#ah lets see we've got an assassin au and *checks notes* ... a conman au

[disruptedvice]

it's a few years late, but here's an AU I never got around to posting for starmora week 2020

Starmora Week Day 4: Hit / Miss

Finally, she thought.

The target had moved onto the balcony, alone, and Gamora had him in sites. Everything lined up perfectly.

She breathed in, steady. Exhaled. And pulled the trigger.

“Son of a bitch,” Gamora cursed, jerking the gun hard and fast to skew the shot at the last possible second. Her reflexes were quick enough, though. The bullet embedded somewhere in the brick wall instead of going through that idiot's skull.

He was so lucky he turned around when he did. That he turned around with enough time for her to realize she recognized him.

God dammit.

She had her rifle packed up in moments, using the adjacent rooftops to get from her sniper's nest to the building she had been watching for the past, oh, fucking hours. What a waste.

Gamora dropped onto the balcony without a sound.

“God dammit, Quill!” She hissed from behind him. “What the hell are you doing posing as some foreign dictator on this planet? Why are you even here?”

Peter, to his credit, didn't jump at the sudden voice where moments ago there was no one. Clearly he had registered that he recognized the voice as he spun around, already wearing that dumb Peter Quill smile that he always gave her.

She was only slightly annoyed by the fact she could tell it was one of his real smiles too.

“Cause it was so damn easy,” he grinned, unashamed. Not even the slightest bit apologetic, or cowed by her glare. In fact, he brightened as he went on, “Seriously, nobody even knows this dude at all. It was so easy to get in here. At this point, it's really their fault for just letting in anybody who claims to be some jackass who hasn't shown his face in public in years.”

Gamora also knew Peter well enough to know nothing was as easy as he made it sound. Sure, maybe it was easy compared to the types of jobs he usually pulled, but grifting his way into a party of this caliber wasn't a walk in the park for anyone but him.

Probably second nature for Peter Quill, though. This was the dumb ass conman posing as some shitty 'diplomat' that someone put a hit out on, so she couldn't give him too much credit.

Gamora rolled her eyes. He really was hopeless. No surprise there.

“Now come on, help me get this bullet out,” she said, dragging him over to the wall none too nicely, positioning him right where she needed.

Gamora stepped up onto the banister lining the balcony and used it to climb onto Peter's shoulders. He didn't need to be told to hold on and make sure she didn't fall. He automatically adjusted his balance like this was something they did every day. (It wasn't. Still, she knew he wouldn't drop her).

She quickly got to work prying the bullet out with one of her knives.

It'd be stupid to leave evidence like that, even if no crime was actually committed.

“Gamora, did you miss?” Peter asked with a shit-eating grin. She could hear it in his voice.

She dug her knife into the brick even harder. “No. I saved your life, asshole.”

Peter chuckled. “Not putting a bullet in my head isn't the same thing as saving my life.”

“Well, in this case, it is. You're welcome.”