Panther forms are extremely rare and no just in Wakanda, but it seemed that they were especially rare in Wakanda. Only those worthy of the power of the Black Panther would receive the form- a gift from their panther goddess Bast. There were not many from history who had the form his father did and when it came his day to shift he had been nervous he would be one of those ridiculous birds that Shuri insisted he would be. But he wasn’t. There on the edges of their ceremonial waterfall with the whole country watching T’Challa turned into a black panther like his father before him.
*
Tony came from a rare breed of shifters and while they all seemed to have the right genes the Stark family didn’t seem to have anyone in the family, at least for the last hundred years, who got the lucky match in the recessive gene. At least until him. Howard always told him he was worthless, that he’d never amount to anything and Tony used to believe him too- at least until his thirteenth birthday when his mom had walked into his room with breakfast and screamed, dropping the food she was holding on the ground. In her defense if Tony found a small red and gold dragon in place of his kid in his bed he’d probably scream too. But it did make him the first dragon shifter that had been born in almost three hundred years, and the first shifter in the family in just over a century. And the last shifter had been a much less cool German Shepard.
The dragon thing alone would have landed him in history books, but combine that with his genius and ability to invent and he was practically made to be relevant. Howard might hade thought him worthless but it wasn’t true, and the biggest fuck you Tony could have given him was making him a footnote in his son’s life. It brought him far too much joy to know that Howard’s immortal claim to fame would be as the father of a great man, and the parents of greats were really only an afterthought.
*
When T’Challa meets Tony he is basking in the sun in his panther form with an ear cocked, listening to a couple of dogs barking. He’s never been fond of dogs or dog shifters- always too touchy for his tastes. He listens as the dogs draw closer but the last thing he expects is a large chocolate lab quickly followed by a golden retriever chasing after… T’Challa tilts his head to the side because the dogs were after a small lizard of some kind. He tries to remember what lizard species were in America but he couldn’t remember any that would live in the climate he was currently in nor could he remember anything that was red and gold. Not yellow- gold.
The lizard’s scales shimmered in the light and it only seems to draw the dogs closer as the poor lizard picks up speed. T’Challa stands as the lizard draws closer and just as the dogs reach him he lifts a large paw and smacks the golden retriever, who’s face smacks right into the lab. They both stumble and shake their heads and bodies, confused over what just happened. T’Challa looks for the lizard and his eyes grow wide as he spies it at his feet looking up at him with unnaturally intelligent brown eyes that almost looked gold in the light. Shifter. The dogs look over too and T’Challa notes their blue eyes held too much awareness for them to be normal dogs. But what were they doing chasing a dragon? Those were rare, more rare than panthers if memory served given that Wakanda has not produced a dragon in so long they weren’t sure they ever had them.
The dragon makes a small chirping noise and T’Challa finds it immediately endearing so he pokes at it with his nose, making a low rumbling noise himself. This earns him twin growls from the dogs, who leap back when T’Challa lets out a loud growl of his own, ear flattening to his skull as he does so. It takes him an embarrassing amount of time to figure out what just happened but in his defense the dragon looked just as confused as he did until he figured it out.
*
Given his generally shitty personality Tony didn’t think he’d have a soul mate let alone one willing to smack the shit out of Bucky and Steve. Granted T’Challa had no way of knowing they did this all the time- it was the only way Bucky and Steve could convince him to exercise- but damn if he wasn’t amused when T’Challa smacked Steve’s head into Bucky’s. When he was a kid his mom used to warn him that if he and Rhodey kept bickering she’d smack their heads together like a pair of cymbals but he’d never actually seen anyone do it until T’Challa. And that didn’t even touch on the fact that he was apparently a fucking prince too. Tony clearly hit the soul mate lottery and T’Challa? Not so much though he seemed quite smitten with Tony. Probably because he didn’t know him well yet.
“Tell me about yourself,” T’Challa tells him in a low, velvety voice that matches his outward poise and grace. It matches his shifter form too, Tony notes.
“Um,” he says intelligently and sighs. “I’m an inventor, a very good one. I run my own business that I technically inherited from my father but I took it to places he never would have guessed it could go. I’m kind of a pain in the ass, and I’m enthused that you smacked the crap out of my friends earlier and then growled at them when they were annoyed that you sniffed me.” Bucky and Steve had been thrown but Tony found it hilarious and maybe played up being helpless a little bit to gain some more attention from the panther he had hid under. In his defense T’Challa had complied easily, nosing at Tony to check for wounds while Tony feigned injury. Steve and Bucky had been pissed about it later but Tony maintained it was worth it.
T’Challa ducks his head a little, “sorry about that. I thought they were trying to eat you,” he says.
Tony shrugs, “honest mistake, and they were forcing me to exercise and that’s basically torture so I mean you still technically saved me,” he says, grinning.
“I thought you said you were a pain in the ass,” T’Challa says, smiling back at him.
“I am, you just don’t know it yet,” Tony chirps.
*
Whatever Tony thinks of himself might be unpleasant T’Challa finds him delightful. He’s intelligent, engaging, and his features were striking. His own country’s beauty standards were not what was expected near everywhere else in the world, which made Tony far different than anything Wakanda found appealing, but T’Challa doesn’t mind. Tony had beautiful eyes anyways; framed by dark lashes that were so thick it almost looked like he was wearing makeup to achieve that look. Shuri would be jealous. T’Challa was a little jealous.
Regardless, Tony is animated and bright and it doesn’t take long for T’Challa to be drawn to him by more than whatever measly connection was generated by a soul bond. Tony explains that America but a heavy emphasis on the bond but Wakanda doesn’t do that so T’Challa had been a little lost on the customs Tony is used to but Tony is lost on his too so it works out. They both agree that whatever connection they had though it was something they were going to explore further.
*
Tony loves Wakanda even if the country didn’t much love him back- they were suspicious of outsiders and Tony guesses they have reason for that but he mostly ignored the less pleased section of the population and basks in the sun. T’Challa sits beside him as a panther, gently nosing him when Tony spreads out too far away and snorts when Tony gives him an annoyed look. He crawls closer though, right into T’Challa’s warm side and the fur felt surprisingly nice against his scales. It helps, he thinks, that the fur was dark and collected the heat, which was what his scaly body needed. Sometimes when people made jokes about him being cold blooded he laughed because it was half true.
T’Challa curls his body around Tony, allowing his body heat to envelop him and his dark fur attracts more heat so Tony sinks into it. Sometimes New York sucked- most people with cold-blooded shifter forms lived in tropical or at least warm areas but Tony didn’t want to leave New York. Heat lamps were shitty compared to the actual sun but he made do. Of course he wouldn’t mind making do with trips to Wakanda though- the country is warm and T’Challa is soft. Everything a guy could want. At least until T’Challa noses him a little and licks him. Tony smacks his nose, earning an irritated snort from T’Challa but Tony did not appreciate being licked. Better than the dead birds feline shifters usually brought though, he guesses.
*
“I didn’t expect to see that in a newspaper,” T’Challa says, looking down at the New York Times.
“In their defense a dragon riding a panther is a pretty odd sight,” Tony says. Of course it had been faster for T’Challa to just run to his meeting as a panther and he was late, and he was headed towards SI so Tony hitched a ride. It worked for everyone, but now it was a huge news story and a meme in both America and Wakanda.
T’Challa sighs, drawing Tony into his lap. “If I have to see one more meme of Shuri’s creation about you using me as a taxi I may have to ban her from the country,” he says.
Tony snorts, “like I’m fairing better than you- I’m the only dragon shifter currently alive, I couldn’t even say it was some other idiot riding a panther through New York.”
“I’m sure you would have blamed Justin Hammer,” T’Challa says.
“Obviously, but he’s not cool enough to be a dragon. He shouldn’t even be cool enough to be a parrot but I guess he’s annoying enough to be one,” Tony says. Once, because he was an asshole, he snuck into Hammer’s house while and he had been in bird form- the logistics had been a bitch to plan- and he swapped Hammer out for an actual bird. Then he got the joy of watching his family comment on how his feathers looked nicer than usual and that he was well behaved for once. Tony had laughed way too hard at that while the actually Hammer squawked away in the back of his car while he watched his family completely miss the fact that the bird was not their bird.
“I don’t understand why you dislike him so much,” T’Challa says.
“Because he’s a prick- like a low rent off brand version of me or so he attempts anyways. Honestly even off brand is a compliment for him,” Tony says, nose in the air. T’Challa sighs and presses his face into Tony’s neck, rubbing his cheek there. Cat thing, Tony has learned, and big cats were basically giant deadly house cats apparently. Dragons didn’t do anything to indicate mates that he knew of, but they did hoard things and T’Challa was thankfully accepting of his bots. Its not like he had many but he would protect them with his life even if Dummy was currently wearing a dunce cap. He knew what he did.
“Hammer is not worthy of your attentions, stop giving him what he wants,” T’Challa tells him.
Tony snorts, “so basically pay attention to you instead, hmm?” he asks and T’Challa shrugs.
“If you don’t mind,” he says. Tony laughs and shakes his head but he kisses T’Challa anyways, happy to give him attention if that’s really what he wanted.