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franzbiblio · 3 years ago

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Gift for SewerReptile

Booster had already mostly forgotten the nightmare by the time he opened his eyes. Still, the vague sense-memory of trapped helplessness prevented him from just turning over and falling back asleep. At least this one hadn't just been his subconscious replaying the greatest hits of his failures over and over again.

He turned to grab his phone, but instead found himself focusing on where Mom and Michelle stared out from the spherical holophoto. He wasn't even sure why he still hung on to the stupid thing. As if he really needed the reminder of how they looked when it seemed every other night they were there in his dreams staring back at him with disappointment and revulsion.

Booster snatched his phone and sat up, checking the time: 1:14 AM. Too early to just go for a run and start the day, especially since he and Ted were meeting a client early tomorrow, and dark shadows under his eyes wouldn’t exactly help make a gold standard impression. He punched in his phone’s passcode and checked his messages.

He deleted several scams and scams-adjacents that wanted him to advertise their product in exchange for exposure, a dozen no-name podcasts requesting interviews, someone claiming to be the mother of his illegitimate child who would keep quiet in exchange for ten thousand dollars and a lock of his hair. Booster closed his business email after that one. Hopefully, once Blue and Gold Restoration was solvent enough he could hire an assistant again ASAP.

With a swipe of his thumb, he moved to private texts and saw Tora had sent him a picture of a golden retriever with a star bandanna around its neck. She added the caption: “Saved this dog and his owner… turns out his name is Woofster Gold!”

Booster laughed, saved the image and without thinking forwarded it to Ted. A soft chime came from the nightstand on the opposite side of the bed. Oh right.

Ted kept such weird hours that a lot of the time Booster forgot they were technically sharing a room. Except when he left clothes on the floor for Booster to trip over or left pieces of whatever project he was working on Booster’s side of the bed. That particular habit more than anything confirmed to Booster that Ted had been really telling the truth when he’d spent the majority of his time on the JLI whining about his lack of a love life.

If Ted left his phone that probably meant he was still somewhere in the apartment.

Booster got out of bed without bothering to turn on the light. He padded down the hall and wasn’t surprised to see a familiar head backlit by a laptop screen sitting on the sofa, headphones on and oblivious to the world. Booster stood there for a moment just watching, unsure if he even really wanted to bother Ted. Maybe he could just creep back to bed. For years, Booster would have thought nothing of plopping down on the couch beside Ted hooking an arm around his shoulder or putting his feet on his lap just to annoy him, but now Booster dithered. Every idea to draw Ted’s attention immediately discarded as too clingy, or too obnoxious or too— too something.

After saving the Justice League, starting up another business together had seemed the next natural step, and it had been just as natural to go out for a couple of drinks to work out the proposal, and after that, more drunk off success and enthusiasm than beer it had seemed natural to start making out in their shared cab ride, and then after that it had only made sense to share a place to keep expenses down. While all those decisions at the time had seemed like the normal step-by-step consequence of the one preceding it, when taken in their entirety Booster found himself slightly mystified how he ended up here: staring at the back of Ted’s head not sure what to do because no one had written a how-to guide for best friend with benefits, and even Booster was business-savvy enough to know that there was no market for it.

Ted stretched, and craned his neck to the left and right, shifting his eyeline enough that he froze, and turned sharply in Booster’s direction. “Geez, Booster, are you planning on becoming Batman now?” Ted said, body sagging with relief. “Somehow I just don’t think you’d be able to pull off the cowl in golden pants.”

“Hey, I just follow where the money is,” Booster replied, the quip came easily enough, but Booster had to desperately wrack his brain for some follow-up before the pause drew out too long. “...So, what are you doing up so late?” ...And great, now he sounded like a nag.

“It’s not that late, it’s only a little after midnight—” Ted glanced briefly at his laptop screen. “Huh, one o’clock, what do you know.”

“What are you working on?” Booster asked quickly and leaned over the back of the couch so he wasn’t just hovering in the doorway.

“Just upgrading the Bug’s software, when I eventually get the Blue Beauty flying again, might as well take the time to make sure she’s the best she can be. I saw some interesting stuff on the Omnizon's ship that might be worth exploring,” Ted said.

“You noticed some fancy features in a spaceship that was in the middle of self-destructing?” Booster asked.

“Hey, I can multitask,” Ted said, and reached for a mug off the coffee table. “There’s some coffee still warm in the kitchen, if you want some.” Booster must have given some kind of look because he immediately followed up with, “It’s decaf, my doctors were pretty persuasive on the whole not exploding my heart thing.”

“I think I’ll just go make some tea,” Booster said as nonchalantly as he could while he made his escape to the kitchen.

Mechanically he filled the electric kettle with water, grabbed his favorite mug from the cupboard and as he waited for the water to heat came to the crushing personal realization that he had absolutely no game.

All his life the most he usually had to do if he wanted someone was express interest. Some notable exceptions aside, even Trixie, who had been one of the least impressed women he’d ever spent time with, hadn’t taken all that much convincing to go out to dinner with him. Ted, however, was a first-hand witness to every single one of his moves on many, many occasions.

The electric kettle beeped. Booster poured the water into the mug, allowed it to steep and came to the decision that he wouldn’t just slink away. Booster Gold was many things, but he wasn’t a coward.

Booster returned back to the living room, mug in hand and sat on the couch. Ted wasn’t wearing his headphones anymore, but he was still typing away, fully engrossed in his work.

“You can turn on a movie or something if you want. I don’t mind,” Ted said, not looking away from his screen. Booster turned on the TV and flipped through the channels until he found a very cheap monster movie. This at least got Ted to look up and laugh as the rubber-suited creature waved its arms menacingly at the bosomy blonde flailing in terror in the foreground. They watched in companionable silence.

“It’s kind of nostalgic. I don’t really miss living at the JLI headquarters or, god, sharing a bathroom with Guy, but it did make late night hangouts easier," Ted said after a while.

“I think I learned more about this time period’s culture from your weird late movie marathons than Skeets was ever able to drill into my head,” Booster said.

Ted snickered. “I never had the heart to tell him that no one actually remembers all the US presidents… Well, good thing we’re roommates now and can relive the glory days. Except, you know, with more decaf coffee than beer and popcorn,” he said with a bit of a rueful nod to his cup before returning his attention to his laptop.

Roommates? Booster sat there consumed by an emotion he didn't think there was a word for. Some part frustration, some part indignation, some part plain terror. It was like somehow Ted had completely forgotten to read the script before walking blithely out on stage, leaving Booster to improvise poorly around him. When Ted had come out of his coma he had spent months basically sulking in the JLI’s basement. When Booster had died and been brought back to life he hadn’t wasted a minute before jumping back on the saddle. So, how was it that Ted was able to serenely sit there cracking jokes while Booster sat here having a crisis over a mug of sleepy time chamomile?

Stung pride demanded action. Out of the corner of his eye Booster studied the space between them on the couch. While facing forward, he methodically scooted across the cushion until he was finally within range to completely slump over, pressing his head against Ted’s bicep. This wasn’t exactly uncharted waters for them, but did it mean something different now?

Ted made a slightly annoyed huff. “Is this payback for all those return flights?” Ted asked. Booster didn’t answer, but pretended to start to snore.

Ted shifted and for a moment Booster wondered if Ted was getting up or shoving him away, but instead Ted repositioned his arm around Booster so he could continue to type.

Booster's nose now pressed a bit uncomfortably against Ted’s ribcage, but the change also meant he could hear clearly the steady throb of Ted’s heart and coupled with the rhythmic clatter of Ted’s fingers against the keyboard Booster fell asleep for real without even realizing it.

The next thing Booster was aware of, he was being nudged awake. “Alright, Sleeping Beauty, my arm is officially asleep.”

“Sorry,” Booster yawned, moving upright.

“Nah, don’t worry, they’ll just have to amputate,” Ted said.

Still more asleep than awake, Booster muzzily nodded. “‘S too bad.” He and Ted were still pressed together and Booster sitting up had only made it so their faces were barely inches from each other. Booster could see that Ted was developing laugh lines in the corner of his eyes and mouth. It was simple to lean forward and kiss him.

There was nothing awkward about kissing Ted, it just felt instinctive, like sharing a private joke. Ted pulled back, and Booster felt his stomach drop until he realized Ted was closing his laptop and turned to Booster with an apologetic grin before kissing Booster again. From this vantage point all his previous anxiety seemed irrelevant and misguided. The only worthwhile question became why hadn't he been kissing Ted earlier?

A crash came from the hall and they pulled apart, abruptly forcing Booster out of the pleasant sleepy world where words weren’t needed.

“It’s probably a serial killer," Ted said, deadpan. "In horror movies, the couple making out always goes first."

Booster was too annoyed to quip back, and stood up to investigate. Ted didn’t move. “Aren’t you coming with me?” Booster asked.

“Nope. The attractive blond has a reasonably good odds of making it to the end, but the comic relief has absolutely no chance,” Ted reasoned, and motioned with his hand for Booster to keep going.

Booster rolled his eyes and stepped out in the hall to find the cause of the crash was a toppled coat rack. A closer inspection, and the removal of a few jackets, revealed the perpetrator was a mobile vacuum cleaner. Booster picked it up, and could see that it had been modified to have a blue, vaguely beetle-like exterior. And everyone got on Booster’s case about branding everything.

“You good in there Boost— oh, it was Bugby,” Ted said, emerging from the living room. Apparently enough time had passed that he needed to check that Booster really hadn’t been attacked. He quickly righted the coat rack and hung the jackets (most of which were Booster’s) back up. “Well, that’s enough excitement for one night. We’d better go to bed, we do have that meeting in the morning,” Ted said, stifling a yawn.

For a moment Booster stared at Ted, who looked so comfortable, and warm and like home that words crawled up his throat like bile. Maybe Ted had a formula Booster could use to predict how long he could reasonably expect to keep this. Maybe saying anything at all would just ruin everything.

Booster swallowed and placed Bugby down on the floor, where it gave a consternated few beeps before beginning to move and continue its haphazard way. “Yeah, let's go to bed.”

#boostle #fanfic

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