#towards the end I thought of Lord Hanuman and woke up

[j4r-of-flies]

I’ve had the worst day ever I came home early because I was dying all I need is a big hug from my moots in these trying times ❤️‍🩹

[namorres]

LAY ME DOWN

pairing: m’baku x reader

summary: she found love in a king, and he found love in a woman that practically landed on his doorstep.

word count: 4,474

WARNINGS: mentions of abuse; mentions of blood; slight smut.

note: THIS IS A LONG FIC. KEEP THAT IN MIND.

masterlist | request

Her feet had gone numb as she ran through the snow-covered mountains. Her chest heaved and her skin burned, but her mind told her to keep going. Her heartbeat hadn’t slowed down at all, not since she started running, and she knew it was a matter of time before she would pass out.

She had only a few more miles left in her before she would give in, before she would stop hearing the footsteps and shouts that insisted on her capture. Her stomach started to cramp, and her ribs felt like they were cracking under the weather; her lungs were beginning to feel overworked, doing less and less for her.

She suddenly felt sick, like she would need to puke. But she couldn’t – it would slow her down, allow them to get closer to her. Her feet, long numb, started to ache in a way they had never before, and her fingers were turning blue. She couldn’t see her own breath – in fact, she had stopped feeling her breath at all.

Finally, her body stopped, and she collapsed into the snow, eyes still open, but blurred. She could see the bruises on her arm, see the frost running up her skin. And then, with one last blink, she couldn’t see anything anymore.

Shouts and roars had drawn the guards’ attention. They stopped conversing, staring out at the snow and looking for the sources. It took only seconds to see the band of men running with spears and knives (they weren’t exactly quiet).

Immediately, one ran for M’Baku, and the rest ran toward the approaching men. They stayed quiet and out of sight, but they watched as the men ran toward a fallen, snow-covered body. With no knowledge of the situation, but a duty to protect the Jabari kingdom, the men came from the forest and began chanting.

The crowd, covered in snow and red, frost-bitten skin, went silent as they were surrounded. The Jabari guard readied their spears, all of them pointed toward the man that stood in the front. “What is your purpose here?” One of them called to him, stepping forward and keeping his weapon steady.

“To get her,” he replied. He was not Wakandan, that was easy to tell. But he may have hailed from another country – he was too primitive looking to be anything else.

A crunch of snow came from behind them, steps commanding and a grunt escaping the man they belonged to whenever he was on the outside of his guards’ circle. “You will not,” he said, voice low and threatening. “You will leave, and you will not come back.”

“She is our mission,” he said, staring down at the woman that looked near-dead, “we bring her back, alive. That was what we were told, so that’s what we’re going to do.”

M’Baku looked down at the woman. She was frail, littered in bruises and frost-bite. Her feet were a dark blue, her fingers on the verge of it, and she looked as though she had been running for days. “No.”

“No?” The man said, stepping closer, “who are you to say no?”

M’Baku looked up at the man, a challenging glint in his eyes, “She is on Jabari land, therefore I decide what happens to her. You will not take her, she is not yours. Turn, leave, and do not come back.” His order was just as serious as the last, and the guard around him took a step forward, intent on killing the men if they defied the Lord.

“I don’t care what land she is on,” the man said, “I just care about getting paid. I take her, I get out of your…” the man paused, looking around the area and grimacing, “land, and you never see me again.”

M’Baku growled, not in the mood to make a bargain with this animal. “Get out.”

He stomped his foot, snow flying from the spot, and the Jabari men began taking larger steps toward the other men. The few that stood behind the talking man began to flee, before he was left alone. “Get. Out.”

The man shook his head before turning around and running after the rest of his men, disappearing over a hill. M’Baku rolled his shoulders and his eyes before kneeling down to the woman that got nearer and nearer to death every second. Silently, he picked her up, holding her body with as much gentleness as possible.

They walked back into the Jabari land, and M’Baku requested that his men find out as much about her as possible. He carried her battered body to the doctor’s hut, insisting that they do as much as they could do to heal her.

She was awake and aware within a few days, helping the doctors out whenever she could – of course, they appreciated the help, even if all they knew about her was her name and that she knew a little about the medical field.

M’Baku had come down one of those days, watching her as she worked with a doctor and helped categorize everything. Everytime she looked at the doctor and smiled, something in him began to tingle, and he found himself smiling – even if he’d never admit it.

“I see you’ve gotten better,” he said, startling the woman.

“O-Oh,” she said when she turned around, “yes, Lord M’Baku, I have.”

“Please, just M’Baku is fine,” he said, kindly, walking up to her. The doctor excused himself, claiming that he had some “other things” to attend to. The woman silently cursed him, and M’Baku nearly chuckled at the small interaction.

“Apologies, M’Baku. I do want to thank you, though,” she said, looking up at him after resting against the counter.

“For?”

“Pulling me from the snow, of course,” she said, laughing slightly.

It was refreshing to see someone act so casual with him; most of the time, everyone acted as though they were in the presence of Hanuman himself, with no more emotion than a brick wall. “Ah, yes, of course.”

They stared at each other for a moment before M’Baku finally said, “May I ask who you are?”

“Y/n, Y/n L/n,” she said, her tone professional, as if she had prepared for this moment for days on end.

“No, no,” he said, “not your name – I already know your name. I want to know who you are.”

She stiffened, swallowing as she stumbled over her words, “I– uh, well,” she paused and breathed in, “I come from outside of Wakanda.”

“Why were you running from those men? Why were they after you?” He leaned on the counter next to her, crossing his arms as he listened.

“See, that’s where things get a little… complicated,” she admitted, turning to look at him. “It’s a long story.”

“I have the time.”

She nodded, raising her eyebrows as if she hadn’t been expecting his patience, “Okay. So. There’s a man in the country I come from, a man who deserves nothing in life, yet has it all.” She was looking down at her feet as she spoke, as if she were remembering things and having to relive them, “He found me one day, on the side of the street. I was – and am, now – homeless. He brought me in with the false hope of giving me a better life, of giving me anything I wanted at any point.”

“What was the catch?” M’Baku knew there was a catch – there was always a catch.

“I had to marry him,” she said, cringing. “So, of course, I did. I didn’t see any reason not to; I didn’t question the situation, I didn’t think about a reality in which he could’ve been lying. I just saw an opportunity to escape the hell I was living and finally have something meaningful in life.

“It only took a day or so to get me into his house. I was amazed at the time; I didn’t understand how one person could have so much. The walls were littered with paintings and shelves were decorated with ancient, authentic vases and symbolic plates and necklaces. It was beautiful to me. And I fell in love with it.”

“What about him?” M’Baku was beyond interested in her tale, but his heart hurt as he awaited the explanation for the bruises.

“He… I couldn’t tell you if I ever fell in love with him. I know he wasn’t in love with me. The only reason he was interested in me was for what I offered… physically.” A shudder ran through her spine and she cringed again.

Something in M’Baku began to rise – but he couldn’t tell what it was; it was red and white at the same time, a kind of burning he’d never really experienced.

“Every night, he would come home drunk, angry, shouting about something he saw or something I did or didn’t do. I never knew how to respond; I thought that, in a relationship, you yield to the man, you show submission. I always thought that it calmed their nerves. But it meant nothing to him.

“After a few loud insults and maybe a slap or two, he would pin me underneath him and force me to pleasure him. I didn’t… I didn’t do anything to stop it, and I know I should have, but it wouldn’t have helped. Nothing was going to help that man.”

“Why did you stay?” M’Baku asked, pushing off the counter and standing in front of her, lifting her chin with his finger. “Why did you let him do that to you?”

“Because I knew no better,” her eyes, big and doe-like, did something to the bigger man that he just couldn’t explain. “And it never got better, even though he would say that he was sorry the next morning, and that he didn’t mean what he said. He would use excuses over and over, saying that he loved me and that he wanted me to be around.

“And I think that’s why I stayed. Because I believed him. A part of me thought he was telling the truth, even if he wasn’t. I told myself that he would get better, and it just never did. Instead it escalated,” she shrugged, looking to the right and biting her lip, her eyes burning just a bit, “he just got more physical. He would get mad and he… he hit me, he threw me around and he handled me carelessly.

“And still, every time, he would apologize, say that he didn’t mean it. Say that he would make it better and he wouldn’t do it again. And I still believed him. And then, one day, he hit me so hard he knocked me out. I woke up with a concussion, a sprained shoulder and bruises all over my body. So I ran.”

M’Baku felt relief wash over his body as she came close to the end of her story.

She regained her composure as she sighed, her breath still shaky, “It took me a couple days of running to get here. He’d sent out that battalion to come after me and bring me back, I guess. But I wasn’t going back. I’m not going back there. I refuse to.”

“Do you have any family there?” He asked, looking down at this insanely strong woman.

“No,” she said quietly, “haven’t for a long time. I have no reason to go back to that country.”

“Then you shall stay here,” M’Baku said, watching her look up at him with a little bit of surprise. “You will stay with me, at least until you choose to do otherwise.”

She smiled, and then it was settled.

And that’s how she got here, laying in M’Baku’s bed and staring up at the ceiling. That conversation had happened weeks ago, and since then, they had only gotten closer. She came to truly feel something for the man, but she couldn’t exactly place what it was.

She wasn’t in love, that she was sure of, but she did have something along the lines of a deep crush on him. He was kind, gentle and patient with her in a way that the man she ran from never was. He was everything she could ever need, everything she could ever want.

If she closed her eyes, she could see his smiling face; the gap between his two front teeth and the glint in his dark brown eyes – it truly made him beautiful. His towering height and gentle touch always fascinated her, as well — how man could be so beastly, so large and menacing, but then touch her and act as everything that contrasted that.

M’Baku was protective over her, too. If another man even so much as looked at her weird, he was either summoned to speak with his King or glared at with so much anger, he should’ve set on fire. It was both amusing and endearing, honestly.

A smile broke out on her face as her thoughts wandered from his mannerisms to the nights they spent alone, talking and laughing and confessing. He told her so much, trusted her with everything, and she was the same with him. He knew practically everything about her life – from how she became homeless to what her favorite constellation was. She knew everything about him – from his fears as a King to his favorite noise to make when intimidating newly-enlisted guard members.

She laughed to herself as she remembered the day that M’Baku scared the living hell out of a man named N’Gani, making the poor man nearly pee himself in fear. He had snuck up behind him, then yelled at him in their native language, and growled as the man turned around and screeched.

What he did was something extremely basic, but N’Gani had never experienced something like the King yelling in his ear. Now, every time M’Baku saw him around, he would say the same thing he yelled in the man’s ear and they would both laugh about it (though N’Gani seemed less amused).

She sighed as once more, M’Baku’s smile consumed her thoughts and his laugh echoed.

No, she wasn’t in love, but she was damn near close to it.

Heavy steps from outside drew her attention from the ceiling and her thoughts, and she sat up to see M’Baku coming into the room. He looked stressed, eyebrows furrowed and full lips pulled into a slight grimace.

Y/n stood up from his bed, walking over to him and looking him in the eye. There was an anger she had only seen once or twice swimming around his irises, and she reached up to cup his face in her hands. He relaxed, but not as much as she would have liked to see, and he let out a heavy huff.

“M’Baku,” she said, eyes searching his own for anything, “talk to me. Tell me what is on your mind.”

He closed his eyes and sighed, “They keep coming back.”

“What? Who?”

“The men who tried to take you,” he whispered, opening his eyes and grabbing your waist with a gentle touch. His fingers were hot on your exposed midriff, seeing as you were only in a fur cropped-top and a skirt – a style that was common among the Jabari people.

“Oh,” was all you said, fingers now only lightly resting against his face. “Why?”

“They want to,” he growled, his lips scrunching together for just a second, “they want to take you away from here. They said they wouldn’t stop coming until you came with them.”

She closed her eyes and let her hands fall to his shoulders, “How long have they been coming?”

“A few weeks,” he said lowly, as if he knew where this was going. “But that means nothing, y/n.”

“I can’t let them keep bothering your tribe because of me,” she said. Her stomach dropped as she whispered those words, and her heartbeat sped up like it had the day she was running, the day she was brought into Jabari hands.

M’Baku’s demeanor immediately changed, and suddenly, he was pressing her to his chest and his forehead was on her’s, “You will never be a bother this tribe, y/n. I will protect you until the day I die.”

There was a moment of silence, a moment of stillness. And then she pressed forward and pushed their lips together. Her hands traveled back to his face and he breathed out as he pushed himself into her. He walked her to the bed, falling on top of her once they were there.

He hadn’t pulled away from her lips, suddenly addicted to her taste. She just wanted to get his armor off, to get to him. It only took a few minutes for them to be in front of each other, bare and exposed. She had scooted back on the bed, so her head rested on a pillow as she stared up at M’Baku.

He was propped up above her, all of his weight resting on his forearms. Her fingers danced across his chest, then his stomach, falling in the divots of his abs. She saw something sincere, sweet, loving in his eyes. And suddenly, she could admit it, she could say she was finally there – she was in love.

“I love you,” she whispered, eyes glancing all over his face.

“Words cannot do justice to how much I love you,” he said quietly, leaning down and peppering kisses along her neck, her collarbone, and further.

It did not take long for them to get to the point where he was rocking in and out of her, keeping his movements smooth and gentle. Her legs were wrapped around his lower back, and she was breathing out and moaning in ecstacy, and he realized then that he would never give this up. He would never let her go without a fight.

Once it was all over, she was asleep against his chest and he was in absolute bliss. Placing a kiss against her head, he let himself fall into the clutches of sleep.

When he woke up the next morning, he was alone in his bed. He paid no mind at first, and then realized that she wasn’t in the room, or the bathroom. Fear settled in as he sat up and looked toward her side of the bed.

It had been made, and it was cold to the touch – she had been gone awhile. He quickly got out of bed, sliding on a pair of shorts and rushing out of the room, yelling for her. Once he was in the main throne room, overlooking all of his tribe, a guard came rushing in after hearing all of his yelling.

He rushed over to the guard, frantically asking where she had gone.

“She left, my Lord,” he said, as if it were obvious, “she went with the men that kept coming.”

“When? When!”

“A few hours ago, sir,” the guard looked terrified and guilty.

“What– why– she,” his voice kept lowering until he wasn’t saying anything, just mouthing words and muttering. His hands were on the back of his head and he was breathing like he had just run a marathon. “We have to find her. Go gather the guards, we have to find her.”

They hadn’t been able to get to her in time. M’Baku had lost her.

It had been a couple weeks since the initial, and nothing had felt right.

He was empty, he felt hollow, like he lost apart of himself whenever she left. Everyday he sat at the throne, expecting to see her walk in with a guard, smiling and running to hug him. And each day, he was met with disappointment.

He could only think of the night he had her, he was with her, as close as humanly possible. He had her in his hands, tangled with himself. That night had been heaven, had been something only Hanuman could have graced upon him.

He just wanted to lay with her, make sure she was okay, make sure that she was treated right. He would never lay a hand on her, never yell at her and belittle her the way that monster had.

An anger had festered up inside the Jabari king, something that was primal and more animalistic than any other anger he had felt before.

He was going to kill that man for taking her, for taking his love.

M’Baku recalled the country she came from, as she had just mentioned it in an offhand remark when she spoke of how beautiful the mountain lands had been and how her home country had paled in comparison to it.

It took a day to get one of his trusted Generals to oversee the throne and any of its concerns while he was would be gone in the search for her. That next morning, he was headed for the Golden city and requesting one of T’Challa’s ships, describing his circumstances.

Of course the Wakandan King obliged, wishing him the best on his trip and asking that the ship not get too torn up – it was simply preferable that they didn’t have to repair all of their technology all the time. M’Baku had chuckled, but only lightly, and agreed.

They were off for her country within the hour, and M’Baku felt that rage building back up in his stomach again. His hands were twitching, gripping his spear and flexing as they came nearer to the damned place.

As soon as he was allowed to exit the ship, he was sprinting out of the hatch, two of his trusted guards following behind him. They were in front on the roof of this man’s ceiling, and it felt almost wrong to be going down stairs and into a hallway of rooms.

M’Baku didn’t care how terrifying it must have been to see a King and two guards standing behind him coming into the hallway, obviously in search of an unlucky someone. A maid had been doing a clean through of the rooms on this floor, and she nearly screamed when she say his towering figure in front of her.

He asked lowly, “Where is he?”

The maid shook her head, obviously unknowing of the man M’Baku spoke of.

“The rich man with all of the paintings and antiques, where is he?” He specified this time, resisting the urge to pick the small woman up.

Her eyes went wide with realization and she pointed down the hall, croaking out a room number. M’Baku nodded at her and walked forward, looking at the room numbers until he spotted the one he needed. He nodded at the door, telling his guards that this was the place.

They didn’t flinch when he leaned back and kicked in the door, busting the lock. The door violently smacked the wall behind it, adding a little unintentional flair as M’Baku walked into the rather large room. It looked to be a house all rolled into a hotel, and he remembered y/n describing all of the paintings and vases and necklaces about the place.

He sent his guards to search the rooms, and he went into a back hallway, looking for what would be a master bedroom. As soon as he neared the door, he heard yelling and then a sick slap. He kicked in the door (another one to add to the list) and looked at the people inside.

There she was, his love, pushed against the wall with the man’s arm against her throat. Her eyes were closed as M’Baku looked her over, and once she opened them, she looked instantly terrified and surprised and the same time.

“Step away from her,” M’Baku ordered loudly, grabbing the attention of his guards throughout the apartment. The man didn’t listen, only turned around and whispered something in her face. She flinched away from him, fingers beginning to rake at his arm.

M’Baku stepped forward and yanked the man away by his shoulder, practically flinging him off of y/n. She sprung off the wall and hugged the menacing-looking man, doing her best to wrap herself around him with his armor in her way. He leaned down just a bit and pressed a kiss to her forehead before whispering that she needed to go with Kayo and B’Rei, his two accompanying guards.

She nodded and rushed to them, Kayo pushing her behind him and B’Rei standing protectively beside him. She watched over their shoulders as M’Baku grabbed her “husband” by his shirt collar and lifted him from the ground.

He looked to be a little dizzy, but not unaware enough to not realize what was happening. “You are done harming her. She is leaving with me. No harm will come to her anymore, not by your hand or mine. I cannot believe you are even allowed to breathe the same air as the rest of the planet.”

He dropped the man and stabbed his leg, just because he was angry enough to do it, and then walked out of the room. He picked her up, just like he had done the day he found her in the snow, and carried her out of the building and into the ship.

The ride back to the Jabari mountainside was short, and once they were there, M’Baku took her to his bedroom. He softly set y/n down, stripping himself of his armor before laying down beside her. He pulled her to his body and he sighed out, finally having his craving for her skin and her touch satiated.

Her fingers began to dance across his torso, sometimes traveling up toward his scruff and other times traveling down past his belly button. Anywhere she went, M’Baku’s muscles quaked, and he felt so vulnerable next to her. He felt vulnerable, but he felt invincible.

“Y/n,” he said quietly, “be my Queen.”

Her fingers stopped and she pushed up on her elbow, staring at M’Baku with wide eyes, “Really?”

“Yes. I love you, I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone,” he said with a smile, “and I want you to rule by my side. I don’t want to let you… to let you go again.”

She stayed silent for a second, looking down in thought before looking back up at M’Baku. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay. I’ll be your Queen. I love you too much to decline, and I always want to be with you.”

He smiled and brought her down to his lips, kissing her with a tentative, but passionate feeling in his touch. She rolled onto his torso, and the bliss was back. He was underneath the most beautiful, the strongest, the best woman he’d ever known. And she was going to be his Queen.