also "i used to be better at lying" is adorable but neal, the point is that you can't lie to elizabeth, not that your general ability to tell an untruth is slipping.

Exactly. Elizabeth is the kind of awesome that will totally see through those easy lies. Mind you, Peter's probably a good influence too -- he's very honest about how much he cares for Elizabeth, for his team, for Neal. I don't think it would do Neal any harm to be surrounded by people who make it quite clear that their concern and affection for him is genuine.

i lovelovelove that it feels kind of like the lead-in to a threesome story, but can also easily be read as completely platonic, and then it actually does go there. it's like an outtake from the show.

That's an awesome thing to say! I think that's one of the best things about fandom -- without realising it, the show constantly skates this line of a possible threesome. When you see the three of them together, it always feels like it's about three lines away from making this threesome canon.