Eyes of Fire | Bucky Barnes

77

Funerals were a beautiful thing, to Uxolo.

In Wakandan culture, death is not the end. It is more of a stepping off point. You reach out with both hands and Bast and Sekhmet lead you into a green veld where you can run. Forever.

It's a homecoming ceremony.

The ritual itself does not take place in a temple, church sanctuary, or any other kind of institution, but rather, a forest.

Wakanda is a place where trees are abundant, even as vehicles fly through the sky, and artificial intelligence works with the human mind. Everything is connected and interrelated. It is in these forests and the water within them that those of the diaspora can have a direct line to the divine. It is within nature that an individual becomes attuned to higher frequencies in order to petition, celebrate, and, of course, mourn.

The second element of this homegoing ritual was the pouring of libation for the life lost. When someone dies, pouring a libation on the ground, most likely water, is an acknowledgment of the loved one who has now become an ancestor. It is a way to show honor and recognize that they are still among us. The individual may be dead, but they are not gone.

Finally, there is the wearing of white — the glorification of the life lost.

As thrown off as she was by the way Americans perceived death and the ceremony that followed — dark clothes, stoic silences, the near complete repression of emotion until they could disperse from the group — she still wanted to be there. For Bucky, and for the man who had fought alongside him in the end, regardless of the opposing sides they'd often found themselves on.

So she was here, today, amongst heroes and supernatural creatures and warriors, celebrating the life and power of a man who had led the best of them for a long time. She hadn't even had a chance to get to know him — the man in the suit, the man who'd sought the security of his daughter and his wife above all else, had sacrificed his life for it and more — and yet here she was.

From here, she could not see much, the view of Mrs. Stark and her daughter sending off the energy core blocked by the quivering shoulders of Peter Parker (Spiderman, if she remembered correctly) and the hulking frame of Dr. Banner. She did not need to see in order to murmur a prayer for him, speaking that whoever god or process he believed in would welcome him with open arms.

Uxolo felt Bucky shift beside her suddenly, a palm reaching up to clasp his own cheek and smooth over his stubble. While she wasn't entirely sure what he was thinking in this moment, she could tell that he wasn't completely content. So she reached out for him, lacing the fingers of their hands together while grabbing his bicep with her other hand. She pressed against him slightly, just enough for him to know that she was here for him, before letting his bicep go. Uxolo kept their hands interlaced, in case he needed something to ground him, to comfort him.

On his other side was the younger woman she recognized to be Wanda, slender hands shoved deep into her pockets as she rocked back and forth on her heels, almost unnoticeably so.

Sam Wilson hovered behind the three of them uncertainly; she could feel the large sleeve of his suit jacket brush against her back as he wavered between clasping a hand on Bucky's shoulder and not. Once her other hand was free, she reached behind them and gestured for him to come stand beside her. She held his hand, too, if only to show him that his attempts at comfort had been noticed, and that he was welcomed in.

She wasn't sure of his relationship to Mr. Stark, wasn't quite sure of most of their relationships with the life lost, but she knew that everyone here would appreciate some type of comfort, even if it is just the presence of another person who acknowledged the hard work and sacrifice of Iron Man.