Chapter Text
Finding out that Neal Caffrey worked for the justice league was Peter’s Villain origin story. Well, it would have been if El hadn't locked them both in the bathroom to talk it out before their friendship was ruined forever and Peter turned to a life of mistrust and disdain.
And she was right.
Yes, Neal was different now.
Gone were the suits he wore every day, replaced with some questionable outfits and colour combinations. Gone was the flirting with anything that moved, though Peter can’t say he missed that.
But honestly, it was his smile that was the most different. Gone was the Neal Caffrey smile with too many teeth and a false sparkle to his eyes. The first time Peter and the team saw a genuine smile from the man was when he reintroduced himself.
“Hi,” he had said, a small smile on his face, hand scratching the back of his neck. He looked so awkward, like the antithesis of Neal Caffrey. Of course, everyone was still angry, with the exception of Peter following El’s intervention, but that smile lessened the anger in their hearts just a bit.
He wasn’t their CI anymore, he was an official Justice League consultant. But as they got to know this new Neal, they realised nothing had really changed.
He had the same sense of humour, the same fierce loyalty to his friends, the same genius-level intellect.
Peter accepted that Neal was his friend, if anything they became closer without Peter’s constant worry about having to send Neal back to prison.
And so, life went on after the revelation.
They still all called him Neal, since he said it went against the League's policy to reveal his real name.
In reality, it was Batman who put his foot down.
"That necklace might change your appearance just enough that they don't recognise you as Dick Grayson, but that won't matter if you tell them that yourself, Dick."
Obviously, he was right, but it still hurt to lie even more to people he called friends.
The team took it in their stride, though. They did have a habit of trying to guess his name, which of course was never successful. But, it was one of the probies that started the unfortunate nickname, when they asked him if he was the same age as Neal Caffrey.
Dick just kept sipping his coffee.
So, half of the agents had taken to calling him random bizarre names instead of Neal, or just called him kid. They still respected him, and the whole of the team understood his position and why he was there. But it was their way of making him still feel a part of the team.
Neal still worked within the FBI white-collar division, helping them solve cases whenever he had the chance. In terms of his true role, he was a consultant for the FBI as a whole, helping to liaise with the justice league whenever a case fell under their jurisdiction.
But while murders and organized crime were something often encountered and solved by the superhero community, it was the white-collar crimes that went under the radar. Magic users stealing powerful artifacts, or major cooperations trying to hide their illegal activities by messing with their finances (*cough* Luthor Corp *cough*). It was apparently something the justice league wanted to get ahead of, so said Neal in the 50-slide PowerPoint presentation he gave to El and Peter as a form of apology and explanation for his deception. So it was with the white-collar team that he spent most of his time.
In some deep part of his mind, Dick knew that the real reason he had accepted this assignment had nothing to do with white-collar crime rates, it was so that he could relax. From losing Wally, to taking in Damien, to becoming Batman, to having Wally back again - his life had become so crazy over the past few years that it was nice to just have some time to escape some of it. It was a hard thing to accept, especially when he put so much pressure on himself to always be the best. So he omitted this reasoning during his PowerPoint to peter and El.
Still, everyone slowly came to accept the new Neal Caffrey.
However, they had made one crucial assumption: there was no way that Neal was actually a superhero…right?