A tale of two cities

Characters: Neal/Peter (slash is implicitly implied, but the theme may change in the future)

Setting: This story is basically set somewhere in Season 3. Neal has the treasure and struggles between Mozzie's request of selling some of them quickly and his attachment to NY and all the people he knows there, Peter in particular.

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that an able FBI agent in possession of a table of case files, must be in want of a criminal consultant." Neal, leaning on the edge of the table in his usual position, says to Jones in a particularly contrived British accent, coffee in one hand and hat in the other. No sooner his voices triggers the laughter of Diana who sits nearby than Peter walks into the door, serious and suspicious. "What on earth are you talking about? Neal is taking the Classic literature for AP?" Peter's serious look soon melts down into a smile that can only be seen when he cracks a particularly good joke about Neal. "Well, class dismissed. The professor Badhumor just gets something more urgent to do." Neal says, shrugging off his defeat and turning to Peter, clearly knowing that some urgent case has showed up given the thick file in his hand and a trace of concern in his eyes.

The FBI White Collar's crack-all-cases pair seems to be destined to work together, instead of one chasing the other all over the world. Even the Quantico-two-finger-point givers have to admit that they have solved more cases with success ever since Neal got his anklet. The two simple complement one another perfectly.

"So what we've got this time? Another black widow fraud? EL would definitely love that." Neal still cannot help make jokes about how Peter had to pretend to be engaged to that black widow, knowing clearly any joke pertaining to that topic would give Peter a terrible recall and an attractive furrowing in his forehead. "Attractive? Did that word just crossed my mind?" Neal mutters to himself when Peter throws down the files on the desk. "We seem to have an updated version of Neal Caffrey here, a young and arrogant art thief stealing best pieces of major art museums in the States. We believe now this Neal Caffrey, Jr has his eyes on one of the paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago. We are requested from the Chicago side to aid them in solving the case as this thief has already stolen one Degas painting in Manhattan. So, any idea?" Peter finishes his debriefing of the case only to find Neal complaining about his use of Neal, Jr. "There is no update for Neal Caffrey. I am the final product of the art-related criminal industry," he protests, "and I don't think Chicago is part of the Manhattan that is within my radius." "I have talked to the boss and he is considering giving the permission to let you go to Chicago with another agent in charge of this case, which is me if the permission is finally granted." "Then guess I am going to pack up some warm coats for the cold wind in Chicago." Neal gloats and smiles. "And a hat with elastic band so that it won't get blown off in the windy city. The bureau will not be paying for your new hats, for the record." Peter says and walks out of the room triumphantly, leaving an apparent distasteful expression on his face and an air of resign. Every day is a battle between two of them. And neither of them seems to be getting tired of their battle.