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"I'm sure Shuri will enjoy her time here." T'Challa said.
"Of course she will," Tony smiled, giving the King some of his signature Stark Charm. "We're awesome. See ya in a few days, your highness." Tony began to turn back toward his desk.
"Very well. Oh, and one more thing, Stark." Tony looked back at the monitor. "If anything happens to Shuri, I'm holding you fully responsible." T'Challa ended the video chat there. Tony decided that wasn't a threat to be taken lightly. He spun back around in his chair to look at the sixteen year old genius, who was currently examining some schematics for an improved Iron Man suit.
"You know," she started, "if you scrapped those titanium circuits right there, you could make the suit faster and more energy efficient" Shuri poked at the leg of the hologram.
"It would use less power, yea, but it would reduce the speed." Tony pointed out.
Shuri gave him an amused look. "Actually, you can fix that problem by re-wiring the thruster module through a tellurium circuit."
"No, I can't do that, I've tried. There's no way to make it-" Tony cut off. He looked at the plans again. Shuri was right. He needed a tellurium circuit board, not titanium. "... Son of a bitch" he muttered under his breath. Beside him, Shuri was looking very smug.
"Well, while you're working that out I'm going to have a look around okay? Okay, bye!" Shuri slowly moved out of her seat. Tony was still looking over the plans, but the sound of a door closing made him look up and he realised that Shuri was gone.
"... Shit."
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Shuri strolled around the Avengers base feeling quite pleased with herself. She had just outsmarted the genius Tony Stark and distracted him long enough leave without him even noticing at the same time. Yes, this trip is going to be fun.
I wonder where doctor Banner is, she thought. It might be fun see what he's doing. She rounded a corner to where she thought his lab was. In fact, it wasn't to his lab at all, but the training room.
It was a large room, the centre floor currently empty. The walls were lined with a various assortment of training-related objects, from punching bags, to targets to anything else that might be used for training. The roof was high, with many beams jutting out in different directions, presumably to provide obstacles for Aerial-based agents. There even seemed to be hatches on the walls- to fire moving targets? Or things to doge? Probably both. Overall, it was rather impressive. The room looked completely devoid of people except for-
"LOOKOUT!!!"
Shuri barely had time to register the voice and turn toward it before something slammed into her, hard, sending both her and it flying halfway across the room, yelling in surprise and pain as they skid across the smooth floor.
Shuri groaned as she came to a stop. She curled into her stomach, winded.
"Ow ow owww," said the voice from a few feet away. "oh, shit! OhmygodI'msosorryI'msosorry I didn't see you there!" They were suddenly right beside her, apologising profusely. With his help, Shuri pushed herself up, holding her left wrist as it twinged painfully. She opened an eye to squint at him. He was young, around her age with messy brown hair wearing a familiar red bodysuit. He was also kinda cute- but not in that way, more the cinnamon roll baby-brother way.
"Are you ok?! I didn't hurt you did I? Is your arm ok?" He asked, looking at her up and down with more worry than was probably necessary.
"Ah, it's ok, I'm ok, just landed funny." She gave him a smile which turned out more as a grimace. Actually, her wrist stung a lot- she might have pulled something. But it didn't feel too bad, and she thought the boy looked so worried he might have a heart attack then and there if he thought he'd hurt her too much.
"I'm so sorry!" He apologised again. "I was swinging around and I didn't notice you walk in!"
"No, I should have noticed you, you're the one in a bright red Lycra onesie." Shuri smirked a little. His amount of concern was actually quite amusing. "I'm fine," she assured again, "see? Barely a scratch."
The boy sighed in relief, leaning back. Shuri took another look at his costume. The Red and black fabric looked really familiar, and the pattern on the centre caught her eye-
Shuri gasped.
"You're the Spider-Man!" She exclaimed. "The one Stark recruited! You fought Thanos on Titan with him!"
For a second he looked at her in shock, then his face absolutely lit up.
"Yes! Spider-Man! That's me! You know me?!" He beamed at her excitedly.
"Of course I do! Stark's told me all about how your suit works and how you made your webs yourself and fought crime by yourself!" Shuri was practically bouncing with excitement. She had been dying to meet the 'amazing Spider-Man'. Stark was smart, sure, but he was also old and serious (most of the time), and Shuri had always wanted someone her age to science with. Meanwhile, he looked at her as if he couldn't quite believe what she was saying.
"Mr Stark told you about me? He said all that stuff?" The question held more significance than Shuri would ever know.
"Hell yeah!" So did her answer. He looked at her as if she'd just made him rich.
"Peter right?" She asked. "I'm Shuri."
Now it was Peter's turn to gasp.
"Princess Shuri?!" He asked in awe. "Mr. Stark told me you were coming, but I didn't think I'd actually get to meet you!"
"Well, here I am, defying expectations, as always." Shuri smirked with a little mock-bow. Peter suddenly looked horrified.
"Oh god I just crashed into the princess of Wakanda." He wheezed. Shuri laughed at his expression.
"Hey, don't worry about it, really! I won't get you executed or anything!" Shuri suddenly dropped her voice. "Or will I?"
They looked at eachother for a second before both started laughing.
"I saw footage of you fighting the other avengers at the airport," Shuri said when they calmed down again. "You were so cool! Tell me; how did you take down Captain America?" She asked him, very seriously. Peter responded immediately, in a terrible German accent;
"I shot him in ze legs, because his shield's ze size of a dinner plate and he's an idiot."
Shuri wheezed, lying back on the floor. They went back and forth like this, referencing so many memes and vines that T'Challa would probably actually kill himself right then if he was there. After a while, Shuri asked to look at Peter's web shooters and he handed them over eagerly, explaining how they worked and how he made them. Shuri listened to every word, completely wrapt. After that Peter gave her a demonstration by grabbing some things from a desk on the other side of the room. Shuri immediately wanted to try herself.
That was how Tony Stark found them thirty minutes later, Shuri with a broken wrist (which she somehow hadn't noticed, giving Tony a heart attack), still on the same spot on the floor surrounded by random objects from around the room while talking some kind of unholy language that combined memes with science that Tony could not for the life of him understand.
It's also how Shuri, Princess of Wakanda and recently dubbed smartest person in the world, became best friends with Peter Parker, a seemingly ordinary boy from Queens with a big secret.
