SHIFTER ─ marvel

XXXIX. The Wedding

Chapter Thirty-Nine
Alex

Soroya tightens my tie and straightens my jacket, her smile infectious and her eyes brimming with tears. She has been like this since we woke up this morning. I can see her internally scolding herself because she has a face full of makeup and doesn't want to mess it up.

Shuri woke all of us up when the sun rose this morning, putting everyone to work and having every minute of our lives scheduled for the rest of the day. I haven't seen Khari since last night and he's currently getting ready in T'Challa's room on the next floor. Bucky is helping him get ready now, featuring he was asked late last night to be his best man. Bucky humbly accepted.

T'Challa has agreed to do the wedding ceremony, so he's currently helping Shuri get the chairs ready at the lake. That's where we're having our wedding; the lake where we first met. It's crazy to think that was seven years ago.

Okoye and M'Baku come into my room, both of them looking extremely tired and frantic to get everything off of Shuri's to do list done. Okoye is carrying a dress and a pair of heels while M'Baku is carrying a couple of blue flowers in his hand.

I quirk an eyebrow his way. "What's up with the flowers?"

M'Baku rolls his eyes. "Shuri is insisting we incooperate the flowers of the wedding into our outfits. I'm bringing them to everyone in the wedding ceremony."

Okoye hands Soroya the dress and heels, who lets out a relieved sigh and begins to unzip her jeans and rip her shirt over her head. I abruptly turned around so I'm not scarred by seeing my sister get dressed. I instead turn my attention to M'Baku; taking one of the flowers from his hand and hooking it through one of my button holes of my tux jacket.

M'Baku is wearing his Jabari uniform; the leather breastplate and grass skirt, his fur cloak wrapped around him tightly. Khari will be wearing the same thing, and as I examine the outfit I wonder out loud; "Where will you fit the flower? You're a groomsman and Khari's the groom. If we're being tortured with flowers so are you two."

M'Baku looks down, letting out a sigh and sticking one of them in his breastplate pocket. It looks ridiculous, but I'm not arguing with Shuri. "Go and give flowers to Bucky and Khari. Actually, send Bucky down will you?"

M'Baku nods, shutting the door behind himself as he runs down the hall. I turn back to find Soroya wearing a dress matching Okoye. It's dark blue like the flowers; the dress ends loosely at their knees, hugging their hips and chests tightly, with a 'v' shaped cut down the back. The neckline goes right up to their throats, where gold necklace like rings rest comfortably. It is just like the gold rings that the Dora Milaje wear around their necks. Seeing them on Soroya makes her look like a true Wakandan.

Soroya has her hair up in a braided crown, so it is easy to stick one of the flowers in her hair. For Okoye, she uses a safety pin to pin her flower to her dress with the help of Soroya. The heels are plain black and are only two inches tall. As Soroya puts them on she actually reaches the height of a normal person. Sometimes I forget how short she really is.

The door swings open again and this time Bucky enters. He's wearing a suit instead of a tux, something he borrowed from T'Challa. It's a plain black suit with a white dress shirt, but the tie is a dark blue that matches the flower he put in his jacket button hole like I did. His hair is half up and half down; part of it gently resting on his shoulders while the rest is twisted into a bun. He looks devastatingly handsome. He looks like he should be on the cover of GQ or Esquire Magazine.

I'm not the only one to notice this. Soroya looks her boyfriend up and down, her mouth gaping open like a fish. Even Okoye looks taken aback; having to clear her throat and redirect her attention to the flower pinned to her dress. My sister makes her way towards him. As she does so, I notice that same look of awe and speechlessness on Bucky's face as he takes in what Soroya's wearing.