Work Text:
“Are you sure you don’t want anyone to accompany you?”, Okoye asks, for the hundredth time.
Shuri sighs before she stops, her sneakers squawking on the landing platform of the palace.
“Okoye”, she starts, “I already told you that I need to do this alone”.
“But is not safe”, Okoye insists, “he tried to kill you, he even killed –“, she stops herself.
Okoye gulps and Shuri looks away, to the box she is holding.
There are a few seconds of tense silence, Shuri can even feel the Dora Milaje around her being uncomfortable.
“I’m not glass, you know? Mentioning my dead mother won’t break me”.
“Is not th-“.
“Is okay, Okoye”, Shuri interrupts, looking at her again. The younger woman gives her a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes but is reassuring enough. “Don’t worry, please. I have my suit underneath and he is our ally. If he doesn’t want me to kick his ass again, he won’t try anything”.
Some of the Dora Milaje snort and Shuri smiles at the encouragement.
Okoye doesn’t look convinced.
“This alliance is too weak, and he is too sneaky. At least take a few Dora -”
“Okoye”, Shuri calls, moving the box to be held by one of her hands while the other lands on Okoye’s shoulder.
Okoye sighs, way too anxious.
"Everything will be fine. If I ever have problems, I’ll contact you, deal?”
Okoye thinks for a second.
“Alright”, she finally says. “If you don’t come back by sundown, I’ll unleash hell on him”, Shuri chuckles.
“Pretty sure it won’t be necessary”.
Okoye and Shuri exchange a look before they share a hug.
“I’ll be back”.
“May Bast and the ancestors protect you”.
They separate, Shuri takes the box with her two hands again and keeps walking through the platform, entering the jet that is waiting for her.
She sighs when the door closes. She hopes Okoye is not right about him trying to kill her…again.
The jet leaves her in land before it flies away.
She waves them goodbye and then she faces the river.
Her snickers are standing in the same place she met him, in the same place her mother wanted her to burn her funeral clothes.
There are some elephants minding their business, so she apologizes to them before she walks to the riverbank.
She looks at the water. It appears so inoffensive from there and yet is the home of the man that killed her mother and the man who almost killed her.
But then she remembers that is also the home of his people, who he was trying to protect, just as she was trying to protect Riri.
She sighs again, closing her eyes for a second.
The wind blows her black curls, and the sun makes the skin she is showing glow.
Shuri looks at the box then and decides that is time.
The faster, the better.
She puts the box on the ground, crouching in front of it before opening it. She gets a shell out, closes the box, and then rises to her feet again.
She looks at the water and then at the land around her. The fields look golden because of the sun, somehow it reminds her of Talokan when she saw how the sun he made, illuminated the whole city.
They weren’t so different after all.
She eyes the shell in her hand. He gave her a new one after they talked things out. He said that she just needed to blow it and put it on the sea, and he will come as fast as he could. That she could always call him because he will answer.
To be honest, he said a lot of things, and she wasn’t pretty sure if he was being honest or not.
She moves the shell in her hands until she decides to do it.
She blows and slowly puts it in the water. The river rises a little to take it and then she is left to wait.
She doesn’t know how much she waits. She just knows that the sky is getting orange and purple and golden and every other color that could ever make her feel alone and nostalgic.
And then, when she least expects it, there is a powerful body rising from the depths of her river.
She freezes a little, just like the first time she saw him.
They stare at each other, without saying anything, and for a few seconds, there is nothing else moving besides the wind and the water dripping from his skin.
But then he walks to her, with the shell in hand, while he pushes his hair back.
He looks to be alone, just like her. He looks like always, except that he is wearing a bandage over his right ankle, exactly where she ripped a wing.
She feels a little guilty. Well, she feels terribly guilty, but he doesn’t need to know that…at all.
“Princess”, he greets her, and his voice makes her hairs stand.
She clenches her fist, in an attempt to stop herself from acting foolishly.
Is just a man, a man that tried to kill her, that tried to destroy Wakanda, that killed her mother.
But he was also a very handsome, bare-chested, with very short shorts man.
“Namor”, she simply greets, putting on her brave face.
“Just Namor?”, he asks, with a smirk. “Not going to call me King or Majesty?”
She rolls her eyes.
“No”, she answers, and he fakes offense.
“Alright”, there is a moment of silence in which stares are exchanged like they were in some kind of competition. “I don’t think you just summoned me to stare at me, right? I mean, I don’t mind”.
She looks away, trying to hide her blush, but also looking for the box she left on the ground. She takes it in her hands.
“No, I didn’t summon you to stare at you”, she can see a smirk in the corner of his lips, like he knows she is pathetically lying about it. “I summon you to give you this”.
His brown eyes fall to the box she is holding. It has Wakandan designs that, like the paintings in his study, tell a story.
He looks back at her with suspicion in his eyes and she doesn’t blame him. But if anything, she should be the one who shouldn’t trust him.
“What is inside?”
Shuri sighs, looking at the box in her hands like it was difficult to answer that question.
What was inside that box?
Well, there was an apology because she felt guilty for ripping his wing, but there was a peace offering too, something that could solidify their alliance.
But then there were also some other things that didn’t have to do with it at all.
Like sadness, loneliness, hate, happiness…admiration…respect… love.
In other words, she didn’t know what was inside either.
She is about to voice this when her sleeve moves a little because of the wind, exposing the fact that she is wearing his mother’s bracelet, the one that allowed her to recreate the heart-shaped herb that saved Wakanda and give her enough strength to make him yield.
And of course, he notices too.
“You are wearing it”, is not a question and she knows it.
She eyes it, the jade, the pearls, the history.
“It saved my people”, she replies, looking at him. He was already looking at her.
“What do you mean?”
“It allowed me to recover something we lost so the Black Panther could return to protect its people”.
There are a few beats of silence in which she is not sure if she is even breathing or not.
“You wear it fine”, is all he says.
She looks away for a second before she remembers the box in her hands.
“I would like to offer this gift in Wakanda’s name”.
“What is it?”
“A gift”.
“A gift can be a lot of things, princess. It can be a bracelet”, he points at her wrist, “it can be a spear, it can be a crown, it can be a hug or maybe a kiss”.
She rolls her eyes.
“Is something you’ll like”.
“Really?”, he sounds sarcastic while she sighs like she is praying for patience.
She turns the box so is facing him before she opens it.
He approaches a little to see inside.
“Well, from all things, this is the least I expected”, he looks at her for permission before he gets his free hand inside the box.
He gets out something that looks like a wing. Is white, like the other ones in his ankles, but is clearly made of vibranium and is clearly destined to be put around his ankle.
She observes his reaction and when he doesn’t say anything for a while, she starts panicking.
“What do you think about it?”
“It's impressive”, he answers, a smile slowly forming on his lips. “But why are you giving me this?”
His eyes lock with hers again.
“Because I ripped one of yours”, she answers, like is pretty obvious.
“You ripped one because I was trying to kill you”.
She stares at him confused.
“I can’t accept this”, he says, trying to put it back in the box.
“No!”, she exclaims, stepping back, frowning at him like he just committed the highest offense.
He freezes and looks at her confused. He opens his mouth to say something, but she interrupts him.
“You must accept it. You’ll offend my people if you don’t”.
“If I do, I’ll offend you”, he moves ahead again, but she steps back once more.
“Why?”, she asks, closing the box, muscles getting tensed like panthers do when they are about to attack someone.
“You should hate me”, he sighs, after sighing like he is exhausted.
“Who said I don’t?”
He blinks at her.
“Didn’t think you’ll actually admit it”, she swears he sounds hurt, but she decides to ignore it.
“Look, Namor, this is not about you and me. This is about Wakanda and Talokan”.
“But you made this, didn’t you?”, he asks, making emphasis on the vibranium wing he had in his hand. She gulps.
“I made the design”.
“And?”, he insists, and she knows she can’t lie to him when he knows the truth.
“Okay, yes I did it, and what?”
“You can’t say it comes from Wakanda when you did it”.
“Who else was going to do it?”
“I don’t know, one of your many engineers or scientists. If they had done it, then I’ll accept it as a gift from Wakanda, but they didn’t do it. It was you”.
For some reason, it feels personal, for some reason, it makes her feel like she did something wrong.
“And what if I did it? What is wrong with that?”
“Nothing”.
“Then why you can’t accept it?”
He stays in silence.
Her chest feels like is sinking. Maybe she read too much into it, maybe it was all politics like Okoye told her, maybe in his culture this wasn’t acceptable, maybe she…she got too invested in her feelings.
“You feel guilty”, his voice makes her look at him again.
She asks herself then if she is too predictable or is that he has lived too much and knows too many people and that’s why he can read her like a damn book.
“You did this because you feel guilty. You didn’t do it as a gift from your people. If I accept it, it will be offensive for Wakanda and you".
The silence is heavy.
Is heavier than the burden on her shoulders, or the Feathered-Serpent headdress he carries when he is on his throne.
He extends his hand in her direction, so she can take it. She looks at the wing in his hand for a few seconds before looking at him.
“No”, she says, and she can see how his eyes change, “you’re right”.
Shuri leaves the box on the ground beside her feet before she approaches him.
“I did it because I feel guilty”, she confesses. “But I’m giving it to you because this is who I am”.
Something softens in his brown eyes.
“You should hate me”.
“I tried to”, she makes a pause, “it didn’t work out”.
“What do you mean?”
She sighs, looking at the ground beneath their feet for a second, before looking at him again.
“I tried to hate you for everything you did. You tried to destroy Wakanda, you tried to kill me, you killed my mother”, she puts way too much venom in that last part. “I wanted to kill you, for you to beg for your life”, something in his eyes…something mischievous appears, “but then I heard my ancestors, my mother, and I realized that revenge isn’t my way. That isn’t who I am”.
She looks at the wing in his hand and takes it.
“I don’t hate you, Namor, even if I want to. You did what you did because you thought you didn’t have any more options. I’m offering one now, in the form of this wing, a peace offering”.
She extends her hand now, offering it to him.
He looks at her in silence.
“May this symbolize the same as your mother’s bracelet”.
“Is not the same”.
“It is. We have an alliance. We are supposed to exchange things. This is what Wakanda can offer”.
Namor’s brown eyes look at the wing for what feels like a long time in silence.
He then looks at her, with a little smile on his lips.
“You’re brave, princess. You’re giving me another weapon to defeat you”.
She steps ahead until there is little space between them until their noses are almost touching.
“I would like to see you try defeating me again, K’uk’ulkan”, she whispers and when she sees how his eyes change, she smirks.
He opens his mouth to say something, but then she interrupts him.
“C’mon, let’s see if it fits you”, she says, sitting down on a rock close to them.
Whatever he was going to say, dies at that moment.
“Your foot”, she commands, and when he doesn’t comply, she looks at him. “Gimme your foot, I need to be at the palace at sundown or Okoye will unleash hell”.
He chuckles before he moves to give her access to his ankle, what he didn’t expect was for her to grab him by the shin and raise his leg until his foot was resting on her lap.
“Wow, careful to not fall from the rock, Fishboy”.
“Fishboy, really?”
“It suits you”, she smirks at him again before she starts getting his bandage off.
There was a little bit of the ripped wing, but she was prepared for that. That’s why she did the vibranium wing as a prosthetic, so it won’t damage the place where the original wing was.
She explains to him how is supposed to work, but she has a feeling he is not listening.
“We couldn’t test it outside of regular scenarios, so if it doesn’t work, I can fix it”, she says, once she has finished and her fingers aren’t brushing anymore with his wet skin.
“So, it means that it could potentially kill me?”, he asks.
“No”, she rolls her eyes, his foot still in her lap. “You won’t die”.
“You sound disappointed by that”.
She shakes her head and slaps his foot away.
“Test it, c’mon”.
“Here?”
“Yes, that’s how I’m going to know if it works or not”, she answers, touching one of her kimoyo beads to take notes. “Whenever you’re ready”.
He looks at her and then at his ankles and then he stands up and walks until he is at a safe distance from her.
“How does it feel?”
“Weird”.
“Will take time for your body to get used to it”.
He stays in silence for a few seconds until the vibranium wing starts entering in synchrony with the other wings. Soon he is remembering how to fly again.
He elevates a little bit and she compares it to when one is starting to learn how to run a bike. Sloopy (he almost fell a few times) but learning on the way (he eventually got to maintain his balance and gain altitude).
After a few minutes, Namor is flying, like he did before she ripped his wing.
“How is it?!”, she yells from the ground.
“Want to find it out?”, he asks and for a few seconds, she doesn’t get what he means until he starts flying down in her direction.
“What are you-?!”
He rips her from the ground as she did with his wing on their last fight.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! ARE YOU CRAZY?!”, she screams, holding onto his person like her life depended on it, while he flies away from the riverbank.
“I thought you asked how it was going”, he answers, way too close to her ear and with too much humor in his tone.
He was enjoying the whole thing way too much while she was fucking dying.
“IT WASN’T FOR YOU TO TAKE ME WITH YOU!”, she lets go a sound that only indicated fear while she closed her eyes.
Suddenly she feels him stop moving.
She opens her eyes and sees that everything around them is orange and blue and violent and golden and all the colors a sundown palette could have.
It was almost like she was floating in the clouds.
She blinked a few times, while she held onto him for dear life. Her arms were around his neck, her legs were around his waist and her face had been hidden in his neck jewelry.
“Princess”, he calls, way close to her ear. That scares her for a moment, making them stumble a little. “Órale, calm down”, he says, and for the first time, she feels his arms around her.
They were warm but cold at the same time if that made any sense.
“If you keep moving like that, we will fall because I won’t be available to hold our weight”, she stays still while trying to calm herself because this wasn’t her.
She was Shuri, princess of Wakanda, daughter of king T’Chaka, she was a genius, and she didn’t panic.
Except maybe if a very handsome man took her by surprise. Then maybe she would.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry”, she apologized, between her language and English.
“Shh, it was my bad, shouldn’t have grabbed you like that. I just wanted to show how flying is, what you ripped and just returned to me".
“A warning would have been nice”, he chuckles.
“Where is the fun in that, princess?”
She rolls her eyes, but she stays quiet.
For a few seconds, neither says anything, they simply stay there, floating in a sea of sundown clouds.
“Are you calmed now?”
“Yes?”
“Are you scared of heights?”
“Not really, you just took me by surprise”.
“Alright, I promise it won’t happen again”, they both know that's a lie.
She then slowly decides to move her head a little, to at least see a part of his face. Her efforts are in vain since he then stumbles a little and she ends up clashing the side of her face with his facial hair.
“Don’t move much, or we’ll fall”.
“Sorry”, he tightens his arms around her. “I'm ready”.
“You sure? We can leave it for another time”.
“I’m sure”, she whispers in his ear.
"Get on my back, then".
"What?"
"You won't break me. Get on my back or you wont be available to see anything".
"Okay", her answer is not very convincing but she moves to his back. She doesn't know how she gets to, but she ends up on a piggyback.
If Okoye or Nakia saw her, they'll kill him and then scream at her on how inapropiate the whole thing was.
“Hold tight”, and then she was screaming but they were flying.
She had flown before in jets and airplanes and some rogue experiments no one wanted to test, but she never imagined herself actually flying.
It was a whole new perspective of the world.
Wakanda and the river and the frontier and the whole fucking world looked so different from that perspective. She couldn’t even believe she, as a human, have been missing such a beautiful view.
It was magical as if they had traveled with the breeze and the wind and they ended up in a whole different world, one she didn’t want to leave.
After touching the clouds with her hands, she realized she had to return to the palace. Okoye will invade Talokan in her search and she couldn't let that happen, not after so much effort.
He told her that he could take her home and she didn't said no.
When they landed on the platform, every guard and Dora Milaje in Wakanda was waiting for them. And Namor only had to put a foot on it for them to want to skin him alive.
“Stand down!”, Shuri says yells, jumping from him and stepping right between Namor and her own soldiers.
“Princess!”, a familiar voice calls and Okoye makes her way through the soldiers until she is in front of her. “I told you to return before sundown”.
“The sun just got down. Besides, we were testing his wing”, Okoye looks over her shoulder, and Shuri is suddenly aware that his body is way too close, so close she can feel his jewelry brushing her curls.
Okoye narrows her eyes.
“I hope you are telling me the truth and you weren’t testing something else”.
“Okoye!”, Shuri scolds, getting flushed suddenly. Okoye lets go of a humorless sound before telling the Dora and the guards to stand down.
“Say goodbye to the Fishboy, is late already”.
“Name is Namor”, he says from behind Shuri. “Only Shuri can call me Fishboy”.
Okoye makes a sarcastic face.
“Really? And who allowed you to call her by her name?"
“Okoye, mind your manners, please. This is not the time and place to have a fight”, Okoye makes an offended noise before she tells the guards to go back to their posts.
The Dora stand back with Okoye, leaving Shuri and Namor a little bit of space.
“I’m very sorry for her. She is worse than my mother”, Shuri complains, turning around to face him.
“She cares about you, kitten”, he says, and she was about to say something until her brain catches that he just called her kitten.
“Excuse me, what did you just call me?”
“Kitten”, he answers, with a smirk. She tries not to blush but fails terribly. “I think is only fair, since you go around calling me Fishboy”.
“It was supposed to be a joke between Okoye and me”.
“Guess I’m part of the joke now”, he smirks again, and Shuri doesn’t realize how close they are standing until now until he is towering over her in all his glory. “Thank you for the gift, princess, I’ll make sure is used to protect my people”.
She nods, suddenly realizing that she was about to say goodbye and she didn’t like the idea.
He showed her what flying was, and it felt as wonderful and exhilarating as when he showed her Talokan.
It was selfish, but she wished they could spend more time. It sounded crazy in her own head, but she was starting to see him as K’uk’ulkan and not Namor.
It was kind of scary, because what the hell her mother would say? She will deny her in the Ancestral Plain.
Her train of thought is interrupted suddenly when she feels something warm settling under her chin. It takes her a few seconds to realize that it was his index finger and that he was making her raise her head to look at him again.
“Don’t worry, kitten, you’ll see me again”.
And then his forehead is clashing softly against hers.
Her heart skips a beat and for a few seconds, she thinks she’ll die. But she doesn’t have time to think about that, because as fast as he approached her, he is backing up and winking at her before jumping off the platform to the river below.
“Who he thinks he is to touch the Princess?!”, she hears Okoye ask indignantly, running to her side in a second.
“I think is obvious at this stage that he likes her”, Aneka innocently comments.
“Excuse me, Aneka!”
“What? I think the princess likes him too”.
“They didn’t kiss. There is no need for you to make a fuss”, Ayo backs her wife up.
“Not you too!”, the rest of the Dora laugh, but Shuri is not, she is frozen in there, processing the fact that indeed, he hadn’t kissed her, but that it definitely felt like it.
That night, when she arrives at her room, she finds the shell between her bedsheets, the same one they left in the river.
She understands the message.