Lekan has been feeling strange for several days now, but it wasn’t something he could put an explanation or even a name to. There had been the odd sensation that being a ranger didn’t fit and a similar feeling about other things in his life, but he chalked them up to not getting enough sleep or working too hard or to the fact that his genius of a little sister was now a graduate student at the university. The simplest, most logical explanation for these feelings, he reasoned, was most likely the correct one. He didn’t bring up the strangeness to any of the others in his life, either. They’d likely just laugh at him and tell him he was working too hard. They might have been right.
In an effort to take his mind off of it, Lekan had invited his girlfriend over for dinner. His sister had plans, so it seemed like the perfect excuse to cook for Wanda. Lekan was pretty good on the kitchen by this point - he’d had to learn quickly after losing his parents and 8 years later he could reasonably count cooking as one of his best skills. He’d also always been the type to enjoy an evening in more than going out amongst large crowds of people, so in his kind making dinner and maybe putting on a good movie after sounded like the perfect date night.
All morning during her shift at the restaurant, Wanda had been having a weird feeling of... well, she couldn't exactly put her finger on it. The past couple of days, her life had felt strange. Almost like she was playing the role of someone that wasn't her, but that didn't make any sense. She simply attributed it to the fact that she'd taken too many extra shifts during the busy season and hadn't been sleeping well.
Either way, she tried her best to push all of that out of her mind on her way over to Lekan's place. It was a short walk over, and Wanda came prepared with a bottle of her favorite red wine and a six pack of beer that she knew he enjoyed. She didn't know what he was cooking, so she came prepared for either pallette. Wanda could easily switch between either drink, and she didn't want to come empty-handed.
After the weird day or so, she was perfectly fine enjoying a night in with her boyfriend. Wanda knocked at the door and smiled when Lekan answered; she held up both sets of drinks in her hands. "I come bearing gifts."
Lekan’s face lit up as he took in the sight of her standing there with drinks and he leaned in to kiss her cheek before relieving her of both the bottle and the six pack. “You’re an angel,” he informed her before motioning for her to come inside.
She’d picked a good wine to go with the jerk chicken he had made for dinner, he was pleased to note. Grabbing a couple of glasses and a corkscrew, he led her into the kitchen where the table was already set with everything else.
Wanda swished her glass around a bit after he’d poured the wine and took a sip. She peered over at the stove and smiled. She couldn’t tell exactly what he was making up, but whatever it was, it smelled amazing. Lekan had always been an excellent cook, and she hadn’t been disappointed in any of his meals yet.
“It smells delicious,” she said, cozying up next to him to take a peek to see what he was doing. “Is there anything that I can do to help?” She asked, glancing around.
“It is just about ready,” he answered with a quick shake of his head as he moved to pull the chicken out of the over. The caribbean rice was already being kept warm in a pot on the stove and a bowl on the counter held the mango salsa.
“I hope you’re hungry,” he commented. “I think I’ve made enough for a small army.” Not that his sister wouldn’t be happy to help out with eating the leftovers.
"You're cooking. I came prepared with a healthy appetite." Anytime Lekan offered to cook for the two of them, Wanda more than happily took him up on that offer. She considered herself to be an okay cook, but she definitely lucked out in the boyfriend department in snagging one who was excellent in the kitchen.
As he finished up the meal, she leaned back against the counter facing him and watched as he worked. While watching him, Wanda had a strange sense of deja vu only this time she was the one behind the stove while someone else watched her work. She frowned just for a moment and shook away the sensation from her mind, looking up at him and smiled. "So, I was thinking about going to one of those painting classes this weekend. The ones where the whole group follows along and makes the same picture. I know it's really cheesy, but I wanted to see if you'd like to go?"
“That sounds like fun,” he said, looking over at Wanda and smiling. He had the oddest sense for a moment that none of this was right, that this wasn’t at all where he was supposed to be, but he pushed the thoughts aside.
After dishing everything up and making sure the oven and stove top were turned off, he handed Wanda the bowl of rice while grabbing the chicken and salsa himself and nodding toward the table to indicate they should carry everything out there. This felt strange, too, like he didn’t often cook for himself or others, but it was such a foolish thought that he chose to ignore it.
Wanda helped take the dishes over to the table and sat down in the chair across from him. She took a bite of her food and smiled. “This might taste even more delicious than it smells, T’Challa.” Immediately after the words were said, Wanda frowned. She opened her mouth to say something else, but paused and looked at him.
“I’m sorry. I.. don’t know why I said that. I mean, the food is still wonderful, but…” She shook her head and smiled awkwardly. “Lekan. It really is very good.” It was as if she’d pulled the name out of thin air. Wanda didn’t know anyone by the name T’Challa, but it had come out so casually. Glancing away from him, she picked up her glass of wine and took a very long sip.
Lekan’s eyes widened slightly as she called him by the wrong name, but it was partly because something about the name didn’t feel wrong, exactly. In fact, there was something about it that, for a moment, felt more right than anything else about his life. He didn’t know what to make of that.
“Do you have a secret boyfriend I should know about?” he teased, trying to shrug off the strange feeling. “Perhaps a secret comic book fetish?” It felt like a lifetime ago that he’d been a child and read such books, himself, but he’d been enough of a nerd in those days to be familiar with the name from comics, at least.
Wanda smiled a little, but she reached for her wine glass and took another sip. She was going to need a refill if these strange, uneasy feelings continued. She didn’t feel uncomfortable or uneasy exactly, but something about all of this felt off. She felt off.
“He must be my subconscious boyfriend,” she said, trying to play into the teasing. She knew he wasn’t serious, but it the way she’d said it so easily still didn’t sit well with her even if something about it seemed somehow familiar. She’d never heard that name in her life.
“Perhaps I fell asleep with the television on last night.” Wanda smiled again and took another bite of her food.
“I’m sure it is something like that,” Lekan agreed, but it still nagged at him, how familiar the name felt to him. It hadn’t felt strange for a moment to hear her call him that. It should have, considering it wasn’t his name at all and the fact that it had felt natural to be called by the wrong name was a little unsettling.
Wanda smiled and continued eating her food, eventually changing the subject over to something completely different. There was good conversation between them, and she certainly had a nice time as she always did with Lekan, but there was still a little voice in the back of her head reminding her of the other name as if it meant something more. She just couldn’t put her finger on what.