seasons | killmonger

24 | A P O L O G I Z E

For the sake of the rose, we must water the thorns
~ African Proverbs
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Erik—N'Jadaka

"You still not about to talk." I gave Mbali a smug look that she just gave me back while we sat on the plane— excuse me, a whole ass private jet cause T'Challa loved showing Americans that Wakanda has shit too, and never needed shit.

She sat across from me, fumbling with the braids in her hair that she was taking down with her fingers. Her legs were crossed like a little kid, and I didn't know if she was trying to concentrate more on her taking them down or ignoring me. "Don't be childish."

"I can be whatever I wanna be. Leave me alone."

"All this over the word sweetheart? It's petty as hell."

She stopped what she was doing and sighed deeply. She dropped the braid that she was working on and crossed her arms. "When you found out that you had a chance to challenge for the thrown; something that you thought was yours, only to find out that they already gave the title at king to T'Challa... you were upset right?" I said nothing and she took that as a hint to keep going. "Kinda see how it feels now, huh?"

"You want me to apologize?" I stood up and walked to where a small refrigerator was and grabbed a bottle of water. "I'm sorry, Mbali. I might've fucked up—"

"No... you did fuck up. But I don't want an apology." She pursed her lips and kept taking down her hair, a small yawn came from her lips cause we left early. It wasn't like it would take us a long time to reach California, but it wasn't about to be a quick flight since we were taking a basic jet. Nothing vibramium influenced. T'Challa didn't wanna give Americans that much insight and have them wanting the same shit as us. "I just want you to leave me alone, but I know you're not gonna give me that anytime soon. Let's just finish up whatever we need to do here and call it a day."

I still didn't tell her that technically, there wasn't a mission. T'Challa figured that I could get my ass beat by her and he could be fine. She turned her back to me so that she was watching the tv that was in front of her. She's been spending weeks trying to understand Black sitcoms in America, and she was doing decent at it. She finished up watching Family Matters, and now she was back on Martin trying to binge watch everything.

Her head cocked to the side while she still tried to take her braids down since Sage told her that she'd take her to get her hair pressed by some Egyptians who do the same to hers. She wasn't feeling it at all at first. Mbali wore straight hair when we were in New York, but to have it straightened-straightened made her feel "weird" she said. But she trusted Sage enough to go along with it.

When her attention was fully on the tv, I went further back on the jet towards where a small bedroom was and called T'Challa on the Kimoyo beads. His hologram popped up instantly. "Any word?"

"You just left, N'Jadaka." T'Challa chuckled and shook his head. "It's been two hours since you've two left Wakanda, we haven't been informed yet."

"You really expect me to be calm about this like I'm not here trying to distract her while you do this." I scoffed. "Cause I'm telling you, if she finds out; she not beating my ass. I'm sending her straight to you. She's throwing you off the cliff next, not me."

A smug look came across his face before he rolled his eyes. "Where is she?"

"Upfront messing with her hair. If she heard me you know she'd be trying to break the door down."