Chapter 5
“What are the bugs like?” Rhodey asks him.
Tony wrinkles his nose, “horrible and wrong. They have flying spiders, Rhodes. Flying spiders.” At least he was fairly certain that thing that came at him in the shower that morning was a flying spider. It was terrifying and there was screaming but he’d never admit to that. He had his dignity to preserve and he sure as hell wouldn’t manage if he was screaming about spiders in the shower.
“Wakanda needs to stay where it is forever,” Rhodey says, deadpan. Tony laughs because Rhodey’s dislike of bugs was well documented over the years. Tony, his army buddies, and Pepper all had a large amount of blackmail worthy pictures of Rhodey screaming as he ran from various bugs around the world. Back when they were in college Tony had had to be the one to grow up and get the spiders otherwise he and Rhodey were screaming and jumping around on whichever bed was furthest from the spider yelling at each other to get the thing. Usually the spiders ended up disappearing, which only served to freak them out more.
“Wakanda can do whatever so long as their flying spiders stay here. There’s these creepy blue ones too but Jujube seems to find them when I do and eats them, thank god.” The cat was a lifesaver when she wasn’t getting stuck in ridiculous places, like his suitcase. He had shut the thing not realizing the cat was in it until he spent nearly an hour trying to locate where the cat was meowing. She stayed out of the suitcases now, though, so there was that.
Rhodey frowns, “what the hell is a Jujube? Well, I mean a candy but your not talking about candy unless Wakanda has some horror movie level candy that eats spiders.”
“T’Challa’s cat. He’s fond of jujubes and named his cat after them,” Tony explains. Boy had it been a freaking struggle to get a package of jujubes into the damn country let alone actually giving them to T’Challa. As if Tony would poison him with candy of all things.
“Huh. So this uh, competition…” Rhodey says, making a face as he does so. It wasn’t hard to see why he was uncomfortable given his own omega status. When he first joined the military things had been rather difficult for him given that people weren’t fond of the idea of taking him seriously. Joke was on them, Rhodey was now in one of the highest positions he could get in the military and he was damn good at his job.
“Rhodey, I’m not a creep, you know that,” he says and Rhodey wrinkles his nose more, “now that’s just offensive.”
“Look, I love you man, but you’re an ass. Don’t be an ass to T’Challa,” he says.
“I am not an ass! Okay, well I am an ass, but not about your ABO score. What the hell does that matter to me?” he asks. Scientifically, despite previous pseudoscience, being an omega did not do much to brain function outside of heats- same with being a beta or an alpha. However if you thought it would make a difference it would. Kind of like a placebo affect but for how you functioned and reacted to various tasks. Ergo, it didn’t matter and people who thought it did were not only scientifically wrong, they’re assholes too.
“Mmm, you aren’t an ass because about ABO scores because I trained you out of being an ass about it. And Pepper trained out of being a misogynistic dick, thank god. If you had have met my momma the fist week I knew you she would beat your ass and you would have deserved it too. Don’t look at me like that! Would you have even taken an interest in the science behind the supposed ‘omega brain’ thing if I hadn’t pointed out that it was bullshit? And I know you wouldn’t have paid any attention to women’s rights. So don’t be an asshole because I know you can be,” he says.
Tony opens his mouth to say something, pauses, and realizes that Rhodey kind of had a point. Though to be fair they did meet when he was fifteen and Rhodey was twenty- obviously there were going to be maturity differences. “I am not currently an ass over ABO scores, and I’ll have you know that I’m rather well-liked,” he says, nose in he air.
Rhodey snorts, “oh yeah, being well-liked is totally a good thing. Have you even thought about being married?” he asks. Tony’s eyes triple in size and Rhodey starts laughing, “oh my god. I can’t believe you’d go to what is essentially a competition to marry someone without actually considering the fact that you might end up married. I love you, man.”
*
Tony has never really been much of a person for sleeping and a favorite past time of his is walking around at night. Unfortunately being the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company didn’t exactly give him the time to do anything other than work. Also he liked his lab more than going on walks so most nights he ended up holed up wielding something or designing something else. In Wakanda, however, he had a lot more free time and Obi insisted on him giving T’Challa his ‘full attention’- which was essentially code for Obi wanting Tony to do what Obi wanted him to. He did it with other work projects too, telling Tony to focus when all he cared about was the end result no matter how much Tony taxed himself to get there.
Needless to say relaxing was not something that came easily to Tony because he almost never had free time. He’s designed a few things of course, but he had no opportunity to build his designs and test them here. It wasn’t like Wakanda has labs open for him to use and he sure as hell wasn’t stupid enough to try. So walking around at night it was- there were less bugs at night though he had learned the hard way that Wakanda had some terrifying night bugs. Rhodey would hate it here, but everyone else would get a kick out of watching him run screaming from the giant night spider that lived in the creepy looking trees. Pepper would like the scenery though she’d probably prefer it in the daytime. She wasn’t much of a night person but that was partially because she also happened to be a morning person and a freak of nature.
Tony makes something of an effort to explore a little at least- which was how he found the creepy night spiders and how he learned not to mess with the flora in Wakanda. Surprise spiders were only worth it when Rhodey was around to scream and Pepper was around to kill them. Instead of poking at trees and flowers he took to trying to find paths he could walk on without dying because he was fairly certain the Dora Milaje that were undoubtedly following him around wouldn’t save his ass. This time he managed to find a rock that overlooked a neat looking waterfall, not that he was looking at it much. He had some designs to figure out so he was attempting to do math, but the noise was calming. He doesn’t even notice the crunching until he hears a soft curse from a familiar voice. T’Challa has his hand pressed to his heart and he looks frazzled. “Did I scare you? because I feel like the light should be obvious,” Tony says, gesturing to the soft light that was currently lighting his notebook pages.
“You know that light will attract the panthers, right?” T’Challa asks. Tony immediately turns out the light because no he did not know that. T’Challa laughs, “had you been noisy they probably would have avoided you but you are rather quiet. Which was why you startled me. And your skin- it is so pale, I am not used to it,” he says somewhat sheepishly.
“What? What’s up with my skin?” he asks, looking down at his hand. It looked normal to him; it wasn’t any more pale than normal.
“Tony, I have grown up in a country of people that are various shades of brown. White skin is not something I saw a lot of until I went to Oxford and it was a shock. Almost as much of a shock was it was to learn they thought my race was relevant. I had not put much thought into my skin tone until then,” T’Challa says.
Right, Wakanda did the isolation thing. Whiteness wasn’t something T’Challa would have had a ton of experience with. “So… seems how you probably have completely different standards of beauty am I even pretty to you? because I will have you know that I am very attractive in America,” he says, sitting up a little straighter.
“Did you just refer to yourself as pretty?” T’Challa asks.
“I can’t help being naturally more attractive than most people,” he says, “this is just how it was meant to be.” Call him arrogant, but he didn’t think there was anything wrong with thinking that you were attractive- also he knew he was attractive given the sheer number of people who threw themselves at him. Only half of them wanted his money- that was just a bonus for the other half.
T’Challa snorts, “well, I suppose I can appreciate your confidence. And yes, to answer your question you are rather attractive despite not really fitting Wakandan standards of beauty. You’re… exotic,” he says and Tony wrinkles his nose.
“Did you just call me exotic? I have to tell Rhodey about this- usually he’s the exotic one,” Tony says, shaking his head. Rhodey wasn’t going to believe this. When he finally did believe it he was definitely going to laugh his ass of though.
“Rhodey?” T’Challa asks, neatly sidestepping the exotic thing. Probably a politician tactic or something. Tony lets it go because he’s far more fond of needling American politicians.
“My best friend, we’ve known each other for eleven years. He was the one that found me actually, after Afghanistan. I was gone for three months and he didn’t give up on me. That’s friendship,” he says. Tony couldn’t say for sure that he wouldn’t have given up on Rhodey, mostly because he was a selfish ass.
“Sounds like he is more than a friend,” T’Challa says.
“Yeah, you’re probably right. He’s more like the brother I never had- or like my mom but a guy.” He loved his mom dearly but she had always been a little distant even before the car crash. Tony never would have guessed that Howard loved her but he was a fucking mess when she died. He started drinking more, inventing less, and going to work less. He signed the company over to Tony as soon as he hit twenty-one but by then Obi had been running things for some time with Tony doing the background inventing. Tony, idiot that he was, thought that maybe he could finally impress his father after falling short all those years by making the company something new. He completely overhauled everything and boy did it pay off, but Howard didn’t notice. He had only just started to take an interest again when they took that trip to Afghanistan and now… now he’s dead and Tony was finally doing what he felt was right, what felt good to him. It was sort of freeing.
“That is not what I meant and you know it,” T’Challa tells him, walking closer to the rock Tony was sitting on.
For a moment Tony doesn’t know how to take that and then he realizes what T’Challa was referring to and grins. “Are you jealous? You’re totally jealous. That’s so flattering,” he says, wriggling a little happily.
“I am not jealous. Jealousy is unbecoming of a prince,” T’Challa says, ducking his head a little.
“No need to tell anyone but me. I might be a gossip, but not about this sort of thing. And just so you know there isn’t anything romantic between Rhodey and I- never has been.” There was that one time in college a few years after they met that they sort of attempted a relationship but it went horribly because the chemistry just wasn’t there, at least not romantically. Honestly it was a horrible idea and they both decided to never speak of it again. They should have just left the good platonic chemistry alone instead of throwing romance at it. The good news was that Tony learned his lesson for when Pepper came along and they ended up with the same kind of relationship- one that worked well and did not need romance. Knowing to leave it alone was a good thing to have learned because he didn’t even know his own social security number and Pepper had all that junk knowledge.
“And you’re sure about that?” T’Challa asks, eyebrows lifting. The moonlight was surprisingly bright, bright enough that Tony almost hadn’t needed his light to see his notes and certainly bright enough to see T’Challa’s facial expressions. Actually the moonlight hitting his cheekbones was surprisingly pretty- he almost looked delicate if it weren’t for the clear dominance in his body language. Some people- read ignorant alphas- might have been put off by confidence like that in an omega but Tony preferred it.
Demure was not his thing and if he didn’t have someone around to constantly challenge him and question him he got bored quick- hence why he liked Pepper and Rhodey so much. And his brief, though fiery, relationship with that one reporter… Christine! Pepper would be proud he remembered her name given that it hadn’t lasted long. His relationship with her sort of blended in with his grieving process after Afghanistan. In hindsight that was a terrible time to start a relationship but he’s awesome at coming up with terrible ideas. Rhodey could attest to that given the sheer amount of times he’s had to cover Tony’s ass in the past.
“I’m pretty sure, yeah. I mean unless there’s something he isn’t telling me but we sort of got comfortable with each other forever ago- if he was harboring any sort of romantic feelings for me he’d just tell me.” His reaction would probably guarantee that Rhodey would stop having romantic feelings for him. He didn’t do the romance thing well, which made him wonder what the hell he was doing here anyways.
“Good, because I would be rather displeased with that,” T’Challa says, lips tipping up some.
*
Tony walks back into the mansion with a dazed smile on his face, not paying much attention to where he was going. “Smells like someone is ahead in this race,” someone- that Polish guy Tony thinks, says. He doesn’t look impressed but Tony was fairly certain the guy was allergic to smiling or something.
“Guess so,” he says. He hadn’t expected it when T’Challa had leaned forward a little, sniffing him. Scenting someone was somewhat customary in America- it was a decent way to see if you were compatible with a person chemically at least. If that was normal in Wakanda Tony had no clue given that all things omega had been taken out of the library he snooped through, but he had been more than happy to sniff T’Challa back. Unsurprisingly they had been a match. Tony had been tempted to lean into T’Challa’s neck and sniff more but he restrained himself on Rhodey’s advice in regards to not being a dick. The look on Rhodey’s face when random alphas tried to sniff him down was both hilarious and kind of terrible considering people should know what boundaries are. If the betas and other omegas knew how to keep their noses to themselves alphas shouldn’t have an issue.
“Hmm, shame,” is all the other guy says before he gives Tony a weird smile and walks off. Tony decides to ignore that because he had better things to focus on. Like T’Challa’s scent.
Twelve Hours Later
Natasha had no god damn clue what was happening- one second she was sleeping, then she was woken up by an explosion and within minutes she was on her ass in a jail cell and judging from the confused voices around her she wasn’t the only one. “Anyone happen to know what the hell is happening?” she asks to no one in particular.
“No clue,” someone else answers, “but Stark is so dead.” Natasha raises an eyebrow because that seemed off from her own observations of T’Challa’s interactions with the man. He was clearly favored and she could see why. He was genuinely funny and completely oblivious to the politics playing out around him- no, that wasn’t quite right- he knew what was going on, he just had no interest in the politics. It matched up with what the rest of her research told her about the man. He was impulsive, careless, and had a tendency to ignore the rules in favor of doing whatever the hell he wanted and he reaped some heavy rewards from it too. The man is a genius in several areas.
“And what makes you think that?” she asks, curious.
“Because we all got tossed in here and he got dragged off somewhere else,” the person says. Well, now that was just curious. What the hell was going on, why was T’Challa’s very clear top pick being dragged off, and what did that have to do with the explosion? She could hazard a guess given Stark’s past with explosions but… that didn’t seem right. The man was no longer interested in weapons and had no real reason for being here, unlike everyone else here herself included. Besides, linking Stark to an explosion of some sort was too easy. But maybe that was the point. Natasha decides to listen to what the others were saying instead, gathering information and dissecting it like she was trained to.