Hey guys, long time no see. In between now and the last thing I did, I've fallen in love the Guardians of the Galaxy, like, so much. Seeing as Endgame left me extremely unsatisfied on Guardians content and Starmora, I've decided to write a story of my own. This takes place a short while after Volume 2, and obviously before Endgame. This is my first time writing a fanfic in a long time, so please keep that in mind. My basic idea is that the Guardians take some time to relax a while after Ego to truly get any stress out of their systems. If anyone is too O.O.C, forgive me, and let me know how to improve it in the reviews. The more reviews I get, the quicker the next chapter comes out. Also, I'm from New Zealand, so that's why my spelling might be different. Thanks for reading, DestructorBolt out.

Peter Quill was tired. Sure, in between his job as captain of a partially unstable crew, trying to find jobs to make a living, and dealing with PTSD, he was barely ever fully rested, but today, the infamous star lord was drained. They'd just gotten back from a job on some planet he'd forget the name of in a week for an employer he had to resist the temptation to kick in the nuts. Seriously, they were the Guardians of the Galaxy, two time galaxy savers and overall badasses, and yet there were still some douchebags out there that treated them like ordinary chumps. Needless to say, he'd been happy to return to the Benatar. He missed the Milano (it was technically the Milano 2.0 but you get the point), but he had to admit that the Benatar was an upgrade. Faster, more space, and it still could play his music, all wins in his book. "Ok, never again are we working for that a-hole. Agreed?" Quill asked. His teammates all moaned some form of agreement, and they took off and headed for space. They decided to head back to the Quadrant which had become their home of sorts, and get such much needed relaxation after their hectic mission. Battling 50 mutant squid things during a snowstorm while watching an inexperienced Mantis was hardly a fun time, and apart from some minor bruising, everyone had made it through in one piece. The trip back to the Quandrant was filled with light banter as everyone's mood slowly returned to their normal state despite their jackass employer. Their arrival back at the Quadrant was met by Kraglin and Groot. The little guy had grown to about twice his height since the Ego incident, though he was easily the smallest member of the team. Kraglin was more often than not left with the ship when the guardians went off to their missions, and he looked after Groot a lot during that time. Initially the baby Flora Colussus was wary of the ravager, especially as the other ravagers he'd met had all been horrible except for Yondu, but after seeing that his family trusted them, and that Kraglin meant him no harm, Groot eventually warmed to the Ravager. However, that didn't stop him from leaping out of his arms and tackling Rocket into a hug as soon as he saw him, or as much of a hug as he could considering his size. "Hey hey, easy there Groot. Yeah, we're back, don't get all mushy about it" Rocket said, returning the hug. Despite his words, Rocket's tone was light. Everyone on the ship knew that he liked Groots attention, even if he acted all aloof about it sometimes.
"I am Groot". Rocket rolled his eyes. Turns out that even Groot could see through his act. He patted him on the head and let him go. Groot let go of Rocket and ran over to Gamora, performing the same hugging manuveur. The green skinned assassin smiled. Over her time with the guardians, she'd really begun to act motherly to Groot, and it warmed her heart to see that he liked her so much, perhaps even as much as Rocket. Peter couldn't help but feel touched at the display in front of him. The guardians really were starting to become a family. He gave Groot a fist bump, something he'd spent two weeks trying to teach him, and went to Kraglin. "Hey Cap'n" Kraglin said. Peter wasn't sure how he felt at being called Captain, but seeing as the rest of Yondu's ravagers were dead and he was Yondu's protegee, Kraglin had kinda given him the title anyways. "Hey Kraglin, everything went ok here?" he asked.
"Yeah, everythin's fine, got a fair stack of units thanks to the work ya did, so should be able to take some rest days. I think the team could use it" Kraglin replied, gesturing to the guardians. Quill nodded. They had been working hard these last few months, partially to distract themselves from the events of Ego and also so that they wouldn't find themselves scrambling for units any time soon. "Yeah. Rest. That sounds great" Quill agreed.

To the grumbling of Rocket, they had a team meeting to decide what to do with their week of relaxation. Drax voted that they spend the time flying around finding new and challenging enemies to kill, and Mantis, seeing Drax as her main connection to the team, agreed with him, though Gamora was quick to actively deny that idea, and the with Quill and Kraglin backing her up, the idea was denied. Rocket wanted to go scavenging through the marketplaces of less reputable planets to find parts for new and terrifying weapons, a suggestion that was shut down just as fast as Drax's. Ultimately, Quill ended up pulling rank and declared that they were all going to Xandar for a few days just to chill out, seeing as running themselves into the ground with their work wasn't gonna do them any favours. Everyone agreed with varying degrees of acceptance, so Kraglin went and set the quadrant on course. The team then split, each heading their seperate ways. Drax went with Mantis to his room, which was something they did often nowadays. Drax had explained that during that time, Drax would simply show Mantis various things he had done with Kamaria back when she was alive. Drax taught her to fight, read to her, and even shared with her some metaphors, though his own limited understanding lead to some confusion amongst the team. Drax really had come to see Mantis as something like a daughter, and he'd almost unconsciously treated her like one, despite the occasional times he called her ugly. Mantis enjoyed this very much, seeing as Ego was hardly a model father and Drax was easily the team member she'd bonded most with. After the confusion had been cleared up, the guardians had agreed to give the two their privacy, seeing as Mantis needed more adjusting to a normal life, though Drax was hardly the ideal role model, but it made them happy so Quill was fine with it. Rocket went off to tinker with the ship again, as was common for the furry ex-bounty hunter. Quill never got fully comfortable with Rocket taking apart the ship to make weapons, but he was normally very careful, and they'd only had one incident so far. Admittedly, that incident had involved the artificial gravity shutting off and the team floating for an hour, but they all made it through, so they dropped holding it against Rocket after giving him a stern warning. Despite how much the raccoon annoyed them, he was easily one of the most useful members of their family. He could assemble the most amazing devices out of random parts, and it was his creativity that had played a huge part in destroying Ego. Groot followed Rocket, having chosen him as his designated caregiver for the meantime. Kraglin went off to his room to practice with the yaka arrow. Ever since Quill gave it to him, Kraglin had obtained a fin and begun practicing with it. After a few accidents, one of which included an impaled Drax, Kraglin was getting the hang of it. He could use it to kill one enemy at a time by sending it in a straight line, but he was years away from flying it like Yondu had. However, Kraglin always kept trying, feeling like he was honouring his former captain this way. Quill simply nodded at Gamora as she walked off to do her own thing, and the ex-ravager returned to his own quarters. He picked up his Zune and began to scroll through the list. He was still getting used to just how many songs there were, and the varying quality. He was guessing that the Zune had a lot more modern music from earth on it, seeing as Kraglin said it was what everyone was listening to nowadays. He was finding several great songs on it, and he still had a number left to listen to. He turned on a random song, putting in his earbuds as he did. He smiled as the song played through his ears. It was "Fooled Around and Fell In Love", the song he and Gamora had listened to as they'd danced on Knowhere for the first time... before she'd pulled a knife on him. He rolled his eyes at that, it was now humourous to look back upon that. He closed his eyes and sat on the edge of his bed, losing himself in the song. He and Gamora had acknowledged their unspoken thing properly a while ago, and while they hadn't gone far in their relationship, Quill was enjoying it greatly. He'd been with plenty of women in the past before, but this was the first time he'd ever been with someone he really cared about, and he cared about Gamora so much it nearly hurt sometimes. She was amazing, strong, smart, graceful, deadly, beautiful and all the other complimentary adjectives you could give her. He was amazed that she actually returned his feelings despite how much he screwed up, though that the motivating factor for him to try be better (try being the operative word). With all the work and healing from Ego, they hadn't really had proper time to advance their relationship apart from occasional kissing and hugging, as well as spending the occasional night in each others bunk, usually to comfort the other after a nightmare. This vacation, the trip to Xandar did have one ulterior motive to him. He had been planning to ask her on their first real date for a while, and this had presented the perfect oppurtunity. He opened his eyes and saw Gamora sitting next to him. "Hey" he said, smiling at her.
"Hello Peter" she said back, a small smile gracing her lips.
"Want to listen?" he asked her, offering her an earbud. She looked at it and nodded, placing it in her ear. He saw her lips twitch into a smile after she heard the song playing, and they sat in silence listening to it for a while. Quill felt her rest her head on his shoulder, and he put an arm around her, pulling her in closer. As the song finished, the two didn't move, content to stay in their embrace.
"Peter?" Gamora asked, breaking the silence.
"Yeah Gamora?" he replied.
"Why did you wish to take this vacation?" she asked, moving her head to look at him.
"Isn't a guy allowed a bit of R&R?" he replied with a light tone in his voice. She looked at him, not buying it. Peter just decided to go with the truth.
"I just felt like we've been working so hard since Ego. We've had a bit of downtime, sure, but this is the first real break we've had in a while. I just wanted the crew to do something fun, something as a family. Might let us properly put it all behind us, you know?" he said, a small bit of red appearing on his cheeks, aware of how he was sounding like a sentimental sap. Gamora looked at him and smiled.
"That sounds nice. It will be good to relax and get rid of the remaining tension. It may help the team grow closer too," she stated simply. Quill pulled her a little closer to him.
"Actually, there was something else..." he said. Gamora moved away from him a little, just enough to look at him properly. She titled her head, encouraging him to go on. Quills heart started beating faster. He'd been meaning to ask this for a while now, and he'd now put himself in an oppurtunity with only two outcomes. He could either come out and say it, or he could badly lie and risk her ire at trying to lie to her. He decided to go with the potential humiliation and just said it. "While we're on Xandar, I was wondering..." he trailed off nervously, before breathing and collecting his nerves. "Maybe, if you wanted to, me and you could go spend some time together? Like, without the team?" He was amazed at how relatively calmly he was able to say it, even though he was freaking out on the inside. Gamora looked at him inquisitively.
"Like what you Terrans call a date?" she asked, an unreadable look on her face. Peter's confidence was vanishing by the second, worrying that he'd spooked her or something.
"I mean, yeah if you want to call it that. Or if you don't that's totally fine it's just that this is our first time relaxing in a while and since we made the unspoken thing spoken and I thought it was a good opportunity and I-" Quill's nervous rambling was suddenly stopped by Gamora's green finger on his lips. He forced himself to make eye contact with her nervously.
"Peter" she said. Quill said nothing. He was about to apologise for bringing it up and making things awkward when he saw her lips twitch upwards. "I think I will accept your proposition". Quill could've sworn his heart stopped for a second. She'd said yes to this date? She hadn't stabbed him? He couldn't stop the goofy and excited smile from making it's way onto his face.
"Really? Awesome!" He almost fist pumped, but managed to restrain himself. Gamora was smiling now, which she found herself doing all too often at his antics. "So where do you want to go? There's this restaurant with really great food in the capital city, or there's this awesome theme park we could go to, or-" Once again, Gamora cut him off.
"I trust you to decide that. We have a few days before we arrive, you'll work something out". Her words helped to calm him. She grinned and gave him a quick kiss. "See you later Peter" she said, as she got up and left the room. Quill just sat there, thinking about his good fortune, unable to conceal his happiness. This was shaping up to be the best vacation ever, and it hadn't even started yet.

Thanks for reading, all feedback is appreciated!