Archive of Our Own ^beta

Auden had always considered herself to be fairly self-sufficient, especially as Cipal’s population dwindled with the Athian corruption drawing in on them.

She, of course, cared for others and did not want them to suffer because no one deserved the cruel transformations that the Break inflicted so mercilessly, but she was always certain not to get attached.

A stranger in bizarre clothes and with even stranger mannerisms changed all of that. It was impossible to deny her attraction to Alfre Holland but at the time, she had tried to justify it as being because she was the first unexpected thing to happen in years. How could she not want to know more about the woman who could roam so freely in the lands forbidden to every other Athian without becoming a monster?

The more they interacted, the deeper and more intense this attraction became, a fact that she may have noticed sooner if she had not so focused on her waning father.

It was their explosive argument that had cemented it all for Auden.

What right did she have to be so angry at someone she barely knew and how could she long so desperately to see said someone again?

It was no longer just about saving Athia at that point. She didn’t want to face the reality of never seeing the brash, beautiful woman again.

Thankfully Frey returned, more altruistic than ever. More thankfully still, Auden had a chance to steal a kiss before Tanta Frey faced the ‘final boss’ as she dubbed the golden demon terrorising Cipal.

Auden felt such gratitude when the downed Tanta woke up and the other woman’s first instinct was to initiate a victorious kiss.

Their relationship had escalated since then to girlfriends (another term Auden heard from Frey for the first time), love, pregnancy and then marriage.

Of course, none of this could change who her wife was born to be and the responsibilities she had to what remained of the world she had fought to save. If anything, the pending arrival of their daughter had incentivised her more to go out and battle every evil that the Break had to offer. Auden had utterly adored her wife when she admitted one night in bed that she didn’t want little Calista to have to risk her life as a Tanta. After her own troubled childhood, she wanted their daughter to have the opportunity to live peacefully which meant doing whatever she could in the months leading up to the nerve-wracking prospect of giving birth. 

Unfortunately for Auden, this meant trying desperately not to fall into hormone-induced resentment towards her heroic wife for not being available to her for long stretches of time, during which she was acting as a Break Warden.

There was only so much that could distract Auden as the lead of the council and going down to the tavern didn’t have quite the same effect when she was unable to consume anything even remotely alcoholic. Besides, all she really wanted to do most days was get off her painful feet and lay in bed with her wife, who seemed to have a remarkable talent for holding her in her strong arms in the exact way that would lessen the general pressures caused by carrying a burgeoning person.

With each day that she couldn’t have this, she had wished that she had mentioned her recent difficulty with sleeping alone, maybe they would have brought forward the date from which they agreed that Frey wouldn’t leave Cipal?

The plan had been that upon the final month of the pregnancy, Frey wouldn’t leave again until their daughter was at least six months old. There was a lot for her to clean up out there but there had to be a balance between protecting Calista’s future and not missing her life.

Initially, Auden felt guilty for wanting to have Frey all to herself when she had so much to deal with, who was she to expect a Tanta’s undivided attention? Her younger self certainly would have laughed at her daring to presume that she had the right to keep such a powerful and revered person away from their responsibilities simply because she couldn’t find a comfortable position to sleep in.

She couldn’t think of the love of her life as one of the Tantas she grew up hearing stories about though. She was, of course, proud of Frey for all she had achieved and fully agreed that she deserved to be celebrated for what she had done and the lives she had saved. Ultimately, however, she just missed her wife.

The feeling grew more acute the closer she got to the ninth month of pregnancy.

Frey had been gone for a month so far, which meant that she should be back any day to keep her promise. With each moment that passed, she became aware that there were many reasons that the woman would be unable to keep her promise and many of them would not be her choice.

If she became injured, or worse, she would have no way of passing the message along to her wife and there wouldn’t be anyone out there to offer the Tanta medical assistance. She had been able to put aside these worries at first, especially since Frey returned to her after every excursion away from home this far. 

A month away wouldn’t have been too significant earlier in their relationship, despite the longing it had always made their reunions the more sweeter.

Things were different now, though, and the almost constant movement in her swollen stomach served as an insistent reminder that the stakes were so much higher now.

Auden’s main comfort was the multiple times that Frey had mentioned that she couldn’t really tell how much time passed out there in the corruption. She firmly believed that the other woman simply refused to accept any other explanation that ended tragically and meant that another Tanta’s child wouldn’t get the opportunity to meet their living mother.

What she would have never guessed was the real reason behind her wife’s extended disappearance.

She was about to discover the beginning of this as she reluctantly left a particularly boring council meeting. As ever, she wanted to return home and fall into Frey’s arms but laying down would have to be the next best thing, after a rest, she could turn her attention to figuring out what to have for dinner during which she could review the stack of notes for issues she found herself caring less and less about the more pregnant she became.

It was exceedingly difficult to muster care about property disputes when her bladder was being unrelentingly assaulted.

Yawning as she entered her home a hiss had the papers under her arm fly up in the air as she unleashed a scream.

The creature on the table she would have put the paper down onto hissed in a blur of fur.

Auden didn’t get to fall to the ground as she collided with a person who had rushed, at superhuman speed, in response to the scream.

Her instinct to push out of the unexpected grip fell away as soon as she turned her head to find who it was that had come to her rescue.

“Are you okay?” Frey asked, carefully helping her to her feet so that she could touch the bump between them as she stared into her eyes.

As she did, the cat jumped over to them, narrowing their eyes at Auden as if she were the intruder.

“Frey…” Auden sighed, taking in the changed attire. Based on their talks about the few things that her wife had missed from the land she’d grown up in, hoodies had been high on the list and it seemed that she was wearing a black, soft one right now, along with new jeans and sneakers. She looked odd only because she was missing the cape associated with her but the one she must have been collecting from their second room had fallen to the ground upon hearing the shout, “You’re home?”

Before the Tanta could open her mouth to argue that she’d just got back, her lips were covered in a long-anticipated kiss which they both melted into. It didn’t get as far as their reunions usually did due to a loud hiss next to them.

Frey pulled back without moving her hand away from the bump, within which Calista was doing one of her more vigorous dances.

With her wife in front of her, Auden was less annoyed about the intensity but she did scowl at the unfamiliar creature.

“Homer,” Frey admonished, “I told you to be nice to Auden. We love Auden.”

The cat regarded the councilwoman more carefully and she really felt like she was having her character read, the words did answer the unasked question regarding the identity of the animal.

Homer was absolutely the thing she missed the most and she mentioned almost daily that she hoped that Judge Bird was treating her well.

“Homer?” Auden repeated, “How is that…possible?”

“I…err…a couple of weeks ago, I was fighting a big ass monster and it almost…you know…” she explained cautiously. From around the fourth month of pregnancy, they had discovered that Auden was liable to cry if she went into too much detail about her fights and near-death experiences. Other than a light misting in her eyes, Auden kept her composure as best she could, so Frey kept going, “A Torana opened before I got hit and I…well I was in New York.”

“Cinta sent you back to New York?” Auden frowned, Frey had little success with opening them over large distances. Her goal was to master it so that Break Wardening could be more of a ‘9-5 job’ as she put it but she couldn’t get further than outside Cipal’s wall.

“No, I don’t think she can help that directly anymore. I was thinking about you and Callie and I guess I knew that I had to get out of there so I would see you again. It took me a couple of weeks to figure out how I did it though so…I was stuck in New York for a while.”

Vulnerably, Auden asked, “And you didn’t consider staying there?”

 Frey tilted her head, genuinely confused, “Mom gave me a chance to leave before. There was a reason I chose to stay.”

“To save Cipal?”

“Well, it’s a little embarrassing but I had this crush, I’m pretty sure she feels the same way though,” Frey said, faux-seriously.

This drew a smile out of Auden as it effectively banished the anxiety she’d not had before. In her worry for her wife’s safety, she had not considered that she could potentially have the option to return to the world she grew up in.

The fact that she was here also proved that this was not a thing she had to worry about.

“So you can open a Torana now?” Auden asked reverently.

Frey nodded enthusiastically, holding her hand out to open a portal but she promptly closed it as Homer yelped and jumped up onto her shoulder.

Frey winced at the claws but reached up to pat the cat’s head as she said, “It’s okay girl, you don’t need to go back in there. You’re home now.”

“Home?” Auden asked.

“I mean…yeah. If that’s okay?” Frey replied, obviously realising that the introduction of a pet required a conversation with her wife.

Auden, however, knew that there was simply no way that she could say no to this request no matter how angry the creature looked when narrowing her big eyes at her owner’s wife.

Auden nodded and Frey let out a long breath of relief.

“Does that mean that you saw Judge Bird while you were there?” she asked, trailing over to their bed to finally take the weight off her feet.

As reticent as she was about living with a cat who already seemed to hold distaste for her, it was insanely cute to see Tanta Frey standing with a cat perched on her shoulder.

“Yeah, I saw Bird. Obviously, I couldn’t tell her everything but when I told her about my amazing pregnant wife, she suggested that I take her home with me. She really thinks I got my shit together,” Frey replied, urging Homer down so that she could come and sit beside her wife to recount the full tale of her adventures in the strange world that Auden was more and more fascinated to see by the second.