Hi everyone! I've been working on this story for a while now—I actually started it back when Guardians was still in theaters. I've read a bit about Guardians 2, and it sounds like it's going to be really good and give us lots more details about different worlds and characters, but like all Marvel sequels, I'm sure it'll be a bit dark too. This story, on the other hand, is my rather fluffy take on what the Guardians might get up to after the events of the first movie—the way I see it, I have two years to play around with this before we find out what really happens next. :)

The title of this fic comes from the Janis Joplin song of the same title. This story is going to have plenty of feels, but also some action, so I think it fits. Also, I really like this song, and I think it's the kind of thing that Quill's mom might have included on one of his Awesome Mixes.

Eventually, there will be a bit of romance here, but this story will mostly focus on the Guardians traveling together and trying to coexist with the rest of the galaxy without committing too many crimes. (They will commit some crimes though.) Chapters will be told from different characters' points of view, and I'll be alternating between Quill, Gamora, Rocket, and Drax, roughly in that order. (We all know by now what a chapter from Groot's POV would look like. :)) Thanks for reading, and I'll see you again soon!

Disclaimer: I own no part of the Marvel Universe—only feels and fanfic are my purview. :)

Gamora

Looking back, Gamora knew that the future of the Guardians had been decided in the hospital on Xandar. After the battle with Ronan, everyone was banged up, but thanks to the surgical modifications she'd been subjected to as a child, Gamora was sturdier than most people, and she was allowed to leave her room first. Other than a few cuts, bruises, and broken ribs, she was perfectly healthy—or at least, healthy enough that no one stopped her when she told an attendant she was going to look for her friends. All the attendant asked was that she leave her hospital room and move to a new part of the building before moving about the grounds unescorted.

When she was shown to her new room—one of many apparently set aside for visiting Nova Corps personnel—Gamora was happy to see that it contained no hospital equipment. There was a bed, a desk and chair, and a closet filled with clothes.

"You can choose whatever you'd like to wear," the attendant said shyly. "The clothes you wore when you came here have been repaired as well. While you're here, you're free to roam the grounds of the hospital, and just let me know if you need anything at all."

"Thank you," Gamora said, surprised by the woman's demeanor. She'd thought the Nova Corps medical personnel and attendants had seemed furtive in her presence because they were afraid of her. But now it seemed that it was deference, not fear, that they'd been showing.

"No," the woman said quietly, meeting Gamora's eyes for a moment. "Thank you. What you did, you...you saved my family." Then she hurried from the room, and Gamora was left staring at the door. She'd been accused many times of taking lives—usually because she had—but to be credited with saving lives was...gratifying. And very different from her usual interactions with people.

According to news reports, outside of Nova Corps, it wasn't widely known who had stopped Ronan. The reports only stated that an unidentified group allied with the Ravagers had stopped the madman. Gamora could understand that: had she been in Nova Prime's position, she could see herself being reluctant to announce to the galaxy that her planet had been saved by five criminals, one of them a daughter of Thanos at that.

After she'd changed into new clothing—she preferred dark, discreet colors, and thankfully, Nova Corps seemed to have supplied her with an abundance of black and navy blue clothing—she asked the man at an information desk where her friends were located. The attendant she addressed was quick to oblige: like the rest of the staff at the hospital, this one was all at once deferential, uneasy, and the picture of gratitude in her presence. His unease didn't bother Gamora though—if anything, it was less unnerving than Quill's reaction when she entered his room.

"Hey!" he said, grinning at her. "You get to walk around already? People keep telling me I can't leave yet—something about 'organ damage.' So how are you?"

"Fine—body mods, remember? I heal fast," Gamora said, sitting in a chair beside the bed, next to several machines that monitored Quill's vital signs. She smiled a little, relieved to see that he was all right when he should have been dead after holding an infinity stone for so long—it was strangely easy to smile around Quill. "And the others are recovering too. Apparently Drax and Rocket are healing, but we can't see them yet. Both of them were bleeding internally when Nova Corps picked us up, and now there's a risk of infection if they're exposed to any outside germs."

Quill winced. "I am riddled with germs. I guess we all got messed up when the Dark Astor crashed, but those two were in another crash right before that when Rocket hit Ronan. Are you hurt though?"

"I broke a few ribs, but nothing serious," Gamora said with a shrug. "Broken bones always heal eventually."

"Well, I am really glad to see you," Quill said, reaching for her hand, and Gamora took it—friends could hold hands, after all. "And not just because I'm so bored just laying here. I mean, I'm glad that you're okay."

"You too," Gamora said, meeting his eyes for a moment before glancing around the room to avoid dwelling on the color of his eyes. "So, what have you been up to since we've been here?"

"Well, sleeping mostly," Quill said, grinning. "And then this really nice nurse gave me a sponge bath earlier."

"Really?" Gamora said, squeezing Quill's hand perhaps a little harder than necessary.

"No, but she did fluff my pillows in an erotic way," Quill said, chuckling. "And she offered to make the sponge bath thing happen once all my internal organs have healed. But I told her that I'd better pass, because I have a friend who doesn't approve of my—what did you call it? Pelvic sorcery?"

"I never said I didn't approve," Gamora said evenly, "only that I wouldn't succumb to it."

"So I should say yes to the sponge bath?" Quill asked, grinning, teasing her. It had been a long time since anyone had treated her like this: like she was a person to be spoken to and joked with, not just a weapon.

"Shall I express my opinion by smothering you with a pillow?" Gamora said, reaching for one of those piled behind his head, and he laughed.

"Okay, I'll stop. Hey, check out what that guy Dey brought me yesterday."

Gamora looked at the device he was holding out to her and smiled: it was Quill's music player.

"It survived the crash?" she said, examining the unwieldy thing. Aside from a scratch or two, its cumbersome size had obviously protected it from any serious damage.

"Even the tape did—they found my stereo in the wreckage," Quill said, nodding at the strange unit inside the player.

"Stereo?" Gamora repeated blankly.

"That thing on the Milano that played music," Quill explained. "I bought it years ago off some weird junker—no idea where he got it. Everything else I can replace pretty easily, but finding a stereo that'll play cassettes is gonna take awhile."

"Well, I should probably let you rest." Gamora stared at the music player thoughtfully. "Do you mind if I listen to this? I mean, I only heard the one song on Knowhere."

"Gamora, we almost died together a couple days ago. Yes, you can definitely listen to my Awesome Mix," Peter said, closing his eyes. "Just bring it back later. I'm gonna nap, then call an attendant and ask for every kind of dessert they have here."

Gamora smiled. "I hadn't thought to request specific food. People just bring me meals three times a day."

"Oh, you should totally start asking for whatever you want," Quill said, opening his eyes. "Seriously, if I had known that people were gonna be this nice, I would have started saving billions of lives a long time ago."

Gamora smiled, then carefully wrapped the cord of the earpieces around the player. "Have you ever loaned this to anyone before?"

"Nope," Quill said, closing his eyes again. "But, I trust you with my life, so I trust you with my walkman. Oh, and when one side ends, you have to flip the tape over. Just hit eject, then put it back in the same way."

"Okay," Gamora said, unnerved by the description—in spite of Peter Quill's enthusiasm, she didn't think she'd ever be a fan of obsolete technologies.

"Well, I promise I'll be careful."

Peter smiled without opening his eyes. "If you wanna turn the volume up, there's a knob on the side—and you're gonna wanna turn the volume up, trust me. Listen to it, then come see me again later so we can discuss the awesomeness of earth music."

"I will," Gamora said, amused at the thought. She had never had much time for the music of any planet, let alone that of a tiny world light years away. "Have a good nap."

"Thanks," he said, and Gamora left, wondering if she would ever feel as comfortable anywhere as Quill seemed to be everywhere.

She listened to the tape—twice. Flipping it over made her nervous the first time—she didn't want to break anything—but the controls were simple enough, and the music itself was…intriguing. Sometimes she didn't know exactly what the singers were talking about, but she understood most of the sentiments. The tape had been a gift from Quill's mother, and the songs were full of words of comfort and love...though there were also emotions that were harder to articulate. But she enjoyed the melodies, and though she knew little about music, it seemed to Gamora that for such a small planet, earth did produce some good songs.

When Gamora went back to Quill's room, he was awake and polishing off a large meal.

"Mmm—this place has amazing food," he declared the moment she entered the room. "I don't even know what half this stuff is, but it all tastes great."

"I'm glad," Gamora said, setting the music player on the bed beside him and sitting in the chair. "I mean, I couldn't really comment on the dessert menu."

"Here, want one?" he said, offering her an uneaten pastry. "Those are filled with some kind of fruit, I think."

Gamora took the pastry and cautiously bit into it—she wasn't used to sharing food with people who had no desire to poison her. "It does taste good, whatever it is. I don't recognize the fruit though."

"It kind of tastes like apples," Quill offered, then shrugged when she stared at him blankly. "Earth food. Sort of like those purple things that grow here. Zeox, I think they're called."

"Ah," Gamora said. "Xandar has a lot of things you can't get anywhere else. I was always happy coming here, even on an errand for Thanos, because of the food—the fruit, especially. This is probably the most bio-diverse planet in the entire quadrant."

"Yeah, when we first met, you were eating that green thing," Quill said, suddenly looking thoughtful. "What's your favorite food? I mean, out of every planet you've ever been too, what's the best thing you've ever eaten anywhere?"

Gamora considered the question. "My mother's cooking, I think. She was a warrior, and I suppose an indifferent cook. But every year on my birthday, she'd make me anything I'd ask for."

Quill smiled. "See, you were a way nicer kid than me. My mom was a great cook, but on my birthdays, I always wanted to go to a restaurant. So we'd go out for burgers or pizza, and then we'd go home and have cake. I was usually more interested in the presents than the food though."

Gamora smiled. "What kind of presents did you get for your birthdays?"

"This was a birthday present, actually," Quill said, holding up the music player. "Best present ever, pretty much. That year I got a bike was pretty great too though. What was your best birthday present ever?"

Gamora bit her lip. "You're going to laugh."

"I won't," Quill promised.

"If you laugh, I will smother you with a pillow," she warned, and he laughed.

"Okay, I'm totally done laughing now. What was it?"

Gamora sighed. "It was a stuffed flerken, all right? I got it when I was little, and I loved it. Even after I'd started school and my parents had started to teach me basic combat skills, I still slept with it every night."

Quill's eyes widened. "Aren't flerken those weird things that lay eggs and look like cats?"

"I don't know what a cat is, but yes, they lay eggs, and in real life, they're ferocious and extremely dangerous," Gamora said, smiling at the thought. "But I loved that stuffed flerken. Even after its eyes fell off."

Quill snorted, but he composed his expression when she glared at him. "Sorry. I'm just trying to deal with the fact that we've saved each other's lives repeatedly and I hardly know anything about you."

Gamora shrugged. "You know more than anyone else. I mean, you know more about the real me. Everyone else only knows me as an assassin."

"Well, everyone else just knows me as a sexy outlaw, so you're getting to know the real me too," Quill said, stretching in a way that flattered his physique, hidden as it was beneath shapeless hospital clothes.

Gamora rolled her eyes. "Does that really impress women?"

"Sometimes," Quill said with a shrug. "It's hit and miss. Some people really like flirty Quill. But, you like the real me, so that's better."

Gamora smiled sadly and glanced out the window. The city below was beautiful, and Xandar as a whole was an incredible planet. She was glad that she was here, for now, and that she had met Quill and the others. But she didn't know what came next.

"What is it?" Quill said quietly.

Gamora shook her head. "I was just thinking that if you knew me better, knew more about my past, you wouldn't like me."

"Bullshit," Quill said firmly.

"It's true," Gamora said, glaring at him. "I was an assassin, Quill. For years, I hated Thanos, and I knew that he was a monster, but I still served him. I've lost count of how many people I killed in his name, and I can never take that back. I'm a monster too."

"Yeah, but how many lives did you save this week?" Quill argued. "Gamora, you're the one who wanted to stop Ronan. You knew what he was gonna do, and you wouldn't let it happen. None of us would be here if it weren't for you."

Gamora frowned and stared down at her hands. "You convinced the others—"

"But you convinced me," Quill said, taking her hands before she could think to pull away. "Look, if I had never met you, I'd be out there right now, ducking Yondu and probably watching Ronan destroy the galaxy. Actually, I guess I'd be dead, once he figured out I had the orb. So yeah, maybe I wouldn't like the person you used to be. But the person you are now—the one who just saved about thirteen billion lives—is pretty much the coolest person I've ever met."

Gamora didn't know what to say to that, but she had a terrible feeling that she was blushing. She pulled her hands away from his, then offered him the crushed remains of the pastry she'd been holding. Quill took it, touching her hand more than seemed strictly necessary in the process, but Gamora was intrigued and annoyed to realize that she didn't really mind. Because we're friends, she told herself.

"Okay?" he said through a mouthful of food.

"Chew and swallow please," she grimly. "After everything we've been through, I'm not going to watch you die choking on a pastry."
He laughed, then finished chewing without incident. "So how did you like the Awesome Mix?"

"It was…interesting,"

Quill groaned. "Come on! That's the best adjective you've got?"

"I liked it," Gamora clarified, "but I wish I'd made a list of all the words I didn't understand."

"Oh yeah," Quill said. "So, a Pina Colada is a kind of drink—sweet with booze. And an alligator is sort of like a flerken, actually, but bigger, and with scales instead of fur. The words don't matter as much as the music though. Even before I knew what the hell any of those songs were actually about, I liked how they sounded."

Gamora nodded. "Well, I did enjoy the melodies. All of them, though they were very different. Most planets don't have quite the variety of music that earth seems to."

"I know, right?" Quill said. "I've been out here almost thirty years, and yeah, there's some great music. But nothing quite like the songs from earth."

Gamora stared down at her hands again. "You could go back. To earth, I mean—if you wanted to. I'm sure after what we've done, Nova Prime would certainly find a way to—"

"Yeah, that's not happening," Quill said. "Even if I went back, I wouldn't belong there. As far as I know, earth hasn't gotten very far with space travel yet, and since the only thing I'm really good at is flying a spaceship, I'm guessing it might be hard to find a job. Or fit in—I've lived in space way longer than I ever lived on earth. I'd just be a freak if I went back now."

Gamora frowned. "If you never plan on going back there, why do you talk about earth and its stories so much?"

"Because that's the only thing I've got left of earth," Quill said quietly, nodding at his music player. "That and these songs. My mom, she…I think she would have liked to know about the life I have now. She would have had fun, imagining me traveling out here, seeing things I never could have imagined, growing up on earth. But she wouldn't have wanted me to forget where I'm from either."

"Oh," Gamora murmured, not sure what else to say. Her home planet belonged to Thanos, after all—she had no home to return to either.

"So, it looks like you're stuck with me," Quill said, and Gamora smiled.

"I can think of worse things," she said. Gamora didn't know where she was going next. But just for today, she was content to sit and talk with Peter Quill, and imagine some sort of life that they could share with their friends.