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His back slammed against the tree, scaring away whatever birds had been sitting in it.
Pain flared up quickly before subsiding as Cobra’s mind went back to Jellal, who was well on his way to having another panic attack. Cobra stepped out from his now compromised hiding spot all too nonchalantly. “Chill for a second, would you? It’s just me. And for the record, I’m only stalking you because Pinky would have my head if I let you go to stumble off a cliff or get caught or something.”
Jellal slumped against the tree he’d been leaning on. His hair was an even messier display than usual and his eyes were impossibly calm. “I assume you heard everything.”
“You’re a hard man to read, Jellal Fernandes.” A scowling smirk played on Cobra’s lips as he sat down against the same tree as Jellal, refusing to face the guildmaster as he spoke. “Harder than most actually.” A dry chuckle escaped him. Normally, Cobra stayed out of Jellal’s head on sheer principle of not wanting to be in there, but right now everything was bundled up in a mess Cobra wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot-pole. “I’ve seen this before, you know. People forcing down their feelings to pretend they’re okay, maybe even fooling themselves for a little bit. They all end up the same way. Sooner or later, their emotions gets the better of them and they snap, break down completely. You try your best to save everyone around you, Fernandes, but in the end you’re the one needing rescue the most.”
Silence. Jellal was completely still against the tree, eyes locked on nothing in particular. Why wasn’t he more offended? Why didn’t he get mad at Cobra for laying him out like that? The last time he’d psychoanalyzed someone—Sorano after losing a bet with Sawyer—he’d very nearly been blasted to pieces by a celestial spirit and ignored for a month. It probably would have gone on longer, but Cobra gave in and apologized by giving her a few pieces of angel-shaped chocolate. He didn’t know what sort of reaction he’d expected from Jellal, but none at all certainly hadn’t been on the list.
Realization hit Cobra like a spray of poison mist in the face. He shot away from the tree to make sure he didn’t actually strangle Jellal. The bastard knew. He knew every word Cobra was saying was true and yet he hadn’t done a god damned thing about it.
“I’m going to tell you something and if you value your life you better damn well listen to it. The whole suffer in silence, penance for past crimes, whatever act you have going on, it’s bullshit!” Jellal lips parted slightly to say something, but Cobra was nowhere near done. “It only ever works if you’re completely alone and with Meredy around that is never going to be the case for you! You’re the only god damned family that girl has left and don’t honestly tell me you expect her to survive if she loses you, too! Do you know how much it hurts her that you let everyone step on you? That you even step on yourself and there’s nothing she can do to stop it? And Erza? She’s not gonna stop loving you just because you think you’re not worth it! Even I could tell you that’s not how love works! Erza sees right through your bullshit and respects you enough not to call you out on it, but don’t for a second think your lies doesn’t hurt her!”
“She . . .”
“Sees straight through your bullshit.” Cobra’s tone was almost casual, causing him to realize how loud he’d been. He desperately hoped he was either far enough away for the others not to hear him, or that Richard somehow managed to snore over the sound of him screaming his head off.
Jellal’s lips parted slightly and he leaned forward, but Cobra stopped him before he had a chance to start. “No more bullshit, Jellal! You have your reasons for what you’re doing and a few of them are actually valid, but you need to stop hiding those reasons behind your past because when it comes down it you’re the only one who matters who still hates you for it.”
Jellal’s eyes widened impossibly before going back to normal. He turned away, cloaking himself in the same self-loathing shame Cobra had come to associate with the guildmaster. Cobra started seeing red again. Had none of his words gotten through? How could someone who’d tricked the Magic Council and been declared one of the Ten Wizard Saints at age nineteen be this fucking dense?
When had it become Cobra’s job to knock some sense into Jellal anyways? Since when did he even care? Ever since joining Crime Sorcière, he’d done his best avoiding to care about anyone but himself and maybe Midnight (if making sure the idiot didn’t die after dozing off in the middle of a battle counted as caring). In Jellal’s case, this wasn’t hard, and he’d had a lot of practice with the other Oración Seis members. Meredy was different. It was hard not to care when she kept throwing herself in front of Jellal and woke up screaming and crying because of night terrors. She must have started to rub off on Cobra the fifth time she screamed herself awake, stumbled over to Jellal to make sure he wasn’t dead, and then fell asleep curled against his chest with her ear against his heart. That had to be it. Why else would he go this far to make a man like Jellal Fernandes see reason?
The last of the anger died out, leaving a deep feeling of resignation with a disappointed undertone. “That right there. That’s your problem. You hang your head in shame and think there’s nothing you can do that will ever atone for your past, so you don’t even really try, do you? Look me in the eye and tell me you’re not doing this as punishment for a past you don’t even seem to have much control over.”
Jellal tried dragging his head—along with the rest of his body—away, but Cobra wasn’t having it.
“We all did dumb shit when we were younger, okay? You did all those things you did at the Tower of Heaven, I joined a dark guild intending to kill millions of innocent civilians with an evil super weapon. Shit happens to people like that. Now, you had your head screwed over, but do you honestly think the rest of us were using ours? I wanted a chance to talk to the snake who was my best friend, Angel wanted to fly. Hell, Midnight just wanted some goddamned peace and quiet for once in his life. None of that was evil, but we listened to Brain and let him twist it into something it wasn’t. I don’t care what led up to you going crazy with power, but it’s not like I’m in a position to judge it.” The dry chuckle Cobra let out was pretty damn close to being genuine, closer than anything he remembered in a long time. “My point is, we all went through what we did, and I’m not saying I know what happened to you or telling you how to handle it, but I’m telling you it needs to be handled. You need to get a grip on this situation right now before you finally manage to push away the staggering number of two people who actually care about you. I made that mistake thinking Cubellios was my only friend, pushing everyone else away only to lose the one person I had left. I joined Crime Sorcière to do something good for once, and if that includes knocking some sense into your thick skull, I guess I asked for it.”
Jellal’s eyes grew bigger as the words finally sank in. His thoughts had finally become coherent enough for Cobra to hear, and despite his best effort to shut them out some seeped through anyways. Jellal was legitimately confused out of his mind, understanding the words but not comprehending they came out of Cobra’s mouth. He also appeared slightly boggled on being lectured by a “constantly pissed off Dragon Slayer with a snake for a best friend.” Cobra let the comment slide, smirking slightly at the remark. He’d have to come up with a matching one for Jellal later. Brooding guildmaster crushing harder than a 12-year-old girl? He let out a sound somewhere between a scoff and a laugh.
“Why don’t you sleep on it?” Cobra got up and pulled Jellal with him. “Meredy will ground you for life if she wakes up and you aren’t there, and if anyone else in this guild sees us stumbling out of the woods when everyone’s supposed to be asleep with your hair looking like that, we’ll never hear the end of it.”