"Guys, we're coming back… they got Drax…
utters Peter through the coms. The two tense and stop upon hearing this, hearts sinking.
"Oh god…" breathes Petra, who was leaning on Rocket, having just entered the Milano.
Rocket then pushes out of it, leading Petra to the lower deck, where most of their medical equipment lied, along with a bunch of weapons and scrap.
The three, Gamora, Peter, and Groot, enter the Milano as well. In the kitchen, Peter places Groot on the table, then turns to Gamora, who was awfully silent, seeming as if she would explode. This concerned him.
"Hey, are you okay?" Peter asks softly.
Gamora does not reply, standing firmly with her arms crossed and face to the side.
"Hey," calls Peter quietly, pulling at her chin gently to meet her eyes, only to find them shimmering in tears. He furrows his eyebrows, feeling his heart crack at the sight of her this way, a look he'd never seen.
"It's my fault," she uttered sorrowfully. "I never should have suggested we go after them. I…I."
"Hey, hey. Come here," tells Peter, pulling her into his arms, rubbing up and down her shoulder as she cried silently into his chest.
Drax wasn't just one of their closest, most loyal, of friends,
he was family.
Real family, for them at least.
The group had had each other's backs for months, shared moments they'd never experienced in their entire lives.
To lose a member, was to lose a piece of themselves, it felt awful. They each blamed themselves, especially Gamora.
But Peter wouldn't have her doing this to herself. "This wasn't your fault, G. We never could have guessed this would happen," he says. Peter feels her shake her head slowly. He pulls back. "Hey, look at me." She does so reluctantly. God, he hated seeing her this way. "We're getting him back. I promise," he stressed.
Gamora could see he was genuine, acknowledged the determination in his eyes, and truth in his tone.
There was a reason they always followed his lead. Gamora smiled slightly, subconsciously playing Rocket's earlier words in her head.
He was right. She had to say something to the Quill, about how she felt. About how he made her feel.
Soon, but not yet.
Downstairs, Rocket had silently patched Petra's wound up. The whole time, she'd studied his troubled expression curiously, beginning to question the reason behind it.
When Rocket walks off to a nearby table, packing the equipment up, she asks. "I wanna say you're mad because we lost Drax, but I'm not so sure," she says.
Rocket halts his movement, looking up into the ceiling, and exhaling tiredly. "Why'd you do it, Petra?" he asks suddenly.
Petra's eyes go wide. He'd never use her real name unless he was serious,
and angry.
Having been weighing reasons already, Petra found only one explanation to his question. "You mean, saving your ass?" she smiles slightly, as if wondering how he would even ask.
But then
she sees it.
Petra squints her eyes. "You still think you're not worth it, don't you?" she asks in disbelief.
"You could have died, goddamn it!" he shouts, turning to her furiously.
"So! You would have done it for me!" she tells, pushing off the table and to her feet.
"Of course I would! But-"
"But what? I can't, for some reason!"
"Yes! I mean no!
Not for me!" he states, face falling.
Petra pierces her lips, studying his expression in disappointment.
"Which you, Rocket?"
she asks, crossing her arms. He turns to her in confusion. "The monstrous beast that shouldn't exist?
The mistake?!"
she spits, her words cold and pointed,
but in his mind, fairly true.
"That's the version of you, that you see! But…
Do you wanna know who
The You I See
Is?
I see a smart, strong man.
I see a guy who cares about his friends…
who cares about me,"
she smiles. His heart aches at her words, and eyes tear up.
"I see a father, who loves his son," the Quill-girl utters, voice breaking as her own heart raced with every word, feeling an overwhelming amount
of a certain emotion towards him.
"I see…
my best friend.
Who I've laughed, and built, and cried with."
...
But it was clear then.
...
"I see…
the man…
I fell in love with."
Rocket's eyes widen, his mouth falls agape and heart hammers.
The red-head laughs out, inching closer and taking hold of his face. "I love you, Rocket," she tells more firmly.
Rocket lets out a breath he was holding upon hearing it again. He laughs out too, eyeing her yearningly.
…
"I've
always
loved you, Petra Quill,"
he told just as firmly, and just as honestly.
She grins joyfully, heart flying crazy.
Unable to hold back the rush of mad emotions, he pushes forward, crashing his lips into hers, and placing his arms around her needing-ly as both let release their poorly held back tears of joy, and pain, all at once.
Only when out of breath did they pull apart, but close. The two gazed into one another's eyes almost disbelievingly.
But it was real.
The two sigh as if in relief, resting their foreheads on each other's.
And after a full minute of just each other's much needed company, Petra speaks. "Let's go get our friend back," she smiles encouragingly.
"Hell yeah."
Rocket and Petra come up to see Peter scrunching his eyebrows at Groot. "Big? Plane?!" the Quill questions in confusion as Groot attempted gestures at him hastily.
"What's going on?" asks Rocket.
"Groot's trying to tell us something," Gamora replies.
Groot turns at Rocket's voice. "I am Groot! (Finally!)" he exclaims. Rocket steps towards him.
"What is it, twigs?" he asks, Petra smiling proudly at him from behind, feeling an incredible amount of joy, and hope.
"I am Groot. (I know why they took uncle Drax!)" Groot says. Rocket's eyes widen slightly.
"What's he saying?" asks Peter eagerly.
"He says he knows why they took Drax," Rocket explains seriously, the others are just as shocked.
"I am Groot. (The big, ugly one told his slaves to take uncle Drax! Because he said that uncle Drax went to Exander before and that he knows how to get into Nopa!)"
"What's he saying?!" exclaims Peter impatiently. Rocket glares at him irritably.
"He's saying that they took the big idiot because he knows how to get into Nova HQ? What the heck does that mean?!" Rocket asks.
"It means…
they want in.
Why?" offers Gamora.
"And they think Drax can help?!" exclaims Rocket.
"So…they're headed to Xander," says Petra.
"Seems like it," Peter says.
"Who the hell are these people?!" asks Rocket.
"You think Nova might know?" offers Petra.
"If they do know something, finding Drax would be a lot easier. Either way…
we're headed to Xander," says Peter.