Work Text:
Neal has been acting off the past few days. He’s been paranoid and continuously checking his phone for something, but he won’t say what was bothering him. Then, today, he suddenly relaxed when a small group of people walked into the White Collar offices. It wasn’t a mask, he actually relaxed, though he did look slightly disappointed at something. The group consisted of three males, ranging from mid-twenties to early teens, and two females, an older woman, around Neal’s age, and a younger girl, maybe late-teens. All of the males, like Neal, had black hair and light eyes.
The oldest male was of average height, slightly on the shorter side, with robin blue eyes and tanned skin, was wearing simple jeans and a t-shirt. The next oldest, and shortest of the group, was very pale and had steel-blue eyes, and was wearing slacks and a button-down. The youngest of the group was between the two oldest boys height-wise, though he was not finished growing, with very tanned skin and jade green eyes wearing black casual slacks and a hoodie. The older woman was an average height with short, brown hair, cat green eyes, and paler skin, though not as pale as the middle boy, was wearing a business dress and heels with a very large jeweled cat-eye hanging from her neck. The final member of the group was a short, Asian-looking girl with hazel eyes and black hair, wearing ballet flats, leggings, and an oversized, long shirt. The shirt looked as though it belonged to someone else. Maybe a boyfriend?
“Darling,” the woman purred at Neal, going around the desk to where Neal stood to pull him into a quick kiss that had the majority of the rest of the group wrinkling their noses in the way children often did when their parents were overly affectionate with one another in their presence.
“Selina,” Neal replied, pulling away. He turned to the rest of the group and smiled in greeting.
“Father,” the youngest boy greeted. The entire White Collar office froze. Their brains stopped working at that simple word applied to Neal.
“Damian,” Neal replies. “Boys, Cass,” he greets the other three.
“B,” the boys chorus while ‘Cass’ smiles and waves.
Neal turns so that they are all in his sight, his eyes harden, “What are you all doing here?”
“We haven’t seen you in months, B,” the middle boy states.
“We missed you,” the oldest continued.
“Family dinner,” Cass demands.
Neal chuckles, aquesting, “Okay. We can have dinner at my apartment tonight,” the children break out into cheers. “Is it just you five?”
The office collectively dropped their jaws in disbelief, Neal having four children was enough of a shock, the fact that there was a possibility of more shocked them even more.
Before any of the group, Neal’s family, could answer, Cass’s phone beeped. She opened it, smiling, and showed it to the oldest boy, who also smiled.
“Look who’s coming to dinner,” he states, taking the phone from Cass and turning it towards Neal, who freezes and lights up at the news.
“I didn’t know he was in New York,” the middle boy mentions off-handedly.
“I don’t think he was, Tim,” the oldest replies. “Last I heard, he was in Ethiopia.”
Neal’s gaze hardened again, but there was a hurt edge to it, “What was he doing there, Dick?”
Dick-and was that really his name?- shrugged, “I have no idea. He was with friends, but I don’t know what he was doing.
Cass steps in, “Little Brother helping friend find lost object.” Neal just nods and opens his mouth to speak. Before he could get any words out, another figure enters the White Collar offices. He was tall, as tall as Neal, with black hair that had a white streak in the front and unnaturally teal eyes. He was wearing grey-black pants, combat boots, and a brown leather jacket.
“Jason,” Neal greets.
“B,” Jason replies, accepting a hug from Cass and Selina, but shying away from the hug Dick attempted to initiate. “Cass asked me to come, so here I am. I’m leaving in the morning.”
Neal, saddened but accepting, nodded, “Nevertheless, it’s good to see you.”
“Whatever, Old Man, let’s just get this dinner over with so I can leave.”
Neal nods, turning towards Peter, “I’ll explain later,” and leaves with the rest of the group, his family.
It took a few moments for the office to recover, only being startled out of their stupor by Hughes's yells of “get back to work.”