Tony Leaves
Shuri wasn’t sure what happened, but whatever it was she knew she didn’t like it one bit. How could she when her three favorite geniuses were making their rounds of goodbye before stepping into one of Tony’s planes to head back to America and cutting their visit short by three weeks? Maybe if she knew what caused the problem, she could fix it. She was a genius after all.
“Are you sure you can’t stay?” she asks Tony again. “If it has something to do with your company, I can help you build or offer the hologram projection tech so you can be there for a meeting without leaving Wakanda.”
The man just gives her a soft and fond smile before taking her face in hand. “I need to go back, but I promise this isn’t the last you’ll see of me, ok?” Tony tilts her head down so he can give her a kiss on the forehead. “Maybe in a few weeks you can come see me? I’ll need time to get things in order so I can spend as much time with you as I can. Say in four weeks? And then you can stay for a whole month. Might even adopt another genius teen in the meantime. Been hearing a lot about a girl name RiRi.” He starts to let go, but the princess is quick to take ahold of them.
“Promise? You won’t change your mind?” Her voice wavered as she fought back her tears. She felt guilty that she saw Tony in a fatherly way at times, but something more because he could understand her in a way no one in her family could, even if T’Challa was smart as well. He encouraged and challenged her in ways that had seen to leaps and bounds in his already advance technology. Tony was a friend, confidant, and a parental figure. Having him leave was breaking her heart, but she tried not to show how badly. After all, how could she display such emotions for when her own father was only a few feet away?
“Of course I won’t.” The older genius gives a knowing smile. “Once someone has wormed their way into my heart, I tend to look out for them and find reasons for them to come around. You like these other teen geniuses, are worse than worms and sunk your claws in. You’re not leaving. You’re stuck with me forever.”
Shuri chuckles and finally lets Tony leave. “You’re stuck with me too. I’ll get the boys to help me too if you try to forget me.”
“Trust me, the mechanic isn’t good at staying away.” Harley laughs. “He’ll remember you.”
Peter grins. “He has a “on the fridge” protocol. Mr Stark likes to remember what we do.”
“Alright,” Tony claps his hands together, “that is enough out of you geniuslings. Daddy genius needs to get going, so unless you can swim, get on the plane.” A group hug with the teens sees to him ushering the boys onto the plane. Shuri watches as they head up, noting how he gives a dejected look over his shoulder at the goodbye party and she narrows her eyes; one of them caused him to leave early and she planned to get to the bottom and make them pay.
******
Tony left and T’Challa knew it was all his fault. He felt so guilty that he hadn’t even put up a fight when Tony and his children left, and was currently laying in Tony’s former bed in his shifted form, trying to make use of his heighten senses to take in the engineer’s scent to the fullest. He planned to spend every free moment there until long after the Tony’s essence disappeared.
The tiger shifter also hoped that he would figure out how to repair their relationship before then. But at the moment he couldn’t think of anything except mourning the loss.
His feline ears pick up the sounds of his people announcing the loss drifting through the slightly open balcony doors.
Seemed that all over Wakanda people had been affected deeply by the energetic engineer.