Chapter Text
"My queen, I strongly urge you to reconsider th-"
"Not your queen, general." - Shuri deflected, grinning and purposefully striding towards the door. As well-meaning as Okoye was, the former royal felt nothing but overwhelming pressure bearing down whenever anyone addressed her as such. Bearing the title that was so forcefully taken from her mother felt disturbingly like usurping a position that was never meant to be hers.
"You are your mother's daughter and last living descendant of king T'Chaka and queen Ramonda." - the head of the Dora Milaje stated, tone brokering no argument. - "You are inarguably my queen. And that of all of Wakanda, for that matter. And for that reason above any other, I must insist that you do not go through with this meeting! My queen! Shuri!" - pausing halfway through the door and seemingly heeding the urgency in Okoye's voice, Shuri sighed deeply.
I'm not the last, Okoye. Not anymore.
A fortifying breath. Glancing back over her left shoulder, Shuri forced a reassuring smile.
"Wakanda is in much more capable hands." - M'baku really was a great leader. If anyone asked her, she had gotten the better end of the deal. - "Besides, in this particular case, we both know I'm more than capable of dealing with the serpent."
"At least have one of the Dora accomp- "
The rest of the sentence was lost behind when the door suddenly closed. Her feet quickly carried her away from the lab.
When facing a serpent, the panther ought to stay focused and ready.
—
Shuri had always had the habit of being early. For everything. Even for those excrutiatingly dull ceremonies and stately rites that she couldn't be bothered to learn who, what, when and where.
M'baku had always had the right of it. She was a child who scoffed at tradition.
Her brother would call her overeager; her mother, responsible; her father, earnest.
The truth was that she would rather have the element of surprise. Or strip it from her enemy, at the very least.
So when Namor rose from the ocean, strong legs slowly but surely eating up the distance that separated them, Shuri had already steeled herself, at ease with the surrounding wilderness.
The Talokan stopped at the edge of the water, where it calmly lapped at his ankles. The jade ornaments on his ears and nose and the gold-vibranium necklaces and bracelets shone under the setting sun.
Standing tall, leaning her weight slightly more on one leg and with both hands behind her back, she looked every inch her namesake. Poised and ready to strike.
"Queen Shuri."
Shuri repressed a sardonic grin. Even the ocean dwellers seemed set on bestowing upon her a crown.
"Namor."
—
Had she always been this defiant? This insolent? This contradictory?
Her entire posture screamed derision and irreverance. And yet, he'd bet his cold vibranium sun that she would hardly be caught by surprise should he display any malicious intent.
"Please, itzia-" - she frowned a little, even though the smirk remained on her lips - "my enemies call me that, and enemies we are not."
She seemed to shift her weight from one leg to the other, before taking a few lazy steps to one side.
"It was also how you introduced yourself to me, was it not?" - now that she had relaxed her arms, Namor could see that Shuri bore in her left hand the conch he had given her mother when he first came to them. (Had it really been only a couple months?)
How abruptly things changed.
Untouched and unencumbered for five hundred years.
In a matter of days, his city had been breached (he had personally invited the invader), his godhood had been challenged (and unequivocally bested), his heart had been stolen (vixen, righteous in her fury, gloriously exacting revenge) and his existence, completely shaken.
Following her moving form with dark, captive eyes, he challenged -
"Names are powerful things. One must be careful not to needlessly court the wrong side of the coin."
Her smirk only grew (impertinent!) and he saw her ominously gazing at him out of the corner of her eyes.
"Indeed." - she stilled for a beat, two, three, and then she was moving again - "Nevertheless, I'm curious. The last time we spoke, you were adamant that there was to be as litte contact between the surface and Talokan as possible." - what changed? hanged in the air, implied.
Shuri resumed her place in front of him. Staring expectantly at him, the grin slowly slipping away, and her expression was one of wry curiosity.
And he faltered.
How could he express the turmoil raging inside? Turning his gaze downward, Namor tried to settle his mind. There was little rhyme or reason to the pure longing he felt whenever she crossed his mind.
For all intents and purposes, he should equally resent and shun her. The Black Panther had broken him, defeated a god, and refused to take his life. He hadn't even been granted a worthy death. Instead, he had been subjected to her magnanimity and obliged to enter an alliance.
How could he come so close to such unbridled power and spirit and not covet it?
A slight movement caught his eye and his already unruly thoughts were thrown for a loop. Atop a smooth and deceptively slender wrist was a familiar bracelet. A very familiar bracelet, made out of twisted strings of pearls and three jade stones.
Her gaze dropped at the same time his snapped back up. Realizing what he had been staring at, Shuri unconsciously craddled her wrist against her chest. Confusion and vulnerability flashed in her eyes.
What could have been might come to pass.
Slowly and deliberately, the Talokan took her hand in his. Never once taking his eyes from hers, he brought the limb to his lips and kissed it softly, ever so softly. Then he placed her palm along his jaw and turned his head slightly to lavish the same attention to the smooth skin beneath the jewelry.
His focused attention captured all the barely there reactions: the almost inaudible hitch in her breath, the slight widening of her eyes, the soft huff of breath.
"What are you doing, Namor?" - her whispered words sounded small and betrayed her youthfulness.
"Namor did not come for his ally, sovereign of Wakanda, the Black Panther." - he lowered her hand to his chest, placing it under the gold-vibrarium necklaces, over his rapidly beating heart, and holding it there with his own, - "I, K'uk'ulkan, have come for you, Shuri. I have come for my heart's desire."