Inimitable

When Rhodey calls Tony is trying his best not to laugh at T’Challa chasing Concrete around looking frustrated with the cat. She slipped her harness and the results, Tony has to admit, are amusing. “Hey Rhodes, what’s up?” Tony asks. His excitement is a little delayed but once it kicks in he grins wide, happy to be talking to his best friend again. He’s missed Rhodey.

“You sound happy,” Rhodey says just as T’Challa nearly trips on a root and narrowly misses eating dirt as the cat doges him again. Tony lets out a loud laugh, earning an annoyed look from T’Challa but he’s fine with that. What’s marriage without a little poking fun?

“You sound surprised,” Tony says to Rhodey.

“Well I mean yeah, your mom said you were pissed.” Shit, right, he forgot about that. He had lies to keep up and- right; he’ll just claim his happiness is due to Rhodey specifically calling.

“Yeah well you didn’t decide to marry me off for politics so I’m less pissed at your call than hers,” he says. It’s not exactly a lie anyways, even if he’s mostly happy with his life here once things settled. It’s hard not to at least like T’Challa when he goes out of his way to be polite and princely plus there’s the added benefit of being attractive.

“Stupid choice on their part,” Rhodey says. “I told them you weren’t going to cooperate.”

His parents had consulted Rhodey? This is news and Tony frowns, “did it not occur to you to give me a little warning?” he asks. Because this was sprung on him pretty last minute and if Rhodey knew ahead of time and kept it to himself that is a total dick move.

“Tony, I didn’t think they’d go through with it. You’d never do what they wanted anyways- they basically wanted a spy and I knew damn well that you’d be way too pissed off to report back to anyone let alone a government you knew wronged you,” he says. “I thought they’d go with someone else.”

Tony squints at the phone, “so you thought it was a good idea to let someone else go through what I did? And since when do you or anyone else even care what’s in Wakanda?” he asks. What the hell even is that for an argument? Choosing someone else to go be a political pawn over Tony- how could Rhodey even do that to someone let alone him?

“Tony, we don’t know anything about vibranium and if Wakanda has something going on we need to know about it,” he says softly.

Need to- what the hell would they need to know about it for? “Any reason for that?” he snaps.

“Well they opened themselves up for some reason,” Rhodey says and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Well from where I’m standing it looks like the only thing they opened themselves up to was an attack from a foreign nation that seems to think everyone has the same resource stealing agenda they do. Unlike Americans Wakanda doesn’t stick its nose into everyone else’s business and they don’t have any vibranium, they’re a fucking textile nation. Report that back to whatever asshole wants to know about it. And fuck you for not telling me about any of this,” he snarls, ending the call abruptly.

T’Challa looks over at him with a worried expression on his face and Concrete pads over, rubbing herself along his leg. He picks the cat up and T’Challa looks unimpressed about it but it passes quickly. “I can’t believe she just came to you like that. Next time she escapes you are pretending to be upset so I don’t have to chase her around,” he says. “What happened though?” he asks, tone softer as he speaks.

Tony sighs, “just more bullshit I didn’t need. I’ll be fine,” he murmurs.

“I’m not so sure,” T’Challa tells him and Tony looks up, confused. “I know you will figure things out emotionally, but your friend absolutely knows your lying about being unhappy here.”

He frowns, “how could he know that?”

“Your argument is not one an American would make,” T’Challa says. “Whether any of us realized it or not you’re adjusting to life here well enough that you more align yourself with this country than the one you came from.” He… hadn’t considered that but T’Challa isn’t wrong. Wakanda has been sitting here for centuries and they’ve never stepped out of their small pocket of space even when they had the obvious ability to. They could rule the world but they don’t, they obviously have no interest in it and despite some of the issues Tony has dealt with here he found it hard not to side with the country that’s clearly not interested in stirring shit up.

“What’s that mean for me?” he asks.

T’Challa shrugs, “whatever it needs to I suppose. Its not my business to decide how you feel about Wakanda.”

He shakes his head, “not that- I mean I’m going to continue getting calls and Rhodey could probably glean a lot more than that off our phone call. We’ve been best friends for almost fifteen years- he knows me better than literally everyone else in my life. How do I deal with this?” he asks.

T’Challa considers his words for a few moments before he sighs, “I’m not sure, Tony. This is as new to me as it is to you, but America will be suspicious. If you think of yourself as more Wakandan than American it will look like you’ve got stakes here, which means you’re willing to hide things for us and that’s the truth. I don’t know how to deal with that- I only know about Wakandan politics and America is so different,” he says, shaking his head.

So Tony has learned. People like T’Challa and when they don’t they tell him in a way that’s obviously supposed to be constructive. In America politicians tear each other apart, they weren’t cooperative, and differences lead to divides. Its not that Wakanda has none of that- but the differences and divides were all because of Tony’s nationality, not anything else. The problems here seem so much less pronounced than those in America. And unlike most politicians Tony has met in his home country T’Challa cares about his people and he takes what they say into account.

“I regret denouncing politics now, it would be useful to know how to play their games the way they do but I spent most of my time flipping the board,” he says.

T’Challa smiles, “I don’t doubt that at all. You do that here too, but I think its for the best- Wakanda needs change.” Yeah, Tony knows that too but it seems like the country has a lot less to change than the one he came from.

*

T’Challa is surprised when he sees who’s been sent to him but he supposes he shouldn’t be. “Nakia! I didn’t know you were back in the country,” he says, walking over and giving her a hug. Its been months since he’s seen her around- she’s probably been doing something exciting elsewhere, Nakia’s life is never dull.

She smiles, “I didn’t you were married until I was,” she says, giving Tony a once over. “He’s cute,” she says in Wakandan and Tony immediately gives her a suspicious look T’Challa thinks is undeserved.

“She said you’re cute,” he tells him in an attempt to dissuade the look but it doesn’t seem to do much to sooth Tony’s sudden prickly attitude. “So, how have you been?” he asks Nakia.

“Pretty much the same as always. Made a bit of a mess in China, but don’t worry its mostly fine, Okoye managed to save my ass at the last minute,” she says. T’Challa raises and eyebrow because he hadn’t been aware that Okoye had left the country recently. But she’s always had a soft spot for Nakia so if she needed help he has no doubt that Okoye would go to her. “And how’ve you been?” she asks, sparing Tony a half a seconds worth of a glance.

He knows what she means to ask because he knows her well. “Fine mostly, Tony is adjusting well,” he says, looking down to Tony to speak but he remains uncharacteristically silent.

“You’re a lot more quiet than I expected,” Nakia says to him and all she gets is a dirty look in response. T’Challa raises an eyebrow at the odd behavior but then something occurs to him.

“He hasn’t had a very good day,” he says. Things had been fine until his friend called and then Tony had gotten upset, understandably, which he supposes explains his strange behavior now. Nakia raises and eyebrow but Tony speaks before T’Challa can.

“America being stupid. As usual,” he mumbles under his breath. Its more than that but he doesn’t fault Tony for keeping his best friend’s potential misuse of trust to himself.

Nakia’s eyebrows climb again but T’Challa takes the opportunity to distract her for Tony’s benefit. “I didn’t think the river tribe would send you, not I mind of course,” he says.

“Why not? We have history and I honestly didn’t believe anyone when they told me you got married. You really are not the marrying kind,” she says. He hadn’t been, not when they were together. Half of their attraction to one another had been based in both of them being… free spirits, he supposes. Though the term fits Nakia better than him in their youth.

Tony frowns, looking between T’Challa and Nakia. “Are we even talking about the same guy? Because T’Challa is probably one of the most dependable people I know,” Tony says.

Nakia laughs, “what did you do to convince him of that? Do it with the rest of the country while you’re at it,” she tells him, laughing harder as she walks off. Tony gives her an irritated look as she goes and T’Challa gets the feeling that things just went very bad and he has no idea how let alone how to fix it.

*

Its probably stupid, Tony thinks, to be jealous of Nakia but the moment she was in close proximity to him he could feel their chemistry. Honestly if he had been asked before he got here if he’d be jealous of T’Challa’s exes he probably would have said no. He’s married to the guy so whatever shared history, and there is a shared history, was there it doesn’t matter now. Or it shouldn’t but Tony can’t help the irritation he feels whenever Nakia mentions some offhand comment or joke or whatever that makes T’Challa laugh.

He knows T’Challa has noticed, he’s very observant. But he keeps quiet because his stupid feelings are irrelevant and the turquoise suit one of the river tribe’s elders is wearing is stunning. Unfortunately for him he’d been paying more attention to T’Challa’s observations of his behavior to notice Nakia’s.

“You’re jealous,” she tells him, sitting down beside him on the log he’s currently perched on.

“Am not,” he mumbles, unsure why he’s lying.

“Are so. You shouldn’t be though- T’Challa and I would never work for a number of different reasons. We still care about each other obviously, but that won’t affect your marriage. If I’m honest I don’t think I could affect it even if I wanted to, he’s quite taken by you. Seems to have been by the start,” she says. “Not that I agree with how all of this happened,” she adds.

Tony raises an eyebrow, “you don’t?” he asks, wondering what she objected to. He can sense more than smell that she’s a beta but that’s probably due to his keen attention to that kind of thing. He has no idea how or where that developed from, but it does mean Nakia probably wouldn’t share the miner tribe’s problems with their marriage.

Nakia looks surprised, “no, of course I don’t agree with a marriage that, from what T’Challa has told me, was forced on your end. What kind of monster would agree with that kind of thing? And that doesn’t even touch on the omega thing; I know what America is like. Plus the whole political agenda,” she shakes her head, “this was set up to fail. Not that I’m surprised T’Challa has managed to salvage it. He’s quite resourceful.”

That… surprises him more than he thinks it should. He might not have known Nakia long but she’s been vocal about several different issues from several different places in the world too. He wonders how she knew all that she did but he’ll ask T’Challa about that later. He winces though, “no offense, and I really mean that, but technically T’Challa agreed to all that,” he says. He doesn’t want to admit it mostly because he thinks higher of T’Challa than that, but its true nonetheless so he’s surprised when Nakia shakes his head.

“No he didn’t, and not because I am defending him either. I love him, I do, but he has trouble seeing things past his own position in the world. He likely thought you had the same reasons he did for this marriage, or something similar. I doubt he knew you had little choice but to do what was asked of you, or exactly what kind of position you were put into. I suspect he has an idea now, but that’s because someone else told him. Presumably you,” she says.

Someone else told him first, Tony is sure, but he has no evidence for that. “Yeah, that’s something I know about him. If I’m honest its true about me too. Trust me I had a lot of misconceptions about the world until a couple good friends of mine were nice enough to correct me on them. He’s trying though.” Which Tony appreciates because he’s not used to it and because knowing about the world around you stopped you from saying stupid stuff like ‘what’s poor? Only having fifty thousand dollars in your bank account?’ Rhodey near lost his shit at that and honestly once Tony learned what actual poverty was he can see why he inspired that reaction.

Nakia smiles, “something tells me you didn’t make it easy for him,” she says.

Tony laughs, “no, not really. I’m kind of an asshole,” he says honestly.

“It will be good for him to have someone around who is as blunt as I was,” she says. She remains quiet for a few moments before she speaks again. “The border tribe- you will meet a man named W’Kabi and he will ask you about Ulysses Klaw. I would suggest having an answer, preferably one that results in Klaw in jail or worse. Doing so will gain you their favor and the border tribe holds a lot of power. You seem to have won most of the miners over, this would be a good move for you,” she tells him.

He frowns, “and T’Challa hasn’t told me this because…?” he asks.

Nakia sighs, “because on some level he agrees with W’Kabi. W’Kabi is isolationist- your presence here is something he considers a problem because all your problems are now his problems. He thinks that will upset Wakanda’s balance but he only thinks that because the border tribe has always held respect and value in Wakanda- the river tribe has not been so lucky so I know his views are wrong from a Wakandan standpoint. But from an international one it is unethical at best to keep what we have to ourselves. We can do so much for the world and instead we hide away, keeping things that can change this planet for the better to ourselves. Its selfish and cruel and I want you to convince T’Challa of that. He will listen to you,” she says, passion high in her voice.

Tony shifts uncomfortably, “I don’t know if Wakanda should disclose what they have,” he says, earning a shocked gasp from Nakia. “I agree with you morally, but I know better than most how my country reacts to resources like Wakanda’s. It’ll scare some people, but others will want to take it for themselves. That could break this country- I say that as an American who knows what his country does to those who have resources they want and they’re already sniffing around. They sent me to sniff around and now that they know I’m not sniffing they’re going to get desperate,” he says, willing Nakia to understand.

She doesn’t, Tony can see that right away. Instead she shakes her head, “T’Challa told me you were shocked by the sight of clean water, that you were hesitant to even go near it at first because water in America is unsafe. That is horrific, Tony, and we could have prevented that. We know how to clean the water, make the environment safe again. It is cruel for us to prosper with all that we have and refuse to share it with everyone else around us on some absurd assumption that they will take what we have. They should take what we have- what we have is safety and stability; they would be right to want that too. Taking from us doesn’t need to end in instability for us- people can’t steal what is already being freely given,” she says.

He wants to argue, but she makes a point so he sighs. “And when people get greedy, and that will happen, what then?” he asks.

“I don’t care about that. We should not let the citizens of this world suffer because some corrupt government officials and some greedy individuals will inevitably try their luck. We help people because they need it, and we deal with what happens when someone tried to take too much when we get to it. That is the cost of doing what is right. Please convince T’Challa of that, you are in a better position than I was,” she tells him.

“How though? You’ve obviously been all over the world,” he points out.

“But you lived an entire life there. Bad in Wakanda is the absolute nicest place everywhere else and T’Challa doesn’t know that. I think he thinks I was exaggerating, or maybe that when I said things were bad I was comparing them to Wakanda. I wasn’t, and he won’t make that mistake with you,” she tells him. “You have an opportunity to do what no one else can- please take it.”

Tony slumps in his seat, “and here I thought being jealous of you was going to be the emotional high point of my day,” he mumbles.

Nakia smiles, an unexpected change in tone, “so you were jealous. I knew it- T’Challa thought I was imagining things but I know jealousy when I see it,” she says.

“Doesn’t help that you look like… you know, that,” he says, gesturing to her. He’s actually not sure he’s seen anyone as pretty as she is and he’s pretty attractive himself.

She rolls her eyes, “honestly that is not a reason to be jealous of me. And you don’t have a reason to be either- even if you weren’t married T’Challa and I probably have too many differences of opinion to work out. That and he prefers proximity and I am not at all willing to give up my travels,” she says. There’s more, Tony can tell, but he doesn’t ask. Its none of his business anyways.

*

T’Challa frowns as Tony spreads out over their bed, Concrete marching around on his back like she owns it. “Nakia his this strange opinion that you’re jealous of her. No idea where she got it from,” he says, shaking his head and expecting Tony to agree with his assessment that this was absurd.

Instead Tony sighs, “I was. Am,” he amends, wrinkling his nose a little and shifting his position, earning a dirty look from Concrete as he does so.

“Why?” T’Challa asks, genuinely unable to fathom why Tony would be jealous of Nakia of all people. Or anyone else for that matter.

Tony raises an eyebrow, “do you have eyes that are currently functioning as expected?” he asks.

“Yes?” T’Challa asks more than states because he’s unsure what Tony is really saying with that statement.

“Oh my god T’Challa- she’s literally the most attractive human on his planet and you two get along ridiculously well and have a history. What’s not to be jealous of?” he asks.

T’Challa frowns, “our relationship failed, Tony. Plus you’re quite attractive too,” he points out.

“I might be attractive but I don’t look like I was sculpted by gods, T’Challa. And failed relationships can be solved if you solve the problems that caused the relationship to fail to begin with. I’m sure you and Nakia could work it out,” he says.

“I don’t think so. And even if that was possible I don’t want to- I’m happy with you,” he says honestly.

He doesn’t expect Tony’s reaction, though he’s expected very little of Tony’s behavior in the last day, so he’s surprised when Tony gets up and walks over to him, standing on his toes and pulling T’Challa in for a kiss. Concrete lets out an annoyed meow because Tony had dumped her on the bed when he got up, but they both happily ignore the cat’s disgruntled reaction.