"So how are things going between you and Brad?"
MJ shrugged, even though Shuri was ahead of her as they walked down the tunnel.
"Okay. He's nice."
"Good thing," Shuri said, looking back over her shoulder and running her hand along the side of the tunnel, feeling for imperfections that might indicate something that could be prized out of the stone for examination, later, in the daylight. "I am certain that Tony would have something to say if he turned out to be a jerk."
The other girl smirked.
"True. But Brad's afraid of Peter, more, so I'm not too concerned."
"Peter?" Shuri asked, surprised. "Truly?"
"Oh yeah. Everyone knows Peter's pretty much a ninja and could beat up anyone in the school. Brad knows that Peter and I used to date – sort of – and he knows we're still close. A misplaced hand or a wrong word? Peter beats him up. Tony couldn't because he's an adult. Peter takes him down for hurting me (or my feeling) and he's a hero."
"Peter would not-"
"I know. But a lot of the boys at school used to look down on him – and some were bullies to him. They expect from him what they did to him. I imagine they're just waiting for the shoe to drop."
"Weird."
MJ smiled.
"Right? They don't know him well enough to know that he's better than that – and they won't, because Peter won't hang out with them."
"Because he has all the friends he needs."
"All he wants, anyway." MJ was ready to turn the table on the princess, knowing that they were far enough from Peter and Ned that the boys wouldn't inadvertently hear their conversation. They could hear Ned somewhere down one of the many tunnels, his voice echoing loudly. "How are things going with you and Peter?" she asked. "Or am I putting my nose where it doesn't belong?"
"You are not." She didn't have a lot of girlfriends – and none that she cared to discuss her relationship with Peter among. And not just because any gossip she shared with them would almost certainly get back to their highborn parents and end up shared among the council – or with T'Challa. She did lower her voice a little, as she looked backward down the way they'd come. "It is fine. He is – by nature – cautious, and I am the opposite, but I knew that when we started our relationship so I cannot complain too much. We have it much better than others who attempt long distance relationships, after all, and we are both busy. Me with my duties as princess and working with the technology that I do, and Peter with school, being Spiderman, and also being the son of Tony Stark." She smiled, wryly. "Sometimes I am surprised we have any time at all, to spend together."
"Peter makes sure he has time to talk to you."
Which made the wry smile turn into a genuine one.
"I know."
OOOOOOOOOOOOO
"You're crazy. You know that, right?"
"What?" Peter frowned. "Why?"
"Splitting us up this way," Ned told him, running his hammer's head against the wall of the tunnel.
"I didn't want anyone to think me and Shuri wanted to sneak off into the tunnels or something…"
"I know why you did it," Ned told him – and Peter had no problem seeing his friend's eyeroll. "But you left your ex-girlfriend with your current girlfriend."
"So?"
"So they're going to gossip about you."
"What?"
Ned shrugged.
"That's what girls do, Peter," he said. "They get together and they compare. It's in all the movies."
Peter frowned.
"What movies?"
"The chick flicks."
The boy hesitated, but then he shrugged, too.
"There isn't anything to gossip about, really."
"Yeah." Ned shook his head. "Too bad."
Which earned his friend an eyeroll of his own.
"Come on, let's go deeper and see if we can find something good."
"Yeah."
OOOOOOOOOO
It was fairy early when they left, and no one was waiting to say good-bye since all goodbyes had already been said the evening before.
"I can't believe you're leaving…" Clint said, shaking his head even as he launched the Quinjet into the sky above the compound. "Especially now."
Romanoff looked over, curiously.
"Why do you say that?"
"With Peter out of the country?" He pointed out. "You'll be hours away if anything happens."
"He's in Wakanda," she reminded him. "I'd be hours away, anyway. Except that I'm not," she added. "Stephen has already said he'd be available the rest of the week if something happens, there. Or in Columbia, for that matter."
"No sense having a sorcerer supreme boyfriend if you're not going to take advantage of magic," Steve said from behind them, proving that he and Bucky were able to hear the conversation.
Romanoff didn't mind; if she'd wanted it to be private, she wouldn't have spoken over the sound of the engines of the jet and would have utilized the headset.
"Exactly. Stephen said he doesn't mind being back up, if something happens while we're gone – not that it should, but you never know, obviously – and he was already keeping near at hand in case Peter or the others need instant transportation in Wakanda for an emergency."
"Wakanda isn't really the same as being out of the country," Steve added, settling his shield before it could roll into Bucky when the jet leveled out for flight. "The shield keeps out anyone who doesn't belong, and Peter is a recognized tribe member, so the Wakandans are honor bound to protect him at all costs. Ned and MJ, as well."
Obviously Shuri was going to be guarded since she was their princess, so he didn't bother to add the girl's name.
"And if something does come up?" Barnes asked, curiously. "Does Peter supersede the mission?"
"If it's serious, Peter supersedes everything," Clint said.
"But he's fine," Romanoff said, looking over her shoulder at the two men in the belly of the plane. "Like I said, it's Wakanda and there are plenty of people keeping an eye on him for us, right now."
She wasn't crazy enough to say that there wasn't any chance of something happening (she didn't believe in jinxing things, but why throw something like that out to the universe?) but she did have enough faith in the abilities of the Wakandans to believe that Peter was safe and well with his friends. Otherwise she would have figured out a way to join them.
And that didn't even count the wish that he'd made to keep Tony happy. She liked the idea of that wish working but would rely on her own observations and training before relying on something so ethereal.
OOOOOOOOOO
By the time their stomachs drove them back to the surface for a somewhat late lunch, all three of them had had plenty of opportunity to fill their little bags with all sorts of rocks and lumps of as yet determined in the dim light of the mine. The two groups had crossed paths a few times in the course of the morning and had compared their loot, but all of them were excited to have a chance to sit down and sort through what they had found – with the help of the guides, of course.
When they emerged from the mine, however, they learned that there was a slight change of the initial plan of eating their lunch at the mine clearing.
"We need to head back to camp," Chai told them by way of greeting. He didn't look especially alarmed, but he and the others were all serious – and everything that had been unpacked earlier when they'd arrived was all back on the two sleds.
Peter noticed that two of the guides were gone.
"What is happening?" Shuri asked, looking around. "Is there a problem?"
"The bull elephant is nearby," the oldest guide told them. "There is every chance that he will not come this way, but as dangerous as they can be in the state that he is in, we have decided that it is safest to go back to camp and have lunch there."
Peter could feel the low rumbling that he'd already come to associate with the rumble of that bull elephant that they'd already run across once. It wasn't close, but it was definitely there.
"We don't have to cut our trip short, do we?" Ned asked, looking worried.
"No." A slightly reassuring smile. "We will respect the danger that he poses and steer clear where we need to, but with the shield around the campsite, we are fine, there."
"The others have gone ahead to prepare our meal."
"We best be going, then," Chai told them, shepherding them to the sleds. "I am interested in seeing what you have found."
"Me, too," Ned agreed.