Neal Caffrey || Log || September/October Catch-All

[conning]

Who: Neal and OTA/some for existing CR
When: September/October Catch-All (with one backdated August thing)
Where: ALL OVER ZE PLACE
Summary: SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER CATCH-ALL. Neal being bovvered by the sleep stuff and rescuing people/needing rescue, Evil Twin TDM prompts, sleepwalking after his murdered adoptive aunt, painting at Bonnie's, a couple of SOL prompts, DEATH BREAAAD both lead-up and hypersensitivity, some talk about mental health.
Warnings: HORROR STUFF.... Awful deaths, possibly drowning, murder of loved ones, gun violence, suicidal ideation, some ableism might crop up in the mental health threads. Toplevels will be labeled with likely subjects.

Prompts TBA below as they're finished! Feel free to PM me or message me at researchboner on plurk for specific prompts or with questions.

Comments

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nods before letting himself melt face first back into Neal’s shoulder.

“But stay with me,” he murmurs, muffled by Neal’s shirt. “A little bit. ‘Til I feel better.”

[conning]

“As long as you want.”

He doesn’t leave. He stays all night, only takes the time required to clean himself up from the day and help Malcolm clean up from his own ordeal. He throws out the food and bags the dishes the stranger used and takes them to the ADI the next day.

He waits until he sees someone who looks like him and isn’t him enter the apartment buildings on ADI’s security cameras before he heads back, skin crawling with apprehension. The text he sends Malcolm is just the monster face emoji.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm puts his phone in his pocket after he gets Neal’s text. The creature’s objective with the food stunt was to rupture his affection for Neal, so the tightness around his eyes, in the set of his mouth at the being’s arrival plays into the charade that he doesn’t know it wasn’t Neal.

“You’re home early.”

[conning]

The Other Neal gives Malcolm a once-over that's not unfriendly, precisely, but it's got none of the warmth and affection that Neal tends to carry when he looks at Malcolm. He shrugs. "I thought I'd come back and take a nap while no one was screaming or throwing up. Thought you'd be out."

[abrightboy]

“I did invite you to sleep in one of the other bedrooms last night. Why don’t you try that now?” Malcolm suggests coolly.

[conning]

"My masochism knows no bounds," he says, shucking his jacket and draping it over the back of a dining room chair. The Other Neal comes over to Malcolm, lifting a hand in a pantomime of Neal's frequent gesture to try and touch Malcolm's temple. "You're still mad about dinner. I thought you were better at letting things go."

[abrightboy]

"Guess you don't understand people as well as you think you do," Malcolm tells him. "Bit embarrassing in your line of work."

[conning]

He smiles faintly, giving Malcolm's skin a light pinch. "Ooh, it bites. Sexy."

[abrightboy]

"I didn't say you could touch me," Malcolm says, walking away from him to put the kettle on.

cw dubious consent, EMPHASIS ON THE DUBIOUS

[conning]

Neal steps after him, wrapping one arm around Malcolm's waist to pull him close. "I didn't say you could leave."

[abrightboy]

"Get off of me," Malcolm tells him in a low voice.

[conning]

“Or what,” he says quietly, kissing the back of Malcolm’s neck with exquisite tenderness.

[abrightboy]

His lips feel like Neal’s lips, but he’s skincrawlingly aware that they’re not.

“Or I’ll have to do something you’ll regret.”

[conning]

“But you won’t? That hurts me, truly.”

The last words are a murmur in Malcolm’s ear before the faux-Neal lets go. “You’re showing a bit of that Whitly fortitude.”

[abrightboy]

“And you don’t want to test it,” Malcolm notes, turning to look at him. “Smart.”

[conning]

He’s not sure how it happened so quickly, but he’s fairly positive the jig is up. Faux-Neal sighs, leaning the small of his back against the counter and crossing his arms.

“I suppose it was too much to hope that his sappiness wouldn’t win you back over.”

[abrightboy]

“Whose sappiness, Neal?” Malcolm asks bluntly.

[conning]

He tilts his head and gives a dismissive wave. “The one who came before me. The one who doesn’t really get how far he can make people go for him if he wants to.”

He won’t call that first version by his name. “How about we call him Danny? For the sake of differentiation.”

[abrightboy]

Malcolm thinks Neal knows exactly how far he could get people to go if he wanted, but he’s not that man.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about. Before you, I wasn’t with anyone. Not for a while.”

[conning]

Faux-Neal lets his hands fall, takes a step forward. Traces his fingertips through the air next to Malcolm’s face, sensually close without actually touching the other man.

“No. Not for a long while. Lost, lonely Malcolm Whitly and lying, desperate Danny Brooks. You two deserve each other, honestly.”

[abrightboy]

“Finally, we agree on something,” Malcolm tells him, filing the information without reacting to it.

Stick to the plan. Neal will be here soon.

“What do you get out of this?”

[conning]

“To be,” he says simply. “To be him. To be what he could be.”

He hovers his fingertips closer by fractions until he touches Malcolm’s face. “Go ahead. Make me regret it. You know you want to.”

The front door bangs open and Neal bursts inside, but faux-Neal doesn’t turn around.

[abrightboy]

“You want me to want to,” Malcolm acknowledges. “You get something from that. But whatever you’re ‘being’, it’s not him,” he says, watching for Neal from the corner of his eye when he hears the door, but not turning away.

[conning]

Neal’s stomach drops into some dark pit and keeps falling as he sees the stranger, himself, with a hand pressed now again Malcolm’s cheek.

“Get away from him,” Neal snaps, taking several steps closer and stopping in sudden paranoia that if he gets too close—he’s not sure what he’s afraid of. “You don’t have any right to even be here.”

“I have every right.” Faux-Neal runs a fingertip down to the point of Malcolm’s chin, eyes still on Malcolm’s face.

Neal takes another little step forward. “Don’t fucking touch him.”

To Malcolm he says, “Are you okay?”

[abrightboy]

“I’m okay,” Malcolm tells him matter-of-factly. This being not actually being Neal took away all the power he had over Malcolm. Malcolm really is fine. “We were talking about what he gets out of this. He likes your brain. He wishes he had a soul to match.”