Shuri lost everything. Her baba, her brother and then her dearest mother. She walks through the forest with a single tear rolling down her face. Alone to her thoughts.
"The world has taken too much from you for you to still be considered a child." M'baku speaks softly. "And what of your heart, hmm? Which way is your heart leaning?" he says."I just buried the last person who truly knew me. My heart was buried with her." Shuri speaks softly. They walk away.
Shuri's POV:
There is no way to describe what I am feeling except for numb. I've had everything taken away from me and bast why haven't I gone with them? It's a cycle, they die, I mourn, I move on. Over and over and over again. I can't imagine what I have done in my past life to put me here. Every person I love is gone. Once I feel good the feeling is ripped away from me. What is the point anymore? If it were my way, I'd have happiness like everyone else. I watch everyone around the people they love and mine are all gone. Who am I to even exist? With no family and my own broken self. I am not a fit queen for my nation. I love my people but my mother even more. Many will call her queen mother but she is MY MOTHER. I LOST MY MOTHER AND WHO DID THEY LOSE? A queen, but whom gave birth to me? But an elder would feel "sympathy" to me and say I've lost it all. I'm tired of losing it all. I used to have faith that one day it will all be okay but I'm not even close to being convinced. There is no point anymore.
Reader POV:
Shuri walks into her lab and throws around all of her technology screaming and sobbing.
Okoye, Riri, and Nakia are worried to death. Shuris dead asleep when Nakia knocks on the door. It's around 11pm. Usually Shuri would be in her lab but her mind and her body were disconnected. Shuri hops up and runs to the door realizing she has work she needs to do but is greeted by Nakia instead.
"Don't drown yourself in your work, Shuri. It's okay to hurt." Nakia whispers, grasping both of Shuri's hands. She had a sorry look on her face. A part of her forgot that everyone else was mourning too. She rushed into her lab and sat down to put together some DNA for her heart shaped herb.
It takes Shuri a while to realize that Riri is just standing in her doorway staring at her. Her brain is so fogged. "Shuri, I'm so sorry. I know it was my fault if she hadn't saved me-"Riri rambled. "Stop blaming yourself. It's alright" Shuri reassures her.
"Come here I think I did it." They both walk next to her DNA model. "If this works I could bring back the black panther." Shuri says."Wow." Riri says"How long have you been working on this." she asks."Since killmonger burned the field. Now that I think about it, it's been awhile. Even after being snapped." She mumbles "Wait you were snapped? How did it feel?!?" Riri jumps asking. "Like sleeping what feels like forever and then waking up." Shuri says
They talked for hours and eventually fell asleep in each other's arms. Shuri couldn't deny how much she was falling for this girl, and neither could Riri. And the question remains in her mind, is she really in love with someone she just met? But Shuri didn't have time for love, her main goal was to take down Namor and lead her people.
Riri never even thought she liked girls until Shuri came along. And for Shuri it was a god given, she never came out everyone just knew. Even her father tried to court her with boys from other tribes and how Shuri screamed and cried that she will not and will never ever let a man court her. And her family thought it would die down when she got older but at some point they got the memo.
And the more Shuri loved the more she had to lose. It was a habit of hers, getting too happy and falling off the deep end. So no she wouldn't pursue Riri, then again why would Riri want her anyway? In Shuri's mind she wasn't worth much to be around but in Riri's she is everything.
