InsaneJournal

Who: Peter & Gamora
What: Gamora freaks out and attempts to plan vengeance, but learns an important lesson about the Great Hero Kevin Bacon.
Where: On the Benatar on the roof
When: After Drax brought up Gamora's dear old dad.
Notes/Warnings: No warnings, but a fade out in order to facilitate posting NSFW content separately.



Taking the stairs down two at a time, Gamora told herself she was calm. She wasn’t freaking out at all about her father destroying worlds here in this reality in the recent past. Not at all. She was perfectly calm, she reminded herself. It just didn’t make sense that he was behind his timeline in this reality, but it sounded like he was. And if he was behind, that meant that he would start attempting to collect the stones again, and she knew where that led.

She took a deep breath, attempting to center herself and rapped on Peter’s door. “Come on…” she muttered under her breath. She did not have the patience for the elevator, where the AI would carry on polite conversation about where she was going, and practically sprinted up the 8 flights to the roof access helipad, punching in the security code to get out the door to the roof.

She finally slowed when she reached the Benatar, stopping to place her hand on the biometric sensor. “I’m holdin’ out for a hero til the end of the night,” she said when prompted, annoyed at the security system that had seemed genius a few days ago.

“Flirting with me will not work, Peter Quill,” she said as she stepped into the cargo bay, loud enough that he would hear her no matter where he was on the ship.

“You’re here aren’t you?” Peter yelled back, as he looked up from the latest encoded message that Stakor had sent him. He swiped it closed and stood up. Stretching, he adjusted himself, and followed the sound of Gamora’s voice towards the cargo bay.

Peter was prepared to say something about how he knew she found him too irresistible to stay away, but stopped when he saw her face. He wracked his brain, couldn’t come up with anything and then said, “What did I do?”

Gamora took another deep breath, trying to convince herself that everything was fine. He was here and they were on the ship, and she would convince him that they could make a plan and go kill her father in his sleep or something and she could go back to this life that was finally starting to feel like it might actually be hers. She slid her arms around Peter’s waist and buried her face in his neck.

“It’s just the things Drax said happened here since he’s been here….. Knowhere.. Xandar.. They happened before. In our reality, I mean. Didn’t they? Before he had all the stones?” She could hear a tinge of panic in her own voice. “You know if it’s happening again, he needs me. And I need to kill him before he realizes it.” She lifted her head to look at him as she finished.

She remembered asking Strange about her father when she arrived and getting an answer that he seemed confident in but had not fully convinced her. She should have started making plans then, but she had been distracted by everything. And now you might lose everything.

First time ever! It’s not me! Peter thought, and then immediately realized that he had just proven himself to be his father’s son. Not everything is about you, Quill. His arms went around Gamora’s waist and he held her for a minute, trying to decide where to start.

“Hey, we can handle it, right? Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.” He wondered why he’d never thought to install a couch on the Benatar. They had a decent cargo hold, even a small but efficient galley and crew mess. No living room, rec room and therefore no couch. No real seating at all that didn’t involve harnesses….. which he ruled out immediately. He thought about leading her to the tactical and navigation station - if they were going to kill her father, they’d probably need to start there, but the tone in her voice made him think they could wait on logistics…. Which left one place.

Peter had led a lot of women, including this one, to his quarters. The first time he had led Gamora into the small room, he’d been at least a little worried she might end up killing him. He was just as nervous now only this time it was because he knew it was because she actually mattered.

He dropped a kiss on the top of her head and smoothed his hands up her spine and down again, “C’mon,” Peter took the three steps it took to get to his cabin and slid open the door.

Gamora had no memory of this room, but her face still felt warm as he led her inside. Taking in the bed, which took up the majority of the room, silk sheets rumpled, she couldn’t help imagining exactly what it had been like, could be like, to spend their nights together. Until you get thrown off a cliff just because Daddy liked you best, she thought bitterly. She walked around the bed and pressed play on the tape deck, just to fill the room with something other than her own morbid thoughts.

She closed her eyes, swaying slightly to the music. “I’m not ready to lose this,” she said, not turning to face him. “I want….” She couldn’t put into words what she wanted, because it felt like if she did, it might fall apart around her.

Peter followed her into the room, ducking his head automatically as he came through herthe door. He sidestepped around the bed, came up behind Gamora and turned her to face him. Taking one of her small hands in his, he brought it to his chest and rested his other hand on her waist.

“Shhhhh,” he swayed with her, listening to the music and pushed the thought of the bed only inches away out of his head. Peter had wanted their first dance together to be somewhere where they could move more than eighteen inches in any one direction….. but realized that this was okay. They were together. There were no creepy old farts knocking on the door.

He paused, holding her against him, “Benetar, Engage GTFO protocol, please,”

The ship’s computer answered instantly, “Lockdown engaged.”

Peter let his hand slide down the curve of her hip, “Tell me what you want.”

“I want everything,” Gamora whispered, moving even closer, her body brushing against his as they swayed to the music. “I want to feel those sheets against my bare skin... I want time to finish falling in love.”

She brushed her lips against his between every wish, the fingers of her free hand playing in the hair at the nape of his neck. “I want to fight over whose turn it is to fly the ship…. and fight our way out of every crazy situation you get us into right by your side…. I want to know what it feels like to be a family….. I want to know all the things you know about who we are together.”

She kissed him again, slow and deliberate, her tongue teasing his. “I want to kiss you goodnight, every night, for a lifetime, Peter... I want nothing left unspoken between us. I... ” she faltered, “I don’t ever want to have the only option be to ask you to kill me.”

Wincing a little as he molded her body to his, he pulled back long enough to look down at her, “Gamora, you know how much I want you right now? Right?” He caressed her face with his hand.

“We did one thing wrong last time. We left a lot unspoken.” He took a long breath and blew it out, “Sometimes we fought when talking was too scary.” Finding the curve or her neck irresistible, he kissed his way down to her collarbone.

Peter stepped back and sat down on the bed pulling her down with him, “We can talk first, we can talk later, but we’re going to talk eventually, okay?

Gamora settled against him, taking in the tension in his face and the slight wince. “What I want is to hide from the other things in the way you make me feel, but you are injured. And with talking…. I am trying. I just said a lot of words. You, not as many.”

She kicked off her shoes and smiled at him, crawling up onto the bed. “Can we do both? Come lay down with me.”

“Only part of me is injured,” Peter grinned as he pulled off his shoes and stretched out next to her. He leaned back against the headboard and cradled her against his chest. Exhaling, he closed his eyes and began playing with a lock of her hair.

He enjoyed the feeling of her body curled against his for a moment and recognized that despite what he’d said earlier, they probably wouldn’t talk after. Afterwards, they’d be satiated and sleepy….. And when they finally climbed out of bed, neither of them would want to be the one to bring it up. He knew this because he’d lived it.

Peter wasn’t sure how many nights he had spent replaying every moment of their relationship, but he was pretty sure it was in the high hundreds. During one of those nights, he realized how much he didn’t know about the woman he’d fallen in love with. This time I have to screw it up less, he thought.

“Your dad is out there, but this is a different reality. We don’t know for sure that he’s going to do the same thing he did before,” Peter really hated trying to figure out the whole alternate reality thing. “What if in this reality they defeated him and he’s just gone to his little hut in the woods?” He didn’t believe it was all that likely, but the thought of Gamora anywhere near her father petrified him.

He tugged the hem of her shirt up so that he could slide his hand underneath it, “Like what if going after him is what causes him to go batshit crazy again.

“It might be a crucial part for my plans, though,” Gamora laid her head on his chest and let herself relax. Pushing Peter’s shirt up, she traced the outline of his ab muscles with one finger. She wondered idly if she would ever be tired of touching his body.

She sighed. “Do you think that there is a version of you in another reality that likes boy bands and reality TV? Maybe one who is in bed with Nebula right now?” She turned her head to kiss his collarbone, wishing she could avoid this discussion.

“It is the same with Thanos. If there is power to be collected, he will collect it. He might already have started, while we’re all distracted with other concerns.” She could feel the bubble of fear growing inside her. She had always had a tiny prick of fear of her father, despite the fact that the entire rest of the galaxy thought she was fearless. This fear and how it kept her on her toes had kept her alive. She suddenly realized why the fear was so much bigger now. She didn’t have only herself to worry about anymore. “I can’t risk what he’ll do to you, or to Nebula, to get to me.”

“Uhhhhhh. No version of me would sleep with your sister,” Peter’s sense of danger had been warped by a chaotic childhood raised on a ship full of criminals….the mention of sleeping with your assassin girlfriend’s sister was at least a DEFCON three, “I mean I like her. She’s great. I like your sister. She’s smart and she’s tough, and she’s actually pretty sweet once you get over the fact that she might go all Dark Knight on you and rip off your head. I like her, but no version of me would sleep with your sister.”

He refused to speculate about a version of him that eschewed classic rock for boy bands, especially since the finger that trailed along his stomach made focusing difficult. Peter rested his hand on top of hers gently stopping its movement. He grinned down at her, “Look you, I’m trying to concentrate here.”

Tilting her face up to meet his, Peter brushed her lips with a kiss, “What you’re saying makes sense if it means that people are just one way or the other and they can’t ever change. Like, okay…. In the epic story of our great hero Kevin Bacon, the town is controlled by the evil king Dr. Lizardo. He outlawed music and dancing and everyone in the whole town was afraid to defy him because he told them that if they danced he would send them straight to Broken Bow, Nebraska.” Realizing that Gamora probably didn’t understand the horror that was Broken Bow, he explained, “A place worse than hell.”

He continued with the story, “The evil king Dr. Lizardo had a daughter. Her name was Princess Ariel. The king summoned her and said, “Lo, Princess Ariel, you’re a fine girl. Take off your Sunday Shoes…. You don’t have to put on the red boots and walk the street tonight.”

Peter paused a moment to make sure that Gamora hadn’t fallen asleep, “But Princess Ariel was super hawt, I mean this girl, she’d been kissed a lot.”

Her dad was all ‘girl, you need to stop’, and then Princess Ariel was like, “Bitch do you even know me? Do you even go here?” Then she was all….., “I’m out of here and she went out and…..” Peter stopped. Do I tell her about how Ariel punched her boyfriend in the face and went ham on his truck? That might not be a good idea…..

Resuming the story, Peter said, “So she broke up with her crappy boyfriend, because he, unlike the great hero Kevin Bacon, was an ignorant jackass.” He smoothed Gamora’s hair away from her face. “So Princess Ariel wasn’t just smoking hot. She was even smarter than Aleta, Captain Stakar’s wife. She gave the great hero, Kevin Bacon, the words to speak truth to power.”

He toyed with her hair, “A clan meeting was held and Kevin Bacon, Lord of the Dance stood up and he told Dr. Lizardo, “Dude. You’re a buzzkill, but in a nice way.”

He took a deep breath, “So the evil king was like, ‘Dude. No. You can’t dance because if you do, my daughter will kick off her Sunday shoes and probably her panties too.’ And Princess Ariel was all, ‘Dad, you’re so embarrassing.’ But the great hero, Kevin Bacon, didn’t give up. They crossed the magical county line and blew up balloons and got a DJ and it was pretty awesome.” Peter checked again to make sure that Gamora hadn’t nodded off, he knew that the story was long, but it was important.

“So at the end, Dr. Lizardo buys Ariel some flowers to wear on her way to the county line and then he comes to watch the dance off and he realizes the power of music can give him back his mojo so that Queen Boggs is all, Come here, lover boy

After King Dr. Lizardo got his mojo back, he was so chill that Ariel didn’t have to comb her hair with a fork any more.” Satisfied that he’d made his point, Peter said solemnly, “You get what I’m saying?”

As Peter’s hand touched hers, Gamora turned hers to meet him, interlacing their fingers, She thought about all the times in her life she had reached out a hand to one of her siblings, only to have it smacked away. Until that day when she met her sister from the future, nobody had ever accepted what she was offering. But this man…. he was constantly taking her hand, pulling her along with him as if they were in everything together.

Just like in his story, where the hero, clearly him, and this amazing perfect princess that she guessed was supposed to be her, were able to change the Lizard king guy’s mind without murder. But Thanos was not some indulgent, overprotective daddy. “I know what you’re trying to say, but this is the destroyer of worlds, we’re talking about. Thanos is not going to realize I met a great guy and just be like ‘I’m so glad to see my princess happy,’ and buy me flowers Peter. He’s going to torture you in front of me to punish me for having feelings and get me back in line. Then, maybe, if there’s any love for me in him at all, just maybe this time he’ll put you out of your misery as a final reminder that I get nothing he doesn’t give me, before he sacrifices me to a rock for the power to destroy everything. At least that way, I would die knowing you wouldn’t have to feel all this again. That’s the closest to a happy ending we can expect if he starts up again.”

Tears wet her face, but she tried to ignore them, looking up at him pleadingly. “I can’t leave you like that again, Peter, I won’t do it. We need to figure out a different plan.”

“Shhhhh….. “. Peter pulled the cuff of his long sleeved t-shirt out and dried Gamora’s tears, “We’ll figure something out, we always do.”

“Gamora, fathers are complicated. I thought Yondu was the literal worst. Everything about him pissed me off. Then things changed, I started to see him differently. I thought he was a giant dick because he kept telling me he was going to eat me. He wouldn’t let me have sugar like EVER …. but you know, he was only trying to make sure that I ate right and didn’t get into Taserface’s blow.”

A faint smile crossed Peter’s lips as he remembered some of the good times he’d had with Yondu. “He taught me to fly a ship when I was ten. I didn’t know what a good dad he was until he was gone..”

Peter sat motionless, thinking about Yondu’s final moments. He thought of how Rocket had cared enough to send word to the Ravagers, telling them what the man had done, and how it had felt to see the ships gather around lighting up the sky with brilliant rainbows of light. How he’d heard Captain Stakar acknowledge that Yondu had not let them down and the bittersweet sound of Captain Aleta Olord saying, “Yondu Udonta, I will see you in the stars.”

He would never forget that day and how his crew had stood by him. After the last light had faded away, Peter had gotten more drunk than he’d ever been in his life and Gamora had been soft and……