Sunlight on your face (Shuri x reader)

Chapter 9: late November

I woke up the next morning feeling her arms around me and her soft breath on my neck. As much as I wanted to stay there in the comfort of her embrace, I wanted to get us some breakfast after what she had done for me last evening, so I slowly got out of bed trying not to wake her.

Our clothes were scattered across the floor, building a trail from the door to the bed. The images of last night ran through my head, making me shiver all over again. How she had pressed me to the wall right next to my door her lips on mine as she slipped her hand into my pants, her cold fingers drawing small circles around my spot. How she had pushed me down on the bed after taking off our clothes settling between my legs making me arch my back impatiently. The way she held me down as I felt her hot tongue on me.

I shook my head, trying to clear my mind before I put on her sweater and made my way to the kitchen. The fridge was almost empty, but I made us some scrambled eggs and cut up some fruit.

She was still asleep when I got back to my room, so I put the tray down on the end of the bed slowly scooting closer to her. Her arm reached out for me, as she felt my body next to hers. I placed soft kisses on her lips, until she opened her eyes, looking at me with a tired smile.

"Good morning..." I whispered against her lips, "I made us breakfast..."

"You did?" She asked raising her eyebrows as I nodded, "now that's how I like to wake up,"

I chuckled, reaching for the tray, and placing it in front of us. After our breakfast, I had to go to class and Shuri had to get to the lab, but she promised to pick me up in the evening.

****

Over the next weeks we developed kind of a daily routine, we would eat breakfast together if there was enough time, then Shuri would go to the lab, and I'd go to class, in the evening she would either pick me up with her motorcycle or she would wait for me at home, and we would end the day by making dinner before watching a movie, (or at least attempt to watch a movie).

The fall in Wakanda was very different from fall in New York. The temperatures were still as warm as always, and the trees had not lost their leaves. I started to get quite homesick but having Shuri with me made it worth it.

It was already late November, and Christmas was getting closer. I had planned to visit my family for the holidays, but I didn't know whether to ask Shuri to come with me or not. The thought of her spending Christmas and New Year's Eve alone at the palace broke my heart, but at the same time I was unsure if it was too big of a step to ask her to celebrate Christmas with my family. We hadn't talked about the status of our relationship yet, so I didn't know where we stood. Sarah had told me to just ask her if she wanted to come with me no strings attached, it didn't have to mean anything.

I was just on the phone to my dad when Shuri knocked on my door not wanting to interrupt.

"Dad, I gotta go, say Hi to Willow for me," I hung up the phone looking up at Shuri waiting for her to say something.

"So, how is your family?" she asked leaning on my door frame.

"They're alright, Willow is learning how to spell, now she tries to spell every word my dad says," I chuckled at the thought of my little sister.

"She sounds adorable," Shuri said with a smile.

"Oh, by the way, I'll be visiting them over Christmas, and I thought maybe you wanted to come along," I heard myself say before I was able to think about my decision.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Shuri asked with an unsure look on her face.

"Yeah, I mean I think it could be fun, but don't feel obligated to say yes if you don't want to..." I had hoped for another reaction, but apparently my doubts were right, and this was too big of a step.

"No, I would love to come, but I don't want to ruin your family celebration or anything," she said making me smile with relief.

"You won't ruin anything, just be prepared for my sister hanging onto you for the whole time we're there," I could see the excitement in her eyes as I picked up my phone to inform my dad that we were having another guest.

****

My graduation project was slowly coming together, with Sarah's help, I had finally managed to choose the remaining sketches. The plan now was to redo each sketch using various techniques, so that in the end I would have a collection of completely different works all portraying the same thing.

Shuri was over the moon when I told her about my idea. She went on and on about how brilliant and creative I was and how my work should be hung up in the biggest galleries of the world. She had no clue that one of all the graduation projects of my school would be chosen to be displayed at the yearly upcoming artists' exhibition of New York. I knew that there was a small chance to win, but I didn't want to get my hopes up, so I kept it to myself, pushing it to the back of my head.

We spent the beginning of December baking cookies, listening to my Christmas playlist, and watching my favourite holiday movies.

The day before our departure, I was packing my bag when Shuri came running into my room visibly stressed out.

"Y/N, I have no gift... I have no gift for your dad and your sister... what do I do?! I can't show up without a gift..." She exclaimed with panic in her voice.

"Shuri calm down, you don't need to get them anything," I tried to soothe her.

"Yes, I do! I want to make a good first impression on your dad and I want your sister to like me..." She stared at me her eyes wide open, "What does your sister like? Does your dad like wine? I could bring him some wine from my parents' collection."

"Shuri stop," I interrupted her rambling taking her hands into mine to stop her from freaking out, "If it's that important to you, my sister likes toys especially the little robot animals and my dad loves wine, but really it's not necessary..."

"Yes, it is important to me, I gotta go, I have a toy to make," she said pressing a kiss on my lips before running down the stairs to the lab.

I chuckled to myself, I had meant that she could just buy a toy in New York, but I had forgotten that with her genius, she could probably make thousands of those toys in seconds. A warm feeling spread over my chest at the thought of how important it was to her that my family liked her. Maybe this thing between us would work out after all.