The day of Shion's friend's arrival, she was a nervous bundle of energy. Literally.
She had already asked Natasha to help her figure out what to wear and to maybe do her hair for her. Because apparently she wanted to look nice when her friend finally showed up to stomp her ass into the ground.
Whatever that meant.
At the moment Nat was sitting on Shion's bed watching the girl anxiously go through every single article of clothing that she had bought the day before. It was mostly just shirts and jeans. But she had one or two nice dresses/skirt suits in there.
Though none of it was actually what Nat considered to be nice-nice. But she supposed that Shion wasn't as fashionably inclined as most females were.
She tended to like the girl next door look to the fem fatale. And that was fine since Nat wasn't sure how T'Challa or any of the others would react to having the girl run around looking like a high class hooker.
Though it might be a little bit funny to watch Steve and Bucky revert to their more gentlemanly selves. God knew that Scott was already acting like the poor kid was his own cub. Why just last night at dinner he had asked Sam if he had birthing hips.
Several people had choked on their food, while others had merely looked at the man as if he had grown another head. Poor Steve had felt his masculinity was somehow in immediate danger because of the weird turn in conversation, and had grabbed Bucky and left to go...do manly things.
Nat presumed that was slang for scratching themselves somewhere questionable or going out hunting some poor helpless animal for funsies.
Blinking as another piece of clothing was tossed at her, she almost just let it fall over her head instead of absently catching it in her hand and placing it in the steadily growing pile of clothing.
"Maybe I should just wear the navy-"
"No."
"The red?"
"It clashes with your hair."
"T-The pink-"
"Is a possibility but that is all." Nat deadpanned as the teen made a frustrated sound and then flopped over on her back on the floor and just laid there for a moment. Leaving Nat to wonder if she was going to start throwing a tantrum like Clint sometimes did when he had to have help dressing himself up for an assignment.
However the girl surprised her by not doing so. She was more mature than she seemed. Probably even more than most of the males living in the palace with them.
Fantastic. It would be nice to have another female around to joke and scoff at the menfolk with.
"Then what should I wear?"
Nat absently picked up a random shirt and tossed it to the girl who caught it and blinked owlishly at the material before asking, "Seriously? Black."
"It goes with everything."
"So does white."
"White get's stained too easily, I gave up on it ages ago."
Huffing slightly, the kid nodded her head reluctantly and stood up to go put the shirt on. As far as nice stuff went, it wasn't too nice. After all if the girl's friend was likely pissed enough to try knocking her around then it simply wouldn't do to give her something that couldn't easily be replaced.
The shirt that she had given her was nice enough. It had some beaded sequins around the collar and the sleeves in the shapes of flowers. And...it sparkled some. Which in Nat's opinion was far more practical than anything cotton or silk. Which was a win-win in her book.
Once the girl put the shirt on and finally returned, Nat forced her to seat herself on the bed next to her and turned her body to face her so that she could style her hair for her.
She didn't think the kid would like anything too complicated or intricate. So she settled on a partial french braid. The style was flattering on the kid. She had the most perfect bone structure that she'd ever seen on a girl her age before. It made Nat almost envious of her.
Once she was done, she tied Shion's hair back with a navy blue ribbon that she'd had hidden on her and then stood once she was done to study her work.
The kid looked adorable if she did say so herself.
Hopefully her cuteness would make her friend think twice about dirtying her clothing and messing up her hair. Though if he still did it- Nat would be sorely tempted to put her foot up his ass.
"Alright, you're ready to go." She said. Shion jumped up and hugged her, catching the former assassin off guard before she let her go and ran for the door.
Kids, Nat thought in amusement as she heard Shion shouting for people to get in the damned car and snorted out a laugh.
An hour later-
T'Challa, Steve, Bucky, Clint, Nat, Sam and Scott all sat across from the kid watching her fidget as the limo pulled up to the private landing pad where they were to pick up her friend. It was plain to see that she was so nervous that it was a wonder that she hadn't had a panic attack or fainted already.
She kept shifting around, clicking her fingernails, worrying her bottom lip and looking out the car window. Even her breathing pattern had changed, they noted that she would take several breaths and then stop for a minute and then start breathing again.
"Are you ready to greet your friend?" T'Challa asked once the vehicle had parked, his hand was already hovering over the door.
"I...yeah. Yeah. I-I'm ready."
"Very well." T'Challa said as he opened the door and motioned for Shion to go on and step out of the car. She moved much faster than someone stooped over should have, nearly knocking him back into Scott who yelped in alarm. Fearing he was about to be squashed and then tried to climb into Clint's lap as a means of escape before getting himself flicked on the ear, hard, in reprimand as he turned his head just in time to see a tall, muscular guy decked out in torn black jeans and a white t-shirt and black biker boots step off of the plane.
"Holy mother-" Clint started to say but was cut off by Nat saying in disbelief,
"Of god- Fuck he's a fricking giant!"
Shion glanced back at the lot of them that were still in the car as Steve finally managed to join her and Bucky and T'Challa outside of the vehicle as Chad cleared the steps and made a direct beeline towards her. His expression a peculiar combination of worry, fury, and grim determination as he set his sights on Shion.
Finally coming to a stop several feet away from them, yet well within reaching distance. T'Challa had to crane his neck to get a good look at the teen before cutting a questioning glance back towards Shion. Her words from before slithering through his mind.
He's a teddy bear.
He didn't look like a damned teddy bear.
He looked all manner of menacing, and evil-ish. Everything about the girl's friend practically screamed, Threat, threat, threat! And made him want to scramble for some kind of weapon in which to defend himself with.
However he simply stood there, trying to decide on whether or not he should trust Shion's assurances as the giant finally spoke. "Ichigo," Dear lord even the boy's voice was all full of menace! T'Challa thought warily as the teen then said, "You and I will be having a long, long conversation about your disappearing act as well as other things."
"Huh?"
"Don't bother playing dumb, you know what I'm talking about." The giant said with a pointed glance down at Shion's stomach. T'Challa caught the look that the giant gave the girl and felt his eyes widen in realization and shock at what the giant was implying as he twisted his head around just in time to catch the dark glare that the girl gave her friend.
A look that promised all kinds of hellish torture if he didn't shut his damned mouth.
It was a look that he recognized well, since he got it from his sister often enough while growing up. Thankfully she had almost grown out of doing terrible things to him when he tended to overstep himself now that he was king, and they were both adults.
Huffing quietly, Shion merely shook her head but said nothing as the giant politely greeted T'Challa and the others. After which everyone then piled back into the limo, across from Shion and her friend whom had chosen to seat himself next to her and draped an arm across the back of the seat behind her and seemed to be waiting for something.
Puzzled by the young man's behavior, everyone was quietly speculating over what had him so...upset when he finally chose to say something.
That something, of course, was rather disconcerting considering that his words were, "Lock the doors." Followed quickly by the angrily growled out words, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I don't want to talk about this Chad." Shion said in a warning tone that had everyone almost squirming in their seats.
"Well too fucking bad, we're talking about this."
"No."
"Yes."
"I said no-"
"If nothing else they deserve to know; that you shouldn't be here for whatever you were sent here to do."
"It's no one's business-"
"Well I think it is if I'm going to wind up burying my best friend!" The giant snarled, his lips peeling back from his teeth to show off a wicked set of super sharp pearly white fangs.
The kid sighed and looked away from her giant...frenemy? for a moment before gritting out, "Fine. Which part do you want to talk about?"
"How about the measures that will need to be taken to keep you and the kid from being dissected."
Dissected? T'Challa's mind latched onto the word and he tensed up a little bit at the thought of the girl being strapped down and hacked to pieces. It was...painful to think on overly much. Though he didn't really understand why.
"Sounds good. What kind of ideas do you have?"
"For starter's you're going to have to get married," Chad said as he cut a glance her way to gauge her reaction to his suggestion. She merely blinked and looked...more than a little bit uncomfortable at the prospect of tying her life to another persons. "The added protection of having a husband, plus a father figure for the baby will be not only necessary. But useful in the long run."
"Oh. Well that's nice and all but do you have an idea who would be crazy enough to-"
"I have several takers. All of whom have been informed of your situation and are more than willing to make the sacrifice." The giant said in a gentler tone that sounded almost teasing. His lips curling up in a the barest hint of a smile as he then said, "Some of the older captian's among the Soul Reaper ranks. Kenpachi has been scaring people shitless declaring himself your future exicutioner."
Shion sighed in relief and muttered something about dodging that bullet as her friend continued speaking.
"Not that that has stopped anyone else from offering. They know that both you're current condition and you're new situation is rather...precarious. Aside from Kenpachi there has also been Toshiro." Shion made a weird choking sound but didn't say anything. Instead she merely stared at her friend wide eyed in utter horror.
"Rukia's squad captain is a decent guy. He isn't sure how much longer he'll live though with his illness. And he has always wanted a family. So...if you decide on him, I think he'd be a good match for you."
"Urahara has also offered for your hand. Though I'm not really all that sure why since the man is practically a sadist," Shion must have agreed with him, because she just turned this sickly green-ish color and made a strained gurgling sound and started to look more than a little bit nauseous before she finally couldn't take it anymore, and screamed at the same exact moment Chad reached over and placed a hand over her mouth, muffling the panicked sound. Once she finished screaming, Chad just dropped his hand from her mouth and tugged her against his side and muttered, "Calm down and breathe, Ichigo."
"You calm down and breathe!" Shion finally snapped at him as she tried, and failed to push herself away from him. But dammit, Chad was too fucking heavy- and stubborn- to be moved. "Dammit Chad this sucks!" Shion suddenly started sobbing.
"You can face down entire armies wielding god-like power, without any kind of help whatsoever, and yet the mere thought of being both a mother and a wife reduces you to tears. Un-fucking-believable." Chad muttered with an expression of utter disbelief on his face as she buried her face against his side and refused to move so much as a muscle for the rest of the ride back to the palace.