Revelation (Lal and Cookie)

The sad smile was all the confirmation that Cobalt needed, even if his mind wasn't rushing again to process her body language. It was a reluctant Lalia that said the word maybe, leading him to believe that the answer was a deffinate yes,

"Maybe huh?" he paused for a moment, looking deep into her eyes with a neutral look on his face, "You're happy to wait? I thought we established not five minutes ago that lies were bad Lalia."

Seeing her begining to waver a little, Cobalt caught Lalia gently as she rested against his chest. He looked down at her, seeing her clutching his outfit with a small amount of amusement,

"It has it's benefits." he said as he chanelled some magic into the fabric. Slowly, the fabric absorbed the magic and became blurry, leaving just a faint outline of his body, as if he was just a solid shadow, "I can be totally invisible regardless of clothing but you can never be too careful. The first time it doesn't work could mean my death. To get complacement in my line of work is to die."

The colour draining from Lalia's face worried Cobalt. Frowning, he thought about what that could mean before frowning deeper as a thought occured to him,

"Lalia... are you in debt to this man?"

Lalia pouted and she poked Cobalt in the stomach, she wanted him to know that she was in fact happy to wait, she didn't mind waiting until it got really bad because by then her dad would probably be all better with these medicine tablets he was on.

"I'm not lying. I'm actually telling the truth Cobalt, I wouldn't mind at all to wait if it meant that my dad is alright."

When Cobalt turned into his shadowy form Lalia gasped and moved away from him, scared that she was going to fal straight through him but she assumed that he was just as solid as ever when she wavered away from him.

"Well, we wouldn't want that now would we?" she whispered the harsh reality of Cobalt's job sinking into her

Gasping softly Lalia shook her head and closed her eyes firmly, she wasn't lying either she wasn't in debt to him.

"No no no I'd never be that silly! He's just the only man that can get access to this trial medicine that hasn't been released yet, if I don't get that then Dad wont be able to get better any more."

Cobalt raised his eyebrow at the pouting and poking technique she seemed to believe would save her from questions. He sighed a little and rubbed at the bridge of his nose, suddenly feeling very tired,

"Well surely it would be better if you were both better?" he asked with a small smile, "It's sweet that you put his heath first but if you have to make sure you're safe before you can make anyone else safe."

The way she was shocked was confusing to Cobalt at first before it occured to him that she had never seen anything like this before. He poked himself to show that he was still solid before turning it back to normal, looking away as he did so,

"Well... I'm sorry but I don't want to die." he replied quietly, "In my line of work, two men go in alive only one of them walk away. I do my best to be the on walking away."

He frowned a little at her reply. There were worse things than being in debt to a man and he was sure that this man was probably using that against Lalia as well,

"Uhuh." he replied sceptically, it was in the other man's best interests to be the 'only' supplier of this miracle after all, "Well it doesn't sound like he'd go to all that trouble for free. What's the catch Lalia?"

Lalia smiled softly and stood up from where she had started to lean, she didnt seem to be able to get through to Cobalt that she was not in the position to make both of them better so one was going to be better than none.

"Not everyone can have that luxury Cobalt, I told you, I do not have enough money, I take what I have left to buy food and clothes and that's all I can manage."

Frowning again Lalia began to get angry that Cobalt wasn't understanding what she was going through and it just seemed like he was seeing things from his perspective.

Lalia bit her lip and shuffled closer to Cobalt, placing a hand on his cheek so that he could look into her eyes while she spoke to him quietly, not wanting to get in an argument over what she had said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that Cobalt, I actually meant that I want you to be safe, and if a silly costume does that then you best wear it! And I'll try to find it sexy."

Smiling faintly Lalia suddenly flushed and looked at her knees, feeling ashamed of herself a little for what she had done and she didn't really want to tell him but she supposed she must, time to be honest and all.

"Well...sometimes...he asks me to do things for him that I'd rather not do..,"

Cobalt watched as Lalia stood up from her leaning position before, frowning slightly, he stood up straight as well and thought about the problem. She was right, of course, treatment for both was both desirable... and expensive. He raised an eyebrow,

"I don't suppose I could help you could I?" he asked her before shrugging a little, "Perhaps not with my 'ill-gotten gains' but in other ways if you'd prefer."

He looked up at her as he heard her nervously shuffling closer to him. She was biting her lip as she made him look her in her beautiful eyes. Cobalt smiled faintly at this action alone,

"It's alright, I knew what you meant. It's just my regular defence of my outfits." he told her lightly before chuckling, "Well since I can be invisible I suppose I could do it naked... sexier but not quite as practical."

As soon as she started speaking, Cobalt's eyes widened and then narrowed slightly. He already did not like the sound of this man at all. Cobalt frowned deeply,

"What kinds of things Lalia?" he pressed her gently, "Illegal things?"

Lalia bit her lip and she looked up at Cobalt, as much as she wanted to get better she didn't want to pray on Cobalt's kindness, she wanted to be able to make her father better but she wanted to be free of them man who could do it.

"I dont know what to do Cobalt, I really don't know what to say...obviously I want to help my father and myself but I dont want to take your money."

Giggling softly Lalia thought about Cobie running around doing his thing with no clothes on and it made the situation lighten just a little bit before it took another nose dive when Cobalt asked her about the things that her boss made her do.

"Well...no they're not illegal..."

This was actually telling the truth, she consented every time, just, and she hated every single minute of it, but it was what she needed to do.

"I just, don't want to do it sometimes when he asks me, and then when you came along, I started to not want to do it at all."

The biting of the lip and the way she tired, but just failed, to look him in the eyes told Cobalt that Lalia was reluctant and conflicted about receiving his help. For whatever reason he did not know,

“That’s a perfectly reasonable answer.” He replied to her statement that she didn’t know before smiling a little, “Well how about we make a deal? If you don’t want to just take my money you can agree to help me at the bakery on your downtime from the ministry and I’ll pay for both of them in full.”

He was grateful that he’d made the joke about running around nude while doing his job. It had lightened the mood and both of them seemed to lighten up along with it. Of course, his question seemed to sink the lighter mood like a lead balloon,

“Not illegal.” He deadpanned before frowning, “Pretty close to being illegal or something?”

Cobalt’s eyes narrowed as his mind raced with the possibilities of this. It was taking all of his personal training to resist marching up to every person in the ministry higher than Lalia and then gutting them on the off chance that they could be the guy doing this to her. Instead his frown deepened,

“Lalia… answer me honestly…” he told her quietly but firmly, “What does he make you do?”

Lalia nodded her head and she thought that this was a good chance to get the help that she needed by actually doing some sort of work towards it so that she wasn't just taking the money and doing nothing in return.

"Okay Cobie, I agree to that, I'll come work for you after my shifts over and then I can pay you back that way."

Smiling softly at how good an idea this was Lalia almost came straight out and told Cobalt just what her boss had been doing to her, but she didn't, instead she thought about that best way to phrase it.

"Promise me you wont get angry...okay?"

Lalia bit her lip and looked shyly down at the floor, ashamed of her actions and not really wanting to tell Cobalt, yet knowing she had to.

"He sometimes makes me do...sexual things for him, because he thinks I'm pretty...and he wants to be able to use me when he needs me, without having to bother with dating and things."

Blushing at just the thought of what she had to do Lalia bit her lip.

Cobalt smiled a little as Lalia seemed agreeable with his idea of letting her work at the bakery. Truth be told he was rather lazy with the books at the bakery and he had no doubt that Agnes had been taking money from the tills on a regular basis, this would be a great help to him as well as Lalia,

"Well that sounds like we've got a deal!" he announced with a small smile as he held his hand out to her, "Care to shake on it then my newest employee?"

He could see that she'd almost said something and then thought better of it. To be fair he had a relatively good idea what she was going to tell him and that was exactly why he was running through torture methods in his head right now,

"That sounds ominous." he remarked with a frown before nodding once, "I won't get angry."

The fact that her body language was screaming of shame was not reassuring to Cobalt in anyway. He balled his hands into fists and closed his eyes briefly. The fact that Lalia was pretty was beyond dispute to Cobalt; she was beautiful after all. But the idea of some slimmy, no neck, short dicked, son of a bitch touching her? It made him beyond angry. He controlled his emotions so that the only outward sign of his great anger was that his eyes narrowed slightly more and his frown deepened,

"Well now that's something we'll have to correct." he told her quietly but firmly, "Tell me Lalia... what is his name?"

Cobalt was true to his word; he was not angry. He was filled with blinding hatred and disgust for the man but he was not angry. Anger made you sloppy and got you killed. No, Cobalt was calm because calm meant that you could kill and get away with it.

At that Lalia nodded, and held her hand out to Cobalt, she didn't know what was more exciting, doing a job she actually liked and helping Cobalt out, the debt now a foreign memory to her, she focused purely on the task at hand.

"Of course we can boss, here's to a good working relationship."

With that Lalia stuck out her hand for Cobalt to shake, happily smiling in his way, but then her smile dimmed back into her look of shame as she looked at the floor again, slipping her hand from his grip.

"Well...do you think...do you think I'm a slut? Because he said I was...he said I was because I liked you and wanted to stop our agreement."

The cool manner that Cobalt spoke in made Lalia shiver, this was a level beyond anger, it was so angry that it was above the scope of anything that she had ever seen before and she bit her lip.

"Harry Sherman, but, you can't hurt him...Cobalt it's not worth it..."

Cobalt squeezed her hand lightly as he shook it with a smile. He was going to enjoy working with Lalia and not just because she was a beautiful woman who had seemingly chipped her way into his cold heart, but because it would be nice to work with someone who was competant. Novel idea he knew,

"A good working relationship." he agreed before kissing her lightly on the lips, "And a good relationship fullstop."

He shook her hand but frowned a little more when her soft, small, hand slipped out of his own and she looked ashamed again. At the question though, Cobalt's eyes widened before narrowing. Everything he learnt about this man made him want to evisorate him. Letting his anger go for now, Cobalt stroked Lalia's cheek gently as he looked into her eyes,

"You are not a slut." he told her firmly but in a quiet and reassuring way, "You wanted a way out and he was a bastard who helped power over you. No, that just makes you a person in a desparate position but never, ever, a slut."

Cobalt raised an eyebrow a little bit. He couldn't hurt him? He was the man who had torn every born out of a man's body and kept the man alive long enough to cut his head off in the ministry of magic's atrium. He was the man who had walked through the walls of a maximum security prison and merely carried on walking through his target, taking his heart with him. He COULD kill the man and he could do it easily. No, Lalia was saying that he shouldn't. He couldn't disagree more,

"Harry Sherman was a sick man." he told her simply, "My killing of him was a blessing. He can't hurt anyone anymore. He can't hurt you and he can't hurt whoever else he has under his thumb. The man is dead."

When Cobalt said that he wanted a good relationship full stop Lalia smiled widely she was glad that Cobalt seemed to want to fix this as much as she did, it gave her a lot more confidence to know that they both loved each other.

"Yes, I'll agree with that love, a good relationship full stop."

Lalia could sense that it wasn't exactly helping what she was saying but it had been boggling at her since he had said it and she needed to ask Cobalt about it even if he was a little bit bias towards her.

"Thank you Cobalt, thank you...you have no idea how much that has been worrying me since he said it."

Biting her lip Lalia could see how Cobalt really wanted to hurt Harry, and the way he referred to him in the past tense gave her a shiver up her spine, she knew then that she wasn't going to convince him otherwise.

"Please Cobie, just think about it rationally. Calm down and maybe sleep on it?"

The fact that Lalia responded so positively, with a smile and a positive comment, to his idea of continuing their relationship really did wonders to help Cobalt to relax a bit more. He'd been worrying like mad that he'd killed their chance at a relationship but to have it confirmed that he hadn't really meant a lot to him,

"So..." he glanced away, "So we can work through this? You can look past what I do?"

He could see that his answer had meant a lot to her and he really meant it to. She had needed to hear, from an unbiased source, that she wasn't even close to what that slug of a man called her. He was far from unbiased but he was more qualified than that pathetic excuse for a man,

"Don't you ever worry about that again Lalia." he told her queitly as he gave her a tight hug, "What that man said was wrong. You are a beautiful woman and a lovely human being."

Cobalt could tell that she was afraid, not afraid of him so much as she was afraid of what he might do. That part almost made Cobalt chuckle a little bit. Might? As far as he was concerned, the man was already dead. He just didn't know it yet,

"I am thinking rationally." he told her as he mentally reigned himself in even more, "We can sleep on it. But if he asks you to do anything before I make my move you refuse and run away. I've got your father's medical care covered."

Lalia looked at Cobalt, he looked so vulnerable like he just needed someone to hold him and tell him that everything was going to be okay. Lalia was going to be that person, hopefully for the rest of their lives.

"Yes, of course we can Cobalt, I love you im not throwing that away because of some difficulties."

As Cobalt hugged her tightly Lalia felt so reassured that she was okay, she wasn't so bad as she had thought of herself as.

"Thank you...thank you love, I really needed you to tell me that."

Lalia bit her lip and hugged Cobalt to her, moving her hands up and down his back, pulling him closer to her, and resting her head on his warm chest so that they could both feel better from their closeness.

"Okay Cobalt, I will, I will, but I have to go now...okay?"

He didn’t look at her body language, forced himself not to, because no matter how much he wanted to know that she had forgiven him, that she loved him, he was afraid that the answer was negative. He was afraid that she didn’t love him. That she hated him. So when she spoke it was a tremendous relief to him,

“I’m so glad we can Lalia…” he told her quietly, “You have no idea what that means to me…”

Cobalt played with her hair lightly as he continued to hug her tightly to him. It was mostly for her but he was also getting a lot of comfort out of the contact. He smiled at her,

“Don’t worry about it.” He told her simply, “I love you so it’s the least I could do.”

He was angry under the surface again, at the man for all that he was forcing Lalia to do and all of the things he had ever thought, said or even considered. Cobalt hugged her tightly to him,

“Lalia. You come straight back to my bakery if he tries anything too much, okay?” he asked her before smiling a little, “I might have to make a visit to his offices.”