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“And there were just- there were people for miles. And there was so much smoke in the air, and everyone was yelling and shoving and they were all so- so- so scared, you know? And like, I knew that this happened, I read about it, Ammi and Baba and Nanni talked about it and everything but being there was so different. My grandparents lived through that. And it was just- just-“
Kamala had gotten zero hours of sleep on the plane ride home (she was a car sleeper, not a plane sleeper, there was a difference). To be honest, she’d gotten about 15 hours total in the last five days. Ever since returning to her time, she’d been wired and anxious and paranoid and jumpy and jittery—though some of that may have been the lots and lots of coffee she’d been guzzling.
Despite that, the first thing she did when she walked into her room was sneak straight back out the window and run to Bruno’s house.
They’d talked a few times while she was in Pakistan. He was trying to get through to Nakia, but was pretty indisposed with a sprained wrist and one broken rib, which she felt kind of bad about.
Well, she felt really bad about it, but she’d been so busy thinking about other things that the feeling-bad had only gotten a little sliver of her brain space, so it manifested like only a little bad.
Even with the injuries, he’d managed to make more progress with Nakia than she had. He’d explained what he could when she’d helped him home after the Dijinn fight, and, well… that was about it. She was ghosting both of them, which was kind of unfair to Bruno.
Then again, he hadn’t told her Kamala was Ms. Marvel, either, and it sucked to find out that both your best friends were hiding something from you.
When she snuck into Bruno’s room (she was getting super great at crawling through windows; she was basically a professional now), Bruno looked up from his desk with wide, surprised eyes.
Then his face broke into a grin and he hopped up from his chair, one hand on his ribs. “Hey!! You’re home!”
“I’m home!” Kamala echoed, holding out her arms for a hug, which he eagerly stepped into.
His sweatshirt was warm, and he smelled nice. Kamala shut her eyes. She’d loved Pakistan, even the scary parts, getting to see her culture in a new way and learn things she could have never dreamed to imagine about her history. But here, in Bruno’s room, with his arms around her and his fluffy brown hair against her ear…she needed this. This was what made her Kamala.
“I missed you,” she admitted into his sweatshirt before he pulled away.
He looked very pleased. “Oh! I missed you, uh, too. Vacation was super boring without you around.”
“Yeahhh, sorry.” Kamala winced and made herself at home, sitting down on his comfy couch in the same spot she always chose. “Hey, how’re the ribs?”
“Being annoying,” Bruno grumbled, tapping his side. “You can’t put a cast on ribs. How stupid is that?”
“Super stupid,” Kamala agreed. “The stupidest.”
She fell silent, mind sort of whiting out as she stared at some random object on Bruno’s desk. Her mind had been such a whirlwind since getting back to present time, and she wasn’t sure how to get it to calm down. She was tired, though, that much she knew, and not just from the jet lag.
“Hey, you okay?” Bruno dragged his wheely chair over and sat down so they were facing each other.
“Yeah. No? I don’t really know.” Kamala covered her face and groaned.
“This is about the time-traveling, isn’t it?” Bruno prodded, nudging her knee gently.
Kamala’s head jolted up. He was usually perceptive, but that was kind of crazy. “How did you know?”
“You filled me in on everything else pretty thoroughly.” Bruno shrugged. “But you just kind of left that bit at ‘I time traveled to the Partition and figured out a bunch of stuff’. I figured you were just…maybe having some issues working through it? So if you want to talk about it, go ahead.”
The stuff she had been thinking earlier, about needing him? Double that. Quadruple it, actually.
“Well…” It took her a second to figure out where to start, but once she had she could hardly get the words out fast enough before the next ones were cramming to take their place.
“It was…beautiful, in a way. To be able to see it, to actually be there. But Bruno…” Her throat squeezed. “It was so. Sad.”
Kamala’s lips wobbled. She’d been friends with a girl in middle school who was Jewish, and at one point during the lesson about WWII she’d asked to be excused from the room. The Partition wasn’t really discussed about in school, but Kamala now knew how she felt. Some things were too close.
Speaking of close, Bruno was hovering. He’d arisen part way through her explanation to pace but now was standing right at her shoulder, jaw so tight with concern she could see his pulse. She peered up at him with watery doe eyes. “Do you want to sit?”
“Do you want me to?” he countered, cautious.
Kamala nodded, scooting over more to prove her point than to actually go anywhere considering how much room Bruno already had on the couch. Despite that space, he sat right next to her, body tilted so their knees were touching.
“Are you okay?” he asked softly.
Kamala sniffed, nodding and lifting her shoulder a little. “I think I will be.”
“I think you need some sleep,” Bruno countered with a knowing smile.
She huffed a laugh. “Yeah. Probably.”
On a whim, a fleeting urge or some desperate need for contact, Kamala leaned over and nestled her head on Bruno’s shoulder. He froze for a minute, hands lifted off his lap like he needed to keep his balance. Then he settled, cheek resting on her hair and arms snaking their way around her to pull her close to his side. It was… more than she thought he’d do, but much like earlier, being held by him felt endlessly comforting.
Kamala knew she needed to get home, lay down an actual bed, get some actual rest. But for now all she wanted to do was stay with Bruno Carrelli, curled up in his arms.