Chapter 21
Tony curls into T’Challa’s side, admiring the way that the sun hit T’Challa’s warm skin. It almost looks like he was illuminated from the inside out with the way the sun hit his deep bronze skin, making it glow warmly. “What?” T’Challa asks, tilting his head to the side at Tony.
“You’re gorgeous,” Tony tells him. He lifts his hand and gently runs his fingertips over T’Challa’s jaw, earning a wide smile that makes his eyes glow too.
T’Challa catches his hand and brushes his thumb over Tony’s fingers, “you flatter me,” he says, pressing a kiss to Tony’s hand. “But if one of us had to be the star of the show it would easily be you.”
“Now who’s the flatterer?” Tony asks playfully. “But I only steal the show because I’m loud though. You command a presence because you have thoughts and ideas that are worth listening to.”
T’Challa frowns at him, “and you think that you do not? I know that you dwell on your mistakes, but you are one of the most brilliant thinkers I have ever met, and more importantly you are very good at learning. I do not know many people who learn the way you do, who not only own up to their mistakes but actively try and change them again and again until they get things right. There is so much strength in admitting you are wrong, and so much more in trying and change that. My father used to tell me that a good leader was not made in a day- that we have to learn and grow as people and with people before we truly understood how to best serve people in the ways they need. Do not insult yourself because you are on a learning curve.”
“Okay, but I almost ended the world that one time,” Tony points out. He wasn’t on a learning curve to learn to be a better leader; he was just bad at the hero thing and not for a lack of trying.
“Had you had even the slightest of idea that running that program with Bruce- he was involved with Ultron too and taking responsibility for the actions of others is irresponsible- would result in a genocidal AI than I would seriously question your decision. But there is no way that you could have predicted those events, all you were looking for was the possibility of a smarter AI than the one you already knew how to build. You never intended on creating catastrophe, and you have since acknowledged that that decision was not a good one. Yes, you and a colleague were tampering with things you should have left alone, but Bruce already ran experiments on that stone. The fact that it was the experiment that involved you that went wrong is nothing more than an unfortunate coincidence. For all you know it could have been Bruce months before,” T’Challa points out.
He’s made the same argument to himself about a million times but in the end it didn’t matter what could have been, what was is what mattered. And what was happened to be the near destruction of the world and once again being berated by his team for not trusting people and doing stupid things on his own. Bruce, to his credit, accepted responsibility right away but Tony had gone down the path T’Challa had. It was an accident really, it wasn’t like he and Bruce left the program running so a genocidal AI could bust out and kill people. But that’s what happened and he saw now that not taking responsibility for his actions, however unintentional, had horrible consequences. “Maybe I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, but I did and I don’t get to decide now that my not meaning to hurt people somehow make me less guilty. It doesn’t- don’t shake you’re head at me, you’re supposed to support me; I’m your soul mate. There’s not point in absolving me of responsibility of my own actions, and Bruce’s.”
T’Challa remains silent for a long moment, “you frustrate me sometimes,” he tells Tony.
Tony snorts, “oh honey, welcome to the club. I frustrate everyone, including myself. I should get you like… an honorary little ribbon or something- First Time Being Frustrated By Tony Stark, But Not The Last!” he says with enthusiasm, letting out a laugh that sounded half way between forced and real.
“We are all frustrating sometimes, Tony. When I met you I walked in the opposite direction and then ignored you for over a month while housing a team that spent quite a lot of time using you as their emotional punching bag. I think I may win the ‘frustrating soul mate’ award. When you hand me your ribbon I can hand you my own. I will make it purple because I like purple,” T’Challa says.
“You like purple?” Tony asks, not exactly certain why he was surprised by that.
“Yes, why else would I buy you a purple tie? I have never seen you wear the color, had I bought it based off your preferences I would have chosen red,” T’Challa points out.
“Oh. Well that makes the suit a way better gift; I thought you were taking a pretty bad shot in the dark. I mean you did all that research and got me a purple tie, I don’t even like purple. But it’s your favorite color, which makes it sweet. I wish I knew that when I got it, I would have appreciated it more,” Tony says, “not that I didn’t like it,” he throws in when he realizes how that sounds.
“I knew what you meant. Sometimes I have a difficult time remembering that not everyone is on the same page as I am so I sent it off assuming you would understand and clearly you did not,” T’Challa says. “But the color looks very nice on you, I was unsure. I am not used to pale skin so I had no real idea what the color would look like on you.”
“Terrible, but thank you for lying,” Tony says, grinning. T’Challa laughs too, shaking his head-
“Tony,” someone new says and Tony frowns, “Tony,” the person says again and this time he kind of shakes.
“What?” Tony snaps, waking up with an irritated start. He glares at Rhodey, who raises an eyebrow at him in surprise. “I was having a good dream,” Ton explains with a little less irritation in his voice.
Rhodey wrinkles his nose and pulls his hand back, “eww man, I didn’t need to know that!”
It takes a second for Tony’s sleep addled brain to pick up where Rhodey went with that, “oh get your mind out of the gutter, it wasn’t that kind of dream. Now what did you feel needed my immediate attention?” he asks.
“The Spiderling broke his goggles again and he’s moping around in the living room about it. You know I don’t speak fifteen year old so you’re going to have to decode why he’s so upset and fix it. I have no clue how you’re so good with the teens,” Rhodey tells him and not for the first time.
“S’not hard, just don’t assume you’re speaking a different language. Kids are smart; let them explain what’s going on and then talk to them about it. Simple,” he says. That, and he had a lot of experience of being the teen everyone routinely ignored, labeled overdramatic, or shamed. He went out of his way to make kids feel anything but what he felt when he was their age, even if it was for a moment.
“If you say so. Go do your teen whispering, I’m calling Shuri to tell her that your cat is was uglier than what she described to me.” Rhodey eyes Sharkbait, who is currently curled up on the pillow next to Tony.
“You leave him alone! I like that he’s ugly,” Tony says, running his hand over the cat’s soft fur.
Rhodey looks at him strange but he leaves it be, telling him to go do his teen whispering thing so he doesn’t have to put up with a mopey teen in the living room. Tony drags his ass out of bed so he could brush his teeth and unstick his fair from the right side of his head and wake up a little before going to figure out what was going on with Peter’s goggles and play potential teen therapist.
Sharkbait follows him around the whole time, apparently not pleased with the potential of being left behind. The sound of the cat’s feet hitting the tile behind him is surprisingly comforting even if he’s no more awake when he leaves the bathroom than when he went in. He finds Peter perched on the couch looking much like the moody fifteen year old stereotype, “do you know if Rhodey made coffee?” he asks. Given that Rhodey was usually up before him and had physical therapy in the mornings he made a wheelchair accessible area with the coffee machine on it and he hoped that Rhodey had time to make some because Tony was in desperate need.
“It’s on the counter!” Rhodey calls from somewhere else in the penthouse.
“I swear he was the one that was meant to be my soul mate,” Tony says, “thanks!” he calls to Rhodey.
Peter looks at Tony like he’s grown a second head, “but you have a soul mate! And he’s a King, it doesn’t get better than that!” he says, almost offended.
“Aww, I’ll tell T’Challa you said that. He was actually a pretty horrible soul mate in the beginning though- he basically ignored my existence for a month and then I found one of his bodyguards in my house investigating me. Okoye’s cool though, I like her, and T’Challa pulled his head out of his ass- why are there coffee grounds in the damn disposal?” he asks. He thought he got rid of that problem with the Avengers but Rhodey must have dropped the habit for awhile, hoping that Tony forgot about it. Well he didn’t and someone was going to find his entire sock drawer filled with his worst enemies. Ankle socks.
“It was Peter!” Rhodey yells from a few rooms away.
“Are you seriously blaming a child for your mess?” Tony yells back.
“I am not a child!” Peter throws out, doubly offended.
“You pay taxes?” Tony asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Do you?” Peter fires back.
“As a matter of fact I do, obviously. Unless Pepper doesn’t pay them, then I lied. I’m pretty sure she does though. Like ninety percent. Anyways, what you were saying before that?” he asks.
“You do pay taxes!” Rhodey yells back to them.
“Great, because I was about to have a whole new set of things to feel guilty for. I’ll consider forgiveness for putting coffee grounds in the disposal!” Tony tells Rhodey, turning to yell in his general direction. “Anyways, Rhodey said something about busted goggles?”
Peter pouts, “yeah, sorry, but the villains really don’t like Queens this week and-”
“Relax kid, there’s always something new on the Iron Man armor that I have to fix even if I’m not fighting villains every other day, so pass the goggles over. And speaking of battling villains every other day, how are you keeping up with your school work?” Tony asks. Peter is a genius, so his ability to do his schoolwork would be better than his classmates’ abilities but with his time being constantly eaten away by some new asshole trying their hand at villainy Tony wondered where he found the time.
“Oh, okay, that makes me feel better. And school is fine. Usually I’m pretty bored all the time because I’m always ahead but now I’m mostly getting stuff done on time instead of way early. I told my teachers that I got a job so they aren’t suspicious,” Peter says, looking pleased with himself. Yeah, that’ll take its toll eventually, all that secret keeping. Actually Tony would be surprised if it wasn’t already affecting Peter’s life whether or not he was aware of it.
“Well keep that up, I’d hate to see the Spiderman thing take up so much space in your life that you forget about everything else,” he says. He knew how awful that could be from experience thought he doesn’t tell Peter that. He didn’t want the kid’s pity. “You don’t have any head injuries do you?” he asks, holding up the goggles as if they were an explanation for his question. Which, to be fair they kind of were, the design was strong enough to withstand normal hero work so unless Peter’s head was taking a beating they shouldn’t break.
“Yeah my head is fine. I think I might have had a concussion the other day but the enhancement thing gives me accelerated healing so I’m fine now. Wounds don’t really last that long,” Peter says. Tony half wished he had that because his only chance at accelerated healing was hanging out with T’Challa, which was fine but… but it required him to be attached and stuff. See? Rhodey should have been his soul mate. At least his ribs finally stopped feeling like they were trying to exit the skin.
“Good. I’m pretty sure these are broken in the same spot they were last time, which means there’s some sort of weak point in the design… I’ll look into it. So what else is going on?” he asks. Peter looks surprised for a moment and Tony snorts, “what? Did you think I thought you were embodying every sulky teen stereotype over some broken goggles?” he asks.
Peter looks at the ground, “maybe,” he mumbles.
“Well, spit it out. Coffee?” Tony asks, pulling the pot from its spot on the warmer.
“No thanks, I’m more of a tea person,” Peter tells him, “but… how does it feel? Having a soul mate?” he asks.
Tony snorts, “you’re hung up on that? You’re fifteen, the average age people happen to be when they meet their soul mate is twenty seven, you’ve got a probably twelve years of time before you meet your soul mate and you should be happy about that. That’s twelve years to learn and grow as a person, trust me, in two years you will be embarrassed of everything you are right now. Probably minus the Spiderman thing. And I’m not trying to be a condescending ass or anything, its just that your age is the age where you really start figuring out how the world works and how you fit into it. Also this is when you do all those things you always wanted to, like frosted tips and then they become immortalized on the Internet for all to see. Or the neon phase. Trust me, you want to meet your soul mate after all the embarrassing phases where you think only eating apples is a good plan for some reason. Trust me.”
God knows what he would have been some embarrassed if T’Challa knew him in his mid-twenties let alone when he was Peter’s age. Shit, unless it was within the last ten years he’d be embarrassed if T’Challa knew him at any other point in his life. Maybe it was a good thing Rhodey wasn’t actually his soul mate all things considered. He was there for that weird six months where Tony decided that underwear were completely useless no matter the circumstance. He has since learned there were certain situations when the extra layer of fabric is convenient, like awkward boner moments. Oh, and then there was the fact that Rhodey knew about his lowkey math kink and no one will ever find out about his sexy equations sheet ever again.
“Okay but like… what if I meet someone and I love them and then I meet my soul mate? I can’t just leave the first person like that. I know it’s a popular romcom trope to just ditch people at their weddings and run off with your soul mate but that’s really mean. I don’t want to do that,” Peter says, distressed by the possibility.
“Just date your crush kid, at your age you change so fast there’s no guarantee that you’ll like each other in six months let alone a year or more. And if you do who’s to say that you’ll still want to be in a romantic relationship? Maybe you’ll be better off in a platonic relationship anyways. Hell, people aren’t really fixed at any point. People fall in and out of love all the time. One second I’ll love a design and after ten minutes of thinking about it I’ll hate it. People do that with shows and music too, and I know you get taught not to do that with people but sometimes things change. Sometimes you like them more, or maybe you find a third person you both like better than each other. Point is shit is weird, and no one even knows how soul mates work. There was a study that came out last year that suggested that people could make their soul mates. Like they met a person, the person they were dating wasn’t their soul mate, and then a year later they look at the person and boom, they see in color. Date your crush,” Tony finishes awkwardly.
Peter frowns, “but that isn’t how soul mates work, you’re born with one.”
“Are you? There are people who are colorblind their whole lives- totally colorblindness or otherwise- who have soul mates. I’ve seen in color my whole life and I have a soul mate. So there goes the number one soul mate indicator and that isn’t even taking any sort of visual impairment into account. Blind people have soul mates too. Besides, do you really believe that the person I was at twenty-five could have been T’Challa’s soul mate? He would have hated me; I hate me at that age. How soul mates work, who ends up your soul mate, why they end up your soul mate, whether or not you’re born with one or not are all questions that have no conclusive answer scientifically. There’s no reason, in my opinion, to not experiment with relationships and love because of a concept that so obscure and flimsy that it’s subject to change at any moment,” Tony tells him.
“That’s actually really introspective and helpful. There was a study that suggested people could make their soul mates though? How did that work?” Peter asks, brightness and general excitement returning.
“No fucking clue. Seriously, have you ever taken the time to read up on soul mate science? It’s an interesting subject I got into because I was tired of people acting like I was missing some essential part of my life because I’ve always seen in color and presumably had no soul mate. Anyways, the science is fascinating because it points in like five hundred different directions. Essentially the only thing a total literature review would tell you with certainty is that nothing is known for sure. There are lots of accounts of people loosing that soul mate connection to their initial partner too, and after a major push from LGBT movements there’s a lot of new stuff around how soul mates work for queer people too. Recently there have been a whole slew of studies slamming the popular notion that soul mate connections are always romantic and sexual in nature too. Again, everything is doing something and no one knows what that something is,” Tony says.
“You should send me some of this stuff, it sounds cool!” Peter says, grinning all bright eyed and bushy tailed and Tony is going to need way more coffee.
*
Shuri sits across from him texting on her phone, presumably with Rhodey. The two were growing considerably close and T’Challa was happy for it. Shuri has always been the type to keep to herself and he was happy to see her branch out some. She was close with Tony too and he would forever be grateful to her for the insight she had into how he worked because, truth be told, he would be completely lost without her. He would, however, appreciate if she did her texting elsewhere so he could concentrate on his paperwork.
When she bursts out laughing he looks up to give her an irritated look but she only laughs harder. “You have to see this,” she manages to squeeze out after a solid thirty seconds of loud laughter. “Rhodey just sent me this,” she says and hands her phone over, still snickering.
The picture on her phone was of a few tweets from Tony’s Twitter account. The first picture is of Sharkbait looking like his ridiculous self with the added benefit of his tongue sticking out. T’Challa raises an eyebrow at Shuri because the cat did not look that funny. She gestures for him to continue scrolling so he does, finding another picture of someone calling Sharkbait ugly. He doesn’t find that amusing either but he continues scrolling to find Tony’s response.
@JerkMosquitoes With a face like that you’ve got no place to judge
T’Challa starts laughing and Shuri gestures at him to keep scrolling again. The next set of pictures involves Sharkbait with a little tiara on and he was fairly certain the cat was sitting in Rhodey’s lap. The caption is something about him being a pretty prince, which was funny enough given how ugly the cat was but the next two tweets make it far funnier.
@ActualTonyStark If it’s a boy why is it wearing a tiara?
@DreamDick77 because he fucking likes the bling
Rhodey continues sending screen shots of Tony’s Twitter account so he keeps scrolling through random pictures of Sharkbait with various responses.
@ActualTonyStark that cat is a hot mess
@GreenSlate so am I. We bond about it
@ActualTonyStark does @CEOPepperPotts know about the cat?
@PinchedSphincter you leave @CEOPepperPotts out of this
@ActualTonyStark Tony you put that cat back where you found it right now
@CEOPepperPotts cant, T’Challa gave him to me. Returning soul mate gifts is frowned upon
@ActualTonyStark I am so sorry I called him ugly!
Fuck you @JerkMosquitoes if he was ugly before he was a soul mate gift hes ugly after
@ActualTonyStark @WarMachineRoxx what do you think of this Rhodes?
@ActualTonyStark stop changing my twitter to WarMachineRoxx
@ActualyTonyStark its war machine now @JimBob and that cat ugly
Im offended @DisownedBestFriend
Are you fucking kidding me @ActualyTonyStark
Rhodey texts Shuri an actual response in place of the Twitter screen shots to T’Challa hands her phone back. “I cannot believe he is defending the cat on Twitter,” he says, still laughing. Truth be told he was pleased that Tony liked the cat enough to get into internet fights about it, clearly he did a good job finding an acceptable cat. Shuri had doubted his pick but T’Challa knew the second he say the homely cat that Tony would love it because the cat is different.
“I cannot believe he has decided he is disowning Rhodey. Apparently he is refusing to speak to him now and Peter- I have no clue who that is- finds the whole thing hilarious. You win, big brother, he loves the cat. I assumed he was faking it because you were standing right there but he is just that odd,” Shuri says.
“I told you that he would love the cat. He likes things that are different and unusual,” T’Challa says proudly.
“That explains why he likes you even though you are a freak of nature,” Shuri says.
“Coming from the one who is allergic to cats, as if!” he says, offended on his own behalf.
“I cannot help allergies, you can help thinking cottage cheese is an edible food!” Shuri counters.
“You put ketchup on everything, do not talk to me about disgusting food!” Even their father had been visibly horrified at Shuri taking to ketchup when she discovered it on a trip to America once.
“You eat mangoes!”
“Oh who does not like mangoes!”
“Rhodey does not like mangoes so ha.”
“Then you are both wrong,” he says, nose stuck in the air.
“I bet Tony does not like mangoes either,” Shuri tells him, phone poised and prepared to text him.
“We have had this discussion, he does like mangoes,” T’Challa lies. He has no clue if Tony liked mangoes or not and he silently curses himself when Shuri calls his bluff and texts Tony.
“Damnit, he does like mangoes, you were not lying,” she mumbles, sulking.
T’Challa’s phone buzzes and he finds a text from Tony.
I don’t know why my liking mangoes was relevant but I covered your ass and claimed I like them- I’m actually allergic to mangoes
He smiles, happy that he got a soul mate that understood him though he resigns himself to giving up mangoes forever on the off chance he trigger an allergic reaction. That would be unfortunate.
“Did people know about you and Tony being soul mates before Tony’s Twitter confession? Because Rhodey has reported that the American media has essentially exploded with the admission,” Shuri tells him.
He sits up straight and lets out a string of Wakandan swear words, “no, they did not. Well… this is all very Tony anyways, of course he would out our relationship defending his cat.” He supposed that at least Wakanda already knew. He had made a statement some time ago in the interest of not having such a thing dropped on his people unexpectedly. Soul mates were important to Wakanda, as they were elsewhere, and the King’s soul mate being from a country that was not Wakanda was an important bit of information. But they were also reassured that Tony did not have a right to Wakanda in the event of T’Challa’s death- leadership would go to Shuri- and Tony had happily agreed to that.
The American media, however, was a lot less likely to be as calm as the Wakandan media was once they had been assured that Wakandans would be in charge of Wakanda. He did not look forward to the absurd articles about his relationship with Tony strewn all over North America and beyond but he had to admit that it was amusing that Tony most likely accidentally outted their relationship because he was so upset that people insulted his hand-chosen pet.
“Your relationship is absurd,” Shuri tells him.
“I like it that way,” he assures her, surprised that he meant it. He had long ago outgrew a love for being spontaneous, politics did not allow for it, but something about Tony’s measured recklessness and spontaneous nature was drawing to T’Challa. There was strength in keeping such a spirit in a world that required you to never be too much of anything lest you tip the scales the wrong way. Tony’s ability to tip the scales was not something T’Challa would have guessed he would enjoy a year ago, or even a few months ago, but he found himself intrigued by it now. It was particularly interesting because Tony tried his damndest to control where those scales were tipped, and they were almost never in his direction.
“Sap,” Shuri accuses though she is smiling.