InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Hogwarts Class of '77!"

T’Challa was gone. The Universe had decided, on wim or with unknown purpose, that he would return to the Prime Universe from which he had come over a year ago. Shuri had decided that together they could conquer anything - until suddenly she was alone.

The King of Wakanda has left the building, she thought, making sure her laundry was in the appropriate hamper rather than strewn around the room, thanks to her distracted state. Losing her brother and working with Tony and Bruce on the Super Soldier situation had affected her tidy habits, her sleeping schedule and when she remembered to eat.

MJ was coming over and they were going to have dinner and watch movies and whatever else it was that people did at sleepovers. It would be a welcome distraction and would probably even be fun. She looked forward to finding out.

***

One time, MJ joked with Peter and Ned that she didn’t have any friends. Except it wasn’t really a joke. Until she’d started hanging out with them, she hadn’t had many friends, largely because she knew that most people were intimidated by her intellect. As such, she’d never had the typical teen girl experience of a sleepover with a girlfriend and her concept of what happened at them was based solely on the occasional vapid teen movies that she got suckered into watching.

Still, it felt like the right thing to offer when she saw the network post that Shuri’s brother had returned to their original universe. She was still getting to know the Princess, but she liked her a lot and thought she had the potential to become a good friend. And good friends were there to support each other in hard times.

She showed up at the Embassy with a huge bag of supplies, including ice cream and DVDs of some cheesy movies. It was a little intimidating to be led through the massive halls by guards, though MJ was impressed by the all female guard regiment. When she finally arrived in Shuri’s room, she offered a tentative smile. “Hey,” she said.

***

Shuri had left the door open, so the guard wouldn’t knock and make any formal announcements.Such things seemed silly to her, but then, she was known for not ‘appreciating’ some of the traditions of Wakandan royalty. She turned from straightening some books when she heard MJ’s voice. Flanked by two of the Dora Milaje, the girl looked like she might be nervous. She was carrying several bags and Shuri wondered what she had brought.

“MJ!” she said with a big smile, walking toward her friend. “What, did you purchase New York on the way ovah?” To the guards, she said, “Thank you” and with a ceremonial thump of their spears, in unison, of course, they turned and departed. “Come in, come in, put those down, so good to see you.” And once the bags were gone, she gave the girl a big hug.

***

MJ set her bags down and was more than happy to hug Shuri, hoping the gesture would bring her some measure of comfort though she knew that there wasn’t much she could do to really make the other girl feel better after such a loss.

“I brought all of the things that girls usually have at sleepovers in the movies,” she said. “Junk food, movies, matching pajamas…” The last might be going a bit too far, but she couldn’t resist when she saw them in the store window. It hadn’t even taken that long for the store to embroider their names on the shorts to personalize them.

***

Shuri pulled back from the hug and regarded MJ, her eyebrows creeping toward her hairline.

“Matching pajamas?” she echoed. Then she laughed. “Oh, you are too kind. This is going to be fun! Right. Now where do we start? Dinner will be ready in about forty-five minutes, so we have time to get the bags sorted and decide where we want to watch a movie and which one to watch and oh, thank you so much for coming over…”

Shuri dabbed her eyes quickly with the back of her hands and picked up some of the bags, crossing to her just-made bed to put them down. Her brother wasn’t dead, so she shouldn’t be sad at all, but it wasn’t the same when she couldn’t share the experiences unique to the fractured universe.

***

“What are our options for places to watch a movie?” MJ asked. She would be fine with wherever Shuri was most comfortable since the whole reason for this night was to hopefully make her feel a little better.

She followed Shuri across the room and started pulling items out of the bags, starting with the matching pj's so she could show the other girl and then, after setting them aside, she pulled out a handful of DVDs. There were a variety of genres represented, including some romantic comedies, some teen dramas, and a few thriller/horror type films in case Shuri found comfort in adrenaline rushes.

***

Shuri looked at the pajamas and grinned. “I love them! And our names are there! You are the best. You do realize we will have to do this again, uh?” She considered changing into hers for dinner, then decided that might be a bit much. Looking through the DVDs, she said, “There is a television here in my room and there is a theatre room in the basement. It is used for presentations and so on, but also for movie night. My father loved movies and so do I.” She held one up. “Have you seen this one?”

***

As fun as a private theater sounded, MJ thought they’d be more comfortable if they hung out in Shuri’s room. “We can just watch in here,” she said. “Unless you’d rather go to the theater.” She took the DVD that the other girl held out and shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. I’ve heard of it, of course, but I don’t think I ever actually sat and watched it.”

She was definitely good with doing this again though. It was nice having a girl friend.

***

“Good. We will watch it, then. Lots of action, great fun. Have you brought anything else I should know about before dinner? Ah!” Shuri held up one finger, as she just remembered something to ask. “Do you have any food allergies? The kitchen will want to know.” The finger went away, only to return a few seconds later. “And I have set up the room next door for you when you are ready to crash.

Crossing to a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, she selected a book with a green cover and tilted it forward. The shelves parted in the middle of the wall and revealed a large screen television with all the accompanying equipment beneath it behind doors of smacked glass.

***

MJ shook her head. “No, no allergies,” she said, watching with fascination as Shuri tipped a book and revealed a state of the art entertainment system hiding behind her bookcase. “Okay, now that is just cool.” It was the sort of thing that she expected all wealthy people to have, though she assumed most of them were hiding more nefarious things in hidden spaces.

“And, no, I don’t think there’s anything else you need to worry about,” she said. “Oh, just somewhere we can stash the ice cream so it doesn’t melt.”

***

“Good,” she said, lightly tapping the screen twice to turn it on. She made a circle about the size of a dinner plate with her finger and a selection of icons appeared. Pressing one that looked like a giraffe, the view of a Savannah crystallized. Though it looked like a photograph, it turned out to be video footage, made apparent when the elephants currently in the image moved amidst the semi-arid open woodlands, complete with those trees and bushes associated with Africa in most of the travel commercials. It included sound, which meant insects buzzing and the occasional bird call.

“This is one of my favourites,” Shuri said, moving back toward MJ. “It is a live camera?” of a watering hole in Wakanda, where many different animals cross on their way to a watering hole.” In a way, it made her homesick, but in a better way, it made her happy. She picked up her mobile and texted the kitchen that all was good for dinner. “They are seven hours ahead of us, so it is midnight there now. This footage would have been taken during the day.”

***

“That’s incredible,” MJ said. She was officially jealous of Shuri’s insane tech and could not even imagine how Peter and Ned would react to it. Not that she could imagine either of them being chill enough to hang out in a girl’s bedroom enough to appreciate the technology. She’d have to tell them about it though.

Everything she heard about Wakanda made it sound like the kind of place she would love to visit. Maybe at some point, Shuri would be willing to take her there. Especially now that she’d have to travel there to spend time with her brother. “You are so lucky to be from such an amazing place.”

***

Shuri nodded. “I count my blessings daily,” she said, genuinely pleased that her friend liked both the technology and the beauty of her homeland. “Maybe we can go there for a visit sometime, when things calm down about Genosha.” She wanted to see her brother and mother and everyone else, from Dora Milaje to the design team to just sitting in the sun by the water. It wasn’t her original universe, no, but she could still enjoy it.

“Now, about that ice cream…” She crossed to a part of another wall, this one closer to the bed, which was paneled in rich wood, responsibly harvested, of course. She pushed one panel in and a door opened to reveal a fridge on the top and a draw on the bottom: a hidden appliance, but something you might see on a home renovation program where the fridge is concealed to look like the kitchen cabinets . “Bring it here,” Shuri said, pulling the drawer open to reveal a freezer. “We cannot have that melting.”

***

Okay, MJ was seriously wondering now if she could figure out a way to move into the Embassy because damn. “I would love to visit Wakanda with you sometime,” she said, carrying the ice cream over to the hidden fridge/freezer so they could put it away. “And I might never leave here.”

Though she understood why Shuri might not want to stay there on her own too.

***

The ice cream was secure, the freezer drawer closed and the fridge door became part of the paneled wall again. “You might miss your city, but you would be welcome to visit any time.”

Shuri checked the clock on the wall, an old model with hands and faded paint that looked like it might have been reclaimed from a building in New York. “Okay, I think we’re good to go to the dining room now. It will be a bit formal, but don’t let it bother you. The Dora Milaje are truly wonderful people, as well as being strong and smart, and the kitchen team is fantastic.”

She opened the door to the hall and added, “Have you ever had Ethiopian cuisine?” Traditional Wakandan food was very similar. She hoped MJ would like it.

***

MJ nodded. “Yeah, I like it,” she said. One of the benefits of living in New York City was the wide variety of cuisines that were available. She had a fairly adventurous palate and was always happy to try new things.

Despite Shuri’s warning that it would be a bit formal, MJ could not have expected how intense the experience would be. It was one thing to abstractly know that her new friend was royalty and quite another to see how the Dora Milaje and the other staff treated her. The food, of course, was incredible, and MJ was pretty sure she might actually explode by the time they made their way back to Shuri’s room. They may not need any of the snacks she’d brought after that meal.

“Are all your meals like that?” she asked. “I guess you can’t just order a pizza or something, huh?” It made sense, given that the Embassy was an official building and likely visited by a number of dignitaries, but it seemed like an overwhelming place to live.

***

It had been a wonderful dinner, not stilted or silent, though she had noticed that MJ seemed a bit uncertain of the Dora Milaje. The servers were polite and attentive without being smothering and the chef had even emerged from her domain to chat with Shuri and meet MJ. It had been a lot of food, though.

Shuri laughed. “No, not all the meals are like that, but dinner tends to be a traditional meal and we have a guest, so they wanted to treat you.” They entered the bedroom and she closed the door. “And we could have still ordered pizza, but I didn’t want the team to feel left out. So! We should get washed and ready for bed, put on our awesome pajamas and watch Mistah Schwarzenegger shoot bad guys. Deal?”

***

“Deal,” MJ agreed with a grin. She never would have imagined being friends with an actual princess or hanging out in a place like this, but she was glad that she met Shuri and that their hanging out seemed to be helping distract the other girl from her recent loss. “And later, we can eat ice cream.”

Teenage girls might not have quite the appetite that teenage boys did, but they were still growing and could pack it away.