Chapter 8
Wakanda is stunning. Tony hadn’t known what to expect really, T’Challa told him Wakanda was nicer than America but he was sort of biased considering he was the king of the country. He had been told that there were several eco systems in Wakanda as well, which was odd for a country so small, but it meant Tony had no clue what he was walking into. In T’Challa’s area there was mostly rain forests and mists that created a gorgeous green landscape that was relaxing compared to his usual.
He loved the city lights or the ocean from his own homes too, but these days the view reminded him of who he was when most days he just wanted to forget. The pain was minimal though, probably because of the distance between himself and Steve. He had less dreams of Steve too and he could feel his bond with T’Challa growing stronger, same with his bond with Rhodey. That- his feeling his bond with Rhodey- was unusual but Tony figured it was due to the unusual amount of time they were spending together lately. They used to be inseparable in college but Rhodey moved on to the military and Tony went on to do things for SI. After that they didn’t have nearly enough free time to spend almost any length of time together. Mostly it was short visits here and there whenever they happened to be in the same areas.
Tony wondered if that ever took a toll on Rhodey like it had on him. It wasn’t like he had oodles of friends and he missed Rhodey when he wasn’t around. But Rhodey has always been the more independent and less clingy one so maybe he faired better.
“How are you feeling?” T’Challa asks, making Tony jump because he hadn’t heard T’Challa walk up.
“Jesus, we are going to have to put a bell on you or something. I’m fine though, I mostly just feel tired and my joints hurt but that might just be my age so there’s that. I can feel the bond waning though.” More than it had back when he was in New York thankfully. It was easier here when he didn’t have to worry about Steve being around, lurking behind some corner or showing up at his doorstep looking to talk about something that Tony was done discussing. The only thing he had to worry about here was whether or not Peter was safe and whether or not some villain might pop up when super heroes super heroing was still a bit controversial. Spider-Man got a weird amount of flack despite causing the least amount of super hero related damage in history, including that dude running around in Hells Kitchen.
T’Challa smiles and sits down next to Tony on the balcony that overlooked the trees. “Good. I recently had to block Steve’s number because I was foolish enough to give it to him in case of an emergency, but I am happy to hear that you are doing well.” Tony presses himself into T’Challa and smiles when T’Challa wraps his arm around him, content.
*
Rhodey never really expected to find a soul mate in Wakanda of all places and honestly he wasn’t really looking or another one- Tony was a full time job, but he finds Shuri anyways. He had expect to get snubbed by the princess less than he had expected finding her but T’Challa informed him that she was not on board with the whole ‘open Wakanda to the rest of the world’ thing so that was probably why she snubbed him. Rhodey leaves her be, figuring if she wanted something out of him she knew where he was. In the meantime he attempted to distract Tony from doing something stupid like try and pet the damn panthers that relaxed in the back yard. It didn’t work well, but the panthers remained untouched like they should be.
“I thought you were supposed to keep T’Challa’s twit of a soul mate from killing himself,” Shrui says, appearing much the same way her brother did. Silently and out of nowhere.
“Tony marches to his own beat but don’t worry, he’s died a few times, didn’t stick.” He was a surprisingly hard man to kill, especially considering how often he went out of his way to get himself killed. Sometimes he wondered if Tony stayed alive out of sheer spite towards everyone who told him what he was doing was going to get him killed. It sure seemed like it most days.
Shuri looks like she wants to comment on that but she doesn’t. Instead she looks down at him with her arms crossed, clearly trying to figure something out. “Look, if you don’t want this that’s fine, Tony’s a pain in my ass anyways and I don’t really know if I have the time to commit to another person,” he says truthfully. Someone had to make sure Tony wasn’t going off to get himself killed and if Tony wasn’t going to do it Rhodey guessed that’s where he stepped in.
“Why is Tony relevant to you in regards to bonds?” she asks and Rhodey sighs.
‘No one told you about the bond, of course no one told you about the bond. Tony’s my soul mate but strictly in platonic terms and the bond only goes one way. Guess your brother figured that might be less offensive or whatever coming from me,” he says.
“Hmm. Why would you assume that information would be offensive?” she asks.
“One, cut the fucking mind games I don’t have time for that shit. Two, one way platonic bonds in America are taboo and according to T’Challa Wakanda takes soul mates way more seriously than America. Which is beyond weird for me because America never shuts up about the damn bonds and finding your ‘one true love’ and all of that other crap. Seriously, we made a holiday out of some guy stoned to death and beheaded because he was vaguely associated with soul mates.” Rhodey felt bad for Saint Valentine, he’d be pissed if he got stoned and beheaded and that got turned into a pointless holiday.
Shuri wrinkles her nose, “that sounds barbaric,” she says, horrified.
“To be fair he died in third century Rome so it’s been awhile but still. People give out flowers and chocolates and these ridiculous Hallmark cards on the day some guy got sainted and ignore his brutal murder. And apparently Wakanda takes more seriously than the country that celebrates that holiday so I figured my bond with Tony might be a little weird to you.” It was more than a little weird to everyone in the Army, so much so that they all asked all kinds of questions that were invasive and rude.
“Did it not occur to you that my soul mate sharing a soul mate with my brother is far more bizarre than whatever bond you have with your… Tony,” she says, lip curling as she said Tony’s name.
“Hey, he’s a good person alright. Just because he isn’t from Wakanda doesn’t mean he’s horrible. That’s a pretty rude opinion,” he says. Tony might have his flaws but Rhodey wouldn’t put ‘American’ on that list of flaws.
“I do not care what you think of my opinions,” she says. He could appreciate her being blunt he guessed, even if he disagreed.
“Then why are you here?” he asks, curious as to why she’d care to show up to talk to him if she didn’t care about his opinions.
“Because Wakanda takes soul mates seriously and I wondered why on earth Bast would pair me with you,” she says. Back to that blunt honesty, Rhodey supposed.
“Find anything to give you an answer?” The question is more of a courtesy than anything, he wasn’t sure he liked Shuri all that much.
For a long moment she says nothing, just looks at him. “Surprisingly yes. People do not like me, I am harsh and unforgiving and people do not know what to do with that. You do not seem to care about that, nor or you intimidated by it. That is a rarity in my life.”
“Twenty five years of dealing with a guy who thinks saying whatever he wants whenever he wants and has extreme trust issues prepares a guy to deal with a prickly personality. You might want to work on not being insufferable though,” he tells her, dishing out his own dose of harsh bluntness before he leaves to go find Tony.
When he does finally find his best friend Tony is covered in dirt and he looks traumatized as T’Challa dusts him off. “The hell happened to you?” he asks as he wheels up.
“I uh… decided to go for a walk in the forest and sort of fell down a really big hill and almost got eaten by a snake five times my size. Damn thing scared me so bad I managed to run back up the hill,” he says, looking very much like he had run into an unusually large snake.
“You know what, I finally found one of those silver linings you told me I should look for the other day. Normally I would be right there with you about to be eaten by a snake that god should have never created by now when you decide to do stupid things like explore forests in foreign countries I can just say ‘nope, I don’t have legs’. How’s that for a silver lining?” he says smugly.
“Can we just skip to the part where we feel bad for me?” Tony asks.
“No because you did this to yourself and you can think about why what you did was a bad idea for a moment so you don’t do it again,” Rhodey tells him.
“I’m not going to stop checking things out because I almost got eaten by some stupid snake,” Tony says.
“Will very large spiders deter you?” T’Challa asks. Rhodey lets out a shriek completely by accident and Tony laughs.
“No, but it might convince Rhodey to care about me again,” he says.
T’Challa frowns at him and he shrugs, “I really don’t like bugs. They freak me out, spiders don’t even need that many legs. Or that many eyes. It isn’t right.”
*
Steve can feel when the bond breaks, can feel it when Tony lets go of the last bit of the bond than held them together and it hurts. They way it hurts isn’t really physical though he has physical pain too, but the pain is more emotional. He can feel the bone deep loss of his soul mate and to some other soul mate too. Somehow that makes it all worse because now he knew that Tony didn’t just let go, he actually found someone better.
The serum was supposed to make him perfect in every way and he supposed maybe that was why he didn’t work on his relationship with Tony. Maybe he thought it didn’t need work, or maybe he just assumed Tony would stay. He really did love Tony, more than anything except maybe Bucky. But he’s known Bucky longer, had more of a history with him. He wished that Tony had been able to see how much Steve still cared about him though, how much he had wanted the bond. He thought he fought for it but…
“I’m sorry,” Sam says; hand on his back rubbing slow circles into it. Bucky sits across the room not knowing what to do so he throws a coaster at Sam, who smacks it away easily. They start bickering, shooting insults back and forth at an impressive speed and bonding in their weird way and Steve sighs, feeling what was left of his bond with Tony dangle there, not quite making its connection anymore.