was uncalled for.

“Okay, so it’s everywhere, but it’s just a plant,” Duke had said, in a tone of voice that implied more desperate hope than actual lack of concern.  “It isn’t hurting anyone.”

“Yet,” Nathan had replied, with a dourness born of experience.  “Not hurtin’ anyone yet.”

“Look, let’s- let’s just try and figure out where it came from, and how to get rid of it,” Audrey had said, because maybe, if they did that fast enough, it would remain just a plant.

They had not been that lucky.

The blossoms had opened just before sunset on the second day, beautiful, bell-like blooms from which the scent of amber and musk poured like water from thousands and thousands of delicate pitchers.  There wasn’t a single place in town where the scent didn’t reach.

And as it turned out, Audrey wasn’t any more immune to pheromones than anyone else.

Dark!fic:

The thing is, when they work, they really work- they balance each other, they know when to offer support, when to pull each other back.  When they’re good, they’re good- but when they slip, well, it’s a long way down, and there’s only so long that anyone can be selfless.

They balance just as well on the other side, selfish and desperate and grasping, clinging to each other because they’re all the stability they have left.  And it was never a secret, not really, not to anyone who looked, the depths they could fall to.  Not once they’d turned all that drive and protectiveness toward each other instead of the world outside.  The same fierce determination, the same relentless loyalty, the same calculating ruthlessness- none of it changed, they didn’t change.  They just- stopped sharing.

And it doesn’t matter how much blood Duke has to spill or how many hard choices Audrey has to make or what rules Nathan has to break- they’ll protect each other, because they need each other, and they’ve spent enough time putting other people’s needs first.

Secret Kinks:

It takes them time, to feel out what’s safe and what isn’t, what they can chance, what doesn’t stray too close to unhealed wounds.

It isn’t a surprise that Nathan likes to explore sensation, likes to push the experience to the absolute edges of his tolerance.  It also isn’t really a surprise that he takes to games of power and control- both exerting, and relinquishing.  It is a little bit of a surprise, how much he enjoys leaving some kind of mark, some kind of visible claim- and how quick he is to encourage sneaking a quick encounter somewhere where there’s a risk of being seen.

Audrey likes games of power as well; she isn’t as good at relinquishing control, but she knows how to take it.  She likes keeping her boys worked up and desperate for as long as she can, making them wait, making them work to hold back.  They also find she has a thing for scripts, for costumes- she spent so long fighting to be one thing, but alone with her boys, she finally feels like it’s safe to explore being something else.

For Duke, it all comes down to trust.  He, like Nathan, will ask them to push the edges of his tolerance, if only to prove over and over again that they know where the boundaries are, and will stop at the limit.  He is always the first to offer to yield control, and the last to take it, despite being very, very good at being in charge.  He wants them to take him apart; he wants to face everything that scares him, to know that he can, to know that they will put him back together.  He wears every mark Nathan leaves with a desperate sort of pride, clings to every sign that he belongs, and Audrey and Nathan discover that they can take him apart again and again with nothing but a bit of praise.

First Kiss:

It isn’t like they haven’t kissed before.  All of them had exchanged kisses, at one time or another.  But it’s different, that first time, stretched out on Nathan’s couch, Audrey sprawled out across Nathan and Duke both.  They’re all tired, it’s been a long day in a string of long days, trying to put the world back together.  But they are there, together, all three of them, like they have been, every night since the wall came down.  Audrey is half asleep, listening to the soft back-and-forth of her boys talking.  Nathan has tilted, is leaning against Duke’s shoulder, seeking contact- always seeking contact, seemingly balanced constantly between the need to reassure himself of their nearness and the desire for sensation- and Audrey nearly misses it, when Duke reaches up and runs his fingers through Nathan’s hair.  It’s a small thing, but it’s huge- Duke reaching out, Duke choosing contact instead of shying away or merely tolerating it.  She’s not sure how Nathan decides that it’s what he’s been waiting for, or if he was waiting at all, isn’t sure if it’s a rational choice or an impulse, but a moment later, Nathan’s lips are pressed against Duke’s.  Audrey doesn’t breathe, attention focused entirely on the sight above her and the tension in Duke’s body against her back- it feels like a slow eternity before the tension fades, shifts, and turns to intent.

He’s kissing Nathan back, and Audrey breathes again, because this, this feels like renewal.  This feels like finally, finally, they are rebuilding.

Meeting the parents:

They have been dealing with ghosts all day.  They aren’t, thankfully, the malicious and angry spirits that had risen once before, but they are still causing a great deal of chaos and upset.  Audrey is tired, Duke is withdrawn, and Nathan really just wants the day to be over; if they have to deal with one more sobbing townsperson or inconsolable spirit, he thinks he’s going to break something.

In the next moment of calm they get, he pulls his lovers aside and wraps an arm around each of them, needing the contact, the steady sound of their breathing and the curling scent of Audrey’s shampoo and Duke’s aftershave.  Duke leans in immediately, their shoulders bumping as he tilts himself to rest his forehead against Nathan’s; Audrey resists, initially, tense and trembling, before she sighs and folds into the space left between them.

They stay like that for one breath, two, three-

And Nathan hears a voice behind him, soft and gentle and familiar in a way that leaves him dizzy.

“Nate?”

Duke goes tense in the same instant, because he knows her voice as well, and really, there were only ever a handful of people allowed to call him that.  Nathan turns, slow and unsteady and with hands scrabbling loudly against the rough sleeves of his jacket, and the word rasps in his throat.

“Mom?”

She is as beautiful as he remembers her being, before she got sick; she is radiating a faint confusion, but her dark eyes are still kind, and the slight smile she wears is soft at the edges.  He thinks his knees might go weak; the world sways and Duke grunts with effort, so he’s probably taken most of Nathan’s weight.  Nathan would be more appreciative of his help if he could focus on anything other than the fact that his mother is there, in front of him, as she hasn’t been since he was nine.

“Oh, honey,” she says, and she brings a hand up, covering her mouth.  Her eyes glimmer with tears, and Nathan wonders if he’s still breathing, if the spots in his vision are because he’s stopped.  For a moment, all he can think is not again; it was bad enough, having the Chief come back to scold him for loving Audrey- he’s not sure he can handle hearing his mother heap disapproval on him for the two of them.  But all she says is, “Look how big you are now,” and it’s such an innocuous comment that he chokes on a laugh.

Audrey’s hand finds his, a blaze of sensation, and it helps, he drags in a breath and gets his feet back under himself properly.  He regrets it when Duke steps back the moment he’s steady, shoving his hands into his pockets and making every effort to create distance between them without actually moving out of easy reach.

“...What,” he starts, and stops, and starts again, “what are you doin’ here?”

“I don’t know,” she says, dropping her hand from her face and reaching out.  Nathan hesitates, because he’s been doing this all day and he knows she’s not solid enough to touch- but really, what does it matter?  He wouldn’t feel it anyway.  He lifts the hand Audrey isn’t holding, pretends not to see the way her fingers don’t just touch, but intersect his own.  “Does it matter?”

“No,” he lies, shaking his head, as if the motives of ghosts have never wrought havoc on his life before.  “Doesn’t matter.”

“It’s so good to see you, sweetheart,” she says, and he wants to believe it.  “All grown up.  And a police officer, just like your father.”

A dozen questions cross his mind, some bordering on accusations, but he asks none of them.

“I miss you,” is what makes it past his lips, and she flinches, her expression turning entreating as she glances between him and Audrey and Duke still trying to disappear behind him.

“I know, baby boy.  I’m so sorry.  But you aren’t alone, are you?  You have people, people who make you happy?”

And it isn’t like his father’s questions; there’s no accusation, no barb, but he still braces himself for the other shoe.

“Yes.”

“Good,” she says, like she means it.  Like that’s all she’s ever wanted to hear.  “Good, Nate, I’m so glad.”

Moving in together:

It isn’t a choice so much as an inevitability.  Audrey’d been living at Nathan’s since the sea monster tore the Gull off of its foundation, and Duke has nowhere else to go with the Rouge half-submerged in the harbor from an encounter with the same Trouble-spawned beast.  And Nathan isn’t letting either of them out of his sight, anyway; he gets anxious when they’re in another room, another building would be pushing things entirely too far.

Not that they can really blame him; they’re still both adjusting to coming back, and aren’t much fonder of being separated.

So it’s Nathan’s house, by default.  And for a while, it’s whatever Audrey left behind, and the handful of things Nathan had managed to salvage from Duke’s boat, and a lot of sharing.  For a while, they’re both too uncertain for anything else.  But slowly, very slowly, new things start to show up- first, a book, a gift from Gloria for Audrey, something trashy and torrid and decidedly lacking even a trace of the supernatural.  Then a bulky brown sweater, ugly but soft, picked up for four dollars from a thrift store in Camden during a supply run.  Audrey complains about the color, but curls herself up in Duke’s lap whenever he makes the mistake of sitting down while wearing it.

Nathan is the one to replace the bed, because a queen sized mattress would have been a tight fit for any two of them together, let alone all three.  It takes a few days before any of them are used to it, and Nathan comments dryly that it’s like watching cats approach a suspect box to see how they circle it.

A few more books, a few more articles of clothing, and two new laptops filter in over the next month.  After that, it’s the kitchen which receives attention.  Nathan gets tired of watching Duke grimace whenever he pulls out a pot or a pan, and drags them to a kitchen supply store in Bangor.  He scowls and complains and pushes until Duke starts picking out better tools, and then drops into the same soft, almost eager supportiveness he’s been showing since they got back.  They spend a small fortune on pots and pans and utensils and bowls and racks and cutting boards and a heavy marble mortar-and-pestle, and Duke spends two days rearranging cabinets and washing new dishes.

When he calls them into the kitchen the day after, a slightly nervous, slightly proud glint in his dark eyes, to a proper meal set up and waiting, Audrey thinks that for the first time since coming back, it feels like coming home.

Crossover of my choice:

Audrey stares at the wary blonde woman in the red jacket, takes in the way her hand is positioned to reveal the badge on her belt.  She takes a breath, and looks at the pair that flank her- a gorgeous brunette with cutting eyes and a scar over her lip, who holds herself like she expects obedience, and a likewise gorgeous man in a long coat with a hook for a hand and more eyeliner than Audrey has ever applied in her life- and takes another breath.  She feels Nathan shift on her left, hears Duke’s quiet murmur of “un-fucking-believable,” and takes a third breath, because she’s seen a lot of bizarre things, while she’s been in Haven, but this might just take the cake.

“Emma, love, I think we’ve wound up in the wrong place,” the man murmurs, and the blonde rolls her eyes, but the brunette speaks before she has the chance to reply.

“Really, Captain Obvious, what tipped you off?” she asks, and Duke snickers.

The blonde- Emma- moves her hand away from her belt, raises both of them in front of her in a polite display of non-aggression.

“Hi,” she says, with a smile that Audrey thinks could be cut directly out of her own ‘comfort the confused’ playbook.  “Sorry, hello, we- we aren’t looking for any trouble.”

“The hell was that?” Nathan says, after a moment.  “Never seen a thinnie look like that before!”

“A thinnie?” Emma asks, before the brunette swears.

“Oh, damn,” she says.

“Regina?” Emma asks, and the brunette shakes her head.

“Well, the good news, we made it back to Maine.  We’re just three hours south.  I should have guessed, unstable portals are drawn to each other.  Without a way to anchor our exit in Storybrooke...  We were drawn to the next nearest site of mystical energy.  Haven.”  Nathan bristles at the way she says ‘Haven’, and Duke laughs again, a faint, hysterical edge in the sound.

“I thought this world didn’t have magic of it’s own,” the man said accusatorily, and Regina shrugged.

“It doesn’t, but I’m hardly the only one who’s ever decided to pay it a visit.”

AU of my choice:

I honestly don’t even know where to start with this, because I have approximately infinite AUs, so just- have a tiny snippet of Cor Vitae, because who doesn’t love a good magic!AU.

“So,” she said, “that thing you did, earlier...”

“How much do you know about counter-resonance and thought forms?”  The question was carefully neutral, no judgement in Duke’s tone, just honest inquiry.

“...Not a lot,” Audrey admitted.  “Annie- my foster mom, the, the one who started teaching me, the one who recognized that I had power- she, she was very traditional Wicca, most of what we learned was rote ritual and herblore.  And crystals, Aunt Susie taught us a lot of crystal work.”

“Never was much for rote ritual,” Duke said, with a faint, rueful smile.  “Has its place, but it’s restrictive as a first system.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.  But it was better than being told I was crazy, or possessed, so there’s that.”  Audrey gave a brittle smile, and shrugged, and Duke’s expression shifted, an obscure sort of pain visible for just a moment behind his usual masks.

“...Yeah.”  Duke turned and fussed with the teapot, though it hadn’t made a sound, shifting how it sat on the burner.  “Yeah, I bet.”  He stared at the flames for a moment, expression distant, before he cleared his throat and shrugged.  “Simple version- that kind of enchantment, it’s not actually solid, it’s held together by will.  Thought form.  Will, intention, it has resonance, everyone has a frequency.  Skilled mages can hide it, can change it, but most can’t, or don’t, because for most people, it’s just.  Background.  Static.  But if you find the right frequency, you can sometimes build a counter-resonance.  It’s... physics.  Interference, use the right frequency and create an anti-phase interaction.”

“That’s the simple version?” Audrey asked, deliberately incredulous, letting the subject change.  It wasn’t exactly anything she couldn’t wrap her head around- she had taken physics in high school, and she remembered waves, even if it wasn’t exactly natural to her to think about magic in those terms- but Duke definitely looked like he needed the distraction.

“The complex version involves arithmantic formulas and a whole lot more math than I ever bother with,” Duke replied, cracking a grin.  “Learning how to match and shift frequencies was one of the best tools I ever picked up, you can do a lot with the right balances.”

“Huh.  Add that to the list.  After channeling, before spinning.”

“You’re just trying to avoid learning how to use a spindle,” Duke teased, his grin wider, now, more real.  “I’m telling you, thread magic-”

“And I am telling you that the day I carry a bolt of yarn around with me everywhere-”

“A skein, Audrey, a- bolts are cloth, what, you- you know what, no, just.  Never mind,” Duke said, properly despairing, and still grinning.  “You are hopeless.  Utterly hopeless.”

“You enchant your tea towels.  You have tea towels,” Audrey retorted, crossing her arms over her chest and daring him to argue the point.

“I- what- of course I have tea towels, I have a kitchen.”  He was laughing now, and Audrey couldn’t keep her expression level, couldn’t help but match his grin with her own.  “Who doesn’t have tea towels in their kitchen?”

“Guys,” Audrey said promptly.  “Also me.  I don’t really-” she gestured at the sink, trying to convey the full measure of her disapproval, “do dishes.”

“Every guy I know has tea towels in his kitchen,” Duke argued.  “Literally, I do not know anyone who does not have- what do you mean you don’t do dishes.”

“You live in a post card.  People here bake pies for their neighbors and have window boxes full of marigolds.  Your sample group is skewed.”

“Which does not invalidate my point, and also seriously, you cannot not do dishes.”

“I mostly don’t cook at home,” Audrey said, shrugging.  “I mostly don’t cook, ever.”Duke brought a hand up to cover his mouth, looking entirely more concerned than Audrey thought was justified, and the teapot gave a loud shrill.  Duke ignored it for a moment in favor of continuing to look at her like he was considering whether or not she needed an intervention, until the noise drew a flicker of red light over the stove.