Tony has always done things weird and his partners, when he chose to take them, were no exception. There was nothing he hated more than a sub that didn’t know how to say no, they just drove him nuts. What the hell was the point of submission if they’d do whatever he asked regardless of whether or not they liked it or not? There was nothing in that for him, not the way most subs acted anyways. There was something to be said for that kind of thing when it was negotiated but those relationships had limits, discussions, and informed consent. Most subs, in America anyways, were trained to forgo all of that to just please their partner. Tony god damn hated that because most of his enjoyment of, well, anything came from knowing his partners were enjoying themselves. Half the time people were convincing liars in the moment too, which never ended well in his experience.
So now there were things he looked for in a sub, things that he pretty much never found, but they ensured that he didn’t have a limp noodle of a sub that ended up fucked up later because they consented to something they shouldn’t have. It’s happened more than once and he felt like a total dick every time it happened. But he isn’t a mind reader, unless there were obvious cues the person was faking their enjoyment how is he supposed to know what’s going on?
Cue one was eye contact. Subs were trained to look down at all times and if they didn’t it was a good indication they were ‘difficult’. Usually that just meant they expected respect and fair treatment, but it was an easy way to tell whether or not that sub would say ‘no’ when they needed to. That was three quarters of the reason he hired Pepper outside of her excellent qualifications for the job- she held eye contact and when he commented on her hair color she told him to fuck off in work appropriate terms. Boy had she been surprised when he handed her a file and told her to do things. That was probably the most vague description he could have given but Pepper more than delivered so he wasn’t complaining.
Cue two was holding an actual conversation instead of just agreeing to everything he said. God that annoyed the hell out of him. Whoever decided that was a good trait for subs to have could fuck off. He didn’t want someone to agree with everything he said; he wanted an actual stimulating conversation for shit sakes. Rhodey had been the one to give him that little note to pick up on. It hadn’t even been something he noticed until one day Rhodey had disagreed with something he said and they ended up arguing about it for like four hours. He had shown Tony the light because after that it became increasingly obvious that most subs just agreed to everything he said and left it at that. Even when he pulled a Hamlet and gave them five different opinions that contradicted each other.
Subs were supposed to be good listeners and to him that was about as shitty as you could get as far as listening skills went. You can’t possibly agree with someone on everything and even if you did you could engage with more than just agreeing and reiterating what he said in different words. It made things outright dull at best.
Cue three tied in with cue two but disagreeing with him was probably the fastest way to his heart, bonus points for arguing about it. Too bad Rhodey was straight because he was basically Tony’s dream sub in that regard. The guy should have been a lawyer because he could argue. Sometimes Tony disagreed with him just because he was bored and wanted to see how Rhodey would worm his way out of Tony’s presented arguments. He did that with Pepper too but she picked up on the habit quickly and told him to cut that shit out.
Cue four, he supposed, was calling him out of something. It didn’t happen often and for pretty decent reasons, he’s pretty powerful after all and people didn’t like stepping on his toes. Especially back when he was a real asshole about it but thankfully he grew out of that. But it was something Pepper did frequently and unlike most Doms he appreciated it, especially from a sub. Too bad she was with Natasha, and too bad Natasha was with Pepper because she was pretty awesome too. The one time he joked about a threesome he feared for his life for roughly a year if he was in the same room with Natasha and even he knew sometimes pushing your limits was a bad idea. Pepper thought the whole thing was hilarious.
*
T’Challa was used to his own culture, so the first time he had left his country he had been shocked with how people treated him. In Wakanda subs were on equal footing with Doms but in Britain, the first place he ever travelled to and spent a lot of time in, subs were thought of as lesser. And his race suddenly became relevant. He has never considered that he was brown, everyone in Wakanda was brown, but in Britain they were mostly pale. Between the two he had been rather confused, but it was always being a sub that threw him off more.
He had expected to be obedient to people that were, at least by his culture’s standards, abusive and he was to take it without question. It did not take long for him to become known as a difficult sub- always those two words in tandem- and for reasons he did not see. He did not act any differently than he would have if he were dealing with an ignorant Dom back home but for some reason that gave him a reputation. One he felt he did not earn, too. But he had left Britain and went back home and for the most part he forgot about how different the Western world was from his own and instead fell back into his old routines.
Then his father died and he was forced to be a diplomat and now he found himself in America with a reputation. Several government members were certainly pleasant, some even genuinely pleasant, but he was not afraid to call out those who were decidedly unpleasant. They were not afraid to tell him he was lesser and he was less afraid to tell them they were wrong, and an embarrassment to the values their nation supposedly stood for. That had gotten a reaction from the American media that was split between good and bad. Half the media wanted to skin him, citing that he could not possibly know what American values were as if he could not read, and the other half of American media hailed him as a hero for sub rights. He was simply calling the situation out as he saw it, not trying to be some kind of hero or some kind of villain. American media seemed fonder of sensationalism than Wakandan media was though and it was at least amusing to watch given that he had no vested interest.
Unfortunately he had no choice but to be invested in politics so he finds himself at yet another gala of some sort with important people he would like to snub but could not. At least Okoye was as annoyed with this as he was and she was allowed to voice her opinion. “These people all keep twittering about some ‘Tony Stark’ person, I find it grating,” she mumbles, glaring at some poor soul who was about to approach T’Challa but thought better of it. “The Americans are scared of me,” Okoye says in a pleased tone, “excellent.”
“Okoye you cannot just frighten everyone away, I have to pretend I like politics for another week,” he says.
She smiles at him, or at least what passed as a smile for her, “would you really complain if I scared everyone away?” she asks.
“No, probably not,” he admits. He was hardly fond of politics and niceties so if Okoye scared everyone off he would be eternally grateful, but he had work to do here.
“You want me to scare off this new one?” she asks, nodding to someone approaching. T’Challa raises an eyebrow at the easy confidence of the man as he makes eye contact, something he learned was next to unheard of here, and the man smiles.
“No, I think I’ll actually talk to this one,” he says, curious. Okoye looks disappointed but she leaves him be to melt into the background until she was needed again.
“Your body guard is terrifying,” the guy says as a conversation starter as he watches her leave.
“That is half the point of her job,” T’Challa points out.
“Seems to be working, I’ve heard at least five comments about some terrifying Wakandan woman guarding the king. Had no idea the Wakandan king was a sub until that media story blew up. I’m a fan,” the guy says with a grin, holding out his hand.
T’Challa looks at it for a moment and squints, not sure if this was some sort of trick. He could sense that the man was a Dom; it was written all over the way he presented himself but he didn’t seem intent on belittling T’Challa. At least not presently. Well, a good way to test this situation would be to shake the man’s hand. Doms who liked to pretend they were decent liked to try and squeeze the life out of his hand to establish dominance or something. He just held their hand tighter and watched them squirm for fun.
So he shakes the man’s hand, pleasantly surprised when he gets a firm shake but nothing particularly unusual. “I’m not certain I have had a fan before, unless you count my country but that is different,” he says. Nationalistic better described Wakanda and how they felt about him- he was the symbol of his country after all, it would not look good if someone disliked him. There were groups that did not of course, but they were shunned for the most part.
“Pretty sure nationalism is different than fandom, yeah. But I’m not fond of Ross so I’m usually pretty open to anyone who essentially tells him to fuck himself in eloquent terms,” the man says.
“Well I am not fond of people who assume ‘submissive’ is synonymous with ‘weak’, ‘meek’, and ‘stupid’. It seems to be a popular opinion in America,” he says, gauging the reaction from his companion.
Annoyed agreement is what he is met with, much to his surprise. “Tell me about it. I’m not fond of the way subs are here either. Too spineless, makes the submission feel cheap and fake,” he says, wrinkling his nose in obvious distaste.
“That is because it is,” T’Challa says bluntly. Submission not given with free will and a way to say no, at least by his standards, was abuse. Americans had other ideas though, which made him wonder how this one turned out different and genuinely so. T’Challa is good at reading people, it was a natural talent of his, and this man believed his words and T’Challa’s. And he was not at all threatened that T’Challa maintained eye contact. Actually he seemed to prefer it if his reactions were anything to go by.
“Not by our standards. That’s just the way things are, which you’ll hear a lot by the way but don’t believe that shit. There’s way too much evidence in history to suggest that subs are naturally nature’s doormats. Plus there’s all that pesky modern evidence that people who think subs are lesser inherently like to ignore in favor of being wrong,” he says, rolling his eyes.
“You know you are not winning favors from me by telling me this, right?” he asks, thinking he found the motive. People were good at faking it when motivated and he had resources America wanted.
His companion looks surprised and then confused and the reactions happen to fast for them to be fake. “Damn, you’ve dealt with some real jackasses if you thought I wanted something from you. Nah, I’m just telling the truth. The only thing I want from you is a decent conversation given that most of this room is a bunch of subs and I can almost guarantee most of them will just agree with whatever it is I have to say even if what I’m saying contradicts itself. I’ve tested it and got some really sad results,” he says, looking pained.
T’Challa laughs despite himself, “have you really?” he asks. That is something he would like to see.
“I have and it’s really not amusing anymore. I’m Tony Stark, by the way,” he says, offering a polite smile.
“T’Challa,” he says back, inclining his head. “People talk about you as much as me, apparently, Okoye was complaining about it. My bodyguard,” he explains.
“Yeah, they do that. America’s most eligible bachelor or some shit like that. I don’t understand why people even talk about my romantic interests at these things given that there’s pretty much no way I’d take any of these people home. I prefer subs with a backbone,” he says, laments really.
“Why? No offense but you have not been raised to think that way so why do you think differently?” he asks. It was a personal question and he half expects to either be told off or to not get a response but Tony shrugs the question off like it is nothing. Then T’Challa remembered how the media reacted to celebrity gossip here and if people were talking about Tony he must be some kind of celebrity.
“Mix of personal reasons, preference in how I do things in scenes, and sheer boredom with people who don’t really engage with me. Oh, and potential legal troubles in the past,” he adds in and T’Challa raises an eyebrow. That did not sound at all pleasant. “Subs here are raised to do whatever their Dom wants and I’ve have people consent to things they shouldn’t have, written consent and all. After the second time it happened I had enough and started to pay more attention to who I brought home,” he explains.
“And the subs?” T’Challa asks.
“Got the aftercare they needed and an unwanted lesson in why safe words are a thing that they should use when they need it. Thankfully the media never really got ahold of either of those stories or things would have been far worse for everyone involved, especially them given that they pretty much would have been told to suck it up from the American public but,” Tony shrugs. “I did what I could with what I had at the time.”
T’Challa pulls out his phone and sends a quick text to Okoye asking her to research the situation more out of curiosity than anything and sticks it back in his pocket. “So what exactly do you look for, then?” he asks.
“What do you think?” Tony counters but T’Challa is genuinely clueless.
“I have no idea, where I am from I do not have this problem. Wakanda treats its subs well,” he says. The legal problems they had in regards to orientations, well, that was more a problem of recognizing switches existed. T’Challa has met a few, his sister for example, but the rest of the public was quick to dismiss them or outright deny their existence. Wakanda was especially resistant to acknowledging that switches had their own struggles that were specific to that particular group of people. T’Challa has seen that with his own eyes too, with Shuri.
“You really don’t have any idea what I could possibly look for, do you?” Tony asks.
T’Challa shakes his head, “no, I do not. I am not familiar with what to do in a world of subs who do not know their own worth.”
“Pretty much everything that’s happened in this conversation,” Tony says. “You maintained eye contact- big no-no here by the way, asked questions, challenged me in several ways through those questions- another big no-no. And you have opinions, ones that aren’t mine. Oh, and you flat out told me that treating you like a human being wasn’t going to get me anything, big plus there. You would not believe how subs for sub rights act when you treat them like they aren’t garbage. They basically cream their pants, it’s not exactly attractive and it has it’s own set of issues,” he says, wrinkling his nose again.
“Like?” T’Challa asks. What kind of challenges could that possibly present? Aside from annoyance over their reaction, not that T’Challa was overly familiar with the slang Tony just used.
“Like them agreeing to everything you want just because they feel safe enough that you’ll stop if they tell you to only they don’t tell you to stop. Welcome to potential legal issue number two, and here I figured if the person was for sub rights they might remember those rights. So now I resort to finding subs that people label ‘difficult’. That’s code for ‘wants respect and is unafraid to ask for it’, by the way,” Tony tells him.
T’Challa’s phone buzzes and Okoye’s name pops up on the screen. Her text reveals that she hadn’t found anything of substance on the incidents that Tony mentioned, which was interesting.
“Did I pass your test?” Tony asks, smiling.
“Yes you did. Why mention this if you did not need to?” T’Challa asks. Not that he minded more information on Tony and this was not the kind of thing people lied about. People lied to look better, not worse.
“You’re one of the eight smartest people in the world, you would have found out eventually and when it comes to bad things I prefer people to know all of that right away. Besides, you’ll probably see quite a lot of me and it’s easier to have your trust now than to deal with you finding out unpleasant things about my past now than later,” Tony explains.
T’Challa wondered exactly what he would need to talk to Tony about later but luckily he explains himself. “I generally deal with all things security in America, there’s a good chance we’ll meet again if there’s any kind of security warning around you or with you. And before you get any ideas the rumors about me being an ass are true, especially when I was young. I was an idiot in my youth,” Tony says. He looks somewhat embarrassed and if people had access to T’Challa’s like the way Tony implied people had access to his life T’Challa would be embarrassed too. He had been rather… proud as a child and his father, bless the man, had dealt with it as best he could. It hardly stopped T’Challa from being a spoiled brat.
“We all do things we are not proud of,” he says.
“Do you usually tell terrorists to blow up your house?” Tony asks and T’Challa’s eyebrows shoot up. “Seriously, I was an idiot in my youth. They tried and failed, the terrorists I mean. They really shouldn’t try and blow up an expert on bombs,” Tony says.
T’Challa has no idea what to say to that and Tony grins, telling him he’s lead a colorful life. So T’Challa was gathering.
*
The king of Wakanda was a fast friend and Tony was fond of the guy. Mostly he had been fond that he told Ross to fuck off in politically acceptable terms but when he actually talked to the guy he was just that much better. Pepper noticed across the room and left them to talk, which he was grateful for because he got to find out about that time that T’Challa broke out of his country, found a bunch of stray cats in Ethiopia and then tried to smuggle them all back in almost successfully. Then his father let him keep the cats because cats were apparently important to Wakandans and the king hadn’t been able to turn the starving felines away. And that was how T’Challa ended up with ten cats and an almost criminal record.
According to the good king that would have made him the first king in Wakandan history to be crowned with a record, not that anyone would have cared because he was nobly saving cats. They trade several other stories of mischief from their youth, and much of Tony’s adulthood, and then contact information because Tony had dirt on Ross and T’Challa wanted it. Tony figured if Ross didn’t want his info floating around he’d stop being an asshole. He liked Bruce Banner before Ross got his dirty little paws on him and ruined him for everyone, Bruce included. Plus T’Challa was good at telling people off in as nice a way as he could manage and Tony has always been fond of a well put ‘fuck you’.
“So, if I am to put up with American politics as a sub how would I go about that?” T’Challa asks towards the end of his trip. Pepper gives Tony the most hilarious of looks but he ignores it.
“Ask a sub in American politics, the fuck would I know about that? I don’t really do politics unless it’s telling politicians to stuff it and stay out of my business,” he says. He’s done it to Congress a few times when they got a little grab-happy with his tech. Just because he can make really cool things didn’t mean he was about to share those really cool things with the other kids on the playground.
T’Challa smiles, “so I’ve seen. You were not wrong in saying that most of your life is public record,” he says. “I’ve never liked being in the limelight myself,” he adds after a few moments.
“Neither have I,” Tony admits. “I mean don’t get me wrong, I love attention but there’s a limit to that. Sometimes I just want to walk down the street without five hundred people following me with cameras.” And it could be worse- he’s seen what the media did to people who weren’t as willing to tell them to back off. Subs seemed to get the nasty end of the stick there, and at that point it was a toss up as to which gender faired better. Male subs were treated badly for not living up to their dominant roles, and female subs, well they got some obvious mistreatment due to the whole sexism thing but the public liked to tear them apart in equally nasty ways. At least when the media did their best to take him down they tread somewhat lightly with the exception of one Christine Everhart. She went for the throat but her career never did recover from it.
T’Challa doesn’t look quite like he believes Tony, which he supposed he earned after all the stunts he’s pulled over the years. “Any politicians that are subs that won’t make me want to rip my hair out that I can go to for advice?” T’Challa asks, wisely changing the subject.
“She isn’t a politician but she could be if she really felt like it. Ask Pepper for advice on how to handle the media and peers that dislike you on principal, she’s an expert in how to handle both,” Tony tells him. And he’d probably appreciate her methods given how good she’s gotten at finding diplomatic ways to call people idiots and jackasses. Fox News media runs on her were his and Natasha’s favorite bonding past time given how much they seemed to hate her for having a backbone and a real personality.
“Your assistant?” T’Challa asks, looking skeptical.
“More like my business partner but technically yes, she’s my assistant and you shouldn’t underestimate her. She’s vicious,” he says. Natasha taught her a thing or two as well and Tony had to admit that the improvements made her dealings with the media that much more hilarious.
*
“Ten bucks says you and the good king are screwing,” Natasha says in way of a greeting. She’s wearing gigantic sunglasses that obscure most of her face and a huge, floppy hat.
“Are you going to fly away on that?” Tony asks, gesturing to her hat.
“Don’t be stupid Stark, I’m going to fly away on that,” Natasha says, pointing at a broom across the room.
Tony snorts because he appreciates a good joke, especially at Natasha’s expense, and she raises an eyebrow at him. “No T’Challa and I are not screwing. Wouldn’t mind if we were though,” he says honestly. T’Challa is a good looking dude and his ass was suburb, anyone would want to touch it a little but he didn’t say anything to T’Challa about it. Tony figured he’d let it play out naturally, see what happens. A sub like that wouldn’t go down easily anyways so it was best to leave things in T’Challa’s court.
“You haven’t made a move? I’m surprised given your reputation,” Natasha says. It was funny when they met because for the first six months she had one hell of a time separating his persona in the media from his actual personality but mostly she knew the difference now. This was one of those areas when she sometimes got mixed up and although it irritated Tony he said nothing, or at least nothing to correct her assumptions. He did have a reputation after all.
“He’s the king of an entire country, he has better things to do than deal with my affections,” Tony says honestly. So he and T’Challa had enough natural chemistry that people noticed whenever they were in the same room together, that didn’t mean T’Challa had any interest in acting on it. Plus the man’s dad was barely cold in the ground and he was still finding his political footing, he didn’t have time for relationships right now and Tony got that. If he was interested, Tony reasoned, he would tell Tony so. He was not a shy person and that was most of what Tony liked about him.
*
T’Challa rubs his temples and sighs, unable to concentrate on his paperwork. It has been happening more lately and he was not impressed with this turn of events. Usually his concentration is good, exemplary even, but now it was fizzled out and his attention span was short at best.
“When was the last time you took a break?” Okoye asks him, concerned. It spoke to how distracted he was that he did not notice her enter his office.
“I do not have time for breaks,” he tells her honestly. There was too much to do and not enough time to do it.
“T’Challa,” Okoye says gently, “you have people around you to help. Let Zuri do some of the work; give Shuri some more responsibilities even. She has been vying for them since she was a child,” Okoye points out. That was true, T’Challa supposed. Shuri always resented him for being the first born and the heir to the throne and he had no idea why. He loathed the political games he had to play but Shuri always wanted a piece of what he had.
“I cannot afford to look weak right now,” he says. The White Gorillas, against all odds, were crawling out of the woodwork at an alarming rate and he had no desire for Wakanda to pick up the world’s bad habits and assume that his being a sub meant he was weak. In the short time Wakanda has had contact with the outside world he had seen a shift in how they did things. Subs haven’t been treated badly of course- their values there were still very much intact- but he was walking on a tightrope that may give way to those values being adopted if the people thought he failed. It would be easy to blame his being a sub over his grief, inexperience, age, or any other contributing factor in his ability to rule. People liked simple explanations, not nuanced and logical arguments.
“No,” Okoye agrees, “but you can afford to let go of the behind the scenes work. Let Shuri and Zuri do the paperwork while you deal with the White Gorillas. No one will no the wiser,” she says softly. T’Challa appreciated her softness with him because he knew it did not come naturally to her. She was a harsh woman and her job required her to capitalize on that trait and yet she always managed to tone it down when he needed it. He could not have asked for a better head of the Dora Milaje although not everyone agreed with that decision either, but the politics of the Dora Milaje were their own. He did not have much to do with that aside from being guarded by them- they had their own system. Okoye handled any backlash she might get with ease though, or at least she led people to believe she handled it with ease given how little she showed weakness.
T’Challa nods slowly, mentally divvying up the work based on his sister’s and advisor’s strengths before he sits up. “Are you alright? There has been backlash to your leadership and it would be best to know if this may be a potential issue in the future,” he says. He can see, for a brief moment, the hurt on her face but it is gone as fast as it came. “I do not think you are at all incompetent, Okoye, I ask simply because people are loud. I trust that you can do your job, but I do not trust that your opposition will make it easy for you. I cannot afford the public losing faith in you.” Or more faith in him for that matter, not that Okoye’s failure should reflect on him should it happen, he did not control the politics of the Dora Milaje and the king never has. The women were more than capable of running their own organization. But people liked to lay blame in areas that did not necessarily have anything to do with the actual problem; it has caused many wars and disruptions.
Okoye nods, looking less tense than she had before. “Nakia will do best to keep her mouth shut or I will sow it shut,” Okoye says harshly, “we have been friends a long time. She should know better,” she says.
Her tone his hard and cold but T’Challa has been in her place before, he knew she was in pain over the betrayal of her friend but she would never admit it to anyone, including herself. “She is jealous. You have always been more talented than her and she was not willing to accept it, so much so that she has convinced others to undermine you. She will not succeed in her goal to replace you, you will see to that. And if you do not I will,” he says. He had no room in his life or his guard for people like B’Tumba. Jealousy over being bested was not something he will ever tolerate. There is always a better, a stronger, and a more efficient person and he had a strong dislike for those who did not understand that someone being better at something than you did not lessen your value. B’Tumba was more than enough of a lesson in why that toxic jealousy was unacceptable.
Okoye smiles just a bit, her lips barely twitching up. “Thank you. I appreciate your confidence in me,” she says in a low tone.
“I have known you my whole life, Okoye, of course I have faith in you. Besides, I appreciate the way you look out for me as well,” he says. He owed her a lot in life and that was before he even considered her service in the Dora Milaje and as his head guard. It was her that saved him from B’Tumba after all. He could not stand to hurt his friend regardless of how he had been betrayed but Okoye had no such qualms and he owed her his life for that.
“I am doing my job,” she says, face tipped up in pride.
“No, you are doing far more than that and you know it. That is why you were chosen for this position and your fellow Dora Milaje would have been fools to choose anyone else. Especially Nakia.” He never liked her, something always made his skin prickle around the woman but it was not until recently that he had been proven anything but paranoid.
Okoye gives him a curt nod but her eyes sparkle just a bit as she blinks a few times, clearing the tears before they fell. He relaxes some because at least Okoye had faith in him, enough to feel strong emotions when receiving compliments from her. It was nice to have the faith because some days he did not have that faith in himself.
*
Tony had been pretty surprised to get any news from Wakanda but he had been far more surprised when that news had been the almost-death of the king. He didn’t know much about Wakandan politics but someone hadn’t been happy about T’Challa’s leadership and tried to off him but it didn’t go well for them. The details were more than murky but from what Tony managed to put together T’Challa managed to effectively smack down an entire political group vying for his power in one well placed appearance. Whatever happened the way people talked about him took a shift and it was interesting to watch.
Over night T’Challa went from the too young inexperienced sub with too big shoes to fill to a fully competent king whom was a strong political adversary or allegiance depending on your political stances. T’Challa took the change with grace and a large amount of sass that really only made Tony more fond of the guy as a whole. His favorite moments involved T’Challa out right asking people if they thought that he would actually forgive them for their ignorance when they first met. And that one time he told that Swedish jackass that he had no intention of playing the respectability politics game but that was because Tony hated respectability politics too.
“So what happened?” Tony asks T’Challa. They had run into each other at yet another annoying political gathering that Rhodey made Tony go to because he’s mean and he wanted to see Tony suffer.
T’Challa sighs, “everyone has been asking that tonight,” he says, sounding more tired than annoyed. Tony, maybe because he was experienced in a lack of sleep, knew the look of concealer under the eyes to hide the dark circles there so he feels for the poor guy.
“No one knows? I figured by everyone’s reactions to you the politicians knew something we didn’t,” Tony says. It was weird to be on the side of the American public because he usually knew everyone’s dirty laundry. It was half of the reason why the military and the government didn’t just toss him in a detention center and let him fade into obscurity- not only was he too useful, but he also knew way too much to risk that kind of thing.
“No, no one knows what happened, just that my entire country went from questioning my leadership to blind nationalism in a matter of twenty four hours. It had not been my intention to expose the White Apes the way I did- political adversaries of mine,” he explains quickly when Tony frowns, “but I did. And the public did not like what they found. I was lucky.”
Tony’s eyebrows rise again in question because that didn’t sound good. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I wanted to see what I could find before I did anything about their invasive presence in my country but instead of doing what I wanted with what I found I accidentally released it to the public. I am lucky that the reaction was in my favor,” T’Challa says.
For a long moment Tony remains silent because that’s not the kind of thing T’Challa would trust just anyone with, at least assuming he wasn’t still extremely sleep deprived though Tony doubted it. He appreciated that level of trust anyways, but he had to wonder where it came from so he asks.
“You once told me about some personal issues that you did not need to for my own comfort and benefit. I am no fool, you do not tell just anyone that story about your previous subs, you did that with the intent on making sure I knew I had at least one person here that I could count on in some manner. I appreciate the effort you made to be my ally and without expecting anything at all from it. For that I indulged your curiosity,” T’Challa tells him.
That was mostly true, Tony hardly broadcasted his previous experience with subs that really should have known when to quit but he also knew enough about T’Challa through his scientific work that he’d find out anyways. It wouldn’t look good for America or Tony himself if T’Challa got ahold of information without context, and of course T’Challa had guessed right in assuming Tony told him about his previous sub troubles for his benefit too. Tony, he could recover just fine because he’s done worse, and everyone liked to forget about America’s mistakes, but he doubted T’Challa would be as forgiving. Tony didn’t have much of a desire to spend any kind of time with someone who disliked him due to a misunderstanding and he had immediately made and held eye contact with him. He wasn’t passing up what could have been a good friend either.
He was naturally drawn to subs anyways, pesky biology, and T’Challa knowing what he needed to saved awkward conversations with everyone later. And he got a good friend out of the deal regardless of how much gossip went around about them being more than that. The media liked to talk and Tony mostly ignored it the same way T’Challa did.
Tony considers T’Challa for a moment though, deciding whether or not to hedge his bets on his thoughts for T’Challa’s tiredness. “Spit it out,” T’Challa says eventually.
“Whens the last time you hit subspace?” Tony asks and T’Challa immediately looks embarrassed.
“That is what I kept forgetting…” he sighs and rubs his temples. “I do not have time for this.”
“Well, if you want I’m here and you’re already going to waste the majority of the night so uh, I can help you out if you want?” he offers though it sounds more like a question than anything. Damn it. T’Challa looks somewhat suspicious and Tony snorts, “come on man, that was way too awkward to be a real come on. Give me some credit,” he says.
That at least breaks the ice and T’Challa laughs, “oh I have seen the videos, you are not as suave as you think you are. You are rich is what you are,” he tells Tony but the tone is light, joking.
Tony laughs back, “don’t be ridiculous, some people like my cheesy lines,” he says.
“Everyone likes your wallet but no worries, I am richer than you so you do not have to worry about me attempting to crawl into it,” T’Challa tells him.
“And I have zero desire to ever lead a country so please keep Wakanda to yourself. I’m just being nice here,” Tony says. It’s mostly true anyways; it wasn’t like he’d creepily pine after the guy like most of his own dates did after he dropped them off. Not that he’d mind if T’Challa came back, assuming all went well.
T’Challa shakes his head in wonder, “I cannot believe that I genuinely believe you are telling the truth. I never thought I’d trust any Dom in this section of the world. Even the ones in Wakanda get strange with me, put off by my power I assume,” he says.
Tony shrugs, “so you’re king, who cares? To be honest that just makes this all the better for me. it isn’t like a king bows to just anyone,” he points out.
T’Challa nods, “true, but most Doms do not think that way, even in Wakanda.” Tony would bet. Doms here flipped out if subs made more than them or had a high-powered job let alone being a nation leader and a powerful politician on the world stage. Pepper had a hard time with dates before she met Natasha, who just didn’t give a shit. She had better things to care about or so she said. Tony, in his opinion, thought she was accepting because she’s a switch and people got weird with switches. No one seemed to like them because they didn’t accept that a switch could play both positions just as well as any sub or Dom. People didn’t like when people were two things at once instead of one clean category or another. Natasha didn’t judge because Pepper didn’t. And probably because Natasha’s bizarre love of memes was way less weird than Tony as a whole so she wasn’t going to get rejected for plastering everything Pepper owned in terrible rage quit memes when it should get her rejected.
“Well, I’m not most Doms. Or so I’ve been told,” Tony says. His unusual taste in subs didn’t even begin to touch on how abnormal his tastes were considered here. T’Challa, he figured, would find that out soon enough anyways, assuming he followed through on Tony’s deal.
“You are not,” T’Challa agreed, “because if you were I would have never accepted your offer. Thank you, by the way.”
Tony shrugs, “I know how it feels to forget about that particular biological need and wonder why the hell you’re so run down,” he says. It’s happened to him more than he cared to admit. He was lucky Natasha wasn’t the jealous type and that Pepper was far nicer to him than she should be. She was good at working subtle submission into her job, at least if he didn’t piss her off. Then he got papers back late and she moved all his appointments to the morning to watch him suffer. In her defense he usually deserved it.
*
T’Challa apparently wasn’t usually so forgetful, but due to the political unrest in his country he had avoided anything that made him look weak or incompetent. Granted everyone, neutrals excluded, had some sort of urge to participate in submission or domination so he wouldn’t have looked weak but Tony suspected being away from the respect he got in his own country took its toll on him. That, and he was almost certainly pushing himself too hard after his father’s death. There was no break between his father’s death and his taking over politically and it was going to end badly- it already was- but Tony doesn’t tell him that. That was the kind of thing T’Challa needed to learn on his own, and how to ask for help.
Okoye, according to T’Challa, was gentle in reminding him that he wasn’t in his kingship alone but Tony knew T’Challa’s type of personality well. He’s a perfectionist and they don’t often think to ask for help, maybe didn’t even know how to. Thankfully for T’Challa he at least knew how to accept help but that was hard when people didn’t know he needed it. Tony knew the feeling of hiding your emotions well too. He used to be able to have panic attacks in the middle of board meetings without anyone ever noticing. He just let Pepper do all the talking while he focused on keeping his breathing quiet enough that no one would notice. After his parents and Obi he learned all sorts of tricks in how to hide his exhaustion but he did learn how to recognize the signs in others too. Imagine Rhodey’s surprise when Tony knew what was wrong with him before he did. That wasn’t the kind of thing that happened often.
“How did you know I needed this anyways?” T’Challa asks, looking around Tony’s penthouse.
“Experience,” Tony says simply enough, “and I’ve spent enough time with concealer to know what it looks like.” He was also good with color and the shade wasn’t an exact match to T’Challa’s skin tone not that most people would ever notice. Okoye silently moves further into the space and disappears around the corner but Tony thinks nothing of it. She wasn’t going to find anything interesting.
“I’m surprised you only have one guard,” Tony says when T’Challa doesn’t respond to his previous comment.
“Oh I have plenty more, but Okoye is the most skilled. I doubt many people would be able to make it past her, if anyone,” T’Challa tells him. Tony half wanted to see her and Natasha spar for funsies now but he wasn’t stupid enough to suggest it.
“She looks young,” Tony says, “when did she start training?” Natasha said that she’s been training for most of her life due to some circumstances that he suspected only Pepper knew about but he had to wonder about T’Challa’s sever looking bodyguard.
“Her whole life. In my country there seven main regions and the Dora Milaje are women chosen from those areas to train to protect the king. They usually leave home when they are around seven,” he says.
Tony raises an eyebrow. Now that was one way to go about it he supposed. “Why women? Not that I think there’s a problem with that, but why the preference?”
T’Challa half smiles, “you know you are the first to ask that. Everyone I have met in this part of the world has given Okoye a look like they wonder but no one asks. That is because of the history of the Dora Milaje. Before the monarchy was more… lax, I suppose, the Dora Milaje were betrothed to the king. Well, one of them would be. But they were drawn from each area so everyone had an equal chance of having their area represented in the political sphere. Some hundred and fifty years ago or so we decided the system was out of date but the people were resistant. So the Dora Milaje got a new job but the tradition of drawing from each area of Wakanda remained,” T’Challa says.
Huh, interesting. “How are they chosen?” Tony asks, genuinely curious.
T’Challa shrugs, “I have no idea. They are their own system these days- the king only interjects when needed and that is almost never.”
“We are chosen based on leadership skills, perseverance, integrity, and possible skill,” Okoye says, reappearing out of nowhere.
“That’s a lot of pressure for a kid,” Tony comments.
“So is the system Americans have in place that requires teens to decide what they want to do for the rest of their life. At least the Dora Milaje get the option of walking away whenever we would like not that we would, that would be an insult to the king,” she says, nose in the air.
“And if you wanted a family, your own life, what do you do then?” Tony asks. Dedicating your entire life to the king seemed excessive.
“I have a family, my children understand,” she says. Tony raises an eyebrow because he really couldn’t see the woman with kids but he supposed he didn’t know much about her to make that assessment. “You are intelligent though, I will give you that,” she tells him somewhat unexpectedly.
“Thanks? How so,” Tony asks. She didn’t seem like the type to hand out compliments and T’Challa’s quizzical look informed him her reactions weren’t the norm for her.
“T’Challa is in a foreign country dealing with diplomats that either blatantly disrespect him or they are people he is not fond of and he is not in the best of mental states. Being here with you and trusting you to ease that mental state despite not knowing you well should make him anxious, but you were intelligent enough to remind him of home, to ask questions. It is an easy way to make him feel more at ease in a strange place, more like he has some semblance of control in a space that is decidedly yours,” she says.
Tony shrugs, “I had questions anyways. Killed two birds with one stone. Did it work?” he asks T’Challa. Okoye’s head tilts to the side some, clearly recognizing the easy and subtle way he was gauging T’Challa’s comfort level.
“Yes actually. Thank you,” T’Challa says. He looks impressed at least and Tony is thankful because this isn’t the kind of thing he usually did. Usually there was either a lot more alcohol involved or he knew the person somewhat well. Mostly it was the latter these days given that he gave up alcohol some time ago.
“No problem, I have like six hundred science related questions if I need them also,” he quips. How science and technology developed in areas that weren’t America was a pet hobby of his and Wakanda, as it turned out, was a world leader in technology. That wasn’t something anyone expected, but mostly he didn’t expect that.
T’Challa smiles, “did not expect to be replaced in your place as the most advanced technology producer, did you?” he asks.
Tony shakes his head, “no, but I’ve gotten my hands on Waknadan tech. You’ve earned the position.” The things he’s gotten his hands on weren’t as multifunctional as his own inventions, but the materials and design more than made up for it. Tony had like a billion ideas he’d like to pitch to T’Challa but even he knew when to keep his mouth shut so instead of asking the questions he’d like to he moves on and gives T’Challa a StarkPad to read over his plans with him for the next couple hours.
“You are strangely gentle,” T’Challa says after a long moment.
Tony shrugs, “pain is easy, pleasure is difficult. I like the challenge,” he says. That and Howard had been into a lot of pain play. Tony never could bring himself to hurt anyone no matter how much they wanted it. It just wigged him out.
“You are not wrong,” T’Challa says.
*
Tony has always had a preference for pampering his subs, especially because most had no idea what to do with that. Pain, like he said to T’Challa, was easy, but accepting care and love? That wasn’t easy for even the most stable of people and Tony enjoyed being the one to deliver that. It was more intimate to him at least and it didn’t remind him of his asshole of a father.
For T’Challa he went with a massage because the guy probably needed it, and the particular situation they were in made the event more of an act of submission than it might be in other circumstances. T’Challa hardly made it easy though, not that Tony expected him to, but he kept trying to cling to control, doing his best to keep himself present in the moment instead of giving into the instinct to let Tony do his thing.
The average Dom wouldn’t know what to do with that, not in America where subs wouldn’t even dream of trying to maintain any kind of control. “T’Challa,” Tony murmurs, “relax some. You don’t need to hit subspace, just hold onto that place you go to just before,” he tells him. This way T’Challa got the control he was looking for and he got what he needed out of this encounter. Pulling himself out of enjoying what Tony was doing was only going to make this worse for him because he wouldn’t have calmed his nerves any. Actually it had the potential to make things worse if Natasha’s experiences were anything to go by. She had never given into submission when he was the sub of the relationship and eventually it took its toll on her psyche. She still had troubles now, but it didn’t matter much because she didn’t need to engage with that part of her biology if she was at least doing some domination.
T’Challa follows his advice, Tony can feel it, and he’s impressed with just how well T’Challa could hold onto that in between place. Most people didn’t even know it was there.
*
Thankfully T’Challa felt considerably better after he left Tony’s and he was surprised. He’s never really been one for submission despite his biology and despite people claiming that there were needs he’s never really felt them. Perhaps there was something different now, something he was not seeing. Tony mentioned stress and pressure and T’Challa figured that he might be on to something. It was not like he has ever held the position of king before and even when he did engage in politics in Wakanda he did that on a voluntary basis. And then there was all the world politics and everything that he never expected to come with it on top of the political upheaval in his own country.
Maybe that did influence any biological needs he might have, he was not sure. Either way he was thankful to Tony for not making the entire situation awkward and for making things discreet. The last thing he needed was a bunch of rumors flying around about a possible relationship with Tony that the media in both America and Wakanda would turn into some scandal. He had read the headlines about Tony let alone the ones about himself- the man had some colorful stories about himself floating around. Though in the defense of the media only an idiot would believe half of the stories that flew around about anyone that kind of magazine wrote about.
It was something of a guilty pleasure but he liked to read the ridiculous tales sometimes and Okoye always did the best dramatic readings, especially of the foreign coverage. Shuri thought he was a moron for it but T’Challa had to find the good in all the bad somewhere and dramatically reading the ridiculous tales about how he was secretly Ethiopian and trying to colonize Wakanda was hilarious of Okoye was the one reading.
“You seem… stressed,” Okoye tells him some time later and he sighs.
“Working out trade deals is tedious and annoying. And I have already given Shuri and Zuri responsibilities. I dislike this, I have no qualms in making someone else do most of it,” he says, glaring at the paperwork. Near everyone had an interest in the vibranuim mound but he was good at avoiding the subject and producing other trade possibilities. Vibranium mining was not only expensive, but it would be disastrous to the environment, and it was important to Wakanda in more than just a natural resource sort of way. The metal had cultural importance and history and he was not intent on just giving that away. It was the reason the country had been closed off and he would not disrespect the Royal line by being the king to continue with leading the country back into the world only to give away the thing that caused them to close themselves off to begin with.
To say that would be an unpopular decision would be an understatement.
Okoye looks pinched an and annoyed but she sighs eventually, “maybe you should talk to Tony again.”
He raises an eyebrow at her because she was not fond of the man, or anyone who was not Wakandan really. It was hardly a surprise, Wakanda was still quite resistant to the outside world and nationalism here was far more important than even America and in his opinion Americans were the loudest about their pride in their country. Britain was close behind, and a few Middle Eastern countries.
“Well if you insist on not finding someone in Wakanda he is not horrible,” she says eventually and he laughs. She looked so pained to say it and it was amusing.
“He is not. And you know why I have avoided finding someone in Wakanda,” he says. The White Apes may be regrouping after his accidental release of all sorts of information the public found abhorrent but they were not gone. He was not fool enough to submit to someone he could not trust, and being in his position meant he could not trust many. He did not get that luxury.
“I think that people from other countries are hardly more trustable than someone I can do research on,” Okoye says stiffly.
“Tony Stark’s life in nearly its entirety is public record. You barely even had to do research,” he points out, “and the man is not shy. He freely admits to things that even the papers do not know. That kind of openness is not something I would find here,” he says. People valued privacy, and maybe Tony did too, but like T’Challa he did not get the luxury of hiding when he was important to the public eye. It also meant that Tony understood things about T’Challa and his life that someone here simply would not, and if someone were to find out about their relationship of sorts he knew Tony could handle the media pressure. Strategically he was a good choice and T’Challa also liked him. Those two things in combination would be next to impossible to reproduce and there was the added benefit of Tony being able to find out what America was doing at any given time. Even more strategic reason to stay close to him.
“But this is home,” Okoye says, lips pressing together briefly. She does not maintain her unimpressed look for long, likely out of respect for him. She may not agree with his choices but she did respect him as a person and a king so she did not often speak out against him. It was quite likely that she could be the only person in the country who would publically, at least as publically as she was willing to get, tell him that Tony was not the choice of Dom anyone would want. Everyone else would use screen names and anonymous letters written to magazines. He had to admire Okoye’s bravery, and the respect she must have for him. Most assumed agreement was respect and disagreement was disrespect but T’Challa disagreed. If someone had respect for a person they should tell them when they disagreed out of respect, it made a person better to learn from those they were close with.
“I understand that but… but Tony is different,” he says eventually. He did not know how to describe why he was attracted to the man, especially given that he was rather strange looking for Wakandan beauty standards, and he acted strange too. But he was intelligent, brash, opinionated but not rude, or at least not rude to him, and he was curious. T’Challa has always been curious but he has had to curb that impulse to explore and push things to their limits over the years because that is not the behavior expected of a prince. Tony shamelessly broke those limits and stretched them thin all the time though, and it paid off. T’Challa admired that, envied it even. If he were to do that the results would not be nearly as lucrative for him.
And then there was all the things they had in common elsewhere, like sharing the knowledge of what living in the limelight was like. They have both spent their whole lives under microscopes and while they had vastly different reactions to the fame they knew what the other was feeling. They were also scorned for being too different or ahead for their time, usually due to their behavior even if that was for vastly different reasons too. Tony disliked social rules and preferred technology to people and the public loved and hated him for it. T’Challa, however, was scorned because most of the world did not believe a sub would make a good king, at least until he squashed the White Apes. Then most of those people kept their mouths shut because they had been proven wrong. Thankfully they did not know the circumstances behind that.
Finally though, they were compatible in other ways. T’Challa, even with the general respect he got in his home country, had a difficult time finding a Dom that knew what to do with a sub who was used to control and power, who tried to hold onto it even. His whole life his father has pushed always having a state of measured control over himself and the people around him and it translated to the way he acted when he was supposed to submit. He was, for lack of a better way to put it, not good at it. It was probably the only thing he did not have a natural talent at that he was supposed to. Diplomacy, sports, kingship, charity, school, he had been good at all of those things but relationships? He has never been good at those, especially if they involved submission. He simply had no idea how to let go but Tony did not expect him to and that made all the difference.
“He is,” Okoye agreed, “but that does not mean I like him. But you do and you seem to have some kind of chemistry and you clearly need some sort of break. So talk to him,” she says.
T’Challa considers saying that he is fine but he knew that was a lie and so would Okoye. “Alright,” he says.
*
Tony was gracious about his request and immediately comes up with some kind of plan that T’Challa, in that moment, had no real interest in. He was just pleased that Tony was willing to work something out with him on short notice and without making things awkward. He requests a few things from T’Challa and he hands off the information to Okoye because she was nice enough to offer to put the information together for him.
He knows that Tony gets it because he asks flat out if Okoye had gathered what he wanted. Thankfully he was not offended that he handed the responsibility off because it was all accurate, which of course it was, Okoye was in charge of it. apparently she also sent a list of Wakandan holidays, what foods they ate for those holidays, and a list of T’Challa’s favorite meals. And all the ingredients to those meals. He had to admit that Okoye put far more effort into Tony’s requests for food items that T’Challa liked than T’Challa would have. The only thing that came to mind when Tony asked was rice and he could not live off that alone.
That was what started the more… involved part of their relationship. Tony’s presence before that was the occasional chat and information on what Ross was up to recently but afterwards Tony’s presence was far more invasive. T’Challa did not mind because half the instructions Tony sent to him were things he forgot to do on his own, like eat breakfast.
Most of his requests were small and easy to do, like making food, or waking up and going to bed at a certain time and Tony was always sensitive to the time change. It must have meant he kept an odd schedule because T’Challa was seven hours ahead, which meant Tony would have to be up quite late and up early to keep up with T’Challa’s schedule. He resolved himself to ask how Tony managed whenever he made his way back to America. In the meantime the simple instructions added more structure to T’Challa’s life and surprisingly this was helpful to him.
The only thing that had caused an issue was when Tony told him to take breaks, which he had elected to ignore but Tony was far more intelligent than he gave the man credit for and noticed patterns in T’Challa’s texts that indicated he was tired, which indicated he was not actually listening to Tony’s telling him to take breaks. Which meant no dessert for a month and it was timed almost perfectly with one of his favorite holidays, mostly because he loved sweets and that was an excuse to eat them. He swore Tony did it on purpose to make the punishment more effective. He could have ignored that too but he opted out mostly out of curiosity.
The subs he talked to all described a feeling of wanting to please their Dom and T’Challa had never really felt that. Mostly he was annoyed that someone wanted to invade his life so much and resisted when they pushed back. But he had noticed a distinct improvement to his life when he started following Tony’s instructions- it was easier to do that than think about yet another thing- so he followed through with Tony’s punishment even when Shuri teased him with several different pastries.
Tony asks him about it later when he sends his usual daily follow up and T’Challa laments for a solid five paragraphs about the pastries. To his surprise when Tony sends back a thanks for following his instructions he feels a small flush of pride, at least until he reads the next line about his not being able to eat the pastries being his own fault. If he would have followed the instructions this wouldn’t have been a problem. It was true but it still made T’Challa sulk.
*
Online relationships weren’t exactly something Tony has considered, which he found odd given how attached he was to technology. But when T’Challa asked him to help him out a little he figured why the hell not? It wasn’t ever something he’s done before and he knew that Natasha and Pepper had something of an online relationship due to both of them travelling a lot. So he agreed and asked Pepper and Nat for advice on what to do here because this wasn’t something he was overly familiar with.
Natasha advised that he gather information on T’Challa’s daily life, what he ate, when he got up and went to bed, and whatever else he deemed important and then work something out from there. It took some work to figure out how he was going to manage an online relationship of sorts but he figured it out and once he got his footing it was actually fairly easy. T’Challa was stressed and had no desire to think about stupid things like what he was eating and when, so giving him instructions on what Tony wanted him to do had been easy enough. T’Challa hadn’t put up any resistance there that he knew of.
Actually he took to most of Tony’s instructions easily enough with the exception of taking breaks. At a certain point there was no more retaining knowledge, research showed that was roughly after an hour, so he told T’Challa to take a break every hour. That was hypocritical of him considering he never did that but T’Challa didn’t need to know that. And he didn’t listen anyways, Tony could tell because he sometimes slipped Wakandan words into his texts because he wasn’t paying enough attention. He never did that if he wasn’t dead tired so Tony waited a bit to make sure that the pattern was actually what he thought it was and to make sure T’Challa got his punishment right when that one holiday fell, the one that resulted in an obscene amount of pastries of T’Challa’s descriptions were anything to go by.
Of course he could have ignored that, Tony wouldn’t have known in theory, but T’Challa was talkative about things he disliked and the five paragraphs of him whining about not eating any pastries served as a good indicator that he did listen. And he started taking breaks afterwards so there was that.
Tony lets T’Challa adjust to the dynamic before he ups the stakes because the good king was hardly the submissive type biology be damned. That, and Tony was curious to see what exactly he thought of American food. T’Challa had some business to attend to and Tony figured his commentary on American food has got to be good if his thoughts on British foods were any indication. So when he gives T’Challa his usual food instructions he tells him to send picture proof too. He was nice enough to start with pancakes because they were sweet, he figured T’Challa would like them and he had been right.
Eggs, though, nearly had him in tears.
“What are you laughing so hard at?” Pepper asks, delicately pulling her bagel apart. The look on Natasha’s face suggested she found the habit extremely annoying.
Tony hands her the phone with the picture and T’Challa’s commentary and cracks up, handing the phone to the now curious Natasha. “Oh my god, I mean he isn’t wrong,” Natasha says, snort laughing as she hands Tony the phone back.
You Americans claim other cultures are savages for eating guinea pigs but you people eat the result of chicken menstruation. Who is the savage now? This looks disgusting.
The running commentary from there was just as hilarious and it turned out T’Challa was not at all fond of eggs or sausages. And Okoye agreed so clearly Wakandan food was better. Tony figured he’d try it at some point to see if he was right but until then T’Challa’s annoyance at the food was hilarious.
T’Challa’s confusion over parsnips that night was even funnier because he gave the parsnip a sad story to explain its ugliness. He at least liked the pasta though, which was excellent because if he didn’t Tony’s little Italian heart would have been broken. Bonus points to him because Okoye loved it and she wasn’t fond of anything that wasn’t Wakandan in nature.
*
“American food is weird, why do you insist on deep frying everything?” T’Challa asks.
Tony sighs, “that’s a stereotype,” he says. American food, especially in the south, was way more than deep fried things and fast food. That was just a mean rumor Canada spread out of jealousy.
“I have discovered that Americans will deep fry Mars bars and ice cream. Ice cream is a cold treat, why would you do that?” T’Challa asks, looking genuinely confused.
“Okay so those are exceptions and don’t knock ‘em till you try ‘em. You’d probably like deep fried Mars bar, it’s ridiculously sweet and probably heart attack inducing so it’s right up your alley. The ice cream thing… Rhodey says its good but he also likes pop music so clearly he isn’t quite right,” Tony says. Pop music was horrible. Tony could stand, barely, Rhodey’s love of jazz and even his bizarre attraction to rap music, but pop music? That was unforgivable.
“Bacon culture,” T’Challa says and Tony frowns because what? “Americans and bacon. I have tried bacon; it is not that good so why are you people so obsessed with it? There is bacon in drinks, on donuts, you make bacon candles, what is all of that?” he asks.
“First off don’t you dare insult bacon that way it is amazing. And there is no bacon culture, how did you even come to that conclusion?” he asks.
“American men somehow link bacon to both paycheques and manhood, there is a bacon culture and it must be stopped,” T’Challa says. Tony squints because he had no clue what T’Challa was talking about. “You know, that American saying about ‘bringing home the bacon’ that for some reason only applies to men. Likely because women tend to make less but there are some women, I am sure, that make more than their significant others.”
“Not really, when they do that men feel threatened. Especially because statistically speaking they’re also submissives, which means they make less due to that too,” Tony says.
T’Challa rolls his eyes, “the Dominants in this country have weak egos,” he mumbles. Well, Tony couldn’t really argue with that when it was true. He’s seen too many of Pepper’s dates go badly to not agree with the statement.
*
“Ten bucks,” Natasha says, “on Tony screwing the king of Wakanda.”
“Twenty says they haven’t, but that neither one of them realizes they’re in love,” Pepper says. She knew Tony well, she’s worked for the man since her early twenties and she knew ‘in love’ on him when she saw it, mostly because the only time she’s ever seen that look was now. Tony didn’t do love and relationships for the most part, too busy and to little compatibility between him and any potential partners. Even Pepper would have failed his expectations and she subverted quite a lot of expectations people had for submissives. The man was picky.
“Oh my god you’re right. Who’s going to tell them?” Natasha asks, giving Pepper an excited look.
“You leave them be, you know how stubborn Tony is. He’d never admit it unless he thought it was his own idea and T’Challa seems pretty stubborn too. Let them figure it out on their own,” Pepper tells her.
“You’re no fun,” Natasha mumbles, “but fine. I’ll watch the bumbling idiots continue to bumbling idiot until they get the point.”
“We should wrap everything Tony owns in shrink wrap,” Pepper says to try and sooth Natasha’s nerves. The excited look on her face tells Pepper she’s succeeded. “He gave me extra paperwork this week so I’m annoyed with him,” she explains and Natasha nods before they start planning.
*
T’Challa is finishing a speech he was to deliver in a few days when Okoye appears in his office looking teary eyed but oddly not upset. He frowns, “are you… alright?” he asks, not sure what to make of the conflicting signals at the moment. A glace at the clock told him he was due for another break momentarily anyways, he might as well make sure his favored bodyguard was alright.
“Oh, I am fine. My daughter has been chosen for the Dora Milaje, I am just excited,” she says, pride tingeing her words.
Ah, that explained what was going on here then. “Congratulations,” he says meaningfully.
She inclines her head, “thank you. I did not expect… usually children of the Dora Milaje are not picked out of fairness so I… I am proud and happy that she was still chosen,” she says. She smiles, something she did not do much of, and T’Challa can’t help but smile back at her.
“Your daughter must be exceptional, then,” he says. Okoye was right- out of fairness the children of the already instated Dora Milaje were almost never chosen. Her daughter must show more promise than even most of the candidates that were usually chosen. Knowing Okoye that was hardly surprising, if she mothered even half as well as she ran the Dora Milaje her children would be more than impressive. And of course there was her husband and T’Challa supposed he should get some credit.
“She is. She’s incredibly smart, and resourceful, and- well you get the point. I will not favor her though; she will have the same standards everyone else has and-” T’Challa cuts her off.
“I know Okoye. You are fair and you do not let your opinions get in the way of your job. Besides, I have seen what happens when you favor one of the Dora Milaje. If you favor your daughter she will likely hope you stop favoring her because you are harder on the ones you like,” he says. She saw their potential and pushed them and in her defense it paid off. People have stopped questioning her expertise due to her being on the younger side and despite the White Gorillas trying several times to get to the king T’Challa was fairly certain they have never even made it into the city he lived in let alone anywhere near him.
It also helped that the political status of Wakanda has evened itself out some and the White Gorillas were crawling back into their holes to recover for the time being. T’Challa expected them to come back but after a few well placed arrests, some speeches, and some information that he purposefully released this time they were back to being well disliked in the country. T’Challa had won the people’s favor and he had also gained the respect of several important officials around the world not that he believed that would last. It meant holding a grudge against the Dora Milaje was exhausting at the moment and the country has relaxed some, giving Okoye some breathing room.
And the country must like her a lot considering her child was chosen to join the Dora Milaje. That was something that was next to unheard of, not that T’Challa was surprised. Okoye has always been exceptional, of course that would carry on to her children.
Okoye laughs, “oh, that is true. I have had more than one of my Doras ask why I am harder on them than the others. They get better though and that is the goal,” she says. “And what about you? You seem to be handling things better,” she notes.
T’Challa nods, “yes, thankfully things seemed to have even themselves out,” he says. Thankfully, he was not sure he could have handled much more stress.
Okoye sighs, “things did not even themselves out, you evened things out. You have an impressive ability to multi-task, delegate jobs out, and get a lot of work done yourself all while starting and maintaining a relationship with someone several countries over. I am not certain even your father could have managed that. You are an impressive king, T’Challa, and history will favor you. Your father would be so proud,” she tells him.
Tears prick the edges of his eyes and he smiles, nodding at her even if he was not totally certain her words were true. He has made several mistakes too, he has just been lucky to have nothing come of them. Later when he tells Tony about the conversation he agrees with Okoye, telling T’Challa that people rarely gained approval so suddenly and managed to keep it so easily the way he did. Staying in public favor, according to Tony, was difficult if you were a diplomat and T’Challa’s approval rating was better than most everyone else’s. T’Challa takes the compliment because in Tony’s country being suspicious of the government and disliking the structure was the norm while it was not in Wakanda. He supposed he must be doing something right if the suspicious country liked him well enough.
*
Tony hardly expected to bond with Okoye of all people but it turned out they both loved Wakandan soap operas. They were needlessly dramatic, chalked full of ridiculous stereotypes, and had far too many scandals happening in places where scandals didn’t happen but they were awesome. And far less terrifying than T’Challa’s strange appreciation for horror movies of all things. Once when Tony nearly jumped out of his skin, nearly nailing T’Challa in the face with his knee in the meantime, T’Challa asked how he could be so frightened of a movie in a language he didn’t even understand. Tony told him that terror was a universal language, which led to going through several other Wakandan genres until he discovered soap operas.
T’Challa hated them and Okoye would never admit it to anyone but Tony, and only because no one would ever believe him, but she liked them too. So they ended up bonding over their appreciation of the frankly quite trashy genre while T’Challa grumbled about it. “Do you think you could Dom T’Challa into liking this show? Because you did get him to eat eggs again,” Okoye says, eyes sparkling with amusement. He had not been impressed but he had done it.
“I think that might be a tad bit immoral,” Tony says.
“Would it really?” Okoye asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Forcing someone to like something through Domination? Yeah, little bit,” he says.
“But it would get him to stop whining and then we can stop missing important plot points,” Okoye says and Tony bursts out laughing.
“Oh my god, I am not all but forcing T’Challa to like a show so we stop missing plot points,” he says, shaking his head.
“Just saying, that is easier than rewatching it all,” she says.
“Yeah, but then we loose the excuse to make T’Challa suffer twice and who wants to do that?” he asks. Usually the second time around T’Challa didn’t whine and cry through the whole thing because when he did he got stuck watching it a third time and that was punishment enough for his insolence.
“True. But I have things to do, I cannot always watch the second time,” she says.
“Make the Dora Milaje watch it with you,” Tony tells her. From the look on her face she obviously hadn’t thought of that.
“What is it you two are talking about so enthusiastically in here?” T’Challa asks, entering the room and immediately going to Tony’s side, kneeling at his feet. Tony smiles and places his hand on the king’s shoulder. It wasn’t a position he was used to but T’Challa was adjusting to it slowly and he was doing well.
“Making the Dora Milaje watch soap operas with Tony and I,” Okoye says.
T’Challa wrinkles his nose immediately, “ugh, why would you ever do such a thing to them? That is cruelty,” he says. Tony and Okoye snort as T’Challa continues mumbling under his breath but the joke was on him because the next episode was on and he got stuck watching it now.
He probably would have continued whining but the plot started getting good and Tony threatened T’Challa’s dessert so he goes quiet while Tony and Okoye lean forward in interest. Tony makes a note to reward the behavior because T’Challa usually put up more of a fight and he preferred positive reinforcement over negative. T’Challa was learning and adjusting well all things considered and he really did hate soap operas so his being quiet should get him something small in return. Then he’d do it again the next time.