Happy Boostlethon, marksykins!
Title: The Unseen City
Author: fleur_de_liz
Recipient: marksykins
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Ted/Booster
Summary: There is another city inside the heart of Hub City, a city unseen. The city hides many secrets, but can Ted Kord hide his from the mysterious and handsome Booster Carter?
Author's Notes: I had a hard time finding an Elseworld I liked, so I made up my own, just for you! I would love to expand on this universe in the future, there was so much I wanted to include. Thank you to the long-suffering poisonivory for betaing and putting up with me in general. I couldn't have done it without you. Please note that this is part one of two. Damn character limit.
There is another city inside the heart of Hub City, a city unseen. Hard and dark, it hides under the flesh of the city like the pit of a peach. Its buildings, its street signs and spiderwebbing subway tunnels are all interconnected to the greater metropolis, but the average high-rise resident would never know. Its subway stops are the ones most trains rush right by without a thought. Its streets are darkened and foreboding, the sort that the street-savvy citydweller never wanders down, even in broad daylight. It is not an invisible city so much as an unnoticeable city, and the residents of the Unseen City prefer it that way.
The people who live in the Unseen City are hidden away from the rest of the world for good reason, and theirs is not the only city of its kind. Hidden cities exist across the globe, sequestering its residents. The people of the invisible cities are the stuff of nightmares, Halloween dioramas, and late night monster movie marathons. Vampires. Ghosts. Demons. Creatures of darkness and shadow. Some people would say that the invisible cities were constructed to protect the humans from the dark things. However, it is more accurate to say that they were built to protect the night-walkers from the humans.
Ted Kord crosses through the Unseen Hub City regularly without so much as a flinch. He rides the ghost trains to stops that don’t otherwise exist. He buys his groceries from bodegas with banshee cashiers. But Ted Kord doesn’t look like the populous of Hub Unseen. He has no fangs, isn’t transparent; no horns or gaping flesh wounds. He’s handsome in a sort of homey, boy-next-door sense, solidly built and just a bit soft around the middle. His eyes aren’t a demonic yellow, but a brilliant sapphire blue. Nor is his hair made of snakes, but rather soft auburn curls that frame his warm, open face. To all appearances, he’s a normal man, and a normal man in a city of monsters makes for uneasy monsters.
On an unremarkable Tuesday night, just late enough that it’s edging into Wednesday morning, Ted finds himself moving quickly through Hub Unseen, crossing the two blocks from the nearest subway station to his apartment. He mutters to himself about stopping at the bodega on the corner for milk, checks his watch, and spares a glance up at the sky. The moon’s on the wax, a fat half-moon caught between the skyscrapers. It’s the only heavenly body visible in the city, the stars all replaced by the blinking underbellies of commercial jetliners. His breath hangs cold in air that’s already has a metallic winter tang to it. The forecasters are all predicting a brutal winter, and Ted can’t help but shiver at the thought of having to dig out his snow boots.
He’s half a block from the bodega when he smells them: the scent of cigarette smoke intermingled with the coppery tang of blood, the dank reek of mausoleum air, and the wet stench of earth. Aside from the cigarettes, the smell is unmistakably vampire. Ted quickens his pace a little. It’s not that he’s afraid of vampires, more that he’s afraid of getting mugged two blocks from home. He can see the bodega just ahead, its sign still illuminated in neon and krypton. He only needs to get in the door.
Ted hears it right before they surround him: the rustle of their clothes and a slight slorching sound as they pull away from the shadows. There are four of them, dressed in the traditional garb of the average street thug; puffy down coats and gold chains, caps or sweatshirt hoods pulled low over their brows. They’re young, probably little more than eighteen, at least in appearance. Their true ages could easily be decades older than what their faces show. For such young (looking) men, they’re big, strong, and able to use their combined weight to push Ted towards the dark alley from whence they came.
“Evening, gentlemen. Lovely night, isn’t it?” he asks, trying a grin.
They grin back at him, eyeteeth long and sharp and gleaming. One of them, with a shaved head and a goatee, leans in menacingly. “Indubitably, this evening is most…fortuitous.”
“Providential, even,” another young man with dreadlocks and a bucket hat adds.
Ted swallows. “Look, fellas, if you’re looking for money, I think I have enough for a carton of milk. Maybe also some gum. But that’s probably pushing it, because the price of milk’s been ridiculous lately. So, y’know, how about we just take a raincheck on your mugging me?”
“The E Street Bloodsuckers ain’t after yo’ cash, foo’!” a third young man, heavyset and wearing a backwards baseball bat, barks at Ted.
The one with the goatee glares at his companion. “Jerome, it would be prudent to reflect upon the vulgarity of your vernacular.”
Ted’s eyes narrow, one eyebrow arching inquisitively. “Wait, the E Street Bloodsuckers? E Street’s like six blocks from here. Shouldn’t you be more like the…I don’t know…Crescent Street Bloodsuckers?”
“We are expanding the boundaries of our territory,” the fourth young man replies nonchalantly, shrugging. He’s wearing sunglasses in spite of the lack of sun, and Ted thinks he looks ridiculous.
Ted swallows. They’re not after his money, they’re young and stupid vampires going by the name E Street Bloodsuckers, and they’ve got him cornered in a dark alley relatively late at night. He connects the dots in his head, and the picture that forms isn’t a pretty one. “So…you’re going to blood-mug me, is that it?”
“We prefer to think of it as obtaining our sustenance free-range and local-grown,” the one with the bucket hat says, licking his fangs.
Ted pulls up a mental map of E Street and the surrounding neighborhoods. “But there’s a huge blood bank on the corner of E Street and Liverpool Ave! Why would you need to bite anyone’s neck when you can get it ready-to-drink right there?”
The Bloodsucker named Jerome gives him a look. “Consuming blood obtained from the bank is akin to consuming nothing but prepackaged television dinners. It is neither palatable nor nutritionally appropriate. It is a gustatory abomination.”
“Look, I’m sorry blood bank blood isn’t haute cuisine, but you don’t want mine,” Ted replies testily. “I taste terrible.”
“I believe that is for us to ascertain,” the one with sunglasses says.
The young man with the goatee gestures to his companions. “Jerome, Lawrence, Samuel, do restrain him. I shall make the initial puncture, and then we can equitably portion out our shares.”
“Why do you get the preliminary taste, Moses?” the others argue, though they move to grab Ted nonetheless.
Ted hunches down into a defensive position and bares his teeth like a cornered animal. The hair on the back of his neck prickles, and his skin crawls. “Don’t touch me. Nobody’s biting my neck. I told you before; you can’t have my blood.”
“I believe our repast intends to engage in fisticuffs, Moses,” Samuel points out, adjusting his sunglasses.
Jerome hunches down as well. “Less buss his ass an’ bite his neck!”
“Jerome!”
Ted flexes his fingers. His body flushes hot. He can hear his bones creak just a little. “This is your last warning. Get away from me.”
The Bloodsuckers don’t listen. They keep moving forward, and Ted stands his ground. He’s given them plenty of warning, and he’s not afraid of four young, dumb vampires. He lets them get in nice and close, hoping to use the element of surprise. They won’t take his blood, and even if they do bite him, they’ll find out very quickly that Ted isn’t at all fit for consumption.
“Hey! What the hell are you doing?”
The E Street Bloodsuckers freeze, and Ted does too. There’s somebody else standing there, blocking the entrance to the alley. He’s tall, broad-shouldered, and totally unconcerned by the four vampires standing there with fangs bared and eyes dark with bloodlust. Ted’s nerves are on edge, senses heightened. He can hear the shift of gravel under the stranger’s feet. He can smell him, a vampire smell, but different from the boys surrounding him. The grave dirt smell is more of a woodsy, earthy scent, and there’s no fetid stench of blood or decay. He smells like expensive cologne more than anything.
“Get out of here,” the new vampire hisses.
The E Street Bloodsuckers, startled by this intruder, quickly scatter. Ted’s not sure if there’s some sort of vampire hierarchy at work here, he’s never really been close with vampires, but he’s surprised at the speed with which the young vampires disappear into the shadows. He tries to slow his heart and calm his nerves as he walks out of the alley, the newcomer backing up and letting him get out into the safety of the streetlight.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
Ted looks up at him, about to snap, still on overdrive. The vampire is incredibly handsome; he’s blond and blue-eyed and surprisingly tan for an undead being. He’s wearing an expensive leather jacket, with a small Red Cross pin stuck in the lapel. The longer Ted stares at him, the more familiar he becomes. He’s seen that handsome face staring back at him on billboards and buses and magazines. He’s a famous model within the Unseen Cities, and Ted has no idea what he’s doing breaking up blood-muggings.
“I could’ve handled them myself.”
The vampire snorts. “Yeah, right. Those guys would have killed you. Look, buddy, this isn’t really a safe part of town. Somebody like you could get hurt. Do you need directions? Which subway stop do you usually get off at?”
Ted folds his arms across his chest. He gets this all the time, mistaken for a normal human being. Sometimes he wishes he had a few gaping flesh wounds or a visible fang, just so these incidents wouldn’t happen. “Bloodwynd. Sometimes I’ll stay on until Nightshade, but I’m pretty sure it takes the same amount of time to get home either way.”
“…Wait, you live here?”
“Right around the corner,” Ted says dryly. “I was headed to the store for milk when they jumped me. Look, thank you for the entirely unnecessary but good-intentioned rescue. I’m going to get my groceries and go home now, if it’s all the same to you.”
The vampire follows Ted as he starts to leave. “Well, let me at least walk you home or something. It would kind of suck...no pun intended…if you got jumped again.”
Ted wants to tell him to just leave him alone, that he can handle himself if more vampire hoodlums turn up, but he holds his tongue. The guy just went out of his way to keep him from getting blood-mugged, and he seems like a genuinely nice undead being. Instead, he swallows and looks up at his companion. “So…how did you make them go away? Vampire mind tricks?”
“Mm, kinda but not really. Vampires are surprisingly territorial. Y’know, it’s kind of the idea that if you’ve got yourself set up in a nice little village, you don’t want somebody else coming in and biting all your necks. So, since this neighborhood’s my territory, I impressed it upon their young minds that they are unwanted here and they needed to get the hell out,” he explains. “I’m Booster, by the way.”
Ted gives him a look. “Really? What the hell kind of a name is Booster?”
He grins. “It’s an old football nickname that, much like me, just can’t die.”
Smiling, Ted offers him a hand. He can’t be too annoyed with a guy who can make a stupid joke at his own expense. Booster’s hand is just this side of cold, and Ted can’t tell if it’s because of the night air, or because of the vampirism. “I’m Ted.”
They walk into the bodega together, and Ted heads straight for the refrigerated cases. He starts digging around for the carton of milk with the farthest-off expiration date, and as he’s comparing two cartons, notices Booster standing next to him. He’s opening a carton of eggs and inspecting them, a bottle of pomegranate juice tucked into the crook of his arm.
“You’re not the only one who needed midnight groceries,” he says with a slightly sheepish smile.
They take their purchases to the front and Ted pays with the crumpled bills he stuffed in his pocket after he bought lunch this afternoon. Booster slides a debit card across the counter and winks at the zombie girl ringing them up. She giggles and shyly asks Booster to sign a copy of Impulse Magazine with his picture on the cover, which he does gladly. He flashes her a smile as he passes back the magazine, his fangs bright white under the store’s harsh halogen lighting, and Ted can’t help but feel his innards wobble just a little.
“You said this is your territory?” Ted asks as they round the corner onto Crescent Hill, a tony little neighborhood of brownstones. He reaches into his coat pocket for his keys and pulls them out, along with a few hard candy wrappers and a ticket stub from The Suicide Squad.
“Yeah, that’s my place right there,” Booster replies, pointing to a building on the right with a wrought iron fence enclosing the tiny front yard.
Ted laughs. “You’re kidding me. You live there? My place is right here.” He gestures to a brownstone on the left, about three doors down from Booster’s, its own front yard lined with short boxwood hedges.
“Huh. Talk about strange coincidences.” Booster rummages around in his own pockets, and then checks the breast of his jacket. “Listen, this is probably really forward of me, but I’m convinced that this is all happening for a reason. I think you’re intriguing and incredibly cute for a normal, and I’d like to get to know you better. Maybe we could go out for coffee sometime? Here’s my card. Or, y’know, I guess you can just walk across the street and knock on my door.”
Ted takes the card and glances down at it. Michael Carter, it reads, along with Booster’s contact information. He can feel the tips of his ears burning, and he’s too taken aback at being called cute to correct Booster about being a normal. “Um. Sure, yeah. That sounds…yeah. If you’re free Friday…?”
“I should be. Yeah, yeah, I’ll see you Friday, then,” Booster replies. He grins, and Ted can’t take his eyes off his gleaming fangs. “Have a good night.”
He nods and heads up his front porch, sparing a glance back over his shoulder at Booster as he walks up his own porch. Booster glances back at him as well, smiles, and waves. He can’t help but think that Moses was right; this evening had been most fortuitous indeed.
++
Now that Ted knows Booster lives across the street and three doors down, he sees him everywhere. Between Wednesday morning and their coffee date Friday evening, they are utterly incapable of avoiding one another. They wave at one another from across the road Wednesday morning as they put out their trash, with Booster juggling his blue recycling bins as he lifts his hand. They bump into one another on the subway platform at the Bloodwynd stop, waiting for the ghost train to pull into the station. They laugh like it’s all some sort of big joke, some great cosmic prank that’s sticking them together like gum on a bus bench.
Friday evening brings a cold, driving rain, and Ted staggers into the Black Orchid Café after getting battered about by the wind. He shakes out his raincoat and hangs it up by the door, finding Booster already sitting at a table. He unwinds his fingers from around his mug and stands, clasping his ceramic-warmed hands around Ted’s.
“Some night, huh?” he asks, his smile as warm as his hands.
Ted laughs. “I thought I was going to blow away. Lemme go grab something to drink, I’ll be right back. Can I get you anything? Oversized cookie? Pint of O positive?”
“I’m good with green tea for now, thanks,” Booster replies, settling back into his chair.
Ted hems and haws over the menu board, trying to decide what to order. It’s too late in the evening to order a coffee if he wants to get any sleep. He can’t have hot cocoa due to an entirely unfair chocolate allergy (which he discovered at an early age when his cousin Peter’s chocolate birthday cake landed him in the hospital). He doesn’t really like tea. Sighing the long-suffering sigh of a man who really wants a hot drink but can’t find anything on the menu worth drinking, Ted orders a strawberry smoothie.
“You’re made of pretty strong stuff, having a cold drink on a night like this,” Booster comments.
Ted swirls his straw around in the plastic cup glumly. “It’s not entirely by choice.”
“So, obviously you know what I do for a living. What about you? Hell, I don’t even think I know your last name,” Booster points out. He smiles as he says this, and in spite of the terrible weather and the cold smoothie, Ted feels warmed right through to his bones.
“I have a feeling once you know my last name, you’ll know what I do,” Ted replies. “It’s Kord. I’m Ted Kord.”
Booster’s eyes go wide. “You’re joking. The Ted Kord? Founder and CEO of Blue Beetle Technologies Ted Kord? You…are surprisingly less beetle-like than the Internet makes you out to be.”
Ted laughs, taking another sip of smoothie. “Yeah, we let them think that on purpose. PR was convinced that if people knew I looked like a normal, they wouldn’t want to buy their products from me. I mean, if you’re a ghost or a satyr, would you want to buy a laptop from me and my suspiciously human-looking mug?”
“Well, I certainly would,” Booster replies. “I think your suspiciously human-looking mug is cute.”
“Thanks,” Ted mutters, blushing beet red. He watches Booster idly playing with his mug of tea, and then glances at the windowpane next to them. He can see both their reflections in the glass. “Hey, can I ask…how’d you become a vampire?”
Booster looks a little embarrassed and fiddles with his mug some more. “I was modeling. Young, dumb, and probably somewhat anorexic. And I was dating a model who was young, dumb, probably a little anorexic…and a vampire. She was the one who turned me…as well as half the male models working in that town and probably a good handful of female models as well. She was giving out vampirism like it was an STD. I had no idea what to do, either. I didn’t know about the cities, or the blood banks, or anything, really. I thought being a vampire meant being like the stereotypical movie vampire. So I refused to go out during the day unless I was covered up like the Invisible Man, I covered up all the mirrors in my apartment, wouldn’t go near crosses or running water or any of that. I almost bought a coffin to sleep in, that’s how dumb I was. But I was too scared to drink blood. I didn’t want to bite anybody, and I didn’t know if you could really drink like a cow’s blood. So…I just flat-out refused to drink any blood at all.”
“And what happened?” Ted asks, leaning in.
“I almost died!” Booster replies, throwing his hands in the air. “I passed out in the middle of a photo shoot, I was so sick, and if there hadn’t been a vampire on the production team I would’ve died of severe blood deficiency. He got me to Metropolis Mid-Nite…I was living in Metropolis back then…and I ended up spending a couple of weeks there, basically in vampire rehab. That was…maybe fifteen years ago now? I’m not like hundreds of years old or anything like that.”
Ted leans in, fascinated. Though he has vampires working in his company, he doesn’t know any of them well enough to ask for their life stories. “So…is it okay if I ask what is and isn’t true about vampires? My vampire knowledge is pretty much what’s in pop culture too.”
Booster smiles. “Basically, everything but the blood drinking is wrong. I will not spontaneously combust in direct sunlight…I won’t sparkle either, unless I’ve been sandblasted with glitter for a photo shoot. I mean, yes, sunlight is not good for vampires, but I’m not going to instantly burn up if I go outside. Though it does mean tanning’s out. This is just a spray-on,” he says, indicating his tanned hands. “Um…what else…I don’t eat garlic because it gives me indigestion, not because it’ll kill me. I have a reflection and show up on film, obviously. Coffin-sleeping is optional, though a dark room is not, more out of personal preference than anything. Um…I can fly, but I try not to, because I always feel dumb when I do it, and I don’t turn into a bat. And…oh! Stakes! Yes, a stake through the heart will kill me. But that is because a stake through the heart will kill anybody.”
“What about holy water and crosses?” Ted asks.
Booster shrugs. “I’m an atheist, so I don’t think they’re going to actually do anything. Maybe if you believe in God, they’ll hurt. Vampires aren’t demons, though, so I doubt it.”
Ted leans in a little more. “And being invited in?”
“…That one works,” Booster sighs. “And it’s a pain in the ass, because it only applies to residences. So if I’m…let’s say going over a friend’s house to watch the football game every week. I have to be invited in every single time, even if we’re friends and I was invited in last week. Okay, so now what about you?”
“What about me?”
Booster leans forward and pokes Ted in the nose. “I have answered all of your questions. What about you? You insist you’re not a normal, but you don’t look like any Resident I’ve ever seen. What are you, Ted?”
“Me? I’m a jerk,” Ted replies, grinning.
Booster stares at him. “You’re a…what?”
“A jerk. Because I’m not going to tell you what I am. You’ve got to figure it out for yourself. C’mon, if we give up all our secrets on the first date, what’re we going to talk about the next time we go out?” he asks.
Booster stares at him a little longer, and then goes bright pink. “I might be able to live with that answer.”
They stay in the café for another two hours, their drinks long gone and their cups sitting idly on the tabletop. Ted animatedly explains the difficulties in making an mp3 player light enough for ghosts to carry, using the napkin holder and several sugar packets as props for his explanation. Booster describes a party he attended after wrapping a photo shoot, and makes fun of some of the more infamous monster celebrities who attended. They both speculate on several “normal” celebrities and whether or not they are secretly monsters, called Residents by people who live in the unseen cities. Booster mentions the difficulty of hiding his fangs the first few weeks of his life as a vampire. Ted gives Booster a little hint towards his nature by bringing up his chocolate allergy.
Their conversation continues as they finally decide to move on, gathering up jackets and briefcases and Booster’s trendy little one-shouldered bag. They’re still talking as they walk back to Crescent Hill, laughing riotously and standing just a little too close to one another. The rain has slowed from a relentless pounding to an obnoxious cold drizzle, hanging in the air and clinging to their coats.
“So…can I see you again?” Booster asks, fidgeting nervously.
Ted grins. “Well, considering we live across the street from one another, I think that’s unavoidable.”
Booster grins right back at Ted and takes his hands in his own. “You know what I mean.”
“Your hands are freezing,” Ted points out, squeezing them a little.
“Yeah, it’s a vampire thing; always a few degrees colder than normal body temperature. It’s a pain in the ass when I get sick; I can never figure out what constitutes as feverish.”
Ted leans in a little closer, marveling at just how tall Booster is compared to himself. He’s at least a good six inches taller than Ted, and it’s strange to be the shorter one in this fledgling relationship. “Well, I don’t mind your cold hands too much. And yes, to answer your question seriously, I’d like to see more of you too.”
“I don’t know what my schedule is like for this week yet, but I’ll let you know as soon as I figure it out,” Booster assures him.
Ted nods. “Yeah, I’ve got to check my social calendar too, but I know I don’t have any international travel planned. But yeah, let me know when you’re not covered in rhinestones and draped around a tiger or whatever it is they’ve got you doing.”
Booster laughs. “Nah, that was last week’s shoot.”
Just a little nervous and breathing just a little hard, Ted leans up on his toes. “Is it okay if I…”
“I was hoping you would,” Booster replies, meeting him halfway.
As first kisses go, it’s fairly unremarkable. There aren’t any fireworks or ringing bells, but Ted does feel a little flicker of warmth ignite in the pit of his stomach. Booster’s lips are just a bit cool, but they’re soft, and pressed against Ted’s mouth they quickly warm. He wraps his arms around Booster’s shoulders, curling his drizzle-damp hands into Booster’s hair as Booster’s hands circle his waist. When they pull back, Booster’s cheeks are flushed and he’s smiling down at Ted warmly.
“So I’ll see you soon, okay?” he murmurs, every word giving a hint of fangs.
Ted nods. “Yeah, definitely. Have a good night, Booster.”
“Good night, Ted.” He leans in and kisses Ted again, a little more forcefully this time, and then heads back across the street. Ted watches Booster pause on the walk and turn, grinning hugely at him. “Hey Ted! I know what you are!”
“What’s that?” Ted asks.
Booster’s smile is bright enough to light the neighborhood. “Really damn cute!”
As Ted slips inside his brownstone, he feels like his blush is bright enough to light the neighborhood too.
++
Ted barely remembers the weekend, feeling it rush by him as he fills the time with the housework and errands that go undone during the week. He discovers containers of old leftovers in the back of the fridge, finds three dollars’ worth of change in the couch cushions, and organizes the piles of mess on the coffee table. He does his laundry and puts the clean clothes away, rather than leaving them in the hamper and taking clean shirts from the jumbled pile. He tells himself this is all because he hasn’t tidied in a while, and not because he hopes to invite Booster over.
When he runs into Booster standing on the platform at the Nightshade station on Tuesday, they immediately start checking their respective calendars, tapping at their phones and scrolling through long lists of meetings and appointments to find a few spare moments for dinner.
“…Saturday evening?” Booster suggests. “Around six? There’s this really amazing restaurant over on Blackfire that I’ve been dying to try.”
“Yeah, that sounds great. Saturday’s free and clear for me,” Ted agrees. “It’s a date.”
It isn’t until Ted’s sitting in his office, going back through his schedule that he really looks at Saturday and remembers why he kept it clear in the first place. The back of his neck prickles, raising those hairs. He swallows, staring at his phone. He should call Booster and cancel. He really doesn’t want to call Booster and cancel, afraid that Booster will take it the wrong way. Ted swallows, and then taps the dinner date into his phone and confirms it. He’ll just have to make the best of it, he supposes.
Work hides his worries during the week. Ted pours himself into his projects and tries to forget the too-tight feeling of his skin and the slight burning sensation at the tip of his nose. He videoconferences with his team in Japan, tests the durability of the keyboard for a laptop designed for ogres and trolls, and looks over the ad campaign for the ghost-friendly mp3 players. Keeping busy buoys Ted through the workweek, but when he comes home Friday night, the weight of his date with Booster settles back around him.
Booster meets him in the street between their houses Saturday evening, looking like he stepped right off the pages of Impulse. The sick feeling in the pit of Ted’s stomach doesn’t abate, instead it starts doing battle with the excited little flutter he gets whenever he sees Booster. He smiles and waves, and Booster kisses him as soon as he gets close enough.
“Ready to go?” Booster asks.
Ted smiles. “Yeah. We’re not flying there, are we?”
“Absolutely not. C’mon, it’s right off the Blue Devil line,” he replies, taking Ted’s hand. Booster immediately drops it, staring at his palm. “Jeez, Ted, your hands are on fire. Are you okay?”
He nods, cautiously offering Booster his hand again. “Yeah, I’m okay. Just a little off tonight.”
“We can reschedule if you’re not feeling good,” Booster offers, taking his hand. Ted can feel the warmth seeping into Booster’s skin.
He shakes his head. “No, I want to have dinner with you. I’ll be fine, let’s go before they give our table away.”
Booster doesn’t relinquish his hold on Ted’s hand the entire walk to the subway, down the stairs, through the turnstiles with their frequent rider cards (though holding hands through a turnstile does get them a little stuck) and out onto the platform. They stand shoulder-to-shoulder just behind the yellow line, and once on the train, sit shoulder-to-shoulder, hands still clasped. Booster snakes an arm around Ted’s shoulders. Ted feels his face flare up with a blush, his whole body feverishly warm.
“Alligators,” Booster says suddenly.
Ted looks up at him, one eyebrow arched. “I beg your pardon?”
“That was this week’s shoot. They had me surrounded by alligators. Or, more accurately, they had one real alligator and they were going to CG in the rest. But I had to pretend like I was surrounded by alligators…which means looking sultry and indifferent while surrounded by alligators.”
Ted laughs, and a few minutes later their stop comes up. Booster helps Ted to his feet and together, hands still clasped tight, they hop off the train and move through the crush of people off the platform and up to the street. From there, it’s a short walk to the restaurant, Themyscyra. There is a large group of people milling around outside and an even larger group milling around the lobby, but Booster and Ted breeze right by all of them and head right for the hostess’ booth.
“Hi, we’ve got a reservation. Carter?” Booster asks, offering the hostess his most charming smile.
She blushes and picks up a pair of menus. “Right this way, Mr. Carter.”
“I hope you like Greek,” Booster murmurs as he and Ted follow the sylph to their table.
Ted smiles at him. “I like everything. I can’t believe how many people were waiting to get in.”
“Yeah, well, you get a really good review in The Secret Six and people come running to try your food. I got my review from one of my makeup artists. She said the souvlaki is incredibly tender, the spanakopita are outrageous, and they do this dessert called Paradise Island that’s like little cakes in custard and it was, and I quote, ‘better than sex.’ Now, I don’t really know about that, but I’m definitely saving room.”
They place their orders and Ted tries very hard to pretend he feels well enough to continue this date. He should have canceled. He listens to Booster talk about walking for a fashion show, shredding a piece of pita in his hands as he watches Booster’s mouth move. The smells in the restaurant are overwhelming him, between the aromas of the other patrons’ dinners, the scent of the patrons themselves, and the woodsy vampiric smell coming from Booster. Sound is amplified in Ted’s ears, the tiniest clink of a spoon halfway across the restaurant as loud as a brass band. He can hear his own heart like a thunderstorm, and he can hear Booster’s heart beating on the other side of the table.
“Ted? Are you okay? You just went dead pale, and I know dead pale. You should’ve seen me right after I turned, I was the grossest color. I probably still would be if it weren’t for the spray tan,” Booster asks concernedly.
“I…” Ted starts, interrupted by their server returning with their food. Has that much time really passed since they placed their orders? He feels his stomach lurch. “To be honest, no, I’m not okay. I’m sorry, Booster, I really am. I need…I’m sorry, I need to get outside…”
He drops his napkin onto the table and lurches out of the restaurant, weaving around the tables. His heart is hammering in his ears, and he can hear people murmuring about him, wondering what’s wrong with him. He blows right past the hostess and out into the open air, staggering around for a safe place. He ducks into a dark alley next to the restaurant, trying to catch his breath. His skin crawls, and he has a desperate longing to just rip it right off.
“Have to…have to…please, just a little longer. Don’t want…just a little longer,” he murmurs around dry heaves.
“Ted? Ted!”
Ted swallows and steps out of the shadows. “Booster? I’m…hh…I’m here…”
Booster hurries into the alley holding their coats in one arm and a plastic bag containing their uneaten dinners in the other. “Are you okay? God, are you sick? What…what do I do?”
Breathing hard and feeling increasingly unwell, Ted takes off his shoes and starts stripping out of the rest of his clothes. “You can hold these for me.”
“What the hell are you doing?” Booster asks. His face is bright red, and he’s staring at Ted with wide eyes.
Ted hands him his bundle of clothes and shoes. “I’m nn…I’m not going to ruin these. You wanted…you wanted to know what I am. I’m a werewolf, Booster. And I can’t hold off my transformation much longer, so if you have any pressing questions, ask them now before I change.”
“...Oh my God, tonight’s the full moon, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Ted replies, fighting the change. “I can…I can transform at will, except when it’s the full moon. Then I have no choice. I just…I didn’t want to cancel and have you think I didn’t…nngh…want to be with you. So I held it off as long as I…Booster…I can’t…”
Ted’s body spasms, and the change begins. Bones snap and groan as they reconfigure, reshape themselves for a canine body. His face changes, jaw elongating and ears repositioning. His skin stretches, hands warp, pads forming on what used to be his fingertips. Thick auburn fur sprouts, covering every inch of his changing form. The whole thing takes only moments, but for Ted, it feels like hours. His vocal chords twang and his human cries become canine howls and moans. After an eternity condensed into less than a minute, it’s done. Breathing hard, he trots out of the alley on all fours, staring up at Booster with startlingly human blue eyes.
“This is not at all what I pictured when you said werewolf,” Booster says, smiling at him. “I expected Lon Chaney. Can you speak in this form?”
Ted barks and bumps Booster’s thigh with his nose.
“I take that as a no. C’mon, I’ll take you home. If you’re feeling up to it, maybe we can continue our dinner? I mean, I totally understand if you don’t want to, that looked pretty rough. Does it hurt every time you change? Even if you do it voluntarily?”
Ted shakes his head. If he changes willingly, it’s much less painful and takes seconds. Only when the moon forces his change does it hurt. Usually, Ted spends a whole full moon day in wolf form. He can’t remember the last time he was forced to change like this.
Booster shifts his bundles in his arms and together they head back towards the subway. “I’m not going to get in trouble for not having you on a leash, right?”
In reply, Ted shoves at him with his side and barks again. Booster laughs and shifts Ted’s clothes to his other arm so he can reach down and scratch behind his ears.
“Yeah, I’m sure there are plenty of werewolves strolling around tonight, you’re right. Here’s your subway pass,” Booster says, handing Ted his card. He holds it carefully between his teeth as they head down to the turnstiles, and he swipes it through a werewolf-height reader. “So that’s what that one’s for. I always wondered…”
Ted sticks close to Booster, his scent comforting against all the fetid smells of the subway. In human form, his senses are greatly heightened; as a wolf, they’re even more powerful. He doesn’t like going into the subway in this body, not when the smells burn his nose and the sound of the trains hurt his ears. Fortunately, the train comes quickly.
“I think you’re the first werewolf I’ve ever actually met,” Booster says as they find seats. Ted sits on the floor, painfully aware of the sticky soda spills and the old chewing gum. He can’t fit in the seats, and he always feels guilty if he drapes himself across a bank of them. “So you really could’ve handled yourself in the alley last week.”
Ted nods. He rests his head against Booster’s leg, Booster’s hand idly petting the top of his head. It feels nice, and he can’t keep his tail from wagging.
“When you can speak again, I get to ask you all kinds of werewolf questions,” Booster insists.
They get off at the Bloodwynd stop and walk back to Crescent Hill, Ted sticking close to Booster’s side. The full moon is rising higher up into the sky, fat and pumpkin-colored and menacing. Booster looks down at Ted and smiles, and Ted gives him his best wolfish smile and wags his tail in reply.
“Your place or mine?” Booster asks.
Ted bounds over to his own door and stands on the porch patiently, waiting for Booster to catch up to him. Booster ambles along, digging Ted’s keys out of his coat, juggling Ted’s clothes and the plastic bag of takeout. While he waits for Booster to catch up, Ted licks down his fur, trying to make himself look a little more presentable.
“You look fine,” Booster assures him, ruffling his fur as he steps up onto the porch and unlocks the door. “Are you going to be able to invite me in like this?”
Ted barks, tail wagging hard. He hops up onto his hind legs and opens the door, drops back down onto all fours, and then nudges and bumps Booster until they’re both standing in the front hall. Ted lets out a triumphant little howl and noses on the lights with a light switch set at werewolf height. Booster hangs up their coats and sets Ted’s clothes on a bench just inside the door.
“Did you have to have this place totally retrofitted to be werewolf-friendly?”
Ted nods and leads Booster into the kitchen, nosing on the kitchen lights as he goes. For all appearances, it looks like a normal kitchen. There are dishtowels threaded through some of the doors, and Ted bites the one looped through the refrigerator door, tugging on it until the door opens. He holds it open with his body until Booster understands that he’s being offered a drink and grabs a beer from the shelf and a bottle of water for Ted.
“I swear I’m not being facetious or a jerk, but do you have a dog dish or something to drink out of?”
Ted wags his tail and opens a low cabinet, revealing a variety of large cereal bowls. He may be in a canine body, but he does have some standards. Booster grabs a couple of bowls for Ted’s water and his leftovers, and Ted jumps up onto his hind legs again to show him where the plates and silverware are.
Booster grins. “Thanks. I have to say, you are not what I expected when I envisioned ‘werewolf.’ But that’s okay. I like you a lot, Ted, in either form.” He kneels down and leans in close while the leftovers are reheating in the microwave. “But I’d much prefer you human. You look damn good naked, Ted.”
Ted wags his tail hard, and if he could blush, he’d be beet red.
Once the leftovers are reheated, Ted ushers Booster into the living room, waiting patiently as Booster juggles the plates and bowls and his can of beer. The living room is cluttered with magazines and DVD cases and bits of electronics, but it’s not a total mess. Ted had cleaned to the best of his abilities before the date, in case they ended up back here. He scratches behind one ear and watches Booster set his food down, and then nudges the bowls closer so he can sit pressed close to Booster’s legs. Booster puts on the television for some background noise, since they can’t have much of a conversation, and Ted rubs his muzzle against Booster’s shin.
“You’re welcome.”
Once they’ve finished eating, Ted hops up onto the couch and stretches out, laying his head in Booster’s lap. Booster smiles and pets him gently, scratching behind his ears. Ted sighs, nuzzling Booster’s thigh with the underside of his jaw and the side of his face.
“Have you always been like this, Ted?” Booster asks softly, still stroking over his fur.
Ted nods, hopping back down off the couch. He trots over to a bookshelf in the corner and paws at a photo album until it falls off the shelf. The sound of the leather album cover hitting the hardwood floor is loud in the quiet of the apartment. Ted noses it over to Booster, too big and cumbersome to carry in his mouth. He hops back onto the couch as Booster picks it up, settling in close.
Booster flips open the album, marveling at the photos. Some are of a chubby baby with brilliant blue eyes and soft auburn hair; other pictures show a chubby puppy with the same brilliant blue eyes and auburn fur. “This is you? You’re adorable.”
Ted’s tail thumps against the couch, and he watches Booster turn more pages. He noses at a picture of a woman holding him. She’s pretty and smiling, and it’s easy to see where Ted gets his smile, his nose, his auburn curls. Booster ruffles his fur and turns the page, finding a photo taken in a snowy field, a huge group of people and wolves all piled together into the frame.
“Well, you definitely take after your mom. Where’s your dad, if you don’t mind my asking?”
Ted paws at the pages, flipping them until he gets to a severe-looking man with brilliant blue eyes, standing stiffly next to a young Ted missing his two front teeth. There are a few pictures of Ted with his father’s side of the family, all of them severe-looking and stiff, standing just a little too far away from Ted and his mother. Ted whines; he has to wait until morning to tell Booster his life story.
Booster closes the album and sets it down carefully. “So…what are we going to do now? I can’t talk to you until morning, right? And I have a ton of questions for you that need a little more than a yes or no answer. Would it be okay if I stayed the night?”
Ted barks in the affirmative, tail wagging hard. It’s much too early to go to bed, so they sit cuddled together on the couch and flip through an endless parade of terrible television shows. Booster pets Ted the entire time, hand smoothing through his fur gently. Ted sighs and struggles with the urge to roll over for belly rubs. Booster is the first person he’s dated in a long time, and the first person who has been comfortable with both his human and his wolf forms.
When it’s finally late enough to turn in for the night, Ted leads Booster up to his bedroom. This is the room he tidied most aggressively before the date, picking up dirty laundry off the floor and hiding it away, making the bed, reorganizing the piles of mess, and wiping everything down with a Lysol wipe. He hopes he managed to get enough dog hair off the comforter. Booster goes around to the windows and closes the blinds and the curtains, then shuts the door.
“There we go, nice and dark. Are you a left side or a right side kind of guy?” he asks, toeing off his shoes and socks and neatly lining them up. Ted hops up on the bed and curls up dead center, watching Booster strip down to his underwear. “Hope you don’t mind.”
Ted gives him a little growl that he hopes sounds more seductive than threatening, tail thumping the blankets.
“I’m going to take that as a no. And I hope you’re going to move over,” Booster replies, grinning at him.
Ted makes room for Booster as he crawls into bed, then leans over and grins at him. Booster smiles right back, and Ted leans in even further and licks his cheek. It’s the best he can do for a goodnight kiss. He can’t help but think how good Booster tastes, how good he smells, and he’ll be very happy when the sun comes up in the morning and he can tell him so.
“Same to you, Ted. Good night,” Booster murmurs. He clicks off the light and rolls over, and Ted curls up again, pressed close to Booster’s side.
Sleep comes quickly, and more quickly comes morning. Ted wakes at sunrise, feeling the change ripple through his body again. It’s not painful this time, more controlled. He gives a good long stretch and feels his body shift, from paws to fingers and snout to the tip of his nose. He stretches again, pops a few joints, and lets out a huge yawn. Comfortably human and uncomfortably cold, Ted slips under the covers and curls close to Booster. It’s still early, the sun just barely up over the horizon. Sighing, Ted nuzzles Booster’s shoulder with his cheek and closes his eyes.
When Ted wakes again, he feels warm and lazy. The sun is making a valiant effort to get through the tightly closed curtains and blinds, brightening the room. Booster’s arms loosely circle his waist, hands on his chest. Ted shivers and presses back against him, then shivers again when Booster moans softly. He turns his head to see if Booster’s awake yet and grazes his lips against Booster’s skin.
“Your mattress is too soft,” Booster mumbles in his ear.
Ted grins. “Good morning to you too. Did you sleep okay?”
“Aside from the mattress and your doggie snoring, I slept just fine, thanks. You okay?”
He rolls over and snuggles closer, until they’re lying nose-to-nose. “I woke up and found an incredibly hot man in my bed. I’m more than okay.”
Booster runs his hand down Ted’s back, resting his palm against the small. “I have to say, I don’t mind your being a werewolf one bit, but I definitely prefer you like this. It is very difficult to lie in your bed and listen to you breathe and know I can’t touch you at all because you are a dog and it would be incredibly creepy for both of us.”
“…I’m human now,” Ted points out, a wicked grin slowly spreading across his very human mouth.
Booster grins right back at him. “I noticed.”
He presses his other hand against the back of Ted’s neck and curls him into a slow, lazy kiss. Booster’s hand and mouth are warmer than they were the last time they kissed, and Ted can’t help but sigh happily. Booster takes advantage of his soft sigh and deepens the kiss, his fangs just barely grazing Ted’s lip. He shivers, tongue sliding against Booster’s.
“I meant what I said last night,” Booster pants softly, licking his lips. “You look really good naked.”
Ted groans, mouthing at Booster’s jaw, working his way down his throat. There are two little scars on his carotid artery, faint enough that Ted wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been kissing his way down Booster’s neck. He drags his tongue over the scars and Booster moans, clutching at Ted and urging him on. Ted sucks on the spot, then sucks harder when Booster writhes and presses up against him.
The hand on the small of Ted’s back slides lower, skims over his ass. Still feeling the pull of the moon and the aggressive, possessive, animalistic feeling that sometimes comes with it, Ted growls and rolls them both until he’s straddling Booster’s waist. He leans in and sucks on Booster’s puncture scars again, and to his surprise, Booster starts laughing.
“Are you the vampire, or am I?”
Ted grins and kisses him playfully. “Got a little carried away. You taste really good, y’know. I’ve got…I’ve got heightened senses. Dog nose, if you will. Hearing, taste, they’re all better than a human’s.”
“Bet you never got away with anything when you were a kid,” Booster retorts.
“Oh God, no; nothing got by my mom. She could smell me getting into trouble a mile away.”
Ted shifts off Booster so he can pull down his briefs, the fabric straining against his arousal. He brushes his fingertips over Booster’s dick, pleased with the sound Booster makes. He can’t get over how beautiful Booster is, every bit of him a model. Booster reaches for him, pulls Ted back on top of him, his eyes dark with lust.
“You have anything particular in mind?” Ted asks, running his hands over Booster’s chest, thumbs brushing his nipples.
Booster jumps, their cocks brushing together. They both groan, shivering at the contact. “Just…just want to feel you. I’m conditionally immortal, I’ve got all the time in the world to learn all your kinks.”
“Any jokes about collars and leashes and I’m kicking you out,” Ted retorts.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Booster replies, his grin huge and toothy.
Ted shifts slightly, his hands on Booster’s hips now. He rubs the bumps of his hipbones with his thumbs and rolls his own hips, grinding against Booster. Booster’s eyelids flutter and he moans again. He curls his hands around Ted’s shoulders and arches up against the next slow roll of Ted’s hips. It’s a little too slow for Ted’s post-moon tastes, but he wants to savor the feeling of Booster’s skin against his own, catalogue his moans and shivers in his scientific way.
“Ted…move…” Booster rasps, sliding his hands down to Ted’s waist.
Nodding, Ted grinds down harder, faster, settling into a steady rhythm. It feels amazing, the friction of their skin sliding together, the slick slip of precome. Ted shivers, intoxicated by the smell of sex, the pound of their heartbeats, the prickle of sweat on his skin. He leans in and kisses Booster, sucks on his tongue and swallows down his moans. Booster’s hands move again, his fingertips pressing into Ted’s ass.
“Ever bitten anyone during sex?” Ted rasps. He runs his tongue over the points of Booster’s fangs and shudders, wondering what it would feel like if Booster sank them into his throat.
Booster shakes his head. “Nuh…no. It’s taken me a long…oh fuck, Ted…a long time to control my biting urges. I can’t…I can’t lose control. I don’t ever want to hurt anybody.”
Ted kisses the corner of his mouth, smiling kindly at him. “I…God…I admire that about you, Booster.”
“What about you? Man-eating werewolf?” Booster asks, grinning.
“I think I’ll save the man-eating for our next date,” Ted retorts, laughing. He loses his concentration for a moment and his rhythm falters, but he picks it up again quick enough.
Booster grunts and shifts, moves Ted a little, then reaches down and wraps his hand around both their cocks. Ted moans, arching up into his touch. Booster’s hand always feels so big and warm and strong when they’re holding hands, but this feels even better. He strokes them quickly and firmly with just the right amount of pressure, and Ted’s not sure he can hang on much longer. He reaches down and laces their fingers together, pumping their dicks in unison.
“Ted…” Booster groans, pushing him down into a kiss. It’s sloppy and desperate, and Booster comes dangerously close to breaking the skin of Ted’s lower lip as he nips at it. Ted doesn’t mind too much, too far gone, too close to the edge.
“Booster, hh…fuck, Booster…just…I can’t…” he pants, mouth still pressed to his.
Ted squeezes just a little, jerks his hips up, and he’s gone. He spills over his own hand, over Booster’s, and it’s enough to send Booster over the edge with him, groaning out Ted’s name. Their hands keep moving together, stroking oversensitive skin until Ted collapses against Booster’s chest.
“If this is how I get to spend my post-moon mornings, I could get used to this.”
Booster smoothes his hand down Ted’s back. “Are you too tired to answer all my burning werewolf questions?”
“Not yet,” Ted murmurs. “Ask away.”
“So, judging by your family photos, you’ve always been like this. What about your folks?” Booster asks.
Ted sighs. “Dad’s a normal. Mom was what her family calls a ‘sheepcloth.’ Basically, she was a werewolf who couldn’t change. Had the enhanced senses, but couldn’t go all dog like I can. She’s one of a bunch of sisters, and a few of my aunts are sheepcloths too. Dad…he hated me. Hated what I was. When I was little, I couldn’t control the change and shifted between wolf and baby constantly. It freaked him out. Mom died when I was in high school, and Dad pretty much cast me out as soon as humanly possible. I should be the CEO of KORD Industries, but he cut me off. So I got back at him by building my own tech firm, and I haven’t spoken to my dad or his family since I was sixteen. I keep contact with my mom’s side, though.”
Booster presses a kiss to Ted’s forehead. “You’re brave. My dad ran out on us when we were kids. My mom, she got sick when I was a sophomore in college and died. I…I got kicked out of college for gambling, trying to pay her medical bills. I got into modeling by chance, and the money was good, but it didn’t help my mom, obviously. Then I got bit, and I didn’t tell my sister…I have a twin. And probably…I don’t know, a year or two after I got bit and got my life straightened out, my sister got the same sickness my mom did. So…so I bit her and turned her, because I didn’t want to see her die like my mom. Shel was…furious, to say the least. She lives in Gotham City, and she hasn’t spoken to me since. She’s the only person I’ve ever bitten, and I hope I never have to bite anyone again.”
“You’re pretty damn brave too, Booster,” Ted murmurs, cuddling closer.
They lie there together for a long time, trading stories and kisses, tangled up in each other’s arms. Booster’s skin is warm everywhere it touches Ted’s, and everywhere else it’s slowly cooling back to vampire temperature. Ted smiles sleepily, nuzzling his cheek against Booster’s shoulder. This is the best morning after moon he’s had in a very long time.
++
Part Two
Author: fleur_de_liz
Recipient: marksykins
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Ted/Booster
Summary: There is another city inside the heart of Hub City, a city unseen. The city hides many secrets, but can Ted Kord hide his from the mysterious and handsome Booster Carter?
Author's Notes: I had a hard time finding an Elseworld I liked, so I made up my own, just for you! I would love to expand on this universe in the future, there was so much I wanted to include. Thank you to the long-suffering poisonivory for betaing and putting up with me in general. I couldn't have done it without you. Please note that this is part one of two. Damn character limit.
There is another city inside the heart of Hub City, a city unseen. Hard and dark, it hides under the flesh of the city like the pit of a peach. Its buildings, its street signs and spiderwebbing subway tunnels are all interconnected to the greater metropolis, but the average high-rise resident would never know. Its subway stops are the ones most trains rush right by without a thought. Its streets are darkened and foreboding, the sort that the street-savvy citydweller never wanders down, even in broad daylight. It is not an invisible city so much as an unnoticeable city, and the residents of the Unseen City prefer it that way.
The people who live in the Unseen City are hidden away from the rest of the world for good reason, and theirs is not the only city of its kind. Hidden cities exist across the globe, sequestering its residents. The people of the invisible cities are the stuff of nightmares, Halloween dioramas, and late night monster movie marathons. Vampires. Ghosts. Demons. Creatures of darkness and shadow. Some people would say that the invisible cities were constructed to protect the humans from the dark things. However, it is more accurate to say that they were built to protect the night-walkers from the humans.
Ted Kord crosses through the Unseen Hub City regularly without so much as a flinch. He rides the ghost trains to stops that don’t otherwise exist. He buys his groceries from bodegas with banshee cashiers. But Ted Kord doesn’t look like the populous of Hub Unseen. He has no fangs, isn’t transparent; no horns or gaping flesh wounds. He’s handsome in a sort of homey, boy-next-door sense, solidly built and just a bit soft around the middle. His eyes aren’t a demonic yellow, but a brilliant sapphire blue. Nor is his hair made of snakes, but rather soft auburn curls that frame his warm, open face. To all appearances, he’s a normal man, and a normal man in a city of monsters makes for uneasy monsters.
On an unremarkable Tuesday night, just late enough that it’s edging into Wednesday morning, Ted finds himself moving quickly through Hub Unseen, crossing the two blocks from the nearest subway station to his apartment. He mutters to himself about stopping at the bodega on the corner for milk, checks his watch, and spares a glance up at the sky. The moon’s on the wax, a fat half-moon caught between the skyscrapers. It’s the only heavenly body visible in the city, the stars all replaced by the blinking underbellies of commercial jetliners. His breath hangs cold in air that’s already has a metallic winter tang to it. The forecasters are all predicting a brutal winter, and Ted can’t help but shiver at the thought of having to dig out his snow boots.
He’s half a block from the bodega when he smells them: the scent of cigarette smoke intermingled with the coppery tang of blood, the dank reek of mausoleum air, and the wet stench of earth. Aside from the cigarettes, the smell is unmistakably vampire. Ted quickens his pace a little. It’s not that he’s afraid of vampires, more that he’s afraid of getting mugged two blocks from home. He can see the bodega just ahead, its sign still illuminated in neon and krypton. He only needs to get in the door.
Ted hears it right before they surround him: the rustle of their clothes and a slight slorching sound as they pull away from the shadows. There are four of them, dressed in the traditional garb of the average street thug; puffy down coats and gold chains, caps or sweatshirt hoods pulled low over their brows. They’re young, probably little more than eighteen, at least in appearance. Their true ages could easily be decades older than what their faces show. For such young (looking) men, they’re big, strong, and able to use their combined weight to push Ted towards the dark alley from whence they came.
“Evening, gentlemen. Lovely night, isn’t it?” he asks, trying a grin.
They grin back at him, eyeteeth long and sharp and gleaming. One of them, with a shaved head and a goatee, leans in menacingly. “Indubitably, this evening is most…fortuitous.”
“Providential, even,” another young man with dreadlocks and a bucket hat adds.
Ted swallows. “Look, fellas, if you’re looking for money, I think I have enough for a carton of milk. Maybe also some gum. But that’s probably pushing it, because the price of milk’s been ridiculous lately. So, y’know, how about we just take a raincheck on your mugging me?”
“The E Street Bloodsuckers ain’t after yo’ cash, foo’!” a third young man, heavyset and wearing a backwards baseball bat, barks at Ted.
The one with the goatee glares at his companion. “Jerome, it would be prudent to reflect upon the vulgarity of your vernacular.”
Ted’s eyes narrow, one eyebrow arching inquisitively. “Wait, the E Street Bloodsuckers? E Street’s like six blocks from here. Shouldn’t you be more like the…I don’t know…Crescent Street Bloodsuckers?”
“We are expanding the boundaries of our territory,” the fourth young man replies nonchalantly, shrugging. He’s wearing sunglasses in spite of the lack of sun, and Ted thinks he looks ridiculous.
Ted swallows. They’re not after his money, they’re young and stupid vampires going by the name E Street Bloodsuckers, and they’ve got him cornered in a dark alley relatively late at night. He connects the dots in his head, and the picture that forms isn’t a pretty one. “So…you’re going to blood-mug me, is that it?”
“We prefer to think of it as obtaining our sustenance free-range and local-grown,” the one with the bucket hat says, licking his fangs.
Ted pulls up a mental map of E Street and the surrounding neighborhoods. “But there’s a huge blood bank on the corner of E Street and Liverpool Ave! Why would you need to bite anyone’s neck when you can get it ready-to-drink right there?”
The Bloodsucker named Jerome gives him a look. “Consuming blood obtained from the bank is akin to consuming nothing but prepackaged television dinners. It is neither palatable nor nutritionally appropriate. It is a gustatory abomination.”
“Look, I’m sorry blood bank blood isn’t haute cuisine, but you don’t want mine,” Ted replies testily. “I taste terrible.”
“I believe that is for us to ascertain,” the one with sunglasses says.
The young man with the goatee gestures to his companions. “Jerome, Lawrence, Samuel, do restrain him. I shall make the initial puncture, and then we can equitably portion out our shares.”
“Why do you get the preliminary taste, Moses?” the others argue, though they move to grab Ted nonetheless.
Ted hunches down into a defensive position and bares his teeth like a cornered animal. The hair on the back of his neck prickles, and his skin crawls. “Don’t touch me. Nobody’s biting my neck. I told you before; you can’t have my blood.”
“I believe our repast intends to engage in fisticuffs, Moses,” Samuel points out, adjusting his sunglasses.
Jerome hunches down as well. “Less buss his ass an’ bite his neck!”
“Jerome!”
Ted flexes his fingers. His body flushes hot. He can hear his bones creak just a little. “This is your last warning. Get away from me.”
The Bloodsuckers don’t listen. They keep moving forward, and Ted stands his ground. He’s given them plenty of warning, and he’s not afraid of four young, dumb vampires. He lets them get in nice and close, hoping to use the element of surprise. They won’t take his blood, and even if they do bite him, they’ll find out very quickly that Ted isn’t at all fit for consumption.
“Hey! What the hell are you doing?”
The E Street Bloodsuckers freeze, and Ted does too. There’s somebody else standing there, blocking the entrance to the alley. He’s tall, broad-shouldered, and totally unconcerned by the four vampires standing there with fangs bared and eyes dark with bloodlust. Ted’s nerves are on edge, senses heightened. He can hear the shift of gravel under the stranger’s feet. He can smell him, a vampire smell, but different from the boys surrounding him. The grave dirt smell is more of a woodsy, earthy scent, and there’s no fetid stench of blood or decay. He smells like expensive cologne more than anything.
“Get out of here,” the new vampire hisses.
The E Street Bloodsuckers, startled by this intruder, quickly scatter. Ted’s not sure if there’s some sort of vampire hierarchy at work here, he’s never really been close with vampires, but he’s surprised at the speed with which the young vampires disappear into the shadows. He tries to slow his heart and calm his nerves as he walks out of the alley, the newcomer backing up and letting him get out into the safety of the streetlight.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
Ted looks up at him, about to snap, still on overdrive. The vampire is incredibly handsome; he’s blond and blue-eyed and surprisingly tan for an undead being. He’s wearing an expensive leather jacket, with a small Red Cross pin stuck in the lapel. The longer Ted stares at him, the more familiar he becomes. He’s seen that handsome face staring back at him on billboards and buses and magazines. He’s a famous model within the Unseen Cities, and Ted has no idea what he’s doing breaking up blood-muggings.
“I could’ve handled them myself.”
The vampire snorts. “Yeah, right. Those guys would have killed you. Look, buddy, this isn’t really a safe part of town. Somebody like you could get hurt. Do you need directions? Which subway stop do you usually get off at?”
Ted folds his arms across his chest. He gets this all the time, mistaken for a normal human being. Sometimes he wishes he had a few gaping flesh wounds or a visible fang, just so these incidents wouldn’t happen. “Bloodwynd. Sometimes I’ll stay on until Nightshade, but I’m pretty sure it takes the same amount of time to get home either way.”
“…Wait, you live here?”
“Right around the corner,” Ted says dryly. “I was headed to the store for milk when they jumped me. Look, thank you for the entirely unnecessary but good-intentioned rescue. I’m going to get my groceries and go home now, if it’s all the same to you.”
The vampire follows Ted as he starts to leave. “Well, let me at least walk you home or something. It would kind of suck...no pun intended…if you got jumped again.”
Ted wants to tell him to just leave him alone, that he can handle himself if more vampire hoodlums turn up, but he holds his tongue. The guy just went out of his way to keep him from getting blood-mugged, and he seems like a genuinely nice undead being. Instead, he swallows and looks up at his companion. “So…how did you make them go away? Vampire mind tricks?”
“Mm, kinda but not really. Vampires are surprisingly territorial. Y’know, it’s kind of the idea that if you’ve got yourself set up in a nice little village, you don’t want somebody else coming in and biting all your necks. So, since this neighborhood’s my territory, I impressed it upon their young minds that they are unwanted here and they needed to get the hell out,” he explains. “I’m Booster, by the way.”
Ted gives him a look. “Really? What the hell kind of a name is Booster?”
He grins. “It’s an old football nickname that, much like me, just can’t die.”
Smiling, Ted offers him a hand. He can’t be too annoyed with a guy who can make a stupid joke at his own expense. Booster’s hand is just this side of cold, and Ted can’t tell if it’s because of the night air, or because of the vampirism. “I’m Ted.”
They walk into the bodega together, and Ted heads straight for the refrigerated cases. He starts digging around for the carton of milk with the farthest-off expiration date, and as he’s comparing two cartons, notices Booster standing next to him. He’s opening a carton of eggs and inspecting them, a bottle of pomegranate juice tucked into the crook of his arm.
“You’re not the only one who needed midnight groceries,” he says with a slightly sheepish smile.
They take their purchases to the front and Ted pays with the crumpled bills he stuffed in his pocket after he bought lunch this afternoon. Booster slides a debit card across the counter and winks at the zombie girl ringing them up. She giggles and shyly asks Booster to sign a copy of Impulse Magazine with his picture on the cover, which he does gladly. He flashes her a smile as he passes back the magazine, his fangs bright white under the store’s harsh halogen lighting, and Ted can’t help but feel his innards wobble just a little.
“You said this is your territory?” Ted asks as they round the corner onto Crescent Hill, a tony little neighborhood of brownstones. He reaches into his coat pocket for his keys and pulls them out, along with a few hard candy wrappers and a ticket stub from The Suicide Squad.
“Yeah, that’s my place right there,” Booster replies, pointing to a building on the right with a wrought iron fence enclosing the tiny front yard.
Ted laughs. “You’re kidding me. You live there? My place is right here.” He gestures to a brownstone on the left, about three doors down from Booster’s, its own front yard lined with short boxwood hedges.
“Huh. Talk about strange coincidences.” Booster rummages around in his own pockets, and then checks the breast of his jacket. “Listen, this is probably really forward of me, but I’m convinced that this is all happening for a reason. I think you’re intriguing and incredibly cute for a normal, and I’d like to get to know you better. Maybe we could go out for coffee sometime? Here’s my card. Or, y’know, I guess you can just walk across the street and knock on my door.”
Ted takes the card and glances down at it. Michael Carter, it reads, along with Booster’s contact information. He can feel the tips of his ears burning, and he’s too taken aback at being called cute to correct Booster about being a normal. “Um. Sure, yeah. That sounds…yeah. If you’re free Friday…?”
“I should be. Yeah, yeah, I’ll see you Friday, then,” Booster replies. He grins, and Ted can’t take his eyes off his gleaming fangs. “Have a good night.”
He nods and heads up his front porch, sparing a glance back over his shoulder at Booster as he walks up his own porch. Booster glances back at him as well, smiles, and waves. He can’t help but think that Moses was right; this evening had been most fortuitous indeed.
++
Now that Ted knows Booster lives across the street and three doors down, he sees him everywhere. Between Wednesday morning and their coffee date Friday evening, they are utterly incapable of avoiding one another. They wave at one another from across the road Wednesday morning as they put out their trash, with Booster juggling his blue recycling bins as he lifts his hand. They bump into one another on the subway platform at the Bloodwynd stop, waiting for the ghost train to pull into the station. They laugh like it’s all some sort of big joke, some great cosmic prank that’s sticking them together like gum on a bus bench.
Friday evening brings a cold, driving rain, and Ted staggers into the Black Orchid Café after getting battered about by the wind. He shakes out his raincoat and hangs it up by the door, finding Booster already sitting at a table. He unwinds his fingers from around his mug and stands, clasping his ceramic-warmed hands around Ted’s.
“Some night, huh?” he asks, his smile as warm as his hands.
Ted laughs. “I thought I was going to blow away. Lemme go grab something to drink, I’ll be right back. Can I get you anything? Oversized cookie? Pint of O positive?”
“I’m good with green tea for now, thanks,” Booster replies, settling back into his chair.
Ted hems and haws over the menu board, trying to decide what to order. It’s too late in the evening to order a coffee if he wants to get any sleep. He can’t have hot cocoa due to an entirely unfair chocolate allergy (which he discovered at an early age when his cousin Peter’s chocolate birthday cake landed him in the hospital). He doesn’t really like tea. Sighing the long-suffering sigh of a man who really wants a hot drink but can’t find anything on the menu worth drinking, Ted orders a strawberry smoothie.
“You’re made of pretty strong stuff, having a cold drink on a night like this,” Booster comments.
Ted swirls his straw around in the plastic cup glumly. “It’s not entirely by choice.”
“So, obviously you know what I do for a living. What about you? Hell, I don’t even think I know your last name,” Booster points out. He smiles as he says this, and in spite of the terrible weather and the cold smoothie, Ted feels warmed right through to his bones.
“I have a feeling once you know my last name, you’ll know what I do,” Ted replies. “It’s Kord. I’m Ted Kord.”
Booster’s eyes go wide. “You’re joking. The Ted Kord? Founder and CEO of Blue Beetle Technologies Ted Kord? You…are surprisingly less beetle-like than the Internet makes you out to be.”
Ted laughs, taking another sip of smoothie. “Yeah, we let them think that on purpose. PR was convinced that if people knew I looked like a normal, they wouldn’t want to buy their products from me. I mean, if you’re a ghost or a satyr, would you want to buy a laptop from me and my suspiciously human-looking mug?”
“Well, I certainly would,” Booster replies. “I think your suspiciously human-looking mug is cute.”
“Thanks,” Ted mutters, blushing beet red. He watches Booster idly playing with his mug of tea, and then glances at the windowpane next to them. He can see both their reflections in the glass. “Hey, can I ask…how’d you become a vampire?”
Booster looks a little embarrassed and fiddles with his mug some more. “I was modeling. Young, dumb, and probably somewhat anorexic. And I was dating a model who was young, dumb, probably a little anorexic…and a vampire. She was the one who turned me…as well as half the male models working in that town and probably a good handful of female models as well. She was giving out vampirism like it was an STD. I had no idea what to do, either. I didn’t know about the cities, or the blood banks, or anything, really. I thought being a vampire meant being like the stereotypical movie vampire. So I refused to go out during the day unless I was covered up like the Invisible Man, I covered up all the mirrors in my apartment, wouldn’t go near crosses or running water or any of that. I almost bought a coffin to sleep in, that’s how dumb I was. But I was too scared to drink blood. I didn’t want to bite anybody, and I didn’t know if you could really drink like a cow’s blood. So…I just flat-out refused to drink any blood at all.”
“And what happened?” Ted asks, leaning in.
“I almost died!” Booster replies, throwing his hands in the air. “I passed out in the middle of a photo shoot, I was so sick, and if there hadn’t been a vampire on the production team I would’ve died of severe blood deficiency. He got me to Metropolis Mid-Nite…I was living in Metropolis back then…and I ended up spending a couple of weeks there, basically in vampire rehab. That was…maybe fifteen years ago now? I’m not like hundreds of years old or anything like that.”
Ted leans in, fascinated. Though he has vampires working in his company, he doesn’t know any of them well enough to ask for their life stories. “So…is it okay if I ask what is and isn’t true about vampires? My vampire knowledge is pretty much what’s in pop culture too.”
Booster smiles. “Basically, everything but the blood drinking is wrong. I will not spontaneously combust in direct sunlight…I won’t sparkle either, unless I’ve been sandblasted with glitter for a photo shoot. I mean, yes, sunlight is not good for vampires, but I’m not going to instantly burn up if I go outside. Though it does mean tanning’s out. This is just a spray-on,” he says, indicating his tanned hands. “Um…what else…I don’t eat garlic because it gives me indigestion, not because it’ll kill me. I have a reflection and show up on film, obviously. Coffin-sleeping is optional, though a dark room is not, more out of personal preference than anything. Um…I can fly, but I try not to, because I always feel dumb when I do it, and I don’t turn into a bat. And…oh! Stakes! Yes, a stake through the heart will kill me. But that is because a stake through the heart will kill anybody.”
“What about holy water and crosses?” Ted asks.
Booster shrugs. “I’m an atheist, so I don’t think they’re going to actually do anything. Maybe if you believe in God, they’ll hurt. Vampires aren’t demons, though, so I doubt it.”
Ted leans in a little more. “And being invited in?”
“…That one works,” Booster sighs. “And it’s a pain in the ass, because it only applies to residences. So if I’m…let’s say going over a friend’s house to watch the football game every week. I have to be invited in every single time, even if we’re friends and I was invited in last week. Okay, so now what about you?”
“What about me?”
Booster leans forward and pokes Ted in the nose. “I have answered all of your questions. What about you? You insist you’re not a normal, but you don’t look like any Resident I’ve ever seen. What are you, Ted?”
“Me? I’m a jerk,” Ted replies, grinning.
Booster stares at him. “You’re a…what?”
“A jerk. Because I’m not going to tell you what I am. You’ve got to figure it out for yourself. C’mon, if we give up all our secrets on the first date, what’re we going to talk about the next time we go out?” he asks.
Booster stares at him a little longer, and then goes bright pink. “I might be able to live with that answer.”
They stay in the café for another two hours, their drinks long gone and their cups sitting idly on the tabletop. Ted animatedly explains the difficulties in making an mp3 player light enough for ghosts to carry, using the napkin holder and several sugar packets as props for his explanation. Booster describes a party he attended after wrapping a photo shoot, and makes fun of some of the more infamous monster celebrities who attended. They both speculate on several “normal” celebrities and whether or not they are secretly monsters, called Residents by people who live in the unseen cities. Booster mentions the difficulty of hiding his fangs the first few weeks of his life as a vampire. Ted gives Booster a little hint towards his nature by bringing up his chocolate allergy.
Their conversation continues as they finally decide to move on, gathering up jackets and briefcases and Booster’s trendy little one-shouldered bag. They’re still talking as they walk back to Crescent Hill, laughing riotously and standing just a little too close to one another. The rain has slowed from a relentless pounding to an obnoxious cold drizzle, hanging in the air and clinging to their coats.
“So…can I see you again?” Booster asks, fidgeting nervously.
Ted grins. “Well, considering we live across the street from one another, I think that’s unavoidable.”
Booster grins right back at Ted and takes his hands in his own. “You know what I mean.”
“Your hands are freezing,” Ted points out, squeezing them a little.
“Yeah, it’s a vampire thing; always a few degrees colder than normal body temperature. It’s a pain in the ass when I get sick; I can never figure out what constitutes as feverish.”
Ted leans in a little closer, marveling at just how tall Booster is compared to himself. He’s at least a good six inches taller than Ted, and it’s strange to be the shorter one in this fledgling relationship. “Well, I don’t mind your cold hands too much. And yes, to answer your question seriously, I’d like to see more of you too.”
“I don’t know what my schedule is like for this week yet, but I’ll let you know as soon as I figure it out,” Booster assures him.
Ted nods. “Yeah, I’ve got to check my social calendar too, but I know I don’t have any international travel planned. But yeah, let me know when you’re not covered in rhinestones and draped around a tiger or whatever it is they’ve got you doing.”
Booster laughs. “Nah, that was last week’s shoot.”
Just a little nervous and breathing just a little hard, Ted leans up on his toes. “Is it okay if I…”
“I was hoping you would,” Booster replies, meeting him halfway.
As first kisses go, it’s fairly unremarkable. There aren’t any fireworks or ringing bells, but Ted does feel a little flicker of warmth ignite in the pit of his stomach. Booster’s lips are just a bit cool, but they’re soft, and pressed against Ted’s mouth they quickly warm. He wraps his arms around Booster’s shoulders, curling his drizzle-damp hands into Booster’s hair as Booster’s hands circle his waist. When they pull back, Booster’s cheeks are flushed and he’s smiling down at Ted warmly.
“So I’ll see you soon, okay?” he murmurs, every word giving a hint of fangs.
Ted nods. “Yeah, definitely. Have a good night, Booster.”
“Good night, Ted.” He leans in and kisses Ted again, a little more forcefully this time, and then heads back across the street. Ted watches Booster pause on the walk and turn, grinning hugely at him. “Hey Ted! I know what you are!”
“What’s that?” Ted asks.
Booster’s smile is bright enough to light the neighborhood. “Really damn cute!”
As Ted slips inside his brownstone, he feels like his blush is bright enough to light the neighborhood too.
++
Ted barely remembers the weekend, feeling it rush by him as he fills the time with the housework and errands that go undone during the week. He discovers containers of old leftovers in the back of the fridge, finds three dollars’ worth of change in the couch cushions, and organizes the piles of mess on the coffee table. He does his laundry and puts the clean clothes away, rather than leaving them in the hamper and taking clean shirts from the jumbled pile. He tells himself this is all because he hasn’t tidied in a while, and not because he hopes to invite Booster over.
When he runs into Booster standing on the platform at the Nightshade station on Tuesday, they immediately start checking their respective calendars, tapping at their phones and scrolling through long lists of meetings and appointments to find a few spare moments for dinner.
“…Saturday evening?” Booster suggests. “Around six? There’s this really amazing restaurant over on Blackfire that I’ve been dying to try.”
“Yeah, that sounds great. Saturday’s free and clear for me,” Ted agrees. “It’s a date.”
It isn’t until Ted’s sitting in his office, going back through his schedule that he really looks at Saturday and remembers why he kept it clear in the first place. The back of his neck prickles, raising those hairs. He swallows, staring at his phone. He should call Booster and cancel. He really doesn’t want to call Booster and cancel, afraid that Booster will take it the wrong way. Ted swallows, and then taps the dinner date into his phone and confirms it. He’ll just have to make the best of it, he supposes.
Work hides his worries during the week. Ted pours himself into his projects and tries to forget the too-tight feeling of his skin and the slight burning sensation at the tip of his nose. He videoconferences with his team in Japan, tests the durability of the keyboard for a laptop designed for ogres and trolls, and looks over the ad campaign for the ghost-friendly mp3 players. Keeping busy buoys Ted through the workweek, but when he comes home Friday night, the weight of his date with Booster settles back around him.
Booster meets him in the street between their houses Saturday evening, looking like he stepped right off the pages of Impulse. The sick feeling in the pit of Ted’s stomach doesn’t abate, instead it starts doing battle with the excited little flutter he gets whenever he sees Booster. He smiles and waves, and Booster kisses him as soon as he gets close enough.
“Ready to go?” Booster asks.
Ted smiles. “Yeah. We’re not flying there, are we?”
“Absolutely not. C’mon, it’s right off the Blue Devil line,” he replies, taking Ted’s hand. Booster immediately drops it, staring at his palm. “Jeez, Ted, your hands are on fire. Are you okay?”
He nods, cautiously offering Booster his hand again. “Yeah, I’m okay. Just a little off tonight.”
“We can reschedule if you’re not feeling good,” Booster offers, taking his hand. Ted can feel the warmth seeping into Booster’s skin.
He shakes his head. “No, I want to have dinner with you. I’ll be fine, let’s go before they give our table away.”
Booster doesn’t relinquish his hold on Ted’s hand the entire walk to the subway, down the stairs, through the turnstiles with their frequent rider cards (though holding hands through a turnstile does get them a little stuck) and out onto the platform. They stand shoulder-to-shoulder just behind the yellow line, and once on the train, sit shoulder-to-shoulder, hands still clasped. Booster snakes an arm around Ted’s shoulders. Ted feels his face flare up with a blush, his whole body feverishly warm.
“Alligators,” Booster says suddenly.
Ted looks up at him, one eyebrow arched. “I beg your pardon?”
“That was this week’s shoot. They had me surrounded by alligators. Or, more accurately, they had one real alligator and they were going to CG in the rest. But I had to pretend like I was surrounded by alligators…which means looking sultry and indifferent while surrounded by alligators.”
Ted laughs, and a few minutes later their stop comes up. Booster helps Ted to his feet and together, hands still clasped tight, they hop off the train and move through the crush of people off the platform and up to the street. From there, it’s a short walk to the restaurant, Themyscyra. There is a large group of people milling around outside and an even larger group milling around the lobby, but Booster and Ted breeze right by all of them and head right for the hostess’ booth.
“Hi, we’ve got a reservation. Carter?” Booster asks, offering the hostess his most charming smile.
She blushes and picks up a pair of menus. “Right this way, Mr. Carter.”
“I hope you like Greek,” Booster murmurs as he and Ted follow the sylph to their table.
Ted smiles at him. “I like everything. I can’t believe how many people were waiting to get in.”
“Yeah, well, you get a really good review in The Secret Six and people come running to try your food. I got my review from one of my makeup artists. She said the souvlaki is incredibly tender, the spanakopita are outrageous, and they do this dessert called Paradise Island that’s like little cakes in custard and it was, and I quote, ‘better than sex.’ Now, I don’t really know about that, but I’m definitely saving room.”
They place their orders and Ted tries very hard to pretend he feels well enough to continue this date. He should have canceled. He listens to Booster talk about walking for a fashion show, shredding a piece of pita in his hands as he watches Booster’s mouth move. The smells in the restaurant are overwhelming him, between the aromas of the other patrons’ dinners, the scent of the patrons themselves, and the woodsy vampiric smell coming from Booster. Sound is amplified in Ted’s ears, the tiniest clink of a spoon halfway across the restaurant as loud as a brass band. He can hear his own heart like a thunderstorm, and he can hear Booster’s heart beating on the other side of the table.
“Ted? Are you okay? You just went dead pale, and I know dead pale. You should’ve seen me right after I turned, I was the grossest color. I probably still would be if it weren’t for the spray tan,” Booster asks concernedly.
“I…” Ted starts, interrupted by their server returning with their food. Has that much time really passed since they placed their orders? He feels his stomach lurch. “To be honest, no, I’m not okay. I’m sorry, Booster, I really am. I need…I’m sorry, I need to get outside…”
He drops his napkin onto the table and lurches out of the restaurant, weaving around the tables. His heart is hammering in his ears, and he can hear people murmuring about him, wondering what’s wrong with him. He blows right past the hostess and out into the open air, staggering around for a safe place. He ducks into a dark alley next to the restaurant, trying to catch his breath. His skin crawls, and he has a desperate longing to just rip it right off.
“Have to…have to…please, just a little longer. Don’t want…just a little longer,” he murmurs around dry heaves.
“Ted? Ted!”
Ted swallows and steps out of the shadows. “Booster? I’m…hh…I’m here…”
Booster hurries into the alley holding their coats in one arm and a plastic bag containing their uneaten dinners in the other. “Are you okay? God, are you sick? What…what do I do?”
Breathing hard and feeling increasingly unwell, Ted takes off his shoes and starts stripping out of the rest of his clothes. “You can hold these for me.”
“What the hell are you doing?” Booster asks. His face is bright red, and he’s staring at Ted with wide eyes.
Ted hands him his bundle of clothes and shoes. “I’m nn…I’m not going to ruin these. You wanted…you wanted to know what I am. I’m a werewolf, Booster. And I can’t hold off my transformation much longer, so if you have any pressing questions, ask them now before I change.”
“...Oh my God, tonight’s the full moon, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Ted replies, fighting the change. “I can…I can transform at will, except when it’s the full moon. Then I have no choice. I just…I didn’t want to cancel and have you think I didn’t…nngh…want to be with you. So I held it off as long as I…Booster…I can’t…”
Ted’s body spasms, and the change begins. Bones snap and groan as they reconfigure, reshape themselves for a canine body. His face changes, jaw elongating and ears repositioning. His skin stretches, hands warp, pads forming on what used to be his fingertips. Thick auburn fur sprouts, covering every inch of his changing form. The whole thing takes only moments, but for Ted, it feels like hours. His vocal chords twang and his human cries become canine howls and moans. After an eternity condensed into less than a minute, it’s done. Breathing hard, he trots out of the alley on all fours, staring up at Booster with startlingly human blue eyes.
“This is not at all what I pictured when you said werewolf,” Booster says, smiling at him. “I expected Lon Chaney. Can you speak in this form?”
Ted barks and bumps Booster’s thigh with his nose.
“I take that as a no. C’mon, I’ll take you home. If you’re feeling up to it, maybe we can continue our dinner? I mean, I totally understand if you don’t want to, that looked pretty rough. Does it hurt every time you change? Even if you do it voluntarily?”
Ted shakes his head. If he changes willingly, it’s much less painful and takes seconds. Only when the moon forces his change does it hurt. Usually, Ted spends a whole full moon day in wolf form. He can’t remember the last time he was forced to change like this.
Booster shifts his bundles in his arms and together they head back towards the subway. “I’m not going to get in trouble for not having you on a leash, right?”
In reply, Ted shoves at him with his side and barks again. Booster laughs and shifts Ted’s clothes to his other arm so he can reach down and scratch behind his ears.
“Yeah, I’m sure there are plenty of werewolves strolling around tonight, you’re right. Here’s your subway pass,” Booster says, handing Ted his card. He holds it carefully between his teeth as they head down to the turnstiles, and he swipes it through a werewolf-height reader. “So that’s what that one’s for. I always wondered…”
Ted sticks close to Booster, his scent comforting against all the fetid smells of the subway. In human form, his senses are greatly heightened; as a wolf, they’re even more powerful. He doesn’t like going into the subway in this body, not when the smells burn his nose and the sound of the trains hurt his ears. Fortunately, the train comes quickly.
“I think you’re the first werewolf I’ve ever actually met,” Booster says as they find seats. Ted sits on the floor, painfully aware of the sticky soda spills and the old chewing gum. He can’t fit in the seats, and he always feels guilty if he drapes himself across a bank of them. “So you really could’ve handled yourself in the alley last week.”
Ted nods. He rests his head against Booster’s leg, Booster’s hand idly petting the top of his head. It feels nice, and he can’t keep his tail from wagging.
“When you can speak again, I get to ask you all kinds of werewolf questions,” Booster insists.
They get off at the Bloodwynd stop and walk back to Crescent Hill, Ted sticking close to Booster’s side. The full moon is rising higher up into the sky, fat and pumpkin-colored and menacing. Booster looks down at Ted and smiles, and Ted gives him his best wolfish smile and wags his tail in reply.
“Your place or mine?” Booster asks.
Ted bounds over to his own door and stands on the porch patiently, waiting for Booster to catch up to him. Booster ambles along, digging Ted’s keys out of his coat, juggling Ted’s clothes and the plastic bag of takeout. While he waits for Booster to catch up, Ted licks down his fur, trying to make himself look a little more presentable.
“You look fine,” Booster assures him, ruffling his fur as he steps up onto the porch and unlocks the door. “Are you going to be able to invite me in like this?”
Ted barks, tail wagging hard. He hops up onto his hind legs and opens the door, drops back down onto all fours, and then nudges and bumps Booster until they’re both standing in the front hall. Ted lets out a triumphant little howl and noses on the lights with a light switch set at werewolf height. Booster hangs up their coats and sets Ted’s clothes on a bench just inside the door.
“Did you have to have this place totally retrofitted to be werewolf-friendly?”
Ted nods and leads Booster into the kitchen, nosing on the kitchen lights as he goes. For all appearances, it looks like a normal kitchen. There are dishtowels threaded through some of the doors, and Ted bites the one looped through the refrigerator door, tugging on it until the door opens. He holds it open with his body until Booster understands that he’s being offered a drink and grabs a beer from the shelf and a bottle of water for Ted.
“I swear I’m not being facetious or a jerk, but do you have a dog dish or something to drink out of?”
Ted wags his tail and opens a low cabinet, revealing a variety of large cereal bowls. He may be in a canine body, but he does have some standards. Booster grabs a couple of bowls for Ted’s water and his leftovers, and Ted jumps up onto his hind legs again to show him where the plates and silverware are.
Booster grins. “Thanks. I have to say, you are not what I expected when I envisioned ‘werewolf.’ But that’s okay. I like you a lot, Ted, in either form.” He kneels down and leans in close while the leftovers are reheating in the microwave. “But I’d much prefer you human. You look damn good naked, Ted.”
Ted wags his tail hard, and if he could blush, he’d be beet red.
Once the leftovers are reheated, Ted ushers Booster into the living room, waiting patiently as Booster juggles the plates and bowls and his can of beer. The living room is cluttered with magazines and DVD cases and bits of electronics, but it’s not a total mess. Ted had cleaned to the best of his abilities before the date, in case they ended up back here. He scratches behind one ear and watches Booster set his food down, and then nudges the bowls closer so he can sit pressed close to Booster’s legs. Booster puts on the television for some background noise, since they can’t have much of a conversation, and Ted rubs his muzzle against Booster’s shin.
“You’re welcome.”
Once they’ve finished eating, Ted hops up onto the couch and stretches out, laying his head in Booster’s lap. Booster smiles and pets him gently, scratching behind his ears. Ted sighs, nuzzling Booster’s thigh with the underside of his jaw and the side of his face.
“Have you always been like this, Ted?” Booster asks softly, still stroking over his fur.
Ted nods, hopping back down off the couch. He trots over to a bookshelf in the corner and paws at a photo album until it falls off the shelf. The sound of the leather album cover hitting the hardwood floor is loud in the quiet of the apartment. Ted noses it over to Booster, too big and cumbersome to carry in his mouth. He hops back onto the couch as Booster picks it up, settling in close.
Booster flips open the album, marveling at the photos. Some are of a chubby baby with brilliant blue eyes and soft auburn hair; other pictures show a chubby puppy with the same brilliant blue eyes and auburn fur. “This is you? You’re adorable.”
Ted’s tail thumps against the couch, and he watches Booster turn more pages. He noses at a picture of a woman holding him. She’s pretty and smiling, and it’s easy to see where Ted gets his smile, his nose, his auburn curls. Booster ruffles his fur and turns the page, finding a photo taken in a snowy field, a huge group of people and wolves all piled together into the frame.
“Well, you definitely take after your mom. Where’s your dad, if you don’t mind my asking?”
Ted paws at the pages, flipping them until he gets to a severe-looking man with brilliant blue eyes, standing stiffly next to a young Ted missing his two front teeth. There are a few pictures of Ted with his father’s side of the family, all of them severe-looking and stiff, standing just a little too far away from Ted and his mother. Ted whines; he has to wait until morning to tell Booster his life story.
Booster closes the album and sets it down carefully. “So…what are we going to do now? I can’t talk to you until morning, right? And I have a ton of questions for you that need a little more than a yes or no answer. Would it be okay if I stayed the night?”
Ted barks in the affirmative, tail wagging hard. It’s much too early to go to bed, so they sit cuddled together on the couch and flip through an endless parade of terrible television shows. Booster pets Ted the entire time, hand smoothing through his fur gently. Ted sighs and struggles with the urge to roll over for belly rubs. Booster is the first person he’s dated in a long time, and the first person who has been comfortable with both his human and his wolf forms.
When it’s finally late enough to turn in for the night, Ted leads Booster up to his bedroom. This is the room he tidied most aggressively before the date, picking up dirty laundry off the floor and hiding it away, making the bed, reorganizing the piles of mess, and wiping everything down with a Lysol wipe. He hopes he managed to get enough dog hair off the comforter. Booster goes around to the windows and closes the blinds and the curtains, then shuts the door.
“There we go, nice and dark. Are you a left side or a right side kind of guy?” he asks, toeing off his shoes and socks and neatly lining them up. Ted hops up on the bed and curls up dead center, watching Booster strip down to his underwear. “Hope you don’t mind.”
Ted gives him a little growl that he hopes sounds more seductive than threatening, tail thumping the blankets.
“I’m going to take that as a no. And I hope you’re going to move over,” Booster replies, grinning at him.
Ted makes room for Booster as he crawls into bed, then leans over and grins at him. Booster smiles right back, and Ted leans in even further and licks his cheek. It’s the best he can do for a goodnight kiss. He can’t help but think how good Booster tastes, how good he smells, and he’ll be very happy when the sun comes up in the morning and he can tell him so.
“Same to you, Ted. Good night,” Booster murmurs. He clicks off the light and rolls over, and Ted curls up again, pressed close to Booster’s side.
Sleep comes quickly, and more quickly comes morning. Ted wakes at sunrise, feeling the change ripple through his body again. It’s not painful this time, more controlled. He gives a good long stretch and feels his body shift, from paws to fingers and snout to the tip of his nose. He stretches again, pops a few joints, and lets out a huge yawn. Comfortably human and uncomfortably cold, Ted slips under the covers and curls close to Booster. It’s still early, the sun just barely up over the horizon. Sighing, Ted nuzzles Booster’s shoulder with his cheek and closes his eyes.
When Ted wakes again, he feels warm and lazy. The sun is making a valiant effort to get through the tightly closed curtains and blinds, brightening the room. Booster’s arms loosely circle his waist, hands on his chest. Ted shivers and presses back against him, then shivers again when Booster moans softly. He turns his head to see if Booster’s awake yet and grazes his lips against Booster’s skin.
“Your mattress is too soft,” Booster mumbles in his ear.
Ted grins. “Good morning to you too. Did you sleep okay?”
“Aside from the mattress and your doggie snoring, I slept just fine, thanks. You okay?”
He rolls over and snuggles closer, until they’re lying nose-to-nose. “I woke up and found an incredibly hot man in my bed. I’m more than okay.”
Booster runs his hand down Ted’s back, resting his palm against the small. “I have to say, I don’t mind your being a werewolf one bit, but I definitely prefer you like this. It is very difficult to lie in your bed and listen to you breathe and know I can’t touch you at all because you are a dog and it would be incredibly creepy for both of us.”
“…I’m human now,” Ted points out, a wicked grin slowly spreading across his very human mouth.
Booster grins right back at him. “I noticed.”
He presses his other hand against the back of Ted’s neck and curls him into a slow, lazy kiss. Booster’s hand and mouth are warmer than they were the last time they kissed, and Ted can’t help but sigh happily. Booster takes advantage of his soft sigh and deepens the kiss, his fangs just barely grazing Ted’s lip. He shivers, tongue sliding against Booster’s.
“I meant what I said last night,” Booster pants softly, licking his lips. “You look really good naked.”
Ted groans, mouthing at Booster’s jaw, working his way down his throat. There are two little scars on his carotid artery, faint enough that Ted wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t been kissing his way down Booster’s neck. He drags his tongue over the scars and Booster moans, clutching at Ted and urging him on. Ted sucks on the spot, then sucks harder when Booster writhes and presses up against him.
The hand on the small of Ted’s back slides lower, skims over his ass. Still feeling the pull of the moon and the aggressive, possessive, animalistic feeling that sometimes comes with it, Ted growls and rolls them both until he’s straddling Booster’s waist. He leans in and sucks on Booster’s puncture scars again, and to his surprise, Booster starts laughing.
“Are you the vampire, or am I?”
Ted grins and kisses him playfully. “Got a little carried away. You taste really good, y’know. I’ve got…I’ve got heightened senses. Dog nose, if you will. Hearing, taste, they’re all better than a human’s.”
“Bet you never got away with anything when you were a kid,” Booster retorts.
“Oh God, no; nothing got by my mom. She could smell me getting into trouble a mile away.”
Ted shifts off Booster so he can pull down his briefs, the fabric straining against his arousal. He brushes his fingertips over Booster’s dick, pleased with the sound Booster makes. He can’t get over how beautiful Booster is, every bit of him a model. Booster reaches for him, pulls Ted back on top of him, his eyes dark with lust.
“You have anything particular in mind?” Ted asks, running his hands over Booster’s chest, thumbs brushing his nipples.
Booster jumps, their cocks brushing together. They both groan, shivering at the contact. “Just…just want to feel you. I’m conditionally immortal, I’ve got all the time in the world to learn all your kinks.”
“Any jokes about collars and leashes and I’m kicking you out,” Ted retorts.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Booster replies, his grin huge and toothy.
Ted shifts slightly, his hands on Booster’s hips now. He rubs the bumps of his hipbones with his thumbs and rolls his own hips, grinding against Booster. Booster’s eyelids flutter and he moans again. He curls his hands around Ted’s shoulders and arches up against the next slow roll of Ted’s hips. It’s a little too slow for Ted’s post-moon tastes, but he wants to savor the feeling of Booster’s skin against his own, catalogue his moans and shivers in his scientific way.
“Ted…move…” Booster rasps, sliding his hands down to Ted’s waist.
Nodding, Ted grinds down harder, faster, settling into a steady rhythm. It feels amazing, the friction of their skin sliding together, the slick slip of precome. Ted shivers, intoxicated by the smell of sex, the pound of their heartbeats, the prickle of sweat on his skin. He leans in and kisses Booster, sucks on his tongue and swallows down his moans. Booster’s hands move again, his fingertips pressing into Ted’s ass.
“Ever bitten anyone during sex?” Ted rasps. He runs his tongue over the points of Booster’s fangs and shudders, wondering what it would feel like if Booster sank them into his throat.
Booster shakes his head. “Nuh…no. It’s taken me a long…oh fuck, Ted…a long time to control my biting urges. I can’t…I can’t lose control. I don’t ever want to hurt anybody.”
Ted kisses the corner of his mouth, smiling kindly at him. “I…God…I admire that about you, Booster.”
“What about you? Man-eating werewolf?” Booster asks, grinning.
“I think I’ll save the man-eating for our next date,” Ted retorts, laughing. He loses his concentration for a moment and his rhythm falters, but he picks it up again quick enough.
Booster grunts and shifts, moves Ted a little, then reaches down and wraps his hand around both their cocks. Ted moans, arching up into his touch. Booster’s hand always feels so big and warm and strong when they’re holding hands, but this feels even better. He strokes them quickly and firmly with just the right amount of pressure, and Ted’s not sure he can hang on much longer. He reaches down and laces their fingers together, pumping their dicks in unison.
“Ted…” Booster groans, pushing him down into a kiss. It’s sloppy and desperate, and Booster comes dangerously close to breaking the skin of Ted’s lower lip as he nips at it. Ted doesn’t mind too much, too far gone, too close to the edge.
“Booster, hh…fuck, Booster…just…I can’t…” he pants, mouth still pressed to his.
Ted squeezes just a little, jerks his hips up, and he’s gone. He spills over his own hand, over Booster’s, and it’s enough to send Booster over the edge with him, groaning out Ted’s name. Their hands keep moving together, stroking oversensitive skin until Ted collapses against Booster’s chest.
“If this is how I get to spend my post-moon mornings, I could get used to this.”
Booster smoothes his hand down Ted’s back. “Are you too tired to answer all my burning werewolf questions?”
“Not yet,” Ted murmurs. “Ask away.”
“So, judging by your family photos, you’ve always been like this. What about your folks?” Booster asks.
Ted sighs. “Dad’s a normal. Mom was what her family calls a ‘sheepcloth.’ Basically, she was a werewolf who couldn’t change. Had the enhanced senses, but couldn’t go all dog like I can. She’s one of a bunch of sisters, and a few of my aunts are sheepcloths too. Dad…he hated me. Hated what I was. When I was little, I couldn’t control the change and shifted between wolf and baby constantly. It freaked him out. Mom died when I was in high school, and Dad pretty much cast me out as soon as humanly possible. I should be the CEO of KORD Industries, but he cut me off. So I got back at him by building my own tech firm, and I haven’t spoken to my dad or his family since I was sixteen. I keep contact with my mom’s side, though.”
Booster presses a kiss to Ted’s forehead. “You’re brave. My dad ran out on us when we were kids. My mom, she got sick when I was a sophomore in college and died. I…I got kicked out of college for gambling, trying to pay her medical bills. I got into modeling by chance, and the money was good, but it didn’t help my mom, obviously. Then I got bit, and I didn’t tell my sister…I have a twin. And probably…I don’t know, a year or two after I got bit and got my life straightened out, my sister got the same sickness my mom did. So…so I bit her and turned her, because I didn’t want to see her die like my mom. Shel was…furious, to say the least. She lives in Gotham City, and she hasn’t spoken to me since. She’s the only person I’ve ever bitten, and I hope I never have to bite anyone again.”
“You’re pretty damn brave too, Booster,” Ted murmurs, cuddling closer.
They lie there together for a long time, trading stories and kisses, tangled up in each other’s arms. Booster’s skin is warm everywhere it touches Ted’s, and everywhere else it’s slowly cooling back to vampire temperature. Ted smiles sleepily, nuzzling his cheek against Booster’s shoulder. This is the best morning after moon he’s had in a very long time.
++
Part Two