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“The way characters come up with their aliases in these shows is so dumb.” Carmen commented, groaning as the character onscreen acted like they’d just thought of the most clever name ever. “It’s so stupid, you’re not a genius, you just looked at a soup can and went, ‘yup, that’s me, that right there. I’m soup.’”
Player snorted, almost choking on his popcorn. “Red, you’re kidding, right? Please tell me you’re kidding.”
She turned carefully enough to not disturb her healing ribs, and almost had to crane her neck to see her shorter friend where he was seemingly trying to fuse with the blankets by her side. “What?” At her genuinely confused tone, he looked up at her with disbelief.
“Red, you named yourself after a hat. Not even just the hat, the company that made the hat.”
“Oh. Right.” Yeah, he had a point. “Wait, how’d you find out about that? I never told you.”
“You make me order your coat replacements every time you get them all torn up. Also, I’ve been here since the start, remember? It wasn’t hard to put together that pause when you left the island and the fact your name is a bit too similar to your clothes.” He pointed out, and Carmen felt a little bit called out that he’d put it together without her ever saying a word. “So I really don’t think you have room to complain about Mr Soup Can over here.”
Crossing her arms and looking away, the red thief pretended to be upset. “So I’m nothing more than a soup can superhero, am I?”
“I dunno, you might belong more on a milk carton since nobody knows where you are.”
Caught completely off guard, Carmen couldn’t prevent herself from busting into hearty laughter that hurt on her still-healing body. “Ow, ow.” She wheezed between chuckles, holding her face and trying to muffle herself.
“Oops, sorry Red.” Player’s hands found their way to her back, a companionable feeling of support through the pain. “I forgot. No more jokes.”
Forcing the amusement down, and trying not to think of his joke again, Carmen leaned back into the blankets beside her friend. “That was a good one. Tell it again sometime when I can actually laugh at it.” She wheezed, ignoring the sore feeling it left.
They’d missed the last few minutes of their show, prompting the hacker to just go ahead and pause it, before wiggling himself free of the blanket cocoon and standing. Carmen watched him go, casually shifting over to steal his spot while his back was turned. He dug around through a couple of drawers on his desk, searching for a distinct bottle. “It’s probably time for a break anyway, and you can take more pain meds by n-- really?” Player interrupted himself once he’d turned back around again, painkiller in hand, and witnessed Carmen sprawled as theatrically as she could without hurting herself across his previous spot.
“Yes really.” She smirked, though only her eyes were visible above the blanket.
“Oh no, whatever will I do, my spot has been stolen by the dreaded thief Carmen Sandiego!” Player groaned and cried overdramatically, flinging himself into his desk chair like a woman pretending to faint. “The terrible crimson ghost, named after a hat! Oh, the horror!”
“Hey!” Carmen yelled and threw a pillow at him, though she was smiling. The hacker deflected the deathly soft projectile, and threw his arms in the air, as if cursing god.
“La femme rouge!” He cried sarcastically, doing his best Devineaux impersonation, and that was it for Carmen. She let loose a couple of strangled chuckles before biting her hand and glaring at him. “Right. Not making jokes is hard.”
“This is a setup. You totally did this on purpose, saving your best jokes for when I can’t appreciate them.” The red thief accused, also partially mimicking Devineaux’s accent.
“What can I say, I’m an evil mastermind. Surprise, I’m secretly the head of V.I.L.E., and my goal is to torment you with jokes.” Player shrugged, grinning.
Carmen gasped dramatically. “Oh no, betrayed by my best friend! How will I ever go on?”
“I dunno, I hear painkiller helps.” He tossed the bottle then, and didn’t miss the way she caught it effortlessly. She was getting better.
“Are you trying to turn me into an addict?”
“I mean, is that something a villain would do? Sure, let’s go with that. Does that mean I can call myself a drug lord?” Carmen shrugged and raised a finger, asking for a moment, while occupied with her medication and a glass of water. Player waited, perfectly patient.
Once she finally came up from her water for air, Carmen was quick to tack on with, “Remember that you’re a terrible liar? You’d never make it as a crime lord of any kind.”
“Wow, I was so kind to wait, only to be insulted. What a terrible world, plagued by a terrible, cruel, crimson phantom, who insults people who so graciously wait for her.” Player flung his arm over his eyes, intentionally dragging his voice on to sound distraught. Carmen couldn’t help but roll her eyes, smirking at her friend.
“You really can lay it on thick, can’t ya?”
“It’s one of my specialties.” Player informed, peeking out from behind his arm at her. “If you ever need someone to act dramatic for no reason, I’m your guy.”
“Player, you’re already my guy for practically everything.” Carmen pointed out, earning a genuine smile from her friend for it.
“I know. Only thing I can’t do is be your getaway driver.”
“I prefer having you guide me through my missions, anyway.”
“Awwww, Red.”
Carmen couldn’t wipe the warm smile from her face, even if she tried. As hard as it was to sit still, or be in one place for so long, with each passing day she found herself preferring it here to any other place in the world. Even with the circumstances that led to her being here, or the pain she still felt with nearly every movement, it was worth it. Being around her best friend, getting to know him as a physical nearby presence beyond just a disembodied voice, there was nothing quite like it.
In truth, she couldn’t quite place exactly what it felt like.
“You think Zack and Ivy are having fun?” She asked after trailing off into her thoughts for awhile, a habit Player had long since learned to respect and wait out.
“They’ve probably eaten half of Ontario by now.” Player quipped back instantly, then added more seriously, “Although, more than anything, I think they’re just worried about you.”
“I know. I gave everyone quite the scare there, huh?” Carmen’s gaze fell to the floor, not wanting to look at her friend. But he just pushed his chair over to the side of the bed, and leaned until she couldn’t avoid looking at his face.
“Hey, don’t think of it like that. You didn’t do anything, it was Coach Brunt who scared us by hurting you.” He reminded her, not for the first time. “We worry because we care, and we were scared because of what she did to you.”
Carmen nodded, trying to show that she was listening, even if she still couldn’t entirely take it to heart. And Player, understanding as always, knew that. His hands found her shoulders, grounding her here in this moment and reminding her again that he was here with her.
“Just keep trying not to blame yourself, Red. We’re just glad you’re okay now, because that’s what matters.”
How she’d gotten so lucky, to have Player stumble into her life and stay there by her side all this time, she’d never know. He’d been everything she needed, every step of the way. From even before she started school, he was the push she needed to see the outside world. Then he was the friend she needed when she had no others. And after that, he was the guide to her escape. He’d never questioned her, always just did as she asked and waited for an explanation later, and if she never gave one, he respected that.
And that wasn’t even beginning to touch on everything he’d helped with since then. Every single mission, every step of the way.
The thief was drawn from her thoughts when one of his hands moved from her shoulder to her cheek, and when she focused on him, he spoke up. “There you are. You good, Red? You were spacing again.”
“I couldn’t do this without you.”
The words fell out before she could stop them, and she barely even realized she’d said anything at all until he paused, blinking.
“Back up, that came out of nowhere. What couldn’t you do and what do I change about it?” He asked, patiently.
“Everything.” Carmen summarized, struggling to make into words the strong feeling of fondness and appreciation she was feeling. “It’s just, I don’t think I ever would have gotten off that island without you in the first place. You were the push that made me enroll early, because you reminded me there was a world out there, and I wanted to see it. And then, I was brave enough to throw it all away and leave, because I wasn’t doing it alone. Because I knew once I left, and turned my back on everyone I grew up with, I’d still have one person to turn to.”
Player was frozen in place, hanging on her every word. There wasn’t much one didn’t know about the other’s thoughts or feelings, considering they always worked through everything in their heads together, but this was new. She’d always made it clear how glad she was to have him as a friend, but this genuine outpouring of appreciation wasn’t something she’d managed before. He wasn’t shocked, but more speechless, unable to find a good way to express how that blatant acknowledgement made him feel. And then she was continuing, getting lost in her own words.
“I’ve just been thinking about it a lot, everything you and the others went through for me, everything you must’ve been feeling. And I felt bad, I did, but then I turned it around and pictured if it was one of you, and I can’t imagine how you guys kept your heads. And I just realized how dangerous all of this really is, and what I’ve gotten myself into, and dragged you into, and what if I mess up and you lose me, or I mess up and lead them to you and then they come after you to get to me?”
His eyes widened more as her tirade went on, and once she finally paused at the end, his grip on her shoulder tightened, making her focus on him. Then he spoke. “That’s why you haven’t gone out to see Ontario, isn’t it? You’ve been saying no to Zack and Ivy because you don’t want anyone to know you’re here… that I’m here.”
It was always so easy with Player. He just, got her. More than anyone, she barely ever had to explain before he’d catch on. “I can’t lead them here. I can’t risk them recognizing me, realizing where I am, knowing about you. Just being here now is bad enough, coming here in the first place, letting Zack and Ivy run around when I know they’ve been seen before. I can’t let anyone find you or come after you because of me.”
Player gave her a small, teasing smile. “Because you care about me, or because you need me?”
“ Both. ” Carmen replied, instantly, without a doubt. A weighty pause followed, during which she was almost convinced the shining in her best friend’s eyes might’ve been tears. Though before she could be sure, Player pulled her into a hug, holding onto her as tightly as he dared, and she was happy to melt into the embrace.
“You sure know how to make someone feel wanted, you know that, Red?” The hacker choked out, his voice thick. “Almost like--”
“Like a family?” She knew where he was going. She always did. “A proper one, where people care and don’t betray each other?”
God knows, neither of them had ever know what that was like.
“Yeah. Exactly like that.”
And then she got it. Right then and there, in her best friend’s arms and feeling the most complete she ever had in her life, Carmen understood. She finally understood what that feeling was, the way being here just felt comfortable and safe and warm, like she finally just belonged somewhere.
Player felt like home.