A/N: You thought this fic was dead. You were wrong.
Only Gamora's bitch sister and the billionaire with the metal suit had returned from Titan. Rocket had never gotten along with the robot all that well when he had been trying, and with Gamora gone he had no incentive to try anymore. He got the impression Nebula felt the same. He also got the impression that the few survivors of Thanos's rampage wanted him to stick around and help them pick up the broken pieces of the universe. He didn't dawdle long enough for them to officially ask.
Ironic. For all of Rocket's self-pity about his short lifespan, for all of the time he had spent mentally preparing himself to get cataracts and arthritis and grey hairs while the others were still in their prime, he was left the only one alive of their little team. It was funny, in a cruel sort of way.
A waste, to be honest. If Fate had any sense of decency, she'd have dusted him in place of Groot, or Quill, or that African prince/king/whatever, hell anyone. He was just a petty criminal, after all, an animal that had a knack for electronics due to some scientists digging around in his brains. An experiment. A happy accident. These people were heroes, leaders, they had people looking up to them and depending on them.
And Groot, to lose his life again, so soon after he cheated death the first time. Groot had been something for Rocket to cling to, something for him to look after and protect, to keep him grounded. Groot had kept Rocket sane, Groot accepted and stood by Rocket before anyone else did. It tore Rocket apart when he thought about it, so he tried not to. He was mostly successful.
You might have thought that Rocket would have tried to make something of himself, stick to the straight and narrow to honor the fallen, take up the mantle. You would be wrong. Rocket had never been good at healthy coping. Denial, all the way.
He figured he only had to deal with the grief and loss for a few more years anyway, if the worsening alcoholism and natural hazards of being a goon for hire didn't get him first. Turns out being a freelance thief in a galaxy with half the population wasn't any harder than before Thanos had committed mass genocide. Who would've thunk.