LtH2 – Aftermath

From Excalibur. vs. Riptide:

Oh my god, this story is awesome! Can you do a continuation of this chapter? It would be funny to see Peter find out that Neal is fey.

Extra notes (from guest):

A clifhanger you need to stop with these. the show killed me enough by ending. I would love to see some more of the boys here. Peters reaction to the two was perfect. And I think we need Elizabeths. We also need to have them crowned king together. If they are princes. Then about then finding wifes. And all the things kings do. And yes I am thinking of a full story but have no writing skills.

Notes: There was little editing done of this chapter.

Peter had not been expecting Neal to appear in Golden Gate Park but that's where his tracker went back online. The alarms went off and Peter assured the Marshalls that it was just a mistake. They believed him because it was impossible for someone to go from New York to San Francisco in an instant.

Well, it would normally be impossible. But Peter wasn't normal and what Neal was dealing with wasn't normal.

Peter was just glad Neal figured out how to use the charm he gave him. A tie to Peter and his wife to help lead him out of the other realms.

"Alright, let's bring him home," Peter said to the air. "Domovoi!"

The creature appeared a moment later. He had been waiting Peter's call. Standing less than half of Peter's height, he looked just like a small version of Peter. Although, he possessed the beard and shaggy hair his kind were partial to.

"Did you find one?"

The Domovoi nodded and then vanished into the shadows as another creature appeared. This one gave off a large impression, yet still managed to somehow fit in Neal's apartment without knocking anything over. It looked like a sleek black horse however, its luminescent golden eyes betrayed its real nature.

"I need your help to bring back my friend," Peter said. He held up a locket. It was similar to Neal's, although it contained a piece of Neal's hair and not Peter's and El's. "I also offer you a gift." He pulled a bottle of alcohol out of a bag. A six-pack of beer and another bottle of wine were left in the bag.

The púca stared at the offering for a moment. It snorted and huffed.

"I will assist you," it responded, "get on my back."

Peter nodded and climbed on. He thought he was ready but there really was no way to prepare for the storm that was riding a púca. This one bucked and neighed and rumbled and it galloped towards the balcony doors.

The doors opened for it in a gust of wind and the púca leapt.

"Oomph," Peter grunted as he fell and hit the ground. Grass crumbled under his body as he rolled and he was lucky the bottles he was carrying didn't smash.

Peter stood up and looked around. He wasn't in New York, he knew that. The air was different. He could hear Neal's voice.

Talking about how clever he was to give Neal the charm.

Peter walked towards the voice, legs a little wobbly after the rush of the púca ride. He was surprised to see two Neals sitting on a bench instead of one. But, he figured there would be answers eventually.

"Geek." Ah, that one must be his Neal.

"Actually, I'd like him to keep going," Peter said from behind them. They jumped in surprise as they both turned in one motion to look at him. "It's very interesting."

"How'd you know to use the charm?" the not-Neal asked. Although Peter wasn't sure if he was asking him or Neal.

"How'd you know how to make the charm?" Neal added. They were both asking him then.

He raised an eyebrow and added his own question.

"How are there two of you? And how about we talk about this at June's?" Although, he wasn't certain they could all get a púca ride back to June's.

"That'd be great," Neal said. Then he looked around. "But how do we get to June's?"

"I'll do it," not-Neal said, throwing his arms in the air. Fog appeared from nowhere and enveloped them.

"Hold on to me," Neal said, just a voice in the fog as his cold hand wrapped around Peter's wrist. Peter couldn't see anything aside from light bouncing around the way it does on steam.

"Almost there," not-Neal commented, sounding like he was far away. Then the fog rained to the ground and faded away, revealing Neal's apartment.

"Well, that was an easy," Peter commented. Beat a púca ride, hands down.

The not-Neal introduced himself as Bryce.

"Um… so you noticed?" Neal questioned shyly and Peter was more baffled by the sudden shyness than the twin.

"What? That you seemed to have angered the Fey? Yeah, I noticed." The twins shared a look and Peter sighed as he realised, "what did I miss? I know the Fey were watching you."

"Yeah, because he's next in line for the throne," Bryce quipped. Neal glared at him in response because they both knew he didn't want the title. The problem was that Bryce didn't want it either.

"We're actually Fey. They call us the Twin Lightbringers because we're Auroras," Bryce explained.

"And the Auroras are generally the overseers of the other realms, something neither of us really want to do," Neal grumbled.

"So, we kind of run around the mortal realms," Bryce added, "causing trouble here and there, or so we're told." Peter nodded. He could believe that. Neal either was trouble or attracted trouble; if it wasn't one, it was the other.

"Thankfully, we can do that as princes and not the actually rulers. But, we've still got some duties. The only issue with that is, they intend to keep us from 'gallivanting around the mortal realms like travellers'. I don't see what's wrong with travellers. Our cousins, the púca are travellers." Neal shrugged at the end to show his confusion.

"I'm aware," Peter responded with a smile, wondering when they would realise.

"At least we weren't gone as long as last time, Mozzie thought the FBI had locked me away in a secret prison or something," Neal rambled while Bryce had a thoughtful expression.

Peter realised that was where Neal had vanished to in the middle of his crime spree. He had thought Neal had gone underground.

"How come you're not surprised?" Bryce asked. "Usually, people are horrified or shocked or have some form of disbelief or denial. I would put you in the disbelief and denial column but you made Neal the charm which got us home."

Realisation crossed Neal's face.

"How did you get to Golden Gate Park?" he questioned.

Peter smiled.

"My dad's a storyteller," he said. Storytellers were humans who dealt with spirits and Fey and the main trade for doing that was stories. Fey loved a good story. You either told one or became part of one. Tools of the trade, like spells and charms, were powerful in a storyteller's hands as they spun the words which built the world.

Neal gasped and his eyes grew wide while Bryce's mouth dropped open.

"And I inherited some of his skill," Peter added.

"An FBI storyteller," Bryce mused in bafflement, "a white collar crimes FBI storyteller… It's right in front of me and I still don't believe it."

"Hey. You can deal in stories while working with facts. The best stories have some grain of truth in them," Peter countered.

"You mean the best lies," Neal countered, although his voice wasn't as strong as usual. He was still shocked. He had investigated Peter, led him on a cat-and-dog chase for years and worked with him and had not even the slightest hint that Peter knew anything about Fey.

"And why do you think I always see through yours?" Peter responded.

Neal was rather glad he didn't lie to Peter now that he knew the FBI agent was part-storyteller.

El smiled and hummed in the kitchen, fairies fluttering around her and bubbles of light bouncing through the room. The lights came from Neal, at her request to see some of what he could do. Neal had been surprised when the fairies seemed to fly in from everywhere to check out his lights.

"How many Fey reside in your home?" he asked Peter. Peter was staring at his wife. "Peter!"

"What?" he questioned, snapping out of it. Neal repeated the question. "Inside? There's a Domovoi and an electrical spirit. I once tried to get rid of the spirit but El made me apologise and bring it back when her computer broke down one evening. She likes the convenience of having something around to fix electrical appliances when they break down and keep everything running smoothly."

"And outside?"

"It's like a city," Peter responded with a shake of his head. "I don't even tell good stories but they still all flock here like it's a," he waved his hands in the air as he searched for the words. "A fashion week or something."

Neal smiled at the reminder of how Peter dislikes fashion week; it was all in his tone. Or rather, how Peter dislikes the inability to get a taxi unless you're a model or Neal Caffrey.

"Oh. Hun," El said in her 'you're a dense man sometimes but I love you' tone. "You tell all these good stories about Neal and what you do at work, of course they'd come here."

Peter gave her a confused look.

"Those aren't good stories."

"That's a matter of opinion," Neal quickly countered. He turned to El and questioned, "he tells stories about me?"

"I'm titling the next story, 'can I trade Neal for Bryce?'" Peter grumbled jokingly. A few more meetings with Bryce and he would prefer Neal over his CIA agent, Lightbringer twin.

They were in a meeting when all the computers flickered.

"What?" Jones questioned, immediately trying to figure out the problem. Peter glanced at Neal, silently asking if there was anything he needed to know. Like if the Fey were once again after their prince.

The screens all died at the same time, binary numbers filling the screen.

"Piranha!" Jones declared in a panicked but excited tone.

"Piranha?" Neal questioned.

"A hacker," Diana explained. "He's a legend but very rarely does anything so it's difficult to say if he's real or not."

"They say no firewall can keep him out," Jones said.

"Sorry to say, I'm not the Piranha. But I will tell him about that. I'm sure he'll love it."

"Oh no," Neal groaned banging his head on the table as an image formed. It looked a lot like Neal, if Neal grew his hair out just a little more.

"Bryce?" Peter questioned, surprised that Neal's twin would call them during a meeting.

"Agent Burke. I need to speak to Neal. It's important."

"Important enough to hack our computers, which is a crime, might I add?"

"Yes."

"I doubt it," Neal grumbled.

"They're trying to marry me off!" Bryce informed them frantically.

Neal's head shot up. Peter sighed. He didn't need to ask who 'they' were. It was obvious that someone in the other realms thought it time the princes got princesses or something like that.

"Come downstairs, now!" Bryce ordered. The computers shut off and rebooted.

"You better go," Peter said. Neal lethargically slipped out of his seat and out of the meeting room.

"I'm sorry, who are they trying to marry you off to?" Neal growled in anger. Whether that anger would be directed at Bryce or the other realms depended on Bryce's explanation.

"Kate," Bryce responded, "apparently, they think one twin is as good as the other. Neal, I'm not marrying a ghost!"

"Or my ex-girlfriend!" Neal reminded him. "Who I didn't even know was a ghost! You need to tell me these things, Bryce!"

"I'm telling you now! So, how do I get them to drop this whole issue?"

"I could marry her," Neal suggested lightly. Bryce's expression went flat. He felt that Kate had played with his brother's affections in life and had no intention of letting her do that in death.

"You know what? I think I'm going to go to Agent Burke. He's a storyteller, he'll help us solve this."

Upstairs, Peter had a sudden foreboding feeling.