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asimaiyatTitle: "Just Like Everyone Else Does"
Fandom: White Collar
Characters/Pairings: Mozzie, implied Neal/Peter/Elizabeth
Rating: G, no warnings apply; mild angst
Summary: Mozzie can see where this is headed. For a comment fic prompt by
Note: This was originally titled "Needs and Wants" when I posted it on LJ, but then it occurred to me that I might as well stick with my running theme of Morrissey quotes for WC fic titles. Coming up next: "The Last of the Famous International Playboys."
Mozzie has learned not to need a lot of things in life.
Sure, there's a short list: black coffee. Books. A roast beef sandwich on rye every once in a while. The Sunday Times, which has a truly ludicrous pro-Establishment slant, but is a bad habit picked up a long time ago that he can't seem to shake, plus he likes to do the crossword. An empty park bench to read it on. Freedom to do what he feels like, when he feels like it.
That's not so much to ask. That's reasonable.
Neal, on the other hand. The poor kid. It's not just that he's, well, probably unhealthily attached to his creature comforts. It's a little pathetic, but it's his thing, and he can manage it. He's good at getting a hold of the things he wants, when they're, well, things.
What's really dangerous is, he needs people's approval all the time. He needs people to like him, or really, it's obvious enough, love him. Not that Moz can't sympathize -- it's a nice enough thing to have some company, someone to want you around -- but it isn't an essential and it never should be. You can't go around needing people, not in this line of work. Moz didn't. Kate didn't, and that was a delicate enough thing to avoid pointing out all the time even without the kid's newest sources of inevitable future heartbreak.
Oh, sure, it was cute while it lasted. Like watching a middle-school kid with a crush. But who was going to have to be there when everything fell apart? Who was going to have to bite his tongue not to say I told you so? Sometimes it's just not worth it to be right. Better to just hope that maybe this time, finally, the lesson would actually sink in. Which, okay, was kind of a depressing thought. But depressing, you can work with. If I start holding out hope, I'll be just as bad off as he is.
Fandom: White Collar
Characters/Pairings: Mozzie, implied Neal/Peter/Elizabeth
Rating: G, no warnings apply; mild angst
Summary: Mozzie can see where this is headed. For a comment fic prompt by
Note: This was originally titled "Needs and Wants" when I posted it on LJ, but then it occurred to me that I might as well stick with my running theme of Morrissey quotes for WC fic titles. Coming up next: "The Last of the Famous International Playboys."
Mozzie has learned not to need a lot of things in life.
Sure, there's a short list: black coffee. Books. A roast beef sandwich on rye every once in a while. The Sunday Times, which has a truly ludicrous pro-Establishment slant, but is a bad habit picked up a long time ago that he can't seem to shake, plus he likes to do the crossword. An empty park bench to read it on. Freedom to do what he feels like, when he feels like it.
That's not so much to ask. That's reasonable.
Neal, on the other hand. The poor kid. It's not just that he's, well, probably unhealthily attached to his creature comforts. It's a little pathetic, but it's his thing, and he can manage it. He's good at getting a hold of the things he wants, when they're, well, things.
What's really dangerous is, he needs people's approval all the time. He needs people to like him, or really, it's obvious enough, love him. Not that Moz can't sympathize -- it's a nice enough thing to have some company, someone to want you around -- but it isn't an essential and it never should be. You can't go around needing people, not in this line of work. Moz didn't. Kate didn't, and that was a delicate enough thing to avoid pointing out all the time even without the kid's newest sources of inevitable future heartbreak.
Oh, sure, it was cute while it lasted. Like watching a middle-school kid with a crush. But who was going to have to be there when everything fell apart? Who was going to have to bite his tongue not to say I told you so? Sometimes it's just not worth it to be right. Better to just hope that maybe this time, finally, the lesson would actually sink in. Which, okay, was kind of a depressing thought. But depressing, you can work with. If I start holding out hope, I'll be just as bad off as he is.
Just Like Everyone Else Does FB
Date: 2010-01-05 03:23 am (UTC)Good Moz, faithful Moz. I hope Neal knows someone does love him unconditionally.
Re: Just Like Everyone Else Does FB
Date: 2010-01-05 03:27 am (UTC)I hope he does, too. Moz is a great friend.