Nashuri Collection (Namor x Shuri)

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1. Multiverse

Shuri didn't know what was more irritating: the multiple pairs of eyes boring into her back, being stuck with Namor, or trying to understand the multiverse. Because it was confusing.

This spell? Was it magic or technology she didn't know? But this orb of rainbow light was displaying their alternate realities or futures like a projector on the far wall of the Haitian auditorium for all to see. Haiti was deemed a neutral space for Talokan and Wakanda to meet. And she had only herself to blame for allowing one of her scientific interns to display the damned object in the first place.

So many things were different and others exactly the same in the multiverse. There were of course realities and lives where T'Challa had lived. Or she had still taken up the panther mantle with him as a mentor. Those made her eyes water.

Some realities had her life play out as normal but diverting with Nakia or Okoye becoming Black Panther, Killmonger being resurrected, or Riri being killed. In the last one, she sees herself weep on behalf of the young girl, knowing the girl's mother would be heartbroken. Another shows her marrying M'Baku of all things, but that marriage is more familial than anything. One shows her never leaving Haiti and falling in love with an intelligent man named Pierre. Another is where she stays single and travels the world, building, fixing, and healing others. The funniest one is when Riri and she go to a Chicago Bulls game, they meet Beyonce, and laugh at the lamest halftime show ever. Or, one where she becomes a big-time Wakandan influencer, selling shea butter and kimoyo beads mass-produced.

The orb also showed Namor's past as he had told her. She could recognize more sympathy coming into the elders' eyes despite their rightful grievances. Someone behind her sniffled loudly.

It also showed her past as a child. Playing with T'Challa, learning to read before she could even walk, and making her first inventions. Her parents' wedding day. The orb's past memories being true cemented its credibility, which made the future or other lives downright disturbing or embarrassing.

So many had her falling in love with Namor; many where her mother wasn't dead, her preventing Nakia from killing the guard, or Namor not giving into anger and being diplomatic. If not for his eyes being glued to the screen, he would have been melting her with his gaze.

A majority of the scenes played in montages: the two of them dancing to Afrobeats or traditional Talokan chanting, an underwater wedding and a Wakandan one; Namor killing any person who wanted to be her suitor in some of the more toxic ones; one where she sat side by side with him on the Talokan throne with a headdress similar to his, and the ones she couldn't really enjoy (or gag at—she was at a crossroads) of him kissing all over her. Or, her rubbing his broad shoulders, clinging on to him. Ones where they were giving each other soft looks. She thanked Bast that the orb censored them from the love scenes she knew had to be there. It wasn't as if she could fast-forward!

She dared a glimpse at Namor. Her entire neck was sweating. She felt like coconut oil had been dumped over her head. His eyes were wide as a goldfish. He was taking in a lot of information. Obviously, he had ignored the two universes/futures where either Namora or Attuma usurped the throne from him, or one where he willingly stepped down to—you guessed it—be with her.

Shuri knew the past scenes were true, but she couldn't decipher the alternative universes from the possible futures unless something tipped her off. Like, Ramonda or T'Challa being alive, her eyes being an unhuman color, or ones where Wakanda looked drastically different. A unique one was a life where Okoye divorced her husband and married Attuma.

What was always consistent was the pull she had over Namor. Her saying his true name K'uk'ulkan, admiring his mother's bracelet, or spending time with him made him melt. Gods could be lonely, especially a mutant hybrid. In one of the universes, she had killed him by seduction. Another had her pretend to marry him and manipulate him once she saw how weak he was to her. Shuri didn't like herself in those universes. A few had her and Namor be civil but never become romantic, despite him pining for her, to her death.

Finally, with a shaky beep, the orb stopped its assault of multiverses. For whatever reason, people clapped.

"Waiting for next user(s). Up to two users' alternative lives and/or futures can be shown at once," it cooed once in Haitian Creole, Yucatec Maya, then in English. Shuri understood all three.

M'baku clapped loudly, amused. "Do me next!"

Neither Namora nor Attuma seemed surprised by what the orb had revealed. Namor was absolutely giddy.

It was only when Namor floated over to her and began to get down on one knee (did Talokans propose like that as well?), that Shuri burst outside the auditorium. Her mind was too overstimulated.

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2. Talokan Graves

Namor stroked the empty boat. It was Talokan tradition to put deceased loved ones in designated underwater caverns. Once someone needed to visit a dead relative or friend, they would have to hoist the dead body into a boat for however long before the funeral keeper would retrieve it back to the cavern. As king, he had infinite time to be with anyone. He visited his deceased children often.

Today, he visited the love of his life.

But his love was of two places: here, with him in Talokan, and in her birth country, Wakanda. There was no place for arguing over who got the body. Honestly, he was wrecked over it. In the Talokan grave cavern, he only had her pair of kimoyo beads, but his mother's bracelet went with her to the Wakandan funeral.

Even if most of the bad blood had died down, Wakanda as a whole could never forgive him as she had somewhat done. He didn't regret his decisions.

The hardest thing was trying to find a nearby body of water where he could watch her ascend above the Wakandan shores.

"I had so little time with you, my love. K'áatech."

The boat was engraved in his language: "Queen Shuri – she who was loved and loved so much herself."

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3. Nickname

"We can no longer be enemies, so I won't call you Namor," she started. A short breath before opening her eyes again. "But I've no love for you."

His only acknowledgment was blinking. Namor's intense stare didn't waver.

Shuri finished. "KuKu—is the most I can relent."

"For now..." He clapped his hands. "Princ-Queen, I'll await the rest of the syllables."

She said, calmly, "You'll do well to avoid my claws." There was fire brimming in her eyes, even she knew. Just because she hadn't knocked anything over didn't mean anger wasn't lapping at her feet. What was worse dull amusement was there too.

When he said they were equals, in a twisted way, they were. He could match her banter. Understood the throes of leadership. Was even... more than mildly attractive.

"I don't know how to."

Only M'Baku's phlegm-filled cough severed their gazes.

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I loved Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Zutara ruined me, so I like this ship.