White Collar - AU after the anklet is off

Just a small Christmas piece - no plot!

Many thanks to fantastic beta mam711

Additional thanks to Heidi0Me and Deanlovr for notifying me of errors - seems Word decided to not save correctly changes.

Apologies for that to all readers.

It was snowing outside when the plane landed. It was snowing as he traversed the airport, passing other passengers on their way to the exit. The corridors were decorated delicately in red and green, with gold and silver in between; Christmas music filled the air as a light reminder of what the date was.

Christmas Eve.

Quickly avoiding a collision with a suddenly-stopped suitcase, he arrived at the last exit. Here excited families were waiting for their loved ones. A young man ran past him to swoop a girl into his arms, kissing her soundly in the middle of the walk, causing other people to stop or slew to avert a collision. Most were smiling; some were crying. It seemed that for everyone someone was waiting.

It had been almost a year since he'd last been in New York.

He slowed down a little; a tugging on his heart made him feel alone in the world. Lost. There was no one there for him. He stopped in the middle of the terminal to look at the happy people, hugging, smiling, crying from the happiness of seeing their families.

He'd stayed around for few weeks after the anklet came off, but then he'd had to leave. Had to see the world again. Not telling anyone where he was going, as he just had a starting point and that was the airport; he also didn't had a date on which he would be back. When he bought the last ticket on the plane to New York, he wasn't expecting anyone to know he would be there. He didn't call anyone—wasn't sure he had someone to call anymore.

"Neal!" He turned to face the person calling his name, not really sure; it did sound like Peter, but... "Neal!"

There!

Through the sea of people he saw his friend's raised hand waving at him to get his attention. His coat still had a few snowflakes on the sleeves. He smiled, then narrowed his eyes when Peter came closer.

"Not that I'm not happy to see you, Peter, but how did you know I would be here?" he asked after giving Peter a strong, manly hug.

Peter smiled sheepishly, gesturing for him to follow. "I called in a few favors, got some people who would notify me if you were flying home."

"Peter, are you telling me you're spying on me?" Neal played at being hurt, but inside a warm, fuzzy feeling spread in his chest.

"What? No..." Peter started, then smiled. "Just making sure there'd be someone to pick you up from the airport."

They went out, and Peter pushed him towards his car—parked in a restricted zone with his FBI tag on the dashboard to avoid being towed.

"Misuse of Federal resources?" Neal quipped with humor.

"Not at all, picking up a partner: a completely legitimate reason," Peter answered and got into the car.

Neal stood unmoving on the sidewalk, taking in the slowly-falling snow, the faint Christmas music coming from the terminal.

Peter impatiently gestured to him from behind the wheel. He is home.

"Merry Christmas," Neal murmurs to himself before getting in.

The end