WHO: Leia and Gamora WHAT: A meeting of two space ladies WHEN: Backdated to before she got hurt WHERE: The park WARNINGS: Nah STATUS: Closed/Completed gdoc
While Leia hadn’t decided on what kind of employment to pursue yet she was much more settled than when she had first arrived, losing Finn had been a blow but Poe was here and she was slowly but surely getting to know more people. Being grounded was, thankfully, less of a problem for her as she was used to spending long periods of time planetside.
She did sometimes miss being among the stars though, and these stars just didn’t look right. Still, she enjoyed looking at them on a clear night, which was why she was currently sat on a bench in the park looking up at them.
***
Gamora hated being grounded. She didn’t really like Terra at all, and this town annoyed her in a thousand different ways. She had to admit that whatever was going on with Peter now - whatever that was - was nice...even if she didn’t understand it completely. But she could have that without being on this spinning rock. And she’d rather have it that way.
Something in the back of her mind reminded her that she couldn’t have Evie and Jay if she wasn’t here...but she didn’t exactly want to examine that right now.
She’d gone for a run tonight, to get some exercise and have some time alone with her thoughts. Looking up at the stars was confusing...she didn’t recognize any of the constellations from here. To someone who had spent most of her life in space, it was a strange feeling.
When she saw the woman on the bench, she stopped abruptly. She hadn’t expected anyone to be out here. She hesitated long enough that she knew that she needed to say something, so she crossed her arms.
“Hello.”
***
Leia understood how hard it was, it was the same for Poe, he excelled as a pilot and nothing made him happier than being among the stars. Leia tried to help as much as she could but it was difficult to understand this world and how far behind it was technologically wise. Having the stars so far out of reach was an impossibility she had never expected.
“Hello” Leia said when the woman stopped near her, “Did my presence interrupt your run?” she asked, “I apologise if so” She knew it must be somewhat strange to see an older woman with a walking stick sitting on a bench in the dark but Leia had never been one to be worried too much about what others thought.
***
“I just didn’t expect to find anyone out here this late,” she said. The especially an old woman part went unspoken. She decided to take a minute, though, and catch her breath.
“I used to like looking at the stars,” she said. “But I don’t recognize any of them here. That’s a bit…” She shrugged. “Weird.” Anxiety inducing might have been a better way to put it, but she wasn’t going to make herself look weak.
“I’m Gamora.”
*** Leia nodded, “Well it seems relatively safe here and I’m not completely helpless” she added with a grin, knowing what Gamora was thinking.
“It was strange at first but now I’m learning these ones, trying to get used to them. It’s strange being on a planet that hasn’t ever been up there, I can’t quite understand that” she admitted.
“I’m Leia, it’s nice to meet you”
***
Gamora wasn’t so sure of that, but she’d let it go. For now. It wasn’t like there was a lot of crime in Madison Valley, anyway. With all the superheroes around it would be over before it started.
“My planet isn’t up there either,” she said. “Or at least, I don’t think it is. All the science of this place confuses me.”
She wasn’t stupid, but things like this were really complicated, and she didn’t really care enough to learn it all.
***
Leia was used to being underestimated, it had happened in most areas of her life but she didn’t get to be a General in name only. She could handle herself.
“I know what you mean” Leia said, “They’re still trying to work out things here that I take for granted where I’m from. Things that seem simple there” There were many things Leia didn’t question or wonder how it worked that here hadn’t even been thought of yet.
***
“Exactly,” Gamora said. It was nice to have someone who understood. “This place just seems so...backward compared to where I’m from.”
And she couldn’t write it off to this place being in the future, because it really wasn’t. It was just behind the rest of the Galaxy in a myriad of different things.
*** “It does” Leia agreed, “The people are nice enough but they’re limited by the constraints of their situation” Most of them who came from this world didn’t seem to realise how much was out there.
There was so much wonder to be seen.
***
This conversation had been a nice one for Gamora, because Leia hadn’t asked her once why she was green. She was getting tired of that conversation, and it was a conversation that happened frequently here, in this backwater.
“I feel sorry for the people who think this is everything.”
Because not only was there so much more, but this was so little.
***
It never even occurred to Leia to ask, it simply wasn’t that unusual from her perspective. Leia had grown up around a multitude of species of varying colors as well as various additional limbs or such like. Gamora rather made Leia feel more at home here than most of the other people she had encountered.
“As do I” Leia nodded in agreement, ignorance may be bliss sometimes but having seen so much more Leia couldn’t help feeling sadness for such undiscovered promise.
***
“It is peaceful, though,” she said, her shoulders falling a little. Back home was far more interesting, but here...well, she hadn’t had to worry for her life since she’d arrived here. Sure, the place did strange things to them on a regular basis but...well...strange was better than the things she’d faced back home.
“I’m not used to peaceful.”
And she wasn’t for certain than she liked it.
***
“I can understand that, I’m part of a resistance movement so this kind of quiet isn’t what I’m used to either” Leia appreciated the break but part of her knew that she did thrive on having such a purpose. She would try to make the most of it though, and she did enjoy seeing Poe thrive. As well as getting to know her parents, that was an opportunity she couldn’t ever have imagined.
***
“Well, my team and I have saved the Galaxy a couple of times,” she said, “But we really don’t have any higher purpose like that. We steal things a lot.” They tended to do good things more often than not, but it was almost like they fell into these things accidentally. They weren’t bad people, they just weren’t, well, typical heroes.
“I wish they were all here. Groot and Peter are, but if Drax and Rocket were here, I’d feel like I had my whole family.”
Because that was really what the team was. Her family.
*** “I think a little leeway could be given since you’ve saved the galaxy” Leia said with a smile, there were all kinds of heroes - she knew that much.
“Maybe they’ll arrive, people seem to come and go a lot” Leia offered, “I have family here but I never really knew them before so it’s all rather new” And of course meeting her parents while she was so much older than them was a whole other thing in itself.
***
“I hope so,” she said. Although the leeway was more likely to be needed by Rocket. Or Groot. Or even Peter. She was in it for other reasons. Well, sort of.
“You never knew your family?” That seemed sad to Gamora. Her family was gone, but the memories of them had kept her going all these years.
***
“Not my biological family. I had wonderful loving parents who adopted me when I was a baby” Leia explained, not wanting Gamora to feel sorry for her, “But my biological mother died when my twin brother and I were born and our father...well he wasn’t a good person so my brother and I were hidden and raised separately. But both my biological parents and brother are here now so it’s rather complicated” she gave a wry smile, their family would always be complicated she supposed.
***
“My parents died too. Both of them.” Gamora frowned at the memory she did her best to forget. “I was raised by the man who killed them.” Sometimes she wondered (and resented) the fact that he hadn’t killed her too. It didn’t seem fair. And there was nothing fun about being the last of your species.
“I can bet it is,” she said. “Family is always complicated.”
That was one thing she’d learned over the years, for better or for worse.
*** “I’m so sorry. That must have been incredibly difficult” More so than anybody could imagine, Leia’s heart went out to the woman. She couldn’t imagine having to live with someone who had caused so much pain, and for a child as well. It was awful. She gently lay a hand on her arm, “You are obviously a strong and resilient young woman”
***
Gamora started at the touch, then took a step back. She was doing better with her feelings since she’d joined Peter’s crew, but she still wasn’t completely comfortable with intimacy, not even from people she knew. She didn’t mean to be rude - she couldn’t help it.
“I suppose I am. If living for revenge makes you strong.”
Perhaps that wasn’t entirely true. There had been a time when it had been, but recently, her life seemed to have become more than just that.
*** Leia briefly held up her hand in an unspoken apology for making Gamora uncomfortable, she didn’t take it as rudeness and in all honestly it wasn’t something Leia usually did but she had been moved by the story.
“You’re living, that’s a start. Perhaps your path won’t always lead to revenge, things have a tendency to change sometimes”
***
“Maybe,” she said, frowning a little. She liked the woman, but this conversation was starting to get a bit too personal for her taste. Gamora liked to keep her emotions in check, she liked to keep things with people she barely knew on a purely casual level. This had the chance to go past that if she wasn’t careful.
“I should get home,” she said. Evie might want to talk to her, or Groot could be out of hand, or there were a thousand other things that she might have to do. Even if she didn’t know for sure about any of them yet.
***
“Of course. Thank you for stopping, it’s been nice meeting you” Leia said honestly with a smile. She could tell Gamora was becoming more uncomfortable and didn’t want that at all.
“Have a good night” she said with a nod before moving to stand herself and head back to her own home.