It was freezing in Manhattan that day, and Eva was hovering next to the coffee machine for warmth when the bell above the door tinkled and her heart sank. She was too cold to do her job. If it weren't for the fact that her rent was already late that month, she would've bunked off already. But no, she had to be poor and work in order to have a roof over her and Rachel Carson's heads. It must be so amazing, to be rich.

She sighed, turned around and recognized one of the customers immediately. "T'Challa!" she exclaimed. "Hey! Wait, do I still need to call you your majesty?"

"Please don't," said the person at his side, who was a young girl with braids twisted into space buns.

The new king of Wakanda rolled his eyes. "Please," he said, "ignore my sister. She thinks she is funny. I wasn't aware that you worked here."

"I wasn't aware you had a sister," Eva replied. "Anything else you didn't tell me about? Girlfriend, maybe?"

"Oh," said the sister, "she's back in Wakanda at the moment."

A silence icier than the air outside fell between the king and the coffee girl.

"Wait," said his sister. "Am I missing something?"

Eva folded her arms.

"We were on a break," T'Challa said weakly, backing towards the exit.

The girl glanced between them and gasped delightedly. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "You're the white girl he kissed the week before Nakia got back! Don't worry, he's not a cheater – just terrible at women. You weren't the worst of his rebounds, either."

T'Challa hissed something at her in Xhosa. Eva didn't speak any of that language, but she knew enough about how sibling relationships worked to guess it was something along the lines of "shut up!"

"I'm Shuri, by the way," the sister added. "Alvie Kennings told me all about you."

"Of course she did," Eva grumbled. "How is she?"

"Good. She's living out on the plains with –"

"Shuri!"

"Sorry, sorry. That's secret stuff," Shuri said. "But isn't it funny how, of all the coffee shops in New York, we had to come into the one you were working in?"

"It happens a lot," said Eva. Despite the awkward circumstances of meeting, she quite liked the girl. It was something about the way she had absolutely no respect for her older brother that Eva appreciated. "What're you doing in the US?"

"Outreach program," T'Challa replied, before his sister could say anything. "We're funding the development of a STEM school in Harlem."

"Cool. You got anybody to design the outside spaces?" Eva asked.

He smiled. "I'll get someone to contact you about that," he said. "But we need to raise awareness first. There won't be any point in building something if nobody wants to attend, and people here don't seem to enjoy listening to –"

"Big wig foreign kings who've never set foot in Harlem before?" Eva finished for him, and Shuri snorted. "It's a New Yorker thing. I know a pastor who's got a lot of sway in Harlem, though. People will listen to him." She grabbed a business card off the desk and scribbled Father Wilson's number and address down on it. "He's nice, he'll listen."

"Thanks," said T'Challa, taking the card.

"No problem. Can I get y'all something?"

"Do you do pumpkin spice latte?" Shuri asked, hopefully.

"It's February," said Eva.

"Oh, yeah. Just a mocha then, please. And my brother won't have anything because he's no fun and won't have caffeine because it's unhealthy, apparently."

"Noted," said Eva. "Cool shirt, by the way."

Shuri looked down at her vest, which had Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation's face printed on it, and beamed. "Thanks!" she said. "I wanted to wear something that would make me seem more American. I love that show. American TV is, like, my favorite thing. Do you have any idea how long it took me to get the rights to stream Netflix in Wakanda? Too. Freaking. Long. Have you seen -"

"Shuri," said T'Challa. "We're in a rush."

"You're so old," she said, and flounced over to the community noticeboard.

"She's… a lot," said Eva. "Cute, though."

"Look," he said, "Eva, I'm sorry I never told you about –"

She held up a hand. "Can we agree never to talk about it again?" she asked. "It's how I like to cope with my mistakes. Of which there are many, incidentally."

He laughed. "Sounds good to me," he said.

When they left, T'Challa made sure to drop her a huge tip. Eva may not have been rich herself, but having friends that were certainly helped.

A/N [stands on soapbox and gets out megaphone] I WOULD LITERALLY DIE FOR CROWN PRINCESS SHURI. I love her so much. Black Panther was amazing, right? I've already seen it twice. Shuri and M'Baku were my absolute favourites. Plus the technology/culture fusion was so cool and interesting to learn about, I love seeing different societies within the MCU.

Also, I've made a ko-fi account. Basically, I'm gonna use it as like a short-form blog to talk about fics and stuff, but the idea of the website is that you can make $3 donations to support creators and let them buy a coffee (get it? Coffee? Ko-fi? COMEDY). I saw someone plug theirs and I was like, "hey! I WRITE a story about buying coffee! That's so neat!" so I figured I'd make one too. I am so amazed every day by how much support I get on this site, and so grateful for all of y'all. So if any of you ever feel like dropping your favourite Vision-loving nerd a couple bucks to buy a cup of tea, or if you just wanna read my dumb ramblings, then you can head over to ko-fi dot com and check out my account, "siriuslocked."

Okay, I'm done plugging now. I love you. Byeee