#nebula/mantis : emotional seesaw

[the-fallofperdix]

I asked @lovelyirony for some Nebula/Mantis prompts and she inspired me to write a little ficlet! Also, half of it deleted just as I finished so I had to rewrite it :/

~~

Mantis knows she’s there, hovering in the doorway.

Knows Nebula has knives on her, is holding them in her hands.

Knows she needs to actually be testing out her newly constructed limbs, but is awkwardly standing there.

She won’t say anything, unless Nebula makes the first step into the room.

No judgement, always.

She’s wearing a rainbow coloured pantsuit, because she once told Nebula seeing happy colours makes her feel more happy. Plus Peter had introduced her to ‘vintage’ and she’d promptly bought fourteen pantsuits.

“What are you making?” Nebula said finally, stepping into the kitchen. She doesn’t go over to Mantis, not yet, but leans against the fridge.

“Rocket brought me a cookbook,” Mantis said, turning slightly to smile at Nebula, soft and sweet. “I am attempting a ‘pancake’, it does not look much like a cake in a pan, so I don’t think I am doing it right.”

“I’m sure it will be delicious.” Nebula said awkwardly.

“Well, currently its not.” Mantis said, sighing and dropping the chunky and strange looking batter down the drain. “Maybe I’ll get Peter to show me tomorrow.”

Mantis’ antennae twitched as Nebula was abruptly reminded of the mission yesterday. Mantis had nearly died, and Nebula had to completely replace her arm and part of her side.

Clockwork parts for a clockwork girl.

“Dance with me.” Nebula blurted, turning away from Mantis, towards the jukebox.

“Alright,” Mantis said, as Nebula started playing something classical and without words. “I’ll teach you how to waltz.”

“Mantis, I’ll step on your feet!” Nebula protested. “Can we not do an energetic sway?”

Mantis laughed openly at the familiar line, before sliding into Nebulas space and starting to move her limbs into the right position. She didn’t seem to mind the rough unfinished scrap from her new arm, and directed her without hesitation.

“You’d never hurt me.” she stated calmly.

Nebula focused on calming herself, at the blind trust Mantis had around her even after everything.

They stumbled over each other, Mantis only really seeing TV shows and Nebula unused to dancing and not fighting.

“People dancing, and no one invited me?” Peter said dramatically as he entered with Gamora trailing behind him.

He caught hold of Gamora’s hand, and decided to start dancing, except it was a more flailing, jumpy dance with something that Nebula had been informed was a ‘dab’ mixed in with him trying to spin Gamora as well.

Gamora obliged, laughing slightly at how ridiculous he was being. He held out a hand towards both of them, still doing a eccentric shuffle. “Come on, join the group.”

“We were dancing first Peter, and we’re actually waltzing.” Mantis said, even though they were just swaying and watching both of them now.

“Waltzing smaltzing,” Peter said cheerfully, letting out his own laugh when Gamora decided to dip him. “Gamora back me up.”

“Why not?” Gamora said, letting go when Peter spun her out again and reaching to catch hold on Nebulas hand. She glanced knowingly between Mantis and Nebula and if Nebula could blush she would have. She accepted Gamoras hand and Mantis started copying Peters weird shuffle while Peter cheered her on.

“You alright?” Gamora said as they watched Peter start teaching a bleary eyed Drax to ‘dab’.

“Yeah,” Nebula said, watching as Mantis laughed as Drax spun Peter. “I think I will be.”

“I’m glad your girlfriend cheered you up.” Gamora said teasingly and Nebula choked.

“She’s not, we’re not-“ Nebula spluttered. “We’re just friends!”

“You keep telling yourself that baby sis.” Gamora said, winking at Nebula and joining the dancing group before Nebula could defend herself.

Nebula would have gone after her, but Mantis glanced over and held out her hand encouragingly and Nebula settled for death glaring her sister over Mantis’ shoulder.

(It didn’t help the warm feeling in her chest when Mantis held her hand.)

[the-fallofperdix]

This is so soft I love it!

Can I ask for some nebula/mantis headcanons?

ALWAYS 

-first of all nebula loves classical music when peter introduces it–gets more tunes to play after he finds out that the zune is ancient and not good 

(in fact, a lot of their music tech is outdated bc that’s like the only thing space never focused on, so humans stay flexing) 

-mantis doesn’t always like classical music, but it feels more emotion than most music, and it’s pretty easy to tell nebula’s moods off that 

-nebula is forever awkward with actually asking mantis on dates it’s more like 

“hey there’s a monster let’s go kill it,,,together?” 

-mantis knows what’s up and agrees to most every time 

-gamora loves to tease nebula about her girlfriend and it’s so funny bc nebula’s like “SHUT UP” and gamora’s like “or what ur gonna sic ur girlfriend on me? ur girlfriend? mantis?” 

-mantis loves to dance, but nebula does not. but that’s okay, because mantis will dance anyway, and nebula kind of smiles at it. she taps her foot to the beat of some songs 

-they both like the same kind of food and nebula’s learning to enjoy different cooking styles 

-mantis falls in love with “vintage” from earth and is quite often wearing old-fashioned dresses and pantsuits on their days off! 

-nebula likes wearing tank tops and basketball shorts so it’s a nice juxtaposition 

-the only time mantis has ever gotten really and truly angry was when nebula almost died. they don’t talk about that. 

-they watch the sunrise together because they both like waking up early

-when nebula’s upset mantis will make up various stories and do it in as silly a voice as possible 

(sometimes they talk about living in their own house. 

it appeals to nebula more than it should but that’s okay. 

They deserve it.)