Chapter 15
Tony stretches out languidly beside T’Challa, grinning. The beach is bright and relaxing with the sound of the waves further up on the sand and the sun warming his skin. “I think you may have a sun burn unless your cheeks are naturally that pink,” T’Challa tells him, laughing softly when Tony groans. He could feel the extra warmth there and he wrinkles his nose, feeling a slight twinge of pain from the area.
“Damnit, now I probably look like a cherry tomato,” Tony says, nose still wrinkled.
“You are pink, not bight orange. So more like a flamingo,” T’Challa says, snickering when Tony makes another noise of annoyance. That was absolutely not what he was going for, plus flamingos are fucking idiots. Who even needed a neck that long? And why do they stand on one leg like a bunch of twits?
“If I have to be an animal I am not going to be a fucking flamingo,” Tony says, “I’m more like… a lion.”
“Lions are lazy, you are more like a peacock. Bright and attention grabbing, everyone knows when you ate around,” T’Challa tells him, smiling softly.
He wrinkles his nose again because he didn’t like birds, but peacocks are pretty so he would accept it grudgingly. “Fine, I’ll be a peacock. What would you be?” he asks.
“A black panther, obviously. They have been the protector of my people for hundreds of years and as king I am supposed to embody the spirit of the black panther,” T’Challa says.
“Well, you do have that sexy cat suit,” Tony says, grinning and then outright laughing at T’Challa’s borderline offended facial expression.
“That… is not what you are supposed to think of my suit,” T’Challa says.
“Okay, but like you have a great ass and that suit makes your ass look better,” he says. It wasn’t his fault that T’Challa’s as happened to be a gift to humanity. Shit, that suit is also a gift to humanity given how nicely it fit.
“It is supposed to make me look like a warrior, not a… a… sex kitten,” T’Challa says primly, realizing what he said too late.
Tony snickers at the statement, “no worries honey, no one will be worried about your ass when you come at them with those claws. Which are also worryingly attractive.” Were vibranium claws supposed to be hot? Probably not but Tony wasn’t exactly a stranger to being turned on by things he shouldn’t be attracted to. Rhodey would probably never let him live down that time he had sheepishly admitted that math gave him boners, but only the considerably complicated and fun kind. No one thought addition was sexy, even him. Rhodey had laughed for a solid two hours and probably grew abs.
“I worry for you, Tony. Those claws are extremely dangerous and should not be attractive,” T’Challa says, slipping half into lecture mode.
“Oh shush and let me have my fun,” Tony tells him. T’Challa shakes his head at him and they lapse into a comfortable silence. The sun is still warm against his skin, probably making his sun burn worse but he doesn’t mind if he’s laying next to T’Challa and soaking it all in. T’Challa shifts so he is no longer propped up and lays next to Tony, conscious to keep some space between them. Tony doesn’t like it so he presses in closer, curling into T’Challa’s side. That warm feeling he got when he touched T’Challa moved through his body, giving him a feeling of peace and safety. T’Challa gently wraps an arm around his shoulders and Tony grins widely, burying his head in T’Challa’s chest.
*
When Tony wakes up he isn’t very happy about it, at least until he remembers that he isn’t supposed to he happy about this whole soul mate thing. So he drags himself out of bed and makes his way to the kitchen, finding Peter and Rhodey there. “You should have seen their faces! They asked so many questions but I didn’t really tell them anything,” Peter says, grinning.
“Tell who about what?” Tony asks, pulling the fridge door open.
“His classmates about you,” Rhodey tells him, grinning.
“Yeah, they’re all still harassing me about how we met and how long we’ve known each other and stuff,” Peter says, face lit up in excitement.
“And the bullying?” Tony asks, pulling the juice out.
“Pretty much non-existent. I mean no one really wants to piss off someone who’s personal friends with Iron Man.” Tony nods to himself, happy that at least one of his plans worked out for the best lately. There was a lot of stuff he had to deal with for the Avengers’ court cases and he had to field a million and one questions from Ross the night before about his presence at a high school he likely wouldn’t be near, convinced he found Spiderman. He was right of course, but Peter Parker was one smart cookie and it wasn’t difficult to convince him that he wasn’t Spiderman; he’s a recipient of a grant for school. Which he still had to tell Peter about…
“Good. And you work for me now, well, it’s an internship- paid if you’re wondering. Ross was up my ass about you but you’re brilliant, he can’t really assume that your intelligence has anything to do with Spiderman when you’ve always been smart. Anyways you start tomorrow after school,” he says.
Peter’s face lights up and it’s like the entire energy of the room lifts with his excitement, “really?” he asks excitedly.
“Yeah, you’re a smart kid, you’ll do great,” Tony says. Peter throws himself at Tony, wrapping his arms around him unexpectedly. Tony nearly drops his juice but he manages to get a good grip on it before he does, patting Peter’s back awkwardly.
“Thank you so much! I thought that I was too late to apply for any of the internships!” he says pretty much directly in Tony’s ear. God he forgot what weird boundaries fifteen year olds had. Or maybe Peter was just odd.
“Technically you are, but I managed to make room,” he says. There were always a few who backed out last minute and he wedged Peter into one of the available spots along with a few other candidates.
Peter steps back, “no one got bumped out because of me, right?” he asks, growing concerned.
“Nah kid, a few people backed out and had your information been in my pile you would have been on the top of the list to replace them anyways, so I put you in one of the newly opened spots.” Technically Peter was more than qualified to have gotten into one of his programs right away but he figures that Peter will gather that in the program.
Peter’s mood lifts again and he starts chattering away about his ideas while Tony and Rhodey threw in some of their own suggestions. Peter’s excitement is infectious and the mood lifts with his happiness, drawing the bittersweet mood Tony had been in away if only for a little while.
*
“We’re going to Italy!” Rhodey informs him with a wide smile.
“O…kay?” he asks more than states. Rhodey hands him a piece of mail and Tony takes it, “wait, you opened a present from T’Challa? You ass, that is so in violation of the bro code!” he says, offended. “I don’t open Shuri’s mail, so no opening my mail,” he says, holding the envelope to his chest.
Rhodey rolls his eyes at him, “Shuri doesn’t send me mail. Plus technically half of that present is for me so I’m half entitled to open it if I please,” Rhodey tells him smugly. Tony opens the envelope to find two tickets to Italy scheduled for the day after tomorrow.
“Well at least he made sure to book around court dates,” he mumbles. There was a hearing tomorrow and Tony had found a few loopholes in various laws, including both sets of the Accords. It should be enough to get them off with some kind of warning and a forced sign of the new versions of the Accords. Americans were happy to have the team continuing to do whatever, or at least the loudest groups were, but the rest of the world was horrified at the idea of a man (or a group of men with a dash of Natasha and Wanda) was so willing to brush their concerns aside. Many called Steve arrogant, but the term ‘American imperialism’ was being thrown around a lot too. People weren’t sure what to make of the rest of Steve’s team aside from some nasty opinions on Wanda that Tony found mostly unfair.
“Yeah. Personally I think he should have planned an entire date around talking you out of cleaning up the Avengers’ messes. You’ve done enough of that Tony, you keep giving them more and more and they don’t appreciate any of it. Why give them more?” Rhodey asks, pleads almost.
“This isn’t for them,” Tony says, “this is for the rest of the world. Much as I wish I could aliens could show up at any moment and I can’t deal with that alone.” He can see Rhodey consider dismissing his fear, the signs were obvious to him now because he spent so much time with the Avengers rolling their eyes at him.
He doesn’t dismiss him though, instead he sighs. “You don’t owe the world anything either, Tony,” he says softly.
“After all I’ve done to it I owe the world far more than I could ever offer it. Don’t pretend otherwise.” He can see Rhodey considering fighting him on that too but he doesn’t, instead he resigns himself to knowing there wasn’t a way that Tony could be convinced otherwise.
*
Court was a stressful disaster but Tony made it through and he even managed to come out on top, winning his case with only a few stipulations surrounding Wanda. He had, of course, not been impressed with her treatment in the RAFT and he had anticipated the ‘safety’ argument from a mile away. The problem was that Tony had planned for the possibility of Wanda being arrested and he had invented a few suppressors that shouldn’t have made her react so negatively. He had improved the designs since then and Vision had graciously offered himself as a test subject given that his powers were close to Wanda’s. Vision is a machine though; he had no idea how it might react with an organic subject.
Either way Wanda’s freedom was conditional on a few different things so her case wasn’t quite solved yet. He guessed he’d have to make a trip back to Wakanda to inform the rest of the Avengers of what was going on and in the meantime he would talk to Wanda, and apologize to her for the mess that was the compound. He’d also have to call Laura later too and relocate them again in part because he didn’t want them in one place too long and also because it would be safe for them to move somewhere more comfortable and convenient. He figured he could ask T’Challa about that later, after he has slept some when he and Rhodey get to Italy.
T’Challa’s security meets him and Rhodey when they land, carefully following them along though Tony was sure there were more conspicuous guards around elsewhere. The hotel they go to isn’t one Tony is familiar with but that was fine by him. It meant there was a possibility that he would be harassed less and he’d take that gladly.
“How was your flight?” T’Challa asks softly, greeting him at the door into the hotel.
“Long and tiring though that’s partially because I haven’t gotten much sleep the last couple days,” Tony says, managing a weak smile for T’Challa.
“Then come along, everything is set up, all you need to do is sleep,” T’Challa says. Tony is so grateful to see a bed in a room that he doesn’t even question than there was only one. He face plants on it and passes out near immediately.
*
They sit in a small coffee shop that T’Challa has not been to in a long time. Tony looks brighter this morning, refreshed. It was a welcome change to the dark circles under his eyes and the heavy slump in his shoulders. “This place is nice,” Tony says, looking around curiously.
“I used to come here with my father,” he says and Tony’s attention snaps to him immediately, “this is the first time I’ve been here since-“ his voice cuts out against his will and Tony reaches out and touches his hand. He feels that familiar zap of energy he got when he touched his soul mate and the warmth that came with it.
“Are you alright?” Tony asks, eyes wide with concern.
He opens his mouth to say he was fine but that is not exactly the truth. “I am better than I expected to be,” he says honestly. He did not realize that he expected this to be a worse experience but he is thankful that it is not. There is a reason he liked this place and a reason he wanted to show it to Tony. “We used to come here if there was some sort of political thing in the area and I hated it at the time. I loath politics and my father was intent on making sure I did not. It did not work, I still loath diplomacy.”
Tony frowns, his eyebrows drawing together, “really?” he asks, surprised.
“Yes really. Just because I am good at it does not mean I enjoy it any. People are cruel and selfish and I dislike politics that advantages all the wrong people and too often that is the kind of politics I am dealing with. My father used to tell me that a good leader knew when to play the game, I used to tell him a good leader should know when to throw out the board,” he says, smiling wryly. Of course things were not as simple as he liked to make them out to be then though he was not wrong, but he was not right either. Sometimes you had to play the game to make a new game that you were in charge of, like what Tony has done with the Avengers’ case.
His statement gets a small huff of laughter out of Tony, “mine used to tell me something similar, that I just needed to learn how to play the game. But the game fucking sucked, people needed to learn how to play my game,” he says, grinning. “In my defense I have a lot of Nobel Prizes, seven PhDs, I’ve made countless groundbreaking scientific discoveries, and I’m a superhero. Points against me for being an asshole, all that time I spent war profiteering, and that time I almost ended the world.” He says the last part bitterly, looking at the table in distaste.
“You also saved the world in New York, you have had a positive effect on countless lives through impressive charity work that you are very hands on involved in, and Cleocatra likes you. She dislikes everyone who is not me, Shuri included,” he says. The last bit sounds more like a joke than a statement but cats held a lot of importance to his culture; they were sacred creatures and picky ones at that. They did not hand their love to the undeserving and would not hesitate to snub those they did not think were worthy of their attention. Cleo liking Tony was a huge anomaly considering the cat did not even like his father. She tolerated him if she had to but she did not actively like him. Cleo slept beside Tony, something she did with no one but him.
“The cat likes me, wow. Most do so I don’t think I’m that special,” Tony says. He cannot tell if the comment is meant to be self-depreciating or if he was simply unaware of the cultural significance of cats to his culture. Probably both.
“If any cat likes you you are special. They do not like those unworthy of their time and Cleo is particularly selective. In Wakanda cats are very important so it is important that they like you, especially as my soul mate,” he says. He had no idea what he would do if cats did not like Tony, or worse, if Tony did not like cats. What kind of soul mate would Tony be if he did not like cats? Certainly not a good one. That would be rather heartbreaking but he did not have to worry about that because Tony very clearly liked cats.
“What would you have done if the cats didn’t like me?” Tony asks.
“Likely the same thing you would have had you discovered I was Luddite,” T’Challa says.
“Oh god, that would not be happening. That is not something I am willing to put up with, and to be clear here, you aren’t a Luddite, right?” Tony asks, eyeballing him suspiciously.
T’Challa laughs, “no Tony, I am not a Luddite. My problems with technology and industrialization have little to do with the material goods themselves, it the exploitation in making those goods that I have a problem with.”
Tony rolls his eyes and T’Challa is prepared to think that perhaps Cleo was wrong about Tony but then he speaks. “I’m billionaire, and most other CEOs are rich, why the fuck can’t you pay people living wages? If you can’t sustain your business while also sustaining the workers that make your wealth possible than you don’t have a sustainable business model,” Tony says strongly. He looks ready to fight about the subject too, like he’s had this argument before and expected T’Challa to disagree.
“It appears that you are a rare believer in your admittedly very sound logic,” T’Challa says, smiling when Tony blinks a few times in confusion.
“Sorry, that’s just the first time I’ve had someone agree with me on that. I mean people like to think stuff starts with the customers but it doesn’t, I mean your workers are the ones dealing with the customers so if they aren’t happy you run the risk of alienating the customer. It just makes sense to take care of your work force, and also it’s just a decent thing to do. I can’t believe I have to fight people on whether or not treating your workers like human beings is a good thing or not. Happy to see you agree though,” Tony says, smiling. It isn’t the kind of smile that indicated happiness to much as the kind that that indicated being pleased at finding some sort of solidarity.
“You know, in my research on you I did not come across this opinion. Not that that is a bad thing, but I would like to hear more about it,” T’Challa says, leaning forward in interest. Tony lights up, launching into a speech about how people liked to quote dumb shit he said in his twenties instead of stuff he said after he pulled his head out of his ass.
Tony’s investment in his staff, though, was impressive and admirable. He cared about his workforce, even those doing more ‘undesirable’ jobs, acknowledging the complications that could come with each job and compensating accordingly. And his thoughts on technology, T’Challa expected something scientific and instead got a touchingly human answer about moving forward and adaptation. It became abundantly clear that, at least to Tony, technology was his way of connecting with the world on a new level. Through technology he tried to improve the life of the user, tried to touch people’s lives individually. The technology acted as a mediator between Tony and the world, it was his way of extending his own humanity and having people reach back. More than that it was obvious that Tony used technology to shield himself too, carefully hiding behind his intelligence and skill, using it as a barrier between himself and the outside world when he saw fit.
T’Challa liked to think of technology as cold, inhuman. But Tony did not see it that way at all, he saw it as a way to transmit humanity in seconds across the world. He saw the power in something like that, and its drawbacks, but the subject remained fascinating. He did not consider technology as a method of creating human solidarity and community. If he was honest he did not consider what technology might do outside of the actual functions of the device. It never occurred to him that human connection was involved at all and Tony’s opinions and thoughts on the subject were amazing.
What he noted, though, was the way these things would affect the way he saw the Iron Man suit. Knowing that Tony saw technology as a method of boosting human connectivity and community created entirely new meanings to the previously cold mechanical suit. Tony has made many comments about being Iron Man, that the suit and he were one and most people brushed him off as dramatic or attention seeking. T’Challa was thrilled to find that he was privy to a new way of seeing the suit, one outside of the worldview of others, one beyond even the childhood abuse Tony suffered and seemingly named his persona after. He genuinely did not see a distinction between the technology he cocooned himself in and the man in the suit because the suit was meant to be an extension of himself, not a new thing entirely.
Tony suddenly stops, apparently growing aware that he was taking up most of the conversation. “Am I boring you? You can just tell me to shut up or whatever, I get that this isn’t everyone’s thing…” he says, trailing off.
T’Challa, for a brief moment, is angry at whomever told Tony that his passion was not worthy of being listened to. “No, I am not bored at all and I do not want you to stop talking. What you are saying is fascinating and impressive, I have never considered technology the way you do and I very much like hearing you talk about it. I find it impressive and interesting and I like the new view. Please continue,” he says, gesturing for Tony to carry on.
It takes a moment while Tony eyes him suspiciously but he continues on, quickly becoming interested in his topic and that bright light and passion is reignited. It lights up his features, animates them in a way that T’Challa could stare at forever it was so beautiful. Passion like this was rare and he knew he would never tire of Tony’s excitement towards technology, inventions, and human improvement.