We will be taking a little vacation from Camp SHIELD for this chapter that I'm excited about!

This is my favourite chapter to date.

Year One: Mutual Vulnerability

Wakanda's Royal Training Room - 14:00 PM

Standing in front of her father, Iqadi ducks when he swipes his arm above her. Crouched forwards, she shoots her elbow back but her father catches it. As an alternative play, now that he has her arm in his grip, Iqadi pounces up. She rotates like a clock and wraps her ankles around his neck. But as she starts to send him down, he disrupts her flow and she staggers off, needing to catch herself in a handstand to get back on her feet.

Of course, he knows her next moves. He trained her.

But once Iqadi's back on her feet, she turns to face him. Hands out, mimicking claws despite not wearing the suit, she doesn't act like a panther. Instead, she turns her eyes white and grows a grin.

Her father holds back, mimicking her smile. "Now that's not fair."

Off to the side, Ororo smiles proudly at her daughter. Iqadi is so much like her father even down to the training that it was always beautiful to see her use something she gave her. Beside her, she sees Imanu and isn't sure how he feels. Was he impressed? Calculated? Concerned? His face was hard to read since she doesn't know him that well yet.

"My husband's going to make you train like that," Ororo tells him.

"No thanks," Imanu responds. If he refused to fight him once, she didn't expect him to agree later.

"You can't say no forever."

"I know, but I can try for a long time."

Ororo eyes him for a moment before smiling. She puts a hand on his shoulder. "I knew I liked you from the start. Don't change your beliefs."

Taking his focus off of Iqadi and King T'Challa, Imanu looks at Queen Ororo who goes back to watching her husband and daughter spar.

Imanu isn't sure he heard that right. She liked him from the start. The start. Maybe that's why he was picked to be a suitor. It reminds him of how nobody knew who Queen Ororo wanted Iqadi to pick as her husband. But what if she's just being nice? She wouldn't have said that beginning part if it wasn't true. She would've just told him the part of his beliefs or kept quiet.

Ororo raises a brow at him as she grins. "My dear son, you have no idea how much my daughter loves you, do you?"

-o-

It's the middle of the night and he's half-asleep. The walk to his room has never felt so long. After watching the training session with Queen Ororo, he dismissed himself to the library and lost himself in a book. He doesn't even remember what he was reading. The words went right over his head because Queen Ororo's words echoed in his mind. Everything from liking him from the start to Iqadi loving him bounced from one end of his skill to the other. It sounded so surreal but his whole life is unbelievable now.

Imanu enters his room and it's dark. Clearly. It's nighttime and Iqadi's likely asleep. He turns on the light just enough for him to see around the room but Iqadi turns them up all the way. Imanu freezes for many reasons: he thought she was asleep and she's sitting underneath the sheets with papers around her. Her shoulders are bare and she holds the sheet up at her collarbones.

She's naked. He's now wide awake. Imanu isn't sure whether he should look away or come back later.

"Get undressed," Iqadi says.

Maybe he should come back later. "What?"

"Trust me." She looks at him for a second. "I won't look if that makes you comfortable."

Imanu hesitates as she lifts the sheets over her eyes. He slowly takes off his clothes and hangs them neatly over the nearest chair. He shivers the closer he gets to his side of the bed and slowly climbs in. When Iqadi feels the sheets being lifted, she eventually peeks over before returning them to being held at her collarbones. Imanu tries to get comfortable but accidentally touches her bare leg with his and his heart stops for a minute.

"This will be a long night," Iqadi says. She noticed the leg thing. "After my training session, my mother told me you went to the library. I would've joined you but I stayed here and studied something else for you."

"Studied what?" Imanu asks.

"Intimacy." She changes her position so that she's facing him. Her legs are crossed and back straight but her hand still at the centre of her collarbones with the sheets in her fist. "The first study I looked at says that sleeping next to each other naked increases the frequency of sex but we don't have to be at that point. We just have to work on being comfortable around each other."

"Nakedness is a person's most vulnerable state," Imanu mutters.

"Exactly."

Iqadi reaches behind her and grabs a stack of cue cards from her bedside table. She fans them out face down between them, each card contains a scribble of writing on the other side.

"This is a Western study exploring if intimacy between two strangers can be accelerated when asking each other a set of personal questions," Iqadi explains. "There are 36 questions that range from least personal to most."

Imanu nods. "What's the goal?"

"Mutual vulnerability fosters closeness. Exposure draws self-disclosure."

"Is that why we're naked?"

"We're technically still covered up but yes."

Imanu nods again slowly, pulling up the sheets. "Okay, I'll try this."

"If you want to stop at any point, just let me know."

"As long as you do the same."

Iqadi's eyes flicker when she looks at him. He knows that she's nervous about this as well since she's also covered up. Biting down on her lips, she keeps her eyes on him as she picks up the first card.

-o-

The first set of questions started as easy. Still covered up, Iqadi and Imanu share some laughs over the casual questions that only reached the surface. It was comforting to have a light conversation. They've never had an icebreaker conversation because they were brought together in a rushed way with marriage as the end goal.

"What would constitute a perfect day for you?" Imanu reads.

Iqadi sighs as she leans back on the headboard. She smiles as she looks at the ceiling. "Not having an agenda. I'd like to choose what to do and when. What would you do?"

"Sleep in," Imanu responds. "Relax and read."

Iqadi raises her head a little. "We could do that tomorrow."

"Don't we both have an agenda?"

"I could reschedule."

He raises a brow. "Would you really?"

Iqadi nods. "I promise." She picks up another card. "Do you have a secret hunch about how you would die?"

Iqadi smiles as she puts the card on her bedside table. She looks at Imanu, waiting for an answer but he's more mortified at that question. Iqadi knew it was in there because she read the study and wrote them down. And dying in honour was how she was raised.

"Okay, fine, I'll go first." She sits up again, crossing her legs but keeping the blanket up. She looks at Imanu again. "In battle."

Imanu isn't surprised. "I can see that." Realizing what he said, he quickly clears his throat. "It's not that I imagine it because I don't."

Iqadi laughs a little. "Well, I hope you don't. What about you?"

"Old age is nice," Imanu responds. "Or instantly."

"Why instantly?"

"I don't think I'd be able to hold on and watch everyone around me suffer."

"Wow." Iqadi exhales, not expecting that response. "I'd make sure you'd hold on."

"Why?"

"Because I'd suffer." She reaches out and takes his hand. "I will hold on for you because you're not dying on my watch."

Imanu nods. He thinks back to Queen Ororo's words because now he has a better idea of how much Iqadi loves him. She'd hold onto him like how she's holding his hand and the bedsheet to her chest. With his free hand, he pulls out the next question.

"If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?" Imanu asks.

Iqadi scoffs. "More freedom."

"More confidence."

Without any comments, they stop and look at each other. Imanu puts the question down on the bed as he waits for Iqadi to say or do something. But nothing. Instead, she straightens her posture more although it was already erect. She lets go of the blanket in her grip at her collarbones and it drops. With her bare chest now revealed, Iqadi completely climbs out from the covers and sits on top. Nothing again but in a different sense.

Imanu isn't sure where to look. She's beautiful everywhere. Her skin is smooth but he can see healed scars from training or battles. But his eyes land on the scar near her hairline on her forehead because that was the one he did back when she was protecting him and the others suitors during the Gorilla Tribe's ambush. Her body shakes a little and he puts his hand on her knee to try and reassure her. She looks there, pauses, and puts her hand on top.

She's doing this more for him than herself. That's who she is. And she wouldn't say if she wanted to stop because that's who she is. In the spirit of mutual vulnerability, he pushes the blankets off his body and sits up across from her. They look into each other's eyes, hearts racing, breaths through a desirable tension. Freedom. Confidence. This is it. This is mutual vulnerability.

"You know, we're supposed to do the staring at the end," Iqadi whispers.

Imanu nods. "Alright."

"But if you want to stare now, I won't stop you." She smiles a little when his eyes widen. "Because I'll be staring at you."

-o-

It took them a few minutes to get back into a rhythm of asking questions. They were getting deeper and more personal but it didn't matter since they were already naked in front of each other. They got lost in the questions, unaware of how much time went by because they weren't keeping track. It was the middle of the night but they were more awake than at the start.

Iqadi didn't regret this. She was scared he wouldn't want to do it or pull out halfway through. But he seemed to be enjoying it more than he thought. Iqadi has never opened up like this to anyone before, not even her friends or family. Being grown up to keep things to herself, she never had the opportunity. She and Imanu got so lost in conversation that they sometimes forgot they were doing the questions and that they were naked as well.

Now they're lying on their backs, closer in their bed than they've ever been since the got married.

"Alternate sharing something you consider a positive characteristic of your partner," Imanu reads before folding up the card. "Share five items."

"You think before you act," Iqadi says, starting right away. She turns her head to face him.

He looks back. "You speak your mind."

"You stand by your beliefs."

"You stand by your loved ones."

"You would do anything to please me."

"You see value in me."

"You helped me with those plans."

"You are powerful but don't abuse it."

"You are still here."

"You want me here."

Iqadi's body shakes a little and she wants to go back under the sheets. She looks back up at the ceiling and holds her breath. She knows that if she breathes, she'll inhale through a growing cry. Iqadi knows that he's still timid and uncomfortable to be here. Sentiments that she gave him. Sentiments that she asked him to be a part of because she fell in love. Iqadi knows that he has doubts about his capabilities but he's still here and she still wants him here. They're still learning about their potential separately and together.

Without looking, Iqadi gets another card. She starts to read it but has to blink out tears. As they roll down her temple, she feels Imanu wipe away the side closest to him. She slightly turns to face him and wipes the other eye. Who would've thought she'd be the one to cry first?

"Do you want to stop?" Imanu whispers. How did she deserve him?

"Of all the people in your family," she reads as her answer. She could've kept listing his positive traits if he didn't end with that one. "Whose death would you find the most disturbing? Why?"

Imanu pauses and Iqadi takes a moment to collect herself and put the card away. Out of all the questions to transition into… This had to be the one she wanted to exclude the most from the set.

"How do you want to answer this one?" Imanu asks.

"We could say it at the same time," Iqadi suggests.

"Alright."

Iqadi holds up three fingers. She waits a moment before lowering one and another. When there's one left, she waits longer because she has to think about an answer. Before she married Imanu, her family were her parents. She knew that they could die at any time because life is unpredictable and they were in charge of a militaristic country that has enemies within its own borders. But now, she has Imanu and his family. So who in that bunch would be the most disturbing? And why?

She lowers the last finger into her fist.

"Myself," she and Imanu answer at the same time.

Shocked by the other's answers, they turn to face each other. They didn't expect the person next to them to say themselves. Out of everything, including the nakedness, this is the purest and mutualist of all vulnerabilities. Talking about their disturbing deaths in the dark was something they never thought they'd be doing. The tension they had when they first fully exposed themselves.

"You first," Imanu says.

"If I died now, my parents would be destroyed. They almost were when we were ambushed when you were still a suitor. Wakanda would have no heir. What about you?"

"Before I married you, my family was barely getting by until I started in the mines. And then we had a steady income. If I died then, which could've happened down there at any given moment, what happens to my family?"

Iqadi's mouth goes dry. She would've said that she would be there for his family but if they weren't married, she wouldn't know them. She wouldn't even be aware that it happened. But why would she have cared then since she didn't know him? Iqadi now understands why he said he would die instantly to avoid watching his family suffer over him.

Imanu takes another card. "Should I continue?"

"Please," Iqadi responds.

"Share a personal problem and ask your partner for advice on how they might handle it." Imanu puts the card away. "I'll start. Why did you choose me?"

Iqadi turns to face him. "I'll handle this problem of yours by countering with another question. Why did you say yes?"

Imanu looks away for a second. Iqadi lies on her side, resting on her elbow and holding her head up. She waits for him to answer but she won't probe. She has never been more curious about anything until now. The questions on the cards were nothing compared to the last two they asked each other off-script.

"I fell in love," Imanu admits.

"With your princess or with me?" She asks.

"With the humanized version of the princess I grew up reading and hearing about." He copies her position and is now on his side. "Now you answer. Why did you choose me?"

Iqadi grins a little. "Because you're someone I want to lead Wakanda with."

-o-

"The study said the participants stared at each other for four minutes," Iqadi says after they finished the last question.

"Do you have a timer?" Imanu asks.

"No."

"That's odd. You're not prepared."

Iqadi can't argue that. She should've brought one. "I honestly didn't think we'd make it this far."

"Good point." He lies back, resting a hand on his chest. "So are we going to count -?"

"Nope." She sits up, facing him and crossing her legs. "Come here. We're going to stare at each other and see what happens."

Imanu agrees, mimicking her position. "So, why four minutes?"

"Two minutes is terrifying," Iqadi says, thinking back to the study. "Four minutes go somewhere."

"Like where?"

"I guess we'll find out."

And they start.

Sitting silently, they almost forget to breathe. When they remember, their breaths are soft and quick. They try to keep their staring restricted to the eyes but sometimes they break if off by looking down or behind the other person. But they would come into contact again.

Time didn't matter this whole moment so why bother counting for four minutes? It could've already passed but neither stopped to call it a night. There was a strange comfort in just looking at each other after all the questions. It's an intimacy found in mutual vulnerability.

If there was one thing they learned about each other, it's that their upbringings are more similar than they think. They've grown up on a path their families put them on and they did it for the future. Sometimes, they didn't put themselves into consideration but they never complained. It was for people they love. Along the way from their first meeting, they've seen each other break out of habits and learn bits and pieces of the real person. Surely, there's still more to discover but they've only been married for four months. They have all the time in the world.

Forget the minutes. Four months is when things go somewhere.

And now Imanu knows where.

Out of passion, he leans in and kisses her, holding her by the back of her head. Iqadi tenses a little and he pulls back. Their eyes meet again, his showing concern and hers in shock. He knows he shouldn't have done that but he can't take it back. Before he could apologize, Iqadi smiles a little. She nods and he hesitates before kissing her again. She takes a moment to relax and she leans back to pull him on top of her.

You can find this study online. We looked at it in, I think, two of my classes.