elrhiarhodan

Title: Two for June – “Loses Someone” and “Good Night”
Author:

elrhiarhodan
Rating: R
Fandom: White Collar
Spoilers: 1.14 (Out of the Box)
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: Loses Someone - Death of Canon Character (unspecified); Good Night - Slash
Word Count: ~360
Summary: Two ficlets written for Prompt the Day Away I – I got to play with the lovely Lady June. “Loses Someone” was a fill from a prompt given by

ladygray99, and “Good Night” was from a prompt given by

be_a_rebel.

Loses Someone

Winter is the hardest time of year for June - it's always a season of loss. Her mother died unexpectedly on a dark, gray January afternoon. Her first daughter came from her womb, silent and stillborn, in February. Byron, her beloved rogue, her prince of thieves, left her to grieve in the dark of the year.

June understand loss and keenly associates it with the cold and the dark of winter. The day Neal hugged her and walked out the door, it was - in its own terrible way - like losing Byron again. But she reminded herself that Neal was whole, young, vibrant and alive, and that gave her comfort.

Twenty-four hours later, as she sat by his bed, watching him twitch and shake, caught in the grip of a nightmare far too rooted in reality; she cursed the season and tried to remember that spring does come after winter.

Eventually.

Good Night

"Good evening, Peter. Neal" June nods to the two men who came down to share a nightcap with her. It is a lovely little ritual - one she appreciates. When they first started, she noticed that Peter tried to keep from making a face when she offered him port. When questioned, Neal merely commented that Peter's tastes ran more towards beer than spirits. So she takes to stocking a selection of craftmade beer, which he does seem to enjoy.

Neal, being Neal - likes a small shot of her favorite (and very expensive) single malt, and when he brushes her cheek with a goodnight kiss, the smokiness of the whiskey is a sharp goad to her memory. For a brief instant, she can taste Byron on her lips.

June enjoys watching Peter and Neal - the cut and thrust and parry of wit and charm and fierce intelligence. She also loves the intense sexual by-play between them, it’s a swift moving undercurrent to their interactions. She often wonders who's on top? Neither of those men seems to want to give an inch.

And so, she blushes to that thought and sips a glass of that single malt, and when she falls asleep, she dreams of beautiful, powerful men.