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They’re 12 years old, lying down on the floor, one blanket covering the both of them, having one of their classic Kamala-Bruno sleepovers (that’s what Kamala calls them) at the Khan family home.
There’s a movie playing on the television and Bruno’s eyes have been glued to the screen for well over an hour, he is entirely fixated on the story unfolding.
Well… he is until he glances to his left and finds his best friend fast asleep.
Then, somehow, Bruno forgets all about the movie that previously had his full attention.
He doesn’t think he’s ever seen Kamala this peaceful before, this calm, or this quiet.
Her chin and cheek are resting on her crossed arms. She looks so… beautiful like this.
There are dark hairs all over her face and something gives him the nerve to reach out and gently push the hair out of her face.
His touch is light and delicate as he briefly touches her face, swiping away the hairs.
Kamala stirs in her sleep, sleepily peeking at him with one eye open as he immediately draws his hand back.
“What’re you doing?” Kamala asks groggily.
“Sorry— There was just— I was just pushing some hair out of your face… I won’t do it again. I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“S’okay” Kamala gives him a tired but kind smile.
“It is?”
“Mhm. I don’t mind.”
Her "don’t" sounds more like "dun" but Bruno gets what she’s trying to say anyway, and it’s cute, even though he's not going to voice that thought.
“You wanna finish the movie?”
The movie admittedly isn’t holding his interest as much anymore but Bruno still replies with a hushed “Yeah.”
“Okay. I’m gonna sleep again.” Kamala relaxes and closes her eyes again.
“Kamala?” Bruno whispers in the dark.
“Mm?” Her eyes remain closed.
“I’ll tell you all about the parts you missed tomorrow, kay?”
“Kay. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
Kamala falls back asleep and she leans closer to him this time.
The preteen boy spends the rest of that night struggling to fall asleep with a nervous stomach ache.
Bruno’s (more than) old enough to know what crushes are, he’s never had one before to his knowledge, but this is… this is probably a crush.
Is it surprising that he could have developed a little crush on Kamala? No, not really.
Logically, it makes sense. They’ve spent (almost) every day together since they were seven, and Kamala’s the first best friend he’s ever had, and yeah, of course he grew attached, anyone would have if they were growing up with Kamala Khan.
Having a crush on his best friend is not the cause of Bruno’s nervous stomach ache, though.
No, the cause of his nervous stomach ache is he can’t help but feel upset because they're best friends and he feels like he’s being a bad best friend by developing this crush on her.
Maybe… Maybe Bruno’s just made a mistake in judgement?
He loves her, of course he does, but does he really have a crush on her? Maybe not.
There's no way it would ever be reciprocated, anyway. Kamala's far too obvious with her feelings, he would have noticed.
Still, Bruno can’t shake the feeling that now, after five years of being best friends with Kamala, something has changed.
They’re 16 years old, sitting together on the couch, one blanket covering the both of them, having another one of their classic Kamala-Bruno sleepovers at the Khan family home.
There’s a movie playing on the television. Not just any movie, either! It’s ‘Heart of Iron: The Tony Stark Story’ which happens to be one of Kamala’s absolute favourites.
Kamala’s seen this movie a dozen times at this point. She doesn’t know exactly how many times Bruno’s seen it but it’s definitely more than once and less than a dozen.
They’re pretty far into the movie already, Kamala can tell this despite having her eyes closed.
She is really, really tired and feels like she’s going to fall asleep any second now.
Just when she’s drifting off, barely even aware of her surroundings anymore as one of her favourite movies becomes little more than background noise, she feels a hand gently push strands of her dark hair behind her ear.
It doesn’t register to Kamala immediately who it is, but the touch lingers and she realizes it’s Bruno.
After pushing the stray hairs out of her face and tucking them behind her ear, his thumb grazes her cheek and suddenly everything comes back into focus for her.
“You’re asleep right now, right?”
Kamala’s been so quiet and still that she can’t blame him for assuming that, especially because she was almost asleep.
Almost.
“I’m going to say something… something that I’ll never have the courage to say to you when you’re awake.”
What could that be? We tell each other everything.
Since when is there anything we don’t talk to each other about?
“I think you look so pretty when you’re asleep. Well, I think you look pretty all the time… like, stealing-my-breath-away-beautiful, but still.”
Kamala wishes that her heart did not start pounding in her chest at his words.
She’s supposed to be asleep right now!
“I don’t feel the way I do about you with anyone else. I never have.”
On the outside, Kamala remains still and silent, on the inside, she’s absolutely freaking out.
Kamala doesn’t think she’s ever seen (well, actually, heard) Bruno be this emotionally vulnerable.
Not even when he shared what little he was willing to share about his parents and his life before they met.
“Trust me, I’ve done enough analyzing to know that by now.”
Yeah, that sounds like you.
She hears a very light, brief chuckle before he continues “You’re so… so special to me. You’re my favourite person, Kamala.”
Aww. That’s so sweet, Bruno. You’re my second favourite person, after Carol Danvers, sorry not sorry.
Also, you might be tied with Nakia, too. Again, sorry not sorry.
“I love you.”
If Kamala weren’t pretending to be asleep, and if she weren’t as respectful of him as she is, this is when she would bolt upright, throw her arms around Bruno and hug him tighter than she ever has before.
Bruno’s never said that to her before… until this very moment. It means so much to Kamala, but he doesn’t even know she heard him.
She shifts closer to him, snuggling into his shoulder and tightening her hold around his arm.
He rests his head on hers and it’s quiet again except for the noise from the movie still playing on the TV — one of her favourite movies — that she’s forgotten all about currently.
It’s comfortable, but she can’t get back to sleep, can’t seem to return to her previous state of dozing off, her mind still awake and buzzing.
Bruno Carrelli said he loves me!
Is it weird that if she had the option (emphasis on if because she most certainly does not) she’d want to yell that at the top of her lungs?
Kamala is still awake by the time the movie ends, and she decides after the movie is over that as nice as it is to be snuggling with Bruno like this, it’s not helping her get any sleep, not after what he said to her thinking she was asleep.
She has no clue how late it is, but she knows that she has to get some sleep. The only way to do that is to get to her bedroom.
The only way to do that is to "wake up", convince Bruno she had been sleeping this whole time, tell him she has to go to bed now, and as quietly as possible, go up the stairs and into her bedroom.
Kamala slowly opens her eyes, her vision a little funny and wonky after having her eyes closed for this long.
When her vision clears, she’s expecting to see Bruno still wide awake, but instead he looks fast asleep.
She can skip the first few steps of her plan then, right? With careful precision, she extracts her hand from his arm and then pulls her head away from his shoulder.
When she pulls her head away from his shoulder, however, he immediately blinks his eyes open, so it’s back to the original plan.
“Sorry.” Kamala mumbles quietly. “Sorry I fell asleep, I must be real tired tonight.”
“Don’t apologize,” Looking far more than a little embarrassed, and not meeting her eyes, Bruno replies. “It’s not like you missed anything.”
I almost did miss something more important than the movie.
“‘M gonna go upstairs and get some more sleep, kay?”
“Kay.”
Kamala turns away from him, takes the blanket off of her, and is about to get up off the couch, but then she gets an idea.
Is it a good idea? Is it a bad idea? She’s not entirely sure.
But it’s an idea that is particularly appealing to her right now, whether that be because of feelings or sleep deprivation, or both.
“Wait.” Kamala turns back towards Bruno again, and he gives her a vaguely confused look. “There's one more thing I wanna do first.”
She leans towards him and reaches for his face with one of her hands, the other holding his arm again. Kamala hears his breath hitch.
“What’s that?”
She pulls him in closer, closes her eyes, and then they kiss.
Kamala kisses him first, but Bruno’s response is near immediate as he cups her cheek with one hand while the other is in her hair. The hand that was holding his face travels to the nape of his neck and she holds him there for a beat longer.
She had originally intended this kiss to be a lot shorter… like maybe barely more than a peck but now that she’s actually doing this, she doesn’t really want to stop.
Then they break apart to breathe and Bruno looks like he’s still processing what just happened, and also like he cannot believe what just happened.
Which is fair, Kamala’s in the same boat, she definitely cannot believe that she did that.
If you’d had told her at the beginning of the day that she would be kissing her best friend Bruno Carrelli, she would have called you crazy, but it turns out she might be the crazy one.
“I wanted to give you a kiss goodnight.” Kamala mutters.
A soft, stunned “Oh.” Is all she gets in return.
She has absolutely no clue what to do now, she really did not think far ahead when she got the idea to kiss Bruno fricking Carrelli.
She lets go of his arm for the second time that night and backs away further, getting up off the couch. “So… goodnight.”
Kamala walks away towards the staircase, not looking back.
“Goodnight.” She hears him reply before she climbs up the stairs.
Once she’s upstairs, she opens the door to her bedroom, carefully closing it behind her.
She immediately falls on her bed, draping her sloth baby napping pillow over her face and letting out quiet, muffled screams.
Why am I like this???
Why did I do that???
Kamala removes her napping pillow from her face. “I just kissed Bruno. Carrelli. Weird loner kid I met in second grade.”
“I can’t believe I did that.” She sits up and talks to the napping pillow. “Can you believe this?”
Her napping pillow, being an inanimate object, doesn’t respond, and she stares at it blankly for a second.
“I really need some sleep.” Kamala falls back against her pillows, getting under the covers and hugging her napping pillow close.
She reaches over to turn on her nightlight, and then lays down again, watching the stars from the nightlight dance around on the ceiling.
“I hope Bruno gets some sleep too.” Kamala continues to talk to herself and her empty room. “I have got to talk to him tomorrow about… the whole kissing thing.”
“Very much preferably without my parents in the room.”
Yeah… that’s going to be way easier said than done. Bruno always stays for breakfast with the family after the two of them have a classic Kamala-Bruno sleepover.
“Ammi! I’m going to walk Bruno out, okay?”
“Alright, beta!”
Kamala pushes out her chair and jumps to her feet, going around to the other side of the table.
Bruno’s already standing when Kamala gets to him, she grabs him by the arm and drags him towards the front door.
She opens the door and ushers him out of it, then lets go of his arm and follows him outside.
After the front door is shut and they walk down the steps, things are still very awkward, if not more awkward than they were inside.
Now there’s no excuse not to talk about it, and one of them has to say something or else this awkward tension is never going to go away.
“So. About last night, yknow,” Kamala spins on her heel to turn towards him. This is how she’s starting, it’s awkward but she doesn’t know how the heck to do this without it being awkward. “...our kiss,” Kamala’s voice drops to an anxious whisper after glancing around and checking behind her to make absolutely certain nobody was listening or watching them and that the door was indeed closed. “I—”
“Kamala, sorry, can I… stop you for a second?” Bruno phrases it as a question, but Kamala can tell it’s not. “You can tell me whatever it is you’re thinking afterward, but I need to know. Did you kiss me because you actually like me or was it an impulsive thing that didn’t mean anything?”
Somehow, that’s when it hits Kamala for the first time that morning. Bruno loves her, as in he is in love with her and he has no idea that she's aware of that.
Bruno is in love with her, and with this whole thing—the kiss thing—she kind of crossed the line into playing with someone's feelings territory, she can tell now by the look on his face. Anxious, and dejected, but with a tiny spark of hope, too.
That tiny spark of hope makes her heart ache. However, mentally, she facepalms, because of course that’s what he wants to know.
Kamala really did not think the consequences of that kiss through, and she’s honestly really glad he cut her off because she does not have all her thoughts together whatsoever.
But just because she didn’t really think through the consequences of it, that doesn't mean that it was a mistake, or that she regrets it, and it certainly doesn’t mean she didn’t mean it.
Did sleep deprivation have something to do with it? For sure, no doubt about that, but her feelings were and still are very real.
“If you think it was a mistake, we can move on and we don’t have to ever talk about it again! But I need to know because otherwise I’m never going to stop thinking about it, and—”
Bruno’s a rambler, sometimes, just like Kamala is. “Bruno.”
“Yes?” His voice is quiet and vulnerable, and it’s a shock to the system a little bit because Kamala never hears him talk like this in the light of the day. It’s a voice reserved for late at night sitting on the Circle Q rooftop, or late into their sleepovers not unlike the sleepover from last night.
Kamala’s known him for nine years but she still has to be reminded every now and then that he is fragile. This is one of those times.
It’s not only that either, she realizes now, that he would let her break him, too. He would let her break his heart, and he’d never tell her, never even say a thing.
“It wasn’t a mistake. Please, don’t think that I thought it was a mistake! It— it wasn’t, it’s not a mistake. I wanted to kiss you goodnight, yeah, but take out the ‘goodnight’ part and I just wanted to kiss you.”
His surprise from the night before has returned. “Really?” That spark of hope has also returned, even more noticeable now.
There couldn’t be a more Bruno response than that.
Whenever he asks her if she likes something he’s made for her, there’s always a seeking of approval and validation. Whenever she tries to praise him and include him, he’s hesitant to believe she means it — hesitant to believe he deserves it.
Kamala recalls all the way back in second to third grade, when they were becoming best friends, that he would be confused when she would pick him or try to include him, even though he was one of her best friends. There was an unsaid, or sometimes said, ‘Really? Me? Are you sure?’
All these years later, he is still the exact same Bruno Carrelli. The exact same Bruno Carrelli she knows and loves.
“Yes!”
Kamala was sure about Bruno then, and she still is now.
“There’s so many things I wanted to say to you, that I couldn’t say after… that, I don’t— I don’t even know where to start.”
“That’s okay. You don’t need to justify your feelings to me, Bruno. You don’t even need to say anything else.”
Kamala glances behind her again, triple checking that the door is closed and nobody’s watching them, then repeats, slower for emphasis. “You don’t need to say anything else, are you getting what I’m getting at?”
He smiles. “I… I think I am.” Bruno leans in and kisses her, it’s a lot quicker than their first kiss, but it’s soft and kind and loving and leaves Kamala feeling exhilarated. “Let me know if you want me to stop, and I’ll stop.”
Kamala shakes her head rapidly, causing her forehead and nose to brush against his forehead and nose, and he laughs, probably the most carefree, gleeful laugh she’s heard from him in a while and her already fast heartbeat picks up the pace even more. That’s when she grabs him by his flannel and pulls him into another kiss, this shuts him up.
When he kisses her back this time, his hand cups her cheek, and the other goes around her waist.
They're slower to pull away this time, and when they do they're still holding each other. She can’t help but giggle. “Wow.”
“Kamala Khan,” Bruno is grinning, and she is too. “are you trying to say I’m a good kisser?”
“Mmnn…eh..” She manages to change her expression to faux-skepticism. “I don’t know, how about you do it again, then I’ll tell you.”
Bruno seemingly has absolutely no objections to that and kisses her again.
The awkwardness of before is all gone, and even though they’re doing something that is still new to both of them, and even though their relationship is changing from what was their ‘normal’ it still feels like them, Kamala and Bruno, best friends.
“Well?”
Kamala smirks at him, playful and teasing. “Nevermind, now I don’t wanna talk.”
Bruno frowns at her and this results in another giddy laugh from Kamala.
He chuckles as well, but she notices it’s more nervous. “Isn’t this kind of risky?”
Yes, it is. If her family found out about this he would never be allowed to have a sleepover with her ever again (not without 100% adult supervision, that is.) not to mention the cringe-inducing, insanely embarrassing ‘talks’ they would both be getting from her parents.
Kamala cannot bring herself to care.
“Since when has risky stopped us?” She challenges, her grin growing wider.
His reaction is a mix of flustered and delighted and in her opinion, it is quite possibly the most adorable he’s ever been.
They kiss another time, but then she pulls away saying “Actually, I do want to say something—”
“Make up your mind!” Bruno says through a laugh, no resentment present in his words.
“I just wanna say one thing.”
“What?” He smiles and waits expectantly, gently stroking her cheek. It makes it way harder to focus on what she wants to say, but she’s still happy (really happy) about it anyway.
“Do you really think I’m stealing-your-breath-away-beautiful?” She asks, it’s her way of telling him that she heard his confession from last night.
“Kamala…” She knows, based on the way Bruno looks at her now and many times before, in awe; like she is the most incredible person he’s ever seen, that he does really think that. That he meant every single thing he said about her last night. “You weren’t asleep.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
“Well… that makes a lot more sense of things, because without that context, that first kiss came out of nowhere.”
“I’m sorry.” Kamala smiles but cringes briefly. “Hope you didn’t lose too much sleep over it.”
“I, uh, agonized over it all night. Yeah… But it’s okay.” Then he adds casually “I don’t get much sleep most nights anyway, so it’s fine.”
“That’s not as comforting as you think it is, it’s actually really concerning.” She stresses with care, narrowing her eyes at him. “I agonized over it too, though. I was like ‘why did I do that?’” She recites dramatically, then reassures him. “but I’m really glad I did. ‘cause whatever this is now, that me and you have, whatever we are… I like it. I like it a lot.”
Bruno gives her two more small gentle kisses on the lips and smiles when he pulls away.
“I should go,” His hand leaves her cheek and he backs away reluctantly, Kamala holds on to him stubbornly by the sleeves of his flannel in protest. “we can’t stay outside of your house kissing and bantering forever.”
That’s true. Unfortunately.
Luckily, there’s an easy solution.
“How about tonight? On the Circle Q rooftop? Let’s sayyy… 7 PM?”
Kamala sees hope in his eyes again, only it’s not just a spark anymore. “It’s a date?”
“It’s a date.” She confirms and grins at him, unable to hide her own excitement and giddiness.
It's the best thing in the world to see that he’s just as excited and giddy as she is.
It should be scary, thinking about their relationship changing from what it’s been for years and years, but it’s not.
It’s not scary because she trusts him, trusts him more than anyone, and she knows that even if this doesn’t work out for them, they’ll still be friends. They’ll always be friends, even if they’re something else too and even if they’re not.
Nothing will break that bond, not forever, anyway. There’s a part of her that believes that even if they have a falling out, they will find their way back to each other.
They were far too ingrained in each other’s lives. She cannot imagine a life without him in it, at least not a life where she doesn’t feel that something vital is missing.
And she is far too stubborn to lose him. Even in the worst case scenario, she’d be knocking on his door, or throwing open the door and just walking in, like she always does, and would refuse to leave until they were friends again.
There were things she could let go of but Bruno was not one of them. Never ever.
Joy is evident on Kamala’s face when she reenters her home, leaning back on the door with a giddy smile and her hands over her heart.
Aamir—her brother—takes one look at her and then walks up to her, smiling teasingly. “So, you kissed Bruno, right?”
“Aamiiirrr!” Kamala shouts, snapped out of her lovestruck daze but blushing furiously. “They’re gonna hear you!”
“Oh, no,” Her brother chuckles. “they definitely heard you though, along with the rest of the planet.”
She groans, pushing past him.
“Don’t worry, really, I won't tell them.”
“You won't?” Kamala doesn’t believe him.
“No. They don’t have to know unless you want them to.”
“Thank you.” She whispers to her brother gratefully, thankful to be able to have one 'normal' teenage experience for herself that isn’t immediately derailed by her parents.
“No prob, tiny K.”
Kamala doesn’t like that nickname anymore because it makes her feel like she’s 12, but she’ll let it slide this time.