Chapter Text
Shuri stared at the blueprints on her screen and then down at the device she was working on. For some reason she simply couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working. She had been stuck all night, around 10 hours at this point according to her AI. He had insisted she took a break at some point in the early hours of the morning, but she had refused to do so until she finished this damned device. At some point, anyone else in the lab had cleared out completely, which left her alone with her robotics, frustrated in silence.
“Shuri-” She was about to snap at Griot for interrupting her focus again, likely to tell her to go take care of herself, but she didn’t even get the chance to open her mouth before he was speaking again. “You have a visitor.” He normally only announced someone's presence when they were coming to speak to her directly, so she bit back a sigh and accepted that someone likely needed her. Sometimes she forgot that she was the acting queen of Wakanda- sometimes.
The clicking of heels echoed around the lab as the visitor walked in, she could instantly assume it was one of the Dora, simply by the walking pattern. “You missed a meeting, again.” She spun to face Okoye as the general walked down the spiral to where she was working. She looked cross, as usual, holding a file in her hands. Shuri sighed and braced herself for another lecture,
“I was busy!” She shrugged, turning around again and scanning over her work, still stumped. “And besides, I’m never respected around the elders Okoye, they still act as though I’m a child.” She may be young, but she has gone through too much to be considered a child still. She was the leader of this country, officially or not, and she still couldn’t get any damn respect from some old people.
“Might help if you kept showing up.” She said shortly, clearing her throat pointedly after a moment. Shuri sighed and turned back around to face her, ignoring the look of disapproval as she pushed herself up to sit on the edge of the work bench she had just been hovering over. Metal shifted behind her and she ignored it completely, meanwhile Okoye looked in concern like something was about to blow up. “They don’t respect you because they don’t think you care.” Shuri snorted and resisted the urge to bite back ‘I don’t.’ That wasn’t entirely true, of course she cared about her country and the people she was supposed to protect, but she just couldn’t focus on being a ‘queen’ right now. Currently, she is nothing more than a young girl mourning the people she’s lost. So she didn’t comment on the second part.
“M’Baku can take care of things.” She said simply. He was a more experienced leader, and definitely more respected by the elders despite his tribe's history with the rest of them. Okoye pinched the bridge of her nose, muttering something under her breath in Xhosa that Shuri picked up with her enhanced hearing, ‘Bast help me with this child.’ She frowned lightly, even her friends only saw her as a kid it seemed.
“Maybe, but there are certain issues that need the help of the Black Panther, not just her replacement.” At this, she turned her attention to the file in Okoye’s hand. So that's for her then. She reached a hand out to take it, slightly surprised with the weight of the papers inside. What possibly could have come up that required this much work out of her? She wasn’t even sure she was ready to go out in the field on a mission again so soon after her mother’s death. “We need to keep watch on this girl, she currently has residence in Massachusetts.” The last word made Shuri look up in shock at her general.
“You’re sending me to America?” She raised an eyebrow, really not too keen on this idea. She only truly knew one person who lived in America, a friend she had begun to have more contact with after Tony Stark’s death. Of course unless you wanted to count the two other broken white boys she’s worked with before. But either way, she didn’t think she was very fit for a mission in America.
“She’s a college student, it makes sense for you to go undercover instead of one of us.” Well shit, she had a good point. She folded her arms over her chest and frowned at Okoye, but couldn’t find a real point to argue here. Even if she just came up with some bullshit, she knew that Okoye wouldn’t budge on this, the woman was far too used to her.
“Fine, when am I leaving?” She turned back to her work again, frowning at everything that she wouldn’t get to complete. Maybe she needed the break anyways. ‘That’s something T’Challa would’ve said to me,’ she thought, and then immediately disagreed with it. She didn’t want to leave her lab, nope, too busy. Her brother may be gone but she never stopped living on spite.
“Tomorrow.” She stopped what she was doing, jaw dropping in what was likely a very comical way. “You need to read your files and find a place to stay, we leave at dawn.” She slowly turned back around to face the general, tempted to say something snarky like ‘hey, isn’t it your job to find me a place to stay?’ Or ‘hey, are you fucking out of your mind?’ But she skillfully kept those comments to herself.
“I- you know what? Fine.” She set the file on the table beside her and huffed at the heavy sound it made. “Let me clean up here and then I’ll go pack or whatever.” Okoye rolled her eyes at her attitude, but nodded.
“Make sure you read the file.” She said sternly as she turned to leave. Shuri glanced down at it and frowned, seeing how thick it was. For a genius, she had never been much of a reader, especially when it came to serious stuff. She probably wouldn’t read it.
“I will!” She called up to the general before she vanished from sight. As the lab doors slid shut and she was left in silence once again, she grumbled to herself and sat down. “Can you believe this shit Griot? Me? In America? Tomorrow.” She rested her head in her hands, exposed skin chilled by the cold of the vibranium table tops.
“I think you’ll be just fine, Shuri.” The AI said, unhelpfully. Sometimes he was just too nice, she wanted someone to complain with, not at. But she had programmed him, so that was pretty much her fault. “Where do you plan on staying?” He asked, and she lifted her head again.
“Oh yeah, can you call Peter Parker for me?” She kicked her feet up on the table in the small area that didn’t have anything on it, very aware of the mass of blueprints and small unfinished machines littered around. Griot hummed a short ‘right away’ and she listened as the ringing of a phone echoed around the lab. On the 5th ring, someone picked up.
“Hello?” The voice was groggy, and suddenly she remembered that America was a very different time zone from her current one. She must’ve woken him up. “Shuri? Is everything okay?” His sentence was interrupted by a yawn, distorting what he was saying.
“Yeah fine! I just had a favor to ask of you.” She decided to get up now, restless and too nervous to be sitting down. Quietly she tidied up her workspace while listening to shuffling on the other end of the phone.
“Do you know what time it is here?” He didn’t sound annoyed, but he definitely sounded disgruntled. She knew Peter wasn’t very much of a morning person. Quickly she glanced at the time and did the calculations in her head. Since Wakanda was 8 hours ahead, it was about 4 am for him. Yikes.
“Uh- just did the math. Sorry dude.” There was a soft laugh from the other line and she couldn’t help but laugh too. There had been quite a few times where he had woken her up forgetting about the time zone as well, so really, it was some accidental payback. She heard Peter groan and assumed he was getting out of bed at this point.
“What do you need, Princess?” The princess was mocking, as it always was with him. She had jokingly told him he needed to respect her more a while ago, which birthed the nickname, even though she wasn’t a princess anymore. The question however, was genuine, and she was glad to have a friend that always had her back even if he was thousands of miles away.
“I need a place to crash for a couple weeks, I’ve got a mission in Massachusetts.” The way Okoye had described it, it was top secret, so she tried not to give too much away. Peter made a little ‘oooo’ noise and she laughed softly, rolling her eyes affectionately even though he couldn’t see it.
“Your first mission alone? Of course you can crash with me! I’ve got a single this year too so I can just lay out some stuff for you. You know, as long as the princess can handle sleeping on the floor.” He teased, she could hear the grin in his voice and wished she was already there so she could punch him.
“I can sleep on the floor Parker, you’re already helping enough by letting me stay.” She knew he was joking, but she was really thankful that she was able to stay with him. Otherwise she would be basically lost in America on her own, at least now she had some sort of guide. She didn’t have much of a cover story, so either she could do that on the plane ride (she won’t, she’ll be asleep), or with Peter once she got there.
“Anything for my favorite Wakandan!” She laughed, tempted to tell him that she was the only Wakandan he knew, but decided against that jest at the moment. “But now that you woke me up, I’m going to get some homework done- when are you gonna get here?” He asked, and more static filled the other line as he shuffled some more. She even caught what sounded like papers flipping.
“Uh- tomorrow morning? Okoye said we’re leaving at dawn.” Peter sucked in a breath at that, clearly sympathy, and she nodded her head in agreement. She glanced back at the nearly clean lab space she now had (clean was a- loose statement), and sighed. She really didn’t want to leave.
“Give me a call when you get here and I’ll come find you.” She forgot that she would be staying on a college campus that she knew nothing about. Peter really would be her tour guide the entire time she was in America. Though she’d never admit to him that this entire mission was relying on him, he’d get a big head.
“Thanks so much.” She felt like she’d be saying that a lot in the next couple of weeks, but at least it was just her friend and not some stranger, or worse, an adult.
“No problem! See you soon.” With that, the call was cut and the lab filled with silence once again. She went over in her head everything from the lab that she needed to take with her, and made sure that Griot would easily be able to come with her via her kimoyo beads. Luckily for her, all her weapons and tech were vibranium, so she’d be able to easily sneak it in. Assuming colleges had metal detectors? Maybe she should do some research on the plane ride the next day.
She sighed heavily, not nearly as dramatic as she felt it should be, and grabbed what she needed before heading out of the lab. She was jealous of all the other people who would get to work there while she was gone. They better not steal her damn snacks again like that one time she was gone a couple days. She grumbled to herself as she headed to the elevator to go to her room. She had a while still to pack, but she might as well get started before she left it to the last minute.