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"She seems… so sure of herself." Shuri comments after Pearl skedaddled away from Namor's laboratory. He glances at his ally's back staring at the path his siser has gone to.
When Shuri looks back at him, he continues arranging his work, "yes," he confirms like she was asking, or was he doubling it down? "I made sure of that."
She walks to him, he continues speaking. He doesn't seem to run out of things to say about Pearl, Shuri observes, but she gets to know him by it too.
"I cannot let the outside world take more from her than they already did," Shuri looks away, knowing exactly what he meant, "she will always have me, I made sure of that, but at the occasions I'm not able to be with her," he pauses and takes a deep breath, a history lost in his eyes that Shuri wants to seek, she thought their distance made him miss his sister more while Shuri had the privilege to always see her brother come home,
"I don't want her to feel alone and lonely," he scoffs, a smile, "imagine my happiness, my joy," he turns to Shuri and she feels warm with his smile, "when she told me about her Agents of Atlas, how I was relieved that there are people who cherish her as much as I do," he looks down at his table, "only for her to tell me she'll always choose me in the end."
"Is that a bad thing?"
He sighs, shoulders sag, "that's not what I want for her, Panther." He answers, looking at her.
She bites her inner cheek before mustering up the courage, before he could look away, "I don't blame her, you are her home."
He blinks, slowly like taking it in consideration, he looks at the table again, not knowing what to say, if he disagrees or not, or he's letting her words simmer. Shuri gulps, thinking he didn't like it or didn't understand. It pains her, still, talking about her brother but Namor's confusion eats at her.
"I'm the same with my brother." She gulps again, tears glossing her eyes, "was, I guess," she awkwardly chuckles and he looks at her, truly looks at her, like the conversation had always been about her and her brother, not the other way around.
"I have never been a mother's girl, or a father's girl, ever since I was born, all I knew is that I'm my big brother's girl," he looks at the table agian, "so I don't think you should be guilty that she wants to choose."
He looked like he just realized something, he looked at her with a relieved expression and renewed awe, "you're right. Thank you, Panther, you never fail to make me learn."
Bast! She blinks, looking away to clear ther throat, "it's not like you stop learning."
He raises his brows and she hates how playful he looks, "that's what I expect of her when she took it upon herself to do so."
She smirks, "what does rizz mean?" She tests.
He pauses, "… charisma."
"Oh my— Bast, you remember."
"I don't find it difficult not to forget."
Here he goes again with his double-meaning statements.
"But it's different with you." He adds, they look at each other simultaenously and Shuri hates how she always seem so anticiapting with his words, thoughts, opinions, and even feelings about her when he doesn't seem to run out of it, endless like the ocean yet to be explored, and all she honestly had to do is ask.
"You're different, Panther."
She frowns and averts her gaze, "yet you still call me by that title."
"Well, aren't you the Black Panther?" He teases, she rolls her eyes.
"Haha, funny."
He smiles a bit and Shuri wants to scratch his face again, mark him as hers—
Whoa! Where did that came from?
"If you wish for me to call you another title or... your name, I'll do as you wish."
Shuri has observed this, he always call people by their title, never their names save Pearl and Talokanils. Was it because of Namor? Or something his long history has buried in his lost eyes?
"What about you? Do I just keep calling you Namor? You're not my enemy now," he nods for good measure, "nor are you my god."
He subtly smiles, almost like he didn't at all. But Shuri observes him, always.
"Can I call you any other name? Your real name."
"Pearl knows about it." He answers faster than expected.
She didn't understand why it surprised her, after all, it's Pearl, "how come I never hear her call you that? Just kuya?"
He pauses, like considering, "she knows what I feel about it." He moves around to get another apparatues, "and when she does call me by my… real name, it'll be when it's just us."
She wants to press, to know why his real name feels so scarce because she never hears it, to know why calling him by it ended with his sister, why Namora and Attuma never address him as such. Surely, at least Namora can have the blood privilege to call him by his real actual name.
The said cousin appears, calling for him, "K'uk'ulkan, Ahkin discovered something on her way out of Talokan."
At the mention of his siter, he quickly left.