Title: Go To the Devil
Pairing: None (Pre-slash if you squint)
Characters: FBI!Neal, Criminal!Peter
Rating: T
Word Count: 622
Warning: None, besides this being an AU.
Spoilers: None
Author's Note: Found this in an old folder. It was inspired by a prompt back in 2009 at The White Collar Prompt Party on LJ. prompt was "AU with Criminal!Peter and FBI!Neal." and this was what was produced, I just never put it up here for some reason.
Title from the song Sinner Man by Nina Simone
Summary: "For being a sleazy criminal who's made off with his fair share of the government's money, Peter isn't sleazy or particularly criminal at all." Role Swap AU.
Go To the Devil
"So I ran to the devil; he was waitin'."
Click, click, click.
Somewhere outside the room, a jail cell door slams shut.
Click, click, click.
The guard at the door takes a noisy deep breath through his nose.
Click, click, click.
Neal's eyes flick away from the guard back to the man sitting all in orange across from him. The man smirks.
Click, click, click.
Neal allows his eyes to trail down from the hazel eyes, down a surprisingly tone arm to the long finger that taps a steady beat on the table. Peter is still smirking.
Click, click, click.
"What was the point?" He doesn't look up from the hand.
Click.
He pauses. Neal can see from the corner of his eye that Peter's face hasn't twitched from its previous smirk.
"To show you that I could."
He's not smug about it. As a matter of fact, Neal knows (knows) that Peter is a little ashamed of his stunt. "Stunt" of course referring to the man's escape from his cell, and his eventual 'capture' back at Neal's apartment, sitting on his couch eating Cheetos (that he'd obviously attained elsewhere, because Neal Caffrey does not eat Cheetos). For being a sleazy criminal who's made off with his fair share of the government's money, Peter isn't sleazy or particularly criminal at all. The man hates breaking laws. Which is a funny thing for a guy in jail to hate.
Neal meets his eyes. "Why?" Peter doesn't react, "Why do this right when you're about to get out? Why do this to yourself, Peter?" Neal's showing too much emotion, he knows.
That's a problem he has around Peter, and only Peter. He doesn't know why, but he likes to think it's because when Special Agent Neal Caffrey was assigned the Peter Burke case it was special. Because of that case, he knows Peter Burke better then he knows anyone else, even Kate. And that goes both ways, with Peter's attention to detail and his bordering-OCD need to know everything about the agents who've chased him. It was like having a best friend that you'd never met. The fact that Peter knows him so well, so intimately makes him relaxed, lets him take off his mask and loosen his tie. It's a luxury he only indulges in around Peter.
Peter's smirk finally drops. He frowns a little. The former detective looks sad, and Neal knows he's thinking about Elizabeth. Neal sits back in his seat, pulls away from Peter a little.
"After… after what I did," Peter speaks quietly, like he's sheepish about it, but his eyes stay fixed on Neal's, "There's no way I can go back to being a detective."
This is so obvious that Neal would roll his eyes (and Neal Caffrey does not roll his eyes, except for when he does) if this were anyone else but Peter. But it is Peter, and Neal knows the man does not waste words, so he waits for whatever will come next.
"But," He starts finally, with a new tone to his voice, the tone Neal'd heard once before, when he'd encountered the man making his way out of a bank and had, stupidly put his back to the recently cleaned out vault thinking he'd finally caught Peter Burke, only to have him escape minutes later, after a spectacular show of fireworks from behind him, "With this I have another chance."
Peter slides a manila folder across the table to Neal.
His hand stays resting on the folder as Neal raises his eyes up to meet Peter's eyes.
Peter smirks.
Neal sighs and opens the folder.
They both ignore the small smile that plays at the edges of Neal's lips.