Work Text:
They were in the middle of looking through a case when Neal’s face turned red with a muttered ‘oh shit’.
Clark had actually almost been enjoying himself without powers. Sure there were definite downsides; not being able to check in on his loved ones from thousands of miles away, not being able to protect his city as he once did, but in a way this unfortunate situation was like a vacation. Conner and Jon were fully capable of taking care of Metropolis without him. The Justice League was enormous, leaving plenty of people to deal with whatever came up without him.
However, now that he’d been powerless for a while, he was not expecting their random return. Well, he could hear at an advanced level again. As great as it was -- he could hear his family’s heartbeats again -- he really wished that Jason and Roy weren’t apparently in New York for the weekend. The city or the state.
He saw the Gotham vigilantes as family, he’d watched the child heroes grow up. He did not want to know anything about their sex lives. Alas, here he was.
“Neal? Is there a problem?”
“Uh, what? Sorry Peter, everything’s fine.”
Clark cleared his throat and tried to force the blush from his face. It wasn’t like he could yell at them to stop it. He really had to remember how he tuned it all out. If he had to hear everyone doing this stuff... well let's just say he had stopped checking up on Batman during Selena's 'Heist Nights' for a reason.
"You sure about that?" Peter questioned, eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"Yep! Absolutely. Now about this case..."
Neal tried to surreptitiously rub at his eye as he sat at his desk. Mortgage fraud paperwork was exhausting enough without sore eyes.
"Neal, we've got a case, let's go."
"Oh thank god."
Neal tried to hide the growing irritation as the pair made their way down to Peter's car but apparently it wasn't enough.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, just got a bit of a headache starting."
Peter pursed his lips but didn't push it.
It wasn't until they were standing in a very high brow, expensive museum that his eyes started burning and he realised his own stupidity.
His enhanced hearing had come back not long before, and so it only made sense that the others would soon follow. He had nearly forgotten what it felt like when he first developed his laser vision.
Two little black holes were burnt into the marble floor before Clark snapped his eyes closed. There was no cry of alarm so he felt it safe to assume that no one had noticed. Be that as it may, he stumbled to where he remembered a small side corridor between exhibits to get the ability under control.
Peter followed after his CI when the younger man stumbled out of the room and found him collapsed against a wall with the heels of his palms digging into his eyes. It was a pitiful sight. Neal's fancy suit was getting all wrinkled.
"Neal? Hey."
The younger man let out a shaky breath and turned his head slightly to indicate he was listening.
"Alright, I don't know what's going on, but are you okay."
"He'll be fine," a voice said from the other direction. A teen that looked like a carbon copy of Neal walked over, a smaller teen lingering in the back.
"And who are you?"
Neal's double looked back at his companion with a frown.
"It's complicated, but he will be okay. We just need a few moments."
Peter was about to protest when Neal spoke up.
"It's alright Peter, I trust him. I'll be with you soon."
The FBI agent huffed, ignoring his own growing headache.
"Fine. But if you aren't ready to work in ten minutes you're taking the day."
As Peter left the corridor, he heard faint muttering and pretended not to hear Neal call the teen 'Conner'. He didn't know who the kids were but just in case, he would cling to plausible deniability.
The super strength came back more gradually, which made for an interesting week. Many pens were broken.
Peter was walking through towards his desk when he stopped at Neal's desk. He glanced down at his coffee and sniffed at it a bit. He didn't detect any hallucinogens but that didn't completely take the possibility off the table.
There was just no way that there was a hand shaped indent in the metal leg of the desk. Nope, someone must've drugged him.
Neal entered the room, saw what Peter was staring at, and immediately left once more for the filing room.
While the first powers had returned at awkward times and in inconvenient ways, the bulletproof skin came back just in time.
Everything went south very quickly when the person Neal was negotiating with got twitchy.
"Hey there, no need to bring out the guns. I'm just trying to buy some art," Neal said.
He could hear Peter in the van calling for back up. Unfortunately it seemed that this particular criminal was a little trigger happy. Peter walked into the room just in time to watch Neal get shot in the chest.
"NO!"
Clark felt the bullet hit, felt the heat of it tear through his clothes and hit his chest, before the tiny object that should have killed him crumpled harmlessly against his skin. He had fallen back instinctively, but no actual harm was done, unless you counted ruining his cover.
Neal looked up to find the criminal ready to shoot the man that had become his friend, and decided to completely give up on the cover. He didn't want to miss Dick's wedding anyways, so it was really a win-win situation. Clark got to attend his pseudo-nephew's wedding, and got to tell his friend the truth.
With a little more speed than a typical human could use, Neal leapt to cover Peter with his own body, ignoring the bullets that pinged off his back.
"Neal?!"
"Hey Peter, sorry about this."
"You'd better have a damn good explanation for this!"
The undercover superhero had the decency to look sheepish.
"So you're Superman."
"Yes."
"And you lost your powers?"
"I did."
"But now they're back."
"Yes. Just in time too, there's an upcoming wedding in the caped community, that I didn't want to miss."
Peter stared at the younger man. Sure Neal- Clark had been lying to him, but it was for a reason. The supposed thief that he'd come to care about was not only innocent, but a founder of the Justice League. Superman. Yet despite all Clark's superhuman abilities, Peter could see the doubt and apprehension lingering behind his charming smile, which was somehow even more charming when it was real.
"Alright, I didn't see anything."
"You- what? Alright?"
"Yes, alright," Peter sighed. "I've gotten used to Neal Caffrey throwing me curve-balls, this is just another one. Besides, plausible deniability, I didn't see anything. But El is still expecting you over next week for some sort of food testing thing."
The naked relief on Clark's face was all Peter needed to see to know that he made the right choice of response.
"Of course Peter, wouldn't miss it for the world."
Peter smiled and shook his head.
"That's an actual risk isn't it, you might have to go save the world."
Clark blushed.
"It is always a possibility, but Conner's done just fine in my absence, I'm sure I could spare another day here and there to spend time with you guys. Oh, and I didn't catch it last time, but what event is she hosting again?"
Peter wracked his brain for the answer.
"Uh, I think it's some high society couple over in Gotham? Rich kid is marrying the Commissioner's daughter."
Clark burst out laughing.