VIENNA
You look up at the skies of Vienna, clutching onto your boyfriend's arm. Your heart booms so loudly throughout your ears that it's like your ears have a heartbeat. A familiar voice pulls you out of your thoughts and back onto earth.
"What is wrong, my love? Nervous about what Baba is going to say?"
You let out a forced laugh, keeping your eyes on the clouds above you.
"I understand these Accords will solve a lot of problems but.." T'Challa focuses on you, brows furrowing. "I feel as if your Father still dislikes me for being considered an 'Avenger." He smiles and holds your free hand, trying to comfort you even though he's nervous as well.
"I'm sure Baba won't mention the Avengers in a negative context, let alone your name." That statement calms you a little, but not all the way. You know that T'Challa knows his father well, but his opinions about his father have been proven wrong more than once. You see him look at something behind you, but you choose not to ask what it is and let him tell you instead.
"Ms. Romanoff is here, why don't we welcome her?" You nod and smile, thankful that Natasha of all people is on your—Wakanda's—side, and that she was willing to sign the accords.
You two make your way over to Natasha, arms still linked. You were one of the original Avengers, but you met Natasha at a coffee shop. You both liked how mysterious the other was, so you two made a bet that by the end of the year you'd have every crumb of detail that you could sniff out about each other. Needless to say, you won. Because of that, Natasha recommended you to Fury for his Avengers Initiative. She also owed you five-hundred twenty-three dollars.
"Nat, it's great to see you here," You spoke, watching as she smiled at the sight of you. "It's great to see you too." She then turned her head to T'Challa. "I supposed none of us are used to the spotlight," He joked. It was true, though. You're all well-known by the public, but none of you could ever have the courage to step up on a podium and speak on National Television like King T'Chaka.
"Oh, well, it's not always so flattering," Natasha responded. You let out a small giggle.
"You seem to be doing alright so far. Considering your last trip to Capitol Hill," T'Challa paused, thinking carefully about his next words. "I wouldn't think you would be particularly comfortable in this company."
"Well, I'm not."
"Is that why I don't see a particular gold titanium alloy suit with a few touches of red anywhere?" You asked. You were really hoping to see Tony somewhere. You knew he was smart, but if he wasn't here then Einstein will still remain the smartest person in the world.
"He's got something to take care of. Unfortunately none of us will see a particular man in red, white, and blue either," She said calmly, but you could tell she was holding back a frown.
"That's alright. I've never seen him drive with only one hand on the steering wheel anyway," You joked, trying to lift the tension in the air. It did the job for everyone else, but not for you. "And please, send him my condolences. T'Challa and I have something to do after this assembly." You gripped tighter onto his arm, and he quickly bat a concerned eye at you before turning back to Natasha.
"It makes us glad that you decided to attend and publicly sign the accords despite your uncomfortableness, Ms. Romanoff."
"Why? You don't approve of all this?"
"I'm sure he approves of the accords. Otherwise he and his father wouldn't be in the same building at the moment. Politics are what we dislike. Two people in a room can get more done than a hundred," You respond confidently. King T'Chaka approaches you three before Natasha can get another word out of her mouth about Steve or Tony.
"Unless you need to move a piano," He smiles lightly, and you let go of T'Challa to give your king a hug. You've been friends with T'Challa since forever, so long that you joke about being his child instead of T'Challa.
"Son. Ms. Romanoff," T'Chaka speaks, giving Natasha his hand for her to shake. She does, and puts on a brighter smile. "King T'Chaka. Please, allow me to apologize for what happened in Nigeria." King T'Chaka quickly responds after glancing down at his watch. "Thank you. Thank you for agreeing to all this. I'm sad to hear that Captain Rogers will not be joining us today."
Someone on the speakers announces that the assembly is now in session, and you all part ways. Natasha takes her seat as King T'Chaka walks up to the podium. You and T'Challa stay just outside of the assembly room, the glass being the only thing that separates you two from everyone else. You hear King T'Chaka speaking about the incident in Sokovia, and you feel like a big bucket of guilt just got spilled on your head.
"Focus on the positive statements, not the negative ones," T'Challa whispers in your ear. You link arms again as your lean on his shoulder. "Though, Baba always did say that is a good trait for a Queen to have." The idea of being Queen of Wakanda runs through your head and makes you smile. However, it doesn't last long as you notice a rather large amount of newscasters outside of the building.
You let go of T'Challa and look out the window. Multiple people are surrounding a news van, pointing at something inside. Everyone then runs away from the truck, as if-
There's a bomb.
Though the bomb might be in the van, you still run inside and interrupt the assembly. You know you have to do something, anything. And you do.
You run for Natasha as T'Challa leaps to his father.
"EVERYBODY GET DOWN!-"
Boom.
Before you know it, everything is black. Everything hurts. Your head aches so bad it feels like it has a heartbeat. You feel your entire abdomen being crushed by something, likely a pillar or another person. You feel multiple sharp pains along your body. Under your shoulder, on your neck, just behind your left ear. Glass.
Ambulance sirens add onto the painful shrill in your ears, worsening your headache. Obviously, your first approach is to move. To get up. You saw an explosion go off just behind King T'Chaka, so he must be seriously injured. Not only that, but if the King is injured, then T'Challa is hurt even worse. Physically? Not much. Emotionally? Absolutely. You won't lose him, and you won't let him lose you too.
You try to move, but a sharp pain consumes your body before you feel paralyzed. You can't do anything. You can't open your eyes or your mouth. You can only sit there and listen as T'Challa's heart breaks.
"Help him, please! Help my father! Quickly, HELP HIM!" Your heart shatters hearing him cry for help. You want to hug him tightly, rub his back and tell him everything's okay. And so you try. You try your hardest to will it into existence. You move. Nothing. You try again. Move. MOVE.
Your eyes burst open, and immediately burn with all of the smoke in the air. Everything is blurry, everything still hurts. You see small flames in various places around you. You watch as a team of paramedics carefully put King T'Chaka onto a stretcher and quickly wheel him out of the building. T'Challa then digs through rubble, mumbling something.
You whimper when you try to stand up, the glass shard in your body digging further into your shoulder. You let your body fall back down, the weight on your abdomen suddenly feeling like fifteen anvils.
"T'Challa!" You yell weakly, knocking all of the breath out of your lungs. It takes you so much energy just to get his name out that you nearly faint right after. You feel dizzy and can only lay there as the corners of your vision fade to black.
Suddenly, the weight of the pillar is lifted off of you, small pieces of rubble falling onto your stomach. You wince, even though the pressure isn't that heavy.
"My love, you have to get up. You have to.. you have to get-"
You shake your head, still too weak to move.
"Put it back down, T'Challa." You say with a firm tone. You see him look up at you, but you don't see his face. Even so, you know there's tears rolling down his cheeks at your words.
"What? No, get up and I'll take you down to one of the ambulances. They'll give you stitches and then we can go home."
"T'Challa," You start with a more gentle tone. "I have three shards of glass in me. Put the pillar down, okay? Let paramedics handle me."
You don't even have to look at him to know he's getting ready to protest your statement. You carefully sit up, moving back from the pillar as much as you can without hurting yourself even more.
"Put the pillar down."
He does as you say, the ground under you slightly rumbling as the pillar comes crashing back down. When the dust clears, you see T'Challa standing there. He's just.. standing there. Feeling bad, feeling terrible. He's just lost his father and now he can't even touch the only person he has left.
T'Challa quickly runs out, violently yelling at a group of paramedics to come and help you. You barely register people putting you onto a stretcher, wheeling you out of the building, and into an ambulance. You finally come back to your body when the last few touches are being put on your last set of stitches. You carefully get out of the ambulance with your blazer over your shoulders.
The first thing you catch sight of is Natasha sitting on a bench near T'Challa. Put simply, he looks rageful. Ready to kill whoever did this. You watch as he grips onto his father's ring, opening his mouth to say something that you assume is going to be violent. So, you quickly stop him.
"Natasha, thank god you're okay." You interrupt their conversation before it can get any worse. You bend over slightly so Nat can tell you what T'Challa has said.
"He's planning on going after Bucky, and so is Steve. I'll go take care of our friend in blue, but you have to keep T'Challa together."
You nod before she walks off and you take her place. It feels odd, sitting on a different bench than T'Challa instead of sitting together. However, for now, that's the best option. He was never his best self when he's mad, and he's accidentally scratched you more than a few times with the suit on. Of course, you forgive him, but you both have silently agreed to be very delicate with each other when one of you is mad.
"I.. I was told about T'Chaka. I'm so sorry," You mumble. You've never told him sorry or given him your condolences when someone passes. You've always given him silent comfort, letting him hold you and be thankful he still has you until he's ready to get up and get going again.
T'Challa bats an eye your way before slipping his father's ring onto his finger, clenching his fist. "I'm going to kill him myself, with or without help. He will answer to my form of Wakandan government." He says with such threat behind his words that you almost see red in his eyes. His form of Wakandan government? You knew that he'd lose his father eventually, and you also knew it would be hard for him to push through. But for him to react like this? He must've really taken it personally when you told him to put the pillar down. After all, he's always preferred to be the one to save you.
"Your form of Wakandan government? No King gets their own form of government T'Challa," You sit up straight after the words leave your mouth. You know he hates you right now, but you also know that deep down he knows you're absolutely right. He knows he's not in his right mind.
Despite how risky it is at the moment, you stand up and sit next to him on the bench. He loosens up, but his fist is still clenched. You hold his hand with your own, caressing his father's ring with your thumb. You'd always seen T'Chaka with that ring since you were little, and you wondered if he ever took it off. You wondered what it stood for as well. Leadership, perhaps? Maybe it had some philosophical quote in Xhosa engraved into it. You want to ask about it, but you choose not to. Instead of asking about his father or Wakanda, you talk about yourself. Just to lift the edge, and to take T'Challa's mind off of murdering Barnes.
"They gave me quite a few stitches. Some below my shoulder, more on my side, and some just above my left knee." He seems to dislike this information more than he would dislike you talking about his father at a time like this. He puts one arm over your shoulders and pulls you close, gripping at your shoulder.
"Ms. Romanoff told me Task Force will decide who brings in Barnes," He spoke lowly, eyes narrowing. You could tell right away that your strategy to keep his mind off Barnes worked terribly. Actually, it didn't work at all.
"We cannot fight with the United States Government, T'Challa," A shiver went down his spine at your words. T'Challa. You never called him by his name unless you were absolutely serious about something. Willing to fight for what you believe is right. Willing to argue for ages about why your side is the right side. Unfortunately, this time, your side isn't his side.
"The United States Government is abstract art, sure," You start. You will talk T'Challa out of his mindset until he isn't set on murdering Barnes, especially since Steve has trusted you enough in the past to tell you all about his life before he was Captain America. You had to return the favor by keeping dirty hands away from his only best friend. "Sometimes they have not a clue what they're doing. But, Barnes is a U.S Citizen. It is only fair that he is given the consequences that his country has for him."
You end off on a strong note, hoping to see some sort of light in T'Challa's eyes that shows he agrees. Unfortunately, you don't. All you see is more rage boiling in his head. He begins to stand up, not wanting to hear any more of you trying to battle his opinion. That was when you knew. He really was set on killing Barnes.
You put a firm hand on his arm, trying one last time to calm him down. He puts his hand on yours, gently pulling it off.
"T'Challa. You don't know if Barnes was really even the one who.."
You trailed off, immediately shutting yourself up when you saw the way T'Challa hated your statement. To tell him that the man who was believed to have killed his father might not even be at fault? That pissed him off.
"Barnes will pay for Baba's life with his own. Simple. Wakanda awaits justice for its King." He begins to walk away with his head down and his hands in his pockets.
"AND WAKANDA AWAITS A KING!" You accidentally yell much louder than you'd wished, standing up with the force of your anger. Anger, not really. You were extremely, unexplainably frustrated. T'Challa looks at everyone around who has their eyes on you. He then walks off to who knows where.
You fall back onto the bench, cradling your forehead with your clean hand. T'Challa was going to kill Barnes no matter what, you knew that. You also know what it meant for Steve, and that Steve would stop at nothing to get Bucky back. Therefore, you took matters into your own hands. Well, you made do with whatever you could get your hands on.
Natasha approaches you shortly after T'Challa has walked away. Instead of sitting on the other bench as she did with your boyfriend, she sits next to you. "I heard the whole thing. I really do wish T'Challa was on our side.. or whatever in-between side we're on." She puts a hand on your shoulder, and you take your hand away from your forehead to face her. She looks.. worried? It's an odd emotion to actually see on her.
"Steve and Sam are going after Bucky."
"So is T'Challa."
"What?" Natasha was taken aback. You both figured T'Challa would do something, anything to get justice for his father. However, neither of you actually thought about just how far he would go.
"Nat, did you see the way he walked out of here? The way he looked when he was talking to me? He's hellbent on killing Bucky."
"And what are you going to do?"
"I'm.. I'm not letting Steve lose the last friend he's had since '45."
"So you're going against T'Challa?"
"Not against him. But, if I have to face him while saving Bucky, so be it."
"That's the Avenger I know," Natasha smiles but doesn't show her teeth. Sometimes you wish she'd show a bright smile, but a small lip smile still looks nice on her. "Tony already figured you would help out Steve. He's not a big fan of Cap, but I convinced him to help you somehow. Check your smart watch before you put in your earpiece and get to helping Steve," Natasha says before hugging you lightly and walking away.
You were at war with not only your own boyfriend, but with yourself as well. Soon, you could be at war with the whole world.
But if the world didn't agree with what you knew was right, why should you care?