I don't even know, man. This is one of those fanfics that snowballed into something bigger and bigger due to the good time I was having writing nothing else, I had fun. And I hope you have fun reading this, too.

Those weren't her shoes. That was the first thing Gamora noticed as she walked out of her sleeping quarters on her way to grab food for breakfast. They were the opposite of anything she'd wear. Impractical in almost every sense… Although the sharp heels did possibly make them fine tools for an impaling via a swift kick.

"Oh!" the orange woman wrapped in little more than a white bed sheet and the smell of cologne rushed past her, snorting out a giggle as she picked up the shoes from near the entrance of the meeting room. "You must be… Uhara, right?"

"Gamora," answered the green woman plainly, eyeing her up and down. Not an invader. Then whose guest? Certainly not Drax… Rocket? Maybe, but nearly not enough signs of shedding on the sheets. Groot? She was fairly certain a shrub would have been more to Groot's liking…

"H-Hey! I found… Your wallet…" Peter's voice trailed off as he wandered out to the meeting room, wearing his black pants and waving around a silvery-blue wallet in hand. This waving stopped as Gamora shot her head over to him.

"Yay!" the woman giggled and ran over to embrace Peter about the waist, clinging on as they stood there together. "Looks like I met one of your team already! So when do I get to meet your other friends you were talking about so much?"

"Well, this is Gamora…" Peter cleared his throat as Gamora eyed the two and then passed them on the way back to her bedroom. "…That's her way of saying "hello". I promise."

"I am Groot," Peter heard as he spun around to follow Gamora's storm back to her room, and noticed that they were not alone. Rocket and Groot had trailed out during the introductions, both with arms and boxes full of metal that would probably be repurposed as some sort of weapon later-on.

Rocket set down his box of future explosives and leaned against one of the chairs in the meeting room as he looked up to the orange woman, "Well good morning. How's it going? Rocket's the name… Say, you even know a guy with opposable thumbs and a ringed tail? I've been told it's a pretty interesting experience."

"You're so short and cute!" she chuckled, crouching down in front of him.

"Hehe… Don't let the height fool you. I'm just as much a man as tall, pink and goofy over there."

"Goofy?" Peter mouthed.

"I am Groot," nodded the treelike being, and she rose and brushed back a few strands of her blue hair.

"I'm Lorrelli," she added, holding out her hand to him.

"I am Groot," he repeated, and her smile faltered. This was followed Rocket nodding to him, and Groot reaching out to take her hand and shake it.

"We ain't used to formalities," Rocket explained with a shrug.

"I am Groot."

"That's about all you're gonna get outta him," Peter explained. "Rocket's the best at translating."

"Peter told me all about how close you two were! And you're just as cute a couple as I imagined!" she exclaimed before taking her wallet from Peter. "I'm going to go try to find my skirt!"

Rocket's smile fell as she rushed past them, the white sheet fluttering along the way, "W-Wait, we ain't like that! Me and him! I mean, we're close, but—Ughhhh I'm pinning this one on you! I told you we were spendin' way too much time together and people were gonna start thinkin' the wrong thing!"

"I am Groot."

"What?! Out of your league?! You remember than next time you need help because somethin's tryin' to nest in you! Those scratches took weeks to heal!"

Groot shuddered at being snapped and pointed at, and Peter attempted to hold back a snort of laughter as he trailed behind his visitor for the evening.

"Your new whore left this in the hall this morning!" Drax's booming voice and looming presence outside his room nearly made the orange woman jump back against the wall as he emerged from his own quarters, a nearly comically small room he'd taken up towards the front of the hallway. It had been converted from a broom closet, but offered him enough room to sleep and get at least a small workout, which seemed to be enough for him.

"Thank you for your helpfulness and lack of boundaries as always, Drax," Peter took the skirt from his tattooed friend quickly, passing it to his silent company.

"You are welcome," Drax replied with a stern nod, making the orange woman push up against the wall even more as he ducked into his room again and retrieved a large blade as he returned. "It is my turn to gather foodstuffs. I shall be back by this planet's sundown with a fresh kill."

"I thought it was Gamora's turn."

"She has claimed illness," Drax answered, swinging the blade over his shoulder as he lumbered out of the small bedroom and towards the ship's stairway.

"I thought she couldn't… Get sick?" Peter glanced down at the floor and furrowed his brow in thought, not even paying attention to the fact that his date had rushed back to his bedroom and quickly slid the door shut after Drax's departure.

Peter wasn't the only word who'd heard this. From the table, sitting on a stack of old manuals, Rocket continued to piece together his bomb-in-progress while giving the occasional glance to the hallway. This allowed him a prime view as the visitor bolted past Peter, holding her clothes and still wrapped in her sheet, shouting that she had had a good time before disappearing. More than likely forever.

Groot, meanwhile, noted both the mind and the hands of the raccoon working, but not on the same project.

"I am Groot?"

"Yeah… I'm thinkin' the same thing, buddy," Rocket muttered as he reached over for his wrench while watching Peter shuffle his one foot against the metal ground.

"I am… Groot?"

"Well… I got a few ideas…" Rocket replied.

"I am Groot."

"Yup. It's gonna require a bit of stupidity on my part," clicking together two pieces of spherical metal. He glanced down at it as it began to tick, and his fur bristled, "…Oops. You may wanna get me the wire cutters. And…. Might I suggest being quick about it?"

The bomb's fuse had been deactivated in time, and after a short, panicked shouting spree from Quill, Rocket found himself knocking on Gamora's door, all while Peter's disbelieving yell was still ringing in his ears. He leaned against the metal door, and heard a pounding noise greet him from the other side.

Taking in a deep breath, hoping for the best, and preparing for the worst by holding up one of his paws to shield his face from any attack, Rocket entered into her room. It wasn't much larger than Drax's, but again offered her enough room to train and sleep. And Rocket watched her for a moment, silently, as she did the former by throwing a constant series of swings to her punching bag. This ended with a shout and an uppercut strong enough to tear a hole into the red bag.

Quelling what he knew to be his better judgment, the raccoon took the opportunity of the sand pouring out of the bag and on to the floor to clear his throat and make his presence known.

"This is why I'm glad you and me are on the same side now," he half-heartedly joked, and she spun around, adjusting the hair she'd put up in a ponytail.

"Was I being loud?" she asked through a pant, moving to rubbing her knuckles and stepping over the growing mound of sand.

"Nothin' I ain't used to here… So… Quill and that lady…"

"Did you need something, Rocket?" she asked sharply.

He leaned against the edge of the bed and cleared his throat, "I was… Sorta wonderin' what you were doin' tonight."

"…What?" the sound was the only noise that filled the room before Rocket scurried up and stood atop the bed in an attempt to make something closer to eye contact with her.

"I had these reservations to this restaurant at this club. I completely forgot about it and the lady-friend I was supposed to take, well, haha, turns out she was taken hostage and couldn't make it! Funny how that turns out, right!?"

"I'm perfectly fine here. Thank you, but Groot might be better company for you."

"…And that's why people think what they do about us," he murmured to himself with a roll of the eyes before shifting his stance to take a more serious pose. "Nah, that's no good. He don't really eat like we do so it'd basically be him starin' at me most of the time. …When's the last time you've been off this ship, anyhow?"

"Two days ago," she answered as she took a seat on the edge of the bed beside where the raccoon stood and began to adjust the tape running along her hands.

"Okay. When's the last time you did that and it wasn't for an errand or for a mission?"

This took her longer. She stared at the wall of her bedroom, as if an answer would quietly appear in front of her, and Rocket hopped off the bed and sauntered over to the doorway, "I'm gonna be ready in about two hours. It's a fancy joint, so if you're coming, look nice."

Gamora was left alone in her room, looking down at her knuckles. After the door shut, she began to unwrap the tape and then idly walked over to the pole filled with hangers that served as her makeshift closet. There had to be something….