Chapter 04

Published: 17 February 2025
Words: 1,938
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“Did you know about this?” Nebula demands in a snarl, staring hard at her sister. Her dark eyes are wide and intense and just a little bit wild. When Gamora doesn’t immediately respond, she looks away and starts to pace, looking like a frenzied animal.

Gamora blinks and holds up a hand. “Wait, slow down. Mantis finally asked you out on a date?”

“That’s what I said. Weren’t you—” Nebula freezes, then turns very slowly to face Gamora, practically humming with rage. “You knew,” she hisses. “You knew she—she harbored these feelings!”

“Uh, yes? Did you—did you not?” Gamora is still reeling from Nebula’s ambush, and now to find out that Nebula had—apparently—not picked up on what to Gamora was so obvious… Well, okay, knowing Nebula it was more likely that she hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it, and so she hadn’t. “Is this why you’re freaking out?”

“I’m not freaking out,” Nebula snaps.

Gamora just raises a brow in response and Nebula makes an angry, frustrated sound, turning away to pace restlessly across the room. Gamora is still stuck on how shocked Nebula is.

“Did you seriously not know?”

Nebula stops pacing just long enough to glare at Gamora; it’s probably the most hateful glare Gamora has received in recent memory. Nebula doesn’t asnwer—how can she? She’s loathe to admit that some part of her had noticed, had some inkling of Mantis’s feelings, and instead of dealing with it had simply smothered it in a desperate fit of denial.

“She wasn’t exactly hiding it,” Gamora continues when Nebula says nothing. “I mean, we’ve talked about it, but anyone with eyes could see—”

“You encouraged it!”

Nebula moves like she wants to launch herself at Gamora, and Gamora briefly wonders if today might be the day their relationship regresses into their first physical fight since Ego’s planet, but Nebula catches herself and resumes her agitated pacing, snarling wordlessly.

“This is absurd,” Nebula growls, more to herself than Gamora, who is so far being very unhelpful. “She is absurd. First she acts like we’re friends, and now she wants to go out on a date.”

“You don’t have to go out on a date,” Gamora points out. “Nobody is forcing you.”

“That’s not the point. It’s bad enough that she wants to.”

Nebula leans heavily against the nearest wall. Gamora watches as she slumps to the floor and buries her head in her hands.

“Why,” Nebula demands, “would you encourage it?”

“Frankly I thought her feelings were reciprocated.” Nebula lifts her head and stares at her. “Aren’t they?”

Were they?

“I don’t know,” Nebula says eventually. Her head hurts. She scrubs a hand across her face as if it would ward off the pain (it didn’t).

“Will you go on the date with Mantis?” Gamora asks after a moment.

Nebula scowls. “Why would I do that?”

“Because I think that you might want to.”

Nebula snaps her head up. “What.”

“I have eyes, Nebula. And common sense. You like Mantis more than you like to pretend otherwise.”

Nebula stares at Gamora, looking truly miserable, and Gamora, despite how deeply funny she thinks this is, feels a twinge of pity for her sister. She takes a seat beside her and shoulders her comfortingly.

“I think it’s nice,” Gamora offers.

Nebula makes a sound like a wounded animal. She draws her knees to her chest and hides her face against them. “That isn’t helpful.” Her voice is muffled, and it gives her voice humorously petulant effect.

“You two are friends though, aren’t you?” Gamora eventually asks, when she thinks nebula has had enough time to sulk.

Nebula lifts her head just enough to scowl confusedly at her. “What?”

“You called Mantis absurd for acting like you two are friends. But you are friends?”

Nebula frowns. “She’s…tolerable,” she admits grudgingly, and then bristles when Gamora lets out a bark of laughter and, rolling her eyes, retorts,

“Oh please. You like spending time with her. You wouldn’t have called her as much as you have if you didn’t—”

“You  told me to!”

“You wouldn’t have listened to me if you didn’t actually want to do it,” Gamora fires back. “And I saw your reaction to Mantis’s arrival that day you called.”

“You imagined that,” Nebula growls.

“You did it again yesterday.”

Nebula pauses. “What do you mean?”

“Your body language is different when you’re around her.”

“…is it really?”

“Yes, Nebula. You don’t hide it well.”

Nebula stares blankly at her for a long moment, and then seems to sink down into herself, defeated, a look of despair on her face. When she doesn’t say anything more, Gamora nudges her and asks, “Are you okay?”

Still, Nebula says nothing.

Instead, she jumps suddenly to her feet, roughly jostling Gamora in the process, though she doesn’t seem to care. “I need to get off this damn ship,” she mutters, and stalks towards the door.

“Whoa—wait, you’re leaving?” Gamora stands and moves to follow.

Nebula whips around, brow furrowed like she’d forgotten Gamora was there, and when she sees the look on her face she says hoarsely, “I need to be alone right now. I need to think.”

“Will you be back?”

Nebula hesitates, almost looking guilty; her hands curl and uncurl with restless energy. “Eventually,” she finally says, and then more defensively, “I’m not running away. I just need to think.”

She heads for the door again, ignoring Gamora and her questions because, frankly, she doesn’t know where she was doing or even how long she’d be gone. Not long, hopefully.

…but she did have a lot to consider.

“So,” Peter says, playfully nudging Mantis with his elbow, “it sounds like you and Nebula had a good time.”

They’re relaxing in the common area—Mantis after her sparring match with Nebula, the others…they were just enjoying some downtime. As much as they could with Rocket cobbling explosives together across the room. It wasn’t most people’s idea of relaxing, but the Guardians weren’t exactly most people. Peter had practically pounced on her when Mantis had joined them, and demanded to know how things with Nebula had gone once they’d all left.

“Did you make a move on her?” he asks, waggling his eyebrows in a way that makes Mantis laughs.

“Well…I did tell her I liked her,” Mantis says slowly. “And that I think we should go on a date.”

“And?” Peter prods.

“And she may have freaked out a little bit,” Mantis giggles, a little nervously. She feels a little bad about how she’d sprung it on Nebula, now that she’s thinking about it. But she really had thought Nebula was more…well…aware of her own feelings, and Mantis’s too, for that matter.

Surely she wasn’t that oblivious?

…maybe Mantis shouldn’t have been so blunt.

“Um, hm.” Peter furrows his brow and asks, “Freaked out how? Like…pulled-a-knife-on-you freaked out, or…?”

“What?” Mantis squawks. “No!”

“Okay, good—”

“Why would you assume that?”

“’Cause it’s Nebula,” Rocket chimes in from across the room. “It’s more surprising that she didn’t pull a knife on you.” He looks up from his bomb at her and narrows his eyes, adding, “Though maybe you’d like that.”

Mantis splutters out a protest, feeling hot with embarrassment, and Peter throws a zarg nut at Rocket that misses.

“Leave her alone, Rocket.”

“What? It was a joke!”

“I am Groot!”

“It wasn’t that mean—”

“Don’t listen to Rocket,” Drax interjects. “Weaponry skills is a fine thing to judge a potential partner for. Even if Nebula is hideous in every other regard.”

“I don’t think she’s hideous,” Mantis protests.

“She is hideous,” Drax says. “But so are you, so it’s not surprising that you think that.”

“Ignore them,” Peter says. “What do you mean freaked out?”

Which is when Gamora joins them in the common area, having heard snatches of the conversation as she arrived. “Who’s freaking out?”

“I am Groot.”

“So says Mantis,” Peter adds. “I’m guessing you were just talking to her?” When Gamora nods in confirmation (and Peter does not miss her tired sigh), he asks, “So…how is she?”

“She was…freaking out,” Gamora admits, and Rocket barks out a laugh.

Mantis’s face falls. “Oh no. Maybe I was too forward.” She chews on her thumbnail, starting to look worried.

“I’m sure it’s fine. It’s totally fine. Uh…right?” He looks hopefully at Gamora, silently pleading for her to have good news to share. The look she gives him tells him she does not.

It’s enough to make Mantis wilt. “Should I…talk to her?” she asks tentatively. She isn’t sure what she’d say, though, and even as she asks, it sounds like a bad idea.

“She would prefer to be alone for now,” Gamora says carefully.

“Oh,” Mantis says quietly.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, Mantis,” Peter assures. “Nebula’s probably just—you know how she is. She’s not good at the whole feelings thing.”

“Unless that feeling is murder,” Rocket says.

“Quill is right. And the Benatar is only so large. She can’t avoid you forever. And if she tries I can drag her out of her room for you,” Drax offers helpfully, and Peter exclaims,

“That’s a terrible idea.”

“No no, we should let him try. It’d be funny.,” Rocket snickers. “ Where is Nebula, anyways? I thought for sure we’d hear her yellin’ about this by now.”

Gamora has been strangely quiet throughout, and she looks like she has something more to say but is carefully deciding how to say it before she actually does. She decides quick and honest is the way to go.

“She left.”

Everyone tries to speak at once before she even finishes.

“What?” Mantis despairs.

“You scared her off!” Rocket guffaws, sounding somewhere between surprised and like he thinks this is hysterical, and Peter throws another zarg nut that bounces off his snout and makes him shout, “Hey!”

Ignoring him, Peter asks, “What do you mean she left?”

“She’s coming back—” Gamora starts before Drax cuts in.

“Clearly this is her way of rejecting you because she is not interested.” Peter throws a zarg nut at him too.

“If you would let me finish,” Gamora shouts over them, glaring at them all in turn, “Nebula will be back. She just needs time to think about things.” Her gaze settles on Mantis, and she tries to offer a reassuring smile, though Mantis is still looking uncertain.

Peter wraps an arm around Mantis’s shoulder and pulls her into a hug, giving her a little shake for good measure. “Don’t worry Bug, she’ll be be back. She can’t resist you.”

“How can we be sure?” Drax wonders. “Maybe she ran away like a coward.”

Gamora glares at him. “Seriously?”

“What?”

“Dude, come on,” Peter groans. “We’re trying to comfort Mantis, not make her feel worse.”

“Mantis should be prepared for the possibility that Nebula doesn’t feel the same way.”

“You don’t have to be a dick about it.”

While they argue, Groot makes his way to Mantis and pats her comfortingly. “I am Groot.”

Mantis manages a small smile. “Thank you, Groot,” she says quietly.

She’s grateful for his and Peter’s reassurance, but it does little to ease the pit forming in her gut, and it isn’t that she thinks there’s a chance her feelings aren’t reciprocated. Mantis knows Nebula has some form of affection for her, buried somewhere inside…it was just a matter of whether Nebula would admit it or not.

Mantis looks up and meets Gamora’s eye from across the room. “Nebula will be back,” she says firmly.

Mantis hopes that she’s right.

Notes:

Original AO3 Note: next chapter at last!! sorry for the delay, i had wanted to get this done sooner than i did, but i'm glad to have finally got this done at all, so i can't really complain. i think we've got just one more chapter before we come to an endpoint i'm happy with, i think.

but, anyways, let's get on with it. gay little crisis...2!!!