Forever and Always

Chapter 36

       Clara and Bucky watched from the back, near the porch, as Pepper laid a flower reef into the lake. Clara caught a slight glimpse, but inside the reef was an arc reactor. It had wording etched into it, but she couldn't see it clearly. The people closest to Tony were on the dock: Pepper and Morgan, Steve, Peter and his aunt, Rhodey and Happy, and Thor. Bruce was towards the back since his was too heavy to stand on the actual dock. Clint was given the choice to stand out on the dock, but he was with his family instead. The Guardians and Scott and the Van Dyne's also stood pretty close to the dock.

          Clara and everyone else was offered to stand close as well, but Bucky wanted to stand in the back. Clara decided that she would stay with him. That was when Sam also decided to stand with us. Wanda also joined us at some point before they came out. Behind them was the kid she noticed from before, Carol, Fury and Hill, and even Secretary Ross.

          The four of them stood together, shoulder to shoulder, as they watched the reef slowly float away from when dock. Clara looked over to Bucky, and she could see he was upset. He looked very distracted, looking to the ground and keeping his hands in his pockets. Trying to reach out to him, she wrapped her arm around his and grabbed his hand. At the same time, Sam lifted his arm, and patted Bucky on the back. He looked from Sam to Clara, and gave a sad smile.

            "Are you okay?" Clara squeezed his hand firmly. He nodded.

             "Yeah," he said as he exhaled. "I'm alright." She stared at him for a bit longer before turning back towards the lake. There was a moment of silence. Not even the leaved from the wind, or the bugs in the trees and the grass were making any noise. It was completely silent. Suddenly, Clara felt a lump grow in her throat. the next moment, a tear ran down her cheek. It never really hit her that this was a funeral until now. One moment, she was just standing there, and the next, she remembered why she was there. Now that she thought about, there were two reason why she was standing there next to Bucky, and both just happened to be because of Tony.

        Clara looked up at the sky. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in an out. She knew to others, she looked stupid, but now she was at peace. She felt the breeze intertwine in her hair; the warmth of Bucky's hands seeped onto her hands; the warmth of the sun beat onto her face. And she just stood there, feeling grateful than ever to be feeling all of these things that she never fully appreciated before. She finally snapped out of her trance when she started hearing footsteps followed by a slight tug from Bucky.

           "Come on," he told her. Clara looked around, and people were starting to leave. The silence disappeared as if it was never even there. The wind seemed to pick up, and the bugs suddenly became loud again, and people had started talking. Wanda had left their side and went to go talk to Clint by the river. Clint's family was busy talking to Pepper. Clara had noticed that Happy took Morgan to go sit on the couch on the front porch. She noticed that the Guardians were leaving as well as Thor. That's when Clara realized she was most likely never going to see any of them again. Clara broke away from Bucky, and he gave her a look.

"I'm just...going to say bye real quick. I'll be back, I promise." He nodded and his hand went straight to his pocket. She looked over at them, and saw they started walking away. She sped walk towards them, trying to catch up with them.

"Hey, wait!" All seven of them turned around and stopped. "I just... I just wanted to say bye before you guys left since...well since I'll probably never see you guys again." They all looked to each other, and then the gray, muscly guy spoke first.

"It was an honor to avenge my family along you and your family." Clara smiled, and then the antenna chick stepped towards Clara slowly. Clara watched as she lifted her hand and gently placed it on her shoulder. Clara watched in awe as her antennas lit up and she started expressing all different kinds of emotions. Not just any emotions. What she was feeling at that exact moment was being reflected into the girl. She was crying and laughing at the same time.