❝ i am someone who did not die when i should have died. ❞
‣ 𝙰𝚁𝙴 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙰𝙽 𝙰𝙲𝚃𝙸𝚅𝙸𝚂𝚃, @electricstcrm ? 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙼𝙿𝚃: 𝙰𝙲𝙲𝙴𝙿𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶.
he’s getting exhausted. there are too many names to remember, faces to assemble. pieces in the mind like jigsaws that don’t quite fit. used to be less and less acquainted with diplomacies back when his father was still sitting on the throne, he doesn’t have any excuse to evade the greetings anymore at this point. the united nation proffers more than what he needs, networks that would only extend their hands to wakanda when they’re in need of the devices and knowledge. that’s frankly quite a bitter pill to swallow, if he could be honest, knowing so well that opening his country to the global level would require a notch of saccharine tongue to match. this is one of the instances where he wishes peace and quiet were concepts that he could afford. alas, it was a decision made, a decision done. the ounce of regret is directed more towards the exhaustive hand shaking, perhaps.
but this meeting is different. knowing too well that he would be invited to the renewal of the united nation’s decisions on registration acts, he prepares himself. braces himself. memories that deluge like no other; panic attacks that tiptoe along the rim of his conscious. okoye has been sending him glances that he’s recognized as masked worries, but he pretends to not spot that since the beginning. speaking in public is one thing to get used to, but pretending in public is another issue that he has yet to handle with care. his forte lies in stagnancy, the void of emotions that swells like the nausea that only expands in his stomach. he has to prevent himself from lurching forward in the nonexistent threat of a bomb, expecting himself to protect everyone in the room so that they don’t have to face the same fate as his father did.
until he spots those faces. he knows they’re not there for the accord signing, having refused the entirety of disclosure towards the mutantkind. at first, he believes that his eyes are playing tricks on him when he sees her. gaze fixated, she feels more like a mirage in the desert than not. he expects the image to dissolve. but it doesn’t happen. she’s there in the stead of the youth they once shared in a country foreign to both of them. he sends a signal to okoye, wanting to be left alone before moving rapidly, meandering through the eager crowd that wishes to be more acquainted with the king of wakanda himself. he looks at her, the disguise she’s wearing a mere shape of distraction. ❛ ororo, ❜ he speaks, barely above a whisper. and that’s when the other faces dawn on him. he scans their surrounding, spotting more of her companions. ❛ you’re with... the x-men. ❜