Inimitable

Its not that he doesn’t want the attention, Tony has always been fond of being the center of attention, but sometimes a guy wants a little time to himself and T’Challa has basically glued himself to Tony’s side. In the last three days he thinks the only time he’s gotten to himself is bathroom time and even then the cat has taken to trying to get in the door too. Instead of being let in she sits at the door and cries until he comes back out.

Shuri frowns at him, “what are you doing?” she asks.

“Hiding from your damn brother. I love him dearly but the man needs to give me some damn space,” he says. Plus Everett is still lingering somewhere in the lab drooling over Shuri’s tech. He’s taken a particular liking to Wakandan methods of air travel, which it turns out is T’Challa’s area of expertise but still. He’s also pretty fond of Shuri even if Tony is positive Everett thinks she’s an actual practitioner of magic. In his defense Tony thinks that being able to heal gun shot wounds in less than a day is fucking impressive too but to Shuri its normal. Point is he figures he can use Everett as an excuse as to why he’s hiding.

“And why are you hiding from my brother?” Shuri asks, raising an eyebrow.

Tony sighs, “he’s basically sewn himself to my hip, I need some breathing room.”

“Under my lab table?” Shuri asks.

“Seemed like as good a place as any,” Tony says, shrugging.

“Well I need the table so get out from under it. And get Everett out of my lab- he’s annoying me. Its like Americans have never seen technology before,” she mumbles, shaking her head.

Tony crawls out from under the table and stands, “in our defense we’ve never seen technology like yours so. Also where is Everett?” he asks. He hasn’t seen him since he woke up the day after being shot really confused and sure that he’d been out for at least four months.

“Probably the weapons room downstairs,” Shuri says, “seems like Americans love their weapons too.”

He snorts, “I mean the right to own guns is literally written into our Constitution so yeah, America loves their weapons,” he says. He turns to go hunt Everett down and just about runs into T’Challa doing so. He doesn’t mean to let out a loud groan but he does, earning a hurt look from T’Challa for his efforts. Oops. Shuri winces and makes quickly makes a hasty retreat from the lab and Tony resents her for that, really. “Um…” Tony mumbles when T’Challa doesn’t say anything. “Sorry?” It comes out as more of a question than a statement.

“Are you… hiding from me?” he asks and Tony sighs. At least he can take some kind of pleasure in knowing that T’Challa isn’t a total moron.

“Yeah. I appreciate that you care, but damn, I need more time alone than the time it takes to shit,” he says. “What exactly prompted you to glue yourself to me anyways?” he asks, frowning.

T’Challa’s eyes just about bug out of his head at that. “Tony, I almost watched you die,” he says, obviously shocked that Tony hadn’t considered this before.

He shrugs, “I didn’t though.”

T’Challa sighs, “I love you, but your emotional competence ranges from impressive to the point of frightening to so absolutely stupid that Concrete probably holds more emotional intelligence than you. Anyways, I watched W’Kabi all but throw you at a violent man looking to kill everyone in that room and you had no weapons, not training that I knew of, and no time to duck. Then you stuck your hand over the muzzle of the gun like that would help and I thought when he fired you would die. Forgive me for being frightened by that,” he says.

Tony sighs, “be freaked out all you want, just do it not attached to my hip. Sometimes a guy needs space. And I’m fine- I’m a lot harder to kill than I look.”

T’Challa reaches out, carefully tracing his thumb over Tony’s cheek. “I know you’re strong and resilient, but that doesn’t make you immortal. But I will give you some space- I didn’t even notice that I wasn’t.” Tony knows that, which is why he isn’t annoyed at T’Challa. Its not like he went out of his way to purposefully annoy the hell out of Tony or that he intentionally situated himself heavily in his life as some kind of way to mark his territory, its just that Klaw apparently scarred him for life. Well, him and the rest of the country.

*

Rhodey looks annoyed on the screen and Tony sighs, “what is it that you’ve got against T’Challa anyways?” he asks. Why Rhodey took a near immediate dislike to the man he has no idea, especially when T’Challa is genuinely amazing. He sort of wishes he could go back in time to tell his past self not to be so hard on T’Challa when he first got here because his life here is pretty great now that Wakanda has mostly settled down about his being a foreigner. T’Challa says it helps that Tony is relatively open to the public now and, of course, there’s the whole thing with Klaw and W’Kabi.

As it turns out most of the fear around his foreign status took a turn for the weird when the country found out about W’Kabi’s murder attempt. Even a good portion of the border tribe decided to divorce themselves from beliefs like that. Tony doesn’t think the change of opinion is as strong as T’Challa thinks it is but Tony has a lot more experience in what discrimination looks like. Out of the two of them Tony is more equipped with experience to know that people not agreeing with extremists doesn’t mean they have no irrational fear or hatred at all, just that they’re benevolent enough to not actively want you dead. In its own way that’s more insidious- its easy to write off an extremist, but its more difficult to explain to generally good people that their opinions still aren’t right. But they’ll get to that later.

Rhodey frowns at him, “what, did you not notice how jealous he was?” he asks.

Tony rolls his eyes, “I have functioning senses, so yes,” he says. But he mostly ignored it because it had been abundantly clear that whatever T’Challa’s problem was he didn’t seem intent on making it Tony’s problem. That and he watched Nakia call him on it- clearly that kind of thing is not acceptable in Wakanda and T’Challa knows it, so he actively made an effort to control it. As long as his jealousy doesn’t become Tony’s problem he doesn’t care. And it seems unlikely that it will- T’Challa hasn’t even brought Rhodey up so the signs point to Not An Asshole.

“And this isn’t a problem to you because?” Rhodey asks. “You’ve never had that much faith in alphas,” he points out.

“I do if they’re from Wakanda,” Tony says. The door to the room opens and T’Challa walks in, smiling at him briefly as the cat trots up to be pet. She’s been annoyed at Tony all day because he spent most of the day before in the lab showing Everett things while Shuri tried desperately to shoo them out. So now the cat is keeping her distance while also refusing to leave his immediate vicinity.

Rhodey squints at him, clearly not following his line of thinking. “Since when does country of origin have anything to do with jealousy being okay?” he asks.

Tony sighs, settling back against the pillows behind him. “Aside from the general respect omegas get here lets take a look at how you reacted versus T’Challa. You didn’t like his jealousy- okay- so to deal with it you decided it was a good plan to rub your scent all over me to purposefully antagonize him and mark me as yours. T’Challa, in contrast, did literally nothing. He didn’t react negatively at all aside from clearly being jealous. I can’t punish the guy for feeling things, and it was you who escalated the situation, and you who chose to mark me. If I’d choose anyone’s behavior to be worried about its yours. T’Challa made his feelings his problem- you made your feelings your problem, his problem, and my problem,” he points out.

Across the room T’Challa frowns while petting the cat, obviously not having considered that. Rhodey looks guilty on the screen to, clearly not having considered his own behavior more of a problem than T’Challa’s. “You’re right,” Rhodey says, “I didn’t think of it that way and I’m sorry.”

“Well, I guess it can be considered payback for that time I basically blamed you for your own poverty,” Tony says and Rhodey lets out a short laugh.

“Yeah, that was a bit of a dick move,” he says.

“We all have our moments where we’re a bunch of assholes. But really though, T’Challa is great and I actually like it here. I don’t really like constantly having to apply sun screen but you know, every place has its downsides,” he says. It hadn’t been something he considered much until he started spending more time outside and he ended up resembling a fucking lobster. Shuri and T’Challa both found it amusing while Tony did not but he has since dealt efficiently with the battle of the sun.

Rhodey nods, “good then. I’m glad that you’re doing well because I seriously had my doubts. First of all this entire plan from the get go was stupid- sending you of all people, or anyone else, but especially you off to basically be a spy was never going to work. I don’t even know how that was supposed to work. All you’d do is resent everyone who sent you there, which you did, and also you suck at spying. Sorry,” Rhodey says, not sounding sorry at all.

“Actually he is quite efficient,” T’Challa says from across the room. “But that is mostly due to the cultural disconnect between Wakandan and American systems. Beyond that I am inclined to agree- I’m not certain what America’s plan was resting on here. Why would they have thought I’d give you information anyways?” T’Challa asks Tony in particular. Not Rhodey, which is telling considering which one held the military rank. Even with Rhodey’s clearly confused nature on the subject if this were America that question would have gone to Rhodey.

“It relied on me being an omega and you being an alpha. They assumed I’d seduce the information out of you,” Tony says and T’Challa frowns, not making that leap but realization dawns of Rhodey’s face.

“Oh my god, they wanted you to be a concubine?” he asks and Tony rolls his eyes.

“It is amazing how fucking dumb alphas are. No offense, honey,” he says to T’Challa. “What the hell else did you think they had planned? You said it yourself, I’m not exactly the spy type.” Aside from that obvious question Tony has no idea how Rhodey could have missed the implications before, but ignorance really is bliss.

“I think this stupidity is mostly just American alphas. In Wakanda we would never be so stupid as to think our antiquated beliefs on biology would win us information,” T’Challa points out.

Tony laughs, “good point,” he says and Rhodey frowns. “Yeah- these people don’t need frequent reminding that omegas aren’t useless homemakers,” he adds. “Finally someone who doesn’t think I’m naturally good with babies.” He is actually good with babies, but that’s because he likes kids, not because he’s biologically predisposed to being good with them. If that were the case than Pepper would be great with kids and Tony wouldn’t trust her with Concrete let alone an actual kid. He once watched someone hand a baby to her and her first response was to set it on the edge of a table where Tony saved it before the poor kid fell off and suffered brain damage.

*

“This is amazing,” Everett says, looking out at the Wakandan sunset from a cliff Tony had found not long ago. Nakia brought him to it, preferring it as a look out point over the mountain.

“I know,” Tony says.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen the sky this clear,” Everett says.

“I know,” Tony repeats.

“They did all this with vibranium?” Everett asks and Tony nods.

“There’s this lake T’Challa showed me. Its so clear you can see the bottom two hundred feet down and its safe to swim in.” Everett looks as amazed as Tony must have and he shakes his head.

“This is amazing,” he repeats. “I can’t believe this has been under all our noses for… forever, essentially.”

Yeah, hard to believe considering how incredibly advanced the country is. You would think someone would notice, but Wakanda managed to keep everyone at bay with one hell of an impressive illusion around the border kept running by the border tribe. “Nakia- the woman that wasn’t one of the Dora Milaje,” he clarifies, “thinks Wakanda should share its resources.”

Everett shakes his head immediately. “People would be terrified of this,” he says.

Tony is inclined to agree. “But she makes a point about what Wakanda can do for the world. They could change everything we know about how the environment functions. There are a lot of people who could use that help,” Tony says.

“You can’t possibly be that naïve- people would literally kill for this,” Everett says, gesturing around.

“They already do, Everett. But they can’t kill each other over what they all already have. Look, I get the suspicion and I don’t really disagree with it, but Nakia kind of has a point. Seems selfish to keep such… life changing resources to yourself,” he says softly.

Everett snorts, “coming from a rich guy,” he mumbles.

Well, Tony earned that. “In my defense I had no idea what poverty was actually like until I got exposed to it. And I did a lot of work to you know, make up for being a selfish asshole after that. Probably never will make up for it but still- point is I’ve lived a good life and seen what happens when you keep all the good things for yourself. Is fear really worth people’s suffering?”

“Is the destruction of a country really worth your guilty conscience?” Everett asks.

Tony rolls his eyes, “your gun shot wound was healed in less than a day and Wakanda has weapons even the most advanced thinkers outside this country haven’t even conceived of. I’d know- I used to be one of them and I know all the rest personally. This country is stronger than literally everyone else; trying to win a war wouldn’t even be a competition. It’d be like a mouse trying to kill a cat. I think Wakanda’s fear is based on zero evidence.”

“Klaw made it in and managed to go uncaught thirty years before you found him,” Everett points out.

“Technically Rhodey found him. And I happen to have it on good authority that Klaw was more than a fluke- something like that could never happen again without someone in Wakanda allowing it to happen.” After a little snooping through the royal family tree it hadn’t been hard to pinpoint who either. There was literally only one option. T’Chaka is lucky that people trust him as much as they do because in America a conspiracy like this one would have been blown in two seconds flat. Point proven by how fast he figured everything out and he’s not exactly a top notch investigator.

Everett raises an eyebrow, “and what do you consider good authority?” he asks, obviously questioning Tony’s ability to trust a reliable source and he resents that, really. He’s a scientist- reliable sources are kind of what scientists do.

“The king. Need a better source than that?” Tony asks, lifting his eyebrows.

“The king just told you Klaw was an inside job?” Everett asks skeptically.

Tony shrugs, “technically I sort of manipulated him into telling me but yeah.”

“You manipulated the king?” Everett asks, giving Tony a skeptical look.

“He wasn’t used to American suspicion. Wakanda is a lot more trusting and people don’t usually walk in with the assumption that he’s lying. Didn’t work out well for him in the end. Point is the only evidence Wakanda has of invasion is mostly fabricated and even if it wasn’t I’m not entirely convinced anyone could win any kind of war with Wakanda anyways. I’m not certain people would try if they knew what Wakanda has.” No point in starting a war you know you can’t win. America’s sniffing around is mostly made on the assumption that it would be easy to take Wakanda’s resources.

“Pretty sure you’re underestimating America’s desire for vibranium,” Everett says. “And their motivation to get it especially after they find out what it can do.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “The only time they got their hands on some they made a giant Frisbee for a propaganda campaign. They wouldn’t know what to do with the metal if Shuri gave everyone in the country personalizes lessons on how to use it. Also I think you underestimate exactly how America gets its way with people. Our military either bullies people, finds a way to buy them, or totally ruins them- none of those options will work all that well here. Especially when the people they’re trying to get to don’t much speak to the outside world and certainly wouldn’t be willing to listen to the American agenda. Besides that even if they did they have me. I’m not spy material but I’m not an idiot either- I know how to read between the lines.”

“Well I think telling anyone about this is a bad idea,” Everett says.

“Even if it costs everyone but the people here?” Tony asks, raising an eyebrow.

Everett shakes his head, “we’re all more resilient than that. People talk about cockroaches surviving a nuclear blast but humans survive almost as much. Whatever we’re dealing with now its nothing we won’t survive.”