A/N: Disclaimer: I don´t own any of the characters except for Rose.
Enjoy and please leave a review with constructive criticism.
Altruism: behavior by an individual that increases the fitness of another individual while decreasing the fitness of the actor.
Location: Animal shelter of a small Town in the UK.
When Rose Fox had been five years old, she´d asked Santa for a puppy for Christmas. Come Christmas morning, she´d been disappointed to find many gifts but no puppy.
Then in the spring, she´d asked her parents to buy her a puppy for her birthday. Her mother had explained that pets weren´t gifts. They were living creatures that needed to be taken care of and protected and came with great responsibility. So then she hadn´t gotten a puppy for her birthday either.
Twenty years later on a Friday afternoon, the words of her mother echoed in her ears as she examined the countless new animals that had been brought to the shelter over the last few weeks. It had started a few weeks after Christmas and three months later parents still came in and dropped off the animals their kids were too young and they too busy to take care of.
Rose knelt down next to the shelter´s newest addition, a chubby puppy named Cookie and giggled when the dog attempted to climb on her lap.
"Hey, you. Happy, aren´t you?"
While the other dogs were eating their food, Cookie was trying to get as much attention as she could from Rose before the latter had to leave.
It pained Rose to see that so many lovely animals with hearts of gold weren´t getting the love and care they deserved.
Rose examined Cookie while scratching behind her ears and her belly and put the puppy down when she was done. Everything was alright.
"Nancy, I checked on Cookie. She´s healthy, as are the others. I got Duke´s medication in my bag, mix it in with his food every day until the bottle is empty." Rose explained to the head of the shelter.
The older woman smiled warmly at the young vet. Before Rosie, Dr. Milton had been the shelter´s vet but he´d retired a few years ago and sold his practice to Rose. "Thank you, Rosie."
"My pleasure."
Rose picked up the bag that she´d left in the small office of the shelter and pulled out the bottle she´d been talking about and handed it to Nancy before saying her goodbyes and walking out of the shelter to be greeted by the warm spring air.
She´d parked her car on the parking lot of a supermarket nearby, planning on getting groceries before she drove home for the day.
The young doctor crossed the street and made her way to her car.
She was greeted by several people on her short walk, it was a small town after all.
An hour later, Rose was walking into her appartment with a bag containing white wine and frozen lasagna. She was too exhausted to cook something proper.
Surprisingly, Rose didn´t own any pets despite being in love with animals so she was alone in her spacy apartment. She slipped out of her shoes and jeans, leaving her in her blouse and a string.
Rose got a wine glass and poured herself some of the white wine before popping the lasagna into the oven. She froze when she heard movement from her bedroom.
When Rose had started living alone, she´d been a little paranoid, jumping at small noises and getting scared that she wasn´t alone. As she got older and used to living alone, her fear of these little noises that an apartment just made ceased.
Her hand moved to the fork on the counter as she moved back and into a corner. It wasn´t the smartest choice because this way she couldn´t escape but it was better than standing in the middle of the room unprotected. At least this way she couldn´t be surprised.
It felt like years passed, before a woman appeared in front of Rose.
Out of reflex, Rose raised the fork high in front of herself before taking in the sight before her and feeling even more ridiculous than before for trying to defend herself with a fork.
Standing in front of her was…the most badass woman warrior she had ever seen and she was holding a spear. Rose´s fork was a children´s toy compared to that impressive weapon.
"Rose Fox, no need to be alarmed." The woman spoke.
"I don´t know who the heck you are, you somehow got into my home and you have a spear." Rose´s eyes flitted across the woman´s attire. She wore some kind of african warrior clothing. "And you´re wearing the most badass outfit I have ever seen, so I think there is some need to be alarmed."
A small smile formed on the woman´s face and she opened her mouth to answer, before she declined her head and took a step back. A man walked in…the last man Rose had expected to ever see in her kitchen.
"King T´Challa?!"
Rose felt like she was dreaming…maybe she hadn´t really woken up this morning.
"Rose Fox." The king of Wakanda greeted in a smooth voice. "We mean no harm. I am sorry we invaded your home like this. Could we have a talk?"
Rose swallowed and nodded. "Sure…do you…want a glass of wine or some water…anything you need, your grace."
Was it stupid to offer a king a glass of mediocre wine? She didn´t know the protocol for a king´s visit…
T´Challa gently shook his head and waited for Rose to lead the way and smiled when he saw the wary look on her face.
She didn´t want to expose her back like that. Smart.
T´Challa turned and walked through the door into the living room and sat down on one of the sofas. Rose followed him and sat down on the second, smaller sofa with a safe distance between herself and the king.
"Ms. Fox, we have been watching you." Her eyebrows shot up in question. She had a feeling what this was about. "We know about your abilities and-"
At his words, Rose had shot up and was moving away from him and towards the door, that was until she saw the woman from earlier appear by the exit.
That left the windows as her only escape. She lived on the second floor. She could try jumping so that she landed on her shoulder and arm mostly. It would definetely dislocate and most probably break but she could still run and it would heal up.
Better a broken arm than being used as a guinea pig for some powerhungry people. Hell, better dead than being used as a guinea pig.
"Rose, we need your help. We´re not here to take you prisoner and force you into anything. This is an offer, if you decline, we will leave."
He could be lying…but if he´d wanted to kidnap her, he could have done that by now. "I´d be more inclined to believe you if your friend wasn´t blocking the exit."
The female moved away from the door. Rose didn´t relax, but she figured she had a better chance getting through that door than jumping out the window and being able to run immediately. Chances were she would have broken more than just an arm during the two story fall.
"I only ask that you hear what I have to say. After that, it is up to you what happens and how we proceed." Rose gave a nod and T´Challa went on explaining. "I have a friend that needs medical help, the doctors he has seen have not been able to help him and we are running out of options. There had been rumors, years back, about someone that could heal any illness. I believe the witnesses we talked to said this person was an angel, but they also said this person…this woman hadn´t been seen in years. My spies searched for you for quite some time and we would not have bothered you with this if we saw another way. Do you think you can help us?"
Rose was watching the two strangers intently to see if they were lying but the king seemed sincere. "I…I haven´t done it in years. Last time it almost killed me."
"Killed you? I´m afraid I don´t understand…"
"I don´t heal. I have advanced healing abilities and what happens is that I absorb the illness into my own body and then…I just heal."
She didn´t mention the other part of her abilities, they didn´t need to know.
T´Challa and the woman exchanged a look before they both turned their eyes back to Rose. "I see. Well, nobody is forcing you. We will be leaving town tomorrow morning, should you wish to accompany us, there will be a car waiting for you outside."
"Your lasagna is getting cold." The woman said before exiting behind her king.
Rose stared at the door and walked to the window to watch the two leave, but they never appeared. Either they hadn´t left the building or just…vanished.
In the kitchen, Rose got her lasagna out of the oven, thankfully she had set the oven to turn off automatically after the timer was done. She grabbed her glass and took a long sip of the liquor.
The king of Wakanda had been in her apartment and asked her for help…
She wondered who it was…who was so important that a king would put himself into danger by coming here alone and unprotected? And what was she going to do? Say yes?
Rose doubted that she really had a choice…he was a king, he wasn´t really used to people saying no to him, so how would he react if some civilian woman that could do a little hocuspocus said no to him.
He´d said it was about a friend of his, so he would have a hard time accepting a no from her.
The last time she´d used her abilities she´d nearly died…she still had nightmares from that night. It wasn´t that she didn´t want to help, but every wound caused trauma on the body and the mind and Rose wasn´t sure how much more her mind could take.
She gulped down the last of the wine and dug into her lasagna. Spinach, her favorite.
As she was eating, her mind was racing. She didn´t have much of a choice, either she said yes and went to Wakanda or she fled. She couldn´t just assume that T´Challa would just leave because she asked him to do so.
Her own safety aside, would this affect her family? Her mother and her step-father didn´t live far away, but she couldn´t go there, that would be the first place they would look for her. She didn´t have much of a relationship with her father, so she wouldn´t contact him.
Rose and her mother had always hoped this day wouldn´t come, the day that Rose would have to up her life and run because of something she hadn´t asked for.
When she´d been younger, Rose had absorbed the pain and injuries out of instinct, but she had learned not to do it as she got older. With the way medicine was progressing, she didn´t always need to use her abilities when she could help with her medical knowledge instead.
"So what do I do?"
In her heart, she knew the answer. Come tomorrow, she would travel to Wakanda with the king and help this person.
Her thoughts wandered to Bruce´s words but she tried not dwelling on it.
Altruism is a biological concept, where one individual helps another so that the former can expect the same from the latter at a later point. It seems selfless at first, but ultimately it serves to benefit the helping individual.
She didn´t expect anything in return.
So she was doing this, it seemed.
Rose got up and poured herself the rest of the wine before going to sit on the couch and watch some random reality TV show.
The next day…
Rose woke up to the shrill sound of her door bell being rung.
Stumbling out of bed, she went to the door and had barely opened it when the woman from yesterday waltzed in.
"Hey, hey, hey. You can´t just come in here like that."
She´d changed her clothes. Her lips formed into a smirk and she didn´t say a word to defend herself.
"What´s your name anyways? You know mine, so…"
"Ayo." She had a rough voice, it suited her.
"Ayo." Rose repeated, as if testing it out.
"Eat, then pack." Ayo ordered.
Rose raised an eyebrow. "What if I´m not coming?"
"If you weren´t coming you would have told us so yesterday." She shot back.
Rose´s eyes fell on the coffee and bagel sitting on the small table in the living room and plopped down to eat. "So, Wakanda…"
"You´ll like it, don´t worry. You better bring sunscreen though or your white ass will turn red in no time."
Rose chuckled at that and nodded. "I have a bag packed."
She had a bag for emergencies. She´d always hoped nobody would come after her but she knew she´d have to be ready for the possibility of it happening.
Ayo raised a thin eyebrow at that.
"For emergencies." Rose explained. "So, you´re like…the king´s bodyguard?"
"Member of Dora Milaje and Head of Security." Ayo answered with pride clear in her voice. Rose had noticed that most Wakandans were very patriotic.
When she had finished her breakfast, she got her bag from her closet and followed Ayo out, but not before taking one last look around her apartment.
