Chapter 53
Shuri was sort of nervous about meeting her father-in-law. Teddy gave her hand a squeeze, the wedding band twisting a bit on her ring finger, giving her a reminder this was it. This was real. She was married. She was married to Teddy. She was married to the King of Earth. Teddy Stark. She was the Queen of Earth. This was her new reality.
When they entered, Tony finished talking on his phone, “… let them. Cut them out, they’ll be back by tomorrow.” And he hung up, seeing Teddy and Shuri enter.
“My most humble apologies to keep you waiting, your royal majesties.” He said, blatant sarcasm in his voice.
“Thanks, dad. Nice to know I get the respect due to me.” Teddy responded in the same manner. “May I introduce you to my most royal wife? Shuri, this is my dad.”
“Pleased to meet you, Mister Stark.”
“Hey, you can cut the formalities. Mister Stark has always been either my father or what a Stark man gets called when Lilith’s mad.”
“Shuri, then.” She said, as she stuck her hand out. Tony shook it, looking her up and down.
Shuri raised her eyebrows. Tony raised his. She raised hers higher and tilted her head a fraction of a degree. He smirked and patted her on the shoulder. “I like you.”
“I had hoped so.” Shuri responded dryly.
Tony pretended to faint. “Somebody save me from the horror that is Gen-Z humor!”
“Playing damsel in distress already?” Teddy chuckled. “I bet Ron it'd take a few more years.”
“I’m 64, I’m entitled to old geezer jokes.” Tony chuckled. “Are you a beer or whiskey type person?”
“Beer.” Shuri responded.
“Correct.” And they settled into casual nonsensical chatter about anything random they could think of, as Shuri’s anxiety fell away.
Wakanda’s barrier fell away just as quietly as it’s rebel status was repealed and it’s king downgraded to a lord, ruling the lands in the name of his sister.
Virginia Potts thought she was an average higher-ranking PR department employee in Stark Industries. She thought her friend Audrey Coulson (nee Nathan) was normal (Virginia knew her friend’s husband was a retired secret agent, but she held the most important part as retired).
It just went to show how much one truly knew in life. Virginia’s head buzzed, as she went around her day job. Audrey was no spy, and had, inevitably, slipped up.
She used her time filing paperwork, letting the panicked high school intern finish a homework assignment due within the next ten minutes, to think. Virginia had gotten chosen for a College Internship with Stark Industries back in it’s weapons-making days, and had gotten hired after she graduated, all in the PR sector. She was runner-up to be chosen as Tony Stark’s PA, and not once, but twice. However, she was thankful that didn’t happen. Then she was chosen. Then it came out that her employer (and if she had stayed on for another few days, official boyfriend) was a murderer, and she had left given half a chance.
Now, she had a choice. Reveal that one of her closest friend’s husband was working actively to destabilize and take over the global government, or to keep shut. To help the Coulson’s, who were working with some of the world’s leading illegal anarchists, to do nothing, or to actively hurt and hinder them.
Pepper Potts paced. She fingered the familiar can of pepper spray in her bag, that which she had gotten her nickname from, from the old PR department boss, who had retired gracefully instead of working for a company out of the weapons business, ardent patriot he old boss had been. Her parents were retired, and with some mental diseases that came with old age, one of which was light amnesia but she could hear them, in their prime, arguing inside her head. Whoever said the effect of helicopter parents ended when you moved out or when they retired was a liar.
You know what the right thing to do is, and it’s not breaking the law. We raised you better than to be one of those insane rebel anarchist types against a very well functioning government with such smart people at it’s head. Her mother would say.
And then her father would immediately jump in as devil’s advocate. Her father had been a lawyer ,her mother a data analyst, and that led to vastly different ways of approaching issues. Her father would go, but the government isn’t always right. I've done enough time working as a government-provided defense attorney to know that.
She cut off that train of thought, forcing herself to imagine anything but that. Falling off a cliff. Just her luck. But it was still better than the voices of her parents arguing inside her head. At least one she could realize what they would have agreed on, in the end, what they had always told her and had meant for all her life.
Do the right thing, Ginny, they’d say, and even as she cringed at the nickname, she realized that was true. And deep in her gut, she had always known what the right thing to do was, no matter her personal stake in the matter. And she was going to do just that.