Title: gunpowder and lead

Disclaimer: not my characters

Warnings: AU; implied child abuse; spoilers for season 2

Pairings: Neal/Peter

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 365

Point of view: third

Prompt: Neal/Peter, any type of AU


In this world, they are an ex-con FBI consultant and an FBI agent.

But in another world, the boy who would one day be Neal Caffrey decided he really enjoyed using the guns his uncle didn't lock away, and he really really liked the look in people's eyes when they realized, why, yes, sir, I am about to pull this trigger.

Maybe that's because in another world, Neal Caffrey's little brother died as an infant instead of at four, and the boy who would become Neal Caffrey had no one to care for but himself, and he never lets anyone close. Maybe the woman who'd one day call herself Kate Moreau didn't escape the banal existence of her birth and Mozzie never made it past puberty because drunken assholes are everywhere, often running stoplights.

And in that other world, maybe Peter Burke chose numbers over law enforcement and still made enemies, because he's uncompromising in any reality, but in this one, he didn't know how to defend himself and expected the world to protect the innocent.

And maybe, Neal Caffrey does take a shine to the man he's been hired to kill. Maybe he even thinks about kissing him, licking him, caressing him with fingers and the cold muzzle of a gun.

Please, don't, Peter asks, but he doesn't beg and he doesn't cry. In this world, there is no Elizabeth to plead for her husband's life because Peter's never been to New York. There is no Satchmo or any other dog because his apartment doesn't allow them.

There is only Peter, and there is only Neal, and there is only a contract for Peter's life.

Neal looks him in the eye, in this world where he really likes guns, and he pulls the trigger. And he watches Peter Burke die, and he sterilizes the scene, and he reports the job as complete.

But that is not this world. In this world, Neal is mocking Peter's tie collection and Elizabeth is laughing and Satchmo is begging for treats and Peter is saying they're going to be late.

In this world, Neal hates guns because he knows how good he is with them, and how easy it'd be.