Work Text:
Cora stares at the text message for at least five minutes.
From: Red
I miss you.
You should come back.
She’s gotten a lot of messages from Lydia over the years, some coy and flirtatious, some combative, but none of them as simple and stark as these two. Nothing this…vulnerable, because God knows Lydia doesn’t do vulnerable. Ever.
Cora taps a quick message back.
To: Red
You okay?
Ten minutes later, Cora’s phone actually rings, with Lydia’s name on the caller ID. She gapes at it for a minute before she scrambles to answer. “Lydia?”
“Not really,” Lydia says, which is such a non sequitur that Cora’s thrown for a second.
“Not really?” Cora repeats.
“You asked if I was okay,” Lydia says, and God, she’s so much quieter than Cora’s used to. “And…not really.”
Cora doesn’t know what to say. She feels tongue-tied, like all her words are wrong, and never before has she been so acutely aware of how far away she is.
Apparently silence is what Lydia needs, though, because she continues talking. “It’s just been…a long week.“ She laughs bitterly, the sound harsh in Cora’s ear. “A long year, honestly. And last night was just…well, let’s call it the last straw.”
“Lydia…” Cora begins.
“I’m sorry,” Lydia cuts in briskly, sounding so much like her old self that Cora has whiplash. “I shouldn’t have bothered you, it isn’t–”
“No, it is important,” Cora cuts in, even though she doesn’t know what Lydia’s going to say, doesn’t really know what’s going on. “If you need to talk…it’s important. It’s always important. Don’t…dismiss yourself like that.”
Lydia’s quiet on the other end, but Cora can hear her sniffling.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Cora asks. “Maybe over coffee? Or dinner?”
“Coffee?” Lydia says. “You mean…in person?”
“Yeah,” Cora says, and if she’s being honest with herself, she knew this was going to happen the moment she read Lydia’s texts. “It might take me some time to make travel arrangements, but yeah. In person.”
“Oh.” Lydia sounds soft and hopeful, and if Cora hadn’t already decided to go back, that would have done it.
“I miss you, too,” Cora admits. “And I…I really want to see you again.”
“Okay,” Lydia says, and Cora can hear the smile in her voice. “Me too.”