Natasha paused at the threshold to the b, taking a moment to observe Shuri through the gss-panelled wall. The Wakandan princess was standing at a workstation, her brow furrowed as she fine-tuned a floating holographic interface, hands skimming along the projected schematics with practiced ease. She was focused on her task, but Nat thought that she could still detect a hint of tension in her shoulders.

  The door slid open and Nat stepped inside. “Hey, Shuri,” she said, her voice tuned to ‘gentle but approachably friendly’.

  Shuri gnced away from her work, an instant of wariness in her expression before she slipped on a polite, neutral fa?ade. “Good morning, Natasha Romanov,” she responded, then returned to what she was doing, clearly not expecting anything in the way of subsequent conversation.

  Nat moved a little closer, careful not to loom or intrude too much on Shuri’s personal space. “Thought I’d just see how you were doing,” she said, keeping her tone casual. “Bruce mentioned you were working te st night, thought you might have taken a break today.”

  The younger woman paused, but didn’t look at her. “Checking in on me? How thoughtful.” Her tone was neutral, but the edges of it felt brittle. “I’m fine—I know my limits. Was there anything else?”

  “Nothing in particur.” Nat stepped around the workstation a little, deliberately putting herself in Shuri’s line of sight, an easy smile on her face. “Just thought we could chat.”

  Shuri swiped at the hologram in front of her, moving it to one side so she could stare at Natasha challengingly. “I don’t want to talk about your girlfriend, if that’s what you’re here for.”

  Natasha schooled her features—gentle, steady. She had expected this. “I’m not here about Wanda,” Nat reassured her. “If you did want to talk about her, we could, though.”

  A flicker of something hard crossed Shuri’s face. “That wouldn’t be a good idea.”

  “That’s fair,” Nat conceded. “Like I said, not what I was here for. I just wanted to see how you’re doing. That’s all.” Reassuring, calm, friendly.

  Shuri exhaled, the tension in her jaw easing just a fraction. She stood a little straighter, dismissing the holographic dispy entirely with a flick of her wrist. “You probably think I’m irrational,” she said ftly, though not as sharply as before. “A child nursing a grudge.”

  Natasha snorted. “I have to deal with Tony, Wanda and Secretary Ross on a regur basis. My bar for ‘irrational’ is pretty high.” She was pleased to see the faintest ghost of a smile flicker across Shuri’s features.

  “Tony Stark can be… an interesting person to work with,” the younger woman acknowledged.

  “You’ve been cooped up in the b basically since you got here. Have you even been out to NYC yet?”

  “No,” she said with a small shake of her head. “I’ve been working.”

  Nat shrugged, keeping her posture nonchant, trying to avoid any hint of pressure. “I’d be happy to take you. We could even grab Peter, maybe? I’m sure he’d love to show you the sights. I know he’s pretty young, but I bet having him around on the weekends is still a nice break.”

  Shuri went to nod in acknowledgement of her point about Peter, then her forehead creased and she paused. Damn. Nat nearly managed to trick her into agreeing without thinking there. The younger woman shrugged, instead. “There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done.”

  “I know. But if you decide you want a break, the work will still be here when you get back.” Nat shot her a sympathetic smile. “Look, I know it’s probably not something you’re interested in talking about, but you’ve had a lot of stuff put on you. New powers, being away from home, having to deal with seeing Wanda all the time… it’s a lot. No one will judge for you taking a break. Slowing down a little. No one’s expecting you to be perfect all the time. Except maybe yourself,” she added, injecting a little levity into her tone at the end.

  There was a fsh of uncertainty in Shuri’s eyes for a moment. “…That’s not an unfair assessment,” she acknowledged slowly. “It has been a little stressful.”

  “I’m not going to pretend a little downtime is going to fix everything, but you don’t have to deal with everything on your own. If you need a break from the science, or to vent about how little sense gamma radiation makes, or just want to talk about home, I’m always around. Tony and Bruce can be great, but…”

  “…A pair of middle-aged white men aren’t exactly where I would like to be getting all of my social interaction,” Shuri admitted, a faint, reluctant smile once again threatening to appear before she suppressed it.

  Nat grinned back. “I’m not trying to pry or anything. But I know a little about feeling out of pce. Like I said—I’m around. No judgment. No agenda.”

  A taut breath escaped Shuri and she folded her arms, her gaze dropping to the floor. After a few seconds, she gave a small nod. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said quietly. There was still distance there, but Nat felt like it had lessened a bit.

  The door to the b slid open and Bruce walked in, poring over a tablet cradled in one hand. He looked up and paused, his eyes flicking first to Natasha, then to Shuri, and back again—mild surprise registering on his face.

  “Oh—hey, Nat,” he said, recovering quickly. “Didn’t expect to see you here.” He gave her a lopsided grin and turned to Shuri, offering her the tablet. “The comparative overnight data on your st batch of bloodwork. Figured you’d want to see it straight away.”

  Shuri gave him a short nod. “Thank you, Dr Banner.” She shifted her posture, taking the offered tablet before turning back to her own system. “I’ll incorporate it now.” A subtle tension still tightened her shoulders, but she was firmly back in ‘work mode.’

  Natasha caught Shuri’s eye briefly, offering a brief, reassuring tilt of her head before taking a step away from the workstation to let her refocus without feeling crowded. She moved toward Bruce. “I was just checking in,” she said softly, but still loud enough for Shuri to hear. “Sounds like you’ve both been busy.”

  Bruce nodded. “Yeah, Shuri’s… unstoppable when she’s got a project. I’m just trying to keep up.” He chuckled, sounding a little bit in awe.

  “You seem to manage just fine.” Her tone held a gentle note of amusement.

  “Well, I—uh, you know. We do what we can, right?” he offered with a self-deprecating grin, gaze darting over her face then back to the graphs in his hand. “I mean, it’s all her work, really. I just run some numbers, maybe geek out over new gamma interactions, that sort of thing.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short, Dr Banner,” Shuri said without looking away from her interface—she’d brought across the data from his tablet and was flicking through a hovering holographic screen of raw, complex data. “You’re likely the only person on Earth who still knows more about gamma radiation than I do.”

  Bruce ducked his head, one shoulder lifting in a modest shrug, then he straightened up a little bit and shot Shuri an inquiring look. “You mind if I show Nat?”

  Still looking at the data, Shuri shook her head. “That’s fine.” She held his tablet out for him to collect again, having taken what she needed from it.

  He took a step over to retrieve it, then hurried back over to Natasha while rapidly swiping at the screen. Nat felt a small smile tug at her mouth—he was always so animated when he was excited about something. “Here,” he said as he offered her the tablet. “Take a look at this.”

  She took it and he stepped up beside her, standing close and peering at the screen with her. It showed a detailed full-body imaging of someone: a man—not Shuri—which was a little bit of a surprise. Nat wasn’t exactly an expert, and she didn’t see what Bruce was trying to show her until he touched the screen again and faint traces of purple were isoted from the rest of the image. It was a fairly broad scatter pattern, through all parts of the body, with slightly heavier concentrations around the major organs.

  “This is Shuri’s brother, T’Chal,” Bruce said. “The Heart-Shaped Herb infuses you with vibranium—it bonds it to organic cells, somehow. We’ve got Dr Cho looking over the details to see if we can isote the mechanism.”

  Nat frowned briefly. “I’m surprised Wakanda’s happy for you to look into that, given they see it as a blessing from their goddess.”

  He screwed up his face a little, as if the political ramifications were only a needless distraction from the science, but it was Shuri that responded. “We’re not trying to replicate the Herb,” she said firmly. “Even if we were, I would be more concerned with the practical implications of a reproducible scientific process over the shamans’ superstitions.” Her tone made it pretty clear just how much stock she put in the religious significance of the Herb.

  Bruce nodded impatiently. “Yeah. That’s not a concern. This stuff’s purely for understanding Shuri’s condition better, looking for clues about why the Herb’s interacted with the gamma the way it has.” He gestured to the screen, drawing her attention back. “You see the vibranium distribution?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Okay. So that’s T’Chal, and this…” He reached over, his hand accidentally brushing against hers for a moment as he swiped at the screen again. “Is Shuri.”

  Nat’s eyes widened. “What the hell?” she murmured, then immediately kicked herself mentally for not controlling her immediate reaction better.

  “Right?” Bruce breathed, sounding excited.

  Shuri’s imaging was much more heavily infused than T’Chal’s, with purple suffusing almost her entire body. Without an exact measurement to be sure, Nat would guess Shuri’s vibranium infusion was four or five times more advanced than T’Chal’s was. “Gamma radiation did this? How?” she asked, her eyes taking in the details of the scan for a few moments before she gnced over in Shuri’s direction. “You haven’t been chowing down on loose bits of vibranium while no one’s watching, have you?”

  “I haven’t, no,” the Wakandan princess responded mildly.

  Bruce let out a small chuckle, shaking his head. “We don’t know exactly how the gamma triggered it, but it’s like the vibranium is growing inside her.”

  “Do we need to be worried?” Nat asked.

  “We don’t know, yet,” Bruce said with a shake of his head. “My guess? No. From what we can tell from the st month’s worth of data, the process is slowing down. She’s been getting measurably tougher this whole time—even without going purple, she’s nearly as strong and fast as Peter is now—but we think it’s close to reaching some sort of equilibrium in her system.”

  Before he could say more, the b door slid open again and Tony strolled in. He shot a quick gnce at Natasha and Bruce, eyebrows lifting slightly. “You never come to visit me in the b anymore, Romanov,” he noted, feigning hurt. “I’m starting to feel left out.”

  “Let’s have a chat, then, Tony,” she said lightly, gncing at Bruce meaningfully.

  The other man’s gaze flickered between them, then he caught on and gave a quick nod. “I might see if Shuri needs help with that data,” Bruce said, a little awkwardly, before taking the tablet and and ambling away toward the Wakandan princess’s workstation.

  Natasha turned her attention back to Tony, tilting her head slightly to indicate they should step to the other side of the b. He humoured her and followed, his arms folded in mock defensiveness. Nat dropped her voice a little. “Tony, Wanda hasn’t been in the best headspace tely. I know you’re not the bad guy here, but I was hoping you could give her a bit more consideration.” Shuri had enhanced hearing, but letting her listen in if she wanted to was better than her imagining what was said ter, if Tony mentioned anything to her. At the very least, moving the conversation away showed that Natasha was trying to be considerate.

  Tony let out a breath, raking a hand through his hair. “I’m trying here, Nat. Really. She’s not a full Avenger, but we let her come and go as she pleases, no restrictions on the bs, the training rooms… she’s basically got free rein. What else do you want from me? A big neon sign on the roof saying ‘All hail Wanda’? What else am I supposed to be doing here?”

  Natasha’s gaze flicked to where Bruce was now standing next to Shuri’s workstation, pointing out some particur data to her. “You know she doesn’t like being blindsided, Tony. Letting her wander around the compound isn’t the same as keeping her in the loop.”

  Tony dramatically sagged back against the wall behind him, letting the back of his head bonk against the metal, and rolled his eyes. “Ugh, this is about the reality anchors again, isn’t it? I mean, I know you’ve gotta be on your girlfriend’s side, but seriously. It’s just a weapon, like anything else I make.”

  “It’s not like other weapons,” Nat said, shaking her head. “You should have known Wanda would feel targeted by it. It’s something that could be used against her, just as easily as we’re going to use it against Kaecilius.”

  “Most of my weapons can be used against anyone, Nat. That’s the point. I could use a repulsor to bst you just as effectively as anyone else, but I don’t need to report back to the team every time I make a new one. Wanda’s just always gotta make everything about her.”

  Tony was doing his best with a scattershot argument, but something about his approach just didn’t seem particurly authentic. More than that, there were certain things that Tony wasn’t saying, and their absence was painting a slightly clearer picture in Nat’s mind as to what he had been thinking. She liked to think that she knew Tony extremely well, by now. He was no stranger to subtlety, but it wasn’t his natural habitat like it was hers, so sometimes he overegged it and inadvertently gave himself away.

  Not once during all this had he mentioned Shuri. He hadn’t even looked in her direction this entire conversation. He was talking about the reality anchors like they were his, taking ownership and, therefore, any associated bme. It was actually pretty obvious, now that Natasha was looking for it. Shuri had been the one who hadn’t wanted to bring in Wanda. Tony might have even suggested that they bring in Wanda to help—while the two of them didn’t get along sometimes, they’d proven perfectly capable of working together before—but Shuri must have argued against it or been upset or something. Tony had been caught between a rock and a hard pce with this project. Between Wanda and Shuri, no matter what he chose to do, he’d have upset one of them.

  Shuri was isoted. She didn’t have someone supporting her the way Nat supported Wanda, or anyone here, really. Her older brother and everyone she’d ever known were hundreds of miles away. So, given that choice, Tony had chosen to upset the one that had a local support structure in pce.

  “Gee, that doesn’t sound familiar at all,” Natasha said softly, shooting him a wry smile.

  A flicker of red caught Natasha’s eye as Wanda came bounding up the corridor outside, visible through the gss-panelled wall. “Speak of the Devil, here’s a convenient distraction,” Tony said wryly.

  The door slid open at Wanda’s approach and she swept into the room, practically bouncing with every step. She had a massive grin pstered across her face, flushed with excitement. “I am amazing!” she announced loudly, drawing everyone’s attention now as she spread her arms wide, as if to receive well-deserved accodes. “Praise me!”

  Tony snorted. “All hail Wanda,” he said, echoing his words from a moment ago as he gnced amusedly toward Nat, who would have very much preferred if Wanda had not done that at this exact moment. “And people say I’m the one with the ego. Sorry, I don’t think we have a ‘praise Wanda’ protocol—there’s not one in the official Avengers’ handbook, at least.”

  On the other side of the room, Bruce had a puzzled smile on his face. Next to him, Shuri muttered something quietly to herself, rolling her eyes. Nat wasn’t close enough to catch it all, but she thought she’d said something like: “I’m just not going to be allowed to get any work done this morning, am I?”

  “Hey,” Nat said, stepping over and taking one of Wanda’s hands, trying to settle her a little bit. “What’s up?”

  The physical contact had the opposite effect, and Nat was caught by surprise when Wanda yanked her into a quick hug, lifted her into the air like she weighed nothing at all and spun her around in a circle. “Bucky’s fixed! I did it!” Wanda said happily, dumping her back onto her feet.

  “Woah!” Nat ughed, stumbling a little as she caught her footing. “Really? That’s great news!”

  “Huh,” Tony raised his eyebrows. “Maybe some praise is warranted, after all.”

  Disentangling herself from Nat, Wanda darted toward Bruce. “I think I can fix the Hulk!” she said to him, practically vibrating. “I know what to do! I know you said you don’t want me in your head because it’s dangerous but now I’m pretty sure I know what to do to fix it! Get you completely in control again!”

  “Uh, I don’t—”

  “You’re like Bucky—well, not exactly like Bucky, I mean,” Wanda interrupted him, the words spilling from her like a waterfall as they struggled to keep up with her train of thought. “He doesn’t turn into a big green monster, but it’s the same sort of thing. Alternate personality brought on by trauma, the loss of control… it’s the same sort of thing, but I didn’t see that ‘til now, and I fixed him so I can fix you! You might need a bit more work to get there—I think you need to be primed to accept reconciliation—but we can do it, I know we can.”

  “Easy, slow down,” Natasha said, coming up behind her and gently drawing her a step away from Bruce, who was clearly feeling a little bit cornered. He fshed her a small, grateful look. “Where’s Bucky now?” she prompted.

  “He’s with Steve and Sam—they’re in the common room, if you wanna go see him,” Wanda said, beaming at her. “I’m good. I did good. Tell me I’m good.” She locked eyes with Nat, repeating herself excitedly. “Tell me I’m good. Tell me. Tell me I’m good. Tell me I’m good.”

  Nat shook her head, unable to help the wide smile on her face. “You did good,” she said gently. “You’re good.”