100 days of enemy recs: 25. White Collar

[melannen]

25 days in! And only 90 fandoms left out of my original list of 100 ;)

Another thing that's surprised me as I've gone through this exercise is how long it's taken to get to a fandom where the pairing is clever thief/the only cop who could ever catch him, given how archetypal it feels? And yet it doesn't turn up that often.

Even in White Collar, a fandom where that is the entire emotional core of canon, surprisingly little of the fic actually concentrates on the period before he was caught! (...this may just be bitterness because I just spent an hour looking for a fic about before he was caught that I am sure I remember and I cannot find. It's probably right there on AO3, I just can't match what's in the headers with what I remember. Oh well.)

I mean, a setup of the con man/art thief/forger who is brought out of prison to be a consultant to the only FBI agent who ever came close to catching him (and only caught him in the end because he let him) is already an EtL dream so I guess I'm not too surprised fandom mostly stuck to the canon period!

This is a fandom where I'm spoiled for choice but here are some absolute standards from it. They're all Neal/Peter/Elizabeth (Con man/FBI agent/agent's wife) stories because White Collar fandom is all in for the OT3, as they should be!

• And anyone who's ever had a heart (7265 words) by Liviapenn
  Fandom: White Collar
  Rating: Mature
  Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
  Relationships: Elizabeth Burke/Peter Burke/Neal Caffrey
  Additional Tags: OT3, Threesome - F/M/M, Pre-Canon, Post-Canon, Yuletide 2009
  
  In which Peter's wife isn't the only one who needs to sneak in to Peter's hospital room to make sure that he'll be okay.



• Always Starts the Same, with a Boy and a Girl (21428 words) by lightgetsin
  Chapters: 1/1
  Fandom: White Collar
  Rating: Explicit
  Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
  Relationships: Neal/Elizabeth, Peter/Elizabeth, Neal/Peter, Neal/Peter/Elizabeth
  Additional Tags: AU, Law Enforcement, Threesome, Pre-Canon
  
  In which Elizabeth meets Neal first.



• Contractual Obligations: A Love Story in Three Traffic Lights (56664 words) by shaenie
  Fandom: White Collar
  Rating: Explicit
  Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
  Relationships: Peter/Neal/Elizabeth, Elizabeth Burke/Peter Burke/Neal Caffrey
  Additional Tags: Threesome
  Series: Part 1 of Contractual Obligations
  
  In which they carefully negotiate the complicated waters of a con artist, an FBI agent, and Elizabeth Burke making it work.



• Never Leave A Trace (16664 words) by copperbadge
  Chapters: 3/3
  Fandom: White Collar
  Rating: Explicit
  Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
  Relationships: Elizabeth Burke/Peter Burke/Neal Caffrey
  Additional Tags: References to Suicide, Magical Realism, Alternate Universe, Explicit Language
  
  In which Neal gets out of prison, and then goes back in undercover - but this time Peter's with him. And nobody gets out of prison the same as they went in.

Comments

[china_shop]

Ha, I don't think of White Collar as EtL at allll because... I guess I have a different definition of "enemies"? (I showed up for "they just really like each other." :-)

[melannen]

Yes there's a reason none of your WC fic ended up on the shortlist "enemies to lovers vibes" recs set even though some of it's definitely in my all-time WC recs set!

Neal/Peter is definitely classic enemies to lovers though, even if most of the "enemies" part was pre-canon, I don't think I've read any versions of it where they don't start as sincerely enemies, even if that didn't last long before it became a game. But I also like the way a lot of the fic even that's set long after they're clearly established as allies still has to be careful to work around the fact that Peter does still have an obligation to act against Neal if Neal does certain things, and how they negotiate that with the fact that they're madly in love, and that carries a lot of the EtL tropes with it, even if it's more Romeo & Juliet style star-crossed lovers than personal enemies for most of it.

[sholio]

Oh, I should drop a rec here for my absolute favorite Peter/Neal fic, which is even more enemies-to-lovers than the actual show because it's a total AU and they aren't working together. It's also a teen hooker AU, which is not a trope I've really enjoyed in any other fic, but I loved this one.

Living Proof (28816 words) by Deastar
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: White Collar
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Relationships: Peter Burke/Neal Caffrey, Elizabeth Burke/Peter Burke
Summary: The thing about Neal is that he is always in Peter’s personal space. “Hello, Officer,” he says, batting his eyelashes in a way that probably even a sixteen-year-old knows isn’t actually seductive. Teenage hooker AU.

[china_shop]

♥

But I also like the way a lot of the fic even that's set long after they're clearly established as allies still has to be careful to work around the fact that Peter does still have an obligation to act against Neal if Neal does certain things, and how they negotiate that with the fact that they're madly in love

*nodnod* I like that, too -- the constraints and the workarounds, and how meaningful it is when Peter's prepared to put his badge aside for Neal.

I guess I've always thought of EtL as antagonistic (or at minimum, prickly), and that's one of the reasons I tend to avoid it as a genre. ETA: Whereas having conflicting priorities/duties can be a lot of fun.

[sholio]

Yeah, I'm into enemies to lovers as a thing (usually with a stopoff at friends along the way) but I wouldn't really have considered White Collar that either, or at least only a very marginal case because they're so friendly with each other for the entirety of canon, even the pre-canon scenes. I think usually for me there's a lot more actual antagonism in the beginning, when I think of the trope. They hit me in a particular way but not generally in that way. (That being said, I don't think they're a bad fit for this list or anything. It's just that I tended not to enjoy fic that leaned into the "enemies" aspect, in general, because it felt counter to their vibe in the show to me.)

[china_shop]

I think usually for me there's a lot more actual antagonism in the beginning, when I think of the trope.

*nodnod* That's what I thought. Thanks! ETA: I think, too, once you add El to the mix, the antagonism levels drop by necessity? She acts as a stabilising influence, in my view -- largely because neither of the guys would want to disappoint her by behaving badly.

(This is such a great excuse to break out all my old WC icons. *g*)

[melannen]

I'm using a very broad definition for this project, obviously! It's interesting to think about that distinction - in the con panel that prompted me to originally make the list I'm working from, I was actually surprised that people put Pride & Prejudice Darcy/Elizabeth on their enemies-to-lovers lists, because it had never occurred to me that just disliking each other was enough to count! I suspect there's a divide between people who see enemies and lovers and think "people who are personally antagonistic" and people who see it and think "people who are forced by external forces to work against each other even though they wish they didn't have to". Type A gets you hatesex, type B gets you secret relationships. :D

They do have things in common though, and they do share a lot of tropes and underlying structure. And they both have the thing that I think draws me to it most, two people who are *provably* equals because they have spent years fighting each other to the point where either they both win or nobody does, and that's part of basis of the attraction - once you can do the dance perfectly as opponents what's left but to relearn it as partners?

(People drawn to each other because they finally found someone who can match them as an opponent is definitely there in Neal/Peter/Elizabeth!)

[china_shop]

You're totally right, of course. I'm just so used to thinking of EtL as type A, that this is upheaving my whole worldview. Hee!

(Type B is only a subset of secret relationships, though, right? You can totally have Partners-to-Lovers secret relationships without the Enemies part, depending on circumstances?)

[sholio]

I think there's more than just the two kinds, because I'm not particularly into hatesex, but I also really like a hard flip from hate to love. So for me, my favorite enemies-to-lovers trajectory goes:

Absolutely hate or badly misjudge each other -> reluctant friends/allies, perhaps still with conflicting loyalties -> sex/relationship/die-for-each-other personal loyalty

Which is maybe a type C, because it's not hatesex, but it's not "liked each other all along" either, and the flip from hate or at least open antagonism to friendship/respect/love is important to me.

[china_shop]

*nodnod* Whereas I think all my primary pairings were pretty much married (or on the way to married) from episode one or two. I'm trying to think of antagonistic relationships I've enjoyed watching -- there much be some!! I can't be that conflict averse! Hee!

ETA: Wait, hold the press! I have read and enjoyed quite a lot of Dresden/Marcone. :-)

[sholio]

Oh yeah, they definitely are!

[luzula]

I actually wish Type A and B had different names, because I always thought EtL meant Type A, which I'm not so into, while it turns out that me and Type B get on like a house on fire.

[melannen]

No reason you can't be both basically married from day one *and* mortal enemies for a thousand years! (Literally, in Good Omens fandom.) I love that version a lot. I kind of read Dresden/Marcone as married from day one actually - Harry has zero emotional perception as always, but Marcone seemed to treat that soulgaze at their first meeting as if the name "Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden" had just appeared on his wrist...

(I have Zhao Yunlan/Shen Wei on my extended list for this project, actually. They aren't a super-great example because the dynamic does shift so quickly and seamlessly, and I don't think Shen Wei ever treats Zhao Yunlan as an enemy even for a second, but they do spend a lot of the early series with tension around them because Zhao Yunlan isn't sure if he's going to have to send Shen Wei to the BCE in chains.)

[princessofgeeks]

I have read all of these! Excellent choices.

[melannen]

Oh no, I didn't mean to imply that hatesex and secret relationships are one-to-one with those two categories! Obviously they are all a lot more extensive than that. They're just sort of the most obvious tropes I associate with them. (Okay it would probably be hard to have hatesex without at least some element of EtL, but you can do any kind of enemies to lovers with any kind of structure or tropes really, and you can certainly do buddyslash secret relationships!)

[melannen]

I wouldn't say type A requires hatesex - I would put Darcy/Elizabeth or Benedict/Beatrice as good examples of it. And you can certainly do any version of hatesex with a skip to friends/allies/ found family in the middle! Probably most of the EtL fic written is that way regardless of the original dynamic. That I like ones that mix up the order is on me really. :D

drops link to the enemies-to-lovers random plot generator

[melannen]

I would be up for moving it to "star-crossed lovers" or something instead! But I think they do have enough in common to fall under the same umbrella (and of course a lot of them are both at once.)

[melannen]

We should note for this discussion that I still have not seen a single episode of White Collar so I probably can't accurately judge the level of antagonism in their canon dynamic, I just know the fic hit my thieves-and-detectives EtL thing :D Especially in pre-canon scenes - I hadn't realized there was much pre-canon flashback at all! Do we actually get to see a reasonable amount of their chase? (That might lure me into watching at least some of it despite the fact I know everybody hated the last few seasons.)

[luzula]

That's fair! And I do like P&P, so obviously I enjoy some versions of Type A.

[applenym]

These are my four favorite White Collar stories! Thanks for reminding me of them. Might be time for a re-read.

[china_shop]

I have Zhao Yunlan/Shen Wei on my extended list for this project, actually.

Ha! I was wondering. I look forward to your post, if it eventuates. :-D

[batrachian]

Guh. Well then. I have a new fandom now.

*blushes furiously*

[melannen]

There were a *disproportionate* number of amazing writers in that fandom, if you haven't tried it yet you have some wonderful things to discover!

(I am told canon kind of went off the rails after a few seasons though, so if you try canon you might want to stop around the time they start hunting Nazi treasure.)

[batrachian]

That's alright, I'm used to ignoring canon after a certain point. ;) *sighs at Stargate*

[minoanmiss]

The episode "Forging Bonds" (season 2, episode 11) is all about Neal's backstory including Peter chasing him.

(um, hi.)

[melannen]

Thank you! That's good to know, maybe I will start there.

(And hi!)

[minoanmiss]

I was thinking about this, and I have a rec for you:

The Second Job

Explicit,

Ocean's Eleven Trilogy (Movies)White Collar

Relationships:

Danny Ocean/Rusty RyanPeter Burke/Neal CaffreyElizabeth Burke/Peter Burke/Neal CaffreyRusty Ryan/Neal CaffreyDanny Ocean/Rusty Ryan/Neal CaffreyElizabeth Burke/Peter Burke

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19930546

Slight spoilers: Peter and Neal are temporarily on opposite sides, and among other things it gives an idea of what their chase might have been like.

[minoanmiss]

oh no i have a story idea

[melannen]

excellent my evil plot is bearing fruit!

[melannen]

Ooh, thanks! I'm not super familiar with Ocean's but this seems very my thing!

[minoanmiss]

This is eating my brain:

https://minoanmiss.dreamwidth.org/794032.html

https://minoanmiss.dreamwidth.org/797132.html

(Mind the ratings!)

[lokifan]

All of those fics are such classics! White Collar has some great stuff.