little pests

Status: Complete
Published: 18 March 2025
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,740
Rating: General Audiences
Tags: Mantis/Nebula (Marvel), Mantis (Marvel), Nebula (Marvel), with cameos from some of the other guardians, i just think they would have rats ok

AO3 Mirror

Opening Notes

Original AO3 Note: Sorry this one is so very extremely self-indulgent lmao. I like rats, I like bugborg, obviously I'm going to give them little rat pets at some point. it was inevitable and tbh they just feel like they would have rats and okay yes i might be biased but come one. have you seen a rat?? they're so damn cute and weird mantis would absolutely love rats

Nebula 2 is loosely modeled after one of my own past rats. She was a one-eyed brown rat who always seemed like she was always carefully observing every little thing going on, but she was sweet and silly.

pet rats au was initially spawned by an ask i got on tumblr joking about how nebula would be the type to say she doesn't want pets but then get really attached anyways, which...yeah tbh that feels right lol

“Don’t be mad.”

It’s the first thing Peter tells her when he steps off the boarding ramp and sets foot on Knowhere. Nebula cycles between confusion, suspicion, and annoyance, because what the hell was that supposed to mean? He’s only been back for a handful of seconds and he’s already flipped her mood from pleasant to sour.

“Mad about what?” she demands, but he’s already sidestepped her and hurried off to join their friends. Drax immediately sweeps him up into a back-breaking hug that leaves Peter wheezing.

“It is good to see you!”

“Feeling’s mutual,” Peter manages to wheeze out before Drax finally releases him.

Given Peter’s suspicious lack of elaboration—only a little bit because Drax has just crushed his lungs like paper scraps—Nebula can only assume she is not going to be happy about whatever it is Mantis is up to.

Mantis—

Nebula has only just recovered enough from Peter’s unhelpful warning to realize Mantis still hasn’t joined them when she hears Mantis call her name, and all of her aggravation melts away, replaced by the familiar fluttery warmth in her belly that always marked their reunion. She turns to see that Mantis has finally appeared at the top of the ramp, but she’s surprised at how slowly she’s making her way down. Usually Mantis would be nearly sprinting down the ramp to leap at Nebula, who’d always catch her and, sometimes, when she’s feeling indulgent, give her a little twirl before setting her down again.

She frowns a little, the worry starting to creep back in. Mantis has a boxy, cloth-covered thing in one hand, and she’s moving very carefully so as not to jostle it as she descends.

“Uh, hey—”

“Nebula!” Mantis beams at her. She hurries down the last few steps and then, finally, she’s close enough to throw her free arm around Nebula’s neck and snuggle close. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too,” Nebula says, hesitantly returning her embrace. She’s teetering wildly between how happy she is to see Mantis again and her unease at Peter’s warning. Nebula’s hands settle on Mantis’s waist. “So…Peter told me “not to be mad.” What the hell is he talking about, Mant?”

The corners of Mantis’s mouth pull into a grin, and she’s got that excited shine to her eyes that Nebula knows by now means trouble. Mantis steps back and raises the boxy thing higher and lifts the cloth cover over one corner to reveal…bars.

It was a cage.

Something—several somethings?—inside the cage moves, and Nebula leans closer to get a better look. The sudden movement sends the somethings into a flurry of startled activity, and then the frenzied rustling stops and everything inside goes very, very still.

“No,” Nebula says as soon as she’s picked out the little things hiding in the cage and sees what they were. “No way.”

“Nebula—” Mantis starts, but Nebula is already shaking her head.

“No pets!” Nebula exclaims. “Mant, come on—”

“They needed a home! And just look at them, they’re so sweet…” Mantis turns the cage so she can peer inside and wiggles her fingers in front of the bars. A tiny pink nose pokes through the bars. “It’s okay, we’re almost home,” she coos. “We’ll get you settled soon.”

She lets the cloth fall back over the cage.

When she turns back to Nebula, she’s got that sullen look on her face that Mantis finds more funny than anything. Her nose is all scrunched up and her lip has started to curl, and Mantis thinks she looks adorably silly.

“We said no pets.”

“You said no pets. I said no such thing.”

Nebula makes an exasperated noise and whips around, turning her back to Mantis and bringing one hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose. “I can’t believe you,” she mutters.

When she opens her eyes again, she’s staring at their friends, who had been quietly watching this play out with varying degrees of amusement on their faces. She starts, their friends having been long-forgotten in the face of Mantis’s betrayal, and then glares at them.

“I know this is your fault somehow, Quill,” she growls, jabbing a finger in his direction.

“Why do you always blame me? This is one-hundred-percent not my fault!” Peter protests, but he makes sure to stay well out of reach, just behind Drax and Groot.

Just in case.

She glares at him a few seconds longer before turning back to Mantis with an angry huff. “I’m not getting involved.”

“That’s fine,” Mantis says agreeably, still smiling, still amused. “Will you at least help me move the cage from the ship to the apartment? It’s pretty big, and you would save me an extra trip…”

“There’s a cage on the ship?”

“Um, yes,” Mantis says, raising a brow, in a tone of voice like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. She glances at the cage in her hand and then back to Nebula. “This is just a carrier. You didn’t think they would live in a cage this small, did you?”

Nebula agrees to this too, despite all of her growling and grumbling, and when she does Mantis flashes sunny smile and closes the distance between them to press a kiss to Nebula’s cheek.

“Thank you,” she says sweetly, and Nebula grumbles,

“Yeah, yeah…”

Nebula stays just long enough to help Mantis clear some space in a quiet corner of their apartment to set the cage, and then just a bit longer to help her assemble it (Nebula is annoyingly susceptible to Mantis’s puppy eyes), but as soon as they have it built and set in its chosen corner, Nebula takes off for the plaza.

“I’m going to go yell at Quill,” she growls, when Mantis asks where she’s going.

“Don’t be too mean,” Mantis calls after him, “it’s not his fault.”

Nebula snorts disbelievingly, but she says, “I’ll bring you dinner.”

“Well, okay, so it might have been a little bit my fault…”

Nebula stares at Peter in that flat, emotionless way that’s somehow scarier than when she’s all bared teeth and brandished weapons.

“What,” she says, eerily calm, “do you mean by that.”

“Weeeell…,” Peter scratches at the back of his head. “We maaaay have gone to uh, an animal shelter while Mantis was visiting, and that maaaay have been where she found the rats—”

Nebula explodes suddenly into motion, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and nearly hauling him right out of his chair and across the table so she can hiss, “I knew it was your fault!”

“Hey, hey! Look—I told her to at least warn you first!” Peter grabs at her wrist, tries and fails to pry her hand off his shirt.

From across the room Rocket shouts, “No killin’ nobody!” and Nebula slowly, grudgingly releases Peter.

“Thanks Rocket!” Peter shouts back, sinking back into his seat. He readjusts his rumpled shirt. “You know I wouldn’t have been able to stop her.”

Nebula eyes him sullenly for a moment before sighing. “I know.”

“You can’t even stop her.”

“I know.”

Nebula sighs again and rubs her temple, feeling a headache coming on.

“They’re kind of cute, y’know. They’ll grow on you.”

Nebula glowers at him. “I’m not planning to get attached.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Rocket snorts, having made his way over after Peter’s near-death. “Mantis has you wrapped around her finger. All she has to do is make those puppy eyes at you and you’ll do whatever she asks.”

“That is not true,” Nebula protests, and then immediately makes a face when Rocket barks out a laugh. “It’s not!” She turns to Peter. “Is it?” she demands.

Peter stares at her just long enough to consider his options before deciding he wants no part of this, slaps his hands down on the table as he stands and says, “Nope! Staying out of this one. Good luck Nebs.”

And then he’s gone and Rocket is snickering at Nebula, who is feeling very annoyed now.

“She does not have me wrapped around her finger,” Nebula reiterates, more to herself, and Rocket barks out a laugh. “She doesn’t!”

Eventually, when she’s had enough of being mocked for the day, Nebula returns to the apartment with Mantis’s dinner in tow. She finds Mantis by the cage, making what seems to Nebula to be the final adjustments to its interior setup.

“Nebula! Welcome home.” Mantis stands and dusts herself off before moving in to greet her with a kiss. “Hi.”

Nebula cracks a small smile. “We missed you at the plaza,” she says. She the food to the side and adds, “Brought you dinner.”

“Oh….sorry, I was making sure all the rats got settled. I’ll make it up to everyone.” Her smile comes back then and she reaches for Nebula’s hand, tugs her closer for another kiss.

“Mmph,” Nebula says, against Mantis’s mouth. 

Mantis giggles. “Thank you for the food.”

“Mhm.” Nebula has almost forgotten about their—Mantis’s new pets, distracted by Mantis’s kisses and smiles and the way she’s holding Nebula’s hand in her own, until Mantis suddenly starts to pull her towards the cage, eyes and antenna brightening with excitement.

“Come here! I want you to meet the rats.”

Nebula makes a face, her sappy mood vanishing instantly. “I said I didn’t—”

“I know what you said, and that’s fine! You don’t have to take care of them, but you should at least meet them. I don’t want them to be scared every time you stomp past.”

“Is this why you’ve been sucking up to me since I got home? You’re not going to change my mind on this.”

“No! And I wasn’t sucking up. Believe it or not, I am always happy to see you. Look, I know you’re not thrilled about this, but at least come meet them. They’re very sweet creatures.” Mantis squeezes Nebula’s hand and watches her hopefully. “Please?”

Nebula gives in almost immediately. Ugh! Mantis did have her wrapped around her finger. Rocket was never going to let her live this down.

Nebula doesn’t look thrilled about it—and she isn’t—but she lets Mantis drag her over to the cage anyways. It’s a pretty good size, Nebula notes as they settle down in front of it. The cage in its entirety is just a few inches shorter than Mantis, and it seems to be divided into an upper and a lower level, each with its own set of doors.

Their presence has already summoned a few of the cage’s occupants, even before Mantis opens the first set of doors. Some of them retreat when she does, but another scurries right up to Mantis when she reaches inside and up her arm. Mantis laughs a little, apparently delighted.

“This one is pretty fearless.” Mantis giggles as the rat perches on her shoulder and snuffles through her hair. She carefully plucks the rat off her shoulder and holds it out for Nebula to see.

It is pretty fearless, Nebula observes. Either that, or it was remarkably stupid. It hung limply in Mantis’s hands, utterly carefree, blinking its huge black eyes and twitching its little pink nose. It was big, mostly white save for a light gray head, and had large pink ears on the side of its head that gave it a dopey sort of look.

“Her name is Belinda,” Mantis tells her, which makes Nebula raise her brow in response. Mantis holds her closer to Nebula, letting the little thing sniff at her. The rat—Belinda—stretches out and suddenly licks the tip of Nebula’s nose. Nebula jerks back, her nose scrunching, which only makes Mantis laugh.

“I think she likes you,” Mantis teases. She pulls her arms closer to her body and lets the rat return to her perch on her shoulder. “She does that sometimes.”

They go through the whole roster, Mantis introducing them one by one. There’s a Patti and a Stevie and a Mowgli, and by then something clicks in Nebula’s mind and she realizes, “You named them after Terran musicians?” When Mantis grins, pleased Nebula has caught on, she rolls her eyes and says, “You’ve been hanging out with Peter too much.”

“Well, he is my brother, obviously we hang out,” Mantis points out. “And only most of them are named after musicians.”

“Most of them, huh? Who isn’t, then?”

“Weeeell…” Mantis carefully sets the two she’s just introduced to Nebula—Tammi and Florence—back into the cage and peers inside, looking for the last one. She smiles as she reaches back in. When she retracts her arms, she’s holding a large, sleek brown rat, and presents it to Nebula.

While the other rats Mantis has shown her have looked rather, well…dopey, in Nebula’s opinion, this one seems…twitchy. Suspicious. It doesn’t lean towards her or sniff at her like the other rats did. It watches Nebula with dark eyes and twitches its whiskers at her, and remains firmly perched in Mantis’s hands.

Nebula finally looks away from the strangely suspicious rat and sees that Mantis is smiling mischievously at her.

“What?” Nebula demands, feeling suspicious herself.

“This,” Mantis announces proudly, “is Nebula 2.”

“What.”

“I named her after you,” Mantis says, looking very pleased with herself.

“W—why?” Nebula splutters.

“Because she’s mean and grumpy, and the first time I met her she tried to bite my fingers.” Mantis is still smiling despite Nebula’s sour expression; in fact, she looks utterly delighted by Nebula’s reaction.

“Very funny,” Nebula huffs.

Mantis gently pats Nebula 2’s little head with one finger. “She’s not as mean as she was. She’s actually quite sweet,” Mantis continues, which Nebula can see given how Mantis’s finger goes unbitten. “Calling her mean isn’t even accurate. I just had to earn her trust first.”

Mantis adjusts her grip on Nebula 2 and holds her up to her shoulder, where Nebula 2 happily settles.

“She reminds me of another certain grouch,” she adds teasingly. Nebula 2 snuffles at Mantis’s hair obliviously while her namesake scowls, unimpressed and unamused.

“Okay, I met them. Are we finished here? I’d like to go to bed now.”

“All right, yes, yes, we’re done. Thank you for indulging me.” Mantis leans over and gives Nebula a brief kiss. “Let me close up the cage and I’ll meet you in bed soon.”

And—ugh—Nebula melts. She grumbles and sighs and then finally mumbles, “I’ll wait up for you.”

Mantis smiles. “See you.”

“See you,” Nebula echoes.

To her credit, Mantis doesn’t leave her waiting long. She gets the rats settled and the cage closed up, and before Nebula knows it, Mantis has joined her in bed.

“Hey, Mant,” Nebula murmurs when she crawls into bed with her. She lifts her arm automatically so Mantis can snuggle close, and lets it fall to drape loosely around her shoulders when she does. “Got the cage sealed up?”

“Mhm,” Mantis assures, “locked up nice and tight.”

Nebula grunts, thankful that, at the very least, she won’t have to deal with any of the little creatures running loose in their home. Sensing Nebula’s lingering aggravation, Mantis pushes up on her elbows to pepper her in little kisses. It was a surefire way to soothe Nebula’s ruffled feathers, Mantis thinks, and she’s right—it does.

Nebula liked to be kissed, and Mantis wasn’t above using that knowledge to her advantage.

“You’re a pest,” Nebula mutters, but she’s smiling despite her best efforts.

“Maybe,” Mantis laughs, kissing her again. “You aren’t actually upset I named Nebby after you, are you?”

Nebula pauses. “Nebby?”

“That’s usually what I call her,” Mantis explains.

Nebula shakes her head. “It’s fine, I guess.”

Mantis peers at her for a long moment, as if to make sure Nebula really is okay with it. “I didn’t name her after you to mock you,” she insists. “She reminded me of you and I thought it would be cute.”

“It’s fine, Mant,” Nebula assures, “I don’t really care.”

“Okay,” Mantis sighs, settling back down.

She can tell Nebula is still a little annoyed—maybe not about Nebby specifically, but the situation in general—but she’s taking it pretty well, all things considered, and Mantis is grateful for that.

Mantis tucks herself against Nebula’s side, lays her head across her chest where she can hear and feel the quiet, gentle thrum of her cybernetics, and touches Nebula’s exposed collarbone, letting Nebula feel her gratitude.

Ending Notes

N/A