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Peter Burke is normally rather quick on his feet. Just because he works in White Collar, doesn’t mean he doesn’t have to act decisively in dangerous situations; and so, it should be expected that, if anyone accosted him on the street, he should be able to react accordingly.
Only – and he will always stand by that – this is quite an unusual situation to be in, even for a FBI agent.
It’s the evening, and he’s walking towards the cab stand because his car decided to break down last week, passing by the art gallery, when a man who he has never seen, but is undeniably beautiful, rushes towards him, grabs him and utters four words.
“Come with me, hurry.”
He has no time to get his bearings (or wonder why such a beautiful man would grab him and demand his attention in the first place, but if he had time to think about it he’d probably assume he knew from him an old case and needs help only it’s utterly impossible he would forget someone like this) before he’s entering the art gallery – not a place you would normally find him, simply because it is not his kind of thing – on the guy’s arm.
“Just follow my lead” he hisses and Peter simply wants to inquire what the lead is or why he should be doing that when there certainly has been no –
“Neal!” A woman hurries over – a woman who would be as much Peter’s type as the man if he didn’t happen to not be interested in her sex – and beams. “I can’t believe it! You actually have a plus one!”
“You know just because I don’t talk about my love life constantly doesn’t mean I’m lying when I tell you there’s someone” he replies, somewhat hotly, and Peter quickly deduces A. that the man he’s with is called Neal and B. that his friend seems to be somewhat nosy when it comes to this kind of thing, which he can empathize with because Diana does the same to him all the time.
“Yes, well, can you really blame me for being surprised?” She grins at Peter then holds out her hand. “Elizabeth Mitchell.”
“Peter Burke” he introduces himself, trusting Neal to understand that he’s telling him as well. “Very glad to meet you.”
“I have to say, this is a very welcome surprise – how long have you two been together?”
Peter has to take a moment to process that. True, he should probably have expected it, but still –
“Oh, it’s early days” Neal says smoothly and Peter thinks that he’s rather good at making stuff up on the spot.
“Oh, I see. And how did you two meet?”
Now this is one of those moments Peter knows are crucial – too much detail and it seems like they are making stuff up (which, in fairness, they are), too little and she might get suspicious because they have nothing to talk about.
So he quickly provides, “Neal ran into me on the street” which has the upside of being almost true.
“Yes” he promptly chuckles after a moment, “I was lost in my head again, thinking about my next painting… you know how I get.”
“Yes, I do very well know how you get… seems like it worked out just fine this time though” she grins at them once more. “Alright, I’ll give the star of the show and his date a bit of a breather before it gets crazy here… I have to check up on some last-minute details.”
And she hurries away.
Neal’s shoulders slump with relief as he turns to Peter. “Sorry, but I didn’t know what else to do. Thank you so much – if you don’t mind keeping this up for a little bit longer – we can probably say you have an emergency a few minutes in or something –“
“It’s alright” Peter, who is already starting to suspect that he would in fact spend as much time with Neal as he can before he has to go, is quick to assure him. “I didn’t have any plans anyway.” Yes, he was going to catch the Giants game on TV, but really, the way the season is going, it’s useless…
He brightens up. “Really?”
He sighs as he looks down the corridor where Elizabeth disappears. “Don’t get me wrong, I love her, but her attempts to set me up were getting on my nerves, so I invited a plus one, but didn’t find anyone in time, so I freaked out and grabbed the hottest guy wearing a suit I could find off the street…”
Hottest guy he could find? Really? Neal?
“And I’m very sorry, you’re probably not into men to begin with –“
Peter quickly clears his throat. “As a matter of fact, I am.”
Neal looks at him, and there’s something dawning in his eyes.
“Well then” Peter says, “Let’s start with the basics. So you’re an artist?”