His mother always chided him that he had no tact. Toussaint knew it was true, but he only asked the questions he wanted to know. If that made him too blunt, then so be it!
Ever since he had turned fourteen, his mama and Aunt Shuri had been training him for his birthright, to lead Wakanda as the next king and Black Panther. His existence was still secret, but he had been given a small squad of Dora Milaje once he grew older and King M'Baku was aware of him. The elders would hopefully be the last to know once he came of age at eighteen. There had been child royals before in their lineage, but his family was deadset on him enjoying his youth before the responsibilities of such a heavy mantle.
Toussaint had sprinted to his aunt's lab. So much ready to burst from his mouth. He loved Shuri, and she loved him. But it was a strange feeling to think of the life his aunt had before him. He never knew her to withhold information from him.
At his sudden appearance, she had pushed up her welding mask decorated with gold swirls. Her kinky hair had grown so considerably that it was hard to stuff it all under the mask. She moved her coily bangs out her face and greeted him.
"My prince, what brings you here? Trying to get out of chores again?" Shuri said, smiling. Her lab was empty of her interns for once. A little techno music played in the background before fading out.
His mouth kept quivering between smug amusement and annoyance.
"When were you going to tell me, he was your evil ex-boyfriend?" Toussaint asked, throwing his hands up.
A beat of silence came before she sighed heavily.
"He's ruthless, not evil." Shuri corrected drily. She laid her welding gear on her work table. The Shuri in her mid-thirties still had an inquisitive mind as ever, and her technological advancements had reached the mainstream now. Apple, who? Udaku products, the namesake honored their family, were everywhere.
"Every time you guys would have council meetings together—the weirdness between you two! Ah, all this time!" He exclaimed. "Mama was so unimpressed when I revealed it to her. Everyone knew before me, huh?"
Shuri pressed a hand to her temple. "There's no need to know what doesn't concern you. I've work to do, Toussaint. "
She always acted so exhausted to deter unwanted conversations, but he couldn't let it go. Not his quiet, funny aunt having been in an actual relationship with an underwater god. A mustached one too! The only adventures or tales of mischief he had heard from her were when her witty mouth or inventions had gotten her in trouble. But this? This was gold!
"I can't believe even you were caught up by the allure of a bad boy. You're as bad as Fabienne and Esther." Toussaint shook his head and made a disapproving sound in his throat. Aunt Shuri had been on the same level as his mates from his Haitian secondary school. He folded his arms in what he hoped looked like a disappointed father gesture. But then he snickered and broke the facade.
At his failed parental pose, she snorted. Some amusement lit in her eyes.
"No worries, Aunty. I know the youth can't fight the siren's call. I'd know."
"If you take so-called bad boy meddling away, has it occurred to you lil Fabienne just may not like you? No one has to return your affections."
"Ugh, my heart is on the floor. It's been trampled—stomped on." Toussaint cried, clutching his chest. "Wow, Aunty! You're savage! To spew this venom to your dear and only nephew."
He faked a gasp, falling onto her worktable. A pack of screwdrivers and soldering tools was near his finely cropped hair.
She gently pushed his shoulders off her table.
Toussaint was startled when she turned serious.
"I won't lie. Yes, there was a time I had looked at him with stars in my eyes. But that was then," Shuri said.
He pushed. "Before what?"
"Before I had to learn a very hard lesson." Shuri didn't say anymore, but Toussaint knew she referred to his grandma's passing. He had known more of Queen Ramonda than his father, but the younger version of himself hadn't known how to really react to her death. He had felt sadder at the turmoil his mama Nakia and Aunt Shuri had experienced. How his grandmother had died, he still didn't know.
She turned the valve off her blowtorch. She was making a metal carapace for a robotic fly, an upgrade from a previous Wakandan technology. Wireless was so outdated. Everything operated by brain waves now.
Shuri continued. "That man cares about one thing only: his people. No one else matters not even himself, regarding them. No matter who else is in the crossfire."
"Well, what made you leave him?"
"Pfft, he was crazy!" She laughed.
"Oh no, this isn't sufficient, Aunty. That's everyone's excuse for an ex! What's the real story?" The need for gossip or a juicy backstory powered his dimpled smile.
"What do you know about exes? You're only fourteen."
"Almost fifteen!"
Shuri pulled at a coil of her hair, letting it spring down before releasing it. Only from knowing her, Toussaint realized she was being bashful.
She took off her safety equipment completely, leaving herself in a black sleeveless turtle neck and black slacks. The golden panther necklace was still around her neck, resting until it was his.
"Tutu, he almost speared a man for looking at me 'with lust in his eyes.'" She made finger quotes. "Of course, he threatened to drown Western nations for existing after their pillaging, colonization, enslavement and displacing of peoples. That hasn't changed. And well, he has a point there."
"Facts!" Toussaint boomed. He was a global history buff, but he was especially interested in the lives and histories of the African diaspora.
Shuri waved her hand dismissively. "Yes, yes but that was still too excessive. Instead of holding those who relish in evil accountable, he'd rather drown everyone indiscriminately. And don't get me started on alliance negotiations. Talokan didn't ask us nicely to ally with them."
Toussaint urged her on. He was fully instigating. Shuri was always so private that it was rare for her to spill about her own life.
"Bast, my mother was right. I swear she died of a heart attack when we started dating. I thought I had fooled her, but she knew all along." She held her head in her hands, then gave an embarrassed shriek. "All those times I sneaked him into my bedroom or sneaked out to Talokan. All the midnight kisses under the moonlight on the beach. Him flying me in the air. Ahhh, Queen Mother knew all!"
"First, eww! Too much! Don't make mama's fufu come up! Second, y'know she had the Dora snitching on you. She didn't have eyes everywhere."
Shuri gave an impressed smirk. "Oh, and how do you know this?"
"Because that's how you and mama are always keeping tabs on me!"
"You're bright, Tutu, but you don't know everything. Trust Nakia and I've our own ways."
Toussaint leaned over the work table. "You're right. I don't know everything. Like, your winged fish man. How am I supposed to carry forward our alliance if I don't know more?"
The teasing tone had disappeared. Shuri's voice turned deadly but not towards him. "What do you mean?"
"He ... he introduced himself to me last week. Said he needed to know Wakanda's next king."
"I could stab him! She muttered.
"You already did. Twice he said," Toussaint added unhelpfully. "He still seems to have eyes for you, aunty."
Shuri tried to calm herself.
"Another thing. He showed me a picture of you." Toussaint pulled out the vibranium photos from his pants pocket. It was a younger Shuri in a Talokan dress, her eyes bright and her neck heavy with jade jewels. The second photo showed Namor and his aunt, seemingly the picture of love, she cradled in his arms. Him kissing her brow, his long robe flowing behind him.
"Who? Who took this? Attuma?" She sucked her teeth, exasperated and something else.
"Nah, not uncle 'Tuma. He's worse with technology than Aunty Okoye! I can't get over you having your own fish man too."
"Correction: 'had.'"
Toussaint pulled out his kimoyo beads, his aunt's flagship invention. "I've more on my phone's cloud. He wouldn't let me take the physicals of these, so I just snapped a photo. I wondered why he cradled this one so preciously." Toussaint wrinkled his nose. "I was scared it was going to be a nude photo."
Shuri rolled her eyes. "As if! If anyone wishes to see me, they must see it in person or not at all!"
"Aunty!"
"You brought it up, Tutu. Please let me just see the stupid thing."
Namor's most prized photo of her was of herself in her early 20s in a purple tracksuit, smiling. Another was her peacefully asleep with a breathing mask on when they first transported her to Talokan. The Mayan transcript immediately scrambled into English: Sleeping Beauty.
She gave the smallest of smiles. "Namor's centuries old, so he's very sentimental. Nostalgic even." For a moment her eyes took on a softer look. Old memories had to be swirling in her head.
With the abruptness of a light switch, Shuri became serious again. "What more did you talk about in this unsanctioned and unchaperoned introduction of his?" She folded her arms.
"He told me of his kingdom. His ideology. Even though I called him evil before, I've to say—"
"—You see how much he cares for his people." She turned away from him. She stared at something overhead.
Toussaint agreed quietly. Wondering where her mind was. He wouldn't dare repeat it since he could tell things between them were hostile. But K'uk'ulkan had firmly stated Shuri was a part of his people too. He had offered Toussaint to be as well.
"Very true. And, I agree with some of his ideology."
Shuri turned to him with wide eyes. She pushed herself into his space.
"Toussaint," she whispered.
"I ... I don't want to burn the world as he called it." Toussaint started slowly. "But I see the injustices of these colonizers. Even in the present day, these agents of chaos don't want to right their wrongs or move toward restoration or reparations. They're hungry and greedy for vibranium. And for what? All they can see its use for is destruction and bloodshed. Look at these universities grooming students to do their bidding: make vibranium detectors and knockoffs. I get his righteous anger. We've been very fortunate here in Wakanda."
Shuri was perfectly still. Watching him with understanding and worried eyes.
"I want them to reap what they sowed. I want to enact change. I want to be a great king like my father ... At least as I've been told."
"He was," Shuri asserted, her eyes glittering with water. It didn't matter how many years passed she would always miss her brother.
"BUT I don't want to bring a reign of terror with me either. Too many innocents get warped and trampled in his way. K'uk'ulkan is..."
She finished for him. "Undeniably ruthless. Honest. Strong. Yes, Namor is beautiful even."
"You call him Namor." He stated.
With a small smile, she replied, "That's the name for his enemies. Try to keep up, okay."
Toussaint blinked.
"All those traits make a dangerous person, Tutu. You're already doing so well, my prince. But don't let yourself be swayed by him as I once was ... I was naive then. My girlish self was charmed by his beauty and his intelligence. I thought he understood me, our grief. And he did in a way."
She closed her eyes.
"I ... can't deny we had a connection. Despite everything, he's enchanting. I still want to throttle him sometimes in our council meetings. You'd think the hurt and resentment had cooled down with the way we get along so well these days, but it never does. I can't forgive him for indirectly taking mama or hurting Wakanda. The whole story I'll tell you one day. Maybe he cannot forgive me either for one of his children dying."
She placed her hands on his shoulders, looking up at him. Her gaze was full of determination and fire.
"There will come a day when you're the Black Panther. Unlike myself, you have a mentor. Me! Learn from my mistakes. You'll make a fine king, but be careful of hidden opposition. "
"I know, I know. Mama says he's a snake."
"Serpent. A feathered serpent. A god among his people. A winged fish man among buffoons," Shuri broke out into a full smile now. King M'Baku reigned, still fully himself in all his vigor and humor.
Twisting at a bracelet on her wrist, Toussaint only then realized the jewelry had been a gift from him. The jade jewelry was the same. His entire life he had thought she wore the bracelet as a reminder of what recreated the herb, but now it may have had a different significance.
"I don't regret loving him, and I forgive myself for the spark that's still there despite it all. I just want you to be careful."
Toussaint didn't know what to say. For all his regal training and quick-wittedness, the mixture of pure honesty and wistfulness from his aunt was sobering. He pulled her into a hug. At least, he knew to do that. His height already put him a head above her.
"Don't learn to love him lest he blind you with his vengeance too. As Talokan becomes involved, things can sour or bloody quickly." She murmured into his shoulder.
Despite whatever mistakes she made or held herself to, it was Shuri Udaku of Wakanda who had made the great K'uk'ulkan yield twice. And he, Toussaint, was her forever-proud nephew.