Entry tags:

!log/thread, gamora (mcu), peter quill / star-lord (mcu)

who peter & gamora
what tour!
where his room at casa avenger
when after her arrival/release
warnings GOTG2 spoilers? very PG otherwise!

A brand new universe, faces she didn’t know that knew her, and no space ship for light-years had Gamora feeling very much like a fish out of water. There was much to concern herself with here, a lack of a galaxy to properly defend and her eternally irate sister were just the tip of the iceberg. She knew nothing of Terra save for what Peter had spoken about, and she had listened keenly without ever expecting to experience the place firsthand.

She was lucky at least that she had arrived to familiarity rather than nothing at all.

With very little to be done about her circumstances, she had gladly complied with her fellow guardians and found a space to call her own. Being so grounded left Gamora feeling mildly detached, so much so that she had requested some time alone. She’d be along later to find the others. Worries of Thanos arriving or some other version of Ego cropping up unexpectedly plagued her thoughts.

Once she divested herself of them, however, she emerged in a brand new black dress (leather, of course), and made her way to Peter’s quarters. Being isolated for too long would have just worried him, that was the only reason she went to see him first. Clearly. Easily finding her way around the mansion, she knocked on his door after a cautionary glance for a sock on the handle (such an odd warning of questionable activities behind closed doors).

“Peter,” she called through the door. “I am hungry. Take me to the mick donals restaurant that Rocket suggested.”

Peter was obliging Gamora's request and giving her time to decompress. While he had busied himself with the excitement of his homeworld (music! food! television!), the truth was, that when he'd finally hit points of quiet; he'd needed the time to decompress himself. His mind had been fixated on those last few moments with Yondu prior to his arrival and the realization he had both in those fleeting seconds and upon his first few discussions on Earth.

Yondu didn't make it. There was no miraculous last minute rescue of them both. Yondu was gone and he'd died to give Peter more time. And Peter hadn't fully grasped how much he wanted the man around until it had all come crashing down. He'd thought he'd be able to have everything with Ego and he was wrong. He'd had it already, with Yondu, and now there was no getting it back.

Still, Peter hadn't wallowed. It was only during his quiet moments, when alone for the night, that he thought on all of this and mourned the Father he hadn't appreciated properly all those years. During the rest of the day, even if alone, he was keeping himself busy. And so, with Gamora wishing to be alone, he'd gone off to his new room and found a way to keep himself occupied.

It hadn't taken Peter long to turn the room into his own. In many ways, he was like a child being given a credit card and no supervision. He was digesting long yearned for delicacies (twinkies, happy meals, mountain dew) and purchasing trinkets he'd either once had or always wanted. Now? He had a television with a proper Nintendo hooked up to it as well as a Raspberry Pi. He'd been on Earth long enough now to be introduced to the internet, understand it wasn't much different conceptually from the technology he'd already been using, and utilize it to find ways to get the things he wanted. With the Raspberry Pi, it was easy. He wasn't a tech savvy as Rocket but he knew how to download information and solder down components. It wasn't like he was trying to make a bomb or anything. Just a video deck. And now? He had games that went well past his base of knowledge and he didn't have to pay for them.

Earth had certainly improved with time.

"Huh?" He called out from his spot on the edge of the bed, where he was holding a controller and had headphones in both ears. Hitting pause and yanking the cord away from him, he stood and headed for the door. He yanked it opened and half leaned against it. "Gamora, hey!" He said, grinning before tilting his head. "What was it you said?" He asked, shifting some to open the door fully for her to enter if she liked.

Leave it to Peter to have a whole setup to himself that suited him fully. She couldn’t see much, but what she did see made her smile automatically. Stony though she might be, a soft spot for him had emerged that she had yet to altogether shake. It didn’t help that a part of her had momentarily been genuinely afraid she’d been separated from all of them, especially given what they’d been through.

Placing her hands upon her hips as soon as she realized she was displaying a semblance of fondness for him, she reverted back to the usual exasperated indifference reserved just for Peter. Gamora didn’t mind repeating herself, but she could put on a show of being perturbed by it just for the sake of wiping that grin off his face.

“I said, I am hungry,” she huffed, then crossed the threshold if only to have a better look at his room. Her nose wrinkled in mild disdain. “How long have you been here, Peter? This room is just as filthy as your ship.”

"Oh!" He exclaimed and gave a nod of his head. Right. And, clearly, if she was coming to see him, she wasn't really wanting to shop around in the kitchen of the Avenger's house. He shifted, moving from the door towards the television. Quickly scooping up the control, he pressed a few buttons, quickly saving his place in the game.

"Two weeks," he replied back to Gamora, as he moved to shut off the console and the television. "Most of this took a few days to get here. Ordering has certainly gotten faster here since I was kid. Used to take 4 to 6 weeks. Now? Days!" He told her, still grinning, before smirking some at the other comment.

Crossing his arms over his chest. "It ain't that bad," he retorted, per usual, before looking around. "Got a lot of work to do, though. You like it?"

It had plenty of similar artifacts as his ship once had. Already he'd located a couple vintage Troll dolls and an Alf stuffed animal to sit atop the dresser. The back of the door had a poster of Farrah Fawcett. And by the bedside lamp now sat every single current Mario Happy Meal Toy, along with a plastic McDonald's cup he'd been drinking from. But, while the elements of his childhood had been ushered back, the rest was rather simplistic. He had a proper bed spread and curtains. He hadn't made the walls too cluttered. And laundry was at least, for now, in the hamper by the corner.

Surveying the room properly this time, Gamora did her best to restrain her amusement over his excitement. He must have been dying to see her, and not just because she was vaguely aware of Mantis’ words regarding his feelings. They were a team. Knowing not only he was there, but also Rocket and Groot had appeared, her own troubled sister even, came as a much needed touchstone.

Despite that, she did not display any more emotion than absolutely necessary. Folding her arms over her chest, she shifted her weight and gave a curt nod in agreement. It really wasn’t as bad as his ship, but she had a feeling that had more to do with living with these Avengers.

And he hadn’t been there long enough to acquire the same smell of being a bachelor on the loose.

Once she spotted the Troll, however, Gamora’s expression softened altogether. She moved quietly toward it, fingers reaching out gingerly to touch it. What must it be like for him to be back on Terra after so long away? He sounded excited, but she wondered if there hadn’t been a hint of melancholy in the way he projected it. Peter was a man of bravado just as she was a woman of serpentine ice. So, she decided to drop the act for a moment, if only because they were alone.

“I do,” she responded, then turned to actually smile at him. “At least, I like the way you see Terra, Earth. Will you show me more of it?”

Still standing in the same position, he allowed his eyes to follow her movements around the room, and for a brief moment his expression faltered as she reached out for the doll. In that moment, his mind flashed to Yondu clutching the doll's identical twin, as a much younger version of himself had gazed on. Quickly, he pushed that memory away and let his expression return to the one that had been on display moments prior.

His smile softened into a genuine one of appreciation when she replied to his inquiry. He wanted Gamora to like his world, even if he wasn't necessarily thrilled about the reasons they had been brought here. There was no point of focusing on that though. It was better to just enjoy what he could about the situation and being able to show her all the things that had been treasured memories was something he looked forward to.

"I'll show you anywhere you like," he told her in earnest. If Gamora wanted to travel, he'd just ask when she wanted to leave. And summon Rocket and Groot to accompany them. Peter had it firmly in his mind that he'd not leave either of their team members out of the large adventures. They'd been separated from the others for longer than Peter liked, so he wasn't planning to willingly add more time and distance.

"And we can start with Earth delicacies."

There was always going to be that slip in between that which couldn’t be said between them. She had taken notice of it more lately, but ultimately refused to do anything to address it. He tried from time to time, didn’t he? Gamora carried that half-smile in his direction, if only because no one else they knew appeared to be present.

Unspoken or not, Gamora knew it hardly to be a secret that Peter at least fancied her. Even Drax knew that now thanks to their newest friend, Mantis. She ignored it all the same, largely for the sake of Peter, and would continue to do so until the time seemed right to otherwise address it. So much had happened in that short span of time between meeting Ego and having to destroy him to save the galaxy.

At the suggestion of showing her anywhere, Gamora’s eyes lit up suddenly. “Ah, can we go see Kevin Bacon?” But then her stomach rumbled. She touched a hand to it as though to stifle the sound and decided to forgo that suggestion in favor of her original plan.

“After we have eaten. What should I try first?”


Glancing to her with a look of surprise at the mention, his expression soon shifted into one of relative excitement and happiness from the fact that she'd remembered Kevin Bacon still. But then he shook his head, with an amused twinkle in his eye, "I wish. Sadly, he's a bit too famous to try to arrange a meeting with. We'd get shot down," he explained.

He then noticed her hand movement. "We should go eat. Did you really want McDonalds? I can take you somewhere fancier, you know," he suggested, though he wasn't exactly sure what counted as fancy here. It wasn't like he'd fully grown up here to learn that. Was Chili's fancy? He wasn't sure.

“Too famous?” Gamora shook her head, only mildly disappointed. Perhaps they could find a way to meet the man he’d spoken of once upon a time, but she wouldn’t hang any useless hopes on it. The important thing was to cling to the present and what was in their immediate vicinity. They weren’t all there, but they’d come damn close.

“That’s fine,” she conceded with a shrug. “There is much to be seen here in the meanwhile.”

As for eating, Gamora moved back to Peter with hands on her hips. “I have no preference for dining,” she responded. “As I do not know what Terrans have that would appeal to me, but I will trust your judgment… Just this once. So, lead the way, Peter.” Like always.