ahhh so glad haven is back!! honestly this series is what got me back into fan fiction and inspired me to write again!!! thank you for this glorious masterpiece!!
oh my gosh I love to hear that!!! I'm glad it's back too, I love this story and I can't wait for you all to see everything else I have planned
Summary: Set early Season 3. Duke manages to identify The Hunter and some complicated feelings. This version of reader is not troubled, and works at The Haven Herald.
Words: 1.7k
Warnings: Drinking, fluff, angst (?), comfort(?)
A/N: I am trying to just commit to the writing I want to do. This man's story has me in my feelings at the moment so just work with me here. Hope you enjoy!
Duke leans against the balcony railings of Audrey’s apartment above The Grey Gull: coffee cup in his left hand, notes and newspaper clippings in his right. “You couldn’t have written yourself a more specific note?” He exhales, some mixture of a laugh and an expression of frustration, as he places the papers down on the table between you.
You catch his eye and try a smile. He smiles back. He looks tired, though no worse for it. His hair looks longer lately, rougeish. It suits him.
“Well, it looks like I only had ten seconds to write it.” Audrey sets down her coffee and runs her thumb over the injury on her wrist.
“I gotta tell ya, if I were gonna have to live multiple lives, I would have picked some place more exotic. Warmer climate, Bali, Costa Rica…Hong Kong.”
“How’s that healing?” You ask, noticing Audrey’s distanced gaze.
“It’s fine.” She answers, brushing it off in the way that she always does. “I keep thinking about the man who abducted me.” Something you are all thinking about. “He said I loved the Colorado Kid.” Duke props himself against the balcony fence once more.
“Who was supposedly buried 27 years ago.” He looks out over the water. “But now his grave is empty.”
Audrey had been a good friend to you since you arrived some months ago, and just as you were finding out new things about her every day, she was too. You couldn’t fathom what that was like - discovering the multiple lives you’d lived…the people you’d loved…all forgotten.
“I think he’s alive and I think he is on the run.” You lean back in the chair and look up at the sky. Audrey was very rarely wrong, but how long did they have to find The Hunter before this conversation became null and void? What happens if The Hunter finds them first? How will you carry on in Haven without her? What would your job at The Herald be like without her? What would Nathan and Duke be like without her?
An abrupt noise brings the conversation to a halt, and everyone to the edge of their seat.
“Are you expecting somebody else?” Duke almost whispers. Audrey shakes her head.
“Be careful.” You mouth, more than speak. You had experienced more than enough fear for the wellbeing of your friends in the last 48 hours. Duke puts his coffee down next to Audrey’s and takes a screwdriver from his back pocket as he moves towards the side of the building.
You move to stand, and Duke raises a hand, motioning you to remain where you are whilst he investigates.
You hold your breath, right up until the moment Duke visibly relaxes.
“Good morning Chief.” Duke puts the screwdriver in his pocket and turns back around.
“What are you doing here?” He asks pointedly.
“In case you forgot, Audrey got abducted. So I am changing the locks.”
“You’re changing the locks?” Nathan challenges as Duke walks away, back to the table and chairs. You resist the urge to roll your eyes at what appears to be a chest-beating contest.
“Yes, I am changing the locks but, you know, we got to chatting,” He picks up his coffee once more and raises it to his lips. “...favourite coffees, scented candles. Girl talk.” He smiles as he takes a sip of his drink and you try hard not to laugh at the way he winds him up on purpose.
“You told them everything about The Hunter?” Nathan asks and Audrey nods.
“Yeah, we’re friends, is that a problem?” Duke asks Nathan.
“It’s not her I’m worried about,” He throws his hand in your direction, making Duke look between you both. “Come on, your dad? You ever think you’re the hunter, Duke?”
“No.” His answer is sharp. “Never.”
“Well. I guess we won’t know until you kill someone.”
“Hey!” You interject. “Enough.” Nathan seems to snap out of his surge of manliness. “Audrey’s safe. Let’s not start throwing around accusations…in fact preemptive accusations right now.” The boys look at one another, wordlessly calling a truce. “Why don’t we all catch up later? I’ve gotta get to The Herald and you two need to save the world.” You look to Duke. “You’ve got things covered here, yeah?” He nods.
“Yeah.”
And with that, you pick up your satchel by Audrey’s front door and make your way down the stairs towards your car.
When you return to The Grey Gull later that afternoon, you find yourself entranced by the mingling colours in the sky. So much so that you don’t register who it is bundling a dog into their car. Audrey and Nathan.
You turn on your heels to try to catch their eye in the rearview, but with no luck. “Huh.” You turn back to the restaurant and take one more look at the scene of serenity before heading in to see Duke behind the bar. “When did Audrey get a dog?” You shrug your bag off your shoulder and hook it on the back of one of the barstools. He doesn’t hear you, or chooses not to, as he buffs out an imaginary mark in the countertop. “I guess stranger things have happened.” You continue, hoping to lure him out of whatever daydream he is stuck in.
His slightly damp hair moves across his furrowed brow as he continues to focus his attention on the bar. The smell of his sea salt and sage shower gel invades your senses and you realise he’s changed his clothes. A vision of cream and white, this cardigan is one of your favourites on him.
“Will you talk to me already?” This time, he reacts. He discards the cleaning implements and crouches down behind the bar, retrieving two glasses and a bottle of whisky. He remains silent, even as he places them down and pours a single measure in each. When he’s done, he passes one in your direction and keeps the other for himself. “Haven’t I told you before that drink isn’t the answer to everything?” You say, despite taking the glass from him.
“It’s just a toast.” The first words he's spoken since you walked through the door. You watch him as intently as he watches you.
“To?” You finally say.
“Friendship.” You throw him an are-you-kidding look, to which he shrugs, with a hint of a smile.
“You stubborn bastard.” You raise the glass. “To friendship.” He raises his own glass and the two meet in the middle with a high pitched clink. He throws back his drink in one, barely reacting.
“Ugh.” You cringe aloud and shiver at the aftertaste whilst Duke tries to contain a smile. A smile that falls fast as he pours another shot for himself.
“The Hunter is a meteor shower.” He says, before screwing the lid back on the bottle and knocking back the second shot.
“What does that even mean?” He doesn’t answer. “What do we do with that information? I need to speak with her. When did you speak with her? Can’t we do something about it? There has to be a way. In this place your feelings can cause tornadoes and your nightmares can be real, how can we not stop my best friend leaving?” The tears are already falling from your eyes.
“Nothing.” What? “Audrey…wants to do nothing.”
Duke tells you that the Hunter Meteor shower occurs every twenty seven years, and during that meteor shower, tradition dictates, she must leave. And when she leaves, the troubles go too.
It seems a cruel twist of fate that Audrey would help the troubled in every lifetime, only to be cast out. You wonder if the other versions of Audrey had friends who tried to keep her here. You wonder how close they might have been to succeeding if they had. And yet Audrey wants to do…nothing.
“Are you okay?” You finally ask, and he won’t look at you, probably with all the tears and snot down your face. “When Nathan asked you this morning if you thought you might be The Hunter, you said no.”
“I meant what I said. Even if I was meant to be The Hunter, I would never.” He steps out from behind the bar to move as freely as his thoughts. “I told you all, I am not subscribing to this Crocker bullcrap. I’m not doing it.” He stands still. “In a way, I wish I was this Hunter, because I would have some sort of power to stop it. But how the hell are we meant to stop a meteor shower?” He slowly balls his right hand into a fist and presses it against one of the supporting beams of The Gull. “She can’t go now.” He whispers. “She only just got here.”
“Do you have feelings for her?” It’s a surprise that you ask, but no surprise that you wish that you hadn’t. “What?” He turns and drops his hand from the beam. His lips are parted and his eyes squint, you’re not sure if it’s confusion, defence, or perhaps neither.
“I mean, she’s a special person. Even without the whole trouble thing following her around, she’s magnetic. It just would make sense right? Nathan, Chris…you?” He rubs the back of his neck as he looks at you.
“I think she's great, don't get me wrong. But she’s got that whole Nathan thing going on. I’ve got this whole doomed-to-follow-in-my-father’s-footsteps thing. It’s complicated.” Sadness overtakes his face as he studies the ground and steadies his words. “It’s just that she's the only one who can see the good in me: that I'm not some criminal, no-good crook.”
“Not everyone thinks that, Duke.” As he looks up at you, the sadness still saturates the brown of his eyes. You move toward him. “I-”
“Hey, have either of you guys seen Audrey with an adorable dog following her around?” Doctor Claire Callaghan’s poor timing pierces through the moment. Duke inhales before running his palm down his beard, over his mouth and down his chin.
“I believe he’s called Nathan, and probably wouldn’t appreciate you calling him that.” As usual, Duke Crocker’s innate ability to deflect feelings with humour comes to the rescue.
You chew on the inside of your cheek as you try to summon the words to recover from the emotional wringing of your insides.
“I am sensing some tens-”
“Claire.” Duke turns his full body and attention to her, clapping his hands together and engaging his boyish charm that people admire so much. “Can I get you something?”
Not entirely sure if this counts as a coffee shop AU when it's set around a bar, but I just posted possibly the most fluffiest uncomplicated Nathan/Duke fic I've ever written.
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Nathan is struggling to settle into life as a uniformed officer in the Miami Police Department.
Duke is a law-abiding barman with a taste for lonely cops.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
I haven’t been around much because I started school again, and I’m working two jobs. Do I hate myself or am I just broke?
I wanted to drop by and let you know I just discovered Haven and I love it so much. It has given me brain rot so I have two headcanons I’d like to share with you.
1. When one of them was sick as a kid the other would not leave their side. I got really sick as a child with something highly contagious (I don’t remember what it was) and I couldn’t go to school for months, maybe? It was a long time. I can imagine one of them getting that sick and Alfred forbidding the other from going into their room. They’d do it anyways much to Alfred’s dismay.
2. She’s an investigative journalist with a singular brain cell that’s on vacation. I picture she’s in dangerous situations a lot. I can picture her telling Batman or Gordon when Batman is around being like “I’ve been stabbed before working on a case” and Bruce immediately chokes because “why is she being so casual about getting stabbed?”
Haven is amazing and I can’t wait for more. Amazing work once again. Much love!
Omggg HI BESTIE!! I literally posted a couple weeks ago something like "can someone please tell my 🦇 anon I have a new fic, I miss them"
First off, wow, two jobs and school OOF good luck!!! Don't die!!
1. This is 100% something that happened 😂 I already established that they were kind of like each other's security blankets so obviously if one is sick the other will not leave them alone. Then they both end up sick and Alfred is just tired dad-ing all over the place
2. Yes, this, exactly this 😂 I did mention that she'd been held at gun point before but she's so reckless and also nosy that she's been in some sticky situations. And it's only gonna get worse 👀
patiently waiting for Bruce’s POV bc I know it’s gonna turn my world upside down 😭 I keep refreshing your masterlist in hopes that the new Chapter is out
It should be coming tomorrow (Saturday)!! It needs a lot of editing first and I've been at work all week, so I want to give it proper attention first 😅
