Happiness Heard Your Name (Cobalt)

"It's not any different than spending time with friends!" Josh objected, because he really saw little difference. "It's only awkward doing couples activities if you're single."

Because then you were a third wheel, and nobody wanted that. He'd used that excuse on Sean many a time as a justification for not spending more time with him and his paramours. Of course, now the telepath knew the reasonings behind his avoidance, which was a tad bit awkward. He'd always half-way been afraid that Sean knew anyway, and he'd felt a little bad about brushing off some of them, particularly Orion, who had seemed to assume that they were friends despite his strained politeness, and Alex, who had been excruciatingly friendly. Well, it had seemed excruciating at the time, anyway. And Griff, who had also been painfully friendly, but he'd also had a goat that was eating Josh's jacket, so he'd had more of an excuse to be rude.

Not the best excuse, but an excuse.

He still felt a little bad.

"Oh, that's right, he and Sean volunteer there together."

He tapped his fingers against the table in thought, then, "You know, we could volunteer there, too. Turn it into a couples activity. That would be fun, and not awkward. What do you think?"

"You'll do fine," Josh assured the smaller attorney, because he honestly believed that Cobalt was capable of participating in couple's activities. If he could do it with partners he was minimally invested in then Cobalt ought to be able to do so with Ben, whom he rather thought Cobalt liked a lot. "It's just doing things together, only instead of being single you have a partner. It isn't that big a change."

"Sean was planning prom last time he mentioned it..." he mused, realizing only now that he'd not discussed the Center with Sean recently. Surely prom was over by now; that had been in the planning stages long before their lack of communication and subsequent argument.

"Oh, definitely, I'm sure they would be thrilled to have some new volunteers. It's just wonderful that the two of them care so much to make life easier for LGBT youth. If there had been a Center when I was a teen...well, I probably wouldn't have gone." He admitted with an embarrassed laugh, "For fear my mother would find out, but it's a wonderful institution all the same."

"Really?" Josh was less offended by Cobalt's statement regarding Sean and more curious, because he didn't think that life around Sean was particularly ridiculous. Of course, he'd known the telepath for his entire adult life, so it was possible that he was biased and just didn't realize that his entire life had been ridiculous, but he thought he would know. After all, he knew other people and what their lives were like, and he didn't think his compared. Even moving to Pilot Ridge hadn't resulted in anything more ridiculous than his life in the City. He'd never been mugged in New York, but he doubted that counted under ridiculous, and besides, that had nothing to do with Sean. In fact, had he listened to his friend's warnings he wouldn't have been in the woods in the first place, least of all with an uncharged phone.

"Well." He splayed his fingers across the table as he mused on volunteer work, "If nothing else I'm sure we could offer our legal services. I'm sure some of the teens there, or their parents, might be interested in knowing more about their rights."

Although he was sure there were other ways to help beyond the legal that would be an area Cobalt would be comfortable offering his expertise.

"I've been meaning to ask Sean about it, anyway. I haven't had much of an opportunity to volunteer since moving up here last year, what with....everything."

As Sean had pointed out, life had been hectic. He'd gotten a chance to help out at the jazz station, but beyond that he'd rarely offered his services anywhere, unless attempting to start up numerous protests and demonstrations counted.

He didn't count them, at any rate.

He smiled when the other man admitted he wouldn't have gone either. "Aren't we a pair. Well, at least we're getting things worked out now, eh?"

And with that he lifted his glass of water in salute to his friend.