Chapter 02

Published: 01 February 2025
Words: 1,081
AO3 mirror

Nebula returns to a missed call on her ship’s comms.

She had been tracking a lead that had ended up going nowhere, a dead end, and despite her best efforts to try and sniff out some new leads to have so this didn’t turn out to be a total bust, she hadn’t turned up much, to her immense frustration. Nebula was left with nothing to show for her efforts but time wasted and a sour mood that doesn’t diminish by the time she returns to her ship.

Ugh.

She checks the log and—the Guardians? She frowns.

What did they want?

“What?” she demands when Gamora answers, and she makes a face at Nebula’s tone.

“What do you mean what? You called me.”

“I have a missed call from you,” Nebula explains impatiently. “What do you want?”

Gamora’s brows scrunch thoughtfully. “I didn’t call you.”

Quill’s voice comes from somewhere off-screen. “Is that Nebula?”

“Yes,” Gamora shouts back, “she says she has missed call from us!”

“That was Mantis! Let me get her—Mantis! Mantis!” 

“Wait—” Nebula starts but Quill has already taken off, still hollering for Mantis.

“I’m sure it won’t be long,” Gamora assures, looking amused.

Nebula only sighs and mutters indistinctly under her breath. Secretly though, she’s actually…happy?…that it’s Mantis who had called, and who, very shortly, she’d be speaking to. She can even feel her bad mood start to lift. And from the look on her face, it seems Gamora can see right through her grouchy act, though—amazingly—she says nothing about it.

She does, however, stifle a laugh when Quill returns with Mantis in tow and Nebula visibly perks up at the sound of her voice. It’s a small reaction, easily missed by someone who wasn’t paying attention—or didn’t know what they were looking for—but of course Gamora had.

“Shut up,” Nebula hisses, and Gamora just smirks knowingly before relinquishing her seat to Mantis, saying,

“We’ll give you two some privacy.”

From off-screen, Quill chimes in, “Enjoy your chat!” and Nebula thinks she hears him laugh before Gamora drags him away. 

Nebula is still scowling when Mantis drops into the newly-vacated seat, but her bad mood is already slowly diminishing as Mantis gets comfortable. Mantis smiles at her. “Hi.”

A beat, and Nebula says, “Hi. You…called earlier?”

“I did,” Mantis says, “I wanted to see how you were. It’s been some time since our last call.”

Nebula frowns. Had it? She tries to think of their calls—they’ve spent nights like this once or twice (or maybe three or four…who was counting?), Mantis telling her all about how her latest training session with Gamora went, the many ways their last job had gone sideways, and slowly (painstakingly) prying details on what Nebula had been up to since their last call out of her.

Small talk wasn’t Nebula’s strongest suit. She preferred short, blunt, concise—whatever got her to the endpoint of a conversation quickest. Somehow Mantis doesn’t mind, even seems charmed at how gruff and grumbly Nebula is.

“I suppose it has been a while,” Nebula eventually agrees. “I’ve been preoccupied.”

“It’s okay,” Mantis says, “we’ve been pretty busy too, otherwise I would have tried calling sooner. So! How have you been?” Mantis peers a little closer at her and asks, playfully, “What’s made you so grouchy this time?”

Somehow, this manages to tease a short laugh out of her, which only makes Mantis smile in return.

“Well?” Mantis prompts. She leans forward and props her chin on one hand, and waits expectantly.

Nebula rolls her eyes but tells her anyways, and Mantis commiserates with her by sharing the Guardians’ own recent mess of a job, and even manages to tease another laugh out of Nebula by telling her how Rocket had nearly blown them all up alongside their mark when their plan went awry.

“Idiots,” Nebula snorts. “How did that happen?”

“Well…it was kind of Drax’s fault for rushing ahead, but it was also kind of Peter’s fault for getting distracted, and then Rocket couldn’t finish his bomb properly…” It was kind of everyone’s fault, which seemed to be how most of their plans got screwed up, from what Nebula had seen.

“I’m sorry your intel was bad,” Mantis says once they’ve finished laughing about the failure of the mission.

Nebula blows out a breath and then shakes her head. “It’s…fine,” she mutters, crossing her arms. “It’s just a small setback. I have other leads to chase, and a contact that might have some new information.”

“That’s good. Will you follow those leads immediately?”

Nebula is silent as she considers. “Do you still want a training session with me?”

“Yes,” Mantis says immediately, and then seems a little embarrassed about how eager she appears. She clears her throat and repeats, more evenly this time, “Yes, absolutely.”

Nebula feels a small spike of—she’s not really sure what, but it’s a little warm, and a little bit amused and…something else, that fizzes and flutters in her chest.

She shakes the feeling off, hoping her bewilderment hadn’t been too obvious. With a nod, she says, “We’ll have our session first. I can follow up on my next lead after.”

Mantis beams at her, nearly buzzing with barely-contained excitement. “I’ll send you our coordinates!” she promises. “When can we expect you?”

“Give me a few days. Three or four, maybe.”

“I look forward to it. I can’t wait to show you how my skills are coming along. I think I’m getting quite good.”

“We’ll see about that.” It slips out too fast for Nebula to stop herself, but instead of feeling hurt Mantis just grins widely, and there’s a little edge to her smile now, playful and even a little challenging.

“You better not go easy on me.”

Nebula snorts. “I’m not in the habit of being merciful.” She eyes Mantis, and lets her mouth pull into a smirk. “I’ll make no exceptions for you.”

“Good,” Mantis says, looking quite pleased. “So…I guess we’ll see you soon?”

Nebula nods. “I need to prep my ship first,” she says, “refuel and restock some supplies.” She inclines her head and adds, “Don’t forget to send the coordinates.”

“I won’t,” Mantis assures. “I’ll send it soon. I promise.” She gives Nebula another sunny smile; it reminds Nebula of how happy she’d been when they’d gone knife-throwing. “See you soon.”

Nebula reaches to disconnect the call. “See you soon,” she agrees.

Notes:

Original AO3 Note: Just a short chapter this time, unfortunately, but maybe I'll update again later tonight or tomorrow to make up for it. We'll see! But for now...hopefully you all enjoy!