#terra wants a REAL baby daddy | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bevioletskies · 6 years ago

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across the universe [1/8]

summary: Peter, the son of the Chancellor, has lived among the stars for the first ten years of his life. Gamora, the future Commander of Terra, has lived on the ground for the first ten years of hers. Though it’s finally time for the last survivors of the so-called apocalypse to return to Earth, they might not be prepared for what’s waiting for them. But when Peter and Gamora meet and find their worlds irreversibly tangled together, titles, obligations, and the impending war may be the very last thing on their minds.

a/n: The premise of this fic is very loosely based off of The 100, the television show more so than the book series. However, no previous knowledge is required, as I only used the basic concept and language, and none of the storylines or characters arcs from the show.

Fic title is from the song Across The Universe by The Beatles. Prologue can be found here. Warning for unnamed character deaths, injuries, blood, dry heaving, and Ego and Thanos being assholes to their kids.

word count: 10.2k | ao3 | tag

“Tell us more about Earth.”

Meredith turned to look at her children, who were seated beside her. They were properly strapped into their seats - she’d checked and double-checked and triple-checked that they were perfect, as she was oft to do with just about everything; what kind of doctor would she be if she wasn’t meticulous? - and gripping their seatbelts so tight, their knuckles were turning white. She was trying not to let them see the way her hands shook, too.

“What do we say, baby?” Meredith reminded him.

“Please?” He smiled angelically.

“I’ll admit, it’s not the most advanced of planets,” Meredith said, sitting back to think. “It’s diverse, though, where all walks of life can live together - or at least, try to. I lived in a place called St. Charles, Missouri, with my mama and daddy. They took me to church every Sunday at St. Peter’s when I was a little girl. My daddy would put on the news after we got home, and I liked to see what was goin’ on out there, outside our little house with a big yard. Wasn’t always so nice, but sometimes, you got to see the real good in humans. Or Terrans, as your daddy likes to call us.”

“Then Earth got destroyed by the bad air,” Peter added. “And that’s when Dad came to save everyone, an’ promised to help restore it with his powers so they could have their planet back.”

“Would you like to tell the story now, Peter?” Meredith teased.

��Sorry,” he said sheepishly.

“Anyways, I remember when I first woke up from cryo-sleep, one of the first things I saw was your daddy, standin’ by my side.” Meredith smiled, reminiscing of a time not too long ago. “I asked him what he wanted. He said, ‘I visited your Earth once before. While I was there, I saw some of the most beautiful sights I’d ever seen, and I’ve been across the universe’. I thought it was a little strange since we’d never spoken before, so I asked him what he meant. He described these flowers, these blooming, vibrant little red beauties, and I said, ‘you must be talkin’ about the river lily’. He laughed and told me I was just like a river lily - the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.”

“I like that story, Mama,” Mantis chirped, leaning around Peter to look at her. “It does not sound like Daddy, though.”

“No, he’s...not much like that nowadays, is he?” Meredith let out a false laugh that made Peter’s brows knit together, though he wisely decided not to comment on it. “Sit tight now. They’ve got officers coming ‘round to make sure we’re ready for departure.”

“We’re already here, ma’am,” a raspy voice said above them, causing the three of them to jump, startled by its sudden arrival.

“Kraglin? You’re not an officer yet,” Peter said accusingly.

“No, but cap’n got all his recruits on duty since there’s so many dang people to account for,” Kraglin grumbled, pulling out his holotab. “Can I get your names?”

“...you know our names, Kraglin,” Peter said, squinting at him dubiously. “And is Yondu here? I was hopin’ he could sit with us.”

“Cap’n’s sitting with the Chancellor and the Council, along with all them other important folk,” Kraglin shrugged. “Names, please.”

Frustrated, Peter sat back in his seat with his arms crossed. Meredith patted him half-consolingly, half-reminding him to control his temper, then began to neatly recite their full names for Kraglin’s records. After he left, she turned to Peter. “You know the rules, baby. Families sit together, and Yondu’s a good man and a good friend, but he’s not family.”

“Then why do I see him more than Dad?” Peter shot back.

“Peter!” Meredith exclaimed. “You know, I’ve just about had it with you sayin’ things like that like they don’t hurt. When we get to Earth, you’re...you’re grounded.” She paused, then, realizing the absurdity of her statement, let out a laugh that even caught herself off guard. Peter turned to look at Mantis, wondering if their mother had finally lost it after being cooped up in space for fifteen years as she continued to laugh like it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard in her life.

Gamora woke to her usual morning soundtrack of clanging metal and warrior cries, the smell of oil and sweat permeating every fabric and every surface in every room on Sanctuary. Though she lived on the top floor, thanks in no small part to her status, there always seemed to be something going on in Thanos’s private quarters nearby. He trained constantly, and was never without his most loyal (and frankly, his most morally-corrupt) generals and advisors at his side, consulting on everything from war tactics to technology to governance.

She slipped out of bed, got dressed, and quietly made her way into the kitchen, another room accessible only by Thanos and his “children”, frowning at the sight of an excessive amount of rations that could...well, that could feed their whole army. Through the kitchen’s backdoor was a storage warehouse with rows upon rows of cured meats, a huge indoor vegetable garden (there were shutters covering an opening in Sanctuary’s vast ceiling that cast just the right amount of sunlight over it), and a whole wall of ice boxes that contained seeds and medicine that would last them for centuries. All of this, and she was allowed to speak about none of it to no one.

Gamora never understood why Thanos chose to form a settlement on Terra, of all places. She knew vaguely of its history, its tragedy, its rebirth, but it never stood out to her as particularly desirable compared to all the other places Thanos must have conquered in the past. She wasn’t oblivious to Thanos’s history, however - in fact, he’d told her outright that he had failed to save many planets from their untimely deaths, including hers and Nebula’s, and it meant he had to do a lot of unsavory things in the process. She knew there was a lot more to him than what he claimed to be, and she knew that she didn’t have to be a grown adult to understand that he was no savior. She also knew there was a lot she was still yet to know.

“Gamora.” She turned to see Nebula standing in the doorway, looking unusually tired. “Father has called for both of us.”

“It’s too early for a meeting, isn’t it? I thought people were still healing from last night’s attack,” Gamora commented, but she followed her sister regardless.

A few winding, eerily empty corridors later, the two of them walked up to the door to his war room, recoiling at the unwelcome sight of Proxima and Cull standing guard. “Children,” Proxima said snidely, barely sparing them a glance. Cull grunted.

“Adults,” Nebula snarked back. “Father wants to see us.”

“I can’t imagine why,” Proxima sniffed.

Nebula reeled back, ready to make another retort, but Gamora instead laid a hand on her shoulder, shaking her head in silence. It would do her no good to taunt their older “siblings”, not when they had the ability to kill them in seconds. Gamora smiled tightly at Proxima. “How is Corvus?”

Proxima’s jaw slowly unclenched. “Recovering.” She stepped aside. “Go on.”

They entered the room after receiving one last scowl, courtesy of Cull, and were granted the sight of Thanos stood by his various holoscreens, his back turned to them, Maw at his side. “Daughters,” he said curtly, still fixated on one particular battle plan that was blown up across six adjacent screens. “It’s time.”

“Time for what?” Nebula grouched.

Thanos turned, narrowing his eyes in her direction. “Watch your tone, Nebula,” he hissed. “It is time for the Sky People to descend to the ground. As of two hours ago, I’ve received reports from our scouts near Trishanakru that a vessel far larger than Sanctuary has broken through the atmosphere. I suspect we’ll be feeling their impact at any moment.”

“What do we do?” Gamora asked.

“We’ve already initiated a lockdown of all essential areas, and have made the call for all families to retreat to Sanctuary and stay in their quarters. And, of course, the army has already been sent out in pursuit of the invaders.” Thanos’s lip curled in an oddly contemplative snarl. “As for you two...I need children to act as my scouts.”

“And...why is that, Father?” Gamora said carefully.

“It won’t be all children, of course, just you and the other contenders. Your rivals, Gamora,” Thanos hummed, turning back around. Maw let out a delighted tittering noise that made both sisters want to punch him square in the jaw even more than usual. “The army has been ordered to kill groups on sight. But the children are to find isolated stragglers and bring them to me.”

Gamora swallowed. “Okay. When do we leave?”

“Now. And pack some rations,” Thanos said, fully directing his attention back to the screens, sweeping through page after page of his battle plans, arranging and rearranging as he saw fit. “Do not return until you have something of interest.”

Peter didn’t realize he’d fallen asleep until he was waking up, only he hadn’t exactly fallen asleep, he had been knocked out cold. Groaning, he rubbed his eyes, blinking blearily into the darkness. It wasn’t exactly dark, either; there was a bright red light flashing over and over again like a silent siren. Before he could discern what was happening, though, he felt something run into his eyes; Peter yelped in surprise and began wiping it out with the heels of his palms. Whatever it was, it was sticky and slightly warm to the touch.

He stumbled to his feet, trying to recall where he’d been last and when that had been, squinting at his pitch-black surroundings. We were headin’ to Earth, Peter thought, his scattered brain still buzzing with adrenaline, made even more disoriented by the flashing lights. Then some crazy stuff started happening when we broke through the atmosphere, and people were freaking out - Mantis! Mom! He looked down at his feet, where he could vaguely make out the silhouettes of Mantis sprawled out on top of Meredith, almost like she’d been thrown there. It was then that he realized the whole ship had crash-landed sideways; their seats were completely tipped in the other direction, the walls crushed against the ground.

Peter knelt beside them, shaking their shoulders urgently. “Mom! Mantis! C’mon, you gotta wake up!” He felt a knot of anxiety tying itself up in his stomach the longer they didn’t respond. “I think we’re on Earth, I don’t know why I don’t see no one else, I - Mom, I’m scared, I don’t wanna, I need, I - ”

“Quill?”

He let out a sob of relief, running in the direction of the familiar voice and flinging his arms around his waist. “Yondu!”

“Good to see you’re in one piece, though you’re bleedin’ a bit,” Yondu said gruffly, patting him awkwardly on the back. He drew a dusty rag from his utility belt and wiped Peter’s forehead; he belatedly became dizzy at the realization of what the sticky substance was. “Your mom and sister?”

“They ain’t getting up,” Peter said, tugging on Yondu’s sleeve to pull him back towards them. “What happened, Yondu, what’s goin’ on?”

“Well, to make a long story short - we crashed. Real bad,” Yondu sighed, lifting his flashlight a little higher, casting it over Meredith and Mantis’s faces. “Whole sections of the ship, they didn’t make it. Others, like you, were lucky. Relatively, o’ course. Been spending the last hour tryin’ to find survivors. Your mama and sister, I see their shoulders movin’, they’re breathin’, they’re okay. We’re gonna need Meredith and her team to help with some pretty nasty wounds - if she’s up to it, o’ course.”

“What about Dad?” Peter looked at him expectantly. “He said he was gonna come find us before we landed, and I thought he was gonna get us to sit with him on the command bridge.” He hung his head. “That was a lie, wasn’t it?”

“Dunno what to tell you, boy,” Yondu said, his discomfort rapidly growing. “But let’s get you and your family outta here. Don’t need you seeing all this mess.” He gestured aimlessly at the other unmoving bodies. Peter didn’t want to think about which ones were never going to move again, or he was sure to throw up.

A few of Yondu’s guardsmen came in to help carry out the survivors, while Peter sat impatiently on a cot in one of the makeshift medical tents that the nurses had set up just outside. He tried not to look at the smoldering remains of the Ark, how crumpled and despondent some sections looked, while other parts looked relatively salvageable. Peter certainly couldn’t appreciate his first breath of fresh air, either, or the feeling of wind in his hair, or the beautiful lake on the other side of the tent. It all felt sour, it felt undeserved, it felt wrong.

“You doing okay, Peter?” the nurse asked kindly. “I took a look at your mom and your sister, they’re gonna be just fine. Good chance of a mild concussion, and Meredith’s got a bit of a dislocated shoulder, but nothing some rest and medicine won’t fix.”

“I’m not okay,” Peter mumbled. “People are dead.”

His face fell. “I know. But we can’t think about that right now, alright? We have to help the living.”

Another ten minutes passed before the tent flapped open, but instead of the faces that Peter wanted to see more than anything else in their new world, he saw the cape first instead of its wearer. “Peter! Son, are you okay?”

“Everyone keeps askin’ me that,” Peter grouched, turning the other way. “What am I s’posed to say when people are dead, Dad?!”

“Whoa, now! Watch your tone,” Ego snapped, his face instantly contorting into something more cruel. He stormed over to Peter and grabbed his face, pinching his chin with one hand until Peter’s cheeks ached from the pressure. “What do you say, Peter?” The nurse let out a quiet gasp of surprise and promptly ran out of the tent.

“Sorry,” Peter said, his voice still hardened. Ego released him, though he didn’t look satisfied. Before he could respond, though, the tent opened yet again, and Meredith stormed in like a hurricane, still wrapped in a shock blanket. She whipped it off and promptly flung it at Ego, though it barely grazed his shoulder on its way down.

“Meredith!” Ego exclaimed, chuckling like she merely amused him.

She let out a feral growl in return. “I oughta give you a piece of my mind right now,” Meredith hissed. “You had no business bringin’ us down here when there was even a chance of death!”

“There’s always a chance of death, sweetheart, that’s how life works,” Ego said, waving his hand dismissively. “You think I didn’t calculate every single possibility, figure out every possible thing that could go wrong? You really think that little of me, Meredith?”

“Don’t make this about what I think of you, though I have plenty more thoughts I’d like to share,” Meredith snapped, picking up her blanket and wrapping it back around her body, shivering, though not from the blustery cold. “You got an estimate on how many people we’ve lost today? Or are you too busy going ‘round, pretendin’ everything’s just peachy?”

“Mom,” Peter interrupted. “Where’s Mantis?”

“Oh, baby, I’m sorry. Here I am ramblin’, and I haven’t even checked up on you yet.” Meredith went to Peter’s side, gently prodding along his skull and ribcage even though he’d already been checked a half-dozen times by her best nurses. She then held his face in both hands, cupping his cheeks, and leaned down to kiss his forehead. “Mantis is getting cleaned up a few tents down, she knows to come straight here after she’s done. Peter...are you gonna be okay?”

Peter choked out an insincere laugh. “I think so.”

Ego cleared his throat loudly from behind them. “I have to speak with the Council about setting up base here. Think we landed in a mighty good spot - lots of trees and water. It’ll be great support for the manufacturing stations.”

“Don’t you pretend you did a good thing here, Ego,” Meredith said, her voice scarily low. “And don’t you pretend our conversation is done, either. I’ve got plenty more to say.”

“I can tell,” Ego said blithely, turning and walking right out, his expression decidedly neutral. Meredith seethed at his retreating back, wrapping her arms around Peter even tighter.

“People are dead, Mom,” Peter mumbled into her shoulder; he was starting to sound like a broken record.

“We’ll do right by ‘em, baby,” Meredith promised, rubbing his back reassuringly. “Once we clean up the mess your daddy made, we’ll have a celebration of life, right out there on the lake. Did you see it?”

“Yeah.” He sank into her, drowning himself in her warmth, the smell of her perfume and shampoo, unable to hold up his own bodyweight for even one more second. “Yeah, it was nice.”

“Good morning, heda.” Gamora turned to see a rather snide-looking group of children around her age with a few that seemed significantly older, standing behind her, arms folded tightly across their chests. The first thing she noticed, aside from their unfriendly faces, was the weapons slung on their backs or holstered at their hips. “I hear we are following your greatness today.”

“Hey! I was the one who saved your parents’ lives yesterday,” Gamora snapped.

“Forgive us for not bowing at your feet,” another child sneered, one of the older ones, one who seemed far too old to be looking at Gamora with such unwarranted scorn. “Anyone with half a brain would have done the same.”

Gamora glanced over at Nebula, who merely shrugged; she was barely paying attention to their conversation. Unfortunately, it was like most conversations between them and other children, whether during classes or training sessions or unwanted encounters in the halls, and it hardly elicited a reaction out of Nebula anymore. Simply put, there was nothing that would convince the others that Gamora was worthy of what she’d been given.

“We’re losing light,” Gamora said coldly, turning back to look at the others. “We have our orders and our gear. Meet back here at sunset.” She then called for everyone to form small groups, and unsurprisingly, the majority immediately moved away from the girls so they could cluster up together, then took off in different directions the second they were ready, not bothering to announce their departure. Only one child was left standing, one that Gamora had seen many times before, one who never quite seemed to find his footing with the others. “Join us, Drax.”

“Are you sure, heda?” he asked, stepping forward regardless. “I would not want to slow you down.”

“You won’t. We won’t let you,” Gamora said, smiling faintly. “I’ve seen you train...you’re really good. I think your parents would be proud.” Drax’s face crumpled a little at the mention of them, but he quickly recovered, nodding and falling into step beside the sisters.

The three of them ventured across a seemingly endless field of lush grass, far away from everyone else, who had gone for the trees. They knew it left them open, vulnerable to attack, but Gamora told herself she couldn’t afford to be scared. She told herself that Thanos didn’t want to see her until they brought back a hostage. She told herself not to think about what would happen if she didn’t.

Of course, she hated the idea, but she was never going to tell him that. She had always been curious about the legendary skaikru, the people who were saved by a mysterious force right before their planet fell apart. They weren’t even considered Terran anymore, given that they’d been away from Earth for a hundred years, with children who had never breathed fresh air or tasted water that wasn’t artificially created. Meanwhile, the forest, the ocean, the wind and snow, it was all she’d ever known, but Gamora knew she wasn’t truly Terran, either. The idea of designating the Sky People as some “other” who were to be immediately tortured or killed for returning to what had been theirs disgusted her, but she knew no amount of reasoning would change Thanos’s bloodlust. His ongoing war with other factions that had split off from them when they first arrived was proof enough.

“I hear the river, heda,” Drax called; he was a good thirty feet in front of them, gesturing for them to catch up.

“Call me Gamora,” she insisted, her and Nebula jogging up beside him. “If skaikru were smart, they wouldn’t be out here. They would hide in the trees.”

“Then why did we not go to the trees?” Drax asked curiously.

“Because Gamora doesn’t want to be around the others,” Nebula interjected, smirking.

“Because we are looking for stragglers, not the entire group. If they ran or got kicked out, they would be far away from their camp,” Gamora reasoned, elbowing her sister in warning. Nebula’s face fell a little; it was hard to argue with that. “Do you see mud trails?”

“Why?” Nebula grumbled. “There’s mud everywhere.”

“It means someone walked across the river, and we could follow it to see where they went,” Drax volunteered. “The skaikru don’t know how to cover their tracks like we do.”

“Right,” Gamora nodded, pleased. “Let’s go.”

She and Drax immediately started walking again, while Nebula trailed behind sullenly, folding her arms across her chest. As they continued on, their eyes trained on the ground and the sky, Gamora couldn’t help but watch Drax, too. She didn’t know his story, aside from his parents being long dead, but he seemed like the type who could handle a fight. The other children didn’t like him much, but she occasionally saw him spending time in the Sanctuary’s hangar bay with two young engineering prodigies who worked under one of Thanos’s generals, Rocket and Groot. She wasn’t sure how their companionship had started, but she’d never been curious enough to ask. She was almost curious enough to ask now.

“Heda?” His voice broke into her thoughts.

“I said not to call me that,” she countered.

“Mud, like you said,” he said simply, pointing. Gamora followed his line of sight and jogged over, crouching down by the tracks. She wasn’t skilled enough to place any identifiers - height, weight, age - but at least it would keep them from wandering aimlessly forever.

Gamora straightened up, sucking in an unsteady breath. “Follow me.”

The mood at Arkadia was appropriately somber, the air thick with tension and unspoken words. Ego had made his usual rousing speech, swearing not to give up, to not let the “sacrifices” (and oh, how Peter and Meredith hated that word, like their deaths had been planned somehow) of the dead be in vain. It didn’t have the effect he wanted, much to Meredith’s secret satisfaction, and there were already whispers among their people that a new Chancellor was to be called for on the ground.

The ship, Ego’s beloved ship, was still a smoking husk of what it was just hours ago, and no one wanted to be reminded of the smell of death, so more tents were set up in a temporary formation, grouped less by station and affiliation, and more by relationships, families and friends who used to go weeks without seeing each other, who were now able to cross boundaries and set their own. Peter and Mantis went to take a nap in their tent after Ego’s speech, exhausted by the day’s events and their father’s empty promises.

“Are you awake, Peter?” Mantis mumbled, lifting herself up onto her elbows. Peter groaned and rolled onto his back. “Are you okay?”

“You tell me,” he snapped, though Mantis didn’t seem offended by his tone. “Everyone keeps askin’ me that like I’m s’posed to be okay with people being dead. People who didn’t do nothing.”

“There are always people who die who did not do anything.” Mantis turned away from him, unable to look Peter in the eye. “My real mama. For having me.”

Peter sighed, the fight leaving his body as he exhaled. “I wish Mom would tell us what happened, so I know what to be mad at Dad for.”

“You are always mad at him, though,” Mantis said blithely. “You are mad when he is here, and when he is not.”

“Yeah, what’s your point?”

“I think it hurts you more than it hurts him,” Mantis observed. “Maybe you should talk.”

“Yeah, right,” Peter scoffed, also rolling over so he was facing away from her, leaving them back-to-back. He curled further into his scratchy blankets and flat pillow, sorely missing his cold, unfriendly bunk back in their little apartment. It was hard for him to process that he would never sleep there again, considering he was almost certain he was going to live his entire life on the Ark, wasting his days and nights dreaming about Earth the way it was never going to be.

“I am telling you what you feel,” Mantis said, scrunching up her nose in anger at him, though he obviously couldn’t see her face. She got to her feet, staring down at him with fury burning in her eyes. “You said to tell you.”

He sighed again, burrowing into himself, wishing everything and everyone would just...go back to the way it was. The way he never knew he could want so badly. “Leave me alone, Mantis.” He heard her irritated grunt and the stomp of her feet, then watched her leave.

It didn’t take long for the tent flaps to open again, though a whiff of perfume told him that it wasn’t his sister. “You two fighting again?” Meredith said sternly, kneeling by his side. “Oh, baby.”

“Happens all the time, don’t gotta fuss about it,” Peter retorted.

“Sure. You’re both young and stubborn as mules.” At his puzzled expression, she added, “It’s a Terran animal. They sure love to dig their heels in the dirt when they don’t wanna go nowhere. Anyways, just because it happens all the time, that doesn’t mean it should. A few harmless fights can turn into a big one real quick, and next thing you know, you never talk again. Or you try to hurt each other in ways that only you know how.” She sighed, her intuition nagging at her brain, telling her to say it before Peter did. “Like me and your daddy.”

“But you still love him,” Peter said. He finally sat up, hugging his knees into his chest. “Or...I mean, yeah, you do, right?”

Meredith smiled another false smile. “Of course, Peter. Don’t you?”

Peter hesitated. “It’s hard sometimes. ‘Specially when he let all those people die.”

She reached out to cup his face with her hand, gently running her thumb over his cheek. “I’m mad at him, too. I’m furious. But you see, life ain’t as easy as one good path and one bad one. Sometimes it’s lots of paths that eventually lead to the right place, but getting there is what hurts. And sometimes, the paths don’t connect or make sense, and that makes it even harder. Your daddy’s doing the best he can with what he has, and I think if he tells us what happened, we can try to understand. Okay?”

He nodded, cracking the tiniest of smiles. “Okay.”

“Oh, and Yondu wants to see you, by the way. I already told him I don’t want to hear nothing about him training you again, but heaven knows neither of you listen to me,” Meredith chuckled. She took him by the hand and led him out of the tent to where Yondu was stationed, and for the first time, they could both appreciate the bite of fresh air along the way. “Come find me at the medical section when you’re done, alright? We’ll go have dinner together.” She kissed him briefly on the forehead before leaving, her mind already racing with the patients she had yet to see.

The guards’ quarters were merely just another long row of tents, most of which were unoccupied since the guardsmen were out helping the other Arkadians set up their temporary base, but Peter still couldn’t help but swallow down the lump in his throat. It was true; he had no interest in becoming a member of the guard since it felt all too rigid for him, too routine. He did like the uniform, though, and he did like Yondu and Kraglin, even though the rest of the guardsmen intimidated him. They watched him almost too closely, given that he was the Chancellor’s son, and he didn’t like that particular kind of attention. It was hard to do anything remotely adventurous with so many eyes following him everywhere he went.

“What took you so long, boy?” Yondu demanded. He was sitting at the front of the tent enclosure, his feet kicked up on a small, half-broken cooler. He seemed far less shaken than when he’d found Peter in the wreckage, though it was pretty typical of Yondu’s usual demeanor.

“Mom wanted to talk,” Peter protested. “She didn't even say nothin’ about you ‘til the end.” His eyes then brightened. “So are we gonna train more?”

“Surprised you can even think about something like that righ’ now,” Yondu shrugged.

“I just wanna think about somethin’ else, I guess,” Peter said quietly. “Me and Mantis had a fight, and I don’t wanna talk to Dad. So...are we?”

“Look, boy, there’s only one person I’m more scared of than your daddy, and that’s your mama,” Yondu said, chuckling wryly. Still, he gestured for Peter to come closer and sit beside him. “I know I told her it was for Kraglin, but she’s right. I could get any ol’ guard of mine to train with him. I’m doing it for you. But she’s your mama, and she knows you better than I do. So...we gotta stop.”

“But - ” Peter cut himself off, unsure of what to say. “We can still hang out and stuff, right?”

“What you wanna hang around an old man like me for?” Yondu exclaimed. “Don’t you got friends your own age?”

Peter shuffled uncomfortably, wringing his hands, and Yondu suddenly regretted asking. “Not really,” he mumbled. “No one wants to hang out with the Chancellor’s kids. Everyone thinks we’re weirdos for having powers, and that if they do somethin’ wrong, we’re gonna ask Dad to float ‘em.”

Yondu watched Peter carefully, watched his head hang a little lower, watched the corners of his mouth droop a little in despondence. He never quite knew what to say when Peter was in one of his moods - which was often - given that he’d never really had someone so young follow him around before. Sure, he had the occasional overbearing parent who insisted he train their “darling” son or daughter, but the child themselves were usually uninterested in the ordeal. Peter, on the other hand, had been in Yondu’s life since he was born, back when Ego liked to bring his infant son to meetings and show him off, excited that his Celestial powers were already beginning to manifest. Personally, Yondu thought it was more impressive that baby Peter was the only person who could make even the coldest of Council members smile.

“Just don’t be botherin’ me when I’m on duty, got it?” Yondu finally said, his voice gruff. Peter’s eyes lit up.

“Duties? What kind?” Peter asked. “Can I come?”

Yondu sighed, getting to his feet and gesturing for Peter to follow. “Guess your mama can’t fault me if you tag along on my rounds. C’mon, I hear there’s something goin’ on at hydra station.”

Gamora let out a surprisingly labored breath, sinking down onto a nearby fallen log, the palms of her hands digging into the wood grain, leaving painfully sharp welts as if to remind her of the time she was wasting. “I need a second. Let’s eat.”

Nebula looked down at her derisively. “Some heda you are. It’s only been three hours.” Gamora glared back, silently pulling her rations out of her bag and beginning to eat; she clearly wasn’t giving them a choice. Drax shrugged, not wanting to argue with her, and sat down to eat as well.

The mud trail they’d been following had eventually led to nowhere, drying up somewhere not too far from where they’d started, making it indistinguishable from the forest ground. Gamora, however, wasn’t about to admit she’d made a mistake, and was carrying on in the same direction. She supposed Nebula saw right through her, but she wasn’t certain about Drax. He seemed attentive for someone who barely knew her, but then again, maybe he just needed a friend. She also wondered whether the other children had succeeded already, if someone was bringing back a hostage this very minute. Thanos would probably - no, definitely - be disappointed if she wasn’t the first one back, would have some fresh form of torture ready in anticipation of her failure. Gamora glanced down at her arm, turning it over so she was looking at the inside of her wrist; a small glint of silver reflected back, reminding her of the last time she'd failed.

“What is that, heda?”

At the sound of Drax’s voice, she quickly pulled her sleeve down over her wrist. “Nothing.”

“Are you hurt?” Drax persisted, reaching for her arm.

“Old injury,” Gamora replied shortly, which wasn’t exactly a lie. “We should go.”

They continued on for some time, finding themselves starting to shiver when they came close to the border of Azgeda territory. Of all the warring nations, they were the coldest, both figuratively and literally, and even Nebula could muster up something resembling sympathy for any poor skaikru soul that ended up on their land. Not enough sympathy, however, to cross their borders in search of stragglers.

“This is stupid,” Nebula announced loudly about an hour later. “Who would stop us if we just stayed out here forever and never went back?”

“We’d die, Nebula,” Gamora reminded her. “Come on, we have to do this.”

“No, you do. No matter what I do, Father won’t care anyway,” Nebula said, sulking, her inky eyes narrowed to slits.

“You don’t know that,” Gamora protested. “If you bring someone back, if you tell him it was all you - ”

It only seemed to agitate Nebula further; she reared back to spit at Gamora, disgusted by her unwanted empathy, and then turned and began sprinting out of the forest and into the open, toward the dreaded border. Nebula screamed at the top of her lungs, something feral and raw and unintelligible that made Gamora’s heart stop for a split second, paralyzed with disbelief. She then went running after her, keeping her head low, hoping she wouldn’t be spotted by snipers in the tall grass; she could just barely hear Drax’s thundering footsteps behind her over the pounding of her heart against her ribcage.

Gamora wanted to call out, but she knew Azgeda warriors were notorious for hiding themselves right outside their walls, and she wasn’t about to announce where she was. The further she went, the harder it was to see, and all she could see was a blurry glimpse of Nebula just up ahead, making it impossible to figure out which direction she was going, swerving and turning at random.

Nebula’s sustained cry was interrupted by a sudden panicked yelp, followed by a sickening crunch. Gamora felt her heart leap in her throat, threatening to spill right out, and she sprinted faster, at a speed she didn’t know she was capable of. She and Drax came to a stop and nearly skidded right into the hole that Nebula had fallen into.

It was at least ten square feet across, and a good fifteen feet deep; laid on top of its opening was an intricately weaved net of grass and branches with a break in the middle, clearly where Nebula had taken one wrong step. She now laid at the bottom in a crumpled, undignified heap, still conscious and breathing, but now clutching at her broken leg. Nebula clenched her jaw, staring up at them with a burning hatred in her eyes as if they’d put her there.

“I see guards, heda,” Drax said, his voice trembling. “What do we do?”

“Gamora.” Astonished, Gamora looked down to see her sister’s expression had changed to something that seemed far more suitable for the child that she was than the adult she was trying to be, the hardness of her eyes melting away in favor of desperation. She grappled at the side of the pit, but the dirt crumbled beneath her fingers.

Gamora turned to look back at Drax, unsure if Nebula wanted her pity. “Carry her back to camp. I’ll fight the guards,” she ordered, missing the way her sister’s face fell.

“They are adults, Gamora. You are just a child,” Drax protested.

Gamora scoffed, putting her hands on her hips. “So now my name is Gamora. I am your heda, and you will listen to me. Take my sister. I’ll follow.”

Drax nodded, though it wasn’t without apprehension. He knelt on the ground so he could contort the net into a makeshift rope for Nebula, his brow furrowed with effort. Gamora smiled tightly at her sister, hoping it wouldn’t be the last time she’d ever see her again. She then turned, gritting her teeth, and began running toward the oncoming rush of Azgeda warriors.

Dinner was about as tense as could be expected, with every last Arkadian either sitting in stone-faced silence, shouting and spitting in the faces of the Council members who eventually retreated to the safety (and cowardice) of their own quarters, or sobbing into their stews. Even Ego had to return to his own tent by the time it was dark, unable to face the faces of his people, who at best, felt betrayed, but at worst, were vengeful.

Upon his return, he found Meredith, Peter, and Mantis sitting on the ground, ignoring the cots he’d lined up neatly along the back wall. The children were snuggled into Meredith’s side while she read to them, laughing and interjecting with comments in the appropriate (or in Peter’s case, inappropriate) places. They all looked up at the sound of his footsteps, genuinely surprised to see him. “Ego,” Meredith said, slowly closing the book over her thumb, holding her place. “You’re back early.”

“You never came to dinner,” Ego said airily, striding over to the cots so he could sit down and take off his boots, keeping his back to his family.

“Peter wanted to eat with the guardsmen. Kraglin’s a very good friend of his,” Meredith added.

Ego glanced over his shoulder to look at them, his eyes hard. “I know who my son is friends with,” he said shortly. “But it’s Yondu you’ve gone and gotten attached to, isn’t it, son?”

“I like ‘em both,” Peter said carefully, shrugging. Ego didn’t seem satisfied with his answer, but he didn’t press further. Instead, he reached for the haphazardly-drawn blueprints in his bag and passed it to Meredith, his face relaxing into a gentle smile at the crease that formed between her brows in confusion.

“Construction starts tomorrow,” Ego said, wanting to lean over and press his thumb to her forehead, smooth out her worries, but he wisely decided against it.

“This is...it’s a mansion, baby,” Meredith finally said, her eyes still roaming over the building plans. “Are you gonna have the strength to make that many big ol’ houses for everyone?”

“Come on now, Mer, that’s our house,” Ego chuckled. “Everyone else will get something a little more...standard. Except for the council members, of course, you know how they get. And farm station will need extra land for cultivating - ”

“We don’t need all that space, it’s only us and two kids,” Meredith interrupted. “Do you even know that there’s some families with over twelve people that lived in them tiny apartments on the Ark? Now they could use a big house.”

“I’m going to build you a ballroom, just like the ones you described,” Ego continued like he hadn’t heard her. “Big windows, lots of light, columns that go all the way up to the ceiling - I thought you’d like that, darling. So we can have a proper dance, whenever we want.”

“I do like that idea,” Meredith admitted. “But we don’t need a kitchen with all these extra little gadgets, or three sitting rooms. And I think Peter and Mantis can live with sharin’ a bathroom. I had a brother growin’ up, we survived.” Her expression faltered. “Or I guess... I did.”

“I didn’t know you had a brother, Mama,” Mantis chirped, her large eyes flickering back and forth between them. Peter clapped a hand over her mouth before she could inquire further, his blood running cold in realization of what Meredith meant.

“This is what we deserve, Meredith,” Ego insisted. “We’ve been stuck in that tiny little place on the Ark for too long now, it’s about time we get some breathing room.”

“‘We’? You were only home two nights a week, if you were there at all!” Meredith shot to her feet; her cheeks were flushed red. “And I haven’t the faintest idea what you mean by ‘deserve’. What makes us better than any of the rest? We ain’t gods, Ego, we’re just like everyone else.”

“That’s the thing, sweetheart, we really aren’t,” Ego sneered, his voice rising. “I’m the chancellor, you’re the head medic, and we know Peter’s gonna follow in his old man’s footsteps when he’s older, isn’t that right, Peter?” He didn’t bother looking to see if Peter so much as reacted. “And if you think we should still be in a tiny little dump just so we can be ‘like everyone else’, you got some strange ideas about how to live!”

“And I don’t know where you got your idea that you could talk to me like that,” Meredith’s eyes were blazing with a kind of fury that neither of her children had ever seen. Mantis cowered behind Peter, peering gingerly over his shoulder. “We don’t need a big house, we never did. We don’t need more space between us, we need less, so maybe we can go back to being a family. If we ever were a family.”

“Meredith - ”

“Do you know how embarrassin’ it is, going about my day, hearin’ all the things people say about you? All them rumors about what you do when you’re not home, who you’re really with, who Mantis really belongs to?”

Mantis gasped. Peter pulled her into his arms so he could steady her breathing against his chest, wishing fiercely that he could stop the sobs that rattled through her throat. “Mom, c’mon, you’re scarin’ her.”

Meredith turned to look at her children then, almost as if she’d forgotten they were there, and the fire in her eyes extinguished, her expression melting back into something more recognizable. She knelt beside them, reaching for Mantis. “Baby, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to - ”

Mantis merely curled into Peter further, rejecting Meredith’s plea. “You want him to hurt,” she mumbled. “Why does everyone want to hurt each other so much?”

“It’s what Terrans do, Mantis,” Ego said coolly. It was the first time he’d said her name in days. “Come on now, we’re just having a little argument. Nothing to get upset about.”

“I do not just feel what is in here, but everything out there, too,” Mantis said, slowly unravelling herself from Peter’s grasp. “Everyone is sad...and angry. They want to hurt you.” She paused. “I feel...others. People I do not know. They want to hurt you, too.” Peter shivered.

Ego knelt in front of her, bringing them eye-to-eye, gripping her shoulders so hard that his knuckles went white. “And what does that mean?”

“Frag emo op!”

For the second time in twenty-four hours, Peter felt his whole world spin on its axis, only this time he was conscious enough to remember it - remember the way Meredith immediately leapt to cover them both, pinning him and Mantis to the ground, remember the way their tent went up in flames, crackling and hissing and spitting as the fire devoured itself, remember the way Ego went charging out into the open with his hands outstretched, powers at full blast, searing blinding white light across the expanse of their settlement, roaring with anger.

“What’s happening?” Peter exclaimed frantically once he found his voice again, barely noticing the sour taste of dirt in his mouth or the scrapes on his elbows and knees.

“I don’t know, baby, but stay calm,” Meredith murmured, helping to push his hair away from his eyes, though she sounded like she was on the verge of tears. “We gotta get movin’ before we inhale too much smoke. Follow me.”

The three of them belly-crawled across the ground, keeping themselves beneath the flames that licked at their heels and the putrid air that danced in their throats. After what felt like the longest minute of their lives, Meredith pulled them both to their feet and they all began to profusely cough what felt like the entire contents of their lungs out. “Wait - what - what about Dad?” Peter wheezed. “I got powers too, I could help - ”

“No. We don’t know what we’re dealin’ with here,” Meredith said firmly. “That language they spoke? That don’t sound like nothin’ we’ve ever heard before.”

“What do you mean?” Mantis asked.

Meredith paused. “It means we aren’t alone.”

“Alone?” Peter repeated.

“We can’t think about that right now, okay? We need to get to safety. Your daddy will find us later, he always does,” Meredith promised, pulling them both in for a brief embrace. “Let’s go find Yondu. If he’s doing his job right, he’s already got an evacuation plan up and runnin’.”

They ran through the camp, dodging the panicked Arkadians sprinting past, screaming themselves hoarse trying to find their families and friends. Peter could also hear the heavy footfalls of unfamiliar boots, the metallic clang of weapons striking their targets, the sickening crunch of bodies collapsing to the ground. The loudest sound, however, was Mantis crying frantically beside him, her breath running ragged, clutching to him and Meredith so hard that her fingernails were digging welts into their wrists.

Then, a flash of metal appeared in the corner of Peter’s peripheral vision - bright, brilliant silver, coming straight down toward Mantis’s head - and he shouted, bringing his hands up without hesitation. A blast of white light burned from his palms, stronger than any light he’d projected before, flinging the attacker clean across the field before they could even graze his sister’s shoulder.

Heads turned his way, faces that he didn’t recognize, some humanoid and some entirely alien, all snarling and spitting and full of vitriol he didn’t know was possible. There was a single pause, then they came charging at him, chanting in the language that none of them could understand, holding their swords and guns and spears over their heads with the intent to bring them down on his head. So, Peter did the first thing that came to mind - he ran.

Meredith and Mantis screamed after him until their throats were raw, watching helplessly as the soldiers tore past them in pursuit of Peter, but he wasn’t about to stop, not if his powers would distract them, would keep them from hurting his people. He ran and ran and ran like everyone’s lives depended on it - and in a way, it did - occasionally turning to blast them again, sending them crashing to the ground. It was only when the last of them had finally fallen that Peter realized how far he had gotten and what he had done.

“Mom?” he said rather stupidly, coming to a halt. He knew she couldn’t hear him, not when he was miles away. He turned, then turned again, trying to figure out where he’d come from, but he had zig-zagged all over the fields, through the trees, remembered his feet hitting the water of a shallow stream at some point, and - oh, he thought to himself, unable to find his voice again - I’m lost.

His belly twisted itself in knots the second he realized it, and he clutched at his rapidly beating heart, willing himself to stay calm. He had never been lost before; though the Ark was a behemoth of a ship, there were always people nearby who could help him find his way, no matter how far he wandered off in search of adventure. This was no adventure, this was a nightmare, one in which his vision was getting swallowed up in the darkness, where everything looked the same, but nothing was familiar.

Then, Peter heard a rustling in the nearby bushes. He spooked instantly, leaping backward with a soft yelp. “Don’t be a baby, Peter,” he chastised himself.

He suddenly felt something wrap around his ankles and yank him right to the ground, hitting his chin hard against the dirt. Peter shouted in pain, feeling blood pool in his mouth and nose from the impact, but he was quickly silenced by someone’s hand over his mouth and the weight of someone pinning him down. “Shof op, kepon.”

Peter lifted his head, terrified it was the last thing he was ever going to see, and nearly fainted in shock (and blood loss) at what he did see - a young girl, about his age, baring her teeth at him, blood streaked across her face. He could barely make out any other distinguishing features in the darkness, but he could see the ferocity in her eyes, the kind he’d never seen in someone so young. “You’re a kid,” he said breathlessly.

“Yu...laik goufa.” She looked just as confused as he did, like she was only just seeing him for the first time. She eased her knee away from his stomach (he could feel the bruise already beginning to blossom across his torso) and withdrew the blade she had pressed to his throat, though she still had a tight grip on the advanced-looking device she’d used to bind his ankles. “Chon yu biliak?”

He blinked. “How come my translator don’t work on...whatever it is you’re sayin’?”

She eyed him warily as she got to her feet. “Hakom yu kamp roun hir? Yu hir frag ai op?”

“Look, I don’t know - I don’t - please, you gotta let me go. We just got attacked by - I dunno, prob’ly your people - and I ran and I got lost, and I...I don’t know where I am or what’s goin’ on or - ” His breath rattled between his teeth. Feeling rather silly, Peter held out his hand, scraped raw, blood running down the lengths of his fingers. The girl looked at it with wide eyes, horrified to see what she’d done. “My name is Peter.”

“Ai laik Gamora kom Trikru.” With a soft shnk, his bindings were released, retreating back into the small device she was holding before he could blink. She knelt beside him, pushing her dark hair out of her eyes so they could properly get a look at one another. Her face was softer now, almost regretful. “My name is Gamora. You’re one of the Sky People.”

“Is that what your people are callin’ us?” Peter to struggled to sit up; it felt like every part of his body was aching from the sheer force of her attack, as if a fully-grown adult had attacked him, rather than a girl who had to be at least three inches shorter. “So you do speak...something my translator knows.”

“Trigedasleng is for my enemies, my language is for my people,” she said neatly, almost like she was reciting it from something. “Other children are not my enemy.”

“So what were you gonna do if I was an adult?” Peter asked, incredulous, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

Gamora’s eyes couldn’t meet his. “That isn’t for you to know.”

“You coulda killed me! I think I oughta know,” he protested.

Sighing, she sat back on her haunches and began re-pocketing all her weapons; he was alarmed at the number of pouches and loops she had on her belt. “I would take you back to my leader as my kepon - captive. But I didn’t mean to come this way. I was near the Azgeda border, on my way home, when I saw light - your light. So I wanted to find you. I didn’t know you were a child.”

“So, what, your people don’t kill kids? ‘Cos it looked like they were doin’ it just fine back there,” Peter snapped. He then inwardly cowered for doing so; she seemed merciful so far, like she didn’t want to do what she was doing, but he had a feeling that one wrong word had the potential to change her mind.

“We aren’t the same. I can’t hurt you like I hurt the others.”

“Others?” he echoed.

“Never mind.” She got to her feet abruptly, turning her back to him, the last of her knives back on her belt. “Go home, Petr kom Skaikru. I’m letting you live.”

“Wait.” Peter reached out, clasped her wrist to hold her there. His blood smeared across her skin; she shuddered. “I don’t...I don’t know how to get home. I dunno where I am or how far or...or nothin’.”

She glanced at him over her shoulder. “My people are looking for me.”

“Yeah? So are mine,” Peter retorted, smiling slightly when her expression faltered. “Lots of people died trying to get here. More people are dyin’ right now. I don’t want my mom and sister to think I died, too.”

“You...have a sister.” Gamora turned to fully face him, her expression unreadable. “Fine. I’ll take you back.”

He bit back the urge to draw her into a grateful hug, instead electing to let out a huge sigh of relief. “Thank you, um, Gamora kom...kom...I dunno what you said.”

She rolled her eyes, gesturing for him to fall into step beside her. “Ai laik Gamora kom Trikru, ‘I am Gamora of the Forest Clan’. If you and your people are going to stay, they need to learn Trig. Some factions won’t speak anything else.”

“Then teach me,” he said far too eagerly for someone who she’d tried to kill just ten minutes ago. “You said I was - ”

“Peter kom Skaikru - ‘of the Sky People’,” she replied with a huff; she wasn’t sure if she’d ever been so annoyed with someone’s existence so quickly. “Why would I? We’re never going to see each other again.”

“I guess not,” Peter mumbled. “I mean, with your people tryna kill my people and everything.”

“Wamplei ste komba raun,” Gamora said, her voice low.

“What does that - whoa - ”

Peter nearly tripped over something, unable to see much further than a few feet in the darkness. Bile burned in his throat when he realized it was a body, a body he’d put there. A man in armor, tall and lanky and long-limbed. He reminded Peter too much of Kraglin. Gamora stared down at it, unseeing, barely flinching when the man twitched, gasping for breath, his cold-gray eyes flying open.

“Heda?” he asked, his voice thin. “Heda, beja…”

“Okay,” she said, swallowing. She knelt beside him and motioned for Peter to join her. He did so automatically, too numb to realize what his body was even doing, the metallic smell of blood overwhelming all of his senses. “Leidon...reshwe.”

It took Peter too long to realize what was happening as she drew her blade from her belt, then drove it into the man’s chest. His eyelids fluttered closed, an eerily serene smile on his face, and he drew his last breath. Peter let out a gasp of horror, turned to dry-heave over the grass, but nothing came up. “How could you - ”

“I said we aren’t the same.” When he looked back at her, her eyes were wet as she calmly cleaned her blade with a small cloth.

“I killed that guy,” Peter breathed. “All those soldiers, I - they’re dead, and I - ”

“No. I killed him,” Gamora said. Her breath shook. “He asked me to.”

“Do you just go around killin’ people ‘cos they ask?!” Peter’s voice was getting more hysterical with every word.

“Your people are that way.” She pointed in a direction he could barely follow in his haze. “I think I should go now.”

“Don’t.” Gamora hesitated, furrowing her brow at him. “I don’t know what messed-up stuff has been goin’ on here for the last hundred years, but I do know I’m never gonna get back without you. Then I really am gonna end up...dead.”

Wordlessly, she nodded, got to her feet, and began walking again. He followed her, fists clenched at his side. He’d seen more death than he ever wanted to in a thousand lifetimes, created it, even, but he knew he had no choice. Maybe it was better that they never see each other again, that she was some horrifying child assassin that he thought only existed in the books and films that his father told him he could never look at. For now, though, she was all he had.

The rest of the journey back to the Arkadian camp was in silence. Peter kept his chin high, knowing that if he looked down, he’d see more bodies, only these ones didn’t seem to have people who were going to come for them, not like Yondu and his guardsmen for the Arkadians. Gamora, on the other hand, seemed resigned, the confidence in her stride and her posture from their initial encounter entirely gone. He tried not to pay attention to the sharp inhaling noises she made every minute or so; he knew the sound of someone trying not to cry when he heard it. It gave him hope, at least, that she wasn’t entirely soulless. He supposed he should’ve already known that, given her mercy from earlier, but it was hard to erase the vivid image of her blade in the man’s chest, glinting tauntingly in the moonlight.

“We’re here,” Gamora said hollowly after fifteen minutes of uncomfortable quiet. Peter could smell smoke but saw no flames, heard the idle chatter that told him the fight was over. He heard his father’s voice, booming over all the rest. From his tone, he sounded angry but not stricken, and Peter could only hope that meant the rest of his family were alright.

“Thanks,” he said, his voice raw from disuse. He’d never gone so long without talking before. “Hey, uh, are you gonna be okay? About the...thing?”

She turned to look at him; her nose and ears were tinged pink, and it wasn’t from the cold. “He asked me to...didn’t he?”

I don’t know. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, he would’ve been hurtin’ for way longer if you hadn’t...yeah, he did.” She squeezed her eyes shut, and a single tear rolled down her cheek. Her fingers flexed involuntarily, a motion that Peter had only seen Yondu and his other guardsmen do. He stepped closer, though he didn’t dare to reach out. Her sorrow felt contagious. “Sorry ‘bout getting all mad at you for nothin’. I guess I just...when we left for Earth, we didn’t think it was gonna be like this.”

“What did you think it was going to be?” She dragged the heel of her palm across her face in a feeble attempt to dry her eyes.

“My mom’s from here. She had all these stories about growin’ up in a place called Missouri. She went to church with her parents every Sunday at a place called St. Peter’s. That’s where she got my name,” he added.

“It sounds like it was really nice here...once,” Gamora said, a tiny smile beginning to form. “You should go to your mother now.”

“What about you?” Peter asked, stepping even closer; they were nearly toe-to-toe now. “Do you live around here?”

“You really want me to teach you Trigedasleng,” she drawled, almost like she was teasing him. “Even after - ”

“I mean it, it’s okay. Or I guess, it’s not okay, but...I dunno what I’m saying, my head hurts,” he admitted with a weary laugh. He was getting increasingly delirious with every word that left his mouth. Something about this particular time of night - or day, who knew - made everything feel hazy, dreamlike, uncertain. “So...maybe I’ll see you around.”

Gamora looked at him again, really looked at him this time - he was a skinny kid, the kind that Thanos recruited for thievery; he had inquisitive eyes and a curious mouth. His hair was a little long and his words were a little bit disjointed, but against her instincts, she found herself smiling a little bit wider. “Maybe.”

That seemed good enough for him, and he grinned in a charmingly lopsided way before turning to return to his people. The closer he got, the more his heart drummed in his chest, thrilled at the sound of his mother’s strong accent and his sister’s soft lilt. Peter turned to wave at Gamora, still stood atop the small slope, and called, “Thanks again, Gamora kom Trikru!” With a quiet laugh, her eyes damp with mirth, she waved back.

a/n: I love writing Peter and Gamora meeting for the first time in pretty much all of my AUs so that last sequence was so fun to finally get to! Also, I got a comment on the prologue from the lovely star_munches about being unfamiliar with The 100, so to give you some visuals, here is an idea of what Thanos's settlement would look like (with Sanctuary, his ship from Infinity War instead of the show's Ark), and here is an approximation of how Gamora and Nebula would be dressing at this particular age.

I'm not quite sure when chapter two will be posted, as I have a lot of due dates stacked up next month, but hopefully before the end of March! Thank you so much for reading, likes and reblogs would be much appreciated, and I hope you enjoyed :)

Trigedasleng translations: frag emo op - kill them all shof op, kepon - shut up, hostage / yu laik goufa - you're a child chon yu biliak? - who are you? / hakom yu kamp roun hir? yu hir frag ai op? - why are you here? are you here to kill me? wamplei ste komba raun - death is coming / heda, beja - Commander, please / leidon, reshwe - goodbye, rest in peace

#starmora #starmora fic #peter x gamora #gamora x peter #gotg fic #myfic #myfic: across the universe #marvel #have a good friday/weekend y'all!!

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acultforteenswithtrauma · 6 years ago

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OK so I just got done watching episodes four, five, and six of young justice season three and here are some of my thoughts

Damien and Jason are HERE! I’m not ready! I’m NOT okay! But I’m here for it!

When Dick started quoting Bruce from the pilot, I was SHOOK!

All the references to Wally. I’M NOT OKAY! I repeat I. AM. NOT. OKAY!

We went into M’gann’s mind and Wally appeared beside Artimis! I had to pause it and take like a five minute breather! I am not okay!

When Halo said she wanted to fix the Brion....I’m dead😂

Daddy Harper!!! I did not ask for him, but oh how glad I am that I have him! I love him! I stan! And I need more!

DickBabs!!! Repeat DickBabs is here! It’s real! And it’s thriving! I love it! And I need more...like now!!!! Give me!!!

Zatanna and Zatara are so cute! I’m not okay!

Why isn’t Dick acknowledging Barbara in these episodes?! Like what is going on?! I need to know and I need to know now!!! I’m not okay!

13, Halo, and Forager are precious little beans and we need to protect them at all costs!!!!!!

I love Bart so much!!!!!!

I love Jaime so much!!!!

I love Blue Impulse and I need more!!!!

Dick complaining about hating being an adult is the biggest fucking mood, I swear!!!!!!

Lian. is. so. cute! I love her and if anything happens to her......I’m not okay.

Artemis refusing to talk to anyone until she has her coffee is the biggest fucking mood!!!!!!

I love how well-adjusted Superboy is now!!!!!! Like I stan character growth!!!!! Yes!!!!!!

I loved literally everything about episode four it was so cute! So funny! I stan!!!!!!

When M’gann shapeshifts extra pair of arms just so she can hold all of Forager’s hands!!!! Like oh my god yes!!!!! She get it!!!! I love it!!!! (say it with me...) I’m not okay!!!!

When Dick called Will “Wally”. .......I’m not ofuckingkay!!!!!

Dick refusing to be on a team and get close to people again because he‘s afraid of losing anyone else!!!!! Like baby, honey, no. No! It gonna be okay! Oh my god I just want to hug him!!! Somebody hug him!!!!!!

Dick missing Wally!!!!! Somebody fucking hug this man!!!!! God damnit!!!!

Honestly I’m ready to see Artemis and Barry be seriously torn up about Wally like I’m here...I’m waiting....where is it?!

Also I’m ready to see Barry’s kids!!! Where are they!!!!

Artemis excepting Halo’s hijab without question is honestly everything!!!!!!

The Bowhunter Security squad is everything and I need to see more of them!!!! Like can you say Spinofff!!!!

Jim yelling “but I’m prettier” in response to Will saying he’s older than him is actually everything!!!! I stan the Haper boys!!!!!

Will yelling “to the SUV” like jesus fucking Christ can he be any more of a dad?!😂 I love it!!!!!

I stan Artemis being a mom to literally all of her friends (But especially Halo) so fucking hard!!!!!

The fact that Brion and Forager are basically Connor and M’gann‘s kids is everything!!!!

The fact that Artemis has basically just adopted Halo!!!! I stan!!!!! Like...yes...that is exactly what I didn’t know I needed!!!!

Why is Wolf sleeping so much?! Is he okay?! How long is his life spanned?! I swear to god if they killed Wolf.....I’m not okay!!!!

Will and Dick informing Brick that they were “in the middle of a thing” as they stand on top of a speeding truck....on a cliff....in the middle of a mission.....I can’t. smh😂

“the clipboard never lies”

Halo and apples!!!

Honestly can we have an entire episode that’s just halo talking to different people about apples?! Because I’d honestly watch the shit out of that?!

The fact that young justice is open here giving us the entire fucking BatFam!!! Like yes!!! Thank you!!!! More please!!!!

Halo and Brion’s friendship

Halo asking “Am i broke to now” and Brion screaming “EXCUSE ME” at the top of his lungs!!! I’m dead!! smh

Still waiting for y’all to get on that “jk Wally ain’t dead” arc....anytime now (imnotokay)

That anti-Quraci lady can go die in a hole for she dare hurt my precious Halo bean and so doth she does deserve!!!

Oh my fucking God Tara is Terra!!!! Like that Terra!!! Holy Fucking Shit!!!! I’m done.

Talia is officially in the show y’all, so all I need now is for them to introduce Selina and then for me to get at least one scene with Selina and Bruce versus Talia. Like yes please!!!!

I don’t stan the whitewashing of Talia!!! Fix that shit!!!

Can we all please acknowledge the fact that in M’gann’s mind Dick is still 13?! I love that!! That is so cute!

The parallels between season one Kauldr Wally and dick starting their own team and Brion, Forager and Halo starting their own team is everything!!!! A+

I fucking stan Will Haper’s petty ass!!!😂

Yo M’gann’s little ass brother can go fuck right off!!! He a stupid bitch and I do not stan!!!

Can we all just take a moment here and appreciate the absolute beauty that is Artemis and Zatanna’s relationship?! I fucking STAN women supporting women!!!

Calling it now “Goode” is Granny Goodness y’all

Okay this is all I could think of for now. Inma go re-watch the episodes. I might be back, but feel free to add your own!

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siodymph · 7 years ago

Text

Hey guys! I’m super excited to announce I just completed my first commission!

This is for @danvssomethingorother who asked for an AU where Peter Quill was picked up by Rocket and Groot instead of Yondu. It was a lot of fun to write!

If you’d like you can continue reading it under the cut. Or over on my AO3!

And if you’re interested in getting a commission of your own you can check out my information here!

“Three’s A Crowd”

Rating: general audiences

Word Count: 3173

It was supposed to be a simple mission. Go to Terra. Pick up some snot-nosed little brat named Peter Quill. Bring him to Ego, wherever the hell that was. Make a shit-load of money. How hard could it be? It was just baby-sitting.

Unfortunately… nobody told Rocket or Groot that the kid they were picking up was a complete basket-case. The kid was a total mess. All screaming and crying and kicking and punching, lots of punching.

“Holy shit kid! Will you just calm down alre-”

Rocket had been reaching out a hand only to have it slapped out of the way.

“No! Stay away! Get away from me!” The kid shouted hysterically. Backing into the corner of the ship like some feral animal.

As soon as he had been teleported on-board the kid had taken off running and shouting. Working together, Rocket and Groot had corralled him into one of the storage rooms but Peter didn’t look like he was going to cooperate. “Don’t touch me!”

Groot gave the boy a sad face and reached out a hand. “I am groot?”

“I don’t give a shit who you are! Stay away from me!” Peter cried out, hitting Groot’s arm repeatedly until he finally pulled back.

Turning to Rocket, he made a winning noise as he rubbed his assaulted arm and looked back to the boy.

“Yeah? Well what do’ya want me to do about it?” Rocket groaned. The kid had been on board for a total of four minutes and already he was more trouble than he was worth.

Maybe they could leave him in here for a while, let him cool down? Then after getting some shut-eye they could start again fresh. They hadn’t even gotten the chance to tell Peter what they were doing, as soon as he’d been transported to the ship he was in fight-mode. He doubted the boy had remembered a word either of them said. But maybe he’d be able to shut-up and listen in a couple hours?

Not willing to come up with another plan, Rocket tugged Groot towards the door. “Come on! Kid wants to act like a spaz, he can act like a fricken’ spaz. We’ll deal with this later.”

Groot was stubborn to move, he even tried to give Rocket his sad-eyes, but eventually Rocket got him leave with the promise that they’d talk to the kid after he calmed down.

However, as soon as Rocket had the door open, the kid was off like a flash out of the storage room and down the connector hall.

“Hey! Where the hell do you think you’re going?!” Rocket demanded, immediately going after the boy. As he ran, he whipped back around to Groot. “Go put locks on everything! And disable anything he can get his grubby little hands on!”

“I am groot?”

“No I don’t need any help! He’s just one little kid, how much trouble could he be?” Rocket shouted as he bolted after the kid. It looked like he was heading for the same room he’d been transported in, shit.

“I am groot!”

“Yeah? Well nobody asked you! Just make sure he can’t get off the ship, or break anything important.”

“I am groot!” Groot replied with a huff as he began walking to the cockpit to put the ship on lock-down.

Rocket caught up with the boy in his workshop. Peter found one of his digital drawing panels and was holding it like a life line. The kid must have thought it could control the ship. He kept furiously trying to type and pressing random buttons. When nothing happened he started punching it.

“Hey! HEY! Hands off! That’s expensive!”

But the kid could hardly care. He just kept hitting it and typing in stuff like ‘Return to Earth. Take me to Earth!! Take me home.’

“Knock it off will you?!”

“NO!” Peter shouted, hitting it a couple more times before looking at Rocket wildly. “If… If you don’t take me back to earth, right now, I’m gonna break this!”

“What?!” Rocket couldn’t believe this kid…

“Take me home now or I’m busting this thing!”

“Ugh! I’m not putting you back on Terra! So just stop being a little twerp and put that thing down!” Rocket’s patience for this brat was thinning by the second. “We are not doing this, just give up already! You’re not going back!”

Peter looked at Rocket dead in the eyes. Staring at him. Daring him.

Then he threw the panel at the ground as aggressively as he could.

It didn’t break completely. The screen cracked and one of its corners got crushed in, it would still work. But as soon as that panel hit the ground Rocket saw red.

“That’s it!”

Rocket felt something prickle on the back of his neck. And just as he was about to lunge at the kid a giant wooden arm grew in between them.

“I! AM! GROOT!”

All at once whatever fire burning in Rocket was being doused, and when he saw the scared look on the kid’s face he knew the kid was losing his fight too.

“Who? … What the hell are you people?” Peter asked, breathing heavily, lost.

“I am groot.” Groot answered softly.

“Come on…” Rocket said, still breathing a little weird from their almost-fight. “Let’s get out of here, kid. Groot and I, we’ll explain everything to ya’.”

Rocket was still pissed. Because of that brat now one of his favorite drawing panels for blueprints had a shattered screen. But at least the kid had finally calmed the fuck down. And as the trio left his workshop, Rocket remembered just how lucky he was to have Groot around. Odds were, he’d never be able to run a job like this without him and his eons-worth of patience.

They took Peter up to the cockpit so he could look out the window, really take in space in all its emptiness. As they were fighting their ship had already gone through a jump and left Terra far behind. Up there, they told Peter everything they knew. The Ravager’s deal. Ego. The trip. Peter listened with some confusion, and a little curiosity, but mostly a numbed-shock.

“My mom… My mom kept saying my Daddy was going to come for me… Right before she-” Whatever Peter wanted to say next he stopped himself, curling up into a ball in his chair.

“Oh, so this Ego-guy’s your dad?” Rocket asked. He honestly hadn’t put two and two together. Ego just made it seem like he was looking for some kids. Not his own son.

But Peter didn’t answer. He just sank down into his chair looking sullen. Apparently he was done talking.

Eventually they left to go get some food from the storage room. The kid looked thin as a rail, Rocket noted, and they tried to get him to eat. But even when quiet Peter proved to be stubborn little shit. He did eat a little, but not nearly enough to put Groot at ease, if the sad eyes he kept giving Rocket were anything. And when they finally got the kid to lie down and get some sleep that worried-look had yet to leave Groot’s face. Rocket told himself he didn’t care, but even he made sure to leave an extra bag of snacks next to Peter as he fell into a fitful sleep…

In those first couple days Peter kept to himself. Staying quiet as the dead and listening to his terran music with his headphones blocking out the world. He’d find these hiding spots throughout the ship. Under Rocket’s workstation, the weird gap behind the pilot’s seat, pretty much every nook and cranny on the engine room. As long as he wasn’t breaking anything Rocket didn’t really care. At least he was staying out of the way.

One night though, Rocket woke up to hear the kid bawling his eyes out. Again. Grumbling, he was just about to get off his cot when he heard Groot speaking gently.

“I am groot.”

There was a couple sniffles, then he heard an indignant little reply. “What- what the hell does that even mean?”

“I am groot…”

Rocket jumped down and joined the two. Groot was sitting next to the kid who was curled up into a ball on his cot. Refusing to be touched by anyone. “He said, ‘It’ll be ok.’. If you really wanted to know.”

“How do you know that?” Peter asked.

Rocket gave Groot a look before trying to explain. “You live around him long enough, you start to pick up what he’s saying. It’s kinda weird, and it takes time.”

Peter shook his head. “No! I mean how do you people know it’s going to be ok? It’s never going to be ok ever again!”

“I am groot?”

“Now he’s asking why you’re so sure-”

“Because I stuck in outer space with a talking raccoon and a tree!” Peter shouted, pulling his legs even tighter to his chest. And something seemed to break in his voice. “I’m never going to see my home again! And- And I’ll never see my mom again!”

When Peter started sobbing again, Groot stretched one of his arms out to hug the boy. And this time Peter let him, not even caring about being touched. If anything he actually listed towards Groot’s arm.

Rocket just watched the whole ordeal. The kid was right though. Terra was far behind them now. But he really hated seeing this kid all mopey. It made his face real ugly and he’d make these pathetic noises. That wasn’t the real reason but those were the only ones Rocket let himself think about. No point in admitting he could be getting attached to this kid they were eventually going to leave behind.

Still, Rocket wanted the kid to stop crying just as much as Groot. “Hey? If it makes you feel better Terra’s a dump way out in no-man’s land. You’re better off without it. And hey! Maybe this Ego-guy might come back and pick up your mom too! I mean, if he actually liked her enough to go have a kid with her and all.”

Peter shook his head and his whole body trembled. “-Can’t! She can’t! My mom was sick for a long time… That night, when you guys took me? That was her last- She-” He kept hiccupping as he tried to talk and eventually he just started crying again.

But Rocket finally connected the dots. “So you mom… She ugh- passed?”

Peter didn’t answer, only crawled a little closer to Groot who slowly moved to hug the boy fully.

“Did you have anyone else to look after you? On Terra?”

“My grandpa.” Peter said with a whimper. “But he left me in the hallway. And he wouldn’t even let me come back in…”

“And that’s why you ran out into the woods?” Rocket concluded.

Peter nodded before hiding his face away.

The rest of the night, they stayed by Peter’s side. Talking softly, letting the kid rant, letting the kid cry. And when he finally fell back asleep his face had been wet with tears and a weird pit formed in Rocket’s guts. He really didn’t like seeing this kid so sad…

By morning though, it seemed like something finally changed. For starters Peter joined them up in the cockpit. He still had his headphones in but he made no move to go scurrying under the seats. And for the first time in the entire trip, Peter was the one to begin talking to them, not the other way around.

This trend continued on for several days. And one night in particular, Peter looked up at Rocket as they both climbed onto their cots to rest.

“You know I think I actually like you guys.”

“Woah really?”

Peter nodded as he crawled into his bed. “Yeah, you guys never give me crap for listening to my music all day. And it feels like we talk about real stuff. Not just trying to keep me distracted. Like you guys really want me around…”

For once, Rocket wasn’t sure how to respond. On one hand, he kept trying to see this kid as just a paycheck in the making. However the more time he spent around this kid the more he felt like something was growing. Something that really shouldn’t be growing towards a kid he’d probably never see again…

As they got closer to Ego, these doubts in Rocket’s mind only seemed to get worse. And despite never saying anything to Peter, the kid figured out that they were almost there. He started getting all mopey again and tried hiding all day. And while one part of Rocket almost preferred this, it could make saying goodbye all the more easier, another part of him just felt hurt even worse.

Still though, he had a job to do, and he planned to do it. He had a deal to finish.

At least that was what he thought before. When they were just days away from Ego, a Ravager warship suddenly came down on them and blocked their path.

Not even getting time to reply over radio, a figure was teleported on board. A man with blue skin and a metallic fan imbedded into his scalp. And an arrow in his quiver that had decimated thousands…

“Gentlemen.” The man said, speaking with a twang unnervingly similar to a dialect of English on Terra’s southern US region.

“Yondu.” Rocket replied currently. “What are you doing here?”

“And I take that one’s Peter.” Yondu chose to ignore Rocket and gestured to the boy. The boy in return stuck his head out from behind Groot to give him a scowl. “Nice kid you got there.”

“Fuck off!” Peter shouted.

Yondu seemed hardly phased though. He just leered at the kid, grinning. “Hear you’re Terran. And you know what they say, Terran’s good eatin’. Especially the little ones.”

With wide eyes and suddenly much paler, Peter ducked down behind Groot. And when Yondu started to laugh Groot gave him a judgmental look.

“I am groot.”

“Yeah? Well I thought that was pretty funny. Why don’t you go take terran-boy there for a walk?” Yondu replied with a grin. Only to have it melt away as he looked back to Rocket. “We got something we ought to talk about.”

Groot looked unsure, but Rocket silently waved him and Peter out of the room. And once they were completely alone Yondu breathed a heavy sigh. It was almost like watching a transformation. One moment he was a ruthless, somewhat-charming Captain of the Ravengers, the next he was this sunken, haunted man.

“Alright what the hell is going on here?” Rocket demanded. “I thought we had a deal. You wanted me to help you grab a kid off Terra, I grabbed the kid off Terra. I did everything you asked me to!”

Yondu let him speak, but when the time came for answers he stilled seemed reluctant to talk. “I’ll give ya’ credit, you did your job… Problem is I don’t think even you’d wanna go through with this.”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Rocket snapped.

“That boy.” Yondu said. “You like him?”

Now that he was put on the spot Rocket felt his confidence falter for a few seconds. How did he feel about Peter? How did he really feel? “I don’t know. He’s a good kid, has a lot of fight in him. Thinks he’s real smart and sometimes he’s right. He’s not the worst kid in the galaxy. But it’s not like I’ve been going outta my way to bond with this kid, especially since we’re supposed to be dropping him off soon.”

Ever since Rocket saw the Ravager’s ship, a piece of doubt had begun growing in him. “We are dropping him off soon, right?”

Yondu leaned in close, voice barely above a whisper. “If you care about that boy you’ll keep him away from Ego. He ain’t what he seems and that’s all I’ll say about that.”

Rocket was at a loss for a second. “So what the hell am I supposed to do with him?! You realize how much time I’ve spent dragging him across the cosmos!”

“Drag him through more! I don’t care what you do make sure Ego doesn’t find’em again!” Yondu snarled, still keeping his voice low. And after a moment Yondu sighed and tried to calm down. “Alight, if you really don’t want the kid I can take him in. Ravagers ain’t a real family but we stick together. I can find some place to put him.”

For a single moment Rocket was tempted to say yes. But as he did he started thinking more about Peter. How he bobbed his head and mouthed the words as he listened to his terran music. How he hung off Groot’s branches when he got bored. How he got this funny look on his face whenever he was focusing. How he got this fiery look in his eyes when he tried to fight. Or even how sometimes Rocket could catch him softly smiling as he fell asleep on his cot. How happy Peter made Groot… And instead of taking Yondu up on his offer he found himself saying,

“You don’t have to do that. We can take care of him.”

Yondu frowned and gave him a pointed look. “You sure?”

Rocket really wasn’t sure, but he nodded anyways. “Yeah we should be alright. Just a little change of plans, that’s all.”

“Ok…” Yondu said. Backing away from Rocket slowly. “I just wanted to warn you fellas about Ego.”

“Yeah, I’ll make sure Peter stays away from him.”

“Good… Good…” Yondu seemed unsure what to say next, but just before he left he turned back. “You’re a good man Rocket, you know that? I don’t care what you or anyone else says. Be good to the boy…”

And with that, he disappeared in a flash of light, and the Ravager’s ship finally flew away.

“I am groot?”

Rocket turned to see Groot and Peter both waiting by the door.

“Yeah, he’s gone.”

Peter still looked around the room for the blue man before carefully stepping in. “What the hell was that about?”

“Nothing you gotta worry about.” Rocket said, “Just a little change in plans. Apparently we aren’t sending ya to Ego.”

“You’re not?” Peter asked. Rocket couldn’t understand the look that passed Peter’s face. It was several things all at once.

“No… you’re staying with us.”

Rocket was nervous to see how Peter would react, but what he hadn’t been expecting was for the kid to start smiling.

“Really?”

“Yep,” Rocket replied. “We were going to send you to Ego but now we can’t. So I guess we’re just gonna keep ya kid.”

“I… I don’t mind.”

Grinning, Peter looked between Rocket and Groot. And Groot bent down two wrap them all in a hug.

“I am groot!”

“Yeah…” Rocket said, almost feeling like laughing. “Couldn’t of said it better myself!”

#gotg #writing commissions #commisions open #peter quill #rocket raccoon #groot #starlord

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ablackwing · 7 years ago

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meme; listen i know what you think about this topic, but i think the world needs reminded about how you and i feel about popular fanon that vincent is sephiroth's father --

-SLAMS HIS HANDS ONTO HIS DESK.- VINCENT IS SEPHIROTH’S FATHER YOU SAY?

GUESS WHAT.

NO HE’S NOT.

oh my god it’s been so long since someone poked me at this subject so let’s see how rusty i am at ranting about this but i have bundaberg peach juice and a snowman cookie from starbucks so i’m fueled and ready to go for this idea’s throat--

I’m putting this under a read more because this thing got long and I don’t wanna kill anyone’s dash.

okay okay okay where to start, where to start; this fanon is so entrenched in the fandom that there’s a lot of people who believe it’s canon. i mean, you do you, and all that, but this theory isn’t canon won’t be canon and will never be canon unless the remake confirms something different or the big guys come out and say that yes this is true. but it’s been twenty years and i’m sure they’d have come out with it by now if it was the truth. seeing as how they have yet to do so, i think the fandom’s going to continue with the idea even though i reach out to enlighten those that stick to it.

alright, lucifer, i hear you saying, you have a point in that fandom likes to cling to things ( like the cloti versus clerith fight ). but what makes you so sure vincent isn’t the father?

well let’s see here--

let’s start with subject a ( or as I like to call him, subject ass-tronomical ), the father of brooding edginess himself, vincent valentine! ( and if you’re not reading this in an announcer’s voice i’m doing something wrong here. ) okay but seriously, let’s take a look at subject a; vincent.

now, in my commonly held belief ( that is mine, for the record, let the record show that i stated it’s mine ) a turk is a turk is a turk. it’s like the marines. just because you retire from active service doesn’t mean you stop being a turk. case in point is veld; veld disappears from the turk service but he never quits being a turk. that’s something that they make clear is that you’re dealing with an older turk. a rarity to be sure. but the fact remains that you’re dealing with a turk nevertheless. now what do we know about turks? they’re fiercely loyal to the company. they’re the dirty side of shin-ra. they’re the ones who get into the back alleys and do the work of making sure that shin-ra stays on top of things. they’re highly trained individuals who have instincts and skills to rival SOLDIER and they’re dangerous as hell. really, between an angry SOLDIER and an angry Turk, i’d take the SOLDIER any day.

all of this is a set-up for vincent, of course. he’s one of the best turks in the business and let’s have that fact on brass tacks: vincent valentine is one of the best turks ever.

which is why i find everything that he remembers about his time with lucrecia so jarring, especially with what we know about turks. vincent’s memories are of soft fields and picnics and other such things that look great at the surface but you know lucrecia’s gotta be working some kind of magic on vincent because he’s a turk. we’re talking vincent probably knows the back alleys of midgar like the back of his own hand and can tell you where to get an unmarked gun for half the price you’d pay for it through a more legit means. that’s what turks are. they’re mobsters. they don’t do picnics ( not in a place where there’s wildlife that can maim you have you seen the area around nibelheim? ) and they wouldn’t romance their charge.

that’s right, lucrecia was vincent’s charge. but so was hojo.

now, hold up you say, what’s this about hojo and lucrecia being his charges?

the turks are able to work as bodyguards i say. just look at rufus and his father for proof of that. obviously lucrecia was an important scientist if she warranted the turk’s protection and we find out why during vincent’s memories but everything we see of how vincent looks at lucrecia seems far more like he idolized her. it was something that we see from the first when he speaks with her, and always it’s with respect and a bit of wonder. but really, you gotta wonder about those scenes of vincent spending time with lucrecia and apparently sleeping on the job which is something that a turk would never do.

alright but lucifer you’re just picking apart the ship where’s the reasoning for vincent not being sephiroth’s father --

the reasoning is just in what i’ve said. vincent doesn’t act like himself about lucrecia and that is, i think, highly telling of how he looked at her. he idolized the woman. he almost worships her. he’s obviously put her on a pedestal and he won’t take her off of it any time soon. these aren’t the notions of a man who wants to bed someone. or who desires someone. they’re all the worship and reverence one treats a superior with. vincent saw lucrecia as his superior in a way and when she chose hojo over him, that’s the first time that you really get the idea that vincent was in love with the idea of lucrecia without really being in love with her. that’s something that comes up a lot in fiction and real life. one of the best examples that springs directly to mind is robert baratheon and lyanna stark; ned himself says that robert was in love with the idea of lyanna without truly being in love with her. so vincent was in love with the idea of lucrecia.

but vincent isn’t our only contender folks! what about hojo!

yessssss, i whisper, rubbing my hands together. what about hojo?

seriously. what about hojo? we all know that hojo leads to sephiroth leads to final fantasy 7 and crisis core and all the others but first how did he and lucrecia hook up? that’s a question for the ages and i think that it’s simple; they were working together, hojo was hot, and they banged. a lot of people scream that vincent has to be sephiroth’s father because they look alike but may i remind folks that square is lazy and used almost the same model for zack from crisis core and terra in birth by sleep? their facial models are a lot alike. square is a lazy company and will do that. graphics don’t count for anything as far as familial relations are concerned. yes, sephiroth and vincent look alike, but that doesn’t mean a single thing.

now, one of the most common reasons hojo can’t be the father for sephiroth is that he’s “ugly” i hear people decrying.

EXCUSE ME FOLKS. DID YOU FORGET THAT HOJO EXPERIMENTED ON SEPHIROTH WHO WAS BORN WITH ALIEN GENETICS BEFORE HE WAS EVEN BORN? DID YOU?

Yes, that’s what I thought, sit down I’m not done yet, you can get back in your seat now--

hojo isn’t actually that ugly given dirge’s depiction of him. he looks old and grumpy but if you look close you can see similarities between him and sephiroth. just like you can see similarities between sephiroth and vincent. people see what they want to see here. but really, hojo and sephiroth not looking alike is very simple; hojo injected jenova cells into sephiroth and he was born and grew up looking the way he did. hojo never openly claimed to be his father but that’s because sephiroth was probably literally commissioned by the president as a project and hojo was never allowed to show any paternal pride in his son. seriously, we’re talking about a megalomaniacal company here that takes things apart and puts them back together in new and interesting ways just to see if they’ll work, be those things people or animals or machines. sephiroth’s just the most well known experiment of shin-ra’s, ya know? hero of the wutai war and all of that.

okay, you’re convinced i hear you saying on that part. but what about lucrecia?

lucrecia’s gone, babe. she gave birth to sephiroth and then ran away. she consented to let hojo experiment on her while she was pregnant and i don’t think she would’ve done that if he hadn’t been the baby daddy. if anything she probably would’ve run away if it’d been vincent’s baby and sephiroth would’ve lived a normal life and none of the supremely jacked up bullshit that happened to zack and cloud and everyone else wouldn’t have happened. or maybe it wouldn’t have happened so badly. or it could’ve been worse. okay, butterfly effect aside--

the evidence just remains in hojo’s corner about him being the father of sephiroth. vincent idolized lucrecia and if he did have feelings for her, he kept them to himself until the worst possible moment. really, for he did get shot. but vincent wouldn’t risk his child if lucrecia did have his baby. he wouldn’t have let her be part of the experiments. hojo on the other hand...

well. i’m a firm believer of hojo being the baby daddy because it just adds that extra level of fucked up angst that we all love.

that and i can seriously go on about this for forever but my juice and cookie are gone so PEACE OUT.

#if you read this whole thing i'm impressed #and i hope i made someone laugh with it #i did my best here #galianbork

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pikapegasus · 8 years ago

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OMG stamora with number 90 please!! “Our kid is totally the one who wanted to build a pillow fort, not me.”

90. “Our kid is totally the one who wanted to build a pillowfort, not me.”

oh my god this is so late i’m so bad i’m so sorry i don’t even remember what list this is from lmfao

anyway, inbox is closed so i can actually make a dent in all the prompts waiting in here lsdnvlsbroerbnl

also hooray it’s time to introduce starmora kiddo #3 since i got another prompt asking for baby #3,,, introducing katherine “kat” quill named after, you guessed it, cat stevens. goodbye

((also yes i am convinced that peter quill’s sperm is only capable of producing daughters))

It’s been a long time since the Quadrant’s been completelyquiet.

…On second thought, it’s never been completely quiet, but there’s a noticeable difference between thevolume years ago and the volume now, three children later.

But if Gamora’s learned one thing as a parent, it’s thatsilence is hardly a good thing. Mer’s more on the reserved side, so she can be fairlyquiet, and while Ari can be a little rowdy, she’s been busying herself latelyby watching Rocket tinker (no bombsallowed is the rule for that) in awe. Then there’s Kat, their youngest, who’sproven herself to be the chattiest of the three, even though she can’t quitetalk yet.

And if the girls are all hanging out with Peter, then there really shouldn’t be silence.

So Gamora walks to the communal area she’d last seen themall in, only to find the chairs from the dining table arranged in a circle-likeformation beside the couch with blankets draped over them, no girls or Peter insight.

Until she hears a giggle from behind the blanket wall.

She approaches the strange setup, kneeling on the floor andlifting the blanket up.

Two mischievously grinning girls, a giggly baby, and guiltyPeter greet her.

“Hey,” Peter says, holding Kat in his lap. Ari pokes hercheek, making Kat giggle, which, in turn, makes both Ari and Mer giggle. “Ourkids are totally the one who wanted to build a pillow fort, not me.”

A pillow fort. That’sa new one. Must be some Terran game. Gamora raises an eyebrow. “And you’regoing to put everything back afterward?”

“Uh,” Peter looks to the trio between them, who are convenientlynot paying attention to their conversation about cleaning up, “yes?”

Gamora smiles then. “May I come in?”

“There’s a password,” Ari insists, holding her hand up tostop Gamora. “What’s the password?”

“Mommy doesn’t need to give the password,” Mer says,scrunching up her face.

“Everyone has togive the password,” Ari says. “That’s the rules.”

“That’s a dumb—“

“Hey, hey,” Peter cuts in before a real argument breaks out,because Mer and Ari, even at their young ages, have somehow mastered the art offighting over anything. Gamoraunderstands, of course; she and Nebula hadwanted to kill each other for a few years. “Here’s a compromise: you can giveyour mom a hint for the password.”

That seems to placate them, though Ari’s still frowning. Katwaves her arms around with another giggle and Peter readjusts her placement onhis lap.

“Okay,” Mer says happily. “The hint is that it’s Daddy’sfavorite food from Terra!”

“’Food’ is a bit of a stretch,” Peter comments.

“No more hints!” Ari says to him. “Mama gets one guess.”

They’d visited Terra a few times since defeating Thanos, soPeter could reconnect with his home world more, and there was, in fact, onefood—or, really, dessert—he enjoyedmore than anything else there.

“I have my answer,” Gamora says.

“What is it?” Ari asks.

“Ice cream.”

“Awwww, you know me so well,” Peter says.

“Okay, you can enter,” Ari says, nodding.

Gamora ducks her head and crawls into the small space. It’sa little stuffy, but the girls don’t seem to mind. Kat reaches her hands out toher.

“Go to your mama, Kitty-Kat.” Peter passes her over toGamora, who sets Kat down on her lap.

“What happens next in your ‘pillow fort’ game?” Gamora asks,wrapping her arm around Kat to steady her.

“We’re having a team meeting,” Mer says.

“Oh?”

“Like you and Daddy do, ‘cept it’s our team.”

“We’re gonna fight the Soviets!”Ari declares.

“The Sovereign,” Petercorrects. “How do you even know about the Soviet…you know what? Never mind. I’mjust not going to ask.”

“We have to strat—strateg—make a plan!” Mer says.

“That’s a good start,” Gamora says, giving Kat her left handto play with. Kat fiddles with her wedding band. “Does our team have a name?”

“The Avengers!” Ari yells.

“That’s already taken, Ari-baby,” Peter says, poking Ari’sarm.

“We’re the Avengers!” Mer insists.

“Aven!” Kat tries to echo, pulling Gamora’s fingers up toher mouth.

Gamora pulls her hand out of the way just in time. “There’salready a team with that name.”

“But I like their name,” Mer says.

“They’re cool,” Ari says, nodding solemnly.

“You’ve met them, like, once,tops,” Peter says.

“No!” Ari says. “We met them more.”

“And now we’re theAvengers,” Mer says.

Since Kat entered their lives, everything’s pretty muchthree to two now, so Gamora just gives up. Peter shrugs, probably thinking thesame.

“Okay, so we’re…the Avengers,”he says, as if it hurts him to speak their name. “And this is our battle strategymeeting.”

“Groot is gonna be the Sovereign,” Mer whispers loudly toGamora.

“Yes, good, Mer, always know the enemy,” Peter says,gesturing to her. She nods proudly. “We need a plan on how we’ll attack.”

“Charge him!” Ari says.

“That’s a bad plan,” Mer says.

“I think,” Gamora says, “one person should distract him fromthe front while the rest of us attack from behind.”

“Who should be the distraction?” Mer asks.

Kat coos then, and all eyes fall to her.

“That’s Kat’s job now,” Ari says.

“Poor Groot—I mean, the Sovereign—won’tknow what hit him,” Peter says, grinning at Gamora over Ari’s head.

“He’s a good brother,” Gamora says, returning the smile.

As Mer and Ari continue discussing (or, really, bickering over) battle strategies, withPeter chiming in occasionally, Gamora hugs the squirming Kat a little moretightly to herself, pressing a kiss to Kat’s hair. Kat’s their final child (asshe and Peter had decided), so Gamora’s been trying to soak up as much time aspossible with her while she’s still so little. Watching Mer and Ari discuss,she’s taken by how big they’ve both gotten, though they’re still youngchildren.

But, she reminds herself, that’s not of concern at thepresent moment. They still have to defeat “the Sovereign,” of course. That’sthe more pressing matter, clearly.

“Don’t forget,” Gamora speaks up, “after the battle’s won,we need to clean up this fort.”

“But Daddy said we could sleep here,” Mer says.

“Daddy definitely did not say that,” Peter says, grimacing.

“Yeah, you did!” Ari says, frowning at him.

“Uh…”

“Then Daddy can sleep here with you,” Gamora says.

“But Daddy snores,”Mer protests.

“No boys allowed,” Ari says.

“Mommy can stay.”

“Yeah, Mama can stay.”

“Totally uncool,” Peter grumbles, wrapping his arms aroundboth girls and pulling them back to him with a huff. They squeal, trying towiggle out of his grasp. “And here I thought I’d be the coolest parent ever forshowing you how to build a fort.”

“Mommy is cooler,” Mer says with a giggle.

“Yeah!” Ari says.

Gamora just smirks. Peter groans.

“Daughters, man. Ruthless.”

#starmora #gamora #peter quill #star lord #guardians of the galaxy #mcu #mer and ari and kat quill #fanfiction #tumblr exclusive #hooooly fuck this is late as hell #Anonymous

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rootbeergoddess · 7 years ago

Text

Weekend’s at Yondu: Chapter Three

The final chapter. The weekend winds down and so far, things have gone smoothly. Buttercup will be fine, won’t she? Nothing can go wrong! @barkingpanther helped out with the grammar and editing! a03 link right here.

Kraglin woke up with a start. Buttercup was curled up on his stomach, her thumb in her mouth. Sighing with relief, he rubbed her back. She stirred, but she kept her eyes closed. Snoring came from the bathroom and Kraglin figured that Yondu had just fallen asleep in the bathroom. Kraglin shook his head as he carefully stood up, holding onto Buttercup. She still remained asleep as he headed downstairs.

“C’mon, wake up,” Kraglin nudged her a bit.

“I sleep.” She replied.

“Buttercup, if you don’t wake up,” Kraglin grinned, “Mr. Tickle Monster is coming.”

“I sleep!” She said again, a small smile on her face.

“You asked for it! Here comes Mr. Tickle Monster!”

Kraglin started tickling Buttercup and she squealed with laughter. Kraglin threw her up in the air and caught her. Buttercup wore a big smile on her face as Kraglin headed into the bathroom. Sure enough, Yondu was passed out on the floor. Thank god he was still in his clothing. Kraglin didn’t want Buttercup scarred for life. Kraglin nudged Yondu with his foot. Yondu snorted before opening his eyes.

“Rise and shine boss.”

“What time is it?” Yondu groaned, “Ugh, my back.”

“Up!” Buttercup demanded, “Grampy up!”

“Alrighty, rugrat,” Yondu stood up, “I’m up.”

Buttercup wiggled about in Kraglin’s arms and he handed her off to Yondu. Yondu grinned as Buttercup laid her head against his chest. He was still a bit angry at being stuck at the toilet all night but Buttercup made it all better. She looked up at him and smiled. God, how could one human being so perfect?

“What’s for breakfast, Krags?” Yondu asked.

“I could make some pancakes.”

“Pancakes!” Buttercup started wiggling again, “Pancakes please!”

“I’d say it’s unanimous,” Yondu put Buttercup on his shoulders, “To the kitchen.”

“Yay!”

“Ahhhh!” Buttercup held her mouth open.

Yondu feed her a piece of pancake which she happily ate. Sitting in her highchair, she let her feet dangle and she moved her toes. She was always moving. Just like her Daddy. Quill was a squirmy thing too. According to Peter, when Buttercup got a bit older, they were going to enroll her in a dance class. Yondu could see his grandbaby becoming one of those fancy dancers with the nice shoes.

“‘Nother bite!”

“What do you say, pipsqueak?’

“Pwease?”

“That’s my girl,” Yondu fed her some more pancake, “She’s a real lady. I can’t wait to see her when she gets older. Betcha she’ll be one of them balloon thingies.

“I think they’re called ballerinas. You don’t think she’ll grow up to be like Quill?” Kraglin asked.

“God, I hope not. I hope she ends up like Gamora.”

Buttercup ate all her pancakes and was let out of her highchair. She pushed herself up from the floor and waddled around. She was still a bit wobbly when it came to walking. That was natural for Terran babies. Peter said she was going to get a lot more steady as she got older. Yondu had faith in her. He knew his granddaughter was going to do amazing, wonderful things.

“I’m telling you, Kraglin, she might end up ruling the world,” Yondu continued, “I could see it. She’s the queen of Terra, ruling with an iron fist.”

“Really? You think Buttercup would be some cruel leader? I don’t---” Kraglin suddenly stopped, “Boss, where is she?”

“What, are you blind? She’s right--”

Yondu looked down and saw Buttercup was gone. Instantly, his heart dropped to his stomach. Buttercup wasn’t really a strong walker so she couldn’t have gone far. Quickly, he ran into the living room. No, she wasn’t there. Panic started to settle in as he headed upstairs. When he found she wasn’t in her room or the bathroom, he started to think the worse. Not only was she missing but her parents would be home in just a few hours! Oh god, Yondu was dead. He was worse than dead. Gamora was going to cut him into small pieces and fry him up for dinner.

“Boss,” Kraglin had followed him upstairs, “The door downstairs! We left it open.”

Oh yeah, Yondu was dead.

Yondu ran downstairs and sprinted out to the backyard. He looked around in fear until he finally saw Buttercup.

On top of the Milano.

A butterfly was in front of Buttercup and the young child was completely entranced. She had followed it, crawling on the Milano’s wing to get to it. Completely unaware the danger, she followed the butterfly as it floated into one of the open windows of the ship. When she disappeared into the metal contraption, Yondu almost lost his mind. With Kraglin behind him, Yondu ran into the Milano.

“Buttercup!” He shouted, “Sweetie, where are you? Answer Grampy!”

His voice echoed back. The ship wasn’t too big but it was big enough for Buttercup to get into trouble. Rocket probably had left tons of unfinished weapons lying around and he was sure Drax kept his sharpest knives on the Milano. God, what if there were guns too? There was so much that could hurt a child! Why did Peter have to follow in his footsteps and be a space traveler?

Suddenly, he heard a giggle.

“Buttercup?” He asked, “C’mon darling, speak up so Grampy can find you!”

He heard another giggle. Kraglin and Yondu followed the voice. God, there were way too many hallways on this damn thing. If only he had X-ray vision so he could see through the metal of this forsaken thing. His heart was beating like mad as he ran through the hallways of the cold ship. Oh god, where was Buttercup? If only she would come out! He just wanted to see her smiling face. That was all he wanted. He wanted to make sure his darling grandbaby was okay.

A blur of orange past his face and Yondu saw the butterfly that Buttercup had been chasing. It fluttered in front of his face before going back into the room where it came from. Yondu ran in and instantly, his fears vanished.

Lying on Peter’s bed was Buttercup. She was lying on one of her father’s shirt, holding it close to her. When she saw Yondu, she looked a bit sad.

“What’s the matter kiddo?” Yondu asked.

“Mama, Daddy.” She replied.

“I think she misses Pete and Gamora.” Kraglin said.

“Is that it?” Yondu asked and Buttercup nodded, “Well guess what? They’re coming home today.”

“Soon?” She asked.

“Pretty soon,” Yondu walked over to the bed, “But you can’t go on this ship by yourself okay? It’s dangerous. You almost gave Kraggles a heart attack.”

“Wanna play ba fly!” Buttercup pointed to the butterfly.

“I know honey but what you did was dangerous. You can’t climb on this ship, it’s not a toy,” Yondu explained, “You don’t wanna get hurt do ya?”

“No.”

“So, if you want to go on the ship, you have to ask someone first. Okay?”

“Kay Grampy,” Buttercup watched the butterfly fly off, “Buh bye.”

“Who would think a butterfly would cause so much trouble,” Kraglin watched the butterfly, “It’s a good thing we found her.”

“Yeah,” Yondu said with a sigh, picking her up, “Gamora would have murdered us in our sleep. C’mon, little bit. Let’s go inside and wait for your parents.”

“Kay.”

“We’re home!” Peter declared as they opened up the door. “God, I am so glad we’re back! I missed my little princess. Where is she?”

“Yondu? Kraglin?” Gamora set her suitcase down, “It sure is quiet. I wonder---oh!”

“What? What is it?”

Peter joined Gamora at the living room. He smiled at what he saw. Buttercup was lying on Yondu’s stomach, her thumb in her mouth and one of Peter’s shirts in her other hand. Kraglin was on the floor, leaning against the couch. Both Yondu and Kraglin were fast asleep, snoring up a storm. Peter reached into his pocket and took out his phone. He took a picture and showed it to Gamora. She smiled.

“I told you there was nothing to worry about,” Gamora said, “Let’s let them sleep.”

“Good idea,” Peter said.

Buttercup shifted but only to move her head, happily slumbering on the stomach of her grandfather.

#Rootbeer Writes #Guardians of the Galaxy #Yondu #Kraglin #Yondu Udonta #Kraglin Obfonteri #Peter Quill #Gamora

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novankenn · 11 months ago

Text

Nora in:

Tea With Jaune's Family...

(Sourced from Google / Generated by Perchance AI / Sourced from Google)

Salem == Jasmine

Saphron == Terra

Nora (1) == Nora (2)

Story-Time ==

#rwby #Nora in : Tea with Jaune's family #jaune arc #nora valkyrie #nora's arc #salem #saphron cotta arc #adrian cotta arc #terra cotta arc #jaune is salem's descendant #jaune is a descendant of salem theory #jaune's mom is just as baby crazy as grandma salem #is saph baby crazy too?#terra wants a REAL baby daddy

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weapon13whitefang · 8 years ago

Note

how about meth, meredu, and bethyl for the sad otp meme! plz & thx

I can do that! Thanks for the ask, nonny! Yaaaay!

TWD Meth

who gets overwhelmed by small acts of kindness?

Merle, but only for the simple fact that he grew up seeing kindness as a weakness that his father used against him and Daryl and their mother. So having someone give him kindness in any form is always so foreign to him.

who flinches at sudden movements?

Beth, because Merle can be a loose canon and hard to prepare for and he can be up in your face and you don’t know if he’s gonna explode and leave a mess or just growl at you like a cornered animal.. Merle actually flinches very subtly when it comes to Beth doing sudden things he doesn’t expect - like hand holding or soft touches or hugs from behind.

who is most confused as to why their S.O. is still with them?

Merle, though simply because of deep rooted insecurities on his part. Beth has her moments of confusion on how they’re still together, but for the most part she trusts that things will work out and has faith in them. Merle, more often than he’d ever admit aloud, is always waiting for the other shoe to drop and for things to go wrong.

who has to constantly check their S.O. still loves them?

Merle does it in a possessive sort of way. It’s kind of bad on his part, but he can make a test out of it against Beth. He does feel a smidgen of guilt for it later when she’s still standing by him, but not enough to not do it again later.

who says the other/s would be better off with someone else?

Beth has made the comment to Merle before that she wonders if she is a burden to him. While she doesn’t want to throw him to someone else, she will question if she’s keeping him “tied down” or “feeling obligated” to be with her. Which always gets a rough squash from Merle.

who gets surprised when they are given gifts?

Beth because getting a gift is not something she’s ever prepared for with Merle. Again, he’s unpredictable. So it’s hard for her to always know how to react to getting a simple gift from him - a guitar he found, new clothes, a baby book for her to use for Judith, more notebooks to write in, etc etc etc.

who is most likely to break down on the other and how does their S.O. attempt to calm them down?

That would be Merle. Age aside, Beth’s a lot better at her emotions than people give her credit for. She knows most of that falls on her trying to take her life, but she doesn’t hold that view against them. Merle, however, knows his emotions, but he often cages them down and uses them in unproductive ways. So an occasional break down isn’t impossible for the man.

who is most self conscious in public?

Neither of them. Merle could give a fuck about what others think and Beth has made it clear that she’s going to do what she feels is right, regardless of what others think of her for it.

who is more likely to apologize a million time for a tiny mistake?

Both, though it’s different how. Beth would vocalize her apologies over and over because she’d want Merle to be sure and comforted to hear her words. Merle is more of an actions speak kind of guy, so he’d show it in subtle ways; holding her tighter, little brushes of skin on skin, etc.

who admits they’re scared only when they think their S.O. is asleep and how does the other react?

Beth admits that sometimes she wakes up to dreams of her mother dying and to dreams of loosing him and everyone in the prison, hinting to him her insecurity that she is just some stupid girl and not strong enough like him or Carol or Michonne. And Merle’s way of handling that is to basically say she is a stupid girl if she thinks she’s weak just because she can’t chop a walker to bits like Michonne or scare the balls off men like Mouse. Merle is good at reading people, and would gruffly but with a gentle hold on her, explain that she is strong in ways that others can no longer be; kind, carring, she sings, she still smiles, she’s patient and keeps a fire of hope burning. With his knowledge - which Merle has a lot from reading - he’d make the off-hand comment that she’s like Hestia, Greek Goddess of the hearth, home, domesticity, and family. Which Beth would tease him a little about calling her a Goddess to which he’d actually shrug and say “Yer my Goddess, ain’t cha?” and that would just ensure cute blushing from Beth and stiffening of Merle beause “shit I didn’t mean ta say that sappy shit out loud” lol.

who never thinks they’re good enough for the other?

Merle believes he truly is not good enough for Beth and believes he should let her go, but he’s stubborn and greedy enough to want to keep her to himself.

who takes a bullet for the other

Definetly both, seeing as Beth would throw herself instinctively to protect Merle and Merle would rather be shot than see Beth be shot down before him if he can shield her sooo yeah, both.

Meredu

who gets overwhelmed by small acts of kindness?

Yondu, only because kindness and sentimental gestures can get you tossed out an airlock or worse with a bunch of space pirates who would look at that kind of stuff as a weakness and not something good for a Captain to show.

who flinches at sudden movements?

Meredith, though not often anymore these days. At first it was because she didn’t know the rough Captain and she never knew if his motives were for her gain or his. Now though - over time - she trusts Yondu and flinches are rare and in-between. Now Yondu has one or two flinches, but they’re always due to a PTSD from his time as a slave and while he’s much better at channeling those things, they still happen.

who is most confused as to why their S.O. is still with them?

Yondu, because he knows what he’s done in the past and what he will do. He’s killed many a men. He’s sent children to their death for profit. He’s lied and cheated and stole. He’s done some pretty bad things and he knows his hands are stained with sin. What pirates isn’t? So he never understands completely why Meredith would let herself - willingly - be touched by him or why she would willingly touch him.

who has to constantly check their S.O. still loves them?

Both are a bit insecure in the L department. Yondu has his baggage - his past with being a slave (sold by his own parents), sending children to their death, his fallout with Stakar (daddy/big brother figure) and the other Ravagers, his thieving and lying and killing - and Meredith having her trust issues because of Ego basically mind-fucking her up and using her for his gain (even if she absolutely loves Peter to death and would die for him), and then discovering what he’s done to his other flings and their children… Well lets just say they both have to check in on the L train sometimes to feel better.

who says the other/s would be better off with someone else?

Yondu, as - again - man has his hang ups. But also because he knows Meredith is a rare kind of woman who sees past someones appearance to see them for who they are. And even the worst of the worst Ravagers, she does her best to look past their dark cover to who they are and Yondu believes that if she stays with him - stays aboard the Eclector and around the Ravager life and around his banished crew - she’ll be “tainted”. Meredith finds that a loud of crockshit and has told him so more than once.

who gets surprised when they are given gifts?

Both, though only at first. Because the first time Yondu finds a little trinket figure - a damn Ziggy Stardust figure (come on I know it’s not time period appropriate but it would be damn cute) - on his council and learns who it’s from, he can’t even try to hide his awe as he holds the trinket like it’s made of precious material. And Meredith is on straight surprise when she goes to her room and finds that Yondu has found a junker that has a rather impressive Terra collection and pays a lot of units to get new clothes, a damn mini record player with records, and a bunch of mix tapes and even toys for Peter and well… Yeah. They both aren’t ready for those little gestures and so the first few times are surprises. Afterwards, it’s heartwarming appreciation.

who is most likely to break down on the other and how does their S.O. attempt to calm them down?

Meredith would eventually break down when she learns the truth of just who Ego - a man she though loved her and would love Peter and a man she gave up a lot for when he was on earth - really is and what he’s done to his “other loves” and their children and how he uses people and she’d feel a stab of realizing he used her and how she starts to see that the love she was feeling was all just a lie and everything she assured herself and others about him was all a lie and yeah it would cause a snap in her. And Yondu would be so awkward at first but he would try and he’d scoop her in his arms and just hold her like he thinks he’s supposed to and what an old instinct - one he hasn’t used in a long long time - is telling him to do for this sad, breaking, Terran woman.

who is most self conscious in public?

Yondu, because he knows he can’t let others see that he loves Meredith and Peter with everythig he has because there are those on his ship that would raise hell and would kill - try to kill - him and Meredith and Peter and he will not risk their deaths and he can’t afford to go offing all the assholes who would go against him because then he’d be real down on man-power and plus it would just get back to enemies outide his ravager crew, that he has a heart for the Terrans. Meredith, personally, has said, quit blank, “Fuck them” and “I can take care of myself, Yondu” over the whole ordeal.

who is more likely to apologize a million time for a tiny mistake?

Neither are really word types, but Meredith would vocalize it more than Yondu would. They’re both more on their actions than anything.

who admits they’re scared only when they think their S.O. is asleep and how does the other react?

Yondu, but only when he was very drunk. He admits to Meredith that he’s fearful of her dying infront of him and loosing Peter and that he’s waiting for her to scoop up Peter and find a way back to Earth and how he worries Ego will track them down and take her and Peter from him and he just word vomits this all to her and Meredith does cry because these are fears she never thought of in solid thoughts but hearing Yondu slur them out to her breaks her heart and scares her as well but she’d straighten up and just clutch him and talk him down and just cry a little.

who never thinks they’re good enough for the other?

Yondu, again, back to his baggage and his belief that he’s just going to hurt and taint Meredith and Peter.

who takes a bullet for the other

Blasters hurt like a mother fucker and Meredith has a nice scar on her back from one when she was trying to protect Yondu and Peter. Yondu has been shot before and isn’t about to ever see Meredith be hit again or let Peter loose his mama so he wouldn’t think about putting himself as a shield. Course the fucker that shoots either has an angry Peter, angry Ravagers (ones who like Yondu and the Quills), and a Yaka arrow or another blaster to deal with… So it’s not all bad!

Bethyl (Warning, lots of Daryl answers!)

who gets overwhelmed by small acts of kindness?

Daryl, because he’s waiting for the act to be yanked from him or to be hit for it. It takes him awhile to realize that Beth isn’t out to hurt him. Not on purpose, anyway, and that her acts are just meant to be acts of kindness or affection towards him

who flinches at sudden movements?

Daryl, seeing as growing up where he had to be ready to fight or flight from his old man and he isn’t always ready for sudden touches or approaches from Beth. He works on it but there’s always that subtle but present flinch.

who is most confused as to why their S.O. is still with them?

Daryl, as he only spots the flaws in himself and Beth is constantly trying to scrub those fears away and over time they dwindle but Daryl will always have that stray feeling of awe that Beth stays by his side.

who has to constantly check their S.O. still loves them?

Daryl, though he hates that because he should know that Beth loves him because she’s stayed by his side but he can’t fully grasp that Beth is giving her heart to him and always will. So he has to keep searching and asking in subtle ways to ease himself. And Beth always is ready to show and say her love for him.

who says the other/s would be better off with someone else?

Daryl, though he loaths the idea of anyone being with Beth and it burns like bad beer in his belly and twists his heart to think that she could be with anyone she wanted but that dark part of him would say it’d be better for her.

who gets surprised when they are given gifts?

Beth, as Daryl doesn’t seem like the gift giving type. But then she comes to understand that Daryl is - amusingly - like a big cat and like a cat, he leaves “presents” - thankfully not dead mice or birds but he has brought her a full possum before - to show his affection and love.

who is most likely to break down on the other and how does their S.O. attempt to calm them down?

Daryl has broken down and Beth stepped up and held him together as he lets himself go and cries and she just stays quiet and lets him let his pain out through his tears and angry, venomously spit words. Then when all is said and done, she’d softly tell him why he’s wrong but that she understands and wouldn’t damn him for those feelings but wouldn’t let him hang on them.

who is most self conscious in public?

Daryl, which stems from his low self-esteem and insecurities and uncertainty with his place among people and not wanting people to strike at Beth because she’s with him. Though Beth is always ready to point out that their family trusts and respects Daryl as much as she does and everyone is actually rather accepting and pleased with it, even if it is a little surprising to a few.

who is more likely to apologize a million time for a tiny mistake?

Beth, as she has her own insecurities that she’s a burden to Daryl since she’s not as strong as the others in the physical sense. But like Beth brushes away Daryl’s fears and insecurities of himself, Daryl - in his gruff voice and ways - says she’s damn stupid for thinking she’s weak and says she’s tough and says it with such affirmation that Beth has no choice but to believe him.

who admits they’re scared only when they think their S.O. is asleep and how does the other react?

Both, as Daryl fears loosing Beth and Beth fears that Daryl will see her as useless someday and want to leave her and they both are startled by the others fear as they never even thought that of the other and it does cause a heated argument but it ends in hugs and affectionate calling of the other stupid.

who never thinks they’re good enough for the other?

Both and it causes arguments between them and honestly it’s actually Carol who has to set them both straight for being ridiculous, in her opinion.

who takes a bullet for the other

Both neither regret it besides making the other one get scared.

And that’s all of theeeeeemmm!

#the walking dead #twd meth #guardians of the galaxy #meredu #yondu udonta #meredith quill #bethyl

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danvssomethingorother · 8 years ago

Text

Kindred Souls (P5)

Warnings: None yet.

Index ( 1 / 2 / 3 / 4)

A03

“This isn’t the course to Ego’s---”

“Don’t mention that sack of shits name to me if’n you like your eyes in your head,” Yondu snarled in his first mate’s direction making him shut up instantly.

“Sides, the boy ain’t for Ego, already told ya we don’t deal with him anymore after he double crossed me with Tali.”

“Can I ask who the boy is for then, cap’n? You haven’t set any course for him yet.”

“I was paid quite the bundle by his momma actually,” Yondu lied easily not like his first mate was smart enough to catch him in it, “Half a million to just take him in, so I did. Don’t know what I am gonna do with him from there or why the woman thought she could trust me but she did. Soo we might as well make the welp useful.”

“Useful?” Horuz snarled walking into the once empty room making his worthless first mate jump at the man’s presence, “How the hell ya gonna make a baby useful?”

“I’ve been sayin’ it since ya set course for Terra cap’n, you already have the money, just drop him off, let him be someone else’s problem. One baby ya picked up is good enough.”

Yondu glared at Horuz as the man walked straight for the computer screens, easily shoving the first mate over enough to get a good view on where they were headed.

“We are headed into dead space,” Horuz scowled loudly looking at the direction the captain was heading them into, “There ain’t nothing for miles, nothing but dead planets.”

“That would be the point,” was Yondu’s only response.

“Ya being soft for the cabin boy again?” Horuz continued not caring if he was stepping onto thin ice, each word cracking the captain’s patience a little bit more, “That boy ain’t fit to be a ravenger but ya take us so far away from civilized society just ta----“

The arrow was inches from the man’s face now.

“Don’t push yer luck, ya ain’t useful enough to me to regret killing.”

“Whether I want cabin boy to crash another M Ship or not will be my decision,” he hissed into the man’s face, his first mate ducking back into his work to avoid the confrontation, “And if’n y’all don’t agree…”

The first mate’s eyes widened as the arrow shot towards him then back toward Horuz who was holding his hands up in defeat, not wanting to risk it. Excellent pilot and mechanic he may be but he wasn’t that good to save him from the arrow.

“Everything is set in order once more,” he said directly to his first mate. The young Xandarian looked like he was about to wet himself as he nodded, brushing his long ratty black hair behind his ear.

“Aye captain, the course is set and everything is going smoothly, so you shouldn’t be needed, sir…”

The first mate was young and stupid, only getting the job after the crew had thrown him in front of Yondu after he asked who would stand as his first mate after the last three in a row had been killed. The job was cursed and no one wanted it, Yondu had to make due with incompetent and stupid if he wanted anyone to take charge beside him.

Lord help me, Yondu thought to himself shaking his head seeing the first mate already messing up his coordinates he had just set as he nervously pounded his hand into the control panel. It didn’t matter, there was nothing in dead space but unoccupied planets ravished by the kree empire years ago. Perfect place to stay low away from an angry celestial he had just denied his next victim and not a bad place to start training his wards.

Plenty of old mines, temples and abandoned cities in dead space to loot for anyone brave enough to set foot on them.

He was gonna make ravagers out of them yet, maybe then he would actually have some useful members of his crew….

Before exiting the room he stopped and looked straight into Horuz’s eyes daring the man to test his patience more but he was already backing off and putting his hands up in defeat.

“Best be getting used to the babies, because they aren’t going anywhere until I say so.”

---

Whatever Yondu was expecting when he approached the cell, it wasn’t what he saw. Peter was out of his hiding place for the first time in days, curled against Kraglin who was leaning against the cot, head tilted back in what looked like a painful position and snoring.

Both boys sleeping soundly. Peter curled against Kraglin and Kraglin’s hand resting in the boys dirty hair.

The was the first real look he had gotten of the child in days, he had bruises on his arm that were healing but still fresh from when his crew had grabbed him, his cloths were wrinkled and dusty.

None of the crew was clean exactly but they were genuinely cleaner than this. He would need a cleaning to ward off any unwanted sickness soon.

For now, he let the boys sleep. Kraglin was proving to be the most useful one on this whole damn ship at only fifteen. He knew he let that kid stay for a reason, he never let him down or bad mouthed him like the rest of these good for nothings.

Yondu made to leave but saw Peter shifting on Kraglin’s lap, a loud yawn blowing onto Kraglin’s face making the older boy groan in his sleep but he didn’t try to move. Peter was rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand, oblivious to Yondu’s presence.

Yondu cleared his throat after several minutes of just watched the boy scrub at his eyes and pop his neck followed by every finger. Yondu really didn’t have all day for the boy to get done doing whatever he was doing.

Peter’s back tensed and he paused popping his pinky, head turning towards Yondu. His expression went from nervous to determined in a matter of seconds. The boy taking a few deep breaths before scrambling to his feet and standing tall in front of Yondu on the other side of the bars, his fists tight and shaking at his side holding his fears.

“I want to be a ravager.”

That Yondu didn’t expect, he just stared at the boy trying to stand proudly before him but Yondu saw the quakes making there way through him, he saw the deep breath he took when Yondu continued to not respond.

“That ain’t yer decision, boy.”

Peter didn’t seem to want to relent on his new choice.

“Whoever is paying for me, I’ll offer triple.”

Yondu didn’t know whether to laugh or feel sorry seeing that look of pure terror at what this may imply in the future for him but the boy seemed to have his mind made up, he was dead set on being a part of his crew it seemed.

“What if I told ya I don’t want a snot nosed brat in my crew?”

“You let Kraglin join…”

Yondu did laugh at that one, this boy was something else.

“What if the only way of joining my crew, hypothetically speakin’, was to let my crew rip each limb off, one by one and let them eat those limbs to satisfy their thirst for Terran meat?”

Peter’s eyes were wide and he was shaking but he only tightened his fists more and stared Yondu straight in the eyes as he said firmly.

“I been through worse.”

“Yer a piece of work ya know that?” Yondu said shaking his head staring the little boy square in the eyes, “Ya spend three entire days hiding and now ya want to stay here for what could be the rest of your life. You may be damning yourself to unspeakable torture and ya still want it.”

“Ya don’t even want to ask why we picked yer skinny ass up in the first place?”

Peter grinded his teeth against his lip for a minute before whispering.

“My mom told me my daddy was from space…”he began but stopped trying to find the right words, “It must have had something to do with him.”

“And ya don’t want us to take ya to this hypothetical daddy, why?”

“Because I hate him…”

Yondu didn’t quite know how to respond to that one and felt whatever he would say to this traumatized child would be walking on thin ice. But he would give it to the kid, he was an excellent judge of character, Ego wasn’t someone worthy of love after what he had done to his children.

But, maybe Yondu himself wasn’t worthy of this boy’s undying trust either since he had helped kill five of this boy’s siblings.

“He left mom to die and let us suffer…” he whispered tears beginning to fall again as his fists tightened, “He didn’t deserve mom’s love, no one did.”

“Do you even know anything about yer daddy? Momma ever talk about him? Anything?”

“ Not much but….I hate him,” he hissed out through a whimper shaking harder but standing his ground turning his angry, tear stained eyes up towards Yondu again, “And I don’t want to see him. I want freedom.”

Yondu didn’t respond to the boy feeling pity for him again watching the bravado fade and him sink to the floor openly crying. His loud sobs woke Kraglin up who was next to him in an instant, hovering next to him looking at the captain desperately, begging him to tell him what to do.

“Take the rest of the day off,” he said directly to Kraglin, “Stay in here with the boy, I’ll send someone with food later.”

Kraglin nodded running his fingers through Peter’s hair, letting the boy collapse on him sobbing.

“I’ll consider your offer boy,” he said before turning away not knowing how to handle this. The boy didn’t need to make an offer. Yondu had his heart set on making him apart of his crew long before Ego could fully remember his name and slip him his money, but handling a traumatized kid without messing him up more was something he needed to figure out before he told the boy the good news.

#Guardians of the Galaxy #Peter Quill #Star Lord #yondu udonta #kraglin obfonteri #marvel cinematic universe #Dan's fics #Kindred Souls

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lumiolivier · 8 years ago

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Chapter Nineteen: Who’s Misa Misa?

Word Count: 4002

Chapter No. 19/36

Notes: Everything’s pretty kosher. Although, there’s some cuteness in this chapter that got me all squeaky. So...

Chapter Eighteen: Duality of a Broken Heart

I brought Veronica back to my house and threw the first pizza in the oven. Not the first time and probably not the last time I’ll do that tonight. When she walked in, Veronica looked so defeated and immediately fell onto the couch. Then again, sleep probably didn’t come easy for her last night. As soon as I went back to the living room, Veronica was already asleep. This poor baby didn’t deserve this.

Although, I hadn’t planned on Veronica crashing here tonight. Her nap would give me a little bit of time to cover up the weird. I set a stopwatch on my phone. Maybe I can beat my half hour record. First the wall scrolls. Then, the figurines into the closet. Then, my manga on the top shelf amongst my cosplay props. I’m truly sorry, Sebastian, but you have to go in the closet, too. I’m sure if you look deep enough you can find Ciel, too.

All I needed to do now was set up some diversionary knickknacks. I usually leaned toward the lighter, pastel, sugary things for that. A cupcake candle, a cute little spacy fairy, a little fake cactus in a light terra cotta pot. There! All done! Twenty-three minutes. Huh. Not bad. A new record. Good for me!

I went back downstairs and took that pizza out of the oven. Veronica was still sleeping like a baby. Good. I threw a blanket over her and looked at my phone. A text from Julian had been burning a hole in my inbox since I pulled out of the high school parking lot.

How is she?

My heart melted when Julian cared. If I could clone him, I’d give Veronica one in a heartbeat. He was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Maybe not quite to Veronica’s high standards. I really don’t think she’d be able to handle the otaku life, but she’s put up with me all these years. She had no idea about my weird, otaku life, though. Maybe Julian’s not her perfect, but he’s perfect for me. And I loved him to death.

She’s asleep.

To be honest, she had me worried. Veronica never handled depression well and I just wanted to hug her. This little angel was crying in her sleep and it kept breaking my heart more and more. I wanted nothing more than to tell her everything was going to be alright. Because it would be. She’s young. She’s adorable. Sure, she’s a little shrill from time to time, but that was Mis...Veronica. She could have the entire world at her feet with a mere smile.

“A letter from the queen, my lord,” my phone barked at me.

Shit! I forgot to turn the ringer off! Veronica tossed around on the couch, but ultimately ended going back to sleep. Dodged a bullet there. I love you, Julian, but sometimes, your text pop up at the most inopportune times. I grabbed my phone off the end table and slid my finger across the lock screen…That just so happened to be a picture from Saturday night. And I kind of wanted to cry.

You need anything before I come over?

I thought it over for a minute or two. We were good on mostly everything. Veronica hasn’t tapped into the food surplus I had for her. She’s only slept. Wait a minute…Am I catching a delayed contact high from Kyle or did Julian say he was coming over?

No. We’re good. And I thought I said it was only going to be her and me.

And I waited again, keeping an eye on her. But once my phone buzzed in my lap again…

I know. Frilly jammies and pillow fights.

I loved him. I giggled a little, shaking my head at his stupidity.

Again. Not a porno, Julian. What am I going to do with you?

Bzzz…

What are you going to do with me? ;)

I loved this dork. I really did.

Not that. Not tonight.

“Is that pizza?” Veronica groaned into the arm of my couch.

“Morning, sweetie,” I chimed, feeling my phone buzz again, “Yeah. You want some?”

“Some?” she gave me a look.

“Yes,” I assured, “I made it all for you. It’s in the kitchen.”

“Bless you,” Veronica stumbled lethargically toward her goal while I took a quick glance at my phone.

I understand. You have to take care of her. Come stay with me tomorrow night?

Hmm…A slumber party at Julian’s?

Sounds good to me. Can’t wait. :)

Bzzz…

I love you. xo

This boy was too much for me to handle sometimes, but I wasn’t getting rid of him anytime soon.

I love you, too.

I sent him a GIF of Grell Sutcliff blowing Sebastian kisses. Figured it’d be appropriate. It’s true love when there’s an exchange of GIFs featuring the entirely one sided relationship between the genderfluid reaper obsessed with the sexy demon. Although, I feel like, in a way, all the Black Butler fangirls become Grell at one point or another. Maybe that was Yana Toboso’s way of bringing the fans into the story.

“I don’t get it, Mimi,” Veronica came back in with her entire pizza already half eaten, “If what happened isn’t my fault, why do I feel so guilty?”

“Because that’s how douchebags work,” I sat with her, leaving my phone on the end table, “They’ll make you feel like shit after they leave you. It’s the withdrawal from the oxytocin and the dopamine. It’s like taking a needle out of a junkie’s vein.”

“I miss my needle,” the tears started kicking up again.

“No,” I shut her down, pulling her toward me, “Don’t let him win, Veronica. Don’t let him win. Whatever you do, don’t lose.”

“But what do I do now?” Veronica wiped her eyes.

I drew a total blank. I had no idea what to tell her. But someone else did. It had helped tremendously when my ex dumped me. When I find myself in times of trouble, the words of Edward Elric came to me, “Stand up and walk. Keep moving forward. You’ve got two good legs, so get up and use them. You’re strong enough to make your own path.”

“Wow,” she blinked, “That was beautiful, Mimi.”

“What can I say?” I shrugged, “When I was going through this a couple years ago, that was exactly what was said to me to snap me out of the hell I was in. That whole, how am I going to live without him, feeling. I know what it’s like, Veronica, and look at me now. I got up. I started walking.”

I wasn’t going to say I stole it from Ed, but between crying in Sebastian’s two-dimensional shoulder and binge watching Fullmetal Alchemist again, it got me through. When Ed and Al were in Liore, hearing that line hit really close to home. I got up. I started walking. And eventually, the universe played out in my favor. I ended up with Julian. I ended up with the idiot alchemy freak that was lucky his head was attached to my mech otaku that liked to use her tools as weapons.

“So, what you’re saying,” Veronica interpreted, “I need to get me a rebound?”

“Not exactly,” I sighed out. She completely missed the mark, “I’m saying-”

“I do!” she squeaked, “I need to go out and find me another man! I just have to get back on the horse!”

If it was enough to get her this excited and it was going to keep me from watching Real Housewives of Orange County tonight, “Sure, Roni. Whatever you need to make you happy. I’m not saying you need another man to do that, but whatever you have to do to cope.”

“I got it!” Veronica jumped up from the couch and started sprinting upstairs, “We’re going out tonight!”

“Veronica!” I chased after her, “You have school in the morning! And I have to work at the ass crack of dawn!”

“It’s been a while since I flexed my fake ID,” she admitted, digging under my bathroom sink, “We should go to Kansas City tonight and do something fun!”

“Did you not hear me?” I repeated myself, “You have school in the morning. I have to go to work. We can’t go out tonight.”

“Yes, we can!” Veronica brushed me off, “I can pass off my being sad as being tired. It’ll work.”

“You need some sense talked into you, sister,” I shook my head, “But since you’re probably past all logic right now, we might as well.”

“So, we can go out tonight?” she beamed. I couldn’t take that away from her.

“Why not?” I shrugged, “This is the most animated I’ve see you all day. We can go out tonight.”

“Yay!”

“But you do understand,” I hoped, “You don’t need a man to make you happy? You can make you happy?”

“Easy for you to say,” she scoffed, “You’ve been single for two years.”

“Ouch…” I took offense to that, “That hurt, Veronica.”

“Oh,” Veronica realized the error of her ways quickly, “I’m sorry. That wasn’t supposed to come out. That was supposed to stay in my head.”

“I know, honey,” I let it go, “You’re still emotionally fragile and your mouth moves faster than your brain anyway.”

“Thanks, bitch!” she giggled, “Since you’re ridiculously good at this, could you get me ready?”

“My pleasure,” I agreed.

“I need something that says I’m not still in high school,” Veronica specified, “Something that’ll attract old money is a plus.”

“Really?” I rolled my eyes, getting my roll of brushes out, “A sugar daddy, Veronica?”

“Can’t hurt, can it?” she shrugged.

“I pray for you, child,” I let out a heavy, exasperated sigh, “I really do.”

And I got to work. Something that said she wasn’t still in high school…But I wanted to give her something that would make her feel better. So, eyeliner wings sharp enough to stab a man’s heart out seemed like a good idea. That is…Until I realized my liquid eyeliner had gone completely dry. Shit…

“Hold on a minute,” I stopped, “I need to make a phone call.”

“For what?” she wondered, “Is everything ok?”

“Fine,” I settled her, running back downstairs. I grabbed my phone off the end table and scrolled through my contacts. Come on. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up.

“Hey, baby,” Julian answered, “What’s up?”

“Thank God,” I breathed out, “I need a favor.”

“Mimi, what’s wrong?” he went into instant panic mode.

“This is going to sound ridiculous,” I prefaced, “But you wouldn’t happen to know where I could score a good, black liquid eyeliner right now, would you?”

“The Sephora counter in the mall in Kansas City,” Julian assumed, “Why?”

“Will you go get me one,” I begged, “Urban Decay. Perversion. I will pay you back when you get here and I will love you forever.”

“Easy, speed racer,” he settled me, “I’ll go get your eyeliner. I was just about to leave the café anyway.”

“I need it toot sweet,” I rushed him, “The sooner, the better.”

“Alright,” Julian said, “I’ll be there in roughly an hour. Is that ok with you?”

“Fine,” I evened out, “I love you, Julian. You’re a lifesaver.”

“It’s what I do,” he sang, “I love you, too.”

Click.

And he complains about Paul not saying goodbye. Right now, I was so lucky to have him in my back pocket. I ran back upstairs and found Veronica going through my case. My beautifully well-organized case. That she was moving too much around in.

“What was that all about?” she asked.

“My eyeliner’s gone dead,” I relaxed a little, “I don’t have another one, but I got more on the way.”

“The things you do for love,” Veronica chimed, making swatches of various lipstick shades on the back of her hand.

“What do you mean?” I started to sweat a bit.

“You love me,” she pointed out, “And you’ve sent whoever on a wild goose chase for more.”

“Oh,” my anxiety eased, “No. I just asked Julian to score me some eyeliner. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“He’d do anything for you,” Veronica assumed, “Wouldn’t he?”

“Just about,” I reorganized my case. A place for everything and everything it its…Hold on, “Roni, did you take any nail polish out of here?”

“No,” she shook her head, “I found a bottle on the back of your sink, though.”

Sure enough, my dark blue was out. Huh. I haven’t painted my nails in ages. Griffin got pissy when I did that. Even my toes haven’t seen nail polish in a while. Last I looked at them, they were all chipped to hell. Oddly enough, they were this exact shade of blue. The same color as Amestrian military dress blues. Well, we were going out tonight. Might as well redo them. I had an hour to kill, “I could’ve sworn this was in the case.”

“Are you and Julian a thing yet?” Veronica wondered so innocently, “You can tell me. I’m emotionally fragile, not dead. I won’t freak or anything.”

“No,” I lied, peeling off my socks, “We’re just friends. Nothing more.”

“So,” she gave a dirty smirk, “He’s available and unattached.”

“Trust me,” I stopped her, “You’re not his type.”

“Why not?” she pouted, “I’m cute and sweet. What’s not to love?”

“You’re not a little full of yourself,” I chuckled, looking down at my already perfectly painted toes. When the hell did I do that? Did I repaint my toes and not…?

Did you notice my little surprise this morning?

Dammit, Julian. So much for that idea, but I couldn’t keep a smile off my face if I wanted to right now. This asshole. This adorably perfect asshole. There was no way I could ever get rid of him. It was Julian. He made it so easy to love him.

“What’s that face all about?” Veronica nudged me, “Tell me.”

“What face?” I tried to hide it.

“You’re blushing, Mimi!” she was so kind to point out, “What aren’t you telling me?”

“There’s nothing to tell,” I felt the heat rise in my cheeks.

“Fine,” Veronica let it go, “But I know there’s something. I will find out.”

“Whatever you say, sweetie,” I loved her, but she’s nuts.

“Knock, knock!” a familiar voice chimed from the front door, “Was this actually a sting operation? Am I going to be on TV? Do I get to meet Chris Hansen?”

“Up here, jackass,” I giggled.

“So?” I heard Julian’s footsteps echo through the hall, “What kind of shenanigans are we getting into tonight, ladies?”

“Veronica and I are going out on a Monday night,” I told, “Because that’s a good idea.”

“You’re too young to be old, Mimi,” he gave me a small Sephora bag, “Go have a little fun. There’s nothing wrong with that. And you owe me.”

“How much?” I wondered.

“Don’t worry about the eyeliner. I got that,” Julian brushed me off, “You ow me for the guy at the counter that told me I didn’t need it. And he winked at me.”

“Congratulations,” I giggled a little, “Was it Nate? I love him. He’s a sweetie.”

“I didn’t catch his name.”

“Thank you, Julian,” Veronica chimed from the bathroom.

“You’re welcome,” he came in, “Oh, Veronica, my little china doll, you look ravishing.”

“I look like shit,” she laughed, bringing music to my ears, “But I appreciate the Anchorman quote. You’re the first person to ever use the Veronica line on me.”

“Am I really?”

“Yeah,” Veronica came down, “I needed that.”

“You’re welcome,” he gave her a hug, “Even if all I’m good for is getting Mimi’s eyeliner and making you smile.”

“That’s not all you’re good for,” I assured, shooting a glance at my toes.

“I am a jack of all trades,” he shrugged, “I’m also a hint of a perfectionist and get bored easily. So, where are we going tonight?”

“Kansas City,” I loved this baka.

“Hey!” he squeaked, “I was just there! You two going to see Lilith?”

All of a sudden, it was like a lightbulb switched on in my head. I wanted Veronica somewhere safe and in a controlled environment. Veronica just wanted to have a good time, “Julian, you’re a genius.”

“More of an idiot savant,” he corrected, “Why do you give me such accolades?”

“Because you deserve them,” I hugged him tight, “Veronica, you want to borrow anything?”

“Tight, revealing, and makes me look like a call girl,” she requested.

“To think I left my corset at home,” Julian sighed out.

“You don’t have a corset, Julian,” I shook my head at him and started on Veronica’s face.

“Like hell, I don’t,” he confirmed, “When I still lived in St. Louis, I’d go to Rocky Horror every Halloween. I’ve been Frank N. Furter five years in a row.”

“There goes my sleep for tonight,” I teased, “All I can think of is you in fishnets.”

“You can’t tell me it’s not a little sexy,” Julian winked at me.

“I could give you Nate’s number,” I joked, “I’m sure you two would be very happy together.”

“He’s not my type,” he assured, “You, of all people, should know that.”

“I knew you two were a thing!” Veronica squeaked, “How long? How’d it happen?”

“Settle down, turbo,” Julian calmed her down, “She knows about my ex-fiancée.”

“Fiancée?” she settled, “You were engaged?”

“Six months ago,” he nodded, “Not exactly an easy thing to talk about. Together for two years. Engaged for another year after that. She cheated on me. But I think it’s because we became too different. She’d go on about how we were decorating the nurseries for the six kids she wanted to whip out and I wanted to go down to the beach and spin my lightsabers to some heavy techno music. She wasn’t the girl I fell in love with anymore. But I kept holding on. I moved here, I moved on.”

“Good for you,” Veronica applauded, “You have more intestinal fortitude than me, girlfriend.”

“You’ll get over him, too,” Julian promised, “It’ll take some time, but you will.”

“See?” Veronica popped me in the shoulder, “You told me to keep moving forward because I had two good legs and I needed to use them to make my own path or some philosophical bullshit. All I needed was that!”

“But Miles and I weren’t engaged,” I reminded her.

“Was he the last missus?” Julian assumed.

“Unfortunately,” I nodded, “Don’t call him the missus. I’m cringing.”

“Sorry.”

“Regardless,” Veronica broke us up, “These two legs are buying my drinks tonight. So, do you have anything tight and revealing.”

“Here,” I gave her my Misa dress, “This should work.”

“Perfect!” she squealed, “I’m going to go downstairs and get changed. Then, we should be off, right?”

“I’ll need a minute or two to get ready,” I slowed her down, “But I won’t take long. Probably by the time you’re ready, I’ll be ready, too.”

“Awesome!” Veronica took my dress, “I’ll be right back.”

And just like that, I had my little sister back. Maybe all she needed was a night out. However, while she was good and content, I needed to have some words with my not boyfriend. I stood in front of my bathroom mirror and started fixing my mess of a face. I was ready for a night of marathoning shitty TV, not partying in Kansas City.

“Did you really give her Edward’s little speech he used to inspire Rose after the regime in Liore fell,” Julian wondered, “to a girl going through a breakup?”

“Essentially, they’re the same thing,” I shrugged, “The people of Liore were breaking up with that dick priest. Veronica was breaking up with Luke. End of story. Did you really tell Veronica we were just friends?”

“I thought that was the story we were telling people,” he reminded me, “Or do you want to be the one to say we’re in a happy relationship after hers fell to pieces?”

“Oh, hell no,” I shook my head, “But thank you for making her smile again. I didn’t want her to be mopey anymore and whatever I did wasn’t working.”

“It’s what we do,” Julian smiled, “Speaking of us being cut from the same cloth, where’s all the neat shit in your room?”

“Closet,” I told, “Remember? Veronica doesn’t know? My otaku center is hidden from almost everyone except you?’

“That’s right,” he wrapped his arms around my waist, “And I really can’t wait for the rest of the world to see you like I do. By the way, I noticed you gave her your Misa Misa cosplay.”

“She is Misa Misa,” I admitted, “She’s so Misa, it’s painful. Only difference is Veronica isn’t useless. Other than that, their personalities are so similar.”

“I’ve noticed,” Julian nuzzled his face in my neck, “With a blind obsession for her boyfriend to boot. I still wouldn’t mind giving Luke a good punch to the jaw. Veronica doesn’t deserve this.”

“You think you could do me one last favor?” I asked.

“Sure, baby,” he held me a little tighter, “What can I do for you?”

“Will you put a call in to Lilith?” I drew a thick line across my eyelid, “I’m going to placebo the hell out of Veronica.”

“Oh?” I had Julian’s interest, “What kind of placebo?”

“All of Veronica’s drinks tonight are going to be non-alcoholic.,” I explained, “She has to go to school in the morning and I remember the hell it was going to school hungover. And I have to work tomorrow morning. I don’t want to get shitfaced either. Veronica wants to be numb and what better emotional novacaine than tequila?”

“Have you ever tried Adderall?” he asked, “Works much better.”

“You sound way too voice of experience for my comfort.”

“I am too voice of experience for comfort,” Julian cringed, “But that’s a story for another day. I have to call Lilith and tell her what’s up. Until then, you need to finish getting ready and take your best friend out for shenanigans.”

“Thank you,” I finished up, cuddling into my boyfriend, “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” he kissed the top of my head and left me to get dressed. I know we were a thing, but it was too soon for Julian to see me completely naked. Who to put on tonight? I was Winry earlier today. Do I want to keep it in the Fullmetal family and go Hawkeye? I could do Hawkeye. The first time I was in Haven, I was in an Ouran uniform. Maybe I should switch to the boys’ uniform. No. Hawkeye. I wanted to be a badass sharpshooter/Roy Mustang’s nanny/future wife.

I put on my makeshift Amestrian military uniform and grabbed my bag off my chair, “Roni, you ready?”

“Ready!” she came out of the downstairs bathroom, looking like she was on the hunt for a sugar daddy, “Well? How do I look?”

“Adorable,” I gave her a spin, “The place we’re going to tonight is amazing. I’ve been a couple times and if you’re looking to eat your feelings, it’s perfect.”

“And if you’re looking to score?”

“It’s Kansas City,” I pointed out as the two of us went out the door, “There are a few beautiful boys in that town. I’m sure you’ll find someone.”

“You did make sure I didn’t have baby face, right, Mimi?” she kept her fingers crossed, “I look more adult than I actually am?”

“Yes,” I assured, “I contoured the hell out of your face. You’re golden.”

“Good!” Veronica sang, “Let’s go!”

I pulled out of my driveway and started heading toward Kansas City. Hopefully, Julian put the call in already. This would prove to be an interesting night. I’m thrilled to see how Veronica’s going to take to placebos. I’ve never seen her drunk before, so this should be intriguing. I just hope the fake booze doesn’t make her a weepy drunk.

#Sorry For Being a Closet Otaku #nanowrimo #NaNoWriMo 2016

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