The Price We Pay for Family - 39

 Cont...

Cass didn't think he'd ever get over how small adults looked when they thought he wasn't looking. How their shoulders sometimes curled in and true emotions came out and how they seemed to dim when no one was looking. 

Mama and Uncle Sam were like that. They were faking normality for him and AJ. Smiling with smiles that didn't quite reach their eyes. Went and did things with them as their faces were not quite there. Said they were fine and cried behind closed doors. 

Cass wasn't a fool. He knew it was bad. But what frustrated him most was that they wouldn't tell him anything straight. It was white lies and half-truths. Not the cold hard truth, plain and simple. They were dancing around everything like he was glass. He wanted to scream. He wanted the truth.

 That's why he ended up creeping silently down the black stone halls deep in the palace to try and find the medical wing. He wanted to know the truth. Wanted to see just what Mama and Uncle Sam, and by extension, him and AJ, were facing. He wasn't a kid anymore, securely in his teens and tired of being treated like a child. 

"You do realize we shouldn't be out here, right?" AJ's voice made Cass jump. In retrospect, it shouldn't have. He never could get anything past his brother, no matter how quiet or sneaky he was. 

Cass glared at his older brother and channeled his best Uncle Sam's official voice, "I'm going to find Uncle Bucky." 

"What are you, eight? We can't go sneaking out like we own the place. It's Wakanda!" AJ hissed, unimpressed, "Do you know how many strings Uncle Sam probably had to pull to get us to stay here? In the palace?"

 "Aren't you sick of being left out of the loop, though?" Cass hissed back, "They won't tell us anything! I'm sick of them treating me like a child!" 

"Maybe because we are!" AJ snapped. 

"We're old enough to handle the truth if they'd stop treating us like glass!" Cass snapped back as they stood in the middle of the well-like hall, whisper yelling at each other.

 "Maybe that's because they don't want to face the truth too!" AJ pointed out, sounding way too grown up, "If they tell us, it's real, they're trying not to think about that! It's not because we're minors; it's because they're scared!" Cass blinked. He hadn't thought of that.

 "It could very well be both." Shuri's voice made them both jump. She looked bone-tiered, hair frizzy in their normally neat braids, bags under her eyes, and perfect posture gone in favor of looking wilted where she was standing, "What are you two doing out?" She sighed out even sounding tired. 

"I wanted to see Uncle Bucky," Cass said, fighting not to sound like a whiny child under her extremely done gaze. 

Shuri sighed again and looked over at AJ, "And you?" 

AJ looked over at Cass quickly and then back at her, "Me too." 

Cass perked up. He knew for a face AJ had been seconds away from dragging him back to their rooms before Shuri had shown up. This was new. 

Shuri sighed for a third time like if she did it enough, it would save her problems, "Did it ever occur to you two that there's a reason your mom and uncle don't want you to see?" 

Cass shot an uneasy look at AJ, doubt creeping into his mind. How mad would his mom be if they did this? The last time he'd gotten mad at her and done his own thing, he'd ended up in a problem he couldn't fix. Granted, this was Wakanda, and he bet that kidnappers wouldn't stand a chance here, but the thought that he was making more trouble had crossed his mind. 

AJ looked also similarly uneasy but looked Shuri dead in the eye, "We'll never be able to support them if we don't know what's going on. We need to know."

 Shuri considered before shaking her head, "Fine. Two minutes. But don't forget that your parents were trying to shield you." 

With that, she turned on heel and marched back down the hall, clearly assuming they'd follow. Something akin to doubt fluttered in Cass's gut. Did he really want this if he learned something he didn't want to know? His mom had gone to great lengths to shield him from this. Did he want to throw that away? 

But Shuri was already down the hall, and Cass quickly jogged after her to catch up. AJ looked guilty as he, too, followed. If they got in trouble, at least they get in trouble together. 

Shuri punched in a code at the end of a hall, and the wall slid open like a sliding glass door as a store did. Beyond the wall were sterile bright white halls that smelled like a hospital. They were almost there. 

Cass shared a glance with AJ as they trailed after Shuri, who strolled down the hall of frosted glass doors confidently before stopping at one, "Here. But remember, you did ask to see this. You have 2 minutes."

 Cass gulped and suddenly found himself glued to the floor, feet unwilling to move. Answers so close but separated by a wall of doubt and fear. AJ finally slowly opened the frosted white glass door, and Cass silently followed him in.

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