Work Text:
Standing at the entrance to the school gym, Amanda Lopez doesn’t think she has ever smiled so much. Maybe when she got to be on Cake ‘Splosion. She files that in as a close second.
But right now her face is lit up like the gym is, eyes sparkling like the fairy lights she helped hang around the room, because this dance is going to be the best one yet. She thought that last time, when Milo saved the dance and danced with her afterwards, was the best one. She was wrong, because this time will be the best one, and she is absolutely sure of that. Because instead of trying to get rid of Milo the whole time, she will be with him the whole time. Holding hands and dancing and spending time together.
She had been so scared to ask Milo to the dance. Terror had turned to smiles when they realised they were both trying to ask each other the same thing, both equally awkward and nervous and excited.
Milo should be here any minute. Amanda has made her rounds and everything is ok, so she can start having fun right away. If anything does go wrong, they will fix it. Together.
Except then she sees two familiar heads approaching, and her shoulders sink because the third member of the inseparable trio isn’t there. And she can only think of one reason why that would be. She calls out. “Where’s Milo?”
“Oh, sorry Amanda.” Melissa says, looking sympathetic. Amanda notices she and Zack are holding hands now. “This afternoon there was an incident with a truck, a chicken and a bike, and now Milo’s in the hospital. He broke his phone so he asked us to let you know.”
“Oh.” Amanda droops like a dying flower. She knew that with Milo things could never be certain, she was ready for the unexpected. Just like he always said. But she was excited. And now Milo can’t come.
“He said to remind you to try and relax and enjoy the dance. Go with it, you know.” Zack adds. And that makes Amanda smile, as she remembers the last dance. Milo had done so much to fix the dance, so she could relax and enjoy it. And she had. She had freaked out about Murphy’s Law all night, but after everything went wrong… it all got fixed and she did have fun. With Milo.
So Milo sitting in the hospital while she has fun at the dance? Not on her watch.
“Can you two make sure nothing drastically bad happens?” Amanda asks, pulling the bus timetable up on her phone. There should be one in five minutes. Perfect.
“Well sure, but why?” Zack asks. He and Melissa are both still smiling at their intertwined hands, definitely not entirely focused on the conversation. Milo probably insisted that they still go even without him, knowing how much they were looking forward to their first dance together. Because that’s the sort of thing Milo does, he cared about people. About strangers, about his classmates, about his friends, about her.
“I’m going to see Milo. Have fun at the dance!” Amanda hurries away, waving. They look surprised, then share a knowing smile.
She reaches the bus stop just as the bus arrives. She gets on and sits down, opening her phone. She realises that even if Milo hadn’t broken his phone, she wouldn’t have received his message, she hasn’t checked her phone all day. She has been too busy with preparations for the dance.
Sure enough, the last text from Milo is a goofy picture of him, Melissa and Zack. She can see a chicken behind him, and guesses that this photo was taken not long before the disaster that stuck him in the hospital. She really needs to get this story.
A few stops later, she is at the hospital. She hurries in to the front desk. “Hi, I’m here to visit Milo Murphy?”
The woman at the desk points down the corridor. “The Murphy Suite. Visiting hours end soon though.” She says. “I hope you have protective gear.”
“I’ll be fine.” Amanda walks down the corridor. Even at this time of night, the hospital is bustling. She follows the signs until she is outside the Murphy Suite. She knocks.
“Come in!” Milo calls. Amanda opens the door and pops her head in, smiling. Milo looks surprised. “Amanda! What are you doing here? I mean, I’m happy you’re here, but shouldn’t you be at the dance?”
“They’ll manage without me.” Amanda says. Admittedly, worry is squirming in her stomach. But she takes a leaf out of the boy in front of her’s book and tries not to worry. No matter how bad things go, they will be fixed. She can be optimistic. “I wanted to come and see you. Are you ok?”
Milo is sitting up in his hospital bed. His head and arms are wrapped in bandages, but he doesn’t look too badly injured once you look past the miles of bandages. “I’m fine! But they said I have a concussion, so I have to stay for a bit. I’ll probably be able to go home tonight!”
“That’s good.” Amanda comes to sit at the end of his bed. He looks a bit nervous.
“Maybe you should sit on the chair? Murphy’s Law and all. A buffer zone helps.”
Amanda scoots closer to him. “There wasn’t going to be a buffer zone when we were dancing.” She points out. Milo has to accept her logic.
“I’m sorry about the dance, Amanda. I was looking forward to it.” He sighs. “And it’s a shame that you don’t get to enjoy it now either. You know, if you rush you could probably make it back.”
“I could.” Amanda concedes. “But I don’t want to. I was looking forward to spending time with you at the dance, so if you can’t go then I’ll just spend time with you here instead.” She nods stubbornly at her own argument.
Milo’s face is dusted with a light shade of pink now. He smiles and looks away. “Well. I don’t mind that.”
He scoots around to sit closer to her. She is momentarily worried, but he assures her that that only his head and arms are hurt, his legs and back are fine so he can move. They sit in companionable silence for a while, arms just brushing against each other. It feels nice.
“I would put my arm around you, or hug you.” Milo suddenly breaks the silence, smiling at her in that sweet, dorky way that makes her heart melt every time. “But my arms are really, really sore.”
Amanda thinks. Then she gets up and walks around to the other side of the bed. Milo looks baffled while she sits down and scoots closer behind them.
Then she puts her arms around him from behind and squeezes. She is very careful not to hug anywhere he is injured. “Oh, I get it!” Milo says, leaning back into the hug. She can tell he is smiling just from his tone of voice, and that makes her smile even more. She rests her chin on his shoulder.
They are both blushing lightly now, smiling widely as they sit together comfortably. Amanda is sure that she could stay like this forever, and worries about the dance have been thoroughly chased from her mind. They are practically melting against each other, talking quietly about anything that comes to their minds as time passes silently in the background.
In fact, they are so comfortable that they don’t realise how much time has passed until a nurse opens the door.
They both look up, faces reddening for a whole different reason. But they don’t disentangle from each other just yet.
The nurses smiles at the embarrassed teenagers. “Ah, young love. How cute.”
“We aren’t-“
“We weren’t-“
Amanda looks down and makes eye contact with Milo. They both smile and giggle, the awkwardness draining away again. Amanda pulls herself out of the hug.
“Well Milo, you’re good to go. You can call your parents for a lift now.” The nurse says, chuckling. “You’ll have to leave now, young lady. Visiting time is over.”
“Maybe you’ll have time to get back to the dance!” Milo says. Then he looks up at the clock. “Oh. No, you definitely won’t. Sorry Amanda.”
“Oh, Milo, it’s ok.” Amanda smiles. “I enjoyed tonight anyway, even without the dance.”
“I enjoyed tonight too.” Milo says. “Maybe next time we’ll actually get to go to the dance together!”
“I’m sure we will eventually.” Amanda laughs. “Bye Milo, see you soon.” She leans down to kiss him on the cheek, smiling at the blush that spreads all over his face.
And even after she finds out that the dance was plagued by disaster even without the presence of Murphy’s Law, Amanda is still certain that tonight was the best school dance of all time for her. She is pretty sure that Milo would agree.