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“Bruno, I can’t take this anymore.” The girl says in a muffled tone, hunched over her desk and embracing herself tightly with layers upon layers of both clothes and blankets. If anyone else were to hug her right now, they’d be holding a big and terribly freezing marshmallow. “It’s negative 34 Fahrenheit. This isn’t okay.”
The boy wipes the sweat that has made its way down the back of his neck. He holds his mini-fan closer to his face, and although it had been amped up to the highest level, it only made such feeble attempts to actually cool him off. The scene outstretched behind him had only been a blurry lamplight keeping his messy dorm room aglow, where unwashed clothes and opened books lay on his bed like they were left there in a hurry.
Behind Kamala were her ever-vivid Captain Marvel posters and drawings she made all on her own. The view behind her was something she could always be proud of, but right now it had been covered with all the layers she had on. But however dark it’s become in her side of the world; Bruno could always count on the girl’s ability to shine.
…And the fact that her nightlight had been glittering right behind her.
“I actually would much rather the cold climate than the hot one right now, KK. It’s so difficult to sleep in 134 Fahrenheit weather.” He pulls at his tank top to fan himself off. “I’ve had to invest in these because I’ve been changing so much in one day.”
The girl on the other side of the screen watches him move around in frustration, the muscles he’s always managed to keep hidden under long-sleeved shirts and hoodies now making many appearances. When did he get so—
“Hot.” She blurts out. The audio is crisper and clearer than their eyesight.
“What?” He asks, assuming he had missed the first part of whatever she had said.
Her cheeks began to grow hot, which was good for warming herself up, but terrible for the conversation at hand.
“I-I mean, it’s getting h-hot now that I have… all of this on…” She looked away from him, opening a new tab in hopes of looking distracted and not at all creepily thinking about how… attractive her best friend had become ever since his departure.
No, everything was completely normal. Why wouldn’t it be?
“Oh,” he starts. “Well, that’s good.” With the many days and nights Bruno has spent under the Californian weather, sometimes he looks at Kamala from the other side of the screen and daydreams of reliving his days as a Jersey boy with his incredible best friend. Before all the changes. Before everything.
She takes notice of the shift in his expression, the sadness in his eyes. “Is everything okay?”
He looked up at her, wondering how he could ever explain his homesickness to the girl without sounding both defeatist and ungrateful. So, he merely shrugs, but he can’t bring himself to lie to her, because Kamala always manages to see right through him. It makes him give his most honest answer: “It will be.”
She sends a solemn smile his way, wishing more than anything that her powers could help her reach inside the screen and pull him into a big hug. A long overdue hug that was reserved for her genius best friend, and him only.
In an attempt to steer the conversation away from him, Bruno then asks, “How’s the superhero life, Young Avenger?” whispering the last part.
Kamala gets giddy inside, pulling some of the covers off of her as her excited heart allotted her some of the warmth she needed. “It’s been pretty gooood…” He notices her mind drifting off again, probably conjuring more fake scenarios in her head. He could see the wonder in her eyes. It shined as brightly as she did.
With it, she continues to tell him more of the missions and adventures she’d been involved in alongside many of the superheroes they both only ever dreamed of meeting. And now, they were her peers. Neither of them could wrap their heads around it, still.
“You know,” she says, huddling near the screen. “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”
He wasn’t sure why she was saying that: giving him credit when she’d been the extraordinary one between the two of them.
“It’s all you, KK. It’s always been you.”
A moment seems to pass, one that was supposed to last longer than it did yet seemed to leave as soon as it arrived. How desperately she wishes it went on for a second longer. Just this once.
Bruno checks his phone to look at the time, in need of something to break the tension he’d created for them. It was 9:06pm. “It’s a little over midnight where you are, right?” He asks her, shying from meeting her eyes.
But all she could do was look at him and try to understand what he truly meant by that. “Yeah,” she replies, holding back a yawn because she hated it every time they ended every call with her being scolded to go to sleep.
And it seemed like he had read her mind this time around. “It kinda amazes me that you’re managing to keep yourself awake in that weather. I’d be knocked out right now if it was that cold over here.”
“Well, I miss talking to you.” It was as easy as breathing to have admitted that out loud, but after hearing her own words echo back at her, she could describe the sensation as that of a slight tremor in the ground. Everything was shaky beneath her, and one wrong move could cause the plates to shift once more.
“KK, we talk every day.” He says, trying to suppress the dejection that crept into his voice. But it was hard to miss.
“I know.” She says, forcing a smile. The blankets that had once covered her entire body now cascaded down her shoulders. Now he could see her better, and he could see the droop of her eyelids, and even the ghost of a frown that began to trace her lips. She shrugs, in the same dismissive manner he did earlier.
It was then that it hit both of them how much they’d been holding back from one another. Maybe it was the distance, or maybe it was everything they couldn’t tell each other sooner. Before he left. Before the vastness of space between them had grown exponentially larger than either of them anticipated.
Would things between them be different if everything was simpler, somehow?
“I don’t wanna keep you, though,” she tells him, sitting up straighter in her swivel chair. “I know how busy you can get.”
Before a beat even manages to pass, he replies with the kindest eyes she’d ever seen, eyes that seemed to reserve that very same look just for her. “You can keep me for as long as you like.”
Oh. For as long as she— oh.
A million thoughts raced Kamala’s mind, but one stood out the most: this was something she had to sleep on and process overnight. She was afraid that if she said anything, really, she’d regret it immediately. And so, she figures she’ll say nothing at all.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Bruno.” She looks down at her fingers, twiddling her thumbs. “Same time, yeah?”
“Y-” Before he even got a word in, she left the call. The silence stretched on as the boy was left staring at the blank computer screen before him, waiting for... something. As if any minute now, she'd hop back in. But she never does.
Was it something he said?