Above Assailment (Cobalt)

[Leila Gold]

Enough was enough.

Leila generally considered herself a patient person. She was able to put up with quite a lot--she had to be in order to work with Cobalt in the first place. Part of the reason she teased him so much was to try to get him to lighten up. Admittedly, another part was just her nature, but she really was trying to help him out most times.

Recently, though, he'd been snapping back. It was like they'd gone right back to that first week of her internship when she had to tiptoe around him. This wasn't like the Blue she knew and loved (and had carefully trained to accept her antics).

And even worse, he was slamming the door. And she winced every time because she was worried the glass would break. He'd even gone back to scowling at Athena every time she raised her head. If she didn't know better, she would have said he was on his period. As it was, she could only suspect that there was something else on his mind.

So one day when Cobalt came out of the back room with his cup of coffee and slammed it onto his desk before punching at his keyboard, Leila decided to confront him.

"All right, that's enough," she said, standing and walking over to him. "Look, I don't know what your problem is, but you need to get over it. If you are having trouble with something, go get help. But you've been storming around this office for a week now and you refuse to even talk about what's bothering you! So either tell me what's wrong or go find someone else to tell, because I am sick, absolutely sick of always trying to guess what is really going on in your head. It's like trying to deal with a teenager, or a baby with a chronic illness. You won't tell anyone what's going on, and you refuse to let anyone help you. Well guess what, you are not a teenager anymore, and even if you think you have a chronic illness you are wrong."

She stood in front of his desk and placed both her hands on it, leaning over to look at him while she spoke. Finally, after going off on her rant, she sat back in the chair for clients and put one hand on her head. She waited for a moment, then looked up at her partner again.

"I thought we went over this, Blue. Look, I only want to help. I can't do that if you shut everyone out. And I know you're angry, but that's no reason to take it out on everyone else, is it? Shouldn't you be trying to work out whatever problem you're actually dealing with?"

In the corner, Athena raised her head from where she was curled up in a pile of sunlight. Slowly, she rose and walked over to where Leila was now sitting and plopped down on her mistress' feet. That woman was going nowhere anytime soon.

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt… wasn’t handling all this as well as he thought he would. This understanding frustrated him; what was he doing sulking and pining like some kind of idiot when he was supposed to be an adult here. He had hoped he would be upset for a little while, feel a little alone for a while, and then would steel up and move on.

Ben was certainly doing that, Cobalt was certain. So why couldn’t he?

This all left him feeling rather pathetic and worn out, and it certainly did nothing for his temper. And unfortunately, Leila was getting the brunt of that. Now, he and Leila always had a special agreement, that he would pretend that Leila’s teasing wasn’t frequently annoying and disrespectful (and, truth be told, it usually wasn’t), and she would pretend that he wasn’t being a complete pushover (which he usually was). Lately, though, Cobalt was in no mood for it, and he was in no mood to explain to Leila why. So he’d just tried telling her, in not so many words, to stop it.

It was entirely possible he was being too harsh. Because one day, after he’d gotten a cup of coffee and prepared to start a stupid email he didn’t want to write, Leila all but attacked him. He fought down the initial burst of irritation and leaned back in his seat and let her rant. He remembered the time when they talked about this before, and he knew she was right. But hell if he was going to talk about his failed relationship efforts with Leila. Because as much as he liked saying “I told you so”, he wasn’t going to say “I told you so” to this. So he leaned back, and let her yell.

After she was done, Cobalt sighed tiredly, “Are you done?” He pressed a hand to his temple, sighing as his ever-present headache he seemed to have acquired in the past week. It was really getting bad. “Okay. Well, you raise several good points. I have been… out of sorts, as of late, so I apologize. My attitude has been immature.” His voice was carefully neutral and his words were oddly formal. “So…I’ll be better about it. Sorry.” He stared down at his papers.

“I’m not… dealing with it…” He began hesitantly, dropping the formality for a moment, “Because I don’t know…how.” Cobalt shrugged briskly, “But it’s a nonissue. I’ll work on it.” Hopefully that would be enough.

Yeah right.

[Leila Gold]

Leila could only stare. He was...apologizing? That wasn't the way this was supposed to go. He was supposed to yell back at her and they would clear up whatever misunderstanding was going on like two mature--check that, immature little children. You punch me, I punch you, we're all friends again. But now she was punching and he wasn't fighting back. It was like he'd already been beaten down and all he really needed was a hand up.

Leila was not good at giving help or real emotional aid. That just wasn't her shtick. Didn't Cobalt have his sister/friend or whatever for this kind of stuff? But Elaine wasn't here, and an intervention was still necessary.

And now the idiot was about to cry. Great. What was she going to do if he started crying in front of her? Was she supposed to, like, hug him or something? Some sort of reassurance? She didn't know, she'd never had to deal with this. At least not with Blue. Her own friends was something different. And most times those girls just needed someone to cheer them up and make 'em feel better. They already had plenty of people to commiserate with. But maybe...maybe Cobalt just needed someone to share his feelings with...

Well it had better not be Leila. She was not in the mood for this stuff.

"Hey, look Blue," she said, finally starting to speak when she'd sorted out some of her thoughts. "I know you think you'll be okay all on your own, but you're not. Sometimes you just can't do everything by yourself, y'know? Y'gotta talk to people and work out whatever's going on. 'Cause it's not a non-issue. This is causing problems. For you and me. And I swear to you, you slam that door one more time and the glass breaks, I will...uh..." She was going to threaten him with some sort of prank and turn the whole thing into a joke, but something stopped her.

Instead, she sat forward in her chair, leaning her elbows on her knees and looking down at the floor. Athena glanced up at her hopefully so Leila bent down and scratched her pet behind the ears.

"I don't know what to tell you, Blue. I'm not good at this sort of thing, as you might have noticed." She didn't look at him. It was hard enough admitting that she wasn't good at everything. No need to have to look him in the eye when she did it. "But really? And this is the honest truth, you can't just keep living like this. You're going to break something. Maybe it'll be something in the office, maybe it'll be you that breaks. This is something you can't just bottle up. Not forever."

Finally she looked up at him and sat back. "I guess what I'm saying is, you don't have to be all better right away. And you don't even need to try to tell me anything right now. But promise me you'll try to talk to someone? Someone who knows how to handle this kind of stuff? Because if it's just the two of us having to deal with our emotions, we'll probably just end up killing each other." And here she managed a weak grin. Finally able to lighten the mood again, she decided the time was right for a joke.

"And if you don't manage to talk to someone else, then I will take it upon myself to invade your home for a chick flick night and we will watch sad movies and cry and talk about our feelings. I'll make brownies."

[Cobalt Weaver]

For the record, Cobalt was not about ready to cry. Cobalt hadn’t cried in decades, usually just opting for shouting or defeated acceptance. So any hugging would have been met with a little irritation and a good deal of confusion. But he was a little concerned when Leila just stared at him. Surprised. What, so he was finally trying to be a reasonable human being, and it wasn’t what she wanted after all? Were he in a better mood, he would have been amused at the irony. But as he still felt fairly miserable, he said nothing.

When she finally started talking, she was uncharacteristically serious, and even more uncharacteristically calm. Equally somber, Cobalt listened to her, with a slight smile growing across his face. Finally, at her last threat, he laughed, waving his hands in the air, “Oh god, no, please. No feelings. I don’t think I could take it.”

He grinned at her quietly. “Thanks, Lee. You’re kind of insane, but the advice is appreciated. I’ll work it out. And I promise I won’t break the window. Or myself.” He shrugged, “It’ll be fine—I wouldn’t dream of subjecting you to a whole conversation about feelings. That would just be cruel.”

Oddly, Cobalt felt… better. It could just be that he was trying his level best to not think about Ben, and what he couldn’t have. But just obliquely talking about it with Leila helped. Finally, he grinned and ruffled her hair, just because it annoyed her, “Thanks kiddo. Don’t know what I’d do without you.” He leaned back in his chair and sighed. Things could be okay. They could.

[ooc: Closed for Cobalt <3]

[Leila Gold]

Leila grinned, glad to see that something she had said had worked. "Any time, Blue. And I thank you for your consideration. You know how I feel about those things." She gave a small shudder. "Emotion. Disgusting."

She forced herself to smile when he ruffled her hair. One of these days, she'd ruffle his hair, and then she'd have to run away rapidly. But then again...maybe she didn't want to touch his hair...ah well, time for that debate later.

"Darn right you wouldn't." She looked back at her desk, then looked down at Cobalt's spilled cup of coffee. "I'll get us some refills." And she headed to the back to grab them each another cup. And things could return to normal, and she could feel like maybe her partner, her friend, would be okay.