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It had been a long day in Haven, even longer than usual, and Nathan needed a break. He was tired and restless, and he’d had an argument with the Chief right before he left the station, and he needed something familiar and calming, something uncomplicated.
Duke Crocker’s boat was most of those things, although uncomplicated definitely didn’t and never would make the list. But Nathan left his badge in the glove compartment, locked his doors, and walked up to the door anyway, knocking hard to get the man’s attention. There was a bit of a delay, but then the door opened and Duke was looking at him, his gaze wary and curious at the same time.
“Nathan,” he said, tone level and holding only the barest hint of accusation, only the barest hint of what are you doing here, I didn’t do anything that you should know about. Nathan smiled ruefully and shrugged.
“I’ll leave my gun in the lockbox if you let me stay the night,” he offered in response, keeping his eyes on Duke’s face, watching how his expression changed. Suspicious transformed into understanding and sympathy, and then he was moving out of the way and gesturing for Nathan to enter.
“Fighting with the Chief again?” Duke questioned as they walked through the narrow hall. Nathan snorted wryly and nodded; he didn’t really need to answer that, not when Duke already knew. There was a solid weight on Nathan’s shoulder, warmth seeping through the layers of clothes, and it was so familiar and comforting that he nearly melted under the touch. He paused walking for a moment, head tipped back as his eyes fell shut. He heard Duke chuckle, felt the press of a kiss to his temple and the squeeze on his shoulder, and then the hand was gone as Duke kept walking toward the galley.
It took Nathan way, way too long to realize why that was weird. When he did, he nearly choked on a poorly formed protest and then he was launching down the hall to catch up with his partner. “Hey! What the hell was that?!” he demanded, tripping over a chair and colliding with one of the counters, a sharp pain in his hip that he shouldn’t have been feeling. He winced and cursed under his breath, half-falling into a chair to avoid hurting himself further. Duke raised an eyebrow, a smirk lurking under his less than stellar attempts so conceal it.
“I don’t know, Nate – what was that? You’re usually a little more graceful than that,” the man said, obviously trying not to laugh. Nathan glared and flipped him off before rolling his eyes and taking a breath to calm himself.
“You touched me, Duke. And I felt it. I think you can understand why I’m having a hard time with this?” he gritted out, watching Duke’s expression go from shit-eating grin to dawning realization. His eyes went wide and he sat down across from Nathan, tilting his head to the side as he took his partner in. His gaze was open and honest, the way it only ever was when they were alone, and he seemed surprised.
“How is that possible? The Troubles aren’t gone, right?” he asked. Curious, but worried too. Nathan shrugged, shaking his head – he had no idea, this had only ever happened occasionally with Audrey. Duke stared slightly to the side of Nathan’s head, thoughtful as he ran through possible explanations. Nathan smiled a little, relaxing as he remembered that Duke was on his side and would do his best to look out for him and help him no matter what.
“Maybe it’s something to do with our relationship? It’s always been complicated, but it’s been fairly constant since- wow, since high school, I guess. Maybe whatever magical-whatever force causes the Troubles cares about that?” Duke suggested, sounding a little doubtful of his own theory. Nathan snorted, ducking his head to grin at the table. Duke always had the oddest and most imaginative theories; it was an endless source of amusement for Nathan.
“I guess it’s possible. But, uh. I don’t care right now. We’ll figure it out later, but for now I just want to share this with you for as long as we can,” Nathan replied, looking back up to meet Duke’s gaze. The smuggler grinned, reaching across the table and squeezing Nathan’s hand. Warm, so warm. Nathan could feel how warm his skin was, the texture of his calluses, the patches of scar tissue as he ran his thumb over Duke’s knuckles. It was so much to feel all at once, but Nathan didn’t want it to go away even for a second – he wanted more.
“Relax, Nate. We’ll do things right, I promise. But first, I’m going to make sure you eat, because I know you haven’t done that since lunch, at least. I’ll make pancakes,” Duke fussed, kissing Nathan on the forehead before he breezed away to start gathering ingredients. Nathan shivered and slumped over the table, trying to cope his way through the most pleasant sensory overload of his life.
He may have fuzzed out of reality for half an hour or so while Duke got started on the food, though he always noticed when Duke touched him in passing. It was so much, almost too much, but it was more than he’d had in months, and it was perfect. Even more so because it was Duke, the closest thing Nathan had to a (relatively) stable relationship; they weren’t always together, and they weren’t always kind to each other, but they always knew where they stood, had agreed on that years ago when they were young and angry at the world and neither had wanted to be alone anymore. He ended up coming back when Duke set a plateful of pancakes in front of him and rested a hand on the back of his neck, drawing him up to the surface of consciousness once more. He sat up, smiled at Duke, and then dug into his food.
Duke kept working in the background, but he would still swing by and lean up against Nathan while he was waiting for pancakes to cook. They chatted about random, insignificant things, and Duke made Nathan laugh whenever he could – it was just like any other day they’d spent together before the Troubles had come back. Actually, now that he thought about it, they’d done this a lot over the years, just sharing space and food and enjoying each other’s company. It was nice. They hadn’t had time in a while, had always been busy or working, snark and rude remarks flowing like water between them.
It was hard not to think in water terms when you’d spent as much time around Duke as Nathan had. The thought made him chuckle, drawing a curious noise from his partner. He just shook his head, smiling. “Had a funny thought,” he relented after Duke got really close to his face with The Look. Then he turned his head a little bit and pressed a kiss to Duke’s lips. “Your pancakes are going to burn if you don’t pay attention to them,” he teased, grinning smugly. Duke sighed dramatically and returned to the stove.
“You’re a brat, Nate. Always have been,” the man chided, drawing a laugh out of Nathan.
“And whose fault is that, exactly?” he replied, eyebrow raised skeptically.
“I plead the fifth,” Duke said, raising his hands defensively. Nathan let out a sharp bark of laughter and didn’t stop for a long minute, laughing so hard that his ribs hurt and he could barely breathe.
“Now that’s a joke,” he wheezed out, still giggling in the direction of the ceiling. He could just see Duke’s expression out of the corner of his eye, extremely fond and exasperated in equal parts. It was an expression that Nathan was used to seeing, and he loved it.
“Oh, shut up,” Duke muttered, turning back to the stove to hide the grin he couldn’t repress. Nathan giggled under his breath and sat back up to finish the last of his pancakes.
They kept on like that for a while longer, just talking back and forth comfortably, and when Duke was done eating Nathan helped him wash the dishes. After that, they put Nathan’s gun in the lockbox and went to bed. They fell asleep together, Nathan wrapped up in Duke’s arms, pulled as close as possible, skin against skin. Nathan hadn’t had a clue how much he’d missed this until he got it back, but he was glad they could have this. No matter why it was happening, or what trouble they might get into, it was worth it because he had Duke to support him. They’d promised, way back then. And that was the best sleep Nathan had had in months, thanks to his lover.