sovereignty (there go your hero)
Riri is different now. When they were in that cave, Shuri hadn’t known if they would ever be released and there had been an air of unreality. The world faded away, it was just them and even if the situation was terrible, they had each other. That sentiment is much reduced when faced with the trappings and responsibilities of her station. Shuri is a princess of Wakanda and if the council had their way she would be Queen. Her mother served Wakanda for so many years, she deserved to rest and enjoy her retirement as a dowager. The only thing stopping her is Shuri. She isn’t ready yet, she never wanted to rule. She never expected to be the only one left.
“Why are you still awake?” Riri rolls over from under the covers, propping herself up with one arm and Shuri looks up from the small screen in her lap. Shuri didn’t notice when she woke up.
“Something came up.” Shuri had an idea and she wanted to record it before she lost it.
“Security or science?” Riri asks and Shuri can only smile. The best thing about Riri was her mind, unfortunately it made maintaining the façade of peace, hard.
“Both.” Shuri doesn’t give any more details, turning the display up and sliding up closer. Shuri can see the moment of hesitation, a slight hitch on Riri’s part before they kiss. She pulls away eventually, around the time when Riri’s hands start to go south.
“Do you really want to know?” Shuri doesn’t think she does. Riri didn’t like not knowing yes, but a little ignorance wasn’t always bad. Especially when your girlfriend was planning to overthrow your own country’s government or potentially kill thousands of people in defense.
“Well, when you say it like that…” Riri is smiling but it doesn’t reach her eyes.
“The news our intelligence is picking up is not good. We are worried about our neighbors.” The snap worsened a lot of things. Wakanda had helped but they refused to take refugees. They also refused to tolerate the many prejudices that the outside world tried to enforce on them and the way they did things. Shuri has been trying not to let her frustration and apprehension affect her actions but it’s hard.
“What? The beefed up security isn’t enough?”
“Nothing is impenetrable. The world hates us.” Shuri doesn’t know how much her girlfriend paid attention to the news before she came to Wakanda but Shuri did. She didn’t have a choice anymore. Every day foreign news and government slandered Wakanda and blamed their problems on Wakanda for refusing to give away wholesale their technology or their resources. When they weren’t trying to steal from their outreach centers or harassing their citizens.
“Not the world, people trying to jack your shit.” Riri’s response makes Shuri snicker.
“That is still too many people.” Shuri flops down on the bed.
“I have the keys to opening a door that will protect my family, and I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do. But nothing else has worked.”
“When you say keys, is that metaphorical?”
“No. I’ve replicated the plant that was lost. If I wanted I could raise an army.” Shuri doubts the council will agree with most of her ideas, but if Namor has proved anything it’s that there was nothing Wakanda wouldn’t do when it felt threatened enough. The Talokans were a threat, but so was the rest of the world. The rest of the world just didn’t have vibranium yet.
“Do you want to?” Riri’s voice is weathered by sleep, making the question all the more innocent.
“I am tired of fighting.” All this fighting and she couldn’t save her brother. All this technology and they couldn’t save her father. All this intelligence and no one but a retired field agent could find her for weeks.
“Then do something else.” Riri says as if it’s the obvious solution and Shuri is momentarily exasperated.
“Go to sleep.” She would face tomorrow's problems in the morning.
“Mmhm, you too.” Riri reaches forward to pull her arm and Shuri allows it settling both of them properly into bed. Back at the underwater cave she discovered the American was a not only a blanket theif but a cuddling fiend. It worked out well, Shuri’s body temperature ran low and Riri’s hot. Shuri’s last thoughts before falling asleep is hope that Riri would never hate her, because unlike her brother–she would never let go.
