Entry tags:

fic: gargoyles

Yuletide fic: Playthings (Gargoyles, PG, Titania/Oberon)
Title: Playthings
Author: dotfic
Rating: PG, het, Titania/Oberon
W/C: 900
Disclaimer: The 'verse is owned by Disney, although the characters Titania, Oberon and Puck don't exactly belong to anyone as such, do they? Some situations inspired by Shakespeare. The rest is from the TV series.

a/n: Written for mtgat for Yuletide 2008, originally posted here. Thank you to amilyn for the beta.

Summary: Titania has always played games with Oberon. She has never feared losing before.



Her name was Bandhura, and her death caused an odd ache in Titania's chest. The feeling was only a trifle, for there were thousands just like her in the mortal world. Titania had only been amusing herself with a fascinating creature of laughter and stories, the way some kept colorful birds as pets.

It wasn't duty that made her gather up Bandhura's son, drawing the infant close to her as she took him with her through the boundary.

No. The reason was the look on Oberon's face when he finally saw her with the boy.

She smiled at him. "What's the matter, my lord? Worried my attendants will outshine yours?"

"Nonsense, Titania." He smiled slow, full of his own arrogance.

"Good," she said, resting a hand against his cool cheek, feeling the sharp outline of bone beneath the skin. "I would hate to think I unsettled you in any way."

He caught her hand, kissed her palm. "You never unsettle me."

"What a magnificent liar you are." Titania leaned in close and stopped just short of kissing him, their breaths mingling.

Oberon blinked.

---

His revenge was humiliating.

---

After the banishment from Avalon, she watched Oberon as he took on human form and wove himself into humanity. He amused himself by influencing the powerful, busied himself with armies and kings.

Painters, musicians, visionaries, these interested her more. She got to them before they could catch Oberon's eye, nudged and molded them in such a way that they would think it was all their idea.

Long before the banishment, on one of his ventures into the mortal world, Puck had found the unlikely boy who would one day become a king. This was Puck's specialty--the greatness not yet realized, the ambitious ones who had nothing and wished to create their own destiny, or the ones who did not even know yet that they would become great. After the banishment, again and again Puck beat Oberon and herself to the humans who turned out to have the most fascination and fire because of this habit of looking for the seed, not the plant.

Curse Puck.

"You have a soft spot for him," Titania said, her human form twined with Oberon's. The mattress they lay on was filled with straw, although the linens were soft. She missed the scents and luxuries of Avalon, took enjoyment instead in the feel of Oberon's mortal skin, strange yet inviting. Oberon's mortal guises were pleasing to her, though not as much as his true form.

"He is a nuisance."

"He's smarter than you are."

"Absurd!" Oberon sat up and she almost laughed at the way his expression was as rumpled as his hair.

Then she did laugh, helplessly, as he pulled from her grasp and left the bed.

She didn't see him again for two centuries.

---

Oberon never minded the visionaries she adopted. He teased her about them, and she regarded them with nothing more than a careless interest.

Then she found the scientist Halcyon Renard.

---

She and Oberon continued their dance. Oberon found his own humans to play with, flaunted them at her.

The Three grew bolder in their manipulations of events; Titania thought she should reprimand them. However, that would mean drawing attention to herself, and then their eyes, and Oberon's eyes, might turn to Halcyon.

It frightened her, how much she felt the need to protect him and to keep him for herself.

---

When Janine was born, and Titania held a mortal infant in her arms that was her own making, not something she stole, she thought of Bandhura and knew she hadn't taken the boy just to get to Oberon.

---

Or perhaps she had.

---

She kept her daughter hidden, spoke words over her crib to keep her powers locked away.

The girl grew up headstrong and clever, battling against her parents. Titania felt the pride thrumming through her, felt challenged in ways she hadn't for centuries. It was none of her doing when Janine fell in love, but when the man she fell for turned out to be the mortal Puck had attached himself to, Titania's breath caught.

She spun it out in her mind, considered every twist, every possible problem. It was an intricate design, woven of humans and gargoyles and sidhe.

It was the most difficult game of all, the only one she had ever truly feared losing. Even for the thrill of matching wits with Oberon, the price was too high, but she wasn't doing this because of him. The contest was only a boon, wine when water would do.

---

Mere water was never quite enough for her.

---

"Titania!" Oberon's bellow sounded through the palace.

No doubt he had discovered her latest deception. With everything now in place for her child and her child's son, she could play with fire fearing for no one but herself. Should she push him too far, and he threaten to go back on the bargain, she felt confident she could soothe him. This was not an increase of skill and wit on her part. He was simply more open to soothing of late, more frequently tender with her.

He would never know how much she herself softened at his touch, how much she had missed it.

Titania turned at her lord's footsteps, and set about unsettling him.