Avalon

•46•

I'm Still Caged Inside

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I can't escape this hell

So many times I've tried

But I'm still caged inside

Somebody get me through this nightmare

I can't control myself

It took some five more minutes in the end for Neal and Clinton to overcome their sudden laughing fit. It felt as hysterical as it was surreal so Neal struggled slightly to grasp what's his life anymore.

"Wow, man, that was weird but fun. I hope you're okay. " Jones said while straightening his clothes. Neal simply grinned at him like old days and took his time to put himself together.

It felt like he just needed this moment to reset his brain for a bit so that he could get that old con mask on. Not that he didn't find this fun or lightening up. On contrary- he felt better. But the problem was somewhere much deeper and darker to just shoo it off like a dust bunny.

"Yeah, Clint, that was great moment. I feel that would be just enough to survive this night and keep all their jewels untouched." He added his own dark humor part and the agent just giggled at that. Sure, for the sake of old days, the inside joke worked lovingly.

With that they gathered the remaining dregs of scattered manners and behaviors and walked inside. Noting that Peter was suddenly absent, Neal kinda expected older man to use a sliver of a time to sneak off to his wife and update her.

Yes, Neal has been off into whatever corner he was but somehow it never made the agent's wife scoot over to the other side. Their relationship outside his corner stayed sane and Neal did all he could to make it best. They were close before and stayed close now. And they needed each other more since the planetary status changed just a smidge too much for one day and many were left with scattered minds and lost thoughts while some didn't move a hair for that.

It was indeed funny how people took to such changes. And while Neal was never like that something over the years had changed and maybe he wasn't as young anymore and age did this strange stuff to humans but his emotions became pretty hard to understand and control.

It surely had a huge connection to the loss of Mozzie, his longest and strongest friendship in his entire life, or at least the part he could actually remember. Because, yes, Neal suffered from some sort of memory loss he managed to keep hidden from literally every single person in his life except for the little, conspiracy theory supporting man that took Neal in straight from the street and helped to shape Neal into something. Mozzie was the only person in the entire world that would always understand Neal in so many ways the younger man never had a shadow of a doubt regarding his friend.

But ever since Neal was catching up with the FBI and Peter specifically that whole dynamic changed a lot. They did get their clashes once in a while. Though generally it was all somehow balanced out.

All until the literal shit hit the fan way too soon and faster than they could prepare. And then all their lives changed majorly for the first time. Mozzie was scolding Neal like a kid stealing candy off the shelf for a very long time. Then shit happened some more and Kate became his sole existence somehow.

Sometime between Neal popping up on FBI radar and Peter actually collecting the con few things happened.

One was in the middle of the European heist when they raided several old castles around Scandinavia and British lands before moving towards southern regions. Old Europe provided loads of hunts and stuff. All the things to keep Mozz busy and Kate distracted while dropping off radar and Alex.