More than Aspirin [Ben]

[Cobalt Weaver]

Aaaaand Cobalt was sick.

So sick.

Unlike his bastard best friend who had infected him, Cobalt was willing to admit that he was definitely ill. And not just some "take some aspirin and you'll be fine" sick. The aching throat, aching muscles, double vision and bouts of vertigo were enough to tell him this. What he was not willing to do was sit in his house all by himself and feel miserable. Oddly, though he would never admit it, he didn’t like being by himself when he was sick. The isolation became disconcerting when you couldn’t really see straight or stand upright. Also it was boring. Especially since his mind couldn’t concentrate enough to read, but couldn’t rest long enough to allow him to sleep for long hours. And his cat only provided so much company. Because she loved to sleep. Stupid cat.

Didn’t matter anyways. Leila wasn’t even here (which meant he couldn't have stolen some aspirin from her even if he wanted some). And so now he was stuck alone in his office. Seeing double. And feeling like an idiot.

Cobalt rested his head in his arm, wilting over the desk. Which… didn’t help at all. Hauling his suddenly incredibly heavy head upright, he managed to notice movement outside his office door. He squinted, an excuse for why exactly he was in the office sick ready for when Leila came in—

Ben?

Cobalt groaned, resting his head back in his arm. Of all the people to see him like this, he hadn’t really wanted Ben to be the one. “Go ‘way.” He mumbled over his arm. Not that he expected that to work, but you never knew.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Ben was in a good mood.

Not to say he was never not in a good mood but today had been a good day. He heard from Casey that her baby was fine, Estelle seemed to be doing fine, his other patients were...responding to him. It was a very good day and Ben's demeanour reflected that.

So for lunch, instead of calling up Josh and Cobalt - since Josh was at Riley's down with the flu, he decided to drop in on Cobalt to have lunch there instead. He had brought along with him some Chinese takeout in case Cobalt needed mobility to do his work without too much hassle.

"I've got Chi- Oh...Blue..."

As was customary, Ben barged in before knocking the door, looking around to see if anyone was in and saw only Cobalt at his desk, looking deathly ill. He moved in further into the room and went straight to Cobalt despite his attempt to shoo Ben away. Without worrying about personal space, Ben pressed his free hand on Cobalt's forehead. "Blue, you're burning up." He placed the bag of takeout on the floor and went in search for a glass of water. "Here," he gave the glass to the older man and leaned against the desk, worry etched across his face.

"What are you doing at your office while you're sick?" Ben asked.

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly. Of course Ben wasn’t listening to him. Ben never listened to anything he said. The younger man was annoying like that. The accompanying smell of Chinese food, while usually extremely welcome, turned his stomach. And Josh had gone out to eat when he was like this? The man was clearly insane; Cobalt would have to inform him when next he saw him.

Cobalt jumped when a cool hand pressed against his forehead. “Wha—what—Get off of my face.” Cobalt glared, smacking Ben’s hand away. “What is wrong with you?” Seriously, how much more irritating could this man get? He watched blearily as the younger man (still ignoring him) went into the backroom and procured some water. “Though I told you to go away or something,” Cobalt rasped, taking the water nevertheless.

“None of your business.” Cobalt scowled petulantly at Ben’s question, not really wanting to admit how stupid he was. “Were we going to meet for lunch today anyways?” Cobalt had quite forgotten, but that could perhaps be excused, since his brain had tried to sneeze itself out of his ears earlier this morning. The smell of the takeout on the floor was turning his stomach. Cobalt swallowed hard and stared down at the water in his hand.

He squinted at Ben, a thought belatedly occurring to him. “…Nobody calls me Blue but Leila. That’s weird.”

He sounded like an idiot. A raspy, congested idiot. Eventually he would work up the energy to care. At the moment, he was too busy concentrating on not throwing up.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Ben didn't let Cobalt's crankiness get to him. He had long since submitted to the fact that the crankiness was part of what made Cobalt loving kids and kittens that much more adorable. So he was fine with it. For now anyway.

He smiled when the older man took the glass of water, even though he didn't drink from it. "You did, don't worry you're not getting senile. I heard you tell me to go away. I just chose not to."

"Well," Ben nudged the glass closer to Cobalt as he answered Cobalt's question about lunch. "Heard Josh was sick so I thought we could have lunch together. But you're going home because you do not-"

He paused when Cobalt mentioned what Ben had started calling him recently. Ben's cheeks reddened slightly before he shrugged. "Thought it was what everyone called you. But anyway. Come on. Up. I'm taking you home." Ben patted Cobalt's back to get him moving.

[Cobalt Weaver]

If Cobalt had known that Ben thought him in any way, shape, or form adorable, he would have swiftly and happily punched the other man straight in the teeth. To the older lawyer “adorable” didn’t exactly equal “respect”. Or “dignity”. Or any of the adjectives Cobalt actually wanted to be ascribed to him. Anyways, he didn’t feel very adorable at the moment. As a matter of fact, he just felt gross. And dizzy.

He glared up at Ben hazily, the shadows limp around his shoulders. “’Course you did. You never listen to anything I say anyways.” He took a deep breath, trying not to smell the bag of food that was still on the floor. He had had toast this morning and was really starting to regret it. Dammit, it was just toast. At Ben’s nudging, Cobalt swallowed again and took a drink of the water, the coolness stinging his sore throat.

Cobalt gave Ben a weakly affronted glare, “Don’t tell me what to do. I don’ wanna go home.” When Ben patted his back, Cobalt pitched forward petulantly to move away from the contact. But the movement was too quick, and the smell of the food combined with the cold water hitting his stomach was a little too much.

Pushing his chair back and walking the step and a half to the wastepaper basket in front of his desk, Cobalt bent over and threw up. Gross.

Having not eaten much, the majority of that episode consisted mostly of dry heaving and stomach acid, which was almost worse than actually throwing up. When Cobalt was sure his stomach wasn’t still trying to violently pitch out of his mouth, Cobalt leaned back against his desk and slid to sit on the floor feeling wretched.

“…Yeah okay.” Cobalt coughed, not looking at Ben. “I think I need to go home.” He squinted at the younger man, “I don’t exactly need an escort, though. I’ll be fine.” He didn’t particularly relish the solitude, but he wasn’t willing to have Ben sacrifice his time to watch out for Cobalt. That, and he was pretty sure Ben would be annoying and motherly and Cobalt just might have to hit him. Not that he expected Ben to listen anyways.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Unknown to the older man, Ben had much respect for the shadow manipulator. Of his dedication and integrity in upholding what was right; it gave the younger man goosebumps just thinking of the day he could see Cobalt in his comfort zone - the court. But even without that, the child psychologist could already see how seriously the lawyer took his job. Being adorable was just a bonus point as far as Ben was concerned.

"If you said anything of interest once or twice, I would actually take notice. But until then..." Ben gave a tiny grin that held a little bit of the sympathy he was feeling for the sick man. He hid a victorious whoop when Cobalt finally drank the water.

Ben was about to chide him for being childish but before he knew it, the older man had wretched his innards into the trashcan by the side of the desk. Cleverly realising that being sick and having Chinese food around was not doing the shadow manipulator any favours, Ben grabbed the bag off the floor and brought it outside. He opened the door to let some air in before going back in to tend to the hapless lawyer leaning weakly against the desk.

The child psychologist almost scooped the smaller man up into his arms before realising even in that state, the other man still had the upper body strength of an ox by the looks of his arms. So Ben only helped him up, ignoring any and all of the older man's protestations. "Like hell you don't need an escort." The blue eyed taller man snorted as he helped the other man to the couch in the corner of the room. "You wait here and I'll just go get my car."

It took Ben about five minutes to cross the road to get to his car before going round to get Cobalt. He eyed the bag of Chinese food before grabbing it and handing it to the first person he saw. "Enjoy." He smiled before rushing into the office to get Cobalt. The drive back to Cobalt's place was quieter than Ben had liked but the important thing was Cobalt wasn't vomiting anymore.

The route to Cobalt's had been etched in Ben's memory and within a few minutes, they were walking up to Cobalt's apartment. Ben debated with himself on whether he should put Cobalt in bed or let him do that by himself. Sick or not, Cobalt was older than him...

"Um...bed or couch?"

[Cobalt Weaver]

Upon reflection, Cobalt supposed he was glad it was Ben who was here instead of Leila. At least Ben wouldn’t be giving him a tongue lashing right now. At least, Ben better not start lecturing him. Sick or no, Cobalt would kick his ass six ways til Sunday; he was definitely not going to put up with anyone’s shit today. And of the two people who were always the exception to his Put Up With No Shit rule, Ben was not one of them. Still, when Ben opened the door to let in some air, Cobalt managed to croak out a “Thanks.”

When Ben returned, he gave Cobalt a momentary sidelong glance and for one horrible moment, Cobalt was sure Ben was going to try and pick him up. Which Cobalt would protest to. Violently. Just because he was short didn’t mean he was a rag doll, thank you very much. But the moment passed and Ben merely reached down and hauled Cobalt up by his arms. Which was marginally more dignifying. Cobalt leaved against the desk and scowled heavily at the younger man as Ben once again ignored Cobalt’s words and strode out of the room. “Jerk…” Cobalt muttered, clearly too tired to think of anything more clever to say. Which meant Cobalt was clearly ill.

He contemplated being a little more firm with Ben, telling him to mind his own damn business, telling the younger man to leave him alone and that he’d be fine. But once he staggered to his feet, the room was still spinning and he still had enough sense to figure that vertigo and nausea was not a good combination to be paired with driving. And crashing wasn’t fun. So when Ben returned, Cobalt affixed the younger man with a weak scowl, but limped into the car. He leaned his head against the window and took deep breaths, figuring that it would be really embarrassing if he threw up in Ben’s car.

The sight of his apartment was met with no little amount of relief. He really should have just stayed home, his rare reluctance to be by himself notwithstanding. When Cobalt opened the door, his cat was at the doorstep, mewling insistently. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Cobalt nudged her over gently with his foot, “I’m home early, hush up.” He staggered into the room and sat down heavily on the couch, nausea rising up briefly. Ben’s question made him scowl. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.” He was being a little sharp, but he was trying really hard not to throw up again and wasn’t too concerned with tact.

“Look,” Cobalt looked up blearily over his glasses, “Thanks for taking me home. You can go if you want.” He wanted to elaborate, but having his mouth open for an extended period of time felt unwise, so he shut up and opted to curl forward in his seat and stare at his knees. Dignity was going to be few and far between today. Worst day ever.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Cobalt's gratitude was met with a small smile from Ben. The younger man was pretty sure it wasn't all the time that the man felt that people deserved his gratitude so he was going to take whatever he got.

He noticed the scowl the older man was giving him but he couldn't be bothered to be intimidated. Any other day, sure. Ben would probably even hang his head in shame like a little kid caught with his hand in the jar of cookies but Cobalt looked like death and Ben just felt a tad sorry for the older man. He was smart not to confess that out loud especially when Cobalt called him a jerk.

Ben picked Jules up off the floor and nuzzled her soft fur, letting her whine at Ben. When Cobalt asked him to leave, Ben leaned against the wall leading to the living room where the man was sitting on the couch, staring at the man's back. "I don't have any prior engagements. I want to stay." Ben said firmly before rummaging through Cobalt's kitchen cabinet to find a clean rag to use to cool down Cobalt's fever.

"I'll feed Jules if you haven't." Ben called out before pressing his nose against Jules, setting her down to see her scamper over to Cobalt, nudging her little head against his shin. Ben shamelessly looked around for a small bucket or anything to hold the cold water he was going to use with the rag. He finally found one and filled it with tap water before joining Cobalt on the couch with Jules in between them. He dunked the rag into the water. "Why don't you lie down? Put this over your forehead?" Ben patted Cobalt's knees gently and pointed to the rag.

[Cobalt Weaver]

At this point, Cobalt was just getting more irritated and embarrassed. He felt extremely dizzy, nauseous, and stupid. He should have stayed home, he knew that. But like a stubborn idiot, he’d gone into the office anyways and had managed to throw up everywhere, like a classy fellow and now Ben was taking this as permission to fuss over him. Cobalt was unused to being fussed over, and he decided that he didn’t much like it; it was weird and he wasn’t sure why Ben wanted to put that much time into him anyways, Cobalt was an idiot and now he was getting the consequences for it. That was that, and Ben really should just leave him to it.

“You won’t be helping much.” Cobalt called after him as the younger man went into the kitchen, “I’m probably just going to…” He gestured vaguely, “Sleep or something.” This was a lie; Cobalt had already tried to sleep, but his body wasn’t going to have any of it. But Ben didn’t have to know that.

“I’ve fed the cat already, yes.” Cobalt responded sharply, shadows bursting around him in irritation. Jules rubbed against his shin, and he ignored her. He eyed the bowl of water and washcloth before rolling his eyes. “Oh, for the love of Christ, Ben, I don’t have malaria. Will you just lay off?” He glared at the younger man, and—forgetting himself entirely—flicked a bit of shadow in Ben’s face in irritation. He’d done that to Josh and Riley before, and was used to being able to pester his friends with the shadows.

Whoops.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Ben had had his fair share of cranky people not wanting him to butt into their business, even when they were sick but if he were honest, the only reason he didn't care was because he didn't have any extra feelings for them which was why he was able to shake off their crankiness so easily but when Cobalt showed it, Ben felt it a little more. It was stupid to feel so strongly about being scolded by someone you liked. It was stupid to like someone this much after just a few months of being their friend. Leave it to Ben to feel doubly stupid for something so trivial.

After his suggestion for the wet cloth was turned down [understatement much?], Ben felt a tinge of hurt and the shadows didn't help at all. He had gotten used to seeing the shadows around the man and had grown accustomed to Cobalt flicking it around and he would have been fine had it not been right after Cobalt snapped at him. As it were, Ben jumped a little when the dark smoky bits came close to him.

They'd had this argument, granted it was a small scale one but Ben knew how pissed Cobalt could be about his shadows and this was not helping. "I'm...the cloth," he tried to change the subject, hoping Cobalt wouldn't comment on his lapse in judgment about the shadows. "The cloth is just to get the fever down..." Ben clearly didn't want to make things any worse than it was already shaping out to be. Jules, blissfully unaware of the tension, jumped on Ben's lap to catch the quickly disappearing shadows.

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt felt instantly guilty as Ben jumped away from his shadows. Cobalt knew that Ben wasn’t comfortable with Cobalt’s abilities yet and as stupid as Cobalt thought the younger man was being, he always tried to limit his use of them around Ben. But at the moment, Cobalt was nauseous, miserable, and in a bit of an unforgiving mood. And Ben’s stammering attempts to salvage the situation only spiked Cobalt’s irritation. Dammit, he wasn’t some kind of vicious monster, it wasn’t like he was going to eat Ben or anything like that. There was no reason for Ben to be looking at him like that. And for some reason, Ben took all of Cobalt’s illness-induced annoyance personally, and the way the younger man was scrambling to placate Cobalt was really starting to piss him off.

What, was Ben really that much of a pushover?

At Ben’s stammered explanation, Cobalt put his head in his hands and rubbed at his temples. “Ben.” His voice was cold and trying very hard not to explode. “It is barely a fever. There’s no need for you to fuss over me. It’s annoying. There is also no need for you to be obnoxious about my powers right now. I’m in no mood to pander to your stupidity right now, and I still don’t appreciate it.” He glowered at the younger man, completely ignoring the part of his brain that informed him that he was being entirely unfair. “I don’t feel like putting up with your shit. So get over it, or go home.”

He scowled at Ben challengingly, hoping that he wouldn’t throw up. That would just ruin everything.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

Cobalt's voice sounded dangerously low as he called Ben's name. But even Ben didn't stand for it when Cobalt called him obnoxious. Sure, he was a little too old to be scared of shadows but was he responsible for how he reacts to something he's had a sort of apprehension for since he was a kid? At least he was trying!

"Seriously, Cobalt? This is you sick?" Ben gave the other man an affronted look. "You just get even crankier than usual? Why am I not surprised?" He said the last bit more to himself as he got up from the couch just to move away from Cobalt. "You know, I'm just trying to make sure you get proper care. You live alone. I thought maybe oh I don't know. You'd appreciate the extra hands around here." He shrugged a little, mostly for show.

But no, he wasn't going to let this escalate. If the man didn't want him around, Ben wasn't going to impose. "Putting up with my sh - I'm just trying to show a...friend that I care. I didn't realise that is shit to you. I'm sorry. Must have missed the updated definition of care in the dictionary."

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt gave Ben an incredulous look. “Are you for real? You’re gonna irritate me about being ill tempered right now? Really?” Cobalt pinched the bridge of his nose again. He was being unfair. He also really was being crankier than usual. “…Okay. Ben. It’s not like I’ve never been down with the flu before. I’m sick, yeah. I feel incredibly shitty. Yes. But I am not seizing up, I’m not in need of a hospital, and I can still stand up so will you just… calm the hell down?”

“Oh, stop it.” Cobalt snapped at Ben, “Don’t turn this into me just being incredibly unreasonable. You’re being just as annoying as I’m being irritable. I don’t care that you care, and to be perfectly honest, I’m still at quite a loss as to why you give a damn.” He glared at the younger man, “It doesn’t make any damn sense, and it’s just off-putting.”

“No…” Cobalt growled, “The shit I’m talking about is all the fuss you’re still making about my powers. It doesn’t make any damn sense. You work with metallikinetics and live with a psionic blaster and you’re still scared of me. I mean, what’s—” Cobalt cut himself off abruptly. The words what’s wrong with me? hung in the air, but Cobalt stopped speaking. The first reason being that he was very, very close to throwing up again. The second being that those words confessed a little more than Cobalt liked on a regular basis, to say nothing about when he was ill.

“Look.” Cobalt recovered hastily, “You’re acting just as annoying as I am, so I’m not in the mood for your indignant attitude, like I’m the only one here who’s being irritating. It’s giving me a headache.” Which was true—Cobalt had the hugest headache ever. Probably not because of Ben. But still.

[Benjamin Rhodes]

"Are you for real?" coming from Cobalt sounded so foreign. If it were any other kind of situation, he would have probably laughed and teased the older man for using something so juvenile but Ben was getting a little annoyed by Cobalt's misplaced anger. "The rag was just to cool you down, make you feel -" Cobalt interrupted Ben mid-sentence, throwing in the question Ben had been struggling with for awhile himself.

He gave Cobalt a matching glare when he said Ben's caring nature was off-putting. What was wrong with this man? "I'm sorry, my caring is off-putting to you? I'm a friend, Cobalt. Or at least I thought I was. I should invest in a list for what friends are supposed to do so as not to be off-putting to you." He gave a humorless bar of laughter.

Then Cobalt had to bring up the powers. "Are you kidding me? You're still...I'm not scared of you!" Ben raised his voice at the older man. In hind sight, Cobalt made sense. Of course he did. When had he ever not made sense? ... Maybe now wasn't the time to discuss that. But him pointing out the fact that Ben had been in close contact with people who had way more dangerous powers without cringing was valid. But that was mostly because their powers were mental rather than physical. He couldn't see it and it wasn't in the form of dark moving smoky things. And he was getting better at letting it go now, can't Cobalt see that? He was trying for crying out loud!

"Well thanks for letting me know how you feel. Much appreciated. I'll be sure to walk away if I see you in the hospital too." Mature, Ben. Very mature. But damn it, this was why he never let anger get the best of him. He was impractical and obnoxiously juvenile and he hated that part of him. But he could do nothing else to salvage the situation so he grabbed his coat, smoothed his hand down over Jules' head and walked to the door. He actually contemplated on slamming the door but he closed it shut properly, seeing as it wasn't his house. He got into his car, seething and drove away.

[OOC: Wrapped for Ben DX I HATE THIS THREAD SO MUCH]