Posting the second chapter a day early. The reception seems to have been good so far and I hope this just adds to it.

Not sure why I choose Sam as a POV, he doesn't have a lot of interaction with either of these characters but it felt right (shrug). This is one of my favorite of the one shots and adds a bit more humor to the relationship.

Also decided to up this to 6 one-shots. Hurray!

Part 2- Sam

A lot of things had changed since the Blip. One of them being the number of aliens that were walking around planet earth. A number even higher today because the Guardians were in town dropping Nebula off and were planning on staying until after the kid's graduation. None of them, except Quill (barely) understood what it meant, but they knew he was important to Nebula. And this was important to him.

They all kept referring to it as an adolescent educational commencement and coming of age. Drax kept asking about when Parker's "Moondragon" ceremony was going to be. Apparently, on whatever the hell planet Drax was from, when the adolescents came of age they had to participate in this ritual where they were pitted against another adolescent and had to literally beat each other with an algrosh (which as far as Sam could gather was like an electric eel but a mammal). If they showed even an ounce of pain, they would have to battle another contestant. He'd been devastated when the earthlings had told him they didn't do that here. He had since been offering to battle Peter himself. Nebula had made it clear that wouldn't be happening.

Sam shook his head.

He'd mentioned the odd couple to Steve a few times. His, now literally, old friend just took it in stride and said after everything they'd been through people chose to find happiness wherever they could.

He could understand that. But it was still weird to see the goofy teen throwing an arm around the homicidal alien cyborg like it was the most normal thing in the world. Even weirder to see her smile sweetly at him whenever he did it, especially when he'd seen her disembowel someone with her bare hands before.

A woman who he currently heard screaming like a banshee.

Sam found his way to the corridor where the commotion was coming from and sidled up alongside Bruce and Rhodey who were amusedly watching the scene play out before them.

He could see Bucky, Wanda, and some of the Guardians- Rocket, Groot, and Mantis- watching from closer by. Mantis was actually attempting to intervene but stopped. Shrinking away from the blue woman's fury when she rounded on her and growled.

"What's going on?" Sam asked, as he watched Nebula, wearing less clothing than he'd ever seen her- just a t-shirt that had a cartoon of elements saying something witty that went over his head, but was sure was hilarious in some circles- attack a confused Drax. He was reasonably certain the shirt did not belong to her.

Nebula was throwing anything that wasn't bolted down at Drax, who deflected some of the items while letting others smack into him ineffectively.

Rhodey answered him, "Drax is having trouble with boundaries again."

"Okaaayyy," that didn't exactly answer his question. The three men watched with their arms folded across their chests.

"Drax walked into Nebula's room without knocking," Bruce told him. "She wasn't exactly alone."

Sam nodded, he didn't need to ask who she was with, but he did wonder where he was.

A question that was answered for him barely seconds later.

A blade extended from Nebula's fist and she lunged at Drax just as Peter scrambled out of Nebula's room, hair disheveled and chest flushed, barely managing to button a pair of jeans he seemed to have scrambled into.

Sam heard Rhodey snort in amusement at the harried actions. "Looks like the kid's a bit more like Tony then I realized."

He and Bruce grinned in agreement.

"Uh, hey, guys, mayb-," When he realized Nebula was just about ready to run their usual ally through with her blade, Peter ran towards Nebula. He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her back, without an ounce of hesitation.

Sam had seen her fight and knew the woman was lethal when she wasn't royally pissed off. The kid had guts.

"I do not understand!" Drax spoke throughout Nebula's onslaught. "I came to inform the angry she-devil about Quill's plans to attend the hall of noisy beeping machines,"

"Arcade, you moron," Rocket snipped from his perch on Groot's shoulder.

"Which she is fond of. This was a good thing. Drax was being considerate."

Mantis came to stand at his elbow, nodding in vigorous agreement, while Peter still wrestled with a furious Nebula.

Bucky wasn't even trying to muffle his laughter. Which Sam thought was stupid considering how close he was standing to her.

"It's okay, Nebula. Just breath, go to your happy place," Parker was trying to sooth Nebula with no luck.

"Yes, we just wanted to make sure you attended the social bonding with the rest of us," Mantis said.

"Exactly. How was Drax supposed to know you and the insect boy-," "man, please," Peter substituted, out of breath due to the struggling woman in his arms. "-were engaged in the mating process?"

"By knocking!" Nebula screeched.

"There was too much moaning from within, you might not have been able to hear Drax."

Rocket rolled his eyes and shook his head at the dense man, mumbling "Idiot." The tree scratched his head looking confused.

Drax frowned, and Sam knew whatever he was going to say next might actually get him killed.

"If anyone should be angry it should be Drax. Nebula is not that unfortunate to look upon. Her blue skin is semi pleasing to the eye, even though she is too skinny, and her legs are too long. But the earthling is pale and wimpy. I will forever be scarred with the image of his head buried between her legs," he turned to Mantis with a grimace. The woman. Alien. Bug. Whatever. Patted his arm with a sympathetic frown.

Everyone fell silent at Drax's proclamation. A flushing and embarrassed Peter tried to diffuse the situation, his voice high like when he was nervous, or in this case embarrassed, "Right, Okay let's-,"

Whatever he was about to say was cut off by Nebula's enraged screech as she broke his hold on her and launched herself at the big man. Tackling him to the ground, she began pummeling him with her fists. At least she wasn't stabbing him.

"What the hell has he done this time?!" Quill asked as he joined the spectators. Rocket seemed to fill him in, and he huffed in annoyance.

Peter reacted quickly and pulled Nebula off Drax before she could do much damage. He threw her over his shoulder, like she weighed nothing- using the strength Sam often forgot he had- and walked back towards their room. "Thank you all for com-," seeming to think better of his word choice, "stopping by, but we're going to go now."

"NO! I want to kill him!" Nebula screamed, but Peter kept a firm hold on her this time.

"I know, baby," he'd tried to speak the words low, but everyone seemed to hear him. "But we talked about the whole killing thing."

Nebula's rebuttal was blocked off by the slamming door.

Sam was the first one to start laughing. And then the rest followed.

Drax remained on the floor, looking up at the rest of them in bewilderment. "I still do not understand."

"Of course, you don't, yah big idjiot," Quill said. "Common, let's go before she gets a second wind."

Drax and the others filed out of the hallway. Rhodey walked off shaking his head and chuckling. Sam remained where he was.

He noticed that Bruce made no move to leave either. His eyes were on the now closed door. He knew the other man tried to keep an eye on Parker for his dead friend.

"Worried," Sam questioned him.

A sad smile ghosted across his face. "No. Kid's a lot stronger than he looks."

With that Bruce left. Sam hummed in agreement, "He'd have to be," Sam said to the empty hallway.

A throaty female laugh rang through the hallway. As he turned and headed back the way he came, Sam smiled.