For reasons beyond his comprehension, Cobra began to laugh. It started as a wry chuckle that built its way into a roaring boom of a sound that could have put Brain to shame. He felt Macbeth staring at him as he continued, but he was too enraptured in the absurdity to care. He kept circling back to the same thoughts. Had it really been that obvious? How was it that this happened right under his nose and he didn't realize? Had he seen signs, only to ignore them while making his own assumptions? Was he stupid?
Yes, he concluded. Absolutely.
So he laughed. He laughed until he cried, although he hid his face with a sleeve to block the tears. Cobra remembered another time he'd done this, right after he'd sacrificed his eye for more power. The world had seemed so full of nonsense at the time he'd laughed at it all. Then he'd sobered up and took on a morose mood until being defeated. Strange how similar both times felt, although the circumstances behind them could not have been any more different.
There was so much he didn't understand. But how many of those things were simply because he didn't want to understand? What if he had asked at some point, would he have been able to figure it out then? Were there other things this week he'd missed because of that? Things that could, should, have been simple, if not for his stubborn blind eye?
Could things, would things be different, if only he tried?
Cobra felt something inside him shift, a feeling he didn't quite know how to describe, but that felt like a small flame come to life in his chest.
He closed his remaining eye, promising himself, in that moment, that he wouldn't let it stay closed.