Author's Note: I finally got an update together yay!

I took a break from writing in January and was planning on updating my fics in February but then my mental health got even worse and I've been struggling with it ever since.
I appreciate all the follows/favourites/reviews I've gotten and they've been my motivation to get this together.
It might not be the best update but at least it's an update :)

I had a couple of ideas but I finally went with this one because it was the easiest one since I just based it on my own sleepovers as a kid.

Also I wanted to ask if I should write oneshots just about the time after the end of my story or if I should write oneshots that takes place in the future when Neal is older?
Lemme know what u think.

SLEEPOVER

It was Friday morning and the first recess of the day when Sara asked him the question.

"Do you wanna have a sleepover at my house tonight? My mommy said you could."

The girl wore a huge, excited smile on her face and she didn't even give Neal a chance to think it over before she continued.

"It will be really fun! We can play ALL evening and we can tell scary stories and in the morning you can try my daddy's pancakes. They are really yummy!"

The more his friend talked, the more she sold him on the idea and by the time she mentioned her dad's pancakes she had managed to get him just as excited as she was.
He had never had a sleepover before and it did sound very fun to spend the night at Sara's house.
Neal loved being at Sara's house since they always had fun together and her parents were always super nice.

"I'm gonna ask 'Lizbeth."

He answered both hoping and believing that she would say yes.
They spent the rest of the recess hyping each other up, talking about all of the fun things that they were going to do together and at at the next recess they sat down and wrote a schedule of the evening, making sure to fit in every single activity that they wanted to do.
The day seemed to pass by incredibly slow and both of the kids found it extremely difficult to contain their excitement, something that Mrs. Fisher noticed.
The teacher had to tell them several times to sit still, stop whispering to each other and pay attention to her.
After what felt like an eternity the last lesson of the day ended and the friends rushed out of the building and over to the side of the building where parents pick up their children.
Luckily Elizabeth was already there, standing by her car, and Neal wasted no time rushing over and ask her, but he was so excited that his words came out way faster than Elizabeth could process them.

"Okay slow down, I couldn't a word you said."

She told him with an amused smile and Neal took a deep breath.

"Can I sleep at Sara's house tonight? Please please please pleaaaaaaaaaseee?"

He asked, Sara joining in on the begging and Elizabeth chuckled.
They looked exactly like Simba and Nala when they asked their mothers for permission to go to the waterhole and it was adorable.

"Is it okay with your parents, Sara?"
"Yes Mrs. Burke."
"Well then it's alright with me too."

She answered and the children cheered so loudly that Elizabeth had to protect her ears.
Sara's mother chose that moment to show up and the women shared an amused smile over the kids who were hugging each other as if their lives depended on it, before they discussed the details.
Neal gave Sara one last, tight hug before he got into Elizabeth's car so that they could go home and pack.

As soon as Elizabeth unlocked the front door, Neal opened it and rushed inside and up the stairs, not even bothering to greet Satchmo, something that seemed to deeply offend the dog.
Neal grabbed the things he thought he would need while Elizabeth found a bigger backpack that he could pack in.
The boy packed his book about dinosaurs, a notebook and both his Satchmo stuffed toy and Raphael the t-Rex plushie, unable to choose between them.
That was all that he thought that he would need but luckily Elizabeth made sure that the actual essential items like his pajamas and his toothbrush made it into the backpack.
After they had finished packing and Elizabeth had triple checked the bag to make sure that he had everything he needed, they went downstairs again.
The adults had decided that they would just go home and pack before going directly to Sara's house in order to give the kids as much time together as possible.
Just as they made it downstairs, Peter walked through the door.
He had left work a little earlier today since he had been working overtime every other day of the week.
The agent looked down at Neal and his backpack before raising his eyebrows.

"What's this?"

He asked.

"Are you leaving for college already?"

He continued, causing Neal to giggle.

"No silly, I'm gonna have a sleepover with Sara?"
"Oh really?"

Peter asked before he closed the distance between him and his wife.

"So, date night for us then?"

He asked and kissed her, causing Neal to grimace and make gagging noises, still being disgusted by them kissing in front of him.

"Can we please go now?"

He asked impatiently and Elizabeth nodded.
Neal said goodbye to Peter and Satchmo, hugging them both tightly before they left the house.
On the way to Sara's house Neal talked non stop, telling Elizabeth every single thing that they were going to do and Elizabeth couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief as they finally pulled up in the driveway.
She loved her kid to the moon and back but he sure had the ability to talk people's ears off.

"Have fun sweetie and don't hesitate to call us."

She told him and hugged him tightly before she let him run off with Sara.
Elizabeth talked with Sara's parents for a couple of minutes and they assured her that everything would be fine.
The Burkes had made the decision to tell Sara's parents, but not Sara, about Neal's past so they could be prepared for nightmares or any other issues.
She eventually had to leave and she couldn't help but feel a sting of separation anxiety as she walked back to her car.

The two friends started out by swinging on the swing set Sara had in her backyard, competing in who could swing the highest.
Then they went and spent some time with Sara's cat Tellus.
He was a beautiful white, fluffy cat with bright, green eyes and he was really friendly but Neal still thought that Satchmo was a little better than the cat, something that started a small argument between the two.
For a second Neal thought that their argument about which pet was better would ruin their entire evening but luckily Sara's mother stepped in and diffused the situation by offering them her homemade lemonade.
While drinking the lemonade they decided that Satchmo and Tellus was equally good.
They soon discovered that the schedule they had created wasn't working out for them at all so it eventually ended up in the trash.
Sara got the brilliant idea to build a fort out of pillows and blankets in Sara's room and they spent a long time making sure that the fort was absolutely perfect.
Sara's parents decided to order some pizza and since Neal and Sara had similar taste when it came to pizza toppings, they got their own pizza to share and with the promise to be careful they were even allowed to eat in their fort.

"When we grow up we can build a house and live in it together."

Sara said while she looked around their fort, admiring their good work.

"And we can sit in our house and eat all the pizza we want!"

Neal said and the friends shook hands, deciding that it was a deal.
After eating they left their precious fort to watch a movie, something that led to yet another small fight between them.
Neal wanted to watch his favourite, The Lion King, and Sara wanted to watch her favourite, Mulan, but when Sara's father threatened with no movie at all they compromised and decided to watch Lilo and Stitch, a movie that they both loved.
When the movie ended they spent some time looking through Neal's dinosaur book before it was time for the activity that Sara had been looking forward to the most, telling scary stories.

Sara went all out, she turned off all of the lights in her bedroom and only brought a flashlight into the fort.
Neal didn't really know any scary stories, except for the scary things that had happened to him, and since he couldn't make up any on the spot so Sara ended up doing all of the talking.
Neal was prepared for silly stories that people told around campfires in the movies but instead Sara told him stories that she claimed was one hundred percent real and had happened to people she knew.
He didn't know if the stories were real or not but the fact that there was a chance that it could be true scared him.

"My uncle live in a small town and he was visiting his friend one evening. It was close to midnight when he started to walk home from his friend.
There were no people or cars anywhere.
When my uncle walked past a daycare he could hear children laughing from the playground and of course he gets worried because it's night and children shouldn't be out.
He goes to the gate and walks into the playground but once there he doesn't see any children anywhere.
He calls out but receives no answer. Then he hears children laughing again, coming from the swing set but when he looked over he saw that there was no one on the swings but the swings were swinging on their own, swinging higher and higher and higher."

A chill went through Neal's body at the thought of ghost children playing at playgrounds at night and he squeezed Raphael tighter while trying not to show Sara that the story scared him.
Despite his efforts she still seemed to notice his fear because she smiled proudly before she moved on to another story.

"There's this guy who used to work with my daddy. One day he stopped coming to work and no one saw him for months, not even his family. Then one night at exactly midnight, daddy hear someone knocking on the door. He opens it and it is the missing guy.
My dad talked to him but he didn't say anything, he just stared at my dad for several minutes before he left.
Then the next night it happened again and the night after that and the night after that.
He still knocks at our door every night at exactly midnight."

Neal hugged Raphael even tighter while Sara's smile grew ever wider.
The second story was a little scarier because he wasn't sure if he believed in ghosts but in the second story it was a regular human and he knew for sure that people could be very scary.
Sara went on to tell stories about how she herself had found a haunted cabin on a beach and how her mom had seen a ghost when she was a child.
Finally Sara's mother came into the room and Neal had never, ever been more glad over being interrupted and being told to go to bed.

Sara's parents told the good night, giving them both a kiss on the forehead before they left the room.
He feared that Sara would continue her stories but luckily the girl had gotten really tired and fell asleep only minutes after her parents left the room.
Neal closed his eyes and relaxed, hugging both of his plushies tight while drifting off to sleep.
The mattress wasn't as comfortable as his bed at home but he didn't mind, as a former street kid he was used to sleeping in much, much worse places.
His presence at the Burke household hadn't managed to spoil him yet, and not even the foreign sounds or the fact that Sara's room was warmer than his own was something that prevented him from falling asleep.
Neal wasn't sure how long he had been asleep when he felt himself regain consciousness.
For a second he was confused as to why he had suddenly woken up, if he didn't have nightmares he usually slept through the night, but then he heard it, a low sound sounding like knocking.
Sara's story was the first thing that came to mind and he completely froze.
All he could picture was a man standing outside and knocking on the door.
Of course, his brain decided to make matters worse by picturing that it was one of the scariest men he knew, Keller or James, standing outside the house, knocking on the door wanting to get in and snatch him.
Tears built up in his eyes as he thought about the safety of his own home, the safety of Peter who was a brave FBI agent with a gun and Satchmo who could scare any intruders away.
He didn't want to be here anymore, he no longer felt safe here and no matter how hard he tried to think about something else, his mind wouldn't stop picturing someone coming for him.
The knocking had ceased but he still didn't dare to move a muscle.
He didn't know how long he waited before he finally dared to speak.

"S-Sara?"

Neal asked with a shaky voice but received no answer from his friend.

"Sara?"

He tried again, a little louder this time but he was yet again met by silence.
He looked up at her but his friend seemed to be fast asleep.
Neal closed his eyes again and tried to think about the pancakes he would eat in the morning.
Minutes went by, or maybe it was just seconds, and then he heard a sound again.
He wasn't even sure if it was knocking he heard but it didn't matter, he wanted to go home where he felt safe and no pancakes in the world could stop him now.
Carefully, as to not disturb his sleeping friend, he got up from the mattress and opened the door.
On shaky legs he walked through the house towards Sara's parents' bedroom.
Suddenly a door opened and he jumped, biting his lip to prevent himself from screaming.

"Neal?"

A soft voice said and through tear filled eyes Neal saw Sara's mother standing there, illuminated by the light from the bathroom.

"Are you okay, honey?"

She asked as she noticed how the boy was shaking and had tears in his eyes.

"I wanna go home."
"Did you have a nightmare?"
"I just wanna go home."

Neal repeated, not feeling like explaining himself and even if Sara's mother looked concerned she didn't push him again.
She told him to wait there before she walked to her bedroom, soon returning with her cellphone in her hand.

"Do you want to talk or should I?"

She asked as she dialed and Neal took the phone from her, feeling the need to hear Peter or Elizabeth's voice, and put it to his ear.
Neal was planning on keeping it together and calmly say that he wanted to go home but as soon as he heard Peter's voice, the tears he had been trying so hard to contain started to roll down his cheeks.

"Burke."

Peter mumbled, sounding like he was still half asleep which meant that the phone call had woken him up but Neal didn't have time to feel bad about that.

"Daddy."

Neal said before sniffling and he could hear shuffling on the other end.

"Neal? What's wrong, buddy?"

Peter continued, now sounding wide awake, while Elizabeth's voice could be heard faintly in the background.

"I wanna go home."
"I'm coming, bud."

Peter told him, not even caring why he wanted to go home, his son was upset and that was reason enough for the agent to come and get him.
He promised Neal that he would be there as soon as possible before he hung up.

"Do you want me to wake Sara up?"

Neal shook his head, not wanting her to know what a coward he was, and her mother promised to talk to Sara tomorrow.
He went back to Sara's room and quietly packed all of his things in his backpack, except for his plushiest that he hugged tightly.
Neal didn't bother changing his clothes because he would just sit in the car and then he would go to bed once he returned to safety.
Sara's mother did her best to comfort him but nothing she did helped him calm down, he just wanted his parents right now.
It felt like forever before they heard a car pull up in the driveway.
As soon as Sara's mother unlocked the door and opened it, Neal more or less threw himself at Peter.
The agent easily picked up the child and held him tight as he thanked Sara's mother.
Sara's mother rubbed Neal's back and wished him a goodnight before they left the house.

Neal was quiet the entire ride home and Peter glanced back several times to see if had fallen asleep but he hadn't.
They finally got home where Elizabeth was waiting for them, too worried about her little boy to sleep.

"Are you okay, sweetie?"

She asked as soon as they walked through the door and Neal just nodded.

"Do you want some hot chocolate?"
"Yes please."

Neal mumbled before Peter carried him to the living room and placed him on the couch, enveloping him with a blanket.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Peter asked as he sat down next to him but Neal just shook his head.
Now that he was home, he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed that he had woken them up and forced Peter to come and get him in the middle of the night.
How would Sara react tomorrow?
Would she be mad at him for ruining their sleepover?
He didn't even notice that the tears had begun again until Peter grabbed him and pulled him onto his lap.

"I'm sorry."

Neal said before throwing his arms around Peter.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, kid."

The agent promised while hugging the boy tightly.
By the time Elizabeth returned with three cups of hot chocolate, he had managed to calm down a little.
They sat and drank their hot chocolate in silence for a while before Neal felt ready to tell them why he wanted to go home.

"Sara told me scary stories and I was scared by them."

He said, hanging his head in shame before mumbling an apology, still feeling like had inconvenienced them,

"You don't have to apologize."

Peter said but when Neal didn't answer he decided to tell the boy about his first sleepover.

"I was about your age when I had my first sleepover and my dad had to come and pick me up in the middle of the night too."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I was really scared by the unfamiliar noises in the house and I thought that the noises was made by ghosts."

Neal felt comforted by that, if brave FBI agent Peter had been scared at his first sleepover too then maybe he wasn't a coward after all.

"At my first sleepover I ended up sleeping in my friend's parents' bed because I thought there was a monster under my friend's bed."

Elizabeth said and Neal managed to smile, apparently it was normal to get scared and he no longer felt that being scared made him weak.
There was still a big question eating at him though.

"Is Sara gonna be mad at me?"
"If Sara had been sleeping here and she wanted to go home, would you have been mad?"

Elizabeth asked and Neal quickly shook his head, he would never want Sara to be forced stay if she wasn't comfortable.

"Sara's not going to be mad at you. It's okay to be scared and it's okay to want to go home when you don't feel comfortable."

Elizabeth promised and stroked some hair away from his forehead.
After finishing their hot chocolate Elizabeth announced that it was time for bed and the family headed upstairs.
The adults didn't protest when Neal followed them to their bedroom, in fact they seemed to have expected it.
Snuggled up between Peter and Elizabeth and with Satchmo curled up on the floor next to the bed, Neal finally felt safe and when the thought of the scary man knocking on the door crossed his mind, he no longer felt scared since he knew he would be protected.
He fell asleep within minutes and slept soundly through the night.

The next morning Elizabeth made some pancakes, knowing how excited he had been to eat pancakes at Sara's house.
Neal happily ate as many pancakes as possible, thinking that Mr. Ellis' pancakes couldn't possibly be better than Elizabeth's pancakes.
After breakfast, the phone rang and Neal got to talk to Sara.
The Burkes had been right when they said that Sara wouldn't be mad, the girl was in fact almost in tears because she felt so much guilt.
She had woken up last night and had been knocking on her wall but since Neal had froze, she hadn't seen any reaction and thought that he was asleep so she stopped and went back to sleep.
Neal managed to calm her down and quickly accepted her apology.
They also decided to try to have another sleepover again soon.
But the next time there would be no scary stories.

Author's Note 2: I'm not that good at coming up with scary stories so I simply chose two stories that scared me as a child.
The first one is a story that my dad swore happened to him and the second one was my best friend who told me several times, I decided to be awake until midnight one night and just like Sara my friend knocked on the wall and scared me. I still need to get revenge on her for that one.

Also someone told me a while back that if I wrote my cat Tellus into the story then he might stop hindering me from writing.
Update: it didn't work he's still biting my pens and lying on my computer but now he's smug too.