s2309 | Fic: Cuddle Me In

Title: Cuddle Me In
Characters (Pairings): Neal Caffrey, Sara Ellis (Neal/Sara).
Rating: PG
Word Count: 234
Spoilers: Mild spoilers for S04E16
Disclaimer: White Collar is Jeff Eastin's brainchild. Not mine.
Summary: I love you, left unsaid.
Author's Note: Title from Ed Sheeran's Kiss Me. This is for Challenge 8 - True Love - over at

writerverse. Set just before S04E16.
This was meant to be an apology to

sheenianni for breaking her heart, except that it's kinda low on the fluff factor. But you already knew that I'm not capable of writing non-angsty fic.
Part of the Amis Amants 'verse. For more in this verse, click here.

It's quiet. But the silence is weighed down by so many words Neal has left unsaid over the past few hours. They threaten to spill from his lips, one gentle drop after another. Not 'I love you'. He wouldn't say that, not now, not when she's got one foot out the door. It wouldn't help either of them. But he can sing odes to her beauty, to her wit, to her brilliance. He can tell her what he can't say in a thousand other words. But the words won't come out.

He turns to Sara and looks deep into her eyes, as if he can communicate the missing words with willpower alone. And maybe he manages it, because her eyes begin to glimmer with the most delicate of tears and she lays a finger on his lips and whispers, "Don't."

If he didn't say anything but she heard him anyway, what happens to the unsaid words?

Neal isn't sure that he knows. Because just a few moments later, Sara's finger is replaced by her lips and his whole world is that one kiss and the words go missing. He doesn't know how or why or if he'll ever get them back. So he pulls her closer and holds her and pours the leftover dregs of those words into her mouth, and when he has nothing left, he lies back and lets himself be loved.