Author's Note: Okay, so I know this is a really delayed episode tag, but what happened was a wrote it like right after episode 5 and then I was going to do a second chapter and then didn't? So I waited for myself to write more, didn't write more, and now I've just decided to post.

Turns out, the whole point of airplane mode is that you can't use your phone on an airplane.

Kamala was reminded of this when she landed in New Jersey and connected to the airport's WiFi. Immediately, her phone started blowing up with texts and missed calls. Most of them were from Nakia, which filled Kamala with glowing joy for a second before she realized that Nakia hadn't responded to a single one of her messages.

No, all of Nakia's texts were about something entirely different:

Bruno's in the hospital.

Kamala!

When do you land?!

Are you in the plane rn?

BRUNO IS IN THE HOSPITAL

The store completely blew up!

He was with that Kamran guy

KAMALA

ANSWER ME

I'm going to the hospital and you better get your butt over there as SOON as you are in the US!

Kamala, unwisely staring at her phone as she unloaded the plane, almost crashed into someone. "Ammi!" she called, staring around in a panic for her mom. "Ammi, Abbu!"

"Yes, Kamala?" Ammi's tired, over-patient voice came from behind her and Kamala whipped around.

"Nakia texted," she spluttered, almost unable to get the words out in her haste. "She's said that- we need to go! Bruno's in the hospital. I need to see if he's okay- the store exploded and he was upstairs and- Ammi we need to go right now what if he's dead what if he's-"

Muneeba clamped her hands on Kamala's shoulders. "Kamala, breathe," she commanded, pulling them to the side so that the other impatient plane-riders could pass. "We cannot go anywhere until we get through security. Likely, Bruno will not be going anywhere, either. But when we leave, I will drive you straight to the hospital. Did Nakia say exactly what happened?"

"Bits and pieces," Kamala said, looking back to her phone even as it shook in her hand. Her heart was still flying at a million beats a minute and she really, really needed to sit down. Or start running, maybe? "The store exploded, I don't know how, and he was upstairs with… Kamran? Which doesn't make any sense because—well, for a lot of reasons, but mostly because they hate each other. Or Bruno hates him. I don't really know why."

Her Abbu, who she didn't even realize was standing there, snorted quietly and she whipped around. "What? Are you laughing?"

"No, no." He exchanged mysterious smiles with her mother and Kamala glared at them both. "It is merely…"

"Kamala, you are not so dense as to really question why Bruno dislikes your new boyfriend," Muneeba scoffed.

"He's not my boyfriend," Kamala muttered, thinking bitterly about how the guy she'd once crushed on had continually put her and her family's life in danger, even if he hadn't totally meant to. "And no, I don't know why."

Muneeba just patted her shoulder. "If you want to get to the hospital before it closes, we should probably move along."

That filled with Kamala with a new sense of purpose, over-spiced with dread. She hadn't even considered the possibility that the hospital visiting hours would be closed before she could reach Bruno. Waiting an entirely night to see him might just kill her.

What nearly did kill her was the customs line. It always felt long, but now Kamala was fidgety, texting back and forth with Nakia (which was, in itself, nice) about what the situation was (slightly less nice). All Nakia knew was that Bruno's grandmother had called her after she, away for the week, had been contacted by the hospital. Her grandson was being taken to the ER and had given her as an emergency contact before passing out in the ambulance. Apparently, the store had blown up for reasons currently unknown, though Kamala had some theories, and when the floor had collapsed it had taken Bruno and Kamran with it. Nona had started back to Jersey immediately and was already at the hospital. She'd been, for obvious reasons, unable to reach Kamala.

Kamala felt like crying. This was her fault, it had to be. Unless Kamran had somehow put Bruno in danger on purpose, which even though she was kind of mad at him she didn't think that was the case, this was about her and her new powers. And she had just left, she had left the entire country and left him and Nakia completely vulnerable to any attack. That was superhero 101—the baddies always went after your loved ones.

"Kamala, you must calm down," Muneeba scolded after she had reached up on her tiptoes for the eighth time to see if they were any closer to the front of the line. "Your anxiety will not make this go any faster, and people may suspect that you are guilty of something and slow us down even more."

Kamala tried to calm down. She played angry birds on her phone and nudged her suitcase with her foot as the line inched along, but she couldn't think of anything except I need to get to Bruno.

Her Abbu sped once they were out of the airport terminal, and Kamala could have hugged him for it. Yusuf never sped. But he could feel just as much as Muneeba how their daughter was burning with panic.

Her parents dropped her off at the front of the hospital. "We are going to go home and settle our things," Muneeba told her. "But please call if you need us, Kamala."

"Mhm, yep," Kamala was already edging for the door. "Yep, see you guys later love you thanks!"

She sprinted into the lobby and hit the receptionist's desk so hard her hands made a banging sound on the wood. The receptionist jumped, alarmed. "Oh! Hello, can I help you?"

"I'm here to see Bruno Carrelli?" Kamala asked in a rush. "He was admitted a little while ago?"

The receptionist clicked at her computer. "Yes, I see-"

"Kamala!"

Kamala whipped around to find Nakia in the doorway of the one of the hallways leading away from the reception area. Before she'd fully registered her best friend's presence the two girls had collided in a hug. Nakia was shaking. "Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you're here, I've just been sitting and waiting and it's been awful, Kamala."

"I'm so sorry, we had to go through customs and immigration and everything," Kamala rambled, squeezing her tight. "I tried to make the line go faster by just willing it so hard but obviously that didn't work."

She pulled back. "Can we see him?"

"The doctor thinks soon, he just got out of surgery," Nakia took her hand and led her down the hallway she'd come from, leaving the receptionist staring after them in confusion. "He cracked a rib and punctured a lung and he was coughing up blood and-" Her voice broke and her eyes filled with tears. "It's been so scary, Kamala. I thought he was gonna die and you weren't- you couldn't even be here."

Kamala put an arm around her and hugged her tightly again, the two of them still walking. "Thank you for coming when I couldn't," she sniffled, feeling like all her bottled up emotions were about to pop like a very large water balloon. "I'm sorry you had to be here all by yourself. Well, plus his grandma."

The grandmother in question was sitting out front of Bruno's door, clutching her cane and staring blankly at the floor. Kamala had known her for awhile but had always found her a little creepy, and she certainly wasn't the warmest woman in the world. There was a reason Bruno spent so much time at her house.

Nakia and Kamala took shaky seats, still gripping each others' hands. Less than a minute later, the doctor came out. "All right, he's stable and is just coming out of it." He eyed the oddly mismatched group of people assembled in the chairs. "Are you… all family?"

"Kind of-" Kamala started, but Bruno's Nona thumped her cane on the floor.

"Yes, sure, whatever you need to hear," she grunted, and struggled to her feet. "Now let me see my grandson."

Before Kamala or Nakia could protest, which they wouldn't have, not really, she had huffed her way into the hospital room.

Silence fell, and Kamala tried to fill the space by jiggling her knees and turning her ringer on and off, on and off.

"So, um…" The panic that had brought the two girls back together had dissipated a little bit, and things were suddenly awkward again. Nakia side-eyed her cautiously. "How was… Pakistan?"

"It was amazing," Kamala breathed. "And I'll tell you all about it, both of you, I will. I just… first:" she straightened in her chair and twisted to face her best (female) friend, "Nakia, I'm so sorry. I get how confusing and messy all of this is, but what it comes down to is that I- I should have told you, and it was totally sucky of me that I didn't."

"Yeah, it was," Nakia mumbled, staring at her fingers. "Bruno told me a lot after your brother's wedding, and I… get it, I guess. But I was really hurt."

"I know. Totally understandable," Kamala assured her immediately. "If it makes you feel any better at all, Bruno technically only knew because he was there when I found it. It's not like I told him, or anything, the whole powers thing just happened to kickstart when we were at Avenger Con. Ammi only just found, even. Abbu and Aamir don't know yet."

"I just… I want to be in the loop now, okay?" When she saw Kamala start to open her mouth she held up a hand. "You don't need to tell me everything right now this very second. But from now I on, I want all of this to be three-way. You, me and Bruno."

Kamala nodded over-vigorously. "Definitely. One hundred percent."

They slipped back into silence, but at the very least Kamala now felt like she had some small weight off her chest.

Nona seemed to take forever before she returned to the waiting room, but Kamala still let Nakia go next. Her friend offered, but Nakia had been there longer and besides, Kamala was suddenly terrified and putting off the inevitable visit as long as possible.

Bruno's grandmother returned to her seat, silent. "How, um… how was he?" Kamala asked hesitantly, feeling like she needed to fill the soundless void somehow. "How did he seem?"

"He's banged up," the other woman replied shortly. "Don't know how it happened but I imagine he's lucky to be alive."

This wasn't making Kamala feel any better, so she stopped talking again.

Nakia emerged after a few minutes, hovering in the doorway. "He's pretty out of it," she warned. "Pain meds and stuff."

They switched spots, Kamala squeezing her arm on the way into the room as Nakia took her chair again.

The little glimpses she'd managed to catch from the waiting room hit her in full force the moment she stepped through the door. Bruno's hair was mussed, parted on the wrong side, and his face was pale and littered with butterfly bandaids and bruises. He tried to push himself up when he saw her enter the room, smiling happily despite the split lip. "Hey!"

"Hey, Bruno," Kamala said weakly, crossing the room. She didn't know what she was supposed to do. Pull up a chair, hold his hand, ask him if he needed anything? She really wanted to give him a hug but had no idea if that was even allowed. Would it hurt him?

"How was your trip?" he asked eagerly. "Did it- did everything work out with the, um…"

He trailed off, blinking woozily, then just smiled at her.

The water balloon popped.

"Bruno, I'm so sorry," Kamala whimpered. She was still at the foot of the hospital bed and turned halfway, pressing the heels of her hands to the thin skin below her eyes as the tears started up. "I should have been here, I might have been able to protect you."

"It's okay!" Bruno protested, messily pushing his hair out of his face. "Kamran, you know the- the guy who's a Djinn and who calls me Brian but actually, he thought that my name was actually Brian, actually. But I told him it's Bruno."

Head spinning, Kamala looked at him blankly. "What about Kamran?"

"Are you in love with Kamran?" Bruno asked, point-blank. "I guess you prolly are. I thought maybe I had a chance once but nah he's… I guess he's okay. He'll prolly keep you safe and understand you better 'n' me and I just…" He sniffled, eyes so soft they could be made of overripe avocado. "I want you to be happy 'cause I love you, you know?"

Reeling, Kamala could only stare at him. She felt like she was intruding on something intimate, something sacred that Bruno kept buried so deep she'd never even-

Suspected? Maybe she had, a little. Maybe after spending all night chatting on the phone, after the star gazing and the undivided attention, after catching his eyes on her in class a few too many times to be accidental… maybe some part of her had known.

"Bruno, could we talk about this later?" she asked hesitantly, approaching the bed and laying a hand on top of his. "Maybe when you're not… kind of high?"

He hummed lightly, flipping his hand so he could hold hers and gently playing with her fingertips. "Just don't tell Kamala, mkay? I don't want her to know, it'll make her uncomfy."

"No it won't," Kamala whispered as a tear dripped off her chin. She sat down in the nearest chair and hugged Bruno's hand, which was a little weird because a hand was a lot smaller than a torso when it came to hugging. Bruno petted her chin. His gaze was open, engaged, but his smile was incredibly loopy.

Despite what she had said, she wanted to talk this over right now. She wanted everything resolved, the air cleared. What if Bruno didn't remember any of this when he came off the pain meds?

As she searched for something to say to avoid the temptation of continuing this conversation, she suddenly remembered a detail her brain had been avoiding dealing with for a good few hours now.

"Wait, Bruno," she said, shaking her head and letting his hand fall to her lap. "I need you to tell me more about Kamran. Why was he with you? Is he the reason the explosion happened? Where is he now?"

He frowned, eyebrows furrowing in concentration. "His mom ditched him or sumthin. He- when everything thing when kaboom he used his powers to stop us from gettin' smushed."

"He has powers?" Kamala squawked, surprised. How much more was this guy planning on hiding from her? "Kamran?"

"He has powers?" Bruno parroted. "He has powers!"

She was losing him.

"So is he here, did he escape?" she pressed. "He's not, like, dead or something, is he?"

"Nah, he's here too somewhere," Bruno mumbled. He dragged their entwined hands back to the bed and twisted his head to the side. "M a little tired."

"Okay." Kamala swallowed shakily, unable to withhold the urge (whether familial, platonic or… something else) to reached out and brush his hair away from his forehead. Bruno shut his eyes, murmuring. "I should let you rest."

"Don't want you to leave," he mumbled. "Jus' for a lil bit."

Kamran was somewhere in this hospital, his condition unknown. But Bruno was here, in front of her, her hand tucked under his chin and his breath steadying as her hand stroked his hair.

She wasn't going anywhere.

And that was about when Kamala knew where her priorities lay.

Author's Note: So again, I considered doing a second chapter and wrote a chunk of it, so there might be another piece? But for now, that is that :)