Finding Home

Chapter 30 - Shuri and Bullshit

We walked out into an impressive lab. It was much more advanced than the one I met Shuri in. She was arguing with an older woman wearing royal clothing. "I'm not giving up, Mother!" she snapped.

"I am not asking you to. I am asking you to take a break and sleep," the queen said softly.

"Hello," I said quietly, causing them both to turn to us. "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt."

Shuri grinned and her mother just gave me a pleading look and left, silently asking for me to get her to rest. Sam stared at Shuri with a light silver blush and I resisted the urge to laugh.

"Mors!" she exclaimed, hugging me tightly. "I'm so glad you're here! I've been working to try and replicate the stones so we can bring them back!"

"You can't recreate the stones to bring them back, Shuri," I said. "Their souls are in the original soul stone."

Her face fell and she broke into sobs, clinging tightly to me for comfort. I wrapped my arms around her and whispered soothingly in her ear. Sam was watching us awkwardly. He wasn't great with feelings.

"We found a way to possibly bring them back," he finally said quietly, trying in his own way to stop her from crying.

She pulled away from me and stared at him in shock. "Really?"

He nodded, watching as she dried her tears. "Some dude showed up with an idea and Dad thinks it might be legit."

She smiled at his attempt at the Terran way of speaking, which was obviously meant for the sole purpose of cheering her up slightly. "Who are you?" she asked.

He smiled back. "My name is Sam, but everyone else will call me Umbra."

I stifled a laugh. Someone had a crush. "Samuel, the whole reason for our code names is to keep our identities unknown."

He shrugged. "No one knows about me. My name won't mean anything like yours does."

"Then why'd you make a code name in the first place if you were going tell someone your real name anyways?" I asked, crossing my arms and raising an eyebrow.

He smiled sheepishly. "It sounded cool! Besides, I didn't tell everyone."

I rolled my eyes. "No. Only the first cute girl you met," I murmured so only he could hear me.

He blushed bright silver and looked away. "Whatever."

Shuri looked at Sam with a small, amused smile. "So, what do you want me to call you?"

He shrugged, avoiding my teasing glance as he said, "I don't care."

She grinned. "Alright, Sammy. So, you said some dude had a maybe legit idea?" she asked, holding back a small laugh.

I grinned as Sam nodded, his blush brightening. "Yeah. His name's Scott Lang and he was talking about time travel."

She perked up. "Scott Lang? He's the tiny one, right?"

I tilted my head and shrugged. "Ant-Man, yeah."

"His suit is so cool! I've been wanting to study it! Do you think he'd let me?"

I smirked. "That's what we came to ask. We need someone to build and design navigators and suits and make the Pym particles needed to travel through the Quantum Realm."

She clapped excitedly. "Of course! Do I get a lab partner?"

I frowned. "Ignis won't be available; he said he can't make it for mortals. He'll be busy making ours."