Vanish

It had been weeks. That wasn't an over-exaggeration. The x's tallied across your calendar were proof.

Weeks. Three weeks since you and your loves last had a meal together.

Shuri and Riri lay in bed as you dressed, the smaller girl of the two still soundly sleeping, tucked under the other's arm. Her highness smiled a beautiful smile at you, one filled with pride and all the adoration in the world. "Have a wonderful day, sthandwa (my love). Go do amazing things."

A beautiful grin of your own spread through your cheeks as you bent down to kiss the woman you loved. "Thank you. I will see you two for dinner?"

"Kunjalo, sana (Of course, baby). I can not wait to hear all about your day."

And off you went, thrill racing through your veins as you left the palace in trek of the school you helped Nakia establish in your home country, one which mirrored her own brilliant institution in Haiti.

Returning home many hours later, exhaustion adorning your features, you were welcomed by loneliness. The room shared between you and the adjacent queens was empty, as were the kitchen and living quarters.

"Griot," your voice echoed the large walls, calling out to the AI that had made its way out of Shuri's lab and into your living space.

"Yes, My Queen?"

"Where are my wives?" the question lingered from your lips.

"Queen Shuri and Queen Riri are currently in the lab. Would you like me to page them for you?"

The heart encapsulated in your chest swelled, knowing that both girls have had a hard time returning to their work since Queen Mother's death. You couldn't bring yourself to pull them away from that.

"No, Griot. Thank you anyways."

That night, you climbed into bed alone, body no longer able to fight the sleep that draped upon it.

When you awoke the next morning, your queens were snoring next to you. They'd crawled in at some point in the night and the sandman whisked them to dreamland; neither girl stirred when you left the bed to prepare for another day at the school.

The abnormality of abandonment that marked the previous day for you and your family soon became routine. One night turned into two and two into 21. Twenty one days since you'd gathered around the table to enjoy a meal with your loves.

Two weeks since they'd stopped making excuses.

"I'm so sorry, baby. Work has been fucking crazy, man. I got caught up. Can I make it up to you?" Riri hadn't even had the decency to leave the lab for the moment it would've taken her to stand you up in person. Shuri was in America, sovereign duties unable to go ignored any longer.

Even without her partner in crime, Riri still found ways to make her lab work more important than her time with you.

"You can't take a moment? Let's have lunch, my love." You were begging, a pathetic sight had Ri been able to pull her eyes from her project long enough to peer at you through the hologram provided via the beads.

"Nah, ma. I'll see you tonight, okay?"

Shuri was no better.

"My Queen, where are you? The children are waiting, anticipating the Black Panther's arrival."

"Shit, usana (baby), that was today? Can we reschedule?"

"Can we re - No, Shuri! No, we can't reschedule. These iingqondo ezincinci (little minds) have been waiting hours, missing lessons, to see their beloved protector. You promised."