#12 days of starmora

[the-ravenclaw-werewolf]

Hey, I just wanted to ask, have you seen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? Or not yet?

When you do, can you answer these questions here?

Beware, because spoilers here.

1. How do the characters react to Rocket's backstory? How do they react when he's injured at the start very much? Does someone suspect there being a reactor in his chest could mean someone did something horrible to Rocket in the past before? Could Emma maybe even relate to him there when the High Ev. Reveals that they were never emant for Counter Earth, like how her family was never getting adopted? How does she react to him being having numbers (89P13) on him like her?

2. How do they react to Starmora's relationship?

3. How do they like Drax and Mantis funny relationship?

3. What's their reaction to the High Ev?

4. How do they fair well to Rocket's friends last screen time?

5. How they fair with seeing Rocket's almost demise as Peter refuses to give up on him yet?

6. How do they process the children in the High Ev's ship to be colonized?

7. How do they process the planet the High Ev. laid to waste?

8. How would they react to the High Ev. Being defated finally?

9. How would they react to Rocket's not killing him in after all he did to him when he could have?

10. How would they react to Rocket's scene with the baby raccoons?

11. How would they react to Peter almost dying?

12. How do they react to the finale where everyone decided to go different ways after?

13. How do they react Drax accidentally hurting a child with a fast ball to her face?

14. How do they react to Pete coming back to Earth and meeting his Granpda gain after years of being of not knowing if the other was even alive?

15. How they react to Cosmo and her Bag Dog Problem?

16. How do they react to Nebula's growth in this movie? To her tears after Rocket wakes up because he was the one person who was with her when they both weren't bliped out?

17. How do they react to the finally where Gomora goes home to the Ravegers in the finale?

18. How do they react to everyone dancing to "Dog Days Are Over", finally being able to just celebrate being able to just have fun after the hurricane has passed? How do they react to Rocket going from a primal scream of anguish from what the High Ev. Did to his friends to a primal whoop of delight after everything he's been through?

You can answer there whenever! Don't stress if you haven't seen the movie! Just take you your time! Take care.

Sorry for the late reply, here you go!

They would find Rocket's backstory tragic and horrific, seeing how some animals are also treated cruelly in their worlds. The more observant of the 40 would notice the reactor and put the pieces together. But Emma would definitely feel more sympathetic to Rocket since they both were given false promises only for them to be smashed to pieces.

(Assuming they watched the other movies of the MCU), they would have a slight understanding that Peter was grieving and was trying to cope with it. But they also understand that this Gamora was not the one that the GOTG had grown up with, so it shouldn't be her responsibility to try to fill the position the old Gamora left behind. So they're glad to see that Peter and Gamora reconcile, with Peter having come to terms with his Gamora is really gone and that no one can replace her, and with Gamora seeing value in both Peter and the team, but doesn’t give up her autonomy for him.

They would find it really cute and sweet of how they both offer emotional support and they play off each other so well.

Like Peter, they would find him as the typical tyrant that is full of bulls*** and would personally love to punch him in the face for his actions, especially the animal lovers of the 40.

Most of the 40 would cry hard, especially those who have loved ones on the other side just like Rocket. And the line, “Can I come?” would be a punch to the gut for all of them.

Most of them would feel Peter’s pain in his fight to bring Rocket back, some of them wishing that they were able to save their own loved ones.

Would proceed to hate the High Ev. more, and I can see Ciel and Emma definitely being the most horrified.

Now they would want him dead by the next act.

Big cheers. Genuinely, as even the stoic members can’t hide their joy. 

Some would be mad that he didn’t while others would see this as a moment of triumph that Rocket didn’t have to stoop to his level to beat him.

They would start tearing up, as seeing from being compared that the babies were cowering away from the High Ev.’s hand vs the babies basically crawling on top on Rocket, and when he carries them all, but stares at the other animals who were also trapped, seeing the plight in his eyes of wanting to save all the animals.

Very worried but then relieved that he came out okay.

Would feel bittersweet about it but they are ultimately happy that they all get a happy ending.

Most would wince, while a few would have the guts to laugh.

Find the moment very sweet and happy that the two finally reunited.

“GET BACK HERE AND TAKE IT BACK!” -The dog lovers of the 40.

Are proud of the growth she was able to achieve and that she is become more open with emotions.

Very happy for her.

Glad that everyone in their own way got their happy ending and are taking the next step into their lives.

[saintknightley]

12 + 23 :?

12. The unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

I have no idea who is unpopular or not really but I do like a lot of characters with like 10 appearances *spins wheel*. I really like Sui-San it's kind of sad how little appearances she has and how a lot are... with bad retcons I don't like... but with the issues I do like and how she exists in my mind she is everything to me. Sui-San is Thanos & Eros's mother and her backstory is that she was one of the Eternals that went with Uranos and then eventually settled on Titan, and then something happens and she is the only survivor and A'Lars (Mentor) goes to Titan and they form Titan together as it is now. It's interesting to me to think about who she was before this and what she would be doing if it didn't all blow up... hmmm. ALSO (completely ignoring retcons here I don't care) I think her relationship with Thanos is so interesting and good... I like how it's portrayed as she really loved and cared for him but didn't know the best way to approach some of his differences. I like how Thanos says she regrets her death (in the explosion of Titan he did) because she was the "only one who might one day forgive him" I'm chewing on that so much. Just like the potential for stories about how Sui-San was struggling between her love for her son, and her and her husbands vision of Titan as an Eden with no strife... The family dynamics unraveling as Mentor and Thanos fight more etc etc. what could have been really.

I think I lost the point of the question somewhere in here.

23. ship you’ve unwillingly come around to

I still don't really... like it... but I'm somewhat coming around to 616!starmora because I like riderquillmora so much LOL. I do think it works better with the three of them but like if more writers actually cared about establishing the dynamic between the two of them I think it would work in theory! I just hate how they were like haha you've seen the movie right.

[themculibrary]

Hot Chocolate Masterlist

6 times starmora drank hot chocolate (ao3) - Z0ESC4PSHAW gamora/peter N/R, 5k

Summary: Different scenarios in which the guardians (mainly starmora) drink hot chocolate.

A Little Problem (ao3) - BuckyWithTheGoodHair86 G, 65k

Summary: Life in Avengers Tower changes one day when a mission goes sideways and the team comes home with a nine-year-old Steve Rogers instead of their resident super-soldier. Until this gets fixed, they're going to have to make some adjustments, but Sam can dust off his old Lego skills, Natasha tells a decent bedtime story, and Bucky has a soft, cuddly paternal side that nobody really saw coming. And Tony is going to catch the warm fuzzy feelings whether he wants to or not. Because little Steve is awfully cute.

Finder’s Keepers (ao3) - Bishmonster darcy/tony T, 2k

Summary: Darcy and Tony’s first Christmas as a married couple brings about a few surprises

First Snow Day (ao3) - Moonscar steve/bucky N/R, 1k

Summary: Spider-Man: GUYS GUYS OMG IT'S SNOWING OUTSIDE LOOK-

PopTartLover: What is this snow?

IronPopTartMan: It's a sign that Mother-nature despises us and wants revenge for what we've done to her planet

In The Meantime (ao3) - argallel G, 22k

Summary: The human brain is fickle. Once damaged, it's never the same. Everything changes.

Or...

Fitz didn't go from being barely alive in a coma to walking and -mostly- talking. There were months in between where the whole team rallied around him as he tried to get back to some state resembling normal.

I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm (ao3) - mozzysticks (mbbmdymm) sam/bucky M, 3k

Summary: After Bucky convinces Sam on a pre-Christmas Cabin getaway to Wisconsin, love ensues.

Like A Drum (Baby Don't Stop Beatin') (ao3) - starlight_starbright steve/bucky E, 12k

Summary: Bucky returns to find something very wrong with Steve. Hurt/comfort, Natasha makes hot chocolate, cuddles with fuzzy blankets, deep conversations, tears, and love.

One of These Days (ao3) - xxx_cat_xxx T, 3k

Summary: Peter stops only when the pain gets so bad that he can’t breathe anymore. Then he stumbles into the entryway of a house in a shady neighbourhood, presses himself into a corner and wraps his arms around his knees. It’s cold, and for a moment he longs for the suit’s integrated heater before remembering that these days are over now.

---

Tony gets injured and a guilt-ridden Peter runs away. Luckily, there´s people looking after both of them.

Secret Sugarplum Spiderling (ao3) - happyaspie G, 27k

Summary: Peter has been taking ballet for nearly as long as he can remember and all of his hard work has finally paid off. He's been cast as the Cavelier to the Sugarplum Fairy in his Performing Arts School's production of The Nutcracker. It's a big deal and it's going to take up a good bit of time but... he's just not sure he's ready for his mentor to know about that particular hobby just yet.

All he has to do is show up at the studio on time, keep his grades up, make sure to see Tony on a regular enough basis that he doesn't worry and try to squeeze in some patrolling in between. It's that simple. Right?

should be a dream but I’m not sleepy (ao3) - seventymilestobabylon steve/tony M, 4k

Summary: Steve and Tony get hit with a telepathy spell and a magical blizzard, and they have to take shelter in a cabin with fresh milk but no working electricity. Even when they can sort of read each other’s minds, they are still terrible at communicating.

The 12 Hugs of Christmas (ao3) - notapartytrick mj/peter, steve/bucky T, 46k

Summary: Peter Parker endures a lot more than he gives himself credit for, the extent of which Tony Stark is only beginning to see as he grows inexorably closer to his dedicated "intern." Oh, and Christmas is coming up too.

The Definition of Anything (ao3) - happyaspie G, 3k

Summary: The heater in Peter's apartment goes out on the coldest day of the year and the landlord seemed to be overrun with maintenance requests. Calling Tony to help him out seemed like the next logical solution. After all, he had told him many, many times that he should call him if he ever needed anything.  The man had never really specified what 'anything' meant but he figured that by definition, 'I'm cold and you know how to fix things.', fell into that category. Right?

The Rain'll Be Gone in the Morning (ao3) - hesterbyrde darcy/loki E, 26k

Summary: "Do you like marshmallows in your hot chocolate?" She asked after she'd spent a few moments stirring the pot on the stove.

"Marshmallows?" Loki inquired.

"Yeah, I guess they're candy? But they're fluffy and chewy and-"

"I know what a marshmallow is." Loki cut her off. "It's just… It's a strange thing to worry about given the circumstances."

"Circumstances?" She chewed on the word. "You mean the Snap? Everyone going poof?"

He merely nodded in response.

Darcy sighed."Look. I know it's been like… zero time for you, but it's been a couple of weeks for me and everyone else. The first three days I spent in a continual depression nap which I was able to shake myself out of only when I was given something to do, which was what you found me doing up on the roof. And that's just been the MO for me and most of the people around here since then. I focus on little things because if I focus on big things I'm going to unravel like a cheap Christmas sweater. And I can't do anything about the big stuff anyway. But I can help look for people who can do something about the big stuff. And I can give you marshmallows in your hot chocolate. That is, if you want marshmallows in your hot chocolate."

The Waffle-Coffee Embargo (ao3) - melonbutterfly loki/tony T, 4k

Summary: This is how the Avengers learn that a man should not mess with another man's favourite kitchen appliance.

Two roads diverged (ao3) - RurouniHime steve/tony, clint/laura, clint/phil T, 1k

Summary: In which there is a farm, a porch at night, and two kinds of grief.

Winter Comfort (ao3) - greenbergsays steve/bucky T, 2k

Summary: Also known as the fic where Bucky Barnes uses arts & crafts as a recovery tool and ends up teaching himself how to knit. Much to Steve's surprise.

[gamoraspeter]

12 Days of Starmora

Day 5: Favorite Scene 

[fuckyeahstarmora]

12 Days of Starmora

Day 12 - Family

[interabangs]

12 Days of Starmora - Fic Recs

Hello, everyone! I was super stoked about the lovely 12 Days of Starmora, which starmoraquills and gamoraspeter did such an amazing job organizing (THANK YOU!) and I was floored at the content that you all worked hard to create! I loved each and every fanwork, and wanted to share my absolute favorites (apologies for the lack of gif headers, I’m not nearly as talented as gamoraspeter):

+ and now it seems my only chance is giving up the fight by philthestone Gamora takes a moment to just be with Peter, after a mission. Soft and sweet, with beautifully written descriptions. It’s a sobering, subtle, and intense look at how their job takes a toll on them. Excellent showcasing of the depth of Gamora’s feelings for Peter. I love how tactile and quiet this is!

+ be my fire in the cold by Pikapegasus Peter and Nebula’s bond grows following a harrowing experience, when he jumps into a freezing lake after Gamora. Lots of Peter&Nebula BROTP feels - it’s a very realistic take on their evolving friendship - and super sweet Starmora cuddling ❤

+ I only remember the sweetest of things by enigma731 + invisibledaemon Gamora and Peter take a moment to breathe and talk about his family. I love how realistic this is, in delving into the challenges Meredith and Peter faced while he was growing up. And Gamora is awesome and supportive, and this made my heart melt!

+ i reach for you and you bring me home by archetypically Post-IW fic in which Peter gets his act together and proposes to Gamora. Peter’s voice is SO on point <3 It’s just so in character to me how he builds it up in his head, then blurts it out, and Gamora wouldn’t have him any other way! Such a lovely read.

+ Lifeboat by Peril_in_Peace Gamora and Peter become stranded in the Milano after she’s breached, and they resort to desperate measures as they wait for help. This is absolutely phenomenal: the intensity, the descriptions of the ship and has one of my favorite mental images ever: Peter and Gamora sharing a spacesuit. LOVE.

+ Lights/Fireworks by EmilliaGryphon While Peter and Gamora shop together, he tells her about Hanukkah. I’ll never get tired of fic in which Peter tells Gamora stories, and this is a prime example <3 It’s awesome to gain new insight about traditions, and this does a great job of that, with bonus Starmora sweetness!

+ No Matter How Far Away You Roam by enigma731 While visiting Grandpa Quill, Peter sets up Christmas lights and shows them to Gamora. I absolutely love this, it’s incredibly endearing and such an awesome way of showing how much Peter cares for Gamora, and how he introduces her to new things. Beautiful descriptions!

+ Secret Santa by invisibledaemon Peter and Gamora don’t draw each other’s names, but they get each other presents anyway. This is such an adorable, creative take on Secret Santa, and their gifts are SO fitting for each other. I melted into a puddle of goo when I read what Gamora got Peter ❤

+ Spark My Memory by Wawa_Girl The gang surprises Peter by gifting him a photo album. I love this! All the characters’ voices are on point, and it’s such a touching, heartwarming read. Also, Gamora and Peter are super sweet and in tune with each other. I was constantly going ‘aww’ as I read this.

+ Yondu Claus by dan_vs92 Peter shows Gamora letters he wrote to Santa when he was a child. I won’t spoil anything, but it turns out to be both heartbreaking and heartwarming, and I get such a natural, easygoing vibe between the happy couple. I really love the ending. This is so well-written and sweet <3 Also, shoutouts to fuckyeahstarmora, grootunofficial, and tankhera for sharing gifsets, manips, and a cosplay, respectively! There were so many wonderful works - thank you to everyone. You all rock!  ❤

[whoop-whoop-grocket-blog]

I wanted to join in on 12 Days of Starmora, so here's a drawing. Day 7 - Snow (its not that good...sorry)

[starmoraquills]

Hey guys! Michelle and I would like to invite you all to join 12 Days of Starmora, where each day we'll have a prompt for you to create anything -- fics, gifs, edits, art, etc. You guys can fill these prompts with: fluff, AUs, hurt/comfort, angst, nsfw (must be 18+ only to participate with nsfw content), or whatever you can come up with so long as they stick to the theme of the prompt and keep it Starmora centric. These prompts will start December 5th and end on December 16th. @gamoraspeter and I will be tracking the tag #12 Days of Starmora (and feel free to tag us as well!), and will try to reblog and support as much content as we can.

The holidays are a fun, romantic season. All kinds of shenanigans are surely to ensue with someone as nostalgia-filled and childlike Peter is -- and Gamora may enjoy the ride! We hope you guys have fun with these prompts:

1st Day: Tradition

2nd Day: Warmth

3rd Day: Gifts

4th Day: Lights/fireworks

5th Day: Favorite scene

6th Day: Dancing

7th Day: Snow

8th Day: Mistletoe

9th Day: Decorations

10th Day: Music

11th Day: Childhood/memories

12th Day: Family

And thank you for joining!

[perilinpeace]

Defining Us, Part I

12 Days of Starmora Day 1: “Tradition” 

This story is part 5 of my series at https://archiveofourown.org/series/776979. 

Defining Us, Part I

Rating: T (very mild language)

Word Count: 2912

The only “label” that ever really meant anything to Gamora was the word “family.” The things that went along with it… home… love… belonging. Those who made a family real and not some forced, manipulative thing like Thanos had--

Her family had once been her parents. Her Mother and Father. She knew there were others. Her brain told her that… some small thread in her heart told her that, but she didn’t remember. She tried, thought she owed them that. To remember. But had to admit, she couldn’t… Even her mother and father’s faces had smudged and faded, the sounds of their voices so distant, that she couldn’t tell between what she really remembered and what she made up for the sake of feeling like she did.

Her family was Nebula. Her one real constant for so long... the anchor in the swirling storm of misery and pain and grief and rage between lifetimes. And learning with her, how to really be a sister, since.

Her family was Drax, who laughed a little too often, but sometimes still surprised her with the depth and wisdom of his words; and Rocket, whose nods and darkened eyes beneath biting wit spoke of a shared understanding every time he fixed a misbehaving mod of hers or she one of his; and Groot, who still looked up to her (figuratively) when she tried to teach him something, even though he pretended not to.

It was Mantis, who delighted in being helpful to those she loved, because she wanted to and because she loved them; and Kraglin, who always seemed to be in the right place at the right time, quietly looking out for Peter all while giving him shit because that’s what brothers do. And it was even an old dead Centaurian Ravager whose little trinkets still littered the bridge and occasionally surfaced in the engine room.

Her family was Peter, whose mere presence slowed her heart and cut her strings and eased her nightmares away.

So when Peter’s grandfather asked Gamora one night, on the long haul back to Earth from Xandarian space, if she was Peter’s wife… she was unsure how to respond.

It was a term she had simply not considered.

Of course, she was… familiar with the concept. Marriage was ubiquitous throughout the galaxy, a legal and sometimes religious rite on the vast majority of worlds.

But they were spacers. With no real allegiance or citizenship, for that matter, to any established governing body to even oversee such a thing. None of them had any religious affiliation to demand a formal union. (Notwithstanding Peter’s harried invocations to the “Jesus” from his Spirit in the Sky song in times of crisis or frustration--which, she had learned quickly, his grandfather similarly made… perhaps it was a family thing?)

Drax had Hovat, of course. He’d told them of the cultural significance of the traditional family unit on his homeworld. Marriage and procreation were practically an expectation of his people.

Gamora thought her own parents were married. It was hard to remember, but they had all lived together, she knew… they had been happy. Before. She had a very vague, hazy, snapshot of a memory of her mother presenting her father with a gift to commemorate some kind of milestone in their relationship…

“Gamora?” Pops asked gently, pulling her out of her own head. She looked up, squinting at him.

“Hmm?”

“You okay, kiddo?”

She nodded quickly and got up from the too-deep chair she’d sunk into and made her way toward the door of the common room, half forgetting that they’d been in the middle of a conversation.

“Take that as a no…” she heard him mumble after her.   

__________________

“Are you… satisfied with our… arrangement?”

Peter stopped just shy of shorting out the new control panel for the repulsor array and flipped up his goggles.

“Huh?”

“Us.” Gamora continued, her face a little crossed between frustrated and confused. “What we… have… our… I don’t know, status.” Peter could practically hear the air quotes around the word. “Are you happy with the way things are?”

He sat back on the wing of the Milano and dangled his legs, fiddling with the arc spanner as he looked down at her, then around the hangar, as if Rocket or Groot were going to jump out to take a picture of the look on his face. Where the hell was this coming from?

“Where the hell is this coming from?” he asked incredulously.

She rolled her eyes. “Can you just tell me?”

Peter resisted rolling his eyes too, but didn’t manage to hold back an uncomfortable shrug.

“I-- well, yeah… Wait--no? Is this a trick question?”

Gamora groaned and threw her hands up, turning on her heel and stalking away. He clearly heard her grumbling about his being of no help at all.

“Wait! What’d I--” he made to slide down to go after her, before realizing that Drax was inconveniently below him, ready to pass up the power meter he’d asked for moments ago.

“Imbecile,” Drax stated, shaking his head. Peter did roll his eyes at that, waving Drax out of the way.

“Asshole,” he bit back, landing hard with both feet on the deck. He pointed at the ship and glared at Drax. “Don’t touch anything.” Drax opened his stance and held up his hands innocently.

Satisfied, Peter jogged after Gamora, slipping through the blast door and into the corridor just as it was closing behind her.

“Gamora! What the hell… can you stop, please?” he huffed. She paused a few paces ahead of him and turned around. He held up a hand at her in thanks as he leaned up against the wall and caught his breath. “You just… ask me a loaded question like that out of nowhere, and expect me to… what… quote Shakespeare?”

“I…” Gamora had the grace to look a little guilty, her arms uncrossing a little and her face softening. “What?” Her forehead creased back up as she registered a reference that she didn’t know.

Peter waved his hand and shook his head, pushing off the bulkhead and stepping toward her. “Nevermind…”

“I’m sorry, you’re right, I…” she bit her lip and looked everywhere but at him. He wanted to hold her, but she had gone from having her arms standoffishly folded over her front, to awkwardly held around her, sort of hugging herself.

Whatever this was, it was actually either really bugging her or really important to her.

Peter studied her face, her stance, the way she clenched her fingers around her own arms. He took a deep breath and leaned back on the wall.

“Okay… ask me again. I want to make sure I really understand the question.”

She quirked an eyebrow, then visibly relaxed. “Are you… happy with the way things are… between us… as… partners?”

Peter frowned and watched her watch him for a second, before swallowing hard and staring at his boots. “Honestly? Right now, I kinda feel like if you even have to ask a question like that after all this time, I’m doing something wrong.”

He looked back up at her, to see her arms dropped at her side and her face drooping and contorted. She hadn’t meant it like that. Peter sighed.

“If you’re asking if I’m happy with you, that’s a dumb question. You know that,” he said softly. Gamora stepped toward him and leaned against the bulkhead beside him. She curled her fingers between his as they slid down the wall to sit on the floor.

“I love you so much,” Peter whispered into her hair. He could feel her smile and relax a bit against him. “Of course… of course I’m… you’re my world. You and our whole… messed up crazy awesome family... There’s no place I’d rather be than with you.”

He paused, thought for a moment, then hesitantly asked, “Are you? You know…? The same?”

“Yes.” And really, it was all Gamora needed to say. She squeezed his hand, though, and he smiled slightly.

“Then why did you--”

She shook her head. “It’s silly.”

He eyed her. “Probably not, knowing you.”

Gamora ran her thumb over his knuckles. “I… was talking with your grandfather. Relationships came up… he asked about my family, my parents, Nebula… told me a bit about his family--yours--back on Earth… your mother and grandmother… and then… he asked me if we were married...”

The oohhhh formed on Peter’s lips almost involuntarily.

“...I hadn’t actually thought about it before,” she continued. “But once he said it, I--”

“Started thinking about it?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Gamora nodded.  

Peter’s eyes narrowed.

“So, wait… was all that, like… a proposal, or something?”

“A what?”

“Are you asking me to marry you?” He enunciated each word carefully and distinctly, like a statement of fact instead of a question.

Gamora’s face scrunched up like she’d just sucked on a lemon. Peter couldn’t help but sit back and grin.

“Yes?” she answered after a moment. Peter quirked an eyebrow and smirked.

“Was that a question or an answer?”

Gamora groaned and let her head fall back against the bulkhead. “This is foolish.”

Peter thought for a moment, then nudged her shoulder, trying to steal her attention away from the ceiling.

“Is it?”

______________________

It wasn’t that Peter had never thought about it before.

But honestly, it was much more when he was a kid.

He very, very fuzzily remembered attending exactly one wedding in his entire life. Back on earth, when he was maybe five or six… a friend of his mom’s, one of the few other single mothers in town. He’d played with her son a lot, but didn’t remember his name. Their moms took turns watching each other’s kids while they were at work.

He remembered sitting on a hard wooden pew in the church where he had to go to Sunday school on Christmas and Easter. But all he could see was the backs of people’s heads. He’d pretty much gotten through the ceremony by squirming and when his mother shushed and glared, he got on by making up stories about the scenes in the stained glass windows… and the weird strangers seated nearby.

For some reason, his most vivid memory of the boring church part was the terrible toupee on the guy sitting right in front of him. Probably only because when he pointed it out to his mom, she’d tried really hard not to laugh.

Peter remembered a bit more of the reception.

There was a good band and a dancefloor. And his mother took off her high heels and danced with him for what seemed like hours and hours.

The point was… after the wedding… they didn’t see those friends much anymore. The boy he’d played with… had a dad all of the sudden… and from Peter’s little kid point of view… his friend’s whole life had changed. They might have even moved away.

He was embarrassed, thinking back on it now… Peter had gone through this whole phase after that, of pathetically trying to set his mom up with any guy remotely in her age range that smiled at her as they passed. He wanted her to get married, so that he could have…

Peter shook his head. “God, are all kids morons, or was I just special?” he murmured, checking their heading one more time before kicking his feet up onto the console and unwrapping the earbuds from around the Zune.

He heard a distinctly Pops-like snort behind him.

“You don’t get to comment. Do you have any idea what you started?” Peter said without looking back.

“Yeah. Drax was real… animated in the retelling of the ‘hangar tift.” Peter twisted around and glared at his grandfather with the one eye that could peer over the back of his seat. Pops raised his hands in surrender. “Hey, I’m not the one draggin’ his feet, here.”

“Dragging my… we’ve been together for four years, man.”

“Exactly. What’s that song by that famous lady… Put a Ring on It?”

“Huh?”

“Lock it down, kid. You’re never gonna find another girl like her.”

“I’m not looking!”

“Then what’s taking so long?”

“Look… things just… don’t work that way out here. Maybe for regular people who never leave their homeworlds, have holidays and traditions and... who live regular lives and know that space is out there but never… we… Gamora doesn’t have a homeworld anymore and I coul-- wouldn’t… couldn’t… go back to mine. Things are different for people like us.”

“People like you,” Pops deadpanned. “You say that like you’re--”

“What? Not normal? We’re not, Pops.”

Peter quit fiddling with the earbud cord and dropped the Zune to his lap as Pops slowly walked up and stopped next to his seat, hands in his pockets and staring out the front viewports.

“What’s so wrong with that?” Pops said casually, shrugging. Peter’s eyes flicked up.

 “So, you’re scared of screwing it up, ‘cause it’s not something you’re used to. Your whole life has been getting used to new things.” Pops looked over at him. “Tell me you’re really opposed to it.”

Peter shook his head. “No, I’m not. We, uh… we talked about it.”

“And?”

“And… and…” Peter lowered his voice, dropping his feet from the console and leaning forward, elbows on his knees. “I think we kinda started to like the idea… and then I realized I had no clue what to do.”   

Pops took a deep breath and strolled over to the co-pilot’s station a couple meters away, dropping into it and mirroring Peter’s pose before looking over at his grandson, then back down at the deck.

“You know… I got no illusion here, that once we finish with this job, you’re not gonna swan back off and I may never see you again--”

“Pops--”

“No, don’t tell me it ain’t the truth. You’ve got a life out here, and no one’s expecting you to play house back on Earth. And you’ll say you’ll visit, and you’ll have every intention to… but weeks’ll turn into months, and then years, and... hate to break it to ya kid, but I’m damn old.”

Peter tried to find something to disagree with, but if he was honest… he sighed.

“So what, this is a guilt trip now? ‘Missed everything, so let me see you married off before I die’?”

“What? No--” Pops gritted his teeth and took a deep breath before continuing. “No,” he said firmly. “I’m saying that you missed everything. And maybe I was reading things wrong, but… something about being home did you some good. And if I’m not overstepping… it did Gamora some good too. Maybe you guys need a little normal, need to feel a little like you’re home, and now that you have one again, can spend some time there, you oughta make it count… maybe you’re not so different from those folks who have homes and traditions and holidays and shit… or you don’t have to be, anyway… ” Pops trailed off; losing steam, but having made his point.  

“We should get married on Earth,” Peter concluded quietly, absently twisting the earbud cord around his finger.

“That’s what I’m saying.”

Peter couldn’t help but consider the possibilities.

He thought about Gamora in a white dress, like in a movie. Rings. Music. Dancing with her on the green grass of Pops’ yard. Tying cans to the bumper of the Mustang… wasn’t that a thing?

He smiled a little to himself.

__________________________

“What do you think?”

Gamora secretly loved it when Peter got excited about something. The way his hands moved just a little bit more, and how his eyes got just that much more wide and expressive.

“I mean, it’s not like we have to do some crazy huge, like, Princess Di thing,” Peter waved his hand around, and she knew he was imagining something elaborate from his memories of Earth. “But… there are all kinds of little things… nice things.” He smiled at her, shifting so suddenly to a look of quiet sincerity that she almost felt compelled to cry.

“Meaningful,” he said, taking her hand. “Like rings. We give each other rings, and it’s all symbolic and sappy, but… you wear it, and everybody knows; ‘Hey, that guy’s married to her.’” Peter grinned and she shook her head, trying to hide a smile of her own.

“And you gotta stand up in front of everybody and do the vows part. That’s not so different from say, on Xandar or Shi’ar or anywhere else… but… here, you can bring up as much backup as you want.”

“Backup.” Gamora raised an incredulous eyebrow.

“Yeah, brothers, sisters, best friends, whoever… can stand up next to you through the whole thing.”

Gamora considered this. “I… like that. Making the others you care about part of your expression of commitment.”  

“And…” Peter continued. “We get to throw a party afterwards.”

“Naturally,” she teased.

“Hey, do you wanna do this right, or not?”

Gamora drew closer to him, brushing her hand down the side of Peter’s face and pulled him in for a slow, long kiss. She waited for him to weave his fingers into her hair at the top of her neck, then waited some more, digging her fingertips into his back.

She finally pulled away, with a whisper of a smile at the bleary, satisfied look on his face.

She secretly loved doing that to him.

“Yes.” She said. “Let’s do this right.”

A/N

Okay, so... I don’t know about ya’ll, but I worked 8 years in retail through high school and college, and even years later, I am still straight up scarred by the holidays. I have reached a point where I tolerate Christmas music (in moderation), but I still don’t see a day where I will ever again put up a tree or lights, and I truly abhor going anywhere near a mall in December.

So call me a stick in the mud, but my work with the prompts will be mostly holiday agnostic (holiday adjacent, at best... some of those prompts were hard to twist). But all about the Starmora (and isn’t that what really matters?).

Part I is “Tradition,” Part II will be “Dancing.”

[danvssomethingorother]

Yondu Claus

Summary: While cleaning out the Quadrant, Peter finds an old box of his old letters to Santa.

A03 

For the 12 Days of Stamora. I wanted to do something different and didn’t focus directly on the holiday but its there and Stamora is there too but its subtle.

—

Hoarding was a nasty habit and it usually carried from ravager to ravager, it was their own little tradition. Ravagers only became what they were after a hard life of nothing, so it was no surprise hoarding became a nasty habit and it was hard, so hard to break.

Kraglin and Peter had been banned from cleaning together on this mission to make the Quadrant more livable for the seven of them. The last time they had worked together they had deemed every item they found in the cargo that had already been caving in with the garbage from ravagers that were dead and unable to use them, necessary and vital for the ship. They had even managed to get more shit in the already over packed cargo by transferring all the junk deemed garbage by the other guardians down there. They had reasoned if it was all in one place, it was out of the way but the others were less willing to accept that. They had jobs to do, they would need the cargo area one day, the shit with no use needed to go.

Both of them had been assigned chaperones while they cleaned and neither were happy to be treated like children.

Peter considered he got lucky though, sitting on the floor with Gamora over seeing him as he dug through a crate that had once belonged to Yondu opposed to his older brother who likely had a gun inches from his head while he argued with Rocket about why he should be able to keep this box.

“I know I’m not making this easy,” he finally said facing Gamora taking his attention off the box for a moment, “But its just…hard.”

Gamora sighed and squatted down on the floor next to him and nodded placing her hand on his shoulder and squeezing it. She didn’t say anything and she didn’t need to, this was hard and they all knew it. Junking shit that belonged to dead people just didn’t feel right even if they had never personally known any of the ravagers that stashed their garbage in the third quadrant to keep anyone else from stealing their hoard.  

Looking at this garbage brought to mind his old home back on Earth and all his mother’s Earthly belongings. Her records, her tapes, that guitar she had tried to learn to play, that big basket of knitting supplies she inherited from her own mother, all long gone by now. All of it probably destroyed years ago, leaving nothing left of her on Earth. The only proof Peter would have to prove she was once here and had loved him had been destroyed by his own father, leaving nothing to remember her by. He took a large breath and Gamora helped steady him squeezing his shoulder tighter as he slid a crate close to him that had belonged to his adopted father.

He pulled a large, hole ridden sock that smelled like it was fresh off Yondu after he wore it for a month and groaned tossing it into the garbage pile. It was a little easier doing this without Kraglin at his side sliding rose colored glasses over his eyes painting a different picture of the past and convincing him they couldn’t get rid of that! It may look like garbage, but it has history.

Peter could tell you whatever history that nasty sock had and the equally as nasty underwear he pulled out after, he didn’t want to know and could just go without the smell.

Gamora smiled patting his arm and settling next to him to get a better view of the rest of the box with him.

“I know Yondu probably didn’t use half this shit after just tossing it in here neither did Tulk or Horuz or any of the other half a dozen men who hid their shit in here, but it still feels weird to have to get rid of their things. The things that proved they were here, that they were alive and lived on this ship longer then I have even been alive. Tossing the garbage should be easy but its not and I hope Rocket isn’t being too hard on Kraglin, he’s taking it way harder then I am.”  

“I think Rocket understands,” Gamora said simply touching the box silently asking permission to dig into it as well.

Peter nodded before speaking a little more of what was on his mind.

“I know. Rocket understands. Maybe even better then me….I wasn’t there for most of their deaths and caused Yondu’s.”

Gamora straightened and simply wrapped her arms around Peter’s waist and tilting her head firmly towards the box. Work through your pain, you will feel better soon and I love you that look told him firmly. Peter smiled, she understood what he needed.

“Ego killed Yondu and I will keep saying it till you believe it,” she said after a moment turning his head towards hers for a moment, “He killed your mother. You are no more at fault then I am. Being born is no more your fault then my own. We are what we are and we clean up the messes the monsters in our lives make.”

“First we clean out the garbage then we kill Thanos?” he asked smiling as her fingers gently swiped his tears back.

“Naturally, if you want to get more fame for killing another tyrant, you better get working on sorting that box.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he mock saluted tossing another crusted and aged sock into the garbage pile.

In truth, Peter didn’t really know who Yondu was in life, neither had ever attempted to get a deep meaningful understanding of the other. Going through this garbage he had hoped to get to know the people who helped define him through what they left behind but so far he found most of it was meaningless garbage they were just trying to hide from the other crew members. Nothing they needed, nothing they really wanted, but god damn did they not want to part with it.

Quill wasn’t ready to tell Gamora but when he was younger he spent a lot of time here in this quadrant surrounded by this junk feeling he meant as much. Not useful, not loved, not wanted but kept around just in case. The part of his brain that was trained to feel and think that also kept it open that his friends felt that way about him too and being down here surrounded by all this junk that they were slowly but surely tossing into the trash made those unwanted thoughts break into his conscious mind.

There is only so much use you can get out of a novelty Terran who’s vocabulary mainly consisted of out dated pop culture references before you got bored and discarded it after all.  

“Who is ‘Santa’?”

Peter jerked his head towards Gamora who had begun digging in the box again while he took a small reprieve into his own self-pity. He didn’t answer her right away, furrowing his brows and taking the old note book page that was folded into a make shift envelope, yellowing around the edges from age but his scratchy hand-written word was readable still even after all this time. He choked on his own laugh taken by such surprise seeing it. He always assumed these notes would be lost to time but no, Yondu had found each and every one he realized digging further into the box and finding more pages like the one in his hand.

“Fuck,” he whispered shaking his head, “I thought these damn things were destroyed. I guess it makes sense Yondu found all my notes and hid them away before the rest of the crew could make fun of me. Damn hoarder, only he would keep this shit.”

“Who were they for? A relative of yours?” Gamora asked taking one of the notes from the crate that had been hidden under a large pile of dirty laundry.

“No,” he said beginning to turn red as he turned his head away, “Its going to sound really stupid. Probably even insane considering you barely know what Christmas is…”

“A religion?” she inquired and Peter chuckled shaking his head, turning the letter over in his hands not really wanting to open it yet.

“Kinda. I mean there is the Christ stuff but mom, she didn’t believe in god…” he sighed flicking the tiny folded letter back into box and staring off. She had a right to, but sadly she did give her devotion to a god and he destroyed her.

“It’s a Terran holiday. A gift giving holiday about peace and love and family and friends and all that good stuff. Santa was this dude who loved everyone and if you were good enough, he would give you gifts…”

Gamora sneered at that and shook her head.

“He must not have loved everyone equally if you have to be deemed worthy for him to give you gifts.”

“He wasn’t real,” Peter laughed, “I think he only existed to sell Coke products and for parents to instill fear into their kids about being nice or Santa won’t get you the toy you wanted.”

Peter fell into silence after that, just staring sadly at the dozens of letters because for him, so long ago, Santa was real. He was a kid with a dying mother, he was an orphan abducted by aliens and he needed desperately to believe in something. People around him in the hospital told him to pray, his mother sneered to his grandfather god didn’t exist and she didn’t want to see his bible again but she always softly assured him Santa was there and he was always watching and knew he was good. So Santa became a cathartic concept to vent his problems to in letters for years. Sticking those letters begging for help into mail boxes on Earth and sticking them into cargo crates on the Eclector. Maybe he always knew no one was going to help him and when he ran out of paper in his note book he stopped writing but they helped him have just enough hope to make it through that first year so he never complained. In hindsight it was obvious Yondu would find them.  

“Then why did you write to him so much?” Gamora asked picking up one of the letters and flipping it between her fingers.

“He was a magical being who people told me knew everything,” he said turning his smuggest smile Gamora’s way but she didn’t by it for a second, she saw the sadness and pulled him close to her as he talked. Head resting on his broad shoulder and hand rested in his hair.

“I was eight, stupid, scared and didn’t know what I wanted, I just knew I didn’t want to be here.”

“May I read one?” she asked kissing Peter on the cheek before pulling away from him to get a better look at the folded notes on the bottom of the crate, mixing them around to grab one at random.

Peter nodded but inside his insides were twisting up, he eyed the letter she began to unfold and wanted nothing more then to knock it from her hands.

“Dear Santa,

It’s me, Peter again, I know I keep writing to you and I’m not sure I have been good enough for you to grant me this big of a favor but can you please take me home or at least let me live in the North Pole with you? I could be an elf. I could be whatever ya wanted me to be. Please just help. Please. Last night one of the big aliens hit me and I have been in the vents for hours waiting for them all to go to bed. It hurts and I’m scared. I’m not even sure what I did wrong this time. I am trying so hard but he hates me so much. It’s like he just has fun pushing me around and I know no one cares enough about me to help. Please…I promise I will make it up however ya want. Just take me away from here.

Love, Peter Jason Quill.”

Peter remembered this letter and groaned to himself. One of the larger recruits like smacking him around when no one was looking and he was scared but didn’t want to go to Yondu fearing he would harm him for coming to him with useless problems. Again. He always shoved Peter away when he came to him afraid, so Peter hadn’t really trusted him to solve this problem and knew he couldn’t. So instead he made up a fantasy that someone could, if he was good enough and asked nice enough. He groaned and rolled his eyes at his own stupidity. He really was a brain dead child.

Peter was surprised when Gamora kept going.

“I may not be Santa but I took care of it. No need to be an elf, yer good enough where you are.”

Peter grabbed the letter from Gamora and looked at the sloppy hand writing underneath his own and stared in awe. Yondu had gotten rid of that guy, taking him out on a private mission he never came back from he remembered.

“Do you want to read the rest of them?” Gamora asked.

“No,” Peter whispered pocketing the letter, “This one is good.”

Gamora smiled at him and pulled him into a hug before declaring it was time for a break. Once Peter was half way across the room, she picked the box off the ground. Peter could read them whenever he was ready to see how much his adopted father did love him.

[trashpandaorigins]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), gotg, Marvel, MCU, Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Gamora/Peter Quill Characters: Gamora, Peter Quill, Star Lord, Drax, Drax the Destroyer, Groot, Rocket Raccoon Additional Tags: Holiday, Christmas, celebration, Romance, Team as Family Series: Part 1 of 12 Days of Stamora Summary: First day of the 12 Days of Stamora Challenge on Tumblr! First prompt: Tradition.

My first attempt at Starmora! Thanks for the idea  @gamoraspeter @starmoraquills  Prior to this I exclusively wrote platonic Grocket fics so hope ya’ll bare with me trying to do Peter and Gamora/their relationship! Happy Holidays everyone!-Trash Panda

[marypoppinswasmyfatherbitches]

My entry for Day 11 and Day 12 of “12 Days of Starmora.”

I really hope you all enjoy it! Happy Holidays! :D

[gamoraspeter]

make this place your home

12 Days of Starmora Day 9: Decorations

ao3

----

For most of her life, Gamora has had very little in the way of personal possessions. She was allowed a few pieces of clothing and weapons, only what was strictly necessary for her to be an efficient assassin.

That’s different now, something she’s still getting used to. Her old bunk on the Milano had been bare and impersonal at first, with the same bed as everyone else, always made up neatly when she wasn’t using it, and a small, plain metal dresser. But over two months of living there, she’d gathered a collection of personal items, things that serve no practical purpose but to make her smile when she looks at them.

Which is what she’s doing now.

Her and Peter’s new room on the Quadrant is much more spacious than she’s used to. They don’t even have enough possessions between the two of them to fill up all the space, especially considering they’re left with only the ones that made it out of the crash in one piece, or that weren’t swallowed by Ego’s planet.

She sets down a handful of rocks and leaves on top of the dresser, gifts from Groot that he’s given her over at various times. She feels slightly foolish, keeping them all, but for some reason she’s never been able to throw them away.

She hangs up a holographic print-out of an article about the War Over Xandar Peter had given her early on. The headline contains the words ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ with their picture underneath, which still makes Gamora irrationally pleased when she looks at it. A Guardian; not an assassin or a monster or a murderess.

She’s fairly certain that’s the reason Peter gave it to her and not, as he claimed at the time, because he looks “so good in that picture.”

A tiny toy sword, no larger than her finger, goes on the nightstand. She smiles at it fondly for a moment before she hears Peter behind her.

“Hey, I remember that!”

She turns to see him grin.

“You kept it!”

“Of course I kept it,” she says, confused. “You gave it to me.”

That makes him smile even wider and press a kiss to her forehead. “Well, good, because I kept mine, too.”

He digs around in the small backpack -- one of the few things he has left from Terra -- that’s holding many of his remaining personal possessions and pulls out a little toy gun that matches her sword

Peter “liberated” both of them from a junker shop not long after they met and insisted she have the sword, claiming it reminded him of her’s. It looks nothing like the Godslayer, and she’d informed him that he was going to need to stop “stealing from everybody” as he was no longer part of the Ravagers. He insisted that the owner deserved it for ogling her and that he’d charged them way too much for the other stuff, so really it more than evened out.

She’d rolled her eyes and kept it anyway.

“Where do you think I should put this?” he asks, voice suddenly soft, pulling out the folded up picture of David Hasselhoff. He’d only recently informed her that he still had it, a couple days after Yondu’s funeral. “I don’t think I need to keep carrying it around anymore.”

She looks around the room thoughtfully. This is not a consideration she’s used to: having to think about how someone else’s possessions mingle with her own -- how someone else’s life mingles with her own.

Their room, for instance, is already messier than she’s used to. Her old bunk was regimentally neat, a space occupied by someone who’s not used to the privilege of being anything less. Now, Peter’s jacket is thrown over the back of a chair rather than hung in the closet; his shoes are kicked off haphazardly near the door rather than placed neatly by the foot of the bed like hers.

There are some things they’re both going to have to compromise on, she realizes (she can live with the bed going unmade, but she’s going to need him to stop leaving his wet towels on the bathroom floor), and she is more than willing to do so.

“What about here?” she says, pointing to a blank spot on the wall next to the printout of the article.

“Alright.” He tacks the picture up and takes a step back to assess.

“I like it,” he says with a satisfied nod, throwing his arm casually around her shoulders.

She leans into him and looks at it, the old-fashioned paper next to a holographic screen; two things that don’t initially seem like they should go together but somehow do. Evidence of a shared space. A shared life.

She smiles. “I do, too.”

[fuckyeahstarmora]

12 Days of Starmora 

Day 4 - lights/fireworks

[marypoppinswasmyfatherbitches]

Nooooooo, it’s cute! I like it! Look at these snow dorks!

I wanted to join in on 12 Days of Starmora, so here’s a drawing. Day 7 - Snow (its not that good…sorry)

[starmoraquills]

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR PARTICIPATING IN 12 DAYS OF STARMORA!!! It was awesome seeing the fandom band together and produce so many great things! I'm in sucha slump with writing and producing content myself, but seeing you guys work hard has really inspired me. I hope I can get back on my feet soon and continue to yell about these idiots with you guys. And thank you to @gamoraspeter -- really, without her, this event probably wouldn't have been so successful. She helped me plan and plan, then helped stay on top of things. I hope the next project, we'll equally split the work and continue to grow in this community. SHE'S DA BEST!!!!!! I feel like this was a good step for the fandom and for the friends I've made along the way. I love you all so much. I hope you guys have some very happy holidays! (And as always, if I missed anything, let me know!)