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Ted let himself into the quiet apartment when he knocked and received no answer. He took his jacket off and kicked off his wet sneakers by the door before venturing into the living room, plastic shopping bag in hand. He followed the only light source in the place to the kitchen, where he found Booster sitting forlornly at the table, a plastic baggie of ice held to his face.
“Thought you had a date,” Ted said quietly as he sat the bag on the table.
“Not looking like this,” Booster groaned into the baggie as he moved it from his bleeding brow down to the side of his bruised mouth. The broken goggles were off and the cowl pushed back, but he hadn’t made it out of the rest of his power suit, which was as badly mangled as his face.
“Nothing a little bit of toner won’t hide,” Ted smiled teasingly as he pulled iodine, bandages, and assorted other first aid supplies from the bag.
The taller hero just groaned again and attempted shifting the bag to the back of his head, but a pain in his shoulder had him cringing, so he settled it back on his face.
“I’m really sorry about this, you know,” Ted said as he pulled a chair up to Booster and pushed the icepack out of the way so he could clean the cut above Booster’s eye. “I mean, it’s not my fault some jerk decided to attempt a literal hostile takeover of my office, but... I’m sorry I had to play a stupid hostage like everyone else. I should have helped.”
“What, and expose that secret identity you supposedly have?” Booster tried to smirk, but it reopened the split in his lip, so he pouted instead.
Ted was a little rough with cleaning the scrapes on Booster’s cheek from where he hit the side of a building, face first. “I really didn’t have to come here and help you out. You can sit here and bleed for all I care.”
“Ow, ow, ow, I thought we were friends!” Booster complained at the rough treatment.
Ted stopped and put down the bloody gauze to pick up a fresh one, dripping antiseptic on it. He dabbed gently at the split on Booster’s bottom lip. “If you hadn’t been alone, you woudn’t’ve had to use your force field on me. You’d be on that date right now instead of sitting here looking like bad hamburger.”
“No...” Booster said, taking a hold of Ted’s wrist to keep his hand away. “I can't let a civilian get hurt. You know that's bad PR."
Ted frowned and pulled his hand free. "But I'm not a civilia-"
"Today, you were," Booster said and he smacked Ted's hand away as he came at him again with disinfectant. "And I'm not going to let some nutjob take a crack at you, whether you're in poorly coordinated civvies or running around as a giant blue man-bug."
Ted rolled his eyes. "That's so touching."
"I'm being serious," Booster shot back, getting to his feet. He limped his way over to the sink to toss the mostly melted icepack in before turning to lean against it. "It's one thing when you're in your suit. It's reinforced and it's no big deal if you take a tumble, because the Blue Beetle can handle it." He shook his head and waved in the general direction of the living room windows. "Out there today, you were Ted Kord, a scientist business man with little more than a hideous power tie to shield you-"
"I can handle myself!" Ted nearly shouted as he jumped to his feet.
"I know that!" Booster shouts back. "I know what you're capable of. We've had each other's backs so many times! I know you know what you're doing..."
"Then what the heck made today so damn different?" Ted asked, a hand tightening on the back of his chair.
"That guy... He wanted to hurt you, Ted," Booster said, letting out a frustrated sigh. "Not Beetle, but Ted! And if your secret identity is so damn important to you, then how the hell is Ted Kord in a tweed suit jacket going to fight back against a guy with augmented strength? God! I was scared to death, okay!?"
Ted chuckled and shook his head. "I wasn't scared. Because I had you there. Besides, with you there, you had his attention. You didn't need to leave your force field on me."
Booster deflated with a sigh. "Why do you make my life so hard?"
"I think you like getting knocked around, you masochist," Ted snorted. "Look at the attention you get afterwards. I mean, hey. I actually felt bad for you and came to patch you up for your troubles. Now tell me there isn't any truth in that? You big baby."
Booster smiled, despite his lip splitting open again. "I think you're lying about feeling bad for me. I think you're a sadist and you've just come to inflict more pain with your antiseptics and disinfectants."
"Maybe we should change it from Team Blue and Gold to Team Sado-Masochism? They seem to pair together just as well," Ted chuckled.
Booster laughed softly. "Sounds kinky."
Ted let out a full bwahaha to that. "Maybe we stick with Blue and Gold. We don't need to give Guy anymore reason to taunt us. Now sit back down and let me fix your face. It's the least I can do. Besides, you can't sell toothpaste looking like that."
Booster limped his way back to his chair. "Thanks, Ted," he said with a sincere smile.
Ted smiled back shyly and dabbed at Booster's lip. "Hey, you saved my life today. So... thank you."