all our little sorrows

hunger

[Modern AU]

It's not like Cassio had wanted to let things just drop between them. They had been the closest of friends since childhood, practically joined at the hip. Of course the rift between them hurt like a bitch.

But it just happened. And, in hindsight, perhaps the disassociation between them had been inevitable, so Cassio really should have been more prepared for something like this.

It's just that Cassio never expected it all to end so fast. Years of fondness and camaraderie, reduced to ashes in the span of a few short months.

Before the two ghosted apart, for a short while, they had become than they ever had been. After Othello broke her heart, and Emilia, his, it was natural for them to find solace in each other's sorrow. Misery loved company, after all, no?

Desdemona had clung to him more than ever, weeping in his shoulder, and Cassio her gripped her just as tight, shedding silent, angry tears upon the crown of her head, and neither of them willing to let go just yet.

But it didn't last. It was heartbreak that pulled them closer. But, inevitably, it was also what eventually wrenched them apart.

The two began to drift, repelling each other in the way people do when they're haunted by the 'once-was' and the 'what-might-have-been.'

It was an irrefutable knowledge that a broken heart could not mend another. It just wasn't possible. Their friendship had been doomed to self-destruct the moment everything else fell apart.

Desdemona and Cassio suffered in each other's presence, for neither was what the other wanted or needed, but was all they had and all they were going to get. Oh, how misery did love its company.

Yes, in hindsight, their friendship was definitely doomed to fail. Two charitable people had given all they had, but now had nothing to spare between the two of them now that they had been all used up.

Desdemona and Cassio hungered for something the other simply could not provide.

The two were starved for love and affection after Emilia and Othello left them so callously. With hallowed cheeks, and deadened eyes, with no one to turn to, Cassio and Desdemona tried to scrape by, to scrimp and salvage something from the other.

But surviving on the scraps and crumbs of their two broken hearts was not enough to fulfill their cravings or sustain their appetite.

No one can say they hadn't tried. But in the end, despite all the years and fond memories, their bond had shriveled to a husk of empty skin and bones and withered away, just as everything else had.

He doesn't even remember exactly when it happened.

At some point, Desdemona had just stopped answering Cassio's calls and texts, ignoring all his efforts to reach out to her.

And at some point, Cassio had just given up trying.