[i]” I don’t trust these people, they don’t seem to very skilled,”[/i] Cerberus hissed in Coal’s mind, his amber eyes boring holes into the skulls of the mages he stared down.

[i]”Relax, I’m sure they’re great! All the dick-measuring brawns are miles away, so honestly, how bad can these people be?”[/i], Coal whispered into Cerberus’ mind as he lifted his fixated gaze off the shaking snow, looking over his shoulder and seeing someone approach, [i]”Look! Here comes one now,”[/i] He felt Cerberus tense on his shoulder, spreading his wave of consciousness towards the long-haired man, and whispering to Coal again, [i]”Azai, his name is Azai. Meaning strength”[/i].

“Hello!” Coal said, trying his best to seem approachable and not as if he snapped minutes ago, “Azai, right? Right.”
Behind that cheery complexion, Coal was sizing him up and down. His gaze quickly darting from side to side, inspecting Azai. He seemed physically strong, odd seeing as this was the investigator team. He was acting all tall, dark, mysterious, the protagonist in a romance novel. But he possibly could be a softie, like a protagonist in a romance novel.  Coal didn’t dare to try to probe Azai’s mind further, thinking best to not risk the chance that he might have some barrier. 

“You seem a bit cold kid,” Coal went from smiling to blank.

[i]”Did he really call me a [b]kid[/b]?[/i] Coal twisted his mouth into a tight smile, his hands clenched behind his back, a flare of anger sparking in him causing the the bewitched snow to tremble with his anger. 

”Good thinking kid,” Azai’s smug tone threatened to make Coal snap, he didn’t even listen to whatever he had to say. Coal’s want to dump a literal ton of snow on his head grew and burned inside him, and a snow ball hovered threateningly above Azai. At any moment he could drop that freezing chunk down the bastard’s back, he could feel Cerberus egging him on, [i]”Go ahead, be mean!”[/i] he seemed to say.
At the last moment, Coal stopped. The chunk of snow dissipated mid-air. No lights, no smoke, just gone. Coal shrugged and muttered a quick thanks, turning once again to the parting mound of snow. 

Everything seemed oddly still, as if the chill had frozen time too. Coal’s ambition to be a snow-Moses and part the ice left him, and he was making no progress, Max and Lenya were just standing there as far as Coal was concerned, Glory was missing, and Azai-

”Hey guys, listen to me. I know that we are teammates and we do not have a team leader, but we have to work together. I will not force you to anything but I have a plan, so will you listen to me?”

And Azai was taking charge. Coal and Cerberus turned their heads simultaneously towards him, heads cocked in curiosity, they were finally getting somewhere! “The blowhard was useful for something after all,” Coal and Cerberus snicked to each other.

Maybe they still had some chance of not being a crap team.