When The Jaguar Meets The Wolf
When Erik had first come to Wakanda, he had imagined a lot of things but never this. Even after he had taken over their home, nearly killed both of them, killed their Uncle James and one of the Dora, and led an attack against them, T'Challa and Shuri had forgiven him. They had actually done more than forgive him, they allowed him to stay in the palace, and he had free reign on Wakanda. Recently, his cousin had allowed him to wear the mantle of the Golden Jaguar to do border patrol to defend the country and stop threats at the border (with Aneka, of course.)
And all he had to do was follow the restrictions they had put in place.
At first, he hadn't seen how great of a second change this was and he had broken every rule he was given, lashing out at everyone who would come close to him. But he eventually tired of being angry all the time, and while he had never minded loneliness before, it had begun to eat away at him. So he had given in and started to abide by their rules, telling himself that he was only doing it for his personal gain. But abiding by their rules had signaled to his cousins that he was changing and that led to him getting to know his cousins and in turn, being nicer to his cousins. Eventually he had just stopped being the ruthless, angry loner he had been for what felt like forever. And after that, things got easier.
That was almost a year ago. It had taken a lot of work but he was now treated like a prince by everyone in the kingdom. He had mostly dropped the name Erik, preferring to go by N'Jadaka, the Wakandan name his father had given him. But his mother had chosen Erik, and he still used it, just never as much as N'Jadaka. His kimoyo beads had a tracker in them that was monitored by his personal guard from the Dora Milaje, Aneka. But he could go wherever he wanted with her. The people treated him more or less like a prince, no where near how they treated Shuri or T'Challa but he could push his pride far enough away to admit that it was nothing he didn't deserve. As time went on, and he proved himself more to the people, he was treated better. The Council members didn't like him much, but again, it was nothing he didn't deserve. They were slowly coming around too, just very slowly.
His emotions had curbed a lot too. He was no longer so fiercely angry or revengeful. For the first time in a long time, he allowed more emotions to seep through. He allowed himself to feel happiness and sadness and no longer forced himself to hide what he had come to believe were the "emotions of the weak." He hadn't quite made it to love yet, but he knew he cared for his cousins. He cared for the people of Wakanda.
"You're about to run into a door, Prince N'Jadaka." Aneka told him and sure enough, his nose was inches from hitting the door to Shuri's lab.
He had been doing that a lot more too. Being so caught up in these thoughts that he didn't see what was in front of him. Before, he never would've risked not being completely aware of everything but he was safe in Wakanda. No one was hiding in the shadows waiting for when he was distracted to hurt him. The place was so light there weren't really even shadows.
The prince nodded to her in thanks and pushed the door open.
"Wassup cuz?" He called as he stepped in. The prince was greeted, if it could be called a greeting, by the sight of his sister and some white man sitting at her work table.
"I'm working." She responded, trying to sound annoyed but she had a huge smile on her face at the appearance of her cousin.
That's another thing he could never have imagined, his cousins smiling when they saw him. He had come to Wakanda, ready to annihilate the entire royal family if that's what it took. But they were all here and they were happy when he came around.
"What, the hospital is full? You make it a regular thing to fix up armless white boys?" He responded, his voice was a mix between a jest and an insult. And if the man was offended by what he said, he didn't say so and his face gave nothing away.
"I am working on his prosthetic arm." She said, turning the hologram to face him. He looked it over, not understanding much but he got the gist of it, a realistically shaped arm prosthetic that was made of vibranium.
N'Jadaka let the conversation drop and opted to study the man in front of him instead. The guy didn't speak, or at least he hadn't since he had walked in. The man was built like a tank, all muscles and tension. Probably a soldier too, if the missing arm and physique is anything to go off of.
N'Jadaka made casual conversation with Shuri but he wasn't paying much attention to it. He was more interested with the nameless, armless man who hadn't said a word since he had walked in. He only knew that the guy had blue eyes because of a staring problem the guy had. He just stared openly with an empty look on his face.
The prince was beginning to become bored with the silence from the other man. And he was starting to wonder how trouble he'd get in for messing with the guy. He just wanted a reaction, just a break in the guy's passive demeanor.
Instead of ruining his good track record, he decided to go a more acceptable route. More acceptable by his cousins, almost anything was acceptable to him. He could gather information the diplomatic Wakandan way.
"Who even are you?" He asked, straightforward.
"That is rude, N'Jadaka!" Shuri exclaimed, and he was about to reply, saying it was only a question but the other man answered first.
"It's fine, Shuri." First name basis, that meant that they had known each other for a while. Even the little things held information
"See Princess, it's fine." He replied, smirking
"I'm James." The guy answered, his voice gave nothing away but at this point the prince hadn't expected it to.
"You got a last name, James?" He asked, leaning back in his chair.
"Barnes."
"Do you give multiple word answers or...?" N'Jadaka teased but it was a legitimate question.
"Only when I need to." James Barnes answered with a smirk.
He could work with this. The guy was getting more comfortable, more expressive.
"Where'd you lose your arm, James Barnes?" He asked, emphasizing the guy's name.
"Somewhere in Europe, I don't remember exactly where."
"Freak accident?" Questioning this guy was fun.
"Something like that." The guy answered with a shrug.
"Well, what happened?" He asked, leaning forward.
"I fell off of a moving train, and into the ice below. I was holding on with this arm," he gestured to the arm that was amputated so far up his arm that he had little more than his shoulder left, " and it got mangled in the fall. The people who found me just cut the whole arm."
"None of it was salvageable?" He asked, most of the time at least some of the arm was able to be saved.
"It was, taking the rest of it off made things less complicated. Or that's what they said, I didn't get a say in it. Nothing I can do now." Unlike the before when his voice was more friendly, it was now dejected and hurt, more strained.
N'Jadaka knew that he should drop it, he knew he'd seen this guy's tell and that if he kept pushing he'd get what was coming to him. But he was also curious, he wanted to know the ins and outs of this guy. He wanted to know why this guy was let in the country, in the palace and why the Princess was working on an arm for him.
But he could do that another time, preferably when the princess wasn't around. She wouldn't let him pry to his heart's content. Maybe he'd get the guy alone, then he could really learn everything.
"James Barnes, what'd you do in the military? I'm thinking, the Marines, probably the kinda guy no one wanted to go hand-to-hand with. Or maybe everyone wanted to, to prove their strength. Probably went head first into whatever you got assigned." Was what the prince chose to say instead.
"Didn't know someone could be that wrong." James responded, and he chuckled a bit.
And N'Jadaka took that as a win, he'd got the guy to laugh.
"So what's the real answer?" Two years ago, he would've gone off on anyone who said that to him. He'd yell and swear but he didn't even feel like it, it was a strange feeling but knew it was progress. And anyway, he could tell this guy would clam up and stop talking to him. He also didn't know his triggers and could attack. Not that N'Jadaka would mind a tussle but he wanted to know about this guy.
"My rank was Sargent and I was an Army sniper before I was a special ops army sniper." He responded.
"Alright, I admit I was way off. So why a physique like that if you're a sniper?"
"Much like the arm, not my choice. I just keep it because I'm used to it now."
"Then what was your choice?"
"Coming to Wakanda, staying here. Before that, nothing since 1942."
"1942? I think I missed something. You're thirty at most."
" James Buchanan Barnes, have you ever heard of him?"
"Yeah, Captain America's best friend. Said a bunch of corny quotes. Best sniper in American history. You're him?"
"Took ya long enough. I was starting to think you'd never get it. And those quotes are all fake, I never said any of that." James said with a smirk.
"How are you still alive, and why do you look so young?" The prince hadn't felt curiosity this intensely in a long time, if ever.
"When I was captured they gave me a version of a super Soldier serum, not much of it took but enough to preserve me when I fell off the train. Hydra found me and then you know what happened to my arm." He grimaced at that.
"As for how I kept my dashing good looks and youth, for the better part of 70 years, I've been in cryopreservation. That's the fancy term for being put in a freezer so that I don't die or age with time and my skills don't deteriorate."
"And what happened when you weren't frozen?"
"Bad things that I don't like to talk about."
And the conversation died, and the prince let it. He knew how bad memories could tank a mood and make someone upset, unstable. The last thing he wanted was to make the guy in front of him unstable or upset. Besides the obvious of the guy being America's best sniper, Hydra's long-term prisoner and being built like a tank. He also had taken a liking to the guy, besides being almost painfully unsociable, he seemed like a good guy.
N'Jadaka had gotten some valuable information. He might've had more questions than answers but there would be time to fix all of that. For once, he didn't want things to be over before he could enjoy them.