Title: Contested
Fandom: White Collar
Rating: R
Length: 313
Content notes: Rough sex, kink, angst. Post-breakup sex. Not a happy ending.
Author notes: Written for fan-flashworks for the Fight challenge.
Summary: AU where the events of last season went differently, and Peter and Neal break up, Neal leaves town, and they both resent each other.



After all the forgiveness, all the reunions, it was a shame they split on such bad terms.

They weren’t enemies, exactly. Neal got an occasional message if a criminal rival were after him. A couple times Peter reached out for help on a case that struck close to home.

They still trusted each other. For the big things.

But the rest of what they had was harder to hold on to.

Five years after Neal leaves New York, Peter shows up at his door in Rio.

“You’ve got to know by now I’m not coming back.”

“Don’t worry,” Peter says with a frown. “I gave up on that a long time ago.”

Gave up on you Neal hears, but he smiles a wide grin that he knows Peter will see right through. “Good to know.”

“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” Peter asks, and Neal had almost forgotten how the man liked to press.

Neal steps aside and lets Peter in. He’s about to ask what Peter’s doing here when Peter presses his body against Neal’s leaning them both against the door. He kisses Neal, hard, rough, like he thinks he can claim him, like he thinks his body still has that power.

Neal kisses back, just as hard, pushing back against Peter’s weight. He thinks that maybe they have always been like this: one long fight, heat and competition and push, shoving each other into worlds they shouldn’t be in, with just a brief few years where it felt like their edges went a little soft.

“Tell me why you’re here, Peter,” Neal says, breathless, sharp to his voice.

“You’re the smart guy, you figure it out,” Peter grumbles, then kisses him again, gripping Neal’s hips hard enough to bruise.

Neal slides a hand up Peter’s back, underneath the white cotton shirt, and scratches a line down Peter’s skin. “I will.”