Title: if you're gonna play the game, boy, you gotta learn to play it right
Fandom: RED/White Collar/Inception
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Kenny Rogers
Warnings: implied child abuse; post-films; takes place after season 2 for White Collar
Pairings: Arthur/Eames, unrequited Neal/Peter
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 665
Point of view: third
Prompt: White Collar/Inception, Neal and Arthur as fraternal twins, how they chose and honor their birthday
Arthur claims that he's older, though they're about the same size and look the same age. Neal laughs and calls him old man.
0o0
It takes awhile before Neal warms up to Frank. He shies away when Frank comes up behind him, and he censors himself whenever Frank is present.
He adores Arthur, though. Tries to copy him in everything, until about a month after the bar fight, when Arthur sits him down and tells him, "You're not my clone, Neal. Be yourself. Frank won't throw you out, and I won't leave you."
Neal nods. The next day, he sits down across from Frank and tells him the dirtiest joke Frank has ever heard. From then on, he lets Frank see him shine, just as much as Arthur.
0o0
Frank and Arthur consider his birthday to be the day Frank found him. Neal says, "I've been using the day I finally left the home, but I'd—" He cuts himself off, looking down.
"You'd what, kid?" Frank asks.
Arthur smiles like he knows.
"The day Arthur stepped in where he wasn't needed and applied too much force to a few bar patrons well into their liquor," Neal mutters. "Can that be my birthday?"
"Yeah," Frank says gruffly, blinking back tears.
0o0
After Neal runs off to be a criminal and Arthur joins the army, they send each other messages on their birthdays. Postcards or untraceable (for anyone else) emails or actual handwritten letters, in a code no one else can break.
The four years Neal is in prison, he receives a major care package two days a year – his birthday and Arthur's.
When Arthur is at a safe-house, recovering from a nearly-fatal injury, his dad shows up on his birthday and says, "Neal wanted to come. I wouldn't let him."
Neal's present that year is a sketch of the bar fight that introduced them, with Neal small and bloody, and Arthur looking like a superhero. He smiles, and he laughs, and he bursts into tears, turning to Frank. Frank pulls him into a hug, and holds him, and whispers, "Hey, kid, he'll be free soon."
0o0
Eames says, "So, when's your birthday, Arthur?"
Arthur replies, "That's classified, Mr. Eames." He flicks his gaze up from his notes and says, "Yours is the fourth of July, though."
Eames laughs.
0o0
A week before Neal's birthday, Arthur takes Eames to meet Frank, at the only safehouse within Neal's range.
Eames knows who Frank is, of course, and Neal. He didn't realize they were Arthur's family, though.
"My father, Frank Moses," Arthur says, smiling. "My brother, Neal Caffrey."
Eames asks Frank questions he's always wondered about, and flirts back when Neal flirts with him, and tries to embarrass Arthur whenever possible.
On Thursday, their eighth day in New York, Arthur vanishes for nine hours. Eames doesn't panic until lunch time, but when he calls Frank, Frank says, "Calm down, Mr. Thief. It's Neal's birthday."
"And that means Arthur can just run off and terrify his man?" Eames demands.
Frank laughs. "It means they haven't been together for a birthday in a decade. Give 'em the day."
Eames sulks, but he quits leaving Arthur nasty voicemails.
0o0
"The FBI owns me for another year," Neal says. "And I want… I want to stick it out." He buries his face in Arthur's chest, sighing when Arthur's arms come up around him. "Peter and El are so perfect, but I can't help wanting…"
"Oh, Neal," Arthur murmurs.
"Yeah." Neal chuckles bitterly. Arthur shifts, supporting more of his weight, and listens as Neal finally says what he's been thinking for ever eight years.
Finally, when Neal's all cried out, Arthur tells him, "You can come with me and Eames."
"No," Neal replies. "I can't."
0o0
Peter asks Neal, "When's your birthday?"
Eames says, "Arthur, will you finally tell me your birthday?"
Arthur writes a letter and Neal sketches a drawing, and Frank lifts his beer in a toast, murmuring, "Boys, I'm so glad I know you, you clever little snots."