[Blue shudders in place as he stops, hand still mid-wave. The accusation is caught out on his face obviously enough, even if Cole couldn't hear the unfiltered guilt running through his mind--] Haha, what are you talkin' about?

The hell, am I that obvious!? ...I mean, everyone knows about how I've been lately, but still...

[Guilt wells up, and with it loneliness, embarrassment, and longing. Red is all that's in his thoughts lately when he wakes up, and when he goes to sleep, and he's felt it furling in his chest slowly but surely for the last month, to say nothing of the last week, consuming him.]

[He tries not to let it show, of course. He's never been exactly great at deflection.]

--Oh, you must be talkin' to your Chickpee there! Right? How's the little guy doing?