Work Text:
Riri’s willing to blame it on the extremely high tensions of the past couple of days. She’s not usually this emotional
The fact that it's late at night doesn’t take away from the amount of scientists working diligently in the lab. If anything, the darkening sky seems to bring in more faces, but the heavy blanket of mourning keeps the lab near silent.
Riri’s tucked away from the bustle of it all, in a corner of the heightened workspace Shuri claims for herself, the princess occupied somewhere behind her. Occasionally one of them would lean over to share an idea or feedback on a job. But for the most part Riri’s left to her own devices, which is more than fine. She gets to work on her suit, even if she can’t take it home.
Here in Wakanda, they have everything Riri could think of, but durability is the only thing on her mind.
“What are you working on now?” She hopes she doesn’t look as startled as she feels when Shuri leans over with her questions. In the days after the final battle, the princesses personality had started to show back up. Not that Riri had much to compare it to, just the first few hours when they’d met. But it was nice seeing Shuri joke and even smile again. None of that meant her presence didn’t still make Riri nervous.
“Uhh…” She said, like the genius she was. “Not sure yet, but I’m trying to make it durable. I know I need it to be able to take a couple of hits. Especially something like a Big Three weapon-”
“Big Three Weapon? Is that some other supervillain group?” Riri rolled her eyes to keep herself from joining Shuri in laughter.
“Android, aliens, and wizards. Duh.” It was an oversimplification of everything that had ever caused a threat but it was something. Shuri eyed her carefully, like she didn’t believe Riri was serious. When all she received was raised brows she burst out laughing.
“That is not a thing.”
“I’m not about to argue with you over something I know is true.” Riri had to disturb the peaceful volume level to be heard over Shuri’s laughs. “And even if it's not one of The Big Three-”
Shuri laughed harder
“-then I need it to at least be bullet proof. Something that's not gonna send shrapnel spraying the second the next lunatic with a gun decides I’m their target.” Shuri’s amusement kept her from noticing how Riri’s voice caught on the word bullet. It’d been almost 5 years since the garage but still just the mention of the wrong things at the wrong things could send her spiraling. She fought to ignore the goosebumps forming on her skin.
“Pshh, you Americans and your primitive weapons.” Shuri leaned over Riri’s shoulder to get a better look at what she’d been working on. Within the days they’d spent together, personal space had become almost nonexistent. But Shuri’s joke had rubbed her the wrong way and the princess towering behind her wasn’t calming any nerves.
“Mm.” Riri hummed, using her mental energy for keeping herself in check rather than finding a remark. Still, Shuri didn’t notice any of the changes. Which is what Riri wanted, the last thing she wanted was for extra attention.
“Besides, most of the guns used here in Wakanda are non lethal anyway. Better to knock people out than risk killing them.” Shuri’s arm reached out and pulled up a hologram of the weapon she’d been bragging about. “I heard some SHIELD scientists were able to recreate the formula for the toxin, but what became of it has evaded us.”
Riri did her best to give the diagram her attention, but the longer she starred the more her skin crawled up her neck and all over her body. Tech like this existed. Not just in the world but with SHIELD. And the reason Wakanda hadn’t hounded the science from SHIELD was unsaid, they knew it wouldn’t be used.
Ever since her first working prototype of the suit she’d thought about how different that night in the garage could have gone. She could have sent it over to Natalie, so Gary could have taken cover faster. It could’ve been a deterrent in the first place, so those men would have known better than to fire wildly in her neighborhood. If she’d had the suit she could have flown Natalie island Gary to the hospital, beating the paramedics that always took their time coming to her side of town.
“Well, the rest of the world doesn’t have all of that.” Riri said, with more force than she’d meant, cutting Shuri off in the middle of talking about energy based weapons. “And the rest of the world doesn’t have that protection either, so these primitive ass weapons still get the job done.”
Shuri picked up on the force and backed up. She stammered something Riri didn’t catch, a sign she was already too far gone. Trying to gain control she grabbed the nearest tool, a wrench, and moved to tighten the nearest bolt she saw. Anything to try and calm her down, her mom would faint if she knew how her daughter was acting.
“Riri, I didn’t mean-” The clamminess from the back of her neck spread to her throat, making her aware of each breath she took.
“It’s fine, Shuri, I just need-”
Somewhere in the lab, someone dropped a lot of something metallic and loud. The noise echoed, bouncing off the wall and into Riri’s brain. It muddled her thoughts and every one of her senses. Trapped in silence, Riri closed her eyes hard, hoping that when she opened them everything would be back to normal.
Instead she saw the all too familiar wall of Gary’s shop, hole ridden and splattered in red.
The months following the incident, Riri didn’t leave her moms bed. Everything from right after the gunshots finished to right after the funerals was a blur. Except for some of the hours she’d spent in her moms arms, where her grieving mother had held as much of Riri as she could. It’d only been when she’d started working herself into fits like these that her mother had gotten up, Riri’s wellbeing scaring her back into action. And it’d only been Riri’s anger at being a burden that had dragged her out of bed and into pretending that nothing had happened in the first place.
All of that anger that usually pushed her to function was gone now.
Someone was calling her name. Over and over but she couldn’t place the voice.
Natalie’s screaming her name. Their locking eyes and she can read the terror on Nat’s face clear as day. Her screams are piercing Riri’s eardrums the exact same way.
The lights in the room were changing, getting dimmer and dimmer.
The bullets light up and ping as the strike metal on the walls, the floor, Nat’s stool. They ricochet just as loud. Into Nat. Into Gary.
Someone's touching her, squeezing her hand.
The only other people in the garage are on the floor with bullet holes in their bodies. Their breaths are labored and her ears do her the favor of amplifying dripping blood.
Someone’s squeezing her arms, hands, going up and down. The touch tingles like rain.
It’s quiet in the shop. Nat’s and Gary’s legs are tangled in a bloody mess.
Someone's still calling her name.
It’s quiet in the workshop, especially where the edges of the room don’t quite make sense. There are still bodies on the floor. Hands are going up and down her arm. Someone is calling her name.
The voice is nowhere near as terrified as Nat had been, but scared nonetheless. Someone’s hands are running up and down her arms, firm enough that she can feel each finger individually. The remnants of the workshop fade away and morph back into the lab.
Riri blinks hard twice. First to remind herself that she can. Then to clear her head as much as it’ll help.
Shuri’s face comes back into focus, shifting to hide some expression Riri doesn’t have the words to ask about. She only catches bits and pieces of the princesses words.
“Riri.”
She dragged her eyes around the lab. Instead of the bustling room it’s dark and empty. Whatever gets said is lost but Riri forces her eyes to meet Shuri’s anyway. The princess' eyes only widened more. When Riri went to nod her head it barely moved. When she tried to lift her arm it moved like it had 10 tons on top.
Everything felt heavy.
Shuri hummed something low and Riri felt a hand on her back, the pressure from it leading her towards the big lab doors. Each foot she lifted felt like swimming in syrup in the first model of her suit. Clanky, gross, and wrong.
She blinked, and they were further down the hallway, Shuri’s hand still steering her in a direction.
Riri blinked again, this time finding herself in front of the door to the room she’d been staying in. The out of body feeling hadn’t gone away, keeping her feeling like she was dragging behind herself.
Another blink, Riri opened her eyes to the stark white of Wakandan sheets. The material stuck to her wet face (when had that happened) but her arms were still too heavy to lift anything. She could make out Shuri’s voice somewhere close by, but any other details were lost to the room.
In the morning, she’ll wake up to a sore body and a note from Wakanda’s royalty telling her to rest. And Riri will ignore it, dragging herself out of the bed and back to the lab to work on her suit trying to ignore everything that had ever happened. Because everything was fine, right?
br_er Sat 20 Sep 2025 12:24AM UTC
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SinFromHeaven Mon 22 Sep 2025 11:42AM UTC
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