Chapter Text
M’Baku couldn't sleep. How would he be able to? He was back to his land, his home, to which summer never got. But Jabariland didn't feel like home, not without his children there. M’Baku wished Shuri had explained how to use those so called Kimoyo beads, that way he could at least call Birnin Zana, talk to his children and make sure they were fine, maybe even threaten T’Challa if his kids told M’Baku anything worth threatening the king for.
The amount of time the king of Wakanda spent in his mind was concerning. No matter what he thought, his train of thought seemed to run in circles and always went back to T’Challa; T’Challa and his undying optimism, T’Challa and his will to fix everyone's problems, T’Challa and that stupid gap between his teeth. M’Baku also has a tooth gap, but his wasn't stupid; his mother had always said that everything part of his body had a purpose being the way they were, and that his tooth gap’s purpose was to leave something adorable between all the roughness being the Great Gorilla caused.
Back in his throne room, M’Baku couldn't help but stare at the ground. He was waiting. Waiting for children that always came out from the hidden door under the carpet. But they were in the golden city, probably sleeping, being taken care of by the king.
Damn him. Again, his train of thought took him to T’Challa. M’Baku still couldn't find the reason why the Panther King had decided to invade his mind, but he did have a few theories; the most plausible one was that, since they were getting married, his subconscious mind was trying to give M’Baku to think about T’Challa so the great Gorilla would forget his bitter feelings for the king and the other tribes in general. But M’Baku wouldn't let external factors affect his opinion of the king.
Ukoyika, on the other hand, seemed happier than ever. M’Baku had been informed that the avatar of Hanuman had gone back to his old playful attitude, and everything thanks to T’Challa and the gift he'd given Ukoyika. M’Baku had seen the gorilla playing with those vibranium beads like a baby of its specie would.
And the gorilla wasn't the only one that seemed to like T’Challa. It had got to the Jabari lord’s attention that his people had took a liking to the king as well. Some even said that T’Challa arriving to Jabariland half dead through the river had been a test from Hanuman in which the Jabari had succeeded, and now Hanuman was blessing them by giving the Great Gorilla the throne of Wakanda.
During the days he spent away from. Birnin Zana, M’Baku wondered if he really wanted the throne. Was that the only way the Jabari could be accepted by the rest of Wakanda? At least partly, it was. The other tribes would never accept M’Baku and his people the same way they accepted one another. T’Challa was determined to build bridges, but M’Baku couldn't just put the future of his people in the Panther King's hands, no matter that T’Challa had spared his life and now was going to marry him. M’Baku couldn't let his guard down.
But M’Baku could pretend that he did, he could try to get along with T’Challa, or at least try and respect him the same way he respected Queen Mother Ramonda. M’Baku wasn't going to act as optimistic as his fiancé, but he vowed to try as long as T’Challa got along with the Great Gorilla's children.
The idea of T’Challa having to take care of not one, but three kids, made M’Baku smile. The Great Gorilla wished he could see the king suffer on his first time as a babysitters. But T’Challa had to learn to take care of children, he was going to be the stepfather of M’Baku’s kids after all, they had to get along or things wouldn't work. But damn, M’Baku was going to ask everyone at the palace so he could know as much as possible about T’Challa’s quality time with his children; both for his own amusement and to make sure that he wouldn't need to find a way to kill the Black Panther. Because M’Baku had no doubt that he would kill T’Challa if the king had dared to disrespect his children. M’Baku wouldn't hesitate.
With that in mind, M’Baku got ready for bed. The weight of the heavy blankets and the cold that came from outside was comforting; it also gave the Great Gorilla an excuse to sleep naked. He hadn't been able to do so since A’Isha had been born. It had been twelve years of sleeping with clothes under at least five blankets. M’Baku was actually surprised he and his wife had more kids after A’Isha with how little privacy they had.
M’Baku felt like when he was young, just a teenager with no responsibilities, always being kept safe by his parents and grandparents. Those were boring years that the Great Gorilla remembered fondly.
Even though he missed his children immensely, M’Baku was going to enjoy the nights he would spend alone. After that he was going to spend a lot or time with his beloved kids.
Waking up to a child kicking your ribs wasn't exactly nice. T’Challa groaned I'm pain, rolling and giving his back to the boy that had moved from on top of him at some point of his night. The next kick hit over the king's spine, making him gasp after the air was knocked out of his lungs.
T’Challa understood he wasn't going to fall back asleep and sat up, rubbing his face with one hand as he yawned and stretched like a cat would. T’Challa stood, kneading at his ribs as he walked to the bathroom. When he returned to the room, Oba was waiting for him right in front of the bathroom door.
“I want to call baba.”
“Good morning,” T’Challa murmured and picked the boy up, sitting Oba on his hip and holding him with just one arm as he showed him the beads. “I'll teach you how to call him, sounds good?
Oba nodded. They sat on the bed and T’Challa told the boy everything about the Kimoyo beads before handing them to him. Kids were like sponges, so Oba learnt quickly, only asking few questions that T’Challa was patient to answer in a way the four year old could understand.
While the boy waited for M’Baku to answer, T’Challa walked to his wardrobe and grabbed some clean clothes. Usually, he'd dress with the typical clothing of Wakanda, but that day there wasn't much to do, so T’Challa allowed himself to dress with less formal clothes.
The king’s mind was still too sleepy for Oba's conversation with his father. At least until he heard a laugh -M’Baku’s laugh- behind him.
“Green isn't your color,” That was, indeed, M’Baku’s voice.
T’Challa turned around so fast he had to lean on the wardrobe so it wouldn't look like he had stumbled. Turning around while tugging jeans on hadn't been a good idea. T’Challa was quick to tug his pants up so M’Baku would stop judging and looking amused by the king's green boxers.
“M’Baku,” T’Challa cleared his throat. “Good morning.”
“You let my son borrow your beads?”
“He asked for them.” Go on, T’Challa, blame the kid. The king smacked himself mentally.
“If one of my children asked you to let them go play in the jungle, you'd let them do that too?”
T’Challa wasn't able to differ if M’Baku was angry or making fun of him. Maybe both, maybe neither. T’Challa always ended up with more doubts than answers whenever he tried to reassure M’Baku, and that just reminded him that he knew little to nothing about the man he was going to marry, or at least he didn't know M’Baku enough to read him as easily as M’Baku seemed to read T’Challa.
Someday. T’Challa tugged a shirt on and tried to think positive as he left the room to let Oba and M’Baku could talk. The king found the girls on his way to the kitchen and informed them about M’Baku being on his the ‘phone’ with Oba in his room.
“I'll get there first!” Rahmah exclaimed.
T’Challa let out a soft laugh when both girls took off running. He just hoped the kids wouldn't stay playing in his room; children could be untidy and T’Challa had too much in mind to even bother to try and force himself to keep his room in order. He also didn't like to call someone to get rid of tissue disaster. Everyone in the palace had a job, a purpose, and no one's was to pick up the royal family's rooms. Ramonda would probably scold T’Challa to the point she would lose her voice if T’Challa even thought about ordering someone to clean his room.
Deciding not to think about that and trusting the wouldn't make a mess in his room, T’Challa went to the kitchen. When he was young, T’Challa uses to sneak in the kitchen and steal any sweet food he could get his tiny hands on only to get caught everytime by the cooks and sent to his father, who would lecture him. Now he was the king, and there was no one to tell him what he could and couldn't eat. T’Challa felt powerful as he asked one of the cooks to cut a piece of cake for him.
We aren't paying this people enough, T’Challa thought right after taking the first bite. The best chefs of Wakanda worked for the royal family. The king closed his eyes to lose himself in the sweet flavored explosion that was taking place in his mouth.
“Is that cake?”
T’Challa blinked, looking down to find Rahmah in front of him, although the girl seemed more interested in what the king was holding.
“Chocolate cake.” T’Challa nodded. “You want some?”
The king had never seen someone nod so much and so fast. He actually feared the girl would get dizzy and falling. Thanks Bast that didn't happen.
“This cake is really good!” Rahmah praised the cook after taking the first bite of her own slice of cake. “But cake back in Jabariland is better!”
T’Challa cleared his throat to avoid laughing when he saw the face the chef made. He couldn't help but feel curious about what cake in Jabariland would taste like, it was hard to believe there could be something better than what they had in Birnin Zana.
Even if their cake wasn't as good as Jabariland’s, it seemed to attract the kids because less than ten minutes later Oba and A’Isha joined them in the kitchen. Both the boy and the teenager making the same commentary about Jabariland’s cake being better than Birnin Zana’s. The chef ended up excusing himself and leafing, making T’Challa laugh.
Sitting in the kitchen, watching The lion king with M’Baku’s children -or more like with the younger ones because A’Isha was reading-, T’Challa felt at peace. It was a weird feeling, T’Challa had never spent much time around children except for Shuri, who he loved immensely, but his teenage self hadn't been interested in taking care of a baby and their parents didn't give them more siblings.
While one of the music breaks of the movie started, T’Challa observed A’Isha, moving a little closer so he wouldn't bother the other two kids whose attention was completely fixed on the holographic screen.
“Is it a good book?” T’Challa inquired, smiling at M’Baku’s older daughter.
A’Isha looked up from the book she's borrowed from the royal library, looking surprised by the king's approach and by the fact that he was talking to her.
“I- yes! It's interesting. Or well, it's a subject I am interested on,” A’Isha said. “It's about fractals.”
“Fractals,” T’Challa was surprised in a positive way. “I didn't know you liked math.”
When A’Isha offered him the book to see, T’Challa leaned even closer, reading the first paragraph.
‘A fractal is a geometric object which basic, fragmented, or apparently irregular structure, repeats on different scales.’
“I used to draw fractals when I was bored, usually during geography class,” T’Challa confessed with a laugh. “Although many people do, just that they don't know they do. Do you have a favorite kind of fractal?”
“Sierpinski’s triangle,” A’Isha didn't hesitate to answer. “I know it's basic, but I like it. It's easy and follows the pattern of drawing triangles inside of triangles infinitely. There's no way to do it wrong.”
If someone went back in time and told a younger T’Challa that he was going to lose track of time talking about math, Ramonda would have scolded him for laughing at whoever said such a stupid and impossible thing’s face. But there he was, so concentrated on his conversation about fractals and equations with A’Isha that he didn't snap out of it until both younger children were crying because Mufasa had just died.
Maybe letting them watch The lion king hadn't been a good idea. A’Isha and T’Challa shared a look before the king found himself being hugged by Oba. Rahmah was also crying, but her sobs weren't as loud and breath as Oba’s, and she didn't approach T’Challa nor her older sister to be comforted. T’Challa stuck to hugging the boy, trying to calm him down by letting him cry and gently rubbing his back.
“I think we've had enough movies for today.” T’Challa stood with Oba clinging to him like a depressed koala. “Why don't you come with me to see a friend? We'll leave the palace for once and get fresh air.”
That seemed to lighten the children's mood. A’Isha decided to stay at the palace so she could finish her book, excusing herself by saying she wasn't really a fan of walks outside. Okoye stayed with her.
T’Challa could only hope Bucky Barnes wasn't one of those people that got uncomfortable around children or disrespected them. M’Baku wouldn't appreciate that and the king would prefer not to have to tell Captain America why his friend had been brutally murdered by T’Challa’s future husband.