all my stumbling phrases never amounted to anything worth this feeling...

Yep, I'm alive.

Title: Watching The Waves Crashing
Characters (Pairings) Kate Moreau, Alex Hunter (background Kate/Neal).
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 523
Disclaimer: White Collar is Jeff Eastin's brainchild. Not mine.
Summary: Anyone can kinda sorta be friends, given enough alcohol. Fun and games don't hurt either.
Author's Note: This is just random floof. There's no plot here. Title's from Skies On Fire by The Green Children.
Apparently, according to my brain, Kate and Alex can only be friends when they're drunk off their asses. Okay then.
Also, I'm pretending that arcades are the same all over the world, because who has time for research, this is a kinda sorta last minute thing... don't tell anyone.
This is for sheenianni, for the wc_women_fest Holiday Exchange. I hope you like it!
Also, since it's well past midnight here, happy new year!! (Which also means this fic is late. ...it's our secret, okay? Shhhhh.)


( fic! )

Title: No Such Thing
Characters (Pairings) Cristina Yang, Meredith Grey, George O'Malley, Izzie Stevens, Alex Karev, Neal Caffrey.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 327
Disclaimer: White Collar is Jeff Eastin's brainchild. Grey's Anatomy is Shonda Rhimes'. Not mine.
Summary: Our favourite surgical interns discuss a rather frequent ER visitor.
Content Notes: Mention of a werewolf bite.
Author's Note: Set somewhere in season 1 or 2 of Grey's Anatomy, because I'm nostalgic, even though the timelines don't match. Also, we're pretending Seattle Grace is in New York. Or something.
For challenge 1103 - Paging Dr. Kildare - at tv_universe. Inspired by kanarek13's recent art piece, and the White Collar fandom's loving whumpage of our dear, long suffering Neal.
And I know, McSexy was one of the rejects for Mark Sloan's nickname, but I can't think of anything else right now.
Sorry about the messy dialogue tags. All the untagged ones are likely Cristina's. (Can you tell I love her? :D)

( McSexy's back. )

Title: She's Just Like The Weather, Can't Hold Her Together.
Characters (Pairings) Sara Ellis, Neal Caffrey (Sara/Neal)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1465
Disclaimer: White Collar is Jeff Eastin's brainchild. Not mine.
Summary: It's mildly alarming, really, how badly Sara's dealt with Neal's death.
Content Notes: Anorexia. Reference to suicide. Hallucinations.
Author's Note: Title from Landscape by Florence + the Machine.
For the mini fest at wc_women_fest. S6 finale tag.
It's past midnight, and I'm not in a good headspace. Proceed with caution. (There is light, though.)

( Sara doesn't breathe. )

Title: Tomorrow Is A Different Day
Characters (Pairings): Kate Moreau, Neal Caffrey, Peter Burke, Alexandra Hunter, Vincent Adler, Garrett Fowler (Kate/Neal)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 4990
Spoilers: For Kate's storyline through seasons 1 and 2
Disclaimer: White Collar is Jeff Eastin's brainchild. Not mine.
Summary: Kate's spent her whole life investing in her tomorrow.
Author's Note: This is for runthecon, for the prompt 'tomorrow is another day' from aragarna.
Title's from Avril Lavigne's Tomorrow. There are lyrics from Halsey's album BADLANDS all over the story. They serve as sort of introductions to the various little disconnected pieces. So this isn't exactly a songfic, buuut it kinda is.
Many, many thanks to reve_silencieux for the speedy proofread and the cheerleading!
I should mention that this is a slightly old idea, and it had around 300-400 words written in advance, but this thing be looong (LOOK AT THAT WORDCOUNT, GUYS), so I don't think it makes that much of an impact? I mean, I knew the direction the story was headed in, but I had very few actual words written in advance, so. I hope that's okay?

As seems to perpetually be the case with me, this story isn't complete. Yes, you read that right. Almost 5k words and this monster wants more. Piece of shit.
Slightly spoilery content note-like thing (spoils a character arc): I know the first sentence is what it is, but Kate isn't vilified in this story. She loves Neal. She means well. She's allowed to be angry, and think freely, and do things that may hurt Neal without her realizing it. Peter, who is the antagonist of her story, is on the receiving end of much of her anger, but that doesn't make either of the two characters evil. They're just different people who happen to have made terrible first impressions on each other. Not every human on the planet has to get along like a house on fire. And finally, I'm sorry if Peter seems out of character to you, but I stand by his characterization in this fic.
I kinda sorta borrowed the "ornamental, not functional" idea from this really painful insult delivered by the President to the First Lady on Scandal. I wouldn't have mentioned it, but I couldn't find any alternate wording, so. :P
This is a bit of a bricolage, but I enjoyed writing it, so. :D

Also, it's 2 am, I haven't given this fic my usual final once-over because I'd like to sleep, please forgive mistakes and clumsy phrasing and such. ETA - Edited!

( She loves him less than he loves her. )

Title: No Footsteps On The Ground
Characters (Pairings): Diana Berrigan (unrequited Diana/Sara)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 169
Disclaimer: White Collar is Jeff Eastin's brainchild. Not mine.
Summary: Diana knows she really shouldn't be thinking about Sara.
Author's Note: For Day 1 of The Merry Month of Masturbation (mmom). Because why the hell not? :D I spent April focused on poetry with (Inter)National Poetry Writing Month in full swing. May's for you guys.
Title's from I'm With You by Avril Lavigne. (anyone who's read my depression related posts, don't freak out!! I'm okay. Just listening to this song for the story.)
In my head, this is part of the verse I set up in Get With The Program, (which I think I'm going to call the Fire'Verse) but waaaaay in the past. Because apparently I can't get that verse out of my brain now. This is allllll my own fault btw XD. I love this dark messed up shit. Though the Diana/Sara romance plot is probably the (only) ray of sunshine in this thing. Along with, you know, the eventual rescue. (Eventual. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.)

( Diana knows she really shouldn't be thinking about Sara. )

Title: the heart is hard to translate
Characters (Pairings): Rachel Turner, Sara Ellis, Neal Caffrey, Diana Berrigan (Rachel/Neal, Sara/Neal, Diana/Christie)
Rating: PG-13
Total Word Count: 538
Spoilers: Till Season 5
Disclaimer: White Collar is Jeff Eastin's brainchild. Not mine.
Summary: A peek into the hearts of a few characters.
Author's Note: This is a challenge that involved putting your music library on shuffle and writing drabbles for the respective lengths of the first five songs. For Challenge 29 - Do The Shuffle - at writerverse. Title from All This And Heaven Too by Florence + The Machine

Belly Up - Maria Mena
Rachel/Neal, 96 words.

( we lie belly up in the pool of us )

Goodnight New York - Vienna Teng
Sara/Neal, 119 words.

( goodnight, goodnight, may you be always heartbreaking )

The List - METRIC
Neal/Rachel, 103 words.

( all dressed down to catch a whiff of the buzz )

Nothing But The Water (Pt 2) - Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.
Diana/Christie, 114 words.

( i have tried to find my way, to make it through to a better day )

Phir Na Kehna (Crazy in Zanzibar mix) - Sunidhi Chauhan and Kumar Sanu
Sara/Neal, 106 words.

( dil deewana aaj kho jaaye toh )

Title: These Precious Days I'll Spend With You
Characters (Pairings): Kate Moreau, Neal Caffrey (Kate/Neal)
Rating: G
Word Count: 525
Spoilers: None.
Content Notes: None.
Disclaimer: White Collar is Jeff Eastin's brainchild. Not mine.
Summary: A golden warm evening.
Author's Note: Written for weekly quick fic 10 for the prompts “But I have promises to keep/ And miles to go before I sleep.” (“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost) and New York City, 2065.
Far in the future AU, a little sci-fi. I almost picked Alex, but ended up picking Kate for this one because she doesn't get to age in canon.
Title from September Song by Willie Nelson.

( Walking is all the exercise she can handle now. )

Title: Get With The Program
Characters (Pairings): Neal Caffrey, Rachel Turner (Rachel/Neal, with consent issues)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 212
Spoilers: Through Season 5
Content Notes: Kidnapping, threat of violence.
Disclaimer: White Collar is Jeff Eastin's brainchild. Not mine.
Summary: With Neal, there's always been a line that Rachel wouldn't cross, somewhere between wanting his love at any cost and not hurting him. What if that line didn't exist?
Author's Note: Written late last night for the prompt 'cry me a river' for TVU bingo. Inspiration (and a direct quote) drawn from Maya Lewis (Olivia Pope's mother)'s line in Scandal: "He ruined you. Cry me a river, Livvie. Whatever."
If you want cheerful rainbow unicorn fic, you're gonna have to look elsewhere. Sorry not sorry.

( Rachel. Of course. )

Title: a heavy heart to carry
Characters (Pairings): Sara Ellis, Neal Caffrey (Sara/Neal)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 349
Disclaimer: White Collar is Jeff Eastin's brainchild. Not mine.
Summary: Late at night, Sara shows Neal the hardest parts of herself.
Author's Note: Dude, I don't even know. Apparently I'm not in a very good mood.
For a challenge at writerverse, for the prompt "He says, Only the strong survive, right?"
Title's from Heavy In Your Arms by Florence + the Machine.

( Late at night, after the monsters under the bed have claimed their first victims, she shows him the hardest parts of herself. )

Title: Can't Hold You Closer Than This
Characters (Pairings): Sara Ellis, Neal Caffrey, filler OCs (Sara/Neal)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 4272
Spoilers: Till at least 4x16
Beta: The lovely percygranger. She saw this fic when it was about 2K, and gave me plenty of wonderful advice. It is now 4K. Any and all remaining mistakes are obviously mine. And a special thank you to reve_silencieux, who caught a few crucial errors while reading the finished fic!
Disclaimer: White Collar is Jeff Eastin's brainchild. Not mine.
Summary: Sara may never learn how to fake love, but she’s always known how to fake okay. (And by the end of this story, maybe she won't even need to do that.)
Author's Note: The title is a slightly modified lyric from Eavesdrop by The Civil Wars.
This story has been in the works since July 2014. Here's proof. It has since hopped 'verses, grown quite a bit, and matured. Sara sounds much more like herself in this story than she did in the very first version.
I'll probably write Neal's side of the story (i.e. his recovery) sometime, but if this story is any indicator, you can expect to see it in October 2017. Oops.
For more in this verse, click here.

( There’s no buffer of familiar faces in London, no one she can count on or trust or talk to. )