#there are some very funny headcanons about Scott and Laura having a maybe antagonistic relationship in certain other verses

[kalinara]

I always feel like this is an underrated moment between both of these characters.

Scott's awkward as fuck, and generally tends to avoid a lot of physical contact himself. He was isolated in the past, and now he's in a time period where everyone basically treats him like the baby version of a monster. "Don't touch me!" is a common refrain.

But he sees someone who seems to need physical comfort and impulsively, and awkwardly goes for it.

And I'm not a Laura Kinney expert, so please feel free to correct me, folks who know better. But the gist I've gotten of Laura's story at this time is that she's (also) relatively isolated from most of her age group. And aside from maybe the guy she was in a romantic relationship with for a while, I don't get the sense that she's been offered much by way of physical comfort from someone her own age before. And it probably helps that he immediately backs off when she says "No."

(The faces of the peanut gallery make me laugh so hard.)

And then, of course, there's that equally sweet moment later, when she ends up returning the favor:

I'm actually pretty glad these two never ended up dating during his time in the future. I think they're maybe a little too alike, with a bit too much by way of similar trauma and backstory to really make it work.

But they do make such wonderful friends, and I love how much they seem to understand each other.

They don't really have the same camaraderie that Scott and Kamala got once Scott aged back up again, which is a bit of a shame. But they did have a few good moments when they were both on the X-Men together in Krakoa.

It's just a lovely little friendship and I love it very much.

(Panels from All New X-Men #20 and Guardians of the Galaxy #12)