Placeholder Who: Peter Quill and Gamora When: Backdated to Saturday evening (02/24) What: Oh my God they are roommates..... Rating: TBA but probably green
Even though Peter had moved into her room hours ago, Gamora was doing a good job of not making it awkward so far by pretending nothing was different. Sure, his stuff was piled up on an armchair and his Zune was charging in one of the sockets of her room, and he’d brought over the contents of his mini fridge, but other than that they had just been marathoning 80s dance movies and eating pizza. Gamora had become a big fan of it since that first time.
Somewhere between Staying Alive and the infamous Footloose, Gamora had removed her boots and sat more comfortably on the couch. Between Body Rock and Dirty Dancing, Gamora had started sighing and then then yawning - in between protests that Baby was too young for that man.
After Dirty Dancing Gamora had gotten up while Peter Googled dancing-themed movies from the 1990s, and without knowing exactly the implications of it Gamora had changed into what she wore to sleep: an all black set of too-satiny pajamas that she would ordinarily deem entirely inappropriate to wear around anybody. Even despite having changed clothes anywhere and everywhere, this was still a situation of weakness that wasn’t over in a second: there was no armor on her now. Sleepy and distracted as she was, however, she walked barefoot back to the couch and slumped onto it, folding one leg under herself.
“Anything good?” She asked between yawns. And then, as Peter’s eyes bore into her, Gamora finally realized what she had done.
Peter hadn’t minded moving his things into Gamora’s room. He didn’t hold any sort of sentimentality toward his room, and though he didn’t think she necessarily did either he didn’t want to displace her. She was already on a planet she knew nothing about, and this room was now familiar to her. It was somewhere she felt safe and could come back to in order to rest and not be quite so on guard all the time. It might not have sounded like a huge deal, but Peter understood how important that was. He didn’t want her to have to pack up her stuff (even if it wasn’t all that much) and leave that one space that was hers behind.
Moving into one room really had seemed like the logical choice to make in terms of saving money and moving forward while they tried to navigate life on Terra. Peter had just sort of run with the idea without actually thinking about it and it seemed like Gamora had done the same thing. They’d settled into a comfortable evening of pizza and movies, which was a far cry from how they spent their time flying through space having adventures with Drax, Rocket and Groot. It was nice, though. He liked it.
Until it got complicated. This was something that neither of them had anticipated even though really they should have. Maybe it was because they were used to living together on a spaceship, or maybe they’d achieved a level of comfort with each other where it just didn’t occur to them that some things might get awkward. They’d both shared an understanding that those Unspoken Moments they shared were just part of their relationship, but they’d never taken it further than that beyond his shameless habit of flirting with her.
It happened fast, out of the blue. They’d been between movies when Gamora stood up. Peter honestly thought she was going to go get something else to drink or another slice of pizza, but what she actually ended up doing was changing her clothes. He made sure to keep his gaze firmly on the laptop screen and not on her as she came to sit down beside him again, but that only lasted for a few seconds before he was looking at her. “...Uh..” He probably looked stupid as hell in his expression, but he couldn’t help it. “Um, there’s one called Showgirls.”
Nervously, Gamora looked around for a comforter or throw blanket only to realize none were within reach. She had pulled them all to the bed to stave off some sort of cold that probably stemmed from all sorts of atmospheric changes. She folded both legs beneath herself, sitting back on her calves as if that helped cover herself up some. For good measure Gamora pulled her hair over her shoulders and chest before settling back down.
There had been a time when they had both changed clothes in the same room, barely out of jail, but that was then. Gamora didn’t care what Peter saw or what he thought then. Right now he looked like a little startled child and Gamora knew, somehow, that her expression mirrored his. “Showgirls. Okay. Sounds like it might have to do with the… the dancing thing. Right?”
If Peter could’ve thought clearly enough he would’ve pulled a blanket over for Gamora but at the moment he was trying to just look anywhere but at her because he was afraid if he looked at her he wouldn’t be able to stop staring because she was so beautiful. Gamora wasn’t just any other woman he would’ve liked to have shared a night with, then forgotten about the next day. He really cared about her. It was that whole Unspoken thing, and in moments like this it was really hard to ignore because while yes, emotionally he had a lot of feelings for her, he would’ve been a lying fool if he said there was nothing physical there too.
Had he known what Showgirls was actually about, he wouldn’t have picked it. He hadn’t stopped to read the description or anything of the sort because he’d been in such a rush to just pick something in order to avoid staring at and checking out Gamora in her sleep clothes. It would’ve been a movie he was probably better suited to watch by himself, or if they’d been on the ship and could watch it, maybe with Drax or even Rocket. But it was too late, once he’d started it and they were soon immersed in it. “I think so,” he said. “I just found a bunch of movies that were tagged as 1990’s dance. Maybe it’s about the Rockettes. They’re these dancers who are known for kicking their legs really high all in unison.” Oh, but it wasn’t. At all.
It was an odd thing to enjoy being looked at the way Peter had looked at her before trying his best to avert his eyes. Gamora knew it wasn’t solely to do with pleasures of the flesh, or ‘pelvic sorcery’ as she had once accused him of, and so it meant more. It warmed her heart, which had never happened before. Smiling slightly, Gamora settled in to watch the movie, reminding herself to google The Rockettes later.
In the beginning, Gamora was enjoying the movie. A tough woman with a knife trying to make her way in the world where power seldomly belonged to her. It turned out that things weren’t that different across the galaxy, especially when it came to money and people’s penchant for screwing over one another. And at the beginning the main character had said she was going to dance, so Gamora thought she was in for some lessons.
And she was. But not the kind she had been hoping for. After a while Gamora wasn’t sure whether to laugh at the awkward sexual tension, overacting and over-screaming, or if Peter would be offended. “Why did she throw her fries all around because of a question? And I thought I was angry.”
After a little longer, Gamora started realizing there was a lot less clothing involved in this dancing movie than in others they had seen, culminating in a woman rising like a goddess with her breasts out which prompted the men to trip the other dancers off of their own clothes. She couldn’t deny there was a certain glamour to it, but this was definitely not anything Gamora would ever be interested in doing. “...Is Vegas a real place?”
As the movie continued to progress, Peter was beginning to realize he’d definitely picked the wrong movie. This was not the sort of thing they should be watching. Granted, it was definitely over the top and exaggerated so he wasn’t taking it seriously but holy hell it was uncomfortable to be sitting there watching it while Gamora was dressed in so little.
For the most part, he was sitting there looking pretty confused mostly because it was a safe reaction to have to the movie. If he looked like he was enjoying it, he was afraid she’d think he was objectifying the women in it. If he looked appalled, well, that’d be too obvious that he was pretending to be something he wasn’t.
“Yeah, it’s real,” he said. “I never went there because I was too young but they call it Sin City for a reason. I mean, honestly, there’s places like that in every galaxy.” He raised his eyebrows in realization of his words. “Not that I’ve been to all of them. I just, you know, heard stories from Yondu and Kraglin. So I’m gonna change my clothes. Just tell me what’s going on.” He needed to get up and move, so he did. Peter went over to his pile of stuff, and changed into his pajamas, which were really just a loose pair of black cotton pajama bottoms.
Gamora snickered. “Sin City, huh? Yeah I can see why. Is it a place where a lot of people go to make it big?”
It wasn’t like Gamora hadn’t been to these kinds of places before, at the behest of Thanos for one reason or another. It hadn’t occurred to her that Peter was talking like he had been in every casino, dance club or house of ill repute he could find, but his reaction certainly put her on warning. Gamora eyed him with a smirk. “Uh huh. Okay Peter…”
Not too long had passed when Gamora screeched out his name. “Get in here! Is this how people dance in private rooms? They’re having clothed sex! This is clothed sex she’s not dancing why is she doing this what is she trying to prove?!”
“Something like that,” he called over his shoulder, and skirted over her response to him trying to make it not look like he’d been in similar positions to some of the men in the movie.
The first thing he did was splash cold water on his face in the bathroom, because, well, because. The next thing he did was quickly change out of his clothes and into his pajama bottoms. That was about the point when he heard Gamora shrieking at him to come back out there. Of course, he did. He bolted out of the bathroom in just his bottoms thinking at first there was something wrong, only to hear the rest of her near-hysterics about what was going on in the movie.
“What is this movie?!” He shouted in a similar tone. “It didn’t-- the description was-- what the hell?” It wasn’t that Peter was by any means conservative about, well, anything, but seeing that sort of thing with Gamora in just her sleep clothes and now he was only half dressed and it just -- well, it was a dumpster fire. “I mean, it’s not like it’s -- well, it is --” Babbling was an understatement, and Peter never got nervous around women but this was Gamora and that made all the difference.
Gamora had her hands over her mouth and was looking at the screen with her eyes open wide in a little bit of shock. The shok did not diminish when, upon hearing Peter’s voice, she glanced up at him to find him shirtless. Of course that was probably how he slept but without counting that first time after the jailbreak when they had changed in front of one another, this was the first time they were in such small quarters with such little clothing between them. She tried not to stare. She really did. But her conscience caught up with her instinct much too late and before she could stop herself, Gamora’s eyes traveled from Peter’s face to his chest, then down the length of his torso… and then she looked away.
Taking in a gulp of air, Gamora looked back at the screen, where the scene wore on, and she curled up in the corner of the couch, sighing. “Well at least the girlfriend is also enjoying herself.”
After a moment, Gamora addressed Peter without looking at him. “Come sit down.”