The Big Damn List took long enough to realize the obvious answer to this prompt.
Title: Lovely Iridescent Cricket Wings
Fandom: Justice League (SuperBuddies!)
Characters: Booster/Beetle, Sue, Max, Mary, L-Ron, Bea
Prompt: "Wings."
Word Count: 4639
Rating: NC-17
Author's Notes: Ted grows beetle wings, they are lovely. ...Also, there is sex with Booster eventually. Features divorced!Booster. (I may or may not revisit this universe again some time.)
Beta by phoenixfire_lia.
Lovely Iridescent Cricket Wings
"So a beetle, eh? Then be as you say!"
Magic rips through him like a scorching wind, burning through his skin and settling in his back like white-hot coals tucked under his muscles. The pain drops him to his hands and knees and his throat feels raw, though if he's screaming he's deaf to it. Fingers digging into the hard ground, he hunches over as red and orange spots dance in his vision.
When the spots seep black and bleed over the clear threads of his sight, pain being pushed away to some distant place, he's grateful for that small mercy.
---------------
Ted wakes up with his cheek smashed against a pillow. His cheek is damp with his own drool, though he thinks he can also feel tiny pools of moisture on the bridge of his nose and over an ear.
Shifting causes an avalanche of pain to ripple over his back and he clenches his teeth to bite back all but a pained whine. He thinks he feels a muscle spasm, but which one is lost in the miasma of throbbing red agony.
This is probably why he's laying on his front, he realizes.
Opening his eyes, he also realizes that the couch at headquarters pulls out into a bed.
"Don't try to move, Ted," Sue says softly from somewhere behind the cloud of pain hovering over and on his back.
Licking his lips, he manages to jokingly croak, "Give it to me straight, doc. How long do I have? And will I ever be able to play the piano again?"
"I hope not, you're terrible at it," Sue quips back. A cool hand settles on his overheated shoulder. It feels nice.
Ted chuckles, then hisses in a breath as the movement jostles his back painfully. "No piano for a while, I promise," he whispers.
"How does it feel?"
"Like a giant gaping void in my soul. ...I really liked that piano."
The hand on his shoulder squeezes gently. "Ted," Sue warns.
Ted groans, "Ah, like I laid down in a puddle of boiling acid. Do we have painkillers, and why are you holding out?"
"We...needed you to be able to tell how bad it was," Sue murmurs slowly.
"You're a cruel, cruel woman."
"I've got some pills."
"I take it back," Ted moans, moving his head a little. "You're an angel in human form. Forget Ralph and run away with me."
"You're just saying that because you're in excruciating pain," Sue teases.
"Damn right, woman. Gimmie."
Chuckling, Sue moves into his line of sight and presses a small white pill to his mouth. Ted folds his lips over it and sucks it onto his tongue, then takes a long sip of water from the straw that Sue offers him.
"It'll probably knock you out for a little while longer."
"Mm, fine. Haven't been getting enough sleep lately anyway." Ted's eyelids droop, voice dissolving into a tired slur. "Don' tell Ralph I pr'p'sitioned you. He'd k'll me in my sleep."
"Oh Ted," Sue murmurs affectionately, cool hand stroking his sweaty hair. "What makes you think I wouldn't get to you first?"
Ted falls asleep with a smile on his face.
---------------
When Ted wakes again, eyes fluttering open, it's to Booster staring at him with his chin propped on the edge of the sofa-bed. Ted blinks at him and Booster lays his head to the side so they're level.
"Feel better?" he asks quietly.
"Actually...yeah," Ted murmurs, realizing as he says it that it's true. The hot knives of pain from earlier have cooled to a dull ache. His back still feels strange, but at least he can move a little without his vision fading out from the agonizing sensation.
He still feels groggy from the pill, though, and doesn't think he'll be conscious for very long.
"Good." Booster looks over his face, then his eyes stray to Ted's back. It's only then that Ted realizes he's been stripped to the waist the whole time. He wonders if whatever got on his back ate through his suit. He hopes not; the spare needs cleaning before he'll be willing to wear it again.
Smelling of rotten pickles is not heroic.
Just as he's drifting off, he hears Booster speak again, still hushed.
"You have wings, by the way. I thought you might want to know."
The words curl meaninglessly in Ted's ears as the phantom sensation of fingers on part of his back he's not familiar with trail him into sleep.
---------------
Ted wakes from a dream of flowers in shades of color human eyes were never meant to see, feeling more rested than he can remember feeling in months. Forgetting the pain of earlier, he stretches luxuriously.
Something unfamiliar stretches in his back.
Freezing, Ted tries to capture the sensation in his mind and push it again. The same unfamiliar stretch of muscles radiates across his back and Booster's words from before drift back to him.
"You have wings, by the way. I thought you might want to know."
Ted shoots up, strange and new muscles shifting and tensing, causing a faint breeze.
"What the hell?!"
The shout brings most of the team running and Ted turns to them, demanding, "What the hell is on my back?!"
Max opens and closes his mouth, but it's Mary who pipes up cheerily, "Wings! Like a...like a cricket!" She makes flapping motions with her hands.
Standing up on the sofa-bed, Ted walks to the end of it and hops off, feeling those unfamiliar muscles extending slightly. "A cricket?!"
Sue hurries forward and clasps his shoulder with both hands. "Ted, calm down," she commands, looking him in the eye. "The crazy magical bad guy hit you with a spell that made you grow wings. That's why your back hurt so much earlier."
"I was growing wings?!" Calm isn't really in Ted's plans for the next few minutes, and the volume of his voice reflects it.
"They're not so bad," Booster adds, moving to his other side. "They're kind of shiny. Uh...eerie-something."
"Iridescent?" Ted suggests numbly.
Booster snaps his fingers and grins. "That's the word!"
"Dark blue," Sue says helpfully, smiling. "They're really quite lovely, Ted."
"Oh, that makes it all better, then," Ted growls. "I have lovely iridescent cricket wings."
"Ooh! I wonder if you can fly!" Mary claps her hands with excitement.
Ted stares at her, then from Sue to Booster, then hangs his head with a groan. He should have known that anyone who willingly joined a group called "Super Buddies" had to be a crazy person.
And now, he was a crazy person with lovely iridescent cricket wings.
---------------
It's L-Ron who finally puts things in perspective for him.
"At least they're not butterfly wings, your Coleopterousness."
He has a point. Ted might have lovely, dark blue, iridescent cricket wings, but at least they're manly lovely, dark blue, iridescent cricket wings.
The wings are also still a little tender, so he has to walk around shirtless for a while. He wonders how Hawkman does it. He has goosebumps from the air conditioning. Not to mention his nipples are hard as a rock and he keeps wanting to cross his arms over them.
As if having the wings isn't bad enough, his teammates seem fascinated by them. Mary keeps badgering him about flying. (Unless they're magic, aside from the obvious, there's no way they could support his weight.) Sue coos every time he flutters them, whether on purpose or not. (If she doesn't stop fussing over him, he's going to start making very unwise comments about maternal instincts.)
Ralph keeps trying to give him tips about being able to move parts of his body he couldn't before. (Which he points out is completely different since he couldn't previously move them because he didn't have them.) And Max keeps trying to come up with a way to capitalize on this new development. (Ted doesn't even want to think about some of the man's ideas.)
The only ones who react in a way that doesn't get on Ted's nerves are Bea and Booster. They just tease him.
"Buzz off, Ted," she says, snickering.
"Hope I'm not bugging you," Booster remarks, biting his lip to hold back his laughter.
Ted hasn't mentioned yet that lately his vision is a bit...fractal around the edges. And he hopes no one notices that his eyes have gone slightly geometric since waking up.
"I," Ted pronounces gravely, wings twitching over the small of his back, "am going back to sleep."
And he does.
---------------
Ted wakes from a dream of scents and sensations with no human equivalents. There's one like "lust" tempered with "slow burn" and "apprehension" and, oddly enough, "pizza."
Opening his eyes, he finds Booster sitting nearby on the sofa-bed, eating a slice of pizza with everything. A glistening string of cheese sags between it and Booster's mouth and Ted's stomach growls while his mouth waters.
Booster glances at him at the sound and grins. "Hey, you're up." He turns away for a moment before pulling out a paper plate with a still-steaming piece of pizza on it, offering it to Ted. "Saved you a slice."
With a soft groan, Ted shifts and sits up, grabbing at the food. "I take back every bad thing I ever said about you."
"Hm...everything?" Booster asks musingly.
"Even the stuff that was true."
Booster smirks and holds out a small plastic container. "Well, I guess I can share the dipping sauce, too, then."
"Booster, I could kiss you," Ted moans, falling on the food like a starving man. Which, now that he has a moment to think about it, he is.
He wonders how many calories growing wings burns.
Then he pauses a moment to sniff the air. Shaking his head when Booster shoots him a curious look, Ted goes back to the food.
Just for a second, he could swear he almost-smelled the lust-slow-burn-apprehension-pizza smell.
---------------
The meeting is long, boring, and his wings keep trying to flutter under his shirt. Ted has his back pressed tightly to the back of his chair, but even that can't stop a faint sound like papers being shuffled.
He's only there because he has to be. Otherwise he would have called in sick.
Having strange new growths on his back counts as sick in his book.
Someone is droning on about sales and how they relate to the budget, but Ted is downstairs in the lab trying to decide if the problem is that the screws are too small or the holes are too big. Which would be easier to fix?
Just as he's working out that it would be cheaper to get bigger screws rather than re-cut holes in fresh material, he hears his name and returns to the meeting to find expectant eyes turned his way. He stares back for a moment before realizing they're waiting for a response from him.
"I was...distracted by the pie chart. Trying to work out how we can shift resources a little. Could you repeat that last part?"
There's an impatient frown and more droning and Ted sinks down in his seat a little. The hard, thick elytra protecting the more delicate membranes of his wings is slightly stiff and makes slumping difficult. If nothing else, they'll certainly improve his posture.
As the meeting continues, Ted wonders how he's supposed to pay attention when he could swear everyone smells like they want out of there as much as he does.
---------------
"Anything else besides the new senses?"
"That's a really ugly tie, Max."
Max frowns at him, then looks uncertain and holds up his tie for inspection. "It's brown," he points out.
"Oh." Ted stares at it thoughtfully for a moment, then asks, "No polka-dots?"
Raising an eyebrow, Max glances from his tie to Ted. "No."
Ted makes a thoughtful sound but doesn't say anything else. He's sitting across from Max, the man's desk between them. As meetings go, this one is infinitely less boring than the last one he was at.
"And you can't...?" Max trails off and makes the same flappy hand gesture that Mary made when she pronounced Ted's new wings as cricket-like.
Ted gives him a look as if to say "I can't believe you just did that," but shakes his head. "I can move them, but they can't move me. At best, they might be able to slow me down if I fell, but I'd rather not jump off any tall buildings to find out."
Nodding, Max says, "Our insurance doesn't cover it, anyway."
"You're all heart."
Max smiles and waves him away, then suddenly calls his name as Ted is turning to leave. Pausing, Ted glances back at him.
Eyes on his desk, busily sorting through papers, Max tells him, "I'd rather not lose any of you to something pointless and stupid that could have been avoided. If your condition changes, let someone know."
Ted stares at him for a moment, then feels a tiny glow of affection in his chest. "Yeah, Max," he says. "Don't worry."
With a nod, Max waves him away again.
---------------
Everyone on the team wants to touch his wings. He's been wearing a loose shirt all day because it's more comfortable, and his team seems to consider that an invitation. It's not only awkward, but Ted soon realizes that the wings are more sensitive than he previously noticed.
As Mary curiously traces a vein across one wing, Ted feels a shiver of arousal sink down his back.
"I...have to go somewhere," Ted stammers, horrified, and tucks his wings back under their elytra. Leaving a bewildered Mary behind, Ted locks himself in the nearest bathroom and tries to regain control of himself. Mary is cute, sure, but cute in the way that a friend's adolescent kids are cute. They make you want to smile and agree that they grow so fast and the friend is going to have a heartbreaker on their hands soon.
There's a knock at the door and for a moment Ted is afraid it might be Mary. He's not quite ready to face her yet. Instead, he hears Booster yelling at him to open the damn door.
When he does, Booster's hand is poised to knock again and he looks like he's about to yell more demands. Ted grabs him and yanks him into the bathroom, slamming the door closed behind them.
Booster stumbles, catches himself on the sink, then turns to face Ted while his mouth opens and closes in surprise. It's a little crowded, which Ted hadn't taken into consideration. In fact, he's not really sure why he pulled Booster into the room with him, just that he's freaking out a little and instinctively wants the man nearby.
"Ted, wha--"
"I had inappropriate thoughts around Mary!" Ted hisses.
Booster stares at him, as if Ted has suddenly turned a particularly interesting shade of crazy and he's trying to figure out why. "You...had...thoughts...around Mary?"
"Well...it was...." Ted pauses, trying to make sense of it in his own mind. Somehow even thinking about having inappropriate thoughts while Mary's in the same room makes him feel dirty.
Finally, he settles for a blurted, "Wings."
"Yes, I noticed. What does that have to do with Mary and your dirty mind?"
"They're sensitive," Ted whines plaintively, spreading his hands and willing Booster to understand. "She was touching them and they're sensitive."
Booster looks interested. "How sensitive?"
When Ted mumbles something into his hands, Booster grins, leaning closer, and wheedles, "What was that?"
Ted drops his hands to glower at him. "I said," he enunciates, "I got an erection when she touched one."
Snickering meanly, Booster asks, "Can I see?"
"What?!" Ted yelps.
A startled look crosses Booster's face and he quickly adds, "I mean the wings. Can I see your wings?"
"No! Why?"
Booster shrugs. "They're there."
Staring at him for a moment, Ted's mind processes that logic and then flips out a put-upon "Fine, whatever" before he tugs his shirt over his head and turns his back to Booster. His wings flutter and then stretch open. He is not showing them off, they've just been cooped up under clothing all day and it feels good to be able to move them. Even earlier, Mary had only been able to get to them because she had asked in that innocently excited way she had if she could look, and then lifted the back of his shirt before he could answer. Ted had been standing patiently, indulging her curiosity, until she touched them.
"How do you do that?"
"Do what?" Ted answers absently, shifting his elytra so the translucent wings have a wider range of motion.
"That, moving them around like that." Booster's hand comes up to brush the edge of one wing.
Ted bites his lip. Apparently the edges aren't as sensitive, but he can still feel it. "Just...like wiggling your ears, I guess. Learning to use new muscles."
"I can't wiggle my ears."
"I meant 'your' as in a general 'your'," Ted says impatiently. "The part of the population who can wiggle their ears."
Ted is about to continue, but Booster's hand moves up, fingertips lightly grazing more sensitive membrane. Gripping the door frame, Ted bites back a moan. He should really tell Booster to stop. But that would involve opening his mouth and that could be embarrassing.
"So where did she touch them?" Booster asks musingly.
"J-Just a little...high-ER!" Ted's voice cuts off into a gasp as Booster's gentle touch reaches just under the elytra. "Oh! Oh god."
A shudder races through him, wings fluttering, and Booster's hand freezes. Ted's brain freezes too, worried he's just disturbed his best friend with the new connection he's made between sexual arousal and his wings.
Then Booster's hand moves again.
Ted sucks in a deep breath and groans, leaning back into Booster's touch. He should probably feel self-conscious, but it just feels too good.
The petting distracts him enough that he jumps a little when Booster's voice whispers in his ear, "Here?"
Ted whimpers and leans back against Booster's front. The movement causes Booster's hand to brush against the underside of Ted's elytra and he cries out at the sudden sensation, head dropping to Booster's shoulder. Booster's arm wraps around his abdomen, hand splayed over Ted's chest.
Kissing the side of his neck, Booster slides his hand down to the top of Ted's pants. Ted can feel the man's chest pressed between his wings and writhes against him.
"Booster..." he starts, only to gasp as Booster's hand slips under his waistband. "Oh god."
"Do you have any idea how hot you look right now?" Booster murmurs. He grips Ted's hip tightly and pivots them both around. "Look."
When Ted opens his eyes, he's looking at himself, flushed and half naked in Booster's arms. Booster glances at him in the mirror and smirks.
Ted moans and presses his cheek to Booster's neck, kissing the underside of the man's jaw. Booster's fingers are gently exploring the parts of his wings that are normally covered, while his other hand dips further down the front of Ted's pants.
Mindlessly squirming against Booster's grip, Ted is barely cognizant of anything beyond the electric crackling of his own pleasure. Booster's lips against his cheek, breath against his ear, hips tight and thrusting against his ass. Somewhere in all that, Ted can hear his own voice very far away. It sounds like he's begging, urging Booster on, and Ted can't find anything wrong with that.
Then Booster's breath is coming in short pants, movements going jerky and throwing his rhythm off, and Ted's shaking in his grip. Ted's body goes taut, pressing tight against Booster. His wings twitch and he tumbles over the crest with a sob of pleasure, body spasming in Booster's grip.
Booster curses and says his name in a choked voice, tucking his face between Ted's shoulder and neck.
When Ted comes back to himself, he's hanging limp in Booster's arms, wings partially tucked away. Booster's rubbing his cheek against Ted's jaw like a cat, fingers trailing damp lines over his stomach.
"That," Ted mumbles, apparently feeling the need to ruin the moment, "was nothing like with Mary."
Booster doesn't say anything for a while, then snickers. "I hope not. What was it you were telling me about her being a kid?"
Considering and rejecting the idea of hitting Booster, because he's far too comfortable, Ted grumbles and instead retaliates by letting Booster support his full weight. Booster shifts to accommodate him but doesn't complain. Something nags at Ted's mind for a few seconds until he realizes what it is.
"Is...this something we should talk about?" he asks, suddenly wary.
Booster shrugs and kisses the side of his neck. "Only if we're not going to do this again."
Thinking that over for a moment, Ted nods. Then feels the need to point out, "I'm still not gay."
He can feel Booster's lips slide into a smile against his skin. "Never crossed my mind for a second," he says. "I'm not either."
"As long as we're clear on that." Certain that his heterosexuality has been properly defended, Ted straightens and turns to face Booster, cupping his face in both hands and bringing their lips together.
---------------
Life continues in its usual fashion after that. The only difference being that Ted still has wings and occasionally he has sex with Booster. He's pretty sure they're dating, but they haven't actually gone out yet.
Really, he's just glad Booster's divorce to Gladys went through before the whole cricket wings and sex mess started. Ted isn't sure how he would deal with being "the other woman."
Surprisingly, considering their previous interest, no one seems to notice the change in their relationship. Ted grudgingly admits, to himself at least, that this may be because not very much about his interactions with Booster has changed. They still banter and fight, but now they sometimes have sex before, during, or after. Sometimes all three.
And sometimes, when no one's looking, Booster gives him this look. It's a soft, affectionate look that is often accompanied by a kiss.
Ted is almost positive this isn't just a friends with benefits thing.
He's pretty sure he's been giving Booster the same look.
---------------
"Are you still working on that?"
Ignoring him, Ted taps his pencil eraser against his lips, looking at the clipboard he's holding. The papers clipped to it have various scribbled designs for ways to change his suit to allow his wings to be outside of it rather than just making his back look a little lumpy. With an aggravated huff, Booster reaches over his head and snatches the clipboard.
"Hey! I'm working on that!" Ted protests, turning around on the couch to grab it back. Pretending to ignore him, Booster moves to stand just out of reach, flipping through the papers.
"Dumb...wouldn't work...stupid...what were you thinking... Ooh, I like this one."
Rolling his eyes, Ted climbs over the couch to grab the clipboard back, making a mental note of the one with the Booster Gold seal of approval. He refuses to give Booster the satisfaction of knowing that's his favorite too.
"So..." Booster mumbles, clearing his throat. "Costume change, that's a big commitment. Especially after you just changed costumes."
"And changed back," Ted points out.
"You're keeping them, then?"
Ted opens his mouth to answer, then stops. Honestly, the thought of getting rid of the wings has only vaguely passed his mind once or twice, in an abstract, not-going-to-happen way. They're part of him, now. Sure they don't do much besides make him stand up straight, but neither do his pinky toes and he doesn't feel the urge to get rid of them.
"Ted?" Booster prompts, an odd look on his face. "...Are you keeping them?"
In a bizarre, inexplicable flash of insight (that may have something to do with the new senses that came as an unexpected accessory to the wings), Ted suddenly realizes the unspoken question in the conversation here is, "Are you keeping me?" And, like with the wings, the possibility of stopping things with Booster isn't even a real possibility.
"Yeah," he says quietly. "I'm keeping them. Booster I--"
Ted isn't quite sure what he was going to say next, so it's probably for the best that Mary bursts into the room just then to excitedly tell them that the magician who had given Ted his lovely iridescent cricket wings is causing havoc downtown and Max said to go take care of it right now.
Taking a deep breath, Mary adds, "Mr. Lord said a big flashy show would be good for business and the guy was a pushover last time so you probably wouldn't make fools of yourself." She pauses and tilts her head to the side thoughtfully. "But I don't think he meant for me to hear that part. I wonder why."
Ted and Booster glance at each other. Booster smirks while Ted rolls his eyes. "I can't tell you how reassuring it is to know our illustrious leader has faith in us," he says wryly.
"Me either," Booster quips. "I wonder what it's like."
They both snicker while Mary frowns disapprovingly. It's obvious that Sue's been teaching her the finer points of a disapproving frown. "I'm sure Mr. Lord wouldn't have started this team if he didn't believe in you."
"She makes a good point," Booster admits.
"I'm still not convinced this whole thing isn't some sort of elaborate superheroic version of Candid Camera."
They're still laughing as Mary leads them from the room. The look on her face suggests she's contemplating asking Sue's advice on making her disapproving frown hold up against a Blue and Gold bwa-ha-ha.
---------------
"Your form I abhor, so a beetle no mo--URK!"
Glaring down at the unconscious villain, Booster brushes off his hands and says, "I happen to like his form."
Ted fights back a blush. "Thanks," he mumbles. When Booster steps forward and reaches down a hand, he takes it and uses it to pull himself to his feet.
Booster doesn't move back, leaving them in each other's personal space.
"I do, you know," he says quietly.
"Do...?"
"I like your form," Booster tells him shyly.
They've been sleeping together for weeks now, but at his words Ted suddenly realizes it's the first time Booster's said anything to that effect. And to be honest, with the unnatural wings added to the mix it's exactly what he needs to hear. This time the blush wins out over his half-hearted efforts as he ducks his head.
Their hands are still touching and Booster curls his fingers around Ted's.
It is, of course, typical of their lives that just as he's about to declare his undying love for his best friend, or at least stammer out an admission of admiration of Booster's form, their teammates descend on them en masse, jostling them apart. Ostensibly, their intention is to tease them and be characteristically sarcastic. But Ted can smell the worry on them with his new sense, and he appreciates their concern.
On the other hand, their presence severely hampers his ability to thank Booster for the timely save. There's a phantom ache at the base of his wings at just the thought of how close he came to losing them.
Heaving a sigh, Ted nudges Bea out of the way as he steps up to face Booster. When he meets the man's eyes he smiles and fills his voice with all the emotion fluttering around in his chest as he says, "Thank you."
And when Booster smiles back, Ted smells love under the ozone scent of magic floating in the air around them. So Ted reaches up to kiss him. As his wings flutter against the cramped confines of his suit, Ted decides that yes, he's definitely keeping them.
-----
Fandom: Justice League (SuperBuddies!)
Characters: Booster/Beetle, Sue, Max, Mary, L-Ron, Bea
Prompt: "Wings."
Word Count: 4639
Rating: NC-17
Author's Notes: Ted grows beetle wings, they are lovely. ...Also, there is sex with Booster eventually. Features divorced!Booster. (I may or may not revisit this universe again some time.)
Beta by phoenixfire_lia.
Lovely Iridescent Cricket Wings
"So a beetle, eh? Then be as you say!"
Magic rips through him like a scorching wind, burning through his skin and settling in his back like white-hot coals tucked under his muscles. The pain drops him to his hands and knees and his throat feels raw, though if he's screaming he's deaf to it. Fingers digging into the hard ground, he hunches over as red and orange spots dance in his vision.
When the spots seep black and bleed over the clear threads of his sight, pain being pushed away to some distant place, he's grateful for that small mercy.
---------------
Ted wakes up with his cheek smashed against a pillow. His cheek is damp with his own drool, though he thinks he can also feel tiny pools of moisture on the bridge of his nose and over an ear.
Shifting causes an avalanche of pain to ripple over his back and he clenches his teeth to bite back all but a pained whine. He thinks he feels a muscle spasm, but which one is lost in the miasma of throbbing red agony.
This is probably why he's laying on his front, he realizes.
Opening his eyes, he also realizes that the couch at headquarters pulls out into a bed.
"Don't try to move, Ted," Sue says softly from somewhere behind the cloud of pain hovering over and on his back.
Licking his lips, he manages to jokingly croak, "Give it to me straight, doc. How long do I have? And will I ever be able to play the piano again?"
"I hope not, you're terrible at it," Sue quips back. A cool hand settles on his overheated shoulder. It feels nice.
Ted chuckles, then hisses in a breath as the movement jostles his back painfully. "No piano for a while, I promise," he whispers.
"How does it feel?"
"Like a giant gaping void in my soul. ...I really liked that piano."
The hand on his shoulder squeezes gently. "Ted," Sue warns.
Ted groans, "Ah, like I laid down in a puddle of boiling acid. Do we have painkillers, and why are you holding out?"
"We...needed you to be able to tell how bad it was," Sue murmurs slowly.
"You're a cruel, cruel woman."
"I've got some pills."
"I take it back," Ted moans, moving his head a little. "You're an angel in human form. Forget Ralph and run away with me."
"You're just saying that because you're in excruciating pain," Sue teases.
"Damn right, woman. Gimmie."
Chuckling, Sue moves into his line of sight and presses a small white pill to his mouth. Ted folds his lips over it and sucks it onto his tongue, then takes a long sip of water from the straw that Sue offers him.
"It'll probably knock you out for a little while longer."
"Mm, fine. Haven't been getting enough sleep lately anyway." Ted's eyelids droop, voice dissolving into a tired slur. "Don' tell Ralph I pr'p'sitioned you. He'd k'll me in my sleep."
"Oh Ted," Sue murmurs affectionately, cool hand stroking his sweaty hair. "What makes you think I wouldn't get to you first?"
Ted falls asleep with a smile on his face.
---------------
When Ted wakes again, eyes fluttering open, it's to Booster staring at him with his chin propped on the edge of the sofa-bed. Ted blinks at him and Booster lays his head to the side so they're level.
"Feel better?" he asks quietly.
"Actually...yeah," Ted murmurs, realizing as he says it that it's true. The hot knives of pain from earlier have cooled to a dull ache. His back still feels strange, but at least he can move a little without his vision fading out from the agonizing sensation.
He still feels groggy from the pill, though, and doesn't think he'll be conscious for very long.
"Good." Booster looks over his face, then his eyes stray to Ted's back. It's only then that Ted realizes he's been stripped to the waist the whole time. He wonders if whatever got on his back ate through his suit. He hopes not; the spare needs cleaning before he'll be willing to wear it again.
Smelling of rotten pickles is not heroic.
Just as he's drifting off, he hears Booster speak again, still hushed.
"You have wings, by the way. I thought you might want to know."
The words curl meaninglessly in Ted's ears as the phantom sensation of fingers on part of his back he's not familiar with trail him into sleep.
---------------
Ted wakes from a dream of flowers in shades of color human eyes were never meant to see, feeling more rested than he can remember feeling in months. Forgetting the pain of earlier, he stretches luxuriously.
Something unfamiliar stretches in his back.
Freezing, Ted tries to capture the sensation in his mind and push it again. The same unfamiliar stretch of muscles radiates across his back and Booster's words from before drift back to him.
"You have wings, by the way. I thought you might want to know."
Ted shoots up, strange and new muscles shifting and tensing, causing a faint breeze.
"What the hell?!"
The shout brings most of the team running and Ted turns to them, demanding, "What the hell is on my back?!"
Max opens and closes his mouth, but it's Mary who pipes up cheerily, "Wings! Like a...like a cricket!" She makes flapping motions with her hands.
Standing up on the sofa-bed, Ted walks to the end of it and hops off, feeling those unfamiliar muscles extending slightly. "A cricket?!"
Sue hurries forward and clasps his shoulder with both hands. "Ted, calm down," she commands, looking him in the eye. "The crazy magical bad guy hit you with a spell that made you grow wings. That's why your back hurt so much earlier."
"I was growing wings?!" Calm isn't really in Ted's plans for the next few minutes, and the volume of his voice reflects it.
"They're not so bad," Booster adds, moving to his other side. "They're kind of shiny. Uh...eerie-something."
"Iridescent?" Ted suggests numbly.
Booster snaps his fingers and grins. "That's the word!"
"Dark blue," Sue says helpfully, smiling. "They're really quite lovely, Ted."
"Oh, that makes it all better, then," Ted growls. "I have lovely iridescent cricket wings."
"Ooh! I wonder if you can fly!" Mary claps her hands with excitement.
Ted stares at her, then from Sue to Booster, then hangs his head with a groan. He should have known that anyone who willingly joined a group called "Super Buddies" had to be a crazy person.
And now, he was a crazy person with lovely iridescent cricket wings.
---------------
It's L-Ron who finally puts things in perspective for him.
"At least they're not butterfly wings, your Coleopterousness."
He has a point. Ted might have lovely, dark blue, iridescent cricket wings, but at least they're manly lovely, dark blue, iridescent cricket wings.
The wings are also still a little tender, so he has to walk around shirtless for a while. He wonders how Hawkman does it. He has goosebumps from the air conditioning. Not to mention his nipples are hard as a rock and he keeps wanting to cross his arms over them.
As if having the wings isn't bad enough, his teammates seem fascinated by them. Mary keeps badgering him about flying. (Unless they're magic, aside from the obvious, there's no way they could support his weight.) Sue coos every time he flutters them, whether on purpose or not. (If she doesn't stop fussing over him, he's going to start making very unwise comments about maternal instincts.)
Ralph keeps trying to give him tips about being able to move parts of his body he couldn't before. (Which he points out is completely different since he couldn't previously move them because he didn't have them.) And Max keeps trying to come up with a way to capitalize on this new development. (Ted doesn't even want to think about some of the man's ideas.)
The only ones who react in a way that doesn't get on Ted's nerves are Bea and Booster. They just tease him.
"Buzz off, Ted," she says, snickering.
"Hope I'm not bugging you," Booster remarks, biting his lip to hold back his laughter.
Ted hasn't mentioned yet that lately his vision is a bit...fractal around the edges. And he hopes no one notices that his eyes have gone slightly geometric since waking up.
"I," Ted pronounces gravely, wings twitching over the small of his back, "am going back to sleep."
And he does.
---------------
Ted wakes from a dream of scents and sensations with no human equivalents. There's one like "lust" tempered with "slow burn" and "apprehension" and, oddly enough, "pizza."
Opening his eyes, he finds Booster sitting nearby on the sofa-bed, eating a slice of pizza with everything. A glistening string of cheese sags between it and Booster's mouth and Ted's stomach growls while his mouth waters.
Booster glances at him at the sound and grins. "Hey, you're up." He turns away for a moment before pulling out a paper plate with a still-steaming piece of pizza on it, offering it to Ted. "Saved you a slice."
With a soft groan, Ted shifts and sits up, grabbing at the food. "I take back every bad thing I ever said about you."
"Hm...everything?" Booster asks musingly.
"Even the stuff that was true."
Booster smirks and holds out a small plastic container. "Well, I guess I can share the dipping sauce, too, then."
"Booster, I could kiss you," Ted moans, falling on the food like a starving man. Which, now that he has a moment to think about it, he is.
He wonders how many calories growing wings burns.
Then he pauses a moment to sniff the air. Shaking his head when Booster shoots him a curious look, Ted goes back to the food.
Just for a second, he could swear he almost-smelled the lust-slow-burn-apprehension-pizza smell.
---------------
The meeting is long, boring, and his wings keep trying to flutter under his shirt. Ted has his back pressed tightly to the back of his chair, but even that can't stop a faint sound like papers being shuffled.
He's only there because he has to be. Otherwise he would have called in sick.
Having strange new growths on his back counts as sick in his book.
Someone is droning on about sales and how they relate to the budget, but Ted is downstairs in the lab trying to decide if the problem is that the screws are too small or the holes are too big. Which would be easier to fix?
Just as he's working out that it would be cheaper to get bigger screws rather than re-cut holes in fresh material, he hears his name and returns to the meeting to find expectant eyes turned his way. He stares back for a moment before realizing they're waiting for a response from him.
"I was...distracted by the pie chart. Trying to work out how we can shift resources a little. Could you repeat that last part?"
There's an impatient frown and more droning and Ted sinks down in his seat a little. The hard, thick elytra protecting the more delicate membranes of his wings is slightly stiff and makes slumping difficult. If nothing else, they'll certainly improve his posture.
As the meeting continues, Ted wonders how he's supposed to pay attention when he could swear everyone smells like they want out of there as much as he does.
---------------
"Anything else besides the new senses?"
"That's a really ugly tie, Max."
Max frowns at him, then looks uncertain and holds up his tie for inspection. "It's brown," he points out.
"Oh." Ted stares at it thoughtfully for a moment, then asks, "No polka-dots?"
Raising an eyebrow, Max glances from his tie to Ted. "No."
Ted makes a thoughtful sound but doesn't say anything else. He's sitting across from Max, the man's desk between them. As meetings go, this one is infinitely less boring than the last one he was at.
"And you can't...?" Max trails off and makes the same flappy hand gesture that Mary made when she pronounced Ted's new wings as cricket-like.
Ted gives him a look as if to say "I can't believe you just did that," but shakes his head. "I can move them, but they can't move me. At best, they might be able to slow me down if I fell, but I'd rather not jump off any tall buildings to find out."
Nodding, Max says, "Our insurance doesn't cover it, anyway."
"You're all heart."
Max smiles and waves him away, then suddenly calls his name as Ted is turning to leave. Pausing, Ted glances back at him.
Eyes on his desk, busily sorting through papers, Max tells him, "I'd rather not lose any of you to something pointless and stupid that could have been avoided. If your condition changes, let someone know."
Ted stares at him for a moment, then feels a tiny glow of affection in his chest. "Yeah, Max," he says. "Don't worry."
With a nod, Max waves him away again.
---------------
Everyone on the team wants to touch his wings. He's been wearing a loose shirt all day because it's more comfortable, and his team seems to consider that an invitation. It's not only awkward, but Ted soon realizes that the wings are more sensitive than he previously noticed.
As Mary curiously traces a vein across one wing, Ted feels a shiver of arousal sink down his back.
"I...have to go somewhere," Ted stammers, horrified, and tucks his wings back under their elytra. Leaving a bewildered Mary behind, Ted locks himself in the nearest bathroom and tries to regain control of himself. Mary is cute, sure, but cute in the way that a friend's adolescent kids are cute. They make you want to smile and agree that they grow so fast and the friend is going to have a heartbreaker on their hands soon.
There's a knock at the door and for a moment Ted is afraid it might be Mary. He's not quite ready to face her yet. Instead, he hears Booster yelling at him to open the damn door.
When he does, Booster's hand is poised to knock again and he looks like he's about to yell more demands. Ted grabs him and yanks him into the bathroom, slamming the door closed behind them.
Booster stumbles, catches himself on the sink, then turns to face Ted while his mouth opens and closes in surprise. It's a little crowded, which Ted hadn't taken into consideration. In fact, he's not really sure why he pulled Booster into the room with him, just that he's freaking out a little and instinctively wants the man nearby.
"Ted, wha--"
"I had inappropriate thoughts around Mary!" Ted hisses.
Booster stares at him, as if Ted has suddenly turned a particularly interesting shade of crazy and he's trying to figure out why. "You...had...thoughts...around Mary?"
"Well...it was...." Ted pauses, trying to make sense of it in his own mind. Somehow even thinking about having inappropriate thoughts while Mary's in the same room makes him feel dirty.
Finally, he settles for a blurted, "Wings."
"Yes, I noticed. What does that have to do with Mary and your dirty mind?"
"They're sensitive," Ted whines plaintively, spreading his hands and willing Booster to understand. "She was touching them and they're sensitive."
Booster looks interested. "How sensitive?"
When Ted mumbles something into his hands, Booster grins, leaning closer, and wheedles, "What was that?"
Ted drops his hands to glower at him. "I said," he enunciates, "I got an erection when she touched one."
Snickering meanly, Booster asks, "Can I see?"
"What?!" Ted yelps.
A startled look crosses Booster's face and he quickly adds, "I mean the wings. Can I see your wings?"
"No! Why?"
Booster shrugs. "They're there."
Staring at him for a moment, Ted's mind processes that logic and then flips out a put-upon "Fine, whatever" before he tugs his shirt over his head and turns his back to Booster. His wings flutter and then stretch open. He is not showing them off, they've just been cooped up under clothing all day and it feels good to be able to move them. Even earlier, Mary had only been able to get to them because she had asked in that innocently excited way she had if she could look, and then lifted the back of his shirt before he could answer. Ted had been standing patiently, indulging her curiosity, until she touched them.
"How do you do that?"
"Do what?" Ted answers absently, shifting his elytra so the translucent wings have a wider range of motion.
"That, moving them around like that." Booster's hand comes up to brush the edge of one wing.
Ted bites his lip. Apparently the edges aren't as sensitive, but he can still feel it. "Just...like wiggling your ears, I guess. Learning to use new muscles."
"I can't wiggle my ears."
"I meant 'your' as in a general 'your'," Ted says impatiently. "The part of the population who can wiggle their ears."
Ted is about to continue, but Booster's hand moves up, fingertips lightly grazing more sensitive membrane. Gripping the door frame, Ted bites back a moan. He should really tell Booster to stop. But that would involve opening his mouth and that could be embarrassing.
"So where did she touch them?" Booster asks musingly.
"J-Just a little...high-ER!" Ted's voice cuts off into a gasp as Booster's gentle touch reaches just under the elytra. "Oh! Oh god."
A shudder races through him, wings fluttering, and Booster's hand freezes. Ted's brain freezes too, worried he's just disturbed his best friend with the new connection he's made between sexual arousal and his wings.
Then Booster's hand moves again.
Ted sucks in a deep breath and groans, leaning back into Booster's touch. He should probably feel self-conscious, but it just feels too good.
The petting distracts him enough that he jumps a little when Booster's voice whispers in his ear, "Here?"
Ted whimpers and leans back against Booster's front. The movement causes Booster's hand to brush against the underside of Ted's elytra and he cries out at the sudden sensation, head dropping to Booster's shoulder. Booster's arm wraps around his abdomen, hand splayed over Ted's chest.
Kissing the side of his neck, Booster slides his hand down to the top of Ted's pants. Ted can feel the man's chest pressed between his wings and writhes against him.
"Booster..." he starts, only to gasp as Booster's hand slips under his waistband. "Oh god."
"Do you have any idea how hot you look right now?" Booster murmurs. He grips Ted's hip tightly and pivots them both around. "Look."
When Ted opens his eyes, he's looking at himself, flushed and half naked in Booster's arms. Booster glances at him in the mirror and smirks.
Ted moans and presses his cheek to Booster's neck, kissing the underside of the man's jaw. Booster's fingers are gently exploring the parts of his wings that are normally covered, while his other hand dips further down the front of Ted's pants.
Mindlessly squirming against Booster's grip, Ted is barely cognizant of anything beyond the electric crackling of his own pleasure. Booster's lips against his cheek, breath against his ear, hips tight and thrusting against his ass. Somewhere in all that, Ted can hear his own voice very far away. It sounds like he's begging, urging Booster on, and Ted can't find anything wrong with that.
Then Booster's breath is coming in short pants, movements going jerky and throwing his rhythm off, and Ted's shaking in his grip. Ted's body goes taut, pressing tight against Booster. His wings twitch and he tumbles over the crest with a sob of pleasure, body spasming in Booster's grip.
Booster curses and says his name in a choked voice, tucking his face between Ted's shoulder and neck.
When Ted comes back to himself, he's hanging limp in Booster's arms, wings partially tucked away. Booster's rubbing his cheek against Ted's jaw like a cat, fingers trailing damp lines over his stomach.
"That," Ted mumbles, apparently feeling the need to ruin the moment, "was nothing like with Mary."
Booster doesn't say anything for a while, then snickers. "I hope not. What was it you were telling me about her being a kid?"
Considering and rejecting the idea of hitting Booster, because he's far too comfortable, Ted grumbles and instead retaliates by letting Booster support his full weight. Booster shifts to accommodate him but doesn't complain. Something nags at Ted's mind for a few seconds until he realizes what it is.
"Is...this something we should talk about?" he asks, suddenly wary.
Booster shrugs and kisses the side of his neck. "Only if we're not going to do this again."
Thinking that over for a moment, Ted nods. Then feels the need to point out, "I'm still not gay."
He can feel Booster's lips slide into a smile against his skin. "Never crossed my mind for a second," he says. "I'm not either."
"As long as we're clear on that." Certain that his heterosexuality has been properly defended, Ted straightens and turns to face Booster, cupping his face in both hands and bringing their lips together.
---------------
Life continues in its usual fashion after that. The only difference being that Ted still has wings and occasionally he has sex with Booster. He's pretty sure they're dating, but they haven't actually gone out yet.
Really, he's just glad Booster's divorce to Gladys went through before the whole cricket wings and sex mess started. Ted isn't sure how he would deal with being "the other woman."
Surprisingly, considering their previous interest, no one seems to notice the change in their relationship. Ted grudgingly admits, to himself at least, that this may be because not very much about his interactions with Booster has changed. They still banter and fight, but now they sometimes have sex before, during, or after. Sometimes all three.
And sometimes, when no one's looking, Booster gives him this look. It's a soft, affectionate look that is often accompanied by a kiss.
Ted is almost positive this isn't just a friends with benefits thing.
He's pretty sure he's been giving Booster the same look.
---------------
"Are you still working on that?"
Ignoring him, Ted taps his pencil eraser against his lips, looking at the clipboard he's holding. The papers clipped to it have various scribbled designs for ways to change his suit to allow his wings to be outside of it rather than just making his back look a little lumpy. With an aggravated huff, Booster reaches over his head and snatches the clipboard.
"Hey! I'm working on that!" Ted protests, turning around on the couch to grab it back. Pretending to ignore him, Booster moves to stand just out of reach, flipping through the papers.
"Dumb...wouldn't work...stupid...what were you thinking... Ooh, I like this one."
Rolling his eyes, Ted climbs over the couch to grab the clipboard back, making a mental note of the one with the Booster Gold seal of approval. He refuses to give Booster the satisfaction of knowing that's his favorite too.
"So..." Booster mumbles, clearing his throat. "Costume change, that's a big commitment. Especially after you just changed costumes."
"And changed back," Ted points out.
"You're keeping them, then?"
Ted opens his mouth to answer, then stops. Honestly, the thought of getting rid of the wings has only vaguely passed his mind once or twice, in an abstract, not-going-to-happen way. They're part of him, now. Sure they don't do much besides make him stand up straight, but neither do his pinky toes and he doesn't feel the urge to get rid of them.
"Ted?" Booster prompts, an odd look on his face. "...Are you keeping them?"
In a bizarre, inexplicable flash of insight (that may have something to do with the new senses that came as an unexpected accessory to the wings), Ted suddenly realizes the unspoken question in the conversation here is, "Are you keeping me?" And, like with the wings, the possibility of stopping things with Booster isn't even a real possibility.
"Yeah," he says quietly. "I'm keeping them. Booster I--"
Ted isn't quite sure what he was going to say next, so it's probably for the best that Mary bursts into the room just then to excitedly tell them that the magician who had given Ted his lovely iridescent cricket wings is causing havoc downtown and Max said to go take care of it right now.
Taking a deep breath, Mary adds, "Mr. Lord said a big flashy show would be good for business and the guy was a pushover last time so you probably wouldn't make fools of yourself." She pauses and tilts her head to the side thoughtfully. "But I don't think he meant for me to hear that part. I wonder why."
Ted and Booster glance at each other. Booster smirks while Ted rolls his eyes. "I can't tell you how reassuring it is to know our illustrious leader has faith in us," he says wryly.
"Me either," Booster quips. "I wonder what it's like."
They both snicker while Mary frowns disapprovingly. It's obvious that Sue's been teaching her the finer points of a disapproving frown. "I'm sure Mr. Lord wouldn't have started this team if he didn't believe in you."
"She makes a good point," Booster admits.
"I'm still not convinced this whole thing isn't some sort of elaborate superheroic version of Candid Camera."
They're still laughing as Mary leads them from the room. The look on her face suggests she's contemplating asking Sue's advice on making her disapproving frown hold up against a Blue and Gold bwa-ha-ha.
---------------
"Your form I abhor, so a beetle no mo--URK!"
Glaring down at the unconscious villain, Booster brushes off his hands and says, "I happen to like his form."
Ted fights back a blush. "Thanks," he mumbles. When Booster steps forward and reaches down a hand, he takes it and uses it to pull himself to his feet.
Booster doesn't move back, leaving them in each other's personal space.
"I do, you know," he says quietly.
"Do...?"
"I like your form," Booster tells him shyly.
They've been sleeping together for weeks now, but at his words Ted suddenly realizes it's the first time Booster's said anything to that effect. And to be honest, with the unnatural wings added to the mix it's exactly what he needs to hear. This time the blush wins out over his half-hearted efforts as he ducks his head.
Their hands are still touching and Booster curls his fingers around Ted's.
It is, of course, typical of their lives that just as he's about to declare his undying love for his best friend, or at least stammer out an admission of admiration of Booster's form, their teammates descend on them en masse, jostling them apart. Ostensibly, their intention is to tease them and be characteristically sarcastic. But Ted can smell the worry on them with his new sense, and he appreciates their concern.
On the other hand, their presence severely hampers his ability to thank Booster for the timely save. There's a phantom ache at the base of his wings at just the thought of how close he came to losing them.
Heaving a sigh, Ted nudges Bea out of the way as he steps up to face Booster. When he meets the man's eyes he smiles and fills his voice with all the emotion fluttering around in his chest as he says, "Thank you."
And when Booster smiles back, Ted smells love under the ozone scent of magic floating in the air around them. So Ted reaches up to kiss him. As his wings flutter against the cramped confines of his suit, Ted decides that yes, he's definitely keeping them.
-----