It is only his first week as king, and he's stressed to the max. Nakia has informed him that Erik is still in hiding, but apparently, he is getting closer to striking as time goes on. It called for another new defense plan.
T'Challa places his sleek, black pen down onassess dix the table in front of him. He runs his hands down his tired face while sighing deeply.
Footsteps are inching closer and closer to him. He doesn't even turn to see who it is, but a familiar exotic scent fills his nose, allowing him to come to the conclusion of who has entered the room.
"What's wrong?" Tendai asks as she comes up behind him. She wraps her arms around his shoulders, and kisses his cheek lightly.
"Just attempting to come up with a new defense mechanism for the Dora Milaje."
Tendai furrows her eyebrows, "Again? Is the first one not good enough?"
T'Challa nods, "Its not. We realized that it wasn't a good enough defense for who might try to come in."
"How long have you been working on this, T'Challa?" she asks him as she runs her hands down the dark sleeves of his shirt.
"Two, three hours," he mumbles.
"Take a break! I'm taking Nailah and Shuri to that new market today. Come with us," she says excitedly. The market was one that had new jewelry, and Tendai has been saving up to buy something she might like from there.
"Tendai," he trails off, prepared to decline her offer.
"Please! Take a break, gosh. Even kings need to have a little fun," she says. T'Challa laughs lightly, "Okay, okay, I'll go."
Tendai smiles and cheers a bit. She pulls away from the young king, "I'm going to get them from the lab. Be ready!"
T'Challa watches as she exits the room. He huffs and stands up from his chair. When his eyes avert upwards, he sees his mother coming towards him.
"That Tendai," she starts. "She's a good woman."
T'Challa nods and smiles, "Yeah, she is."
"And I see the way you look at her. Even Nakia hasn't received such a look of adoration from you," Ramonda says, with a grin on her face. The skin around her eyes begin to crinkle, due to her aging, but she still looks as beautiful as T'Challa has ever seen her.
"She's special, different from others. There's something about her that draws me in. I don't know what it is just yet, but I'm determined to find out," he tells Ramonda, who sighs pleasantly.
"You like her! Oh, praise the ancestors, you've found her!" Ramonda cheers.
T'Challa gives his mother a closed lip smile. He didn't know for sure, but he was hoping that Tendai was most definitely the one for him.
✻
"This is beautiful," Tendai says she picks up a unique rose gold ring. She slides it on her ring finger and moves it around to get better view.
"Do you like it?" she asks T'Challa, who nods. It is truly a beautiful ring.
It has a rose gold band that has small diamonds going up the side of the band, until it reaches the decent sized diamond in the middle, that looks like it is sprouting out if a flower, in a way.
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Tendai glances at the price tag, and makes a face. T'Challa laughs a bit.
"Its that expensive?"
She nods, "I could only get it if I stopped feeding myself and Nailah for a month." She places it back in the velet show box, and begins to walk away.
"Oh, well. I'll get it eventually. Let's go find the girls."
T'Challa takes one last glance at the ring, and follows behind her to find their younger siblings. _____________________________________
