Boys will be boys
“Protocol Hide and Hear activated, passcode ‘vetsdontscareme0622’” Shuri says to the ceiling.
“Protocol initiated.”
The lab turns to normal as my hut sinks into the ground and floor covers above it. I can see and hear everything due to monitors and microphones. Shuri really had thought of everything. A couch appears above my head and Nat sits on it, looking as if she’s just been relaxing with Shuri. The door opens at Shuri’s word.
Gleaming metal and pale skin enter the lab looking contrite. Their eyes search wildly around the room, no doubt searching for me. Both seem disappointed when they don’t see me. Hidden I smile.
“Shuri, we didn’t mean it. He scoffed at how awful she sounded and was trying to hold in a laugh. We didn’t mean for her to go off. We had no idea her fear was as bad as it was.” Barnes pleads. “We would never do something so terrible to her, please, we just want to apologize to her.”
Strangely it is Natasha who speaks up, “You have to realize something here boys. We took Kara from everything she had ever known, from her home. We spoke a language she could not understand, and drove her in a car, which she had never seen before, across half of the world. The fears she has are not unfounded. Shuri has been the only friendly face she has seen that had any idea what it would take to gain her trust. Shuri has gained her trust and was trying to let Kara put her trust in me by testing me. You both screwed it up. When I got down here she and her room were gone. We don’t know where she is. Thanks to you two dumbasses we have lost your soulmate. We may have stolen her but she was warming up to Shuri, now we don’t know if she will ever come back, or if she is safe. You two will not be looking for her either if she sees you there is no doubt that she will run even farther and possibly end up dead. You two had better hope that Shuri and I can find her, and you two had better start working on apologies for her. They had better be good apologies too.”
The men with faces now downcast nod in agreement knowing that Natasha is right. I find all of this to be quite funny and know that Shuri, Nat and I will be playing back the video to watch and comment on later while plotting my hidding from everyone for a couple of days to let the boys stew. I cannot help but have to hold in laughter as Shuri starts in on them in Wakandan, letting her anger be known as she calls them “idiotic man-whore colonizers” and “good for nothing gun toting ken dolls”. Both insults making me need to laugh even harder, but knowing that I really shouldn’t due to my position in hiding. Luckily Natasha has no such qualms. Her melodic laughter floats down to me a mirror of what I wish mine could sound like.
Both men, now suitably chastised in many languages sulk out of the lab, presumably to work on figuring out how to apologize to me when Shuri and Nat “find” me. The doors to the lab close with a soft whoosh and are promptly locked and turned opaque. My hut raised out of the floor as the couch disappears and I rise with it, my cackling unable to now be held back and completely uncontrollable. Nat and Shuri soon join me in the ruckus of laughter and all of us fall to the floor in a mess of limbs and appendages laughing all the while. It just makes us laugh more. The stress of the day and anger wash away from un in the healing chuckle we have all similarly adopted. Natasha, of course, is the first to gain control of herself as Shuri and I continue to laugh.
Finally, Shuri and I run out of energy to laugh and clutch our sides as we have pain from laughing too much. Natasha looks over at us with humor in her eyes, and a soft smile on her face, I realize that this is the first time I have seen her smile.
I turn to her, having now come back to my senses. “Natasha, why did you say I had run? Will you not now have to go off to ‘find’ me. Could the kimono beads not work as a tracker? Even aside from all the ones that only you know Shuri put in me?”
“Oh Kara,” she says, the soft smile returning, “I cannot help but see you as a child, one I have now adopted into my family. So by saying that you had run, I was telling them in code that you were mine to protect and would return to the dinners when we see fit. I see you as mine, Shuri too. While I would love to be able to keep you locked away and safe from all males, I know that eventually you will get curious about your soul mates and want to get to know them. By telling them to apologize, I was telling them to not only give you time, but assuring them that you would want to get to know them eventually, but on your terms, not their’s. While it is true that your fears are not unfounded I know that they would do no such things unless you were comfortable with them. It was also a way to easily let them know that they are not the only ones who want you. I have a friend, Clint Barton, who if I called would find a way to get here and help me in whatever I needed, including getting you to a safe place. While that would probably end up being his farm in Iowa, it would still be safe. I keep my family safe, whether they know they are family or not. I used to consider Rogers and Barnes family, but after what they convinced us to do in kidnapping you, and placing those fears in your heart, they have left my family and will have to earn their places again. Should it become needed, I would kill them for you. Superpowered or not, I know how to kill them both.”
I am overcome by the thought of Natasha Romanov, otherwise known as the Black Widow, Kaunaz Eiwaz, cares for me. She claims me as family. I do not know how to tell her that no one has ever claimed me as family before. That I do not know how to be a daughter, a sister, and barely know how to be a friend. She reaches out to touch my face and I realize that I am crying, that her words have touched me so completely that I have a physical reaction to the emotions she brought about. Natasha wipes away the tears and I am pulled against her body in a fierce hug. I can hear her heartbeat and feel her muscles keeping me against her. From behind, I feel Shuri joining in the reassuring embrace that is proving to me just how much I am wanted here.
“I have never been someone’s family before,” I whisper out, still encased in the four arms around me.
“That is okay, дочь, we will teach you,” Natasha replies just as quiet. [Daughter]
Shuri tightens her hold on the both of us while saying, “Kara, you are my sister, Nat, you are my family as Kara is yours. I guess that means I have two mothers now.”
We all laugh a bit at that and slowly, reluctantly we release our holds on each other. A soft smile falls upon my face. I actually have a family now, I have people who want to be around me. The children in my village were wrong. I do have a family, I just had to get kidnapped to find them. It is strange to me now. My village does not feel like home. I do not want to return as I once did, I do not long for the wood walls and soft grass. I want fire red hair and black twin buns. This is my home now, not the village where I was not truly wanted. I look to Shuri and Nat knowing that I would fight with all of my heart for this family we have made.
“How much time should we take before telling the boys that I am ready to meet with them?” I ask, a little shake in my voice.
Nat thinks a moment, “Perhaps we should wait a week. I will take my meals here, and we will have girl time. Let the men stew for a bit.”
“That is a solid plan, make them quake before giving them the inch they want.” Shuri agrees.
With that plan in place, we all agree to put on our pajamas and have a sleepover.