It took a minute for Tim to remember what he was looking for, and then he scanned the books around him to see what section he was in. Poetry, perfect. He followed the alphabet down to the Ns, but didn't see anything that he wanted.

Bracing himself, he looked around the corner and saw that the man at the counter was working diligently on something, maybe a drawing. His head was down, concentrating as his hand swept across the paper. There was something in it; charcoal he realized a moment later. There was a smudge of it across his cheek too.

"Excuse me. I was looking for Pablo Neruda, but I don't see it back here."

When the man looked up, a curled lock of hair fell across his forehead and all Tim wanted to do was brush it back for him. He smiled again and made his way around the counter. The snug, faded FDNY t-shirt and loose-fitting slate gray cargo pants were quickly overshadowed by the black forearm crutches the man was using. Tim was surprised but tried not to let it show. There was something very sexy about the ease with which the man handled the crutches.

"Y aquel reloj cuyo sonido era la voz de nuestras vidas, el secreto hilo de las semanas…" He quoted as he dodged a display of calendars and the rotating rack of 'leave a book, take a book' paperbacks. "Are you looking for a specific book?"

Tim's mind went blank, and he froze, wide-eyed, until the other man laughed.

"It's okay. I know we have three or four copies over here." He crutched around the corner from where Tim had been looking. "I'm Matt, by the way."

That's from Ode to Broken Things, the very first Bookstore story.

My question: Why did you write this as RPS and not simply a WC A/U?

Ode to Broken Things started as a response to a prompt that embroiderama left on her RPF AU meme. I don't remember the exact prompt anymore but I think it was simply about Matt working in a bookstore.

Since it was for the RPF AU meme, I never considered it being a WC AU story. The characters quickly took on lives of their own, and it was very clear to me that they were not Neal or Peter. I took inspiration from WC promo interviews and videos to create the characters of Matt and Tim and filled out the rest of their personalities based on the backstories I created and also how I needed them to be similar or different in various aspects.

It was only meant to be that first short story. However, I wrote this line "That's more of a third date kind of story. Don't want to send you running off too soon." and I got several requests for the third date. To write the third date, I had to write the others. And by then I was in love with the 'verse and had to write more.

Pablo Neruda was the first poet I thought of. He's one of my brother's favorites, and when I read a couple of his poems (in English as my Spanish is terrible), I knew he was the poet that Tim would be searching for, just as I knew Matt would be able to quote a poem. As I was re-reading though, it struck me that it means they're both quite proficient in Spanish. When I write the wedding, there will be Neruda quotes in at least one set of vows. :D

Thank you! I could talk about Bookstore for days :D

“Peter?” Neal croaked, squinting through the long, greasy hair falling in his eyes.

Peter choked back his emotions and simply replied, “I'm here.” His hand was a millimeter from resting on Neal's shoulder when the younger man shifted, melting into Diana's side. She whispered something inaudible but comforting and slid her arm around to place her hand on the back of his neck.

Jones shared a distressed look over their heads with Peter while Neal slipped one arm around Diana's waist and used the other hand to pull the sides of the jacket closed over her chest. He murmured what sounded like “Warm?”, and she nodded.

The medics arrived less than two minutes later to find the two so tangled together that they wound up transporting them to the ambulance and the hospital on a single stretcher.

from 'Unbreakable' (http://archiveofourown.org/works/712413)

I love Unbreakable in so many ways, including those heart-wrenching, angst-ridden moments like this. Neal understands that Peter is there and he consciously moves away from him. After reading and writing so many other WC stories where Neal and Peter are drawn together, this was a moment that I felt like I needed to show, but it hurt to write. (Not quite as much as it hurt to write Unbearable, which is one of the few times I've actually made myself cry while writing a scene.)

Unbreakable started as an anonymous response to a prompt at collarkink. It was the first time I'd ever done that, and I found it both freeing to write something anonymously and sad that I wasn't sharing it openly with people that I thought would like it. I planned the first four chapters around those Skinny Love lyrics - I was obsessed with the song at that time - and that was meant to be the end of it. But then, like most of my 'verses, I just couldn't stop writing it.

The 'verse is in a format that's very strange to me, and I don't usually enjoy even reading non-linear stories, but it's actually quite fun to explore as a writer. It is very easy to write yourself into a corner with timelines though. There are discrepancies, but I tried to work them out as best I could to tell the story that I wanted to tell. This is most obvious in the Neal/Sara relationship, but that is one of my favorite relationships in this whole fic series.

Back to this passage, I love Neal and Diana as friends, which I think is what drew me to the prompt in the first place. I find her hard to write sometimes, but it's worth it when stories like Unbreakable come together and feel right. I'm an instinctual writer, and when something feels right to me, I get so excited to share it. I wanted her to be protective of Neal, just as he's protective of her, and that shows in this passage. They're comforting each other while making sure the other is okay. It hits me right in the feelings.

Thank you so much for asking!

YAY! No one beat me to Redraw the Lines!

Why did you chose to start the story right after the (slightly reworked) events at the Russian Embassy?

I love the extra level of tension created by including Rice in the story. How/why did you decide to include her?

Talk to me about how you developed the Hughes family and their history.

And, finally tell me a bit about how you developed Neal's reactions/feelings to finding out that his whole life was not what he thought, and his feelings about his new family.

These are all excellent questions! Bear me with me as this is going to take three comments or something to post. :D

Why did you chose to start the story right after the (slightly reworked) events at the Russian Embassy?

I was looking for notes about this because I couldn't remember anything about why I did it except that I wanted to have a resolution to the Fowler situation that made sense to me, as opposed to the nonsensical craziness of canon. I found a part of chat that I'd saved where you and I had discussed this, and my reasoning was that I wanted Neal to be off-kilter already at the beginning of the story. Not only did he confront Fowler using violence, something he usually abhors, but he also got a resolution to what happened to Kate, which left him with a 'what now' sort of feeling. (Though, at the time, the idea was to have either Peter or Diana shoot Fowler in front of Neal – I'm not sure why I changed that, but I'm glad I did. I think it would have been too much.)

I love the extra level of tension created by including Rice in the story. How/why did you decide to include her?

Writing Rice is a ton of fun. She is a very specific type of antagonist that worked really well here because we already knew her dynamic with Peter and with Neal. Also, she was the only agent from Missing Persons that we knew, so it was natural to use her instead of creating someone new.

Also, I really wanted to write that interrogation scene between Rice and Neal. On the one hand, she's not really a fan of Neal's, but on the other, she has been working this case for a long time as a favor to Hughes, so she would have some sympathy for Neal and the situation.

Talk to me about how you developed the Hughes family and their history.

So the initial idea I had for a story was for Neal to meet a woman and fall for her and then later find out that she was Hughes' daughter. Hughes would not like this, but they would already be in love, so he would have to accept Neal as, eventually, a son-in-law. I could never get that story off the ground, so I started to come up with other story ideas that involved Hughes because I really wanted to write something where Hughes and Neal had to forge a friendship.

I love to read/watch stories about kidnapped children who are returned home after many years, so I started working that angle. I knew I wanted to use a medical event – some form of transplant – and I knew that I wanted it to be Hughes' daughter that needed the transplant. I liked the idea of Neal and Emma being twins, and it gave the story more emotional weight – that these twins were torn apart, that the Hughes family had one twin but had lost the other, that Emma would feel like she was missing something her entire life and maybe Neal would feel that way too.

The Deep End of the Ocean was a movie that I really liked for the subject matter, and I'd also read the book on which it was based – highly recommend the book! The mother in that story had withdrawn from her family emotionally, and I wanted to explore that to a bit of a lesser degree with Cathy. She was still there for the kids, but she had to deal with Daniel's disappearance in her own ways.

Also, the older brother in that movie/book had a lot of guilt about losing his younger brother, and I also wanted to explore that with Michael. I wanted him to be a strong but wounded adult. And I thought it would be a nice little irony if he were also a Marshal and knew a little about Neal. There's some nature vs nurture arguments there that one could make with them that I rather enjoy. Would Neal have still become a criminal if he had grown up as Daniel Hughes? Would Michael still be a Marshal if he had been kidnapped instead?

And, finally tell me a bit about how you developed Neal's reactions/feelings to finding out that his whole life was not what he thought, and his feelings about his new family.

This was the hardest part! It's one of the few times I've actually reined in my writer instincts and tried my damnedest to not fall into the woobie trap, because I kept wanting to make Neal a woobie who just kinda curled up and took comfort from Peter and never wanted to face the world. Neal is not that character. He's a fighter, and he desperately wants to love and be loved.

Neal hasn't had a family in so long that I wanted him to approach the situation with caution. There was no way he was going to jump right in and want to sleepover for Christmas morning or anything, but he would be curious. Wary but curious.

It was all a big balancing act between caution and interest, really. He wanted to know about the family, but he was afraid to get too close. I think that part of that was because Kate's death was still very fresh to him, and part of it was because he's had to be mostly independent for so long (since he was 16) that it was scary having other people there for him to lean on if needed them. Other people besides Moz, and Peter and El, of course.

There's also an aspect to it where Neal's an adult, and he doesn't need parental figures in his life. Balancing that with everything else was interesting. There were times that I desperately wanted to make him a teenager in order to justify the temptation to write the woobie, but I had written several thousand words at that point and did not want to start over.

In the end, I'm not entirely happy with Neal's characterization but it's such a strange situation that he was suddenly thrust into at a time when his world was already in upheaval that I think it makes sense even if it's not perfect.

This story is probably the one that I'm most proud of, out of all of my fics. I let it take shape and evolve in my head for so long, and I stuck with it, which is something I had not done in the past with other story ideas. I was so happy the day I finally got it posted, and I've enjoyed continuing it. I still have ideas about it that I'd like to write one day.

Thank you for asking about it! I could talk about poor Daniel Hughes for days :D

Adore the stand by me verse. How did the idea come about?

It all started with this little meme I did asking for AU prompts. Elr prompted me with Neal, Peter and Mozzie go camping. I could not make it work with the adult versions of the characters, so I made them teenagers.

With the age change came a lot of questions about parents, and I looked at what we knew in canon. Mozzie was an orphan, Peter seemed to have a good childhood and relationship with his parents, and Neal had a crazy mess of WitSec and whatnot. So, I decided they should all be in a foster home run by June and Byron (because June would be a fantastic foster mother), and I gave them similar family backgrounds – Mozzie was still an orphan, Peter's parents had died and left him without any other family, and Neal's mother was alive but not able to care for him.

I wanted to also include Diana and Sara, so they became other foster children in the Ellington home. Then, Elizabeth had to be Peter's girlfriend, so I wrote a little ficlet about them. Eventually, I want to introduce Kate as Elizabeth's younger sister, who will date Neal.

The 'verse has been really fun because the characters are actually pretty well-suited to being teenagers – it's like taking their adult personalities and adding a bit of playfulness and some questionable decision-making skills. (Well, that's Neal's basic personality – LOL)

It's been a lot of fun to write. I'm a little torn about where to go with it now. I have an idea that I would love to write, but it's very dark and emotional. I'm not sure how far I can take these characters before they break, and I don't want to break them. They're already pretty damaged. *hugs them close*

Thank you so much for asking! I love the 'verse and the characters. It's one of my favorite things I've written.

"While Neal usually gravitated toward Elizabeth – he loved to help her cook – he often made a bee-line for Peter whenever he didn't feel well. It made for interesting days when Peter had to go to work, but Neal was too sick to go to his daycare. Elizabeth had watched him cry himself to sleep just the other day because Peter couldn't stay home with him. There was no consoling the child when he was in a 'Peter' mood."

from Santa Day ♥

And my question is: wee!Neal - we adore him. What do you enjoy most when writing wee!Neal stories?