seasons | killmonger

32 | UNHINGED

"You may not have been birthed into this family, but your loyalty was important to it; and your true intentions came to the light during T'Challa's moment of weakness, and you expect me to pity you and this situation?" She walked closer towards the bars, coming face to face with Wakabi. "You were a best friend to T'Challa. You were a tribe leader... but greed was greater than loyalty to you. So, yes. Excuse the fuck out of all of us, if we expected more out of you."

Everything that Okoye over the past few months began to spill from her lips, and Wakabi had no choice but to listen. "You will never know how it feels to walk into town, and hear the whispers of people mentioning your name to their friends and family. You don't have to hear them whisper about how they pity me, and how lost I must feel. You will never know how it feels to not even want to live in your own home because everything there is you and it makes me sick. To have to close my eyes at night, knowing  that the entire time, you had an army of men walking to and fro... who are so content with overthrowing the family that I work for, even if that means killing them."

Okoye's hands shook and she held onto the bars that had vibranium pulsating through them. "I don't know if you're the man that I married— I don't even know if you're the man that I'm meant to love until the end of this world, but what I do know is, you loved power more than anything."

Wakabi looked at Okoye, brushing his thumb against his bottom lip. "Usandithanda?" Do you still love me?

Okoye could hear the longing in his voice, that made her heart feel like it was sinking down lower and lower into her body. Deep down, because she knew it was the question that she was asking herself every single day that she walked through the palace to start her day, and each time she would leave.

"I love you," She nodded and Wakabi could feel a warmth in his heart. "But, I love this position more." Her eyes fell on him, and the warmth that he felt instantly was replaced with a cold feeling. It was different from a typical windchill, and couldn't even compare to the weather where the Jabari tribe lived. "I know where my loyalty lies— I guess you understand where yours does also. We have to stay in these beds when we make them, and I refuse to share that bed with you, or try to make room for you in my own."

The realization that she knew she'd have to come to, came out easier than she thought that it would; almost as if the weight was lifted off her shoulders so that she could be free of every burden. "Bast is never wrong, and sometimes we can't try to make things work, if she never saw fit for them to."

Wakabi knew. He understood everything that she meant, and all it did was anger him even more. No one knew but the two of them— 

Okoye was never claimed by Wakabi. 

They were never able to hear each other, feel each other, and never had the marking that they were meant to. They realized a year into their relationship, and one year into their marriage that Bast didn't tie them together— but, they tried to make it work. It just... wouldn't. But, everyone assumed that they were based on how they handled each other. It was the only lie she kept from the family, ever.

That's why Okoye was never able to know his plans the entire time. 

"She's been giving signs of this for the longest; and I ignored them because I thought that I could make this work, without her say... maybe, this was her way of getting me to see this situation for what it was." Her teeth sunk into her bottom lip while her fingers toyed with the ring on her hand, sliding it off completely and putting it on the floor. "I don't have the energy to keep ignoring what's been in front of our eyes from the start. Sala kakuhle, Wakabi." Goodbye .