Show Me ↝ Black Panther

23

N'Deke twirled his flute absentmindedly as he made his way down the hallway. Erik had asked T'Challa to give it to him before he passed. N'Deke had used to same flute to play alongside some of his other tribe members at M'Bao's funeral days ago. He could clearly remember how Jeniba had tried to be strong even though he knew she was hurting deep down. Her grief had seemed never-ending, and N'Deke swore to himself then that he would never let himself be the cause of it.

Akina had been unconscious ever since she'd been brought to the lab, but according to Shuri, she would be okay. As for N'Deke, his left arm was now in a sling for a few more days, but it would take another 10 weeks for him to fully recover from his dislocated shoulder.

"It's a good day to be right-handed, don't you think?" Shuri had joked.

He pushed the door to the lab open. Despite how damaged it'd been, Shuri's lab had been fixed up in a short amount of time. Technology was such a blessing.

He made his way down the platform and towards the floating bed. Engrossed as he was, he failed to notice the bright voice conversing with two others.

"Watch where you're going, mfowethu."

His head snapped up so quickly he thought he'd gotten whiplash. A huge grin split his face in half as he ran over to her bedside. "You're awake."

"Surprise."

"We'll give you two some time," Akina's mother announced. She nodded at her daughter and, before exiting, bowed her head at N'Deke.

He carefully sat down beside her.

"You look great." She took in his left side. "Is that from who I think it is?"

"It is. He's gone now." He gnawed on his lower lip. "He apologized. It felt like I was getting him back only to lose him. Permanently, this time"

She stared off into space with an unreadable expression. She found his free hand and squeezed it. "How are you holding up?"

"I'll be fine, eventually."

"How about..." She struggled for a while with her words before asking, "How's mom?"

N'Deke smiled. Despite reuniting with her biological parents, the fact that Akina still considered Jeniba her mother was heartwarming. "She's recovering. The tribesmen wanted to elect me as the next tribe leader but that entailed too many responsibilities I wasn't ready for. So I offered it to her. We haven't had a female tribe leader since my great-great-great-great-great-grandmother."

Akina laughed. "Did she accept?"

"For now, Uncle Modo is helping her ease into it until she's ready herself. He's the only other trustworthy person I could think of."

"Do you think you'll ever want to be tribe leader?"

He thought long and hard about the question. After everything that happened, the answer seemed obvious to him. "Power is a scary thing, Akina. If you can't handle it properly, it can turn you into a completely different person, and not for the best. You saw what happened to M'Bao." He shook his head. "Maybe some day I'll be ready."

"Maybe some day."

Silence settled in, interrupted by the buzzing and whirring of machinery around them. N'Deke played with his flute some more before speaking up again. "I'm going away for a while."

Akina hummed quietly. "Where to?"

"America. I'm leaving today with King T'Challa and Shuri."

"Why's that?"

"I need some time away." He sighed out. "There's so much I need to figure out, but I just... I need a change of scenery to do it."

Her eyes softened. "Sometimes, you just have to put yourself first and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Take as long as you need. I wish I could say I won't miss my idiot of a brother but we both know that would be a lie."