A New Supply (Cobalt and Alexei)

Cobalt was silent as he made his way through the streets towards his destination, taking a route that was designed to throw off any pursuerers without looking like he was trying to do so. Honestly, he didn't think he was actually being followed. The wind was in his favour today, he would have been able to pick up the scent of them if they had been following him. But it was a good habit to get into.

He was on his way to this particular potions store for a number of reasons. Alexei didn't ask too many questions about his work, which was good considering the very toxic/flammable/acidic nature of some of his purchases. Second, the place was relatively cheap for such items and was of very good quality.

Walking into the store, he noticed that the owner was nowhere to be seen. Looking around the store, Cobalt took one step back outside the door before grabbing the man who had just been about to enter. Dragging the struggling man into the store, he struggled to hold the man still for a few moments before spotting something he could use.

Snatching a quill off of the counter, Cobalt stabbed the man in the throat. The man stiffened as Cobalt held him still as he bled out quickly. Slowly, he rested the man on the floor. He tapped the body with his wand, turning the body into a muggle backpack, which he then put on. Thankfully his clothes were dark enough that the blood blended right in so he just dried it with his wand before dinging the little bell, cleaning the quill off as he did so,

"Alex... It's your favourite customer!" he called out before changing his mind, "Your favourite MALE customer that is."

Alexei had been upstairs making the latest potion request that he had recieved, it was nothing too complicated for him and he was planning on finishing it before tonight. He had a party to go to tonight, one of those pure blood affairs, as much as he hated to go and mix with all of the other stuck up pure bloods Britain seemed to offer, he might get lucky - which to be fair was the only reason he want to these things any more, that and the free booze.

When he heard the door ot his shop open he sighed a little bit and put the potion he was working on a statis charm so that he could go and attend to his new business. He hoped that it wasn't a new customer, it sounded strange but they were always trying to drive bargains and Alexei already discounted his price so heavily that there was just no way he could lower it, so, normally they ended up in a fist fight, or he would poison them, whatever.

Many of the people who were in the pureblood circle, and in the business circle here, were skeptical of him and treated him differently because he was forgein, you'd think it wouldn't be the case but unfortunately it was. Alexei however, didn't much care.

As he went downstairs Alexei grinned, one of his best customers...Cobalt Smith. He was an alright guy, although he was as lethal as anything, so he was glad that he was on his good side at the moment.

"Glad you added that last bit my friend." he laughed softly, as he stood behind the counter before Cobalt "Welcome. What is it that you need this time?"

Cobalt had smelt Alexei coming down the stairs and he was glad that his regular cleaning charms also included a smell repellant charm too. He didn't want Alexei to be able to smell the rich, coppery, tang of blood in the air of his shop. When his favourite shop keeper, about on par with Richard, showed up at the counter he grinned a little bit. People liked it when he grinned, apparently it made him seem less likely to kill them. Alexei had told him that a few months ago actually,

"Of course, I'm not giving you the same favours they give you." he joked a little bit with the shop keeper, "Ah right... well you see I'm running low on everything. Specifically... polyjuice, draught of living death, draught of madness, essense of insanity, heart-slowing elixier... that kinda thing."

He smirked a little bit as he adjusted the straps of the backpack he was now wearing. Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew the quill he had used to kill his new backpack, as weird as that sounded in his head. It was clean now but he realised just as he was handing it back that there was a spot of blood on the white feather,

"Thanks for the quill by the way." he told his friend with a smirk, "Very useful in keeping unwanted visitors away from your shop I must say. I wrote a list of the exact potions I need and the quantities too."

He handed over a rather long list, two feet of parchment kind of long. Chuckling a little bit, he scratched the back of his head sheepishly,

"Yeah... don't worry I've just been paid so I've got the money for this up front."

Alexei chuckled a little bit, of course he didn't ever have to lower himself to that level quite yet but, he hoped that he was never going to. There had been many times that he had spoken to Cobalt, and he was a very likable sort of character, they got along well but to be honest they had never really spent much time together outside of the business.

Hearing the amount of potions he wanted to order Alexei put a hand to his face and sighed dramatically, as was his way, he was the typical over enthusiastic forgeiner.

"Cobalt why you do this to me?!" he joked "You know I had a party to go to tonight, now that is not going to happen is it? When do you need all of those potions for?"

All of the potions that Cobalt wanted were quite time consuming to make, and more than that, they were going to be expensive to get the ingredients for, he would need to make a run to Richard's store in order to get the ingredients that he required. Hopefully he would be able to make them all for him on such short notice, it shouldn't be a problem, but it might be slightly more expensive.

"Can you not go anywhere without killing someone?" he asked with a smirk "Please do try to do it outside the shop next time, is bad for business!"

Taking back the quill he dipped it in the inkwell and examined the schedule that he had up on his desk, he would be able to get the bulk of it done by next week, but, there would be a few things that he wasn't able to do, like the polyjuice potion.

As he looked at the parchment, Alexei took it from Cobalt and hummed lightly;

"Well as you know I work fast but, not that fast. I'll have most of these with you by next week but, the polyjuice is going to take a little bit longer. You have the cash on you, well this is a dear diary moment." Alexei joked with a small smirk on his lips "You've been a busy guy Cobalt, all work and no play makes for a dull boy."

Cobalt could tell that Alexei wasn't happy about having to make this many potions but thankfully most of the man's annoyance was feigned so there wouldn't be too great a problem between the two of them. He smirked a little bit at the over dramatic nature of his friend. It was like he played up to the stereotypes of an over enthusiastic forgeiner. Truth be told he wouldn't actually put it past his friend,

"Oh you know, mainly for kicks to be honest. Seeing you freak out always brings an evil little smile to my face, as you well know." he joked with said evil smile before smirking a little bit and waving a hand, "Oh calm yourself Alexei, you can still go to your little sleepover, talking about Justin Beiber and boys and things. I won't need most of them until at least next month. The heart-slowing elixier I'll need in two days time though. Is that too soon?"

The toll that he was going to be taking on the man's inventory kind of weighed heavily on him but he was sure that if he gave him a note Richard would at least make his orders a little higher priority. By his count Richard still owned him three favours and he was willing to use one to help out a friend,

"I go places to kill people for the most part so... no." he joked back before sighing in the same overly dramatic way that Alexei did, "Fine! I'll kill them outside in full view of the public in front of your store instead... much better right?"

He nodded in agreement with his friend. Alexei worked very fast, one of the reasons he used his potions, but some potions simply required time to brew. He smirked a little bit and nodded,

"Yes well I just came back from Paraguay. Lovely place. Killed the President with a fork." he told his friend brightly before smiling a little bit, "Yes well hopefully I can spend some more time with my daughter. I've every confidence that my friend Alex can keep her safe... but I've no confidence in the little bastard keeping his hands to himself."

Alexei smirked a little bit and he shook his head at Cobalt, the man knew how to press his little buttons that was for sure, although, he was certain that he kept coming back to his shop for more than just these little chats and to share in his lovely sparkling personality. Running his hands through his hair, he thought the party would be a nice chance to relax before he committed himself to this recent workload.

"Hey you're just jealous because you weren't invited aren't you?" he grinned "And it's not like you're going to be having a sleep over tonight, if you would have been nice to me I would have asked you to come with me but, not with that attitude!"

Of course he was only joking, a there was no way Cobalt would want to come to a party like the one he was going to and b he wouldn't be able to live it down if he did come and a fight ensued.

A heart slowing elixer he should be able to whip up tomorrow for him, looking at the schedule on the desk he pencilled that in. As Cobalt was one of his main accounts he liked to make sure that he was able to meet his demands, although, often he did wonder what the hell he used all these potions for that he needed replacing so many times a year!

"Ja I can do that no problem." he hummed "It'll be ready by five o clock for you to come and pick it up, unless you want me to stop by the Bakery and drop it off."

The idea of Cobalt being a father still creeped Alexei out. He just really didn't see him as one of those fatherly loving types. To be honest he hadn't really met the girl properly, only heard a few things about her, he didn't know why but Cobalt seemed to think that he would be a really bad influence on her. Alexei didn't think that it would be...

Raising his eyebrows as he wound the parchment up and placed it on the counter top, Alexei leant his head on his hands as his elbows rested on the counter top;

"It sounds like you have the jealous father hormone my friend." he laughed happily "You need to let it go, what better man than one you trust more than any other right? Better than myself thats for sure hmmm?" Alexei winked with a smirk.

Seeing that he was succeeding in pressing the other man's buttons, Cobalt chuckled a little bit and tried to reign himself back in despite the fun that he was having with it. It was good for Alexei to get used to this kind of ribbing though because he did it a lot to people he called friend. Richard would definately attest to that he thought,

"Oh you've got me. I can't think of anything better than spending my time wandering around a group of pompous assholes who drone on and on about things that their fathers and grandfathers did." he joked before smirking a little bit, "Hey if you were going to one of your pimp stick club meetings I'd be there. Always wanted to know what you guys did there. Hopefully you don't go washing and pollishing each other's pimp sticks."

One of the reasons why Cobalt was glad that he wasn't invited to attent the part in question was that he had probable been contracted by several of the people in attendance. And people tended to leave parties when they realised the person they'd hired to kill someone was also there. Cobalt smiled a little bit when he saw Alexei noting down to do his heart-slowing elixier tomorrow. That was good, he had a contract to kill someone by heart attack in four days time and he needed the extra time to figure out when to administer it,

"That'd be great, thanks." he agreed before chuckling a little bit, "Hey swing by the bakery by all means. You can pick out anything you want for free if you do."

Cobalt could tell by the look in his friend's eyes that he was still rather amazed that Cobalt was anybodies father. To be honest he could understand that. When he had first told Richard the man had stared at him for about half an hour without saying anything. When he had finally snapped at the german alchemist, Richard had just said that he was waiting for the punchline. He wasn't that bad a father... although he could stand to be home earlier he admitted,

"Mmm I prefer protective father hormone to be fair..." he laughed in return before sighing a little bit and nodded reluctantly, "I know, I should just let her go and let her grow up but... she's my little girl... and I swear to god you mention that to your little pimp stick friends and your cane's going up your ass."

Alexei chuckled a little bit, he didn't understand why the man felt the need to express his closeness towards someone through insults, he would never get a lover that way, but, he understood that Cobalt often made insults when he was actually meaning to be friendly towards someone. Although it was not Alexei's way, he accepted it, and adapted himself to suit the conversational style.

"Hey I restent zat!" he protested "I am doing lots of zings, just look at zis long ass list you give me! I can't speak for the others though, not like they are making zeir own wealth."

Rolling his eyes when he mentioned the cane club, Alexei merely smirked again, to be honest he hadn't wanted to be a part of the club really, it was just a coincidence that he used a cane. As a result, he had been 'inducted into the fold', they weren't bad guys though, he was especially close to Jermaine, perhaps one of his closest friends.

"Well when you have a cane zen you may come." he laughed "Until zen it must remain a secret, I vouldn't want to become a traitor in the ranks for telling you vat we get up to."

The idea of coming to the bakery made Alexei smile lightly, Cobalt must be trusting him to actually allow him to come to his place of residence. It was kind of touching...in a weird manner; "Alright, I shall do, you bes tmake me some iced buns, zey are my favourite, or zee little cupcakes with zee sprinkles and cream..."

Coughing a little bit Alexei flushed, alright, that just sounded homosexual. Glossing over that last part he hummed a little bit and rolled his eyes again, the guy really was attached to his little girl, to be honest he was a lot younger than Cobalt and wasn't even married yet, let alone being a father, so he wouldn't know how it felt, but, he assumed Cobalt's feelings were perfectly rational.

"Eh I am not zee man to do zat Cobalt!" he smirked "You vould be a laughing stock, and I know zat you mean it when you say what you'd do to me. I am no father, so I cannot comment, but, you vill have to do it sooner or later. Maybe you should bring her to zee next open ball, would be nice for her."

Cobalt could tell that his terms of affection for his friends seemed to confused Alexei. Maybe it was because he ended up insulting his friends... he didn't know for sure but he had a sneaking suspicion that was exactly the reason. He laughed a little bit when Alexei pretended to take offence at his comment about what went on at pure blood parties. Cobalt had never seen the appeal in going to parties like that, where no one really knew each other but they knew 'of' each other,

"Oh calm down Alexei, you don't want the shakes while brewing your potions now do you?" he teased his friend before nodding in understanding, "Besides I didn't mean you, I know you work for a living. However, I bet you 90% of the rest of the party go-ers will be unable to say the same."

Cobalt had been honestly amazed when he realised that there was actually a club for pure bloods who used canes for fashion and not for any practical reason. And he was Cobalt Smith. One of his best friends was an alchemist (something said to be magically impossible) and he'd been working with a sentient ball of magic for dozens of decades. It took a lot to surprise him,

"What? That's all I need to join?" he asked, faking excitement before chuckling a little bit, "Yeah no I'm still perfectly healthy, no need for a cane I'm afraid."

Cobalt was mentally making a list of all the places he could dump Alexei's body without being traced for the killing even as he offered to invite his friend to his home. If he turned out to be a security risk, a risk to Charlotte, he would (regretfully) put him down, "You have a little bit of a sweet tooth for the cream don't you? Not my place to judge a man's tastes."

He chuckled a little bit at the way Alexei flushed, the beauty of it was that he didn't need to say a word, Alexei set himself up for that one. Cobalt smirked a little bit,

"Good." he said simply before smirking a little bit, "Maybe I should take her and Alex to the next ball... might be a bit confusing between you and Alex to begin with but it should be easy enough to tell you two apart. Alex learnt last week not to stare at EVERY pair of breasts in the room."