Title: Aches

Fandom: Haven
Pairing: Duke Crocker/Nathan Wuornos
Categories: angst, slash, romance
Length: epic, 74,196 words
Warnings: canon level violence, death-seeking/suicidal thoughts

Author on LJ: n/a
Author Website: Jadzibelle on AO3

Summary: Nathan realized he’d made a mistake about half a breath after he sent Duke into the Barn after Audrey. In the moment, the idea of losing her, of losing the one person in the world he could feel, was overwhelming; he couldn’t think of anything else, and the only person he could trust, the only person he could rely on to try and get her back, was Duke. He didn’t think, when he begged him to go after her, didn’t consider the consequences until it was too late.

Until the Barn was gone, and Duke and Audrey with it, and Nathan was suddenly, terribly alone.

Review: I've been hanging on tenterhooks for a while watching the updates on this one, and it was finally finished in December.

Aches is a canon-divergent look at Duke and Nathan's return to Haven with Jennifer in season 4, for those times when what the TV screen gives does not suffice and 70+k of Duke/Nathan angst is absolutely required. To redress the balance by dealing with everything that went unmentioned, or barely mentioned, in canon: the consequences to Nathan of spending six months on the run thinking he destroyed everything important to him, and a Duke who skipped those six months in a single day, and the changing nature of their relationship when Duke returns and Nathan accepts him.

And, of course, the impact upon Nathan that he's contemplating his own death to set right his actions at the end of season 3, something I've certainly felt should have been explored much more on-screen.

With the requisite Duke/Nathan banter, arguments and fights -- with each other more than their various antagonists, obviously -- and revelations about their shared past, this fic is full of warmth and friendship gradually building up to something more.

A sequel is already in progress and the author is up-front that the ultimate goal may be to incorporate the return of Audrey as a third to the relationship, making later entries to the series OT3 Audrey/Duke/Nathan, but at present, this first story is a complete 70k of Duke/Nathan slash.

Aches