Disclaimer: not mine, never will

It made "click."

"Booster. I´m really glad to see you. I´m so happy to be alive. There´s no place I would rather be now, and probably no person I would be doing this with ...but why the hell did you just shackle us together?"

He looked into Booster´s face and frowned at the blank expression there."Booster?" he asked worried."Boos-" he was cut off as Booster pulled him into a tight hug. Booster was clinging to him desperately. Without thinking he hugged back. One-armed, because they were still handcuffed together.

For a long time Booster just held him. Before, Ted´s brain was mainly processing the "I´m not dead. YAY!!!!" thoughts, and the "Booster´s fine"- thoughts a feeling sneaked into his heart. It felt like sunshine, butterflies, warmth and dizzieness altogether. Ted relaxed more into the hug and whispered "I´m happy to see you again...now watch it, or people will talk."

Booster seperated from him, and after a split second there was his booster-ish grin back on his face.

"That´s my line."

Ted smirked back. "No, it´s not." he teased.

"But it is-"

"Nuh-uh"

"Uh-huh"

"Is"

"Is not"

then they both broke into their famous Bwahaha-ha laugh.It felt amazing. Just like home. And all warm-fluttery-tingly-turning-awesomeness. Ted knew that this was where he belonged.

Booster took off both their goggles and pulled down his own cowl. Ted reached under his chin and pulled off his own mask.Mischievous blue eyes stared into Boosters´. They just smiled at each other. Then Booster pulled Ted again in a hug, but spun him around the whole time. Both laughed. After a few minutes and "I´m going to be sick Booster" he finally stopped. Ted was remembered by the unusual weight on his arm that..."Um, Booster?" he asked.

Whne Booster turned he looked down at the chain and made his "Oh" face.

Ted examined the cuff on his wrist. "Come on Booster, I mean,... it´s like I´m going to run off now or something." Ted had meant that teasingly. He was just curious...then his brain registered. "I don´t even mind this..." One part of Ted put his fingers on hears and yelled "Lalala-I can´t hear you". The other part shoved Denial-Ted out of the way. "I didn´t come back from nearly almost certain death to be doing this stupid thing again. There are things more important, there is someone more important"

Booster seemed at a loss for words, dropping his head to his chest and mumbling something inaudible.

He fidgeted a little with his hands, then realized that he was kinda fidgeting with Ted´s hand, too, and stopped.

"That´s no ordinary chain," he started.

"I realized...it´s gold, shiny and seems a little bit too-futuretech for me."replied Ted.

"It´s microcircuitry, some nano-tech, 25 century..stuff Rip gave me. This is a device which can fixaten the time stream. It´s...I wanted to..." he stopped, his expression desperate and pained.

Ted felt his heart pounding. "Booster?" he asked softly. He touched Booster´s arm.Booster looked up shyly. Ted´s face broke into his warm, sincere smile. "Tell me what this is, please."

Blue eyes looked directly at him, into his eyes, into his soul.Booster´s voice was steady whe he answered.

"It anchores you in time. Someone has been messing with the time stream. History is changing. The multi-verse is back.Dan is back now. You´re back. I did some things in the past...history is not what it once was. Nothing is safe now. I just altered the time stream to save you, but I couldn´t be sure that..." his voice broke.

"You wanted to make sure I would not drop dead any second. Because time is acting strange, and I could be...everything could happen to me." Ted offered as an explanation. Booster nodded.

"This is directly linked to my suit which was upgraded by Rip. I´m immune to all those history changes, and now you´re too. It works with a tachyon field, the Hillman-theory of time-travel, some relativity stuff, ..." Ted nodded.

"You do realize that I idn´t understand more than the half of the last sentence, because I´m just a poor normal 21th century guy with not enough future knowledge."

Booster smirked.

"This is a chronal stabilizer. Skeets even donated a few wires and circuits for it."

"That´s why the golden color?"

"No, that´s is because it matches my suit. And you. Blue and Gold go very well together."

Ted watched the golden cuff on his wrist, then on Booster´s. "Yes, they do." he whispered.

"Yes." confirmed Booster. "You´re not going anywhere without me. Not ever again."

"Never" he promised.