"You just had to keep the tail."
—
Shuri's lab
You go through the hall and meet Shuri by the entrance to her lab.
"My King." Shuri says, bowing mockingly and you chuckle.
"Stop it. Stop it." He tells her.
She laughs and they do their handshake. As Tchalla turns to walks Shuri turn to you and you give her a quick fist bump before she catches up with Tchalla. You walk behind them down the stairs.
"I've already sent a car ahead to Busan for you." She tells him. "Who are you taking with you to Korea?"
"Okoye and Y/N." He answers. And she whips her head up to you a little with a growing smile on her face. Then turn forward, giving her brother a look. "She's studied Korean." He then feels like adding under her sister's knowing gaze.
"Right. That's the reason." She says rolling her eyes. Glancing at you with a knowing look again.
But before you get to overthink it Tchalla speaks again, turning both your and Shuri's attention away from what she said.
"And you'll be on call, should we need backup." He tells her.
"Yes!" She whispers and turn to you and you high five. "I have great things to show you, brother. And you too Y/N." She gives you a little wink and you laugh.
You walk toward a table.
"Here are your communication devices for Korea. Unlimited range, also equipped with audio surveillance system." He closes the lid and takes them.
"Check there out." She then says and walks a little ahead of us. She hold something up. "Remote access Kimoyo beads. Updated to interface directly with my sand table."
"Ah. An what are these?" Tchalla asks gesturing toward something on the next table.
"The real question is, what are those!?" She exclaims and you try to hold back your giggle at Tchalla's shoes. "Why do you have your toes out in my lad?" Tchalla chuckles and put his foot up on a chair showing his sandals.
"What, you don't like my royal sandal? I wanted to go old school for my first day." He tells her.
"I bet the elders loved that." They chuckle and Shuri takes the foot-soles from the table and put them on the floor. "Try them on." She tells him and he does. "Fully automated. Like the old American movie Baba used to watch. And i made them completely sound absorbent."
As she said that Tchalla takes a few steps and as she said, no sound, and you raise your eyebrows impressed.
"Guess what i call them." She tells us and you just look at her, waiting. "Sneakers." She says and you scoff a laugh. But Shuri waits for Tchalla to react who just stares at her. "Because you.. never mind. Atleast someone finds me funny." She gestures to you trying not to laugh.
You shake your head with a smile still trying to not laugh at the dry joke. She chuckles at you and so does Tchalla.
"If you're going to take on Klaue, you'll need the best the design group has to offer. Exhibits A." She gestures to yours and Tchalla's suits.
"My design. And your first design for Y/N." He says.
"Old tech." She then says.
"Old?" He asks offended.
"Functional, but old. 'Hey, people are shooting at me. Wait, let me put on my helmet'." She jokes and you chuckle again. "And my first design for Y/N, yes old tech. Also helmet.." She shakes her head. "Now look at these." She says pointing to the three mannequins.
Tchalla turn to the gold one.
"Do you like that one?" Shuri asks him.
"Tempting. But the idea is to not me noticed. This one." He turns to the other one and you smile, having kinda liked that one better. Shuri takes her Kimoyo Beads up to his head and it trills glowing.
"Now, tell it to go on." She tells him. And after just staring at the suits for a few seconds it starts to appear from the necklace and before you know it the mannequin is covered with the suit. Your lips part in awe.
"Ooh! The entire suit sits within the teeth of the necklace." She says.
You all look at it, her new design was really good.
"Strike it." She then says.
"Anywhere?" He asks.
"Mhm."
He kicks it and it flies backwards into the wall.
"Not that hard, genius!" She exclaims.
"You told me to strike it. You didn't say how hard." He turns to you with a shrug and you just smile in amusement.
"I invite you to my lab, and you just kick things around."
"Well, maybe you should make it a bit stronger. Hey.." He then looks and touches the area that he kicked which is now glowing a purple.
"The nanites absorb the kinetic energy and hold it in place for redistribution."
"Very nice."
"Strike it again in the same spot." She says and takes a few steps back to you, you turn to look at her as she lifts her bead and open up the camera.
"You're recording?" He asks confused.
"For research purposes." She tells him and you raise your eyebrow at her.
He strikes it again but gets thrown back at impact landing a few feet away. You gasp, your hand flies to your mouth trying to hold back your laugh, but failing miserably. Shuri laughs her head off beside you.
"Delete that footage." He tells her and try to stand up.
You walk toward him, with an apologetic look, to maybe help him up. But when he sees you approaching he hurriedly stands up. Then leaning slightly on a shelf beside him he gives you a smile. He then clears his throat and walk back to the mannequins.
"What about Y/N?" He says but not before glaring at his sister on the way over.
"Ah, Y/N, come." She tells you and you walk over. "This one." She holds up a necklace that looks almost the same as Tchalla's.
She holds it up and put it over your head. You look down at it while she takes her Kimoyo Beads to your head, activating it.
"You just tell it to go on, in your head, like Tchalla." She tells you.
You do as she says and suddenly you feel it appearing from the necklace and enveloping your body until your cover in the new suit, except for your head. It hugs your body perfectly. It's also modest in a way, white and slightly gold in some areas.
"It has all the same features as the Panther. But now you can also change the colour to black. So you can easier stay hidden in the dark." She says and then you notice movement behind you. You turn to see your artificial tail flowing around elegantly.
"You just had to keep the tail." You give her an accusing eyebrow. She shrugs.
"You hide your feelings too well." She says and you look at her confused, but she immediately continues to cover it. "It's become a necessary feature, don't you think? Has some advantages." She says sheepishly.
You just stare at her, thinking about how you've in fact managed to use it to your advantage, and that it hadn't been as much a hindrance as you thought it would be. Even though she added it to your suit as a joke, and a prank. You didn't realise it had been because you had hid your feelings so well. You wondered what it was that she hoped to find your true feelings about.
"You're right, i guess. How did it come out of the necklace, anyway?" You ask, taking the tail in your hands. She just smirks with a smug shrug, not explaining.
You look up to find Tchalla staring at you.
"What? Do i look ridiculous?" You say gesturing to your tail.
His eyes widen.
"What? No! You look great. I mean, it looks great." He says fumbling slightly and you chuckle. "Shuri, thank you. We'll call you if we need anything." He then says hurriedly and takes his necklace from a smirking Shuri before leaving in a hurry.
You give Shuri a hug in thanks and turn to leave with him, after you make the suit disappeared into the necklace again.
Then you meet up with Okoye and go to the aircraft and leave for Busan.
—