citlalmina ☼ s. rogers

III.III.V

"It's almost done. We just need to light the candles," Elenara snapped her fingers and the candles immediately brightened the altar.

"Woah." Clint quietly exclaimed.

"It's pretty, but," Tony looked at the altar with a brow raised. "All that paper and fire looks like a fire hazard.

"Oh, hush. It's fine."

"Can you hand me the copal?" She asked. Steve took a moment to think before he grabbed the black clay bowl filled with honey colored cubes of tree resin and handed it to her.

"This, right?" He asked and she nodded.

"Thank you." Elenara's fingers hovered over it, creating a spark of fire and smoke immediately immediately flowed out. The resin was now grey and ashy. The air smelled like citrus with hints of pine and woodiness.

"Witchcraft?" Clint thought out loud. Elenara laughed and shook her head.

"This is to attract their spirits and cleanse them. We don't want anything bad to stick to them on their way here." Bruce furrowed his brows and shrugged his shoulders. He was a man of science, but for today he'll believe in the spirit stuff.

God knows stranger things have been proven to be true.

She handed the bowl to Tony and he held it in his hands. It's been tradition since he was a child to blow the incense towards the table. To him, this was like blowing the candles on his birthday cake, but a bit more special to him.

And so Tony took a deep inhale and released through his mouth, blowing the grey smoke throughout the altar. The incense lightly kissed the flowers and pictures and diminished in the air as it flew upwards.

"Now we can eat." Elenara announced.

Steve and Tony helped her bring out the plates of food to everyone. There was tamales, pozole, bread, and a few other dishes that were laid out. Elenara grabbed two bowls of pozole and placed it in front of her grandparents and Howard.

"He loved eating abuelas pozole." Elenara laughed softly. Tony pursed his lips and sipped the broth from his spoon.

"He'll like the one you made for him." She looked over at him and nodded.

"I hope so."

Clint drank coffee from his mug and stared at his parents. He sighed for a moment and took a pink concha, splitting it into three pieces and setting them down to them and dipping the other piece in his coffee before eating it.

It's been years since Steve's seen a picture of his mother. Sarah Rogers was a saint. She was one of the kindest people he knew. Steve took a glance at Elle and a sad smile carved his lips.

His mama would've loved her.

"People are gonna spend your whole life taking one look at your body and telling you what you can and can't do. But they can't see like I do. It holds a heart ten times its size."

Her frail and sickly voice entered his ears clear like day. Her Irish accent was as strong as he remembered it to be. He almost forgot what she sounded like.

Steve clenched his jaw and pursed his lips. Feeling the tears beginning to well up in his eyes as he stared at his beautiful mother. He could almost feel her hand stroking his hair, just like she used to.

He wiped his tears away and smiled, eating a piece of plum charlotte from his plate. Just like how mama always used to make.

"Nat?" The goddess called out. The red head turned to her.

"Hm?" Elenara left Tony's side and went towards her and she leaned against the couch.