Ted Is Never Going To Stop Teasing Booster About This

I hate Thursdays. And I may need to kill my roommate. Today would have been a much better day if I weren't fuck-all tired because she invited boyfriend over for a study session at 1.30 in the morning. GAH HATE HATE HATE.

Work was productive. In the sense of I wrote a lot of fanfiction in between harrassing alumni for money. I started a new story. It is de-aging fic! I...am sorry, I am so sorry. It just sort of happened, I swear.

“Okay, let’s run through this one more time,” Max said. “And with a few more details than ‘exploding magical doodad, please.” He leaned back wearily in his chair, rubbing at his temples. He could already feel a headache coming on – not that that was unusual where Beetle and Booster were concerned.

“I don’t have more details,” Ted exclaimed. “I already told you what happened. Twice! You said there was a supervillain attacking a shopping mall. We went and beat him up – he was a lightweight, by the way, Mary could have taken him with one hand behind her back. And then –”

In retrospect, it was at least partly his fault. He should have known better than to assume Booster had the sense not to touch the amulet ‘Doctor Mesmero’ had been threatening the shoppers with, and he definitely should have known better than to take his eye off Booster, when he’d demonstrated time and again he had all the responsibility and impulse control of a retarded Labrador.

But Ralph had been in the parking lot handing the would-be thief over to the cops, and Mary and Bea had been on crowd control, which left him to get the irate mall owner to stop shouting so Ted could give him all the Supperbuddies’ legal forms. He’d been right on the verge of getting the guy to sign off when Booster had called his name.

“Hey Ted, what do you think this actually does?” He’d called across the arcade.

“Booster, don’t—”Ted had shouted, but it was too late – Booster had already knelt to pick the amulet up, and the second he touched it, there was a blinding flash of light and he was engulfed in thick, acrid smoke.

“ – and when the smoke cleared, he looked like this,” Ted finished. He scowled at the occupant of the seat next to him. “Booster, stop fidgeting.”

“My name is Michael,” a petulant voice answered him. “Stop calling me that. And I don’t wanna sit still. This is boring.”

Even if Ted suspected Booster’s lower lip of protruding a bit more than strictly necessary, it was hard not to be softened by the sullen misery on the small face. Ted sighed.

“Max, we don’t really need him to stick around, do we? You’ve had your chance to look him over, and it’s not like he can tell you anything I can’t.”

“Fine, fine,” Max replied. “He’s just a distraction anyway.”

“You heard the man, Mikey, get your butt outta here. Go – I don’t know, find Sue and see if she’ll play with you.”

Booster, to his credit, didn’t stick around to see if his release would be rescinded; he clambered out of his chair and hit the ground running, Ted’s oversized shirt slipping off one shoulder.

“So he’s really…?”

“A five-year-old?” Ted said. “Seems like. The physical change is pretty obvious, even if we haven’t done any tests yet. Mentally…I’m not sure. This isn’t exactly my field of expertise. I mean, he’s still Booster. And he recognizes me, at least a little, and he’s not asking where his mom and his sister are and why he’s not in the 25^th Century, so he probably remembers something. But how much, or how well, or if he understands any of it – I’ve got no idea. But as far as, as language, and processing ability, and maturity go, he’s a little kid.”

“So he hasn’t changed, then.”

“Max, this is serious!”

Max rolled his eyes. “Like that’s ever stopped you before. How long is it going to last?”

Ted shook his head. “I called in a few favors and got Oracle to see what she could dredge up, but she couldn’t find anything. We can try to get a magic user in here, but other than that – it could wear off tomorrow. Or it could be permanent.”

Max watched Ted for several long moments, and finally shoved his chair away from the desk and stood.

“You are taking this too seriously,” he said, clapping Ted on the shoulder. “You should be used to this kind of thing by now – heck, didn’t the entire Justice League get age-zapped a while back? Booster will be fine. And sitting around here and moping won’t fix him any faster. Go home, Ted.”

Max managed to wait until ted was out of the room before he gave into his urge to beat his head against the wall.

And then Ted uses him to pick up chicks. Yes. I will finish this...not tonight, because I have a metric ton of coding to do *grimaces*, but soon! I hope. I want to get to the cuddling.