paperwork

Status: Complete
Published: 21 November 2023
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Rating: Mature
Tags: Mantis/Nebula (Marvel), Mantis (Marvel), Nebula (Marvel)

AO3 Mirror

Notes:

Original AO3 Note: uhh yeah this has been sitting in my docs for a while just take it. what can i say i'm a sucker for mantis getting nebula all flustered i think it's funny

as always i'm bugborgs @ tumblr if you ever wanna talk about bugborg stuff :]

Mantis shuffles sleepily into the room, grumbling indistinctly about Nebula being up so late. She was at her work bench, pouring over some plans for Knowhere: construction drafts, notes on what needed repairs in descending order of importance, supply and material inventories and god knows what else scattered across her desktop and in her holo-pad’s files.

She doesn’t respond to Mantis’s tired complaints, nor does she react when Mantis finally comes up behind her and presses against her back, leaning all of her weight against Nebula. She lays her cheek against Nebula’s shoulder and loops her arms around her waist.

“Come to bed.”

“I’m busy.”

“Your paperwork will still be here in the morning. Come sleep.” Mantis sounds a little more awake now.

“You know I don’t need to sleep much.”

“That doesn’t mean sleeping is not enjoyable.”

“For you, maybe. But if I’m not sleeping unnecessarily I can continue to be productive.”

“I like sleeping with you,” she says, and when Nebula snorts, she adds crossly, “You know what I mean.”

Nebula shuffles through a stack of paperwork, then continues to rifle through the various files and notes on her holo-pad.

A little quieter, Mantis says, “I thought you did, too.”

That gets a reaction. Mantis can tell by the way Nebula’s hands go still on the desktop. Loathe though she was to admit it out loud, Nebula had a soft spot, larger than she cared to admit, and much of that softness was often reserved specifically for Mantis.

“I do, Mant—”

“Then come to bed. Please?”

Nebula hesitates.

“You’re always up late doing stuff for Knowhere. One night won’t kill you.”

Seconds tick past in silence, and then Nebula sighs and Mantis knows she’s won.

“Fine. Let me just…wrap a few things up and then I’ll come to bed.”

Feeling quite pleased with herself, Mantis snuggles closer and says, “Deal.”

A beat. “Mant.”

“Hm?”

“You’re clinging.”

“I know.”

“You don’t have to stay up with me.”

This time it’s Mantis who snorts. “If I go to bed and doze off, you’ll use it as an excuse to keep working. And I’d rather keep you company out here than wait alone in bed.”

Mantis can’t see her roll her eyes, but she knows Nebula well enough to know that she has. “Suit yourself.”

With that, she resumes her work, flicking through the files and gathering up sheafs of paper and sorting them for tomorrow. The ones that are left she’s sure she can finish quickly that night. Soon enough the sound of tapping fingers on the holo-pad screen—and the occasional scratching of pen on paper—fills the room again, and Mantis waits.

It is, as it turns out, extraordinarily boring watching Nebula do paperwork. In an effort to stay awake and pass the time, Mantis starts to fiddle with Nebula’s belt. Mostly she runs her hand along its length and picks at the edges with her thumbnail. At some point Nebula lets out a quiet huff of laughter, and Mantis grabs at it, curls her fingers tight around the leather and tugs obnoxiously.

“Don’t laugh at me,” Mantis says with mock indignation.

“You’re a pest,” Nebula says, fondly.

“Good. I won’t let you forget I’m here.”

“I’ll be done soon,” Nebula promises. “Just a few more things.”

“Mhm,” Mantis murmurs into her shoulder. She stifles a yawn and wraps her arms around Nebula’s waist again, abandoning the bit of belt she’d been tugging on in order to thumb at it instead.

She slides a hand along the length of Nebula’s belt until she reaches the buckle again, and then begins to fiddle with it. She feels Nebula shift slightly, throwing a quick, disgruntled look over her shoulder at Mantis before turning back to the holo-pad, deciding it would be best to just ignore Mantis’s antics. And really, that’s her second mistake (the first mistake, of course, taking too damn long to come to bed, but this one is pretty egregious too), because Mantis can be pretty stubborn when she needs to be.

And annoying, when she wants to be.

Quick as she can, Mantis starts to undo Nebula’s belt, and she takes great pleasure in the way Nebula jolts when she realizes what Mantis is doing.

“Really? You’re trying to get frisky now?” Exasperated, Nebula moves to swat Mantis’s hand away, but she’s too slow. Mantis has already undone her belt.

“I’m not getting frisky. I’m simply trying to get us back to bed faster.”

“And how exactly is unbuckling my belt supposed to do that?”

“My hopes are that it will encourage you to change and get ready for bed.”

Nebula rolls her eyes and pointedly ignores the way Mantis idly plays with the hem of her shirt. She goes to redo her belt but freezes when Mantis slips her hands under her shirt. Her hands are warm against her belly and she is suddenly very aware of how insistently Mantis is pressed against her back.

“But…if you want to get a little frisky…” She trails off, stroking Nebula’s abdomen with her thumb.

Nebula’s breath hitches a little. “What happened to going to bed?”

Mantis shrugs, a motion Nebula can feel throughout her entire body. “You don’t seem particularly interested in going back to bed, and I’m wide awake now, so…”

Nebula is perfectly still in every way, silent and unmoving, and Mantis can intimately hear—feel the beat of her pulse, and it’s so loud it even seems to drown out the quiet thrum of her cybernetics. Mantis almost feels bad for messing around and trying to rile her up, and thinks (begrudgingly) that perhaps she should take pity on Nebula and ease up.

She stretches to press a kiss to Nebula’s cheek and laughs, hoping to soothe her ruffled lover. “It’s cute how flustered you get. I’m just teasing you.”

She moves to withdraw her hands, her personal amusement satiated for the time being, but Nebula claps her hand over Mantis’s and holds her there.

“Wait,” she breathes, and Mantis doesn’t mean to read her emotions, not at first, but the strangled way that Nebula speaks and the way her heartbeat hasn’t settled yet and her grip on Mantis’s hand is too tempting to ignore and—

Oh. Oh, she definitely wants to get frisky.

She can feel how riled up Nebula’s getting now, the arousal burning up inside her, drowning out any lingering annoyance or exasperation she might have been feeling just minutes before. It’s a rush of want and neediness and Mantis laughs, not meanly, but she does laugh, and when she feels the spike of shocked annoyance mingling with the needy want she leans up to kiss her again.

“What?” Nebula splutters in demand. Her face is hot and she’s doing her best to glare over her shoulder at Mantis, but Mantis’s giggly kisses make that a difficult feat.

“I’m not mocking you, I swear, I just can’t believe that worked! You’re too easy!”

Nebula makes an indignant noise in the back of her throat and that sends Mantis into another fit of giggles.

“You are! You caved immediately!”

“Yeah, well…” Nebula huffs, scowling a little, and Mantis kisses a third time. She shifts a little, as much as she can with Mantis still pressed against her back, free hand braced against the desk and paperwork forgotten. “You make it very difficult to ignore you.”

Mantis hums in agreement, considering. With carefully deliberate slowness, she lets her hands drift lower on Nebula’s belly until she reaches her waistband, enjoying all the little ways Nebula responds to her touch—the way she twitches and quivers under Mantis’s hands, the rapid thump-thump-thump of her heart and her unsteady breathing, the way the hand on the desk curls into a fist.

“So,” Mantis says, pleasantly. “No more paperwork tonight?”

One hand stays low on her abdomen, the other works its way lower, past her waistband.

Nebula sucks in a slow breath. “No,” she says. “No more paperwork tonight.”

Opening Notes:

N/A