More Chuck/White Collar Drabbles
REVISE
Title: One of These Things Is Not Like the Other
Fandom(s): Chuck/White Collar
Pairing(s): Bryce!Neal/Chuck
Rating: PG
Summary: The reason "Neal" wants to run with the treasure is that he knows Chuck will join him once he has.
Author's Note: For this prompt at comment_fic.
AO3
"...I think you deserve a little happiness. And if there's anything I can do to help you with that, I want to do it."
'Can you split me into two people?' Neal wants to ask, and he almost laughs because there's something both touching and absurd about Peter, sincerely offering Neal his hand in friendship, while Neal sits on Peter's bed, invading Peter's home. There's something profound but also pathetic about how badly "Neal" would like to be two people just now. The person who can take the ship's manifest being held delicately in his hands and skip town feeling nothing but the thrill of what comes next... And the person who can pretend he's never seen it. Was never in Peter's safe. Has no idea what he's missing by not taking the treasure and running now, while he still has someone to run with.
"Neal" had never lived a life he couldn't give up before finally getting together with Chuck. Now he's living two. When Chuck's in town, he is Bryce. The presumed-dead spy hiding out from his old bosses and lifelong enemies. When Chuck's not around, he's Neal. The good-hearted con artist who somehow happens to be an excellent law enforcement agent besides. Neal has everything Bryce ever wanted... Friends he doesn't have to hurt to protect or push away. The chance to help people, save lives, day after day. But Bryce has-
Bryce has Chuck. The one thing Neal can never have. If Chuck was seen with Neal, Bryce's cover would be blown. Neal would cease to exist. Bryce would be back on every spy's radar and Chuck would be burned for keeping his secrets.
The treasure is everyone's best exit strategy. Neal can fade away instead of being ruthlessly executed. Bryce can be with Chuck without endangering him just by breathing. Chuck can leave the spy life without leaving his family hanging in the wind. The treasure can buy them new identities, ways to keep in touch with Devon and Ellie and Morgan in secret, a lifetime of not being shot at or nearly blown up every other Friday...
All it will cost is the life of Neal Caffrey. His job at the Bureau. His relationships with June and Peter and El, Diana and Jones and Sara.
"I'll let you know," Neal says, though it's a lie. If he can't be two people at once, then he will have to be the person who can put the other one down for good. And while Neal has never taken another human being's life, Bryce is sort of an expert at it.
Pitted against one another - Neal, with all his charm and brilliance and good intentions; Bryce, with his ruthlessness and his love for Chuck - Neal simply doesn't stand a chance.
Title: Interception
Fandom(s): Chuck/White Collar
Pairing(s): Bryce/Chuck/Neal
Rating: NC-17 (See warnings below.)
Summary: Neal intercepts a communique meant for his brother. He is... surprised at what he finds.
Warning: References to an on-again, off-again incestuous relationship.
Author's Note: For this prompt at comment_fic.
To be fair, Bryce would have to admit that the odds of Bryce receiving a personal communique while he's in New York were slim before he got with Chuck. Neal's never known his brother to get personal messages over his private line, and since he didn't know about Chuck that morning when he picked up Bryce's phone, he can't be accused of trying to snoop into his big brother's private life.
Just his professional one. And Neal has a perfectly valid reason every time he does that.
Government secrets pay off.
No, Neal doesn't sell them. One, he's a criminal but he's not a criminal; and, two, Bryce would kill him. Maybe literally. But Neal uses them. When you're a word class thief it helps to know what's safe to steal and who it's safe to steal from.
So this morning, Bryce got a message... And, thinking it was spook-speak like 'the black dog is in the blue barn' that he could interpret into 'don't fence anything that just came out of Quidar', Neal opened up Bryce's phone and looked at it.
He saw a picture. A picture of a very nice-looking man with dark brown hair and pretty brown eyes... And skin. Lots and lots of skin- And then Bryce snatched the phone away.
"What are you doing?" he demanded, in his scariest 'I'm a Deadly Spy' tone.
But Neal was too shocked and amused to be phased by it. "I- Sexting? Bryce, is someone sexting with you?"
Bryce - Neal's dangerous, world-class expert in espionage and combat older brother - blushed bright red. "You weren't supposed to see that."
The sun has nearly set on this oddball day and Bryce is still skulking around Neal's apartment grumbling about it. But Neal knows his brother... He knows when Bryce is pissed off and embarrassed and when Bryce is pissed off and embarrassed but also ruminating on something.
Neal walks out onto the balcony where Bryce is nurturing a case of cheap beer and says, "So... Chuck. Tell me more about him."
Bryce looks askance at him. "I think you know enough about Chuck already."
Neal shrugs. He knows what Chuck looks like naked now - at least via camera phone. He knows that he and Bryce are "involved" (whatever that means - considering this is Bryce, probably only one of two things: they're casually fucking or Bryce is whole-heartedly obsessed. Based on an earlier conversation, Neal would have to guess the latter.)
"Chuck is an old friend," Bryce said after naming the mystery man in the nude who'd just texted him.
And something about the way he said it caught Neal's notice... There's only one "old friend" Bryce has ever talked about with real purpose.
"An old- Wait. Your friend from Stanford? The one you roomed with? Bryce, you've been in love with him for, what? Ever. This is huge! Why didn't you tell me?"
Bryce's response to that was, more or less, 'Shut the fuck up.'
Neal thinks he's finally worked out why Bryce has been saving up the news of his reconnecting with Chuck. Last night marked the first time in a long time that Neal expressed an interest in rekindling their 'on-again, off-again' sexual relationship and Bryce turned him down. But not with an outright 'no; with a contemplative look and a 'We need to talk about this in the morning.'
"Chuck knows about us, doesn't he?" Neal steels himself up and asks. He keeps his expression carefully blank as he searches Bryce's for some hint of a reaction. "And he doesn't approve."
Of course he doesn't. Bryce has only ever been Neal's, as more than a brother (Neal will always, at least, have that) temporarily. Neal's always known that, one day, Bryce would find someone he doesn't have to feel half-ashamed of being with, someone he doesn't feel like he's debauching every time they touch (even though he's only Neal's big brother by, like, an hour). And then they would be over.
Except... Bryce laughs. A strange, almost disbelieving laugh, and says. "Actually... He's cool with us."
Neal can hardy process that.
"Then why-"
"Chuck... would be really cool with us," Bryce repeats, looking at Neal sharply. His meaning clicks and Neal can only blink.
Well... Blink and instantly, almost eagerly, begin to harden. Bryce. And the hot spy in the picture on Bryce's phone... And-
But Bryce still looks like he's brooding and Neal treads carefully. "You don't want to share?"
Neal is okay with that. He can be okay with that, if he has to be. Bryce isn't saying that he never wants to make love to Neal again, and Bryce's Chuck isn't saying that.
"With anyone else? No fucking way." Bryce's lopsided smile makes Neal's pulse race. The heat in Bryce's eyes says everything Neal needs to know about Bryce's feelings on 'sharing'. "But with each other? It's not that I don't want to..."
Neal can't help the confusion that furrows his brow. "Then what's the problem?"
Bryce takes a swig of his beer and shifts his gaze to the New York skyline. If Neal didn't know better... And he does. He suddenly knows that Bryce actually feels... nervous. Insecure. This is as rare as Bryce's blushing earlier. "Chuck thinks I wouldn't be satisfied with a one-time thing... And he's right."
Neal tries to listen patiently to everything Bryce has to say, over the pounding of his own heart. "And Chuck is cool with that, too. He's really... He's just the most amazing person, Neal. You'll understand when you meet him. I love him. And I love that he wants this for us, wants me to be happy, knowing how I feel about you. I just don't want you to feel like you have to do something you don't want to do. I've always figured that this- Whatever this is between us... Would have to end someday. That you'd meet someone or- Or get sick of humoring your older brother for falling in love with you...."
But patience hasn't always been Neal's forte.
He strides across the balcony, interrupting Bryce mid-sentence and tugging the beer bottle out of Bryce's hand.
Bryce watches him warily but unprotesting, even when Neal grabs him by the shirt collar and pulls him to his feet.
Neal puts his brother's fears to rest with a fast, forceful kiss. "Do we have to wait for Chuck to celebrate how amazing your boyfriend is? Or can I get us started?"
The next text either of them gets from Chuck is a reply to Bryce's request that Chuck come to New York.
Chuck says he's on the next flight out.
Title: One of These Things Is Not Like the Other
Fandom(s): Chuck/White Collar
Pairing(s): Bryce!Neal/Chuck
Rating: PG
Summary: The reason "Neal" wants to run with the treasure is that he knows Chuck will join him once he has.
Author's Note: For this prompt at comment_fic.
AO3
"...I think you deserve a little happiness. And if there's anything I can do to help you with that, I want to do it."
'Can you split me into two people?' Neal wants to ask, and he almost laughs because there's something both touching and absurd about Peter, sincerely offering Neal his hand in friendship, while Neal sits on Peter's bed, invading Peter's home. There's something profound but also pathetic about how badly "Neal" would like to be two people just now. The person who can take the ship's manifest being held delicately in his hands and skip town feeling nothing but the thrill of what comes next... And the person who can pretend he's never seen it. Was never in Peter's safe. Has no idea what he's missing by not taking the treasure and running now, while he still has someone to run with.
"Neal" had never lived a life he couldn't give up before finally getting together with Chuck. Now he's living two. When Chuck's in town, he is Bryce. The presumed-dead spy hiding out from his old bosses and lifelong enemies. When Chuck's not around, he's Neal. The good-hearted con artist who somehow happens to be an excellent law enforcement agent besides. Neal has everything Bryce ever wanted... Friends he doesn't have to hurt to protect or push away. The chance to help people, save lives, day after day. But Bryce has-
Bryce has Chuck. The one thing Neal can never have. If Chuck was seen with Neal, Bryce's cover would be blown. Neal would cease to exist. Bryce would be back on every spy's radar and Chuck would be burned for keeping his secrets.
The treasure is everyone's best exit strategy. Neal can fade away instead of being ruthlessly executed. Bryce can be with Chuck without endangering him just by breathing. Chuck can leave the spy life without leaving his family hanging in the wind. The treasure can buy them new identities, ways to keep in touch with Devon and Ellie and Morgan in secret, a lifetime of not being shot at or nearly blown up every other Friday...
All it will cost is the life of Neal Caffrey. His job at the Bureau. His relationships with June and Peter and El, Diana and Jones and Sara.
"I'll let you know," Neal says, though it's a lie. If he can't be two people at once, then he will have to be the person who can put the other one down for good. And while Neal has never taken another human being's life, Bryce is sort of an expert at it.
Pitted against one another - Neal, with all his charm and brilliance and good intentions; Bryce, with his ruthlessness and his love for Chuck - Neal simply doesn't stand a chance.
Title: Interception
Fandom(s): Chuck/White Collar
Pairing(s): Bryce/Chuck/Neal
Rating: NC-17 (See warnings below.)
Summary: Neal intercepts a communique meant for his brother. He is... surprised at what he finds.
Warning: References to an on-again, off-again incestuous relationship.
Author's Note: For this prompt at comment_fic.
To be fair, Bryce would have to admit that the odds of Bryce receiving a personal communique while he's in New York were slim before he got with Chuck. Neal's never known his brother to get personal messages over his private line, and since he didn't know about Chuck that morning when he picked up Bryce's phone, he can't be accused of trying to snoop into his big brother's private life.
Just his professional one. And Neal has a perfectly valid reason every time he does that.
Government secrets pay off.
No, Neal doesn't sell them. One, he's a criminal but he's not a criminal; and, two, Bryce would kill him. Maybe literally. But Neal uses them. When you're a word class thief it helps to know what's safe to steal and who it's safe to steal from.
So this morning, Bryce got a message... And, thinking it was spook-speak like 'the black dog is in the blue barn' that he could interpret into 'don't fence anything that just came out of Quidar', Neal opened up Bryce's phone and looked at it.
He saw a picture. A picture of a very nice-looking man with dark brown hair and pretty brown eyes... And skin. Lots and lots of skin- And then Bryce snatched the phone away.
"What are you doing?" he demanded, in his scariest 'I'm a Deadly Spy' tone.
But Neal was too shocked and amused to be phased by it. "I- Sexting? Bryce, is someone sexting with you?"
Bryce - Neal's dangerous, world-class expert in espionage and combat older brother - blushed bright red. "You weren't supposed to see that."
The sun has nearly set on this oddball day and Bryce is still skulking around Neal's apartment grumbling about it. But Neal knows his brother... He knows when Bryce is pissed off and embarrassed and when Bryce is pissed off and embarrassed but also ruminating on something.
Neal walks out onto the balcony where Bryce is nurturing a case of cheap beer and says, "So... Chuck. Tell me more about him."
Bryce looks askance at him. "I think you know enough about Chuck already."
Neal shrugs. He knows what Chuck looks like naked now - at least via camera phone. He knows that he and Bryce are "involved" (whatever that means - considering this is Bryce, probably only one of two things: they're casually fucking or Bryce is whole-heartedly obsessed. Based on an earlier conversation, Neal would have to guess the latter.)
"Chuck is an old friend," Bryce said after naming the mystery man in the nude who'd just texted him.
And something about the way he said it caught Neal's notice... There's only one "old friend" Bryce has ever talked about with real purpose.
"An old- Wait. Your friend from Stanford? The one you roomed with? Bryce, you've been in love with him for, what? Ever. This is huge! Why didn't you tell me?"
Bryce's response to that was, more or less, 'Shut the fuck up.'
Neal thinks he's finally worked out why Bryce has been saving up the news of his reconnecting with Chuck. Last night marked the first time in a long time that Neal expressed an interest in rekindling their 'on-again, off-again' sexual relationship and Bryce turned him down. But not with an outright 'no; with a contemplative look and a 'We need to talk about this in the morning.'
"Chuck knows about us, doesn't he?" Neal steels himself up and asks. He keeps his expression carefully blank as he searches Bryce's for some hint of a reaction. "And he doesn't approve."
Of course he doesn't. Bryce has only ever been Neal's, as more than a brother (Neal will always, at least, have that) temporarily. Neal's always known that, one day, Bryce would find someone he doesn't have to feel half-ashamed of being with, someone he doesn't feel like he's debauching every time they touch (even though he's only Neal's big brother by, like, an hour). And then they would be over.
Except... Bryce laughs. A strange, almost disbelieving laugh, and says. "Actually... He's cool with us."
Neal can hardy process that.
"Then why-"
"Chuck... would be really cool with us," Bryce repeats, looking at Neal sharply. His meaning clicks and Neal can only blink.
Well... Blink and instantly, almost eagerly, begin to harden. Bryce. And the hot spy in the picture on Bryce's phone... And-
But Bryce still looks like he's brooding and Neal treads carefully. "You don't want to share?"
Neal is okay with that. He can be okay with that, if he has to be. Bryce isn't saying that he never wants to make love to Neal again, and Bryce's Chuck isn't saying that.
"With anyone else? No fucking way." Bryce's lopsided smile makes Neal's pulse race. The heat in Bryce's eyes says everything Neal needs to know about Bryce's feelings on 'sharing'. "But with each other? It's not that I don't want to..."
Neal can't help the confusion that furrows his brow. "Then what's the problem?"
Bryce takes a swig of his beer and shifts his gaze to the New York skyline. If Neal didn't know better... And he does. He suddenly knows that Bryce actually feels... nervous. Insecure. This is as rare as Bryce's blushing earlier. "Chuck thinks I wouldn't be satisfied with a one-time thing... And he's right."
Neal tries to listen patiently to everything Bryce has to say, over the pounding of his own heart. "And Chuck is cool with that, too. He's really... He's just the most amazing person, Neal. You'll understand when you meet him. I love him. And I love that he wants this for us, wants me to be happy, knowing how I feel about you. I just don't want you to feel like you have to do something you don't want to do. I've always figured that this- Whatever this is between us... Would have to end someday. That you'd meet someone or- Or get sick of humoring your older brother for falling in love with you...."
But patience hasn't always been Neal's forte.
He strides across the balcony, interrupting Bryce mid-sentence and tugging the beer bottle out of Bryce's hand.
Bryce watches him warily but unprotesting, even when Neal grabs him by the shirt collar and pulls him to his feet.
Neal puts his brother's fears to rest with a fast, forceful kiss. "Do we have to wait for Chuck to celebrate how amazing your boyfriend is? Or can I get us started?"
The next text either of them gets from Chuck is a reply to Bryce's request that Chuck come to New York.
Chuck says he's on the next flight out.