Takes place in the vague time between GOTG2 and IW.

"Okay, okay. Hear me out," Peter is saying. Gamora raises an eyebrow from where she's leant against the wall. "Don't give me that look!" he protests. She continues to wait indulgently, anyways. "Aughh...now you've got me off-track."

She chuckles. "That was exactly my intention."

"No." He points at her. "It was just a side-effect."

"Uh-huh."

"Yes-huh."

"No-huh."

"Yes-huh."

"No-huh - what am I doing?"

"Ha-ha!" he exclaims, punching the air with his fist in some Terran display of achievement. "I got you there!"

"That you did," she says, small smile still on her face.

Peter must notice her distracted gaze, though, because he suddenly becomes serious. It's one of the things she appreciates about him, that he can be such a lovable, idiotic goofball yet still manage to turn that off when the situation demands it. (Most of the time, anyways.) "Hey, what's up?" he asks, stepping towards her. She lets him wrap his arms around her, lets herself relax in his embrace.

She closes her eyes and sighs. "It's nothing," she mumurs.

"Now that's a really big lie," he points out, but doesn't prod further. They stand there in silence and comfort. Gamora lays her head against his chest so that she can hear his heart beating, beating, beating.

Th-thump, th-thump, th-thump.

Elsewhere on the Benatar, Groot yells at the characters in his game, Mantis laughs, Rocket touches up on some maintenance, and Drax cooks something more edible and tasteful than anything the rest of them could come up with.

Th-thump, th-thump, th-thump.

She's happy, for once in her life.

Th-thump, th-thump, th-thump.

Elsewhere in the universe, Thanos continues on with his goal, Nebula wanders, and Loki - well, Loki does what he does.

They worry her.

She wonders where they are, where they have gone, if they're safe.

Th-thump, th-thump, th-thump.

It's not like she doesn't love her new family, she does. It shocks her, sometimes, how much of her heart has been taken by them.

She just misses her old one, too.

Th-thump, th-thump, th-thump.

Gamora opens her door to find Nebula standing awkwardly in front of her.

"Hello," she greets, brushing by Gamora to walk into the room. She plops herself onto her bunk.

Gamora closes the door and asks, "When did you get here?"

Nebula shrugs. "Just now." Gamora walks towards the bed before jumping onto her sister. Nebula growls in response and pushes her away.

She laughs as she rolls over, and for just a second she can imagine that they are on a vastly different ship, somewhere across the galaxy. For a second, she can imagine the two of them from before everything collapsed. For a second, she can imagine - no, she shouldn't, because despite everything, Sactuary was so much worse.

They aren't the same as before.

They can't be the same as before.

Because now is better without Thanos, but worse with the distance. (Do they cancel each other out?)

Nebula apparently doesn't have anything to worry about, because she throws a package at her. Gamora blinks. "What is this?"

"Doughnuts. Best ones out of all the backwater markets I've been to. Better than whatever paste you guys eat."

"We don't always eat paste," Gamora grumbles as she opens the bag. Sure enough: doughnuts. "Peter told me about these. He said they sucked where he came from. Always stale. But he ate them anyways."

Nebula rolls her eyes. "Those are Terran doughnuts. Of course they suck. They're missing out on a lot of flavors."

A few moments of silence. "Thanks," Gamora says.

"No problem," Nebula says back, and then stands up.

"Leaving already?"

"I have to go," she says, not turning back. "Thanos - he needs to be stopped."

Gamora stands up in alarm, the bag of doughnuts forgotten on her bunk. "You can't stop him alone."

"I have to," she counters, shaking with barely repressed rage. "I want to - I need to kill him!"

Gamora would like to avoid the issue altogether. She would also like Nebula to do the same, but what Nebula wants is distance. "Be careful," is all she can say, not that her sister will listen.

Nebula looks back at her, nods once, and then stalks away. Gamora hears her footsteps and her curt greetings with her teammates as she leaves the ship.

She misses her already.

Gamora thinks of the past often, when things were so much better but so much worse. She's not sure whether she should long for it or not.

Nebula, on the other hand, stays in the present, and takes things as they come. After all, things have happened to her without her consent all too many times already.

Loki focuses on the future, with his multitude of plans and contingencies. He runs away from the past as surely as he does his race.

Three of a kind, them.

Over the next couple of days, her teammates notice her mood.

Groot cheers when she hands him a doughnut, but frowns and immediately breaks it in half to give a piece to her.

"I'm fine," she says.

He frowns, continuing to pester her with the piece of doughnut.

"Thanks, but I have my own."

His mouth opens in an 'oh', but he still sets it down on the table in case she wants it. (Not that she would take it after touching that. His room is a mess.)

"I am Groot?"

"Nothing's wrong."

He crosses his arms. "I am Groot, I am Groot."

Gamora blinks. "I can lie, because I'm an adult. You, on the other hand..."

He pouts. "I am Groot!"

"Okay, okay! Fine!" She raises her hands up in surrender. "It's just that I miss Nebula, and my brother."

Groot blinks. "I am Groot?"

"Yes, I have a brother. Assuming he's still alive."

"I am Groot."

"I never told you guys about him because it never came up."

A pause. "I am Groot?" he asks, eyes wide, caring. Gamora's heart constricts.

She sighs. "I miss them because I don't see them or talk to them a lot anymore. I miss them because I don't know what they're doing. I miss them because...because I'm not sure if we're still siblings if I don't really know much about them anymore." Had she ever known much about them? She throws her hands into the air. "Why am I telling you all of this?"

Groot - typical teenager - ignores everything except for one phrase. "I am Groot."

"Just because we were siblings doesn't mean we are. It doesn't work like that."

Unfortunately, or fortunately, Groot is stubborn. "I am Groot." It's simple to me.

Is anything ever truly simple?

Later, Rocket corners her, 'cause of course he does.

"You've got Groot upset. What'd you do?" he asks casually.

Gamora blinks at him innocently. "I gave him a doughnut. One whole, uncrushed doughnut."

Rocket nods, as if that makes a lot of sense (knowing Groot, maybe it does). "Huh. So why'd he ramble on and on about you and family and, ugh - feelings." He actually shudders. Gamora snorts at the sight. "There was also something about Nebula, and you lying to him his whole damn life, except without the 'damn'?"

She rolls her eyes. "He's being overdramatic."

One-track mind, the lot of them. "What's going on? Did you and your sister get into a fight again? 'Cause believe me, that's nothing new."

"No, no," she says quickly. "It's just...me."

"...What about you?"

She sighs, and turns to walk away. "Why am I talking to you again?"

Rocket blocks the way, which is an amazing feat considering how...tiny he is compared to the rest of them (in stature, but not in attitude). "Hey hey hey. You're not getting out of here until we talk. I need to go back and tell Groot that we did otherwise he'd kick me off the ship."

Gamora raises her eyebrows. "That's the only reason you wanna talk?"

"Yeah," he says, challenging her. "Surprised?"

They stare down one another for a few seconds before she blinks and loses their unofficial staring contest. Which is just unfair. She's pretty sure Rocket's species just has stronger eyelids or something. Pretty sure.

"Why would Groot kick you off the ship? I thought you said you were the captain," she says, trying to avoid her - Rocket would shudder - feelings.

Rocket levels a glare at her, unimpressed. "Stop trying to change the topic."

"Fine," she grumbles. She bites her lip for a few seconds, trying to formulate the words in her mind. "I had a sister." She's definitely not gonna tell him about Loki; not yet, at least.

"She dead?" he asks.

"What?! No! She's - she's fine, last I checked." Is she fine?

"Then why are you talking about her in the past tense?" Rocket asks reasonably.

Gamora opens and closes her mouth a few times before the words finally come. "But we only talk every once in a while, and that's only when she finds me. We don't talk every day like we used to. I don't even have a way to contact her! And - and it's like we're not even sisters anymore because our bond has been beat up and severed. It certainly hasn't helped that we spent the last few years fighting." Her breaths seem loud in the sudden silence.

Rocket massages his forehead with his paw. "You guys are a fucking mess."

"Tell me about it," she mutters.

"You're also a moron," he says.

She nods. "I deserve that."

"Yeah, you do. You know why?" She shrugs. "I may not know much about siblings, but I know that they fight. It's normal! It's like a freaking rite of passage! If you don't fight, you're not real siblings."

She blinks. Not how she had thought about it. "Isn't conflict bad?"

He throws his hands up. "Kinda hard to avoid, isn't it?"

After a few seconds, she admits, "I miss them."

Luckily, Rocket ignores the plurality of her statement. "She probably misses you too."

"I feel like I left them - her. I feel like I left her."

"It could always be the other way 'round," he points out. "Besides," he continues, "you're trying. You're trying to keep in contact with them or whatever. If those fuckers ignore you, don't accept you, run away, that's not your fault. That's theirs. They don't deserve you if they do that."

Gamora blinks. That was surprisingly heartfelt.

He points at her. "Don't get any ideas from this. You've got us now."

"I've got you guys now," she echoes. Why does it still hurt, then?

He stares at her for a few seconds. "You don't get it. Of course you don't get it."

Peter sticks his head into the room. "What's wrong?"

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Gamor-"

"I've got stuff to do. Sorry. Bye."

Mantis and her brush arms as they pass one another in the hallway.

Mantis has gotten better at not doing this; but, well, her emotions must have been quite overwhelming. "You're lonely," Mantis gasps out. "No, not quite. You miss people, you long for them. You-" She closes her mouth with an audible clack. "Sorry, so sorry. I wasn't supposed to-"

"It's fine, it's fine!" Gamora says, trying to placate her. "It's...completely fine."

Mantis frowns. "You're sad. You ache for them." Now that's just being dramatic. "I don't want you to be sad."

"There isn't really anything you can do," she says. "Sorry, Mantis."

She starts to walk away when Mantis blurts out, "You can talk." Gamora freezes. Mantis walks up to put a soft hand on her shoulder. Her clothes block her powers from working. "When...when your emotions are all built up inside of you like stone, you just have to let it all out by talking. Only then will you feel better!"

Her enthusiasm causes Gamora to smile just a little. "Maybe not now."

"But later?"

She nods. "Later."

'Later' turns out to be when she walks into a room to find Drax already there. He is sitting in a chair, peacefully reading some book in his native language.

"Sorry, I can go..."

"It's fine," he says, going back to his book.

Gamora awkwardly sits in a nearby chair to continue cleaning her weapons and sharpening her blades. The green swirls of one glints in the musty lighting.

"That's beautiful," Drax says. Gamora looks up abruptly; it hadn't seemed like he'd been paying attention to anything outside of his book.

"Yeah," she agrees faintly.

"Who gifted it to you?" he asks. It's a simple question that makes her throat close up.

"A friend." My brother.

He nods, and then goes back to his book. Gamora works for a few minutes before gathering the nerve to open her mouth.

"Do you ever forget about your family?" she asks quickly.

Drax looks up slowly, blinking. "What?" he says after a few seconds.

"I mean," she flounders, "since you don't...can't...spend any time with them now, do you ever, just...?" She trails off. She doesn't really know what she had intended to ask.

Drax marks the page in his book, closes it, and places it gently onto the table. He sits up straighter and looks her straight in the eye. "I do."

Gamora's mouth is suddenly dry. "You do," she echoes.

"But only sometimes," he clarifies. "I felt...guilty about it, at first. But eventually I realized that I didn't forget them out of spite."

"You wouldn't do that," she says.

He smiles faintly. "Thank you. As I was saying, I didn't forget them out of spite; I forgot them out of love."

She furrows her eyebrows. "That seems...counterintuitive."

"Everyone on this ship is a friend, is family," he says. "I love you all."

"...Thank you?" She absolutely has no idea what to say to any of this.

"I will always love my old family, but I can love my new family as well."

"How do you love both when you forget one?"

"Sometimes, you can't," he says. "I focus on my new family because you are who I have now. I will reunite with my old family when I die."

"Wouldn't that feel like some kind of betrayal?" she asks.

"I know that when I love someone, they share their love in return. My family would love me and understand that I can't be without a family forever."

"So they..." Gamora swallows. "They will always hold a piece of your heart."

Drax, of course, completely misses the point. "My heart is right here." He gestures at his chest. "It is whole."

She shakes her head quickly. "Never mind," she says.

"Come on, Gamora. Talk to me," Peter insists, following her into her room.

She sighs. "Why?"

"Because I want to help you!"

She runs a hand through her hair, and growls in frustration. "You can't!"

His hurt expression pains her. "Why not?"

Her chest feels so tight. "Because you chose. You had Ego for a time, but you have us now. You chose us over your bio dad and even helped us kill him!"

"'Cause he was a dick?! He tried to take over the universe?!"

Gamora throws her hands into the air. "It was so easy for you," she laments.

"And you wish it were for you," he says slowly. She sometimes forgets how perceptive he can be.

"I'm sorry," she says suddenly. "I'm sorry. You don't deserve all of this. I was just - projecting my frustrations on you and-"

"No, no. It's okay. It's more than okay." He tries to console her, puts his hands on her shoulders.

She shrugs him off. "It's not."

"It is," he insists.

They stand and stare at one another for a few seconds. "I just miss them." Peter doesn't ask who she's referring to. "I don't know what I'm doing," she whispers.

He raises his eyebrows. "You think any of us have any idea what we're doing?"

She laughs, despite everything. "That doesn't make it better."

"But we always figure it out." He holds out a hand, and she takes it. They fit together perfectly.

"Eventually," she concedes.

"Eventually."

This was going to be a one-shot, but then it turned out a lot longer than I thought it would.

CHAPTER 2 COMING SOON!