Chapter Text
The first time she remembers meeting him, she’d been six years old.
It had been a cold day, and clouds were beginning to gather overhead. The playground was mostly deserted, quiet at this time of the day with the threat of rain looming overhead. The air smelt like smoke and had a metallic tinge from the chains of the swing.
Gamora swung carefully, holding the chains tightly and scuffing her shoes in the dirt as she pushed off the ground each time. Her adoptive sister Nebula sat on the ground beside her, digging a hole in the mud under the not-very-watchful eye of their eldest sibling, Cull. He was on the phone with someone, bored with the task of getting his youngest siblings out of the house for the day. He hadn’t even glanced up to check on them in the last twenty minutes.
Cull was probably her favourite sibling after Nebula, due to the fact that he never paid either of them any attention. While Proxima and Ebony constantly attacked and mocked the younger girls, Cull and Corvus tended to pretend they didn’t exist. That was, until their adoptive father, Thanos, was mad at them and suddenly they remembered their younger sisters existed for long enough to push the blame onto them.
Gamora’s eyes suddenly caught on a family entering the playground from the other side. The father held hands with two children, a boy and a girl who both looked around Gamora’s age. The boy with light hair was excitedly talking to them both, while the dark-haired girl stared up at him with an expression Gamora couldn’t describe in any other way than awe.
She eyed them suspiciously. The father seemed more engaged than her own. He wasn’t yelling, for one.
They headed over to the slide, where the boy ran up the stairs quickly before turning around and helping the girl up so that she could go down first. Their dad sat near the bottom, occasionally joining in the conversation with idle comments but generally content with letting the boy talk. The girl also was fairly silent, but it was clear that she adored the boy and was perfectly fine with it.
Gamora’s eyes drifted over to Nebula. She was three months younger than Gamora and they’d been put in the same year at school, something both had been excited about because the idea of leaving Nebula home alone for a year with just their father for company had been terrifying. Nebula was quieter, and since Gamora was clearly favoured by their father, she often received all of the extra anger he constantly had. And while Nebula was fairly withdrawn from everyone at their school, Gamora knew that was just a mask used by the girl who crawled into her barely older sister’s bed every night after their father had hit them and cried herself to sleep, while Gamora stroked her hair and tried to reassure her that everything would be okay when even at six years old, she knew it wasn’t.
Content that Nebula was currently okay, Gamora’s eyes unintentionally found the family again, who were now looking in her direction. The dad appeared to be trying to convince the girl to walk over to the swings before he eventually gave up and nodded to the boy, who grinned.
He walked over to Gamora slowly, smiling brightly when she made eye contact. She didn’t return the gesture, watching him curiously. “Hiya. What’s your name?”
She didn’t say anything, scraping her feet through the dirt as she slowed the swing to a stop.
The boy nodded. “Right. Sorry. My daddy says don’t talk to strangers, so you’re doing the right thing. I wouldn’t normally but he said it was okay. My name’s Peter. It’s okay if you don’t tell me yours.” When she still didn’t say anything, he gave her a reassuring smile. “Uh, well, that’s my little sister, Mantis,” he pointed to the brunette girl. “Well, she’s not my actual sister. We’re adopted.”
At that, Gamora spoke up, even though she knew she shouldn’t trust this boy, shouldn’t trust anyone. Except for Nebula. “I’m adopted too.”
The boy, Peter’s, eyes lit up. “Really? I’ve never met someone else who’s adopted before. That’s cool. Well, not cool exactly but… you know what I mean.” Gamora nodded slowly, even though she didn’t know what he meant at all. “Anyway, Mantis wanted to know if you minded if she used the swing for a little bit. You can have it back after,” he said hastily.
Gamora twisted the chains around her hand with a frown for a moment. She liked the swings, they felt freeing. But then she caught a glimpse of Nebula out of the corner of her eye and thought of how annoyed she’d be if someone didn’t let her sister use the swing. “Okay.”
“Yeah?” Peter sounded surprised like he hadn’t actually expected her to say yes. “Okay, cool. Mantis! She said you can use the swing!”
The girl's eyes lit up and she ran over, her pigtails swinging, and her dad chuckled and followed. Gamora quickly moved to the side when he got closer. Even Thanos had looked nice at the beginning.
“I hope you asked nicely, Pete,” he said, ruffling the boy’s hair with a grin.
Peter pouted. “I did, I did!”
The dad turned to Gamora with a smile and she fought the urge to run away. “Hey kiddo, I’m Yondu. Peter and Mantis’ daddy. What’s your name?”
Gamora stared at him in fear, digging her nails into her palm.
Peter spoke up. “She’s being careful, Yondu, just like you told me to. Stranger danger, remember?”
Yondu looked at her a second more. It felt like he understood more than she would ever tell. “Alright,” he said with a nod. “Why don’t you two go play on the slides? I’ll watch you from here, but be careful.”
Peter grinned and jumped up and down in excitement. “Yay! Come on, wanna go on the slides?”
Gamora hesitated, glancing at Nebula again. Yondu caught her look. “Is that your sister? I’ll look after her, don’t you worry, girl.”
The slides looked fun so she gave in and followed Peter over. They climbed the stairs together and he patiently (or maybe impatiently, since he was practically vibrating with excitement) waited for her to go down first.
“What’s your favourite colour?”
“What?”
“Your favourite colour. Mine’s red. Like my jacket.” he gestured to the leather jacket he was wearing. It was too big for him, his hands weren’t even visible in the sleeves.
“I like green,” Gamora said quietly.
“Green’s nice. My favourite tree is green.”
She frowned. “All trees are green.”
He shook his head. “Nu-uh. Japanese maple aren’t. They’re red.” she shot him a look and he shrugged. “My mum liked plants. She had a garden full of ‘em. Taught me the names and everything.” he said proudly. “How ‘bout you, what was your mama like?”
Gamora paused. “She was nice and very pretty.”
Peter grinned. “That sounds like you!”
She smiled shyly, quickly turning around so he didn’t see. Nebula was still tracing in the dirt, content with drawing pictures in the mud and digging. Yondu and Mantis chatted as he pushed her on the swing, both smiling happily. It made Gamora feel weird, it didn't look anything like her family with Thanos. She turned around to find Peter looking at her.
“What?”
“Nothing, nothing. We just moved here, dad and Mantis and me. My mama died when I was five, but Mantis’s parent’s died when she was two so she’s been with Yondu longer. But we don’t really know anyone here. Did you wanna be my friend?”
She squirmed. “I don’t have any friends.”
“Really? I bet you’d be popular at school, you’re so nice and fun.” she shrugged and he grinned. “Well, if I’m your only friend that automatically makes me your best friend.”
“What’s a best friend?”
“It’s your favourite person in the whole world. You tell them everything and you trust them and best of all, you get to play together whenever you want. And sometimes you get to sleep at their houses and then you can play all night!” he frowned slightly. “Yondu said I have to be at least ten before that but I think he’ll make an exception for you because you’re so cool.”
Gamora thought that all sounded fun, but a bit hard. Tell them everything? What if they told someone else? “I don’t think you’ll want to sleep at my house.”
He shrugged. “That’s okay, you can stay at mine. Me and Mantis have bunk beds and a spare mattress so you can sleep on that! Doesn’t that sound fun?”
“Yeah.” she smiled. “I’ll be your best friend.”
“That’s awesome.” He said, and something about the way he said it made her actually believe him. “Maybe we go to the same school. Do you go to Westview? That’s where Yondu said me and Mantis are going. We start next week.”
Gamora nodded. “Yeah. I’m in first grade. One of my brothers is in fourth grade but the others are all in middle school already.”
“Woah, they're so big. But I’m in first grade too, maybe we’ll be in the same class, that would be the best. Do you think I could sit next to you? I’m not very good at reading but I won’t distract you, promise.”
He spoke so fast that some of his words ran into each other but his eyes were bright and happy the whole time. It made Gamora want to trust him and be his best friend, even though the idea of that was scary. And he was the first person who had wanted to be her friend, let alone her best friend. It was fun.
She was jerked out of her reverie when her eyes caught on Cull, who had stood up and was gesturing for her to come over. “I have to go.”
Peter’s face fell. “Oh. Are you sure you can’t stay longer?”
“My brother won’t like that. Maybe I’ll see you at school?”
“Oh, bye, uh-” he broke off, glancing at her.
“My name’s Gamora.”
He slowly started to grin again. “That’s such a pretty name! Nice to meet you, Gamora.”
She giggled. “Nice to meet you, Peter.”
They went back to the swings and she shyly said goodbye to Yondu and Mantis before taking Nebula’s hand and walking over to where Cull was waiting by the gates, a scowl prominent on his face.
“You shouldn’t talk to strangers, Gamora. I’ll hafta tell Dad. It’s not safe.”
Gamora’s face fell, all the happiness from the last hour disappearing. “No, no, he wasn’t a stranger. We’re friends. From school,” she lied. Thanos always said she was a bad liar, but maybe Cull was too disinterested to notice.
“Whatever you say. I’m gonna still let him know. For your safety.”
She fell silent and Nebula squeezed her hand reassuringly. She glanced over her shoulder and when Peter waved to her, she no longer had the heart to wave back.
PRESENT DAY
By the time Gamora made it to fourth period, she had a splitting headache. Unfortunately, her school didn’t take that into consideration.
“Let’s look at Othello,” Edwin Jarvis pulled out his worn copy of the play, turning to his class. “What are some of the dramatic techniques in the play?”
The class was silent for a moment as everyone blankly stared at their teacher.
“What’s a dramatic technique?” Katy attempted a subtle whisper to Shang-Chi, but the silence in the classroom made it practically echo. Jarvis rolled his eyes and Wong, on the other side of Shang-Chi, put his head in his hand with an exhausted sigh.
“A dramatic technique, Miss Chen, is a technique used in the actual performance of the play to engage the audience. For example, Othello involves a lot of soliloquies, which let the character communicate their thoughts with the audience so that they can understand the play better.”
Wanda put up her hand at the back of the room. “Dramatic irony?”
“A perfect example.” Jarvis turned around to draw up a mind map on the board. “Anyone else? James? Matthew?”
Bucky and Matt quickly stopped their conversation, leaning away from Steve, who had unfortunately picked the seat in the middle of them. “Uh,” Bucky started.
“Prose?” Matt attempted.
Gamora hid a smirk. There was no way he even knew what that meant if the way he was not so subtly glancing at T’Challa’s notes was any indication.
“No, that’s a literary technique, but nice attempt. Maybe listen next time. Nebula?”
Despite having been blatantly staring out the window for the better part of the last hour, having completely abandoned any pretence of listening, Nebula answered with substantially more confidence and accuracy than the other two. “In media res?”
“Fabulous, and Gamora, how did the play begin in media res?”
The aspirin she had taken in math that morning had clearly not kicked in if the pounding in her head was anything to go off. “Uh, do you mean the whole play or just a specific act?” she fumbled, trying to gather her thoughts.
Nebula snickered and Gamora kicked her under the desk. Thank goodness for Bobbi, who slid a note across her desk. R found out that O and D got married.
“Let's do the whole play.”
“Well, there was a fight between Iago and Roderigo, because Roderigo had just found out that Desdemona and Othello got married.”
“Exactly. Now, Nakia, what can you tell me about the effect of juxtaposition in the play?”
Satisfied that she wouldn’t be called on for the next bit of the lesson, Gamora tuned out her teacher and leaned back, mouthing her thanks to Bobbi, who smiled back. Thank goodness there was at least one person in her row paying attention.
Barely anyone in their class was listening, not that Jarvis wasn’t trying to engage them. It was hot outside, and muggy. Living in a beachside town, after the thermometer hit a certain level it was hell trying to get any of the teenagers to do anything. From her desk on the side of the room, Gamora could see Bucky and Matt had resumed their discussion, Wong was playing Papa’s Pizzeria, Nat and Maria were passing badly drawn comic strips to Steve, who was trying to ignore them, and Pepper was online shopping.
Jarvis seemed to realise he’d lost virtually all sense of class participation and told them to read Act V for the rest of the lesson. Gamora immediately wrote that down as homework, knowing there was no way she’d be able to concentrate at the moment.
When the bell went for lunch, Gamora quickly stacked her books and laptop and stepped out into the corridor, where juniors were wildly running around to try and beat the queues for the bathrooms and canteen. She followed Nat, Nebula and T’Challa in the direction of their lockers, calling goodbye to the rest of their class.
Nat turned and grinned at them. “Any of you wanna come down to the beach after school? Tony and Hope said we can hang out at their places. Clint’s bringing drinks.”
Tony and Hope were next-door neighbours and both properties included a small section of private beach, courtesy of their rich scientist parents.
T’Challa nodded, swinging his locker door open and pulling out his bag of gym clothes. “Sure, it sounds fun. Let me know if you want me to bring anything. I bet Okoye and M’Baku will be down.”
“Perfect.”
“Is Tasha talking ‘bout the party? I’m avoiding all things strawberry if Pepper’s asking.” Clint appeared out of nowhere, winking at Nebula and Gamora before digging through his own locker. It was almost messier than Loki’s, who had piles of textbooks so badly balanced it was a miracle they hadn’t collapsed all over the hallway.
“I can probably come,” Nebula shrugged as she shut her locker. “Depends on how much chem homework we get.”
And what dad says, Gamora thought but didn’t comment as her sister headed off down the hall. “I’ve got a headache but I’ll see how I’m feeling later.”
Daisy, who had appeared behind them just as quietly as Clint, squeezed her shoulder in consolidation as she opened the locker next to Gamora’s. “Do you want some meds, I’ve got aspirin?”
“Katie and I are professionals at stealing from the office if you want a more niche product?” Clint offered. Gamora and Daisy rolled their eyes at him.
“Having Kate fake an injury so you can steal an ice pack is hardly what we need right now,” Nat stated dryly, raising an unimpressed eyebrow at him.
“You guys are so hard to please.”
Gamora grinned as she packed her bag. “It’s all good, I’m going home now anyway. I have a free period.”
“Same!” Daisy high-fived her. “I’ll walk out with you, just give me a sec.”
“Maybe we should skip, Tasha. It’s too hot for sport anyway.”
“You do realise Fury would absolutely murder us, right?”
“He wouldn’t even notice we were missing.”
“You know I can hear you, Barton?” the four of them jumped and spun around to see Nick Fury, resident sport and physical education teacher. He got awarded Most Likely to Run a Spy Organisation four years in a row, with good reason. He raised an unimpressed eyebrow but was clearly smirking.
Nat recovered more quickly than Clint. Honestly, nothing phased that girl. “Hey, Sir. Excited for class?”
“You bet, Romanoff. We’re playing football.”
Clint’s jaw dropped. “But Sir, the field’s in complete sun and it’s like 400 degrees out there!”
“That is a shame. Maybe you should get Miss Bishop to help you steal an ice pack?” He grinned at them and then walked down the hallway, disappearing into the crowd of students.
Clint spun around to face them all. “Shit! How much of that did he hear?”
Daisy smirked. “You should always assume he hears everything. Good thing Nat’s his favourite or we’d probably all be on lunchtime detention now.”
Nat didn’t bother denying it. They all knew it was true, the same way it was common knowledge that Loki was one skipped period away from expulsion. “Guess it’s your lucky day then.”
“Ready, Daisy?” Gamora shouldered her bag and fished her school i.d card out of her pocket.
“Yep! See you guys at the party. You better bring good stuff, Barton.”
Clint scoffed. “When do I not?”
“Feel better Gamora!”
The queue out of student reception was long, the result of a decent chunk of senior students all having free periods at the same time and everyone choosing to leave as soon as they could. “If you decide to come to the party and need a lift, just text Hunter. He’s gonna pick up Matt from the house and me from work.”
Daisy and Matt both lived at Saint Agnes’ Orphanage and Hunter lived just down the street. His beaten up pick up truck used to be their go-to vehicle for parties, even if it hadn’t technically been legal for them all to drive in it (the five-seater had driven Hunter, Daisy, Matt, Peter, Gamora and Nebula. It wasn’t unheard of for Mantis to also accompany them, although she tended to freak out over the lack of safety). Over the summer, Peter and Yondu had finished fixing up a car they’d picked up for virtually nothing and named the Milano, so now Gamora, Nebula and Mantis tended to drive places in that. It reduced the risk of being arrested for underage drinking and breaking passenger laws.
“Thanks, but if Peter’s going I’ll make him pick me up. He lives closer anyway, it’s less of a detour.”
“Yeah, all good, just let me know. I’d walk home with you but I’ve gotta run, my shift starts in like twenty minutes and I wanna buy lunch before. See you later!” Daisy gave her a quick hug before running for their shortcut home, through the trees around the back of the school.
Gamora quickly signed out and walked down the broken steps out the back of the school, rubbing idly at her temple. Peter was predictably sitting on the grass, leaning against the chain wire fence with his bag discarded beside him and listening to music through his corded earphones. He glanced up at her as she walked out and grinned. “Hey Mora, you’ll never guess what.”
“What?” she asked as she fell into step beside him, following the path Daisy had run down a few minutes ago.
“I passed English! Got a B, which is a lot higher than I was expecting. Miss said that I could’ve gotten higher if I’d had a better thesis, but that it was really good for what I was trying.”
Gamora smiled at him. “Hey, that’s really good! Told you that if you paid any attention then you’d be able to do it.”
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t start with all that I told you so nonsense. Know it all isn’t a good look on you.”
“Real mature, Quill.”
“You going to the party later? Apparently, Hunter and Bobbi broke up again so that’ll be fun.” he pulled a face. “Drax challenged Brunnhilde to a drinking contest and Rocket thought it would be a good idea to encourage them. And I just saw Nebula and she reckons Rocket was making a bomb at the back of engineering this morning so hopefully that doesn’t make an appearance. Knowing Tony though, he’ll probably be proud of Rocket for blowing his house up with things found in the school lab so honestly, it’s probably a good idea to skip that party.” he glanced at Gamora. “I thought you’d find that more interesting.”
“Huh?” she looked at him quickly, snapping out of her own thoughts of which siblings would be home to make her life hell.
He was looking at her with concern. Never a good look for him, if he’s concerned for her then she’s been really obvious. “You good?”
“Yep. Perfect. What was that about Rocket?”
“Oh, nothing, he just made a bomb-”
“Again!”
“But seriously, you okay? You’re not sick, are you?” He reached to place a hand against her forehead (they both knew that he didn’t actually know how to tell whether she had a fever or not, but he’d seen people do that and figured it would work). She pushed his hand away.
“No, I’m fine. I’ve just got a headache.”
Cull, Proxima, Corvus and Ebony were all out of high school and in their early twenties, but that didn’t stop them from lurking around the house when they didn’t have classes or work. Proxima usually had a bunch of her petty friends over while the boys all blasted loud music and treated Gamora and Nebula like their personal servants.
Thanos wouldn’t be home until after dark, probably mad at the world and ready to take it out on his children.
Peter was still watching her, worry clear as he pulled her to the side by her elbow to avoid walking into a tree. The first sign that Gamora was stuck in her head: not paying any attention. Normally, she could zone out and still be able to recall things perfectly when asked so she had to be really out of it at the moment.
“Wanna come back to mine? You can sleep in mine or Mantis’ rooms.”
Gamora had never told him much about her home life, but she had a feeling he knew at this point. It was some sort of unspoken thing.
“Thanks but it’s unnecessary. I’ll just go back home and see how I’m feeling before the party.”
“Honest, Mora, it’s fine. Yondu’s at work and Mantis is still at school so I’ve gotta help Groot with his homework. It’ll be quiet.” he saw her hesitate and tried to lighten the mood. “I promise I’m not just tryna get you in my bed… unless it’s working?”
She shoved him so hard that he almost fell off the path. “In your dreams, Quill.”
He jogged a few steps to catch up with her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders regardless of her scowl. “You bet. Come on, the bus is gonna beat us home at this rate.”
The bus did pass them as they reached the top of Peter’s street, so they raced down the hill to be there for when Groot got off (Gamora won, of course).
“Hey, Buddy!” Peter grinned as he scooped up his younger brother, spinning him around in a circle. “How was school?”
Groot pushed his hair messily out of his eyes, handing them both some flowers he’d clearly picked from the primary school garden before quickly signing back to his brother.
“You’re right, that wasn’t very nice of Billy. Tell him that if he does it again, Gamora will kick his ass.” Peter yelped as Gamora elbowed him in the ribs. “Or don’t.”
Groot grinned and grabbed Gamora’s hand as they walked into the house. After a momentary wrestling match between Peter and the front door lock, they made it inside and Groot sped off to his room after signing that he was getting his homework.
Groot was adopted by Yondu at just four months old and six years later, he was still everyone’s favourite child. He’d been born deaf but had learned sign language quickly and had always been obsessed with spending hours of his time growing a little garden in the back of the house. If Gamora was honest, he probably knew more about plants at six years old than she did, and she’d taken three years of high school biology.
Peter dumped his bag on the cluttered dining room table and kicked at the rug until it fell into place. Gamora leaned against the counter and watched him as he cleared away the remains of Groot’s breakfast (fruit loops scattered across the table and a nectarine pit) and put some of the dishes in their old dishwasher. Gamora’s house was directly in front of the river, with easy access to the clear water and barely a five-minute walk to the main beach and shops. It had a perfectly kept garden and upheld the image of a perfect family living in their perfect white picket fence house. While barely a seven-minute walk from her own, Peter’s house was falling apart and perpetually messy but there was a certain character and charm to it that her own house had always lacked.
Peter turned around and jumped when he realised she was still standing there. “You can go lie down in mine or Mantis’. My sheets actually are clean, before you have a go at me.”
“Did Mantis make you wash them?” she teased and he pulled a face at her.
“Didn’t invite you here to judge me. Go sleep, I’ll bring you some medicine in a sec, just gotta get Groot started on his work.”
“Thanks, Peter.”
“Anytime. If you see Groot on your way up, tell him he’d better hurry up or Yondu will be left in charge of his garden for a week.”
Despite her still pounding head, Gamora couldn’t help but grin at that one as she made her way up the stairs. Yondu had his room on the lower floor, in the master bedroom, but all three kids had bedrooms on the upper floor, while the basement had long since been converted into a dumping ground for random parts Yondu salvaged from work.
She flicked the light on and off in Groot’s room to get his attention before signing as she spoke. “Peter said if you don’t hurry then your dad is going to look after your garden for the week.”
Groot quickly stood up and grabbed his book, running over to the door. Gamora caught him with an arm around his waist. “Remember, no running around the house.”
Sorry, he signed and then gave her a quick hug before going downstairs, practically running anyway.
Gamora stood up and glanced at the other two doors. Peter and Mantis’ rooms. She’d been in both of them before on numerous occasions, but never without one of them. Mantis wouldn’t be back for hours, school hadn’t even ended and she might go to the party after anyway. While she knew that Mantis would not mind in the slightest, it still felt strange sleeping in her bed without actually asking first. Peter had given her actual permission but it felt weird to be sleeping in the bed of the guy that she occasionally considered making out with against the back wall at one of Stark’s ragers.
Not that she liked him. Definitely not. It was just an occasional thought that was only about him because he just happens to always be there. Absolutely nothing else.
With the thought that there was absolutely nothing happening between them and they were just friends and her horny brain needed to shut up and she needed to stop thinking about this, she pulled open his bedroom door and walked in.
It looked the same as it always had. Why on Earth had she been expecting some sort of grand revelation upon crossing the threshold? Something was seriously wrong with her today. Posters from various 70s and 80s movies covered his walls (they had been his mum’s, he’d told her that time they got drunk on some of Yondu’s shitty concoctions when they were 15) and his pillowcases were decorated with flowers (the direct consequence of a bet he’d lost to Nebula three weeks ago). Glow in the dark stars were peeling from the ceiling, having been stuck there by Mantis when they were nine years old, and his mum’s cassette tapes littered his desk.
There were also various photos stuck to his wall. Lots of them were of Peter with his mum, forever frozen in time as the teenager Gamora always forgot she had been when Peter was born. There were photos of Peter, Mantis and Yondu, one of the two older kids holding baby Groot after they’d met him for the first time, one of a happy Peter next to an unimpressed Gamora at their primary school athletics carnival, a rare photo of Nebula looking genuinely happy as she tipped Rocket’s canoe over in the river and a photo of all of them at an amusement park they’d gone to last year. Rocket was stealing Mantis’ fairy floss, Nebula and Drax were sword fighting with plastic swords they’d won and Gamora was holding Groot to the side and yelling at her sister to cut it out. Peter was the only one looking at the camera, his arm around Mantis as he grinned.
Gamora sat down on his bed, listening to the springs creak slightly before taking her shoes off and lying on her back to stare at the stars on the ceiling. The room smelt like him, and while Nebula described it as disgusting, Gamora found it comforting and then immediately cursed herself for thinking like that. God, migraines clearly turned her into an absolute nostalgic sap who suddenly was obsessed with her friend. Definitely nothing more to it than that. She rolled over and begged sleep to take her before she could think about that for too long.
When Gamora woke up, she immediately jumped when she noticed Yondu standing at Peter’s desk and looking through the stacks of paper. He grinned apologetically. “Sorry, I was tryna be quiet. Feeling better? Pete said you were pretty sick.”
Gamora ran her fingers through her hair, attempting to make it look at least semi-decent. “Um, yeah. A bit better, thanks. Peter’s over-exaggerating.”
“Sure, but you have a habit of understating things so it evens out. You staying for dinner?”
She rubbed at her bleary eyes as Yondu finally found what he was looking for, an old exercise book that Gamora recognised as Peter’s year 10 history book, where Mantis had occasionally scribbled down random recipes. “Dinner? What time is it?”
“Almost 8. You slept like the dead.” She blushed. “If you don’t have anywhere to be, there’s always a seat for you at the table.”
“Thanks, Yondu.”
There was an orange plastic cup filled with water on Peter’s bedside table and some aspirin next to it. Feel better, said the note, in Peter’s familiar chicken scrawl handwriting. She quickly swallowed the tablets and dug her phone out of her bag.
4 missed calls - Nebula, Mantis, Natasha, Nebula
7 new text messages - Nebula
[3:09 pm]
N: you coming to the party?
[3:15 pm]
N: nvm peter said you’re sick
N: feel better ig
N: unless that’s a lie and you’re just getting it on w him, in that case, ew
N: be better
[6:57 pm]
N: text me if you’re alive
N: if not i get your phone. rocket wants to make a bomb out of it
2 new text messages - Mantis
[2:27 pm]
M: hi gamora!! peter said you’re staying at ours because you’re sick but i hope you feel better!!
M: drax is taking me to the party, he says it will make me less ugly!!
2 new text messages - Rocket
[7:02 pm]
R: can i borrow your phone
R: for totally legitimate reasons
1 new text message - Hope
[7:21 pm]
H: ignore tony and feel better xx
2 new text messages - Tony
[7:22 pm]
T: nebula said you ditched my party to have sex w quill
T: strange preference but each to their own
Gamora groaned and flopped back down on the bed. This was not how she saw her afternoon going.
After sending Tony a photo of her flipping him off, telling Rocket he wasn’t allowed to build a bomb out of her phone, kindly thanking Hope and asking her to check on Mantis and not so kindly informing Nebula that she was not screwing Peter, she dragged herself out bed and slowly made her way downstairs.
Groot was sitting by the back d oor repotting a p lant while Yondu and Peter bickered over a takeaway menu. “Dude, it’s too late, let's just order in.”
“I ain’t paying for delivery, if you want to that’s your choice.”
“Seriously, it’s like five dollars. Live a little.”
“That’s five more dollars than I’m prepared to pay. You pay it, you’ve gotta job, don’t ya?”
“Fine, whatever, just go order.”
“You’ve gotta go check if your girl wants anything.”
Peter rolled his eyes and turned to walk upstairs. “She’s not my girl- Gamora!” he jumped when he spotted her in the corner of the room. “Geez, don’t do that to a guy.”
“Have you checked on Mantis in the past hour?”
“Yeah, she’s fine. Are you okay?”
“Of course. Did you actually speak to her?”
“Yes, and Nebula said she hasn’t even blacked out yet, which is like a record for Mantis.” Gamora shot him an unimpressed look and he backpedalled. “A bad record. But is your head better? Wanna stay for dinner? We’re getting pizza.”
“Uh-”
“Yondu, she wants dinner!”
“Peter!”
“What, Nebula’s out so no one’s gonna care if you are. Just stay the night, Nebula can crash as well.”
He was right. Her dad generally did not care what they did as long as their grades remained perfect and they didn’t do anything to tarnish his reputation. Gamora and Nebula spent a whole week staying in Yondu’s basement in year 6 and when they went home, Thanos was just back to hitting them as though they’d never eve n left, and he probably hadn’t even noticed that they had. Honestly, he probably preferred no kids. Everyone knew the only reason he adopted them all was to uphold the idea that he was a good samaritan, rescuing orphans from all around the world.
“I guess,” she sighed.
“Awesome! But how are you feeling? Still sick? I came up to bring you some medicine but you were already out.”
She cursed the part of her t hat decided to blush at that. “Oh, sorry. I know you said I could use your bed but I hope you didn’t mind. It felt weird using Mantis’ without asking.”
He shot a lopsided grin in her direction. “Nah , it’s all good-”
“You’re the first girl he’s ever had in it so this is a momentous occasion!” Yondu yelled from the next room.
“Yondu!” Peter shouted back, his face and neck flushed. “Oh my god, sorry, he’s just messin’-”
“So you’ve had lots of girls in your bed?” Gamora teased with a raised eyebrow.
“No- I mean yeah- I mean… this is the worst, we should’ve gone to the party,” he mumbled, turning around to fill up water for both of them.
1 new text message - Nebula
[7:57 pm]
N: bet that’ll change by the end of the year