Fic: Puzzles
Title: Puzzles
Author: wraithkeeper
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Pre-Peter/Neal
Spoilers: none
Word Count: ~400
Disclaimer: White Collar and its characters don't belong to me.
Notes: Written for the promptfest at elrhiarhodan's journal. Prompt was: Neal - Puzzle.
Peter liked puzzles because they had solutions. If you had all the pieces and put some time and thought into it, you’d eventually have the full picture. He often thought Neal was like a puzzle, but he was one of the puzzles in the public library with a dozen pieces missing. At first Peter had wondered if he’d ever find all the pieces to put into place, but he was beginning to realize that even Neal didn’t have those pieces.
Everyone said that Neal had poor impulse control. When Neal was fidgeting through a long meeting or a stakeout in the van, the agents teased him about having no patience. Peter would have agreed with them if he hadn’t known about Neal following marks for tedious weeks to gather information before their “coincidental” meeting, or about how he’d hidden curled up inside a cramped crate for nine hours until a ship’s cargo bay had been cleared by the security detail searching for their missing diamond thief.
No, Neal had impulse control and patience in abundance. What he often didn’t have was incentive to use them. He needed that goal of the payout at the end of the con to entice him into using his patience. When Peter saw how hard Neal tried to please him, he decided to test that motivation by ordering Neal to sit down and stay still and quiet until Peter said they could leave the van. Both Peter and Neal had been surprised when it worked.
Peter was hesitant at first that he may be abusing the power he held over Neal in his current situation, but as he paid attention he began to notice Neal deliberately putting himself into situations where he would need to be given an order. He saw the look Neal tried to hide when he was given a command. The way his eyes softened slightly, tension leaving his body as he accepted Peter’s control. Peter could practically see the weight of responsibility slipping from Neal’s shoulders when he stepped under the shelter of Peter’s authority.
Neal’s puzzle may be missing some of its pieces, but Peter was starting to realize that pieces of his own puzzle overlapped with Neal’s to complete them both.