low key lavender

deployment depression

Cordelia closed her front door and sighed, feeling just as disappointed in that moment as when Florence had left her sitting on her desk on her office.

Bass sniffed and reminded her of their reason for leaving. She could think about how kind and respectful and intuitive they were later; first, she had to get Bass back to safety, emotionally speaking.

"So you wanna tell me why you're here clit-blocking me or do you need to let it all out some more?" Cordelia looked sweetly at Bass.

"I will as soon as you wipe off that mess of lipstick off your face. I can't be sad while you look like you just ate out a girl during shark week or a fuckless clown."

"I love that your life is clearly falling apart and you still have the time and energy to comment on my appearance. My mother would not approve of that remark by the way," Cordelia said as she wiped the lipstick off of her face with her arm.

"There's a lot of things in your life your mother would not approve of." Bass rubbed his face, trying to get the salty tears out of his mustache hairs with his palm. His voice was gravelly and denoted that he was only bickering with her out of habit and not because he could actually enjoy it.

"So are you up for talking about it yet out do you need more time to be a sad bitch?" Cordelia said softly and gently, moving back from him to sit on the opposite bar stool.

"Just read this," Bass pulled out his phone and showed her a new article about the change in activity in the Middle East. Bass explained he wasn't sure but he thought that the area where the bombings were might be where she was stationed.

The last email was from his sister McKay a week ago. She had contacted him at least once a day since had she been deployed, and suddenly she hadn't sent him an email in two weeks.

McKay, Bass, and Cordelia had all gone to high school together in a small town a few hours away from the city they all lived in now. McKay had joined the service after she had graduated. Bass and Cordelia still had a year left of high school to get through when she had left, and considering that Bass and McKay had practically been attached at the hip, Bass felt like he was missing a vital organ when she was gone. McKay had returned from basic training, harder, tougher, and significantly more confident in herself, and while she was gone Bass and Cordelia grew much closer than they had been in high school.

Now that she had been deployed, less than two months ago, Bass had been more and more worried about her. They were very close siblings, and not knowing if she was going to stay safe was difficult for him. The article he had shown her had done nothing but send him into a spiral he couldn't handle alone. Between that and her period of no contact, Bass was a mess.

He would have confided in her sooner, had Cordelia and McKay not had a heavy makeout session right before McKay had been deployed. It had strained their relationship they had been working on remedying it. After a small tiff, Bass and Cordelia had agreed to just avoid talking about her, for the sake of their friendship, but Bass had caved due to the stress of her being overseas, with everyday threats on her life.

Cordelia had felt unbelievably guilty about the whole situation. Cordelia and McKay had often flirted as a joke, but it had only escalated after she had broken it off with her ex. She had just decided to officially end things with her first girlfriend and had hooked up with McKay very soon after her.

They had been hot tubbing at an apartment complex with some friends and Cordelia was explaining how she hadn't had much luck or interest in dating other people. Of course, they had started fake flirting, like they had most of their relationship, but both had been unwilling to un-commit to the bit, quickly escalating the verbal banter to physical and then things quickly turned into a release of a floodgate of frustration for both of them. The chemistry between the two of them was unremarkable; things between them became awkward, to summarize.

Cordelia hadn't regretted it, nor did she feel any differently about her friend and best friend after that, but it had definitely shifted the dynamic between her and Bass. Since McKay had left she had made the effort to reconnect with Bass, and had tried to apolgize on multiple occasions, but Bass had just made fun of her and brushed her off, leaving her feeling uneasy, and necessitating the need for an embargo on the McKay topic between them.

However, Bass's emotional state had repealed the embargo and made it necessary for Cordelia to put aside her anxiety about the topic and her own concerns for McKay's safety and support her friend.

Bass sobbed at her counter and she could only rub his back as the sadness and worry leaked out of him, offering comforting platitudes between his sobs.