Pretty much the only background factor they share is that they have both experienced terrible loss, and did not handle it in the best way.
That is not the best thing for two people to have in common. It makes it much harder for them to fully rely on anyone, and that can put strain on any relationship, but especially on a romantic one.
They have both made stellar progress in trusting each other, but they are presently staring down a HUGE step in their friendship.
Can we say that Bubbles also handled her trauma with addiction?
There's big money running media that gives organics regular fixes of outrage. We seem to be able to get addicted to anger. Would it be the same for synthetics?
I guess I never saw Bubbles as the angry type. True, she had occasional outbursts, but they were not all that frequent. I think if she had been the angry type, she would have been
in the fights at the skate park - getting a rush, as it were, from beating the crap out of people. For the most part, she had a good handle on her anger - mostly taking it out on punching bags. We only saw her get
really mad a couple of times.
No, she handled her trauma with seclusion - sequestering herself from virtually every kind of social interaction, when social interaction is exactly what she needed. Yes, I know, Corpse Witch had a hand in that as well. But Bubbles
said she didn't go out in public because she didn't want to make humans uncomfortable by her presence, but I surmise that it was actually because she did not want to allow herself to get emotionally attached to anyone, for fear of losing them the way she lost her squad. It's not a rational way of thinking, just the same as it was irrational for Faye to avoid emotional attachment for fear that someone else would leave her the way her father did. But rational or not, when you handle pain with avoidance, it tends to not get any better. As Marten said, "what you're doing right now isn't healing, it's stasis."
Both Faye and Bubbles have taken huge steps toward healing. For Faye, it was finally opening up to Marten about her father. Once she did that, it became easier to open up to everyone else as well. Then getting into therapy, and taking the next step and actually allowing herself to have a relationship. Yes, she took a huge step backward when she drank herself into oblivion after Angus left, but she has been getting better nonetheless.
For Bubbles, it was the decision to face the memories of her squad once again (unaware that those memories were gone). That was a big step, and a hard one. But it made it easier for her to open up to Faye about what had happened. And then taking off her armor was the next big step. Her armor was her security blanket. Choosing to take it off was choosing to make herself vulnerable.