Gamora, Zen-Whoberi ex-assassin warrior, known as the fiercest woman in the galaxy was proud of her strength. Though her past legacy, her life and time under Thanos' reign was a scarred nightmare that disgusted her, her new life; contributing to saving the galaxy twice and the skills and strength she had developed over years of training were elements of her self she admired. She was a strong, combatant and a powerful individual.

So how did said placid and poised individual become easily frantic in certain situations?

The first of those situations happening to take place today.

"Peter, have you seen Groot?"

Her voice came out as a trembling gasp, a tone that she tried to blame on the fact that she just skidded through the doorway after running up the ladder and not on the slight rising panic in her throat. She does not panic. She is logical. Thoughtful. She is known as the one guardian who doesn't freak out.

Only Rocket had been searching the ship all morning for the little sapling, swear-filled sentences under his breath as he looked under hidden compartments of the ship, a voice hard to miss by anyone who wasn't dancing in the cockpit wearing Zune headphones. Gamora, of course, joined him in his search - it is not the first time Groot has wandered off, whether it be because he wants to play hide and seek or is merely attempting to conceal himself after stealing Peter's Zune, this was not a time to lose their heads about said missing infant.

Except earlier this morning they had stopped on an abandoned planet, sent by the Nova in search of some ancient relic. And it was duly noted by every guardian how curious and mesmerised Groot was with the scenery of the planet - the landscape bared bright pink and green flowers, something in which Groot clearly found fascinating considering he'd dart for the fields as soon as Rocket turned the other way.

And now, the fact that she had not seen Groot since they left the planet, the fact that Peter hadn't even noticed the turmoil beneath him due to the music blasting through his head - ultimately meaning that he had his Zune and Groot was not hiding somewhere with it, the fact that Rocket was tearing out his fur while Drax scanned the ship, attempting to lure out the little tree by shaking a bag of jelly beans and the fact that when she went to sharpen her knives she didn't feel a little tug on her trousers or look down to see big brown eyes begging her a hug was all adding up to too much for her to logically try to comprehend, the thought of him stranded on that abandoned planet eating away at her.

"Peter?!"

Those d'ast headphones.

She went up behind him and ripped them out of his ears. Much to the Terran's shock he whipped around almost lost his balance as he caught the hard glance from the green woman.

"Whatever it is I didn't do it, it was Rock-"

"Has Groot been in here?" She cut his ramblings dead with her tone.

"Has Groot... no I thought he was with-"

"Have you seen him?"

"What? No, he's with Rocket, Gamora what's wrong?"

She paused, biting her lip as she scanned the floor. Peter wrapped his headphones around the device, setting it to the side as he watched her face.

"We can't find Groot. I haven't seen him since we left-"

"What do you mean you can't find him?"

"What do you think I mean, Peter?"

"He's probably just playing that game again or something."

"No, I've checked all the usual spaces."

"Are you sure? You've checked everywhere?" Peter was getting notably more serious as he scratched his head, also now searching the floor.

"Of course I'm sure! I've looked around the whole ship he's not there."

"And nobody's seen him since we left?" Peters eyes went wide, now also contributing to the stress-filled aura Mantis said she was sensing.

"What if we left him there? Oh shit, Rocket's gonna lose it- we've gotta turn back! If he's-"

"Rocket's already lost it! If he curses one more time it'll be a new record! I can't believe we've been so foolish, we've only been looking after him for the past few months and we already-"

She was cut off as Peter rushed away and crashed into a crate on his way up to the controls preparing to turn the ship around, sending scraps of metal and tools flying all over the floor.

"Stop freaking out, Peter!"

"I'm not freaking out, you're freaking out!"

Gamora opened her mouth to retort something else, when his words registered. Was she freaking out?

She wouldn't freak out at this, she's faced much more alarming situations. Though her raised voice, worried breaths and crowded mind said otherwise.

"Just turn the ship around before Rocket-"

"Dammit Quill!"

The raccoon scurried past Gamora's legs and before she knew it he was in the the co-pilot seat, the familiar scene of him and Peter's disputing again taking place.

"What do you mean 'dammit Quill'?! How's this my fault?!"

"I told you I didn't wanna take that mission! I knew the whole thing would go to shit-"

"You only didn't wanna take this mission because you didn't think the bounty wasn't high enough!"

"No I didn't want to take it because I knew you'd screw this up for me somehow!"

"Again, how is this my fault?!"

"Would you both shut up! None of this is helping-"

"The concept of luring him out with these multicoloured sugar-filled capsules is not working!"

Drax made his entrance into the cockpit with booming steps as well as a booming voice, holding up the bag of jellied sweets with disappointment before placing one in his mouth.

"Seriously?" Gamora hissed. "You see now as a good time to eat?"

Drax shrugged and held out the packet offering her one, her look was her answer.

"Hey don't go sharing those around, those are mine!" Peter yelled from the front, gearing the ship down to enter the planet's atmosphere.

"Can we just focus on one thing at a time?"

"Yeah Quill, just land the d'ast ship!"

"That's exactly what I'm trying to do without you all losing it in my ears!"

Gamora sighed. It was safe to say that everyone was freaking out. So even if she was, she wouldn't be the only one.

Rocket confirmed the mood with a final shout, just as the thrusters were easing to land.

"If I don't find him straight away on this dumb planet I'm killing every last one of you!"

That night, when the utter chaos had subsided and things were back to normal (well what is normal for them), Gamora sat on the sofa in the communal area, attempting to gather her thoughts after the events of the day.

Sure enough, when they had landed and went over to the nearest field of those pink and green flowers, Groot was sitting between them, picking out a bouquet. When Gamora shouted his name he innocently turned around offered them to her - something that would usually have made her heart melt if she wasn't so damn stressed. The relief that filled her was ridiculous. A powerful, strange feeling that caused every muscle in her body to flood with solace and an extremely irritated but also exceedingly happy mixture of emotion to flash in her chest.

And now the same feeling, although slightly more subtle as she sat the little Flora Colossus on the arm of the sofa, instructing him to face her, which he did, though wearing a sulking expression as he looked up at her. Rocket had already sure as hell given him a lecture. One that was so firm and direct that even Drax looked intimidated. When the little tree started to tear up, clearly oblivious to what he had done wrong, Rocket eased, giving him a tight hug though making sure he would never ever run off like that again.

So really there was no need for Gamora to say anything else. Except she can't shake this weird innate feeling to interject, to reassure him and reassure herself that he was alright and knew the consequences of his actions. She sighed as she looked down at him, those brown eyes mirroring her own.

"You had me really worried."

The little sapling gave a small nod.

Worried? Is that really how she felt?

"You could have gotten hurt today, you know that Peter always tells you to stay on the ship when we're on missions."

Again a small nod.

"It's really bad for you to be separated from us, you know that. We're here to look after you, you always make sure one of us can see you when we're outside."

Groot's eyes dropped to the floor, then back up to hers. She could see that he knows what he did was wrong and she didn't like how down and disheartened the little tree looked.

"And do you want to know the worst part about you not being here?"

Groot looked up slowly, as though bracing himself for another bad thing he'd done.

"Drax ate your jelly beans."

A cute little gasp escaping Groot as she finally gave him a smile.

"So are you ever going to run away from us again?"

A very enthusiastic shake of the head, one that nearly made him topple over.

"Good." Gamora sat up straight, watching Groot copy her and do the same.

"Now, are we going to get Drax back for eating your candy?"

The cutest little smile, Groot jumping up with an enthusiastic "I am Groot!" as she scooped him up on her shoulder.

As they creeped through the ship to Drax's room, collecting a few bits of equipment along the way, Gamora held her finger to her lips and faced Groot as they came up to his door.

The man was napping, his snores trembling the ship as he inhaled. Quietly, Gamora sent Groot up slowly onto Drax's bed, trying to ensure he wouldn't wake up as Groot stifled giggles, hovering over his face while he carefully did his work, almost falling off as Drax let out another ground shaking snore.

The next morning when everyone was gathered for breakfast, Drax as usual strolling in later than everyone else, Gamora watched Groot burst into giggles when he caught sight of his face. Rocket was not amused at first since he was trying to feed him his breakfast, but he too broke out into laughter when he saw Drax. Followed by Peter who did a double take, then Mantis who laughed because everyone else was laughing. And finally Gamora who allowed herself a little outburst of amusement.

It was safe to say that Drax stood more than perplexed in the door way, with a jet black moustache, thick dark eyebrows and wobbly glasses that Groot had etched all over his face with a marker. He frowned as he watched everyone laugh at him, demanding to "know the source of such irksome humour".

Since Drax was not the type of person to ever look in the mirror, his appearance remained that way for the rest of the day. Every so often Gamora would make a silly face at Groot, pointing to Drax as he exploded into more giggles. Gamora, at times catching a grin on her face, realising the goofy childish nature that Groot brought out in her. A part of her that was stolen for years of her life, though now she got to relish in such a feeling, growing to learn that she deserves to feel this way and seeing Groot as a reminder that of all the years of torment and darkness she has seen, there are still pure and innocent aspects of life that, once found, must be protected and cherished by those fortunate enough to come in contact with them.

A/N

[ thank you so much for reading! Please leave a comment if you enjoyed it or want me to add another chapter. I have started another chapter between Rocket and Gamora so if eenough people want it, I'll finish it! Thank you again. ]