A/N: Hey guys, sorry I didn't update yesterday. Not much happens in this chapter really. Just some catching up, teasing, etc. Figured this story could use a bit of humor occasionally. Enjoy!
Gamora left her and Peter's room wearing the clothes that she had arrived in since she didn't have any suitable clothes for Earth's chilly winter. She heard Steve talking to someone on the phone in the living area, and he didn't sound very pleased. She walked into Maria's bedroom.
Maria appeared to be looking at something as she rummaged through the drawer on the nightstand. On the mahogany dresser to the left of the bedroom door was a mirror and a jewlery box and a picture of Maria and Steve to the left of it.
"That was taken in Florida just after we got engaged." Maria said, startling Gamora.
Gamora nodded and approached Maria to see the other woman holding a silver picture frame, a picture of a dark haired woman not much younger than Maria, smiling into the camera.
"Who is this woman? She is very beautiful." She said, gesturing to the picture that Maria held.
"It's a gift from my father. He had over heard me telling Steve that I didn't know what my mother, Mary, even looked like. He gave it to me. Danny, my brother, has one too because after awhile, he had started to forget what she looked like," Maria started, sighing as she placed the picture underneath the lamp on the nightstand, right next to a picture of her, Danny, and Emily. "She died giving birth to me. My father was so grief stricken that he couldn't look at me, so he turned to drinking and became physically and emotionally abusive." She added.
On Steve's night stand were similar pictures. A picture of a younger woman, a picture of him, Maria, and an older woman who was in her nineties, and a picture of them with the rest of the group.
"When will you marry?" She asked, sitting down on the bed, wanting to catch up with Maria.
"January twenty-first. You, Peter, and your team can come if you want. I meant to invite you the last time we talked, but I didn't get the chance."
"I will talk with Peter about it, but we may just come."
Maria got up and looked at Gamora, "You're not sleeping in that, are you?"
"I do not have suitable clothes for this weather."
Maria nodded and went over to the dresser, taking out a white, long sleeved t-shirt and black leggings before going to Steve's side of the dresser and pulling out a black t-shirt and sweatpants.
"You and Peter can borrow these. Fury wants to meet with all of us for a debriefing and afterwards we can go shopping for clothes for all of you. Or Emily can make you your clothes if she feels up to it." She said, handing both pairs of pajamas to Gamora, who nodded, "Over the next week, i'll be working late to help Fury and Coulson rebuild SHIELD and administer lie detector tests to agents and such."
"How did SHIELD fall?"
"It's a long story. I would rather not talk about it."
Gamora noticed that Maria tensed up when she said that and the woman had let out a shaky breath, but decided not to push her for information like she normally would. Steve came in at the moment.
"What did Fury want?" She asked, looking at Steve inquisitively.
"I have to go on a mission with Natasha and Clint. I leave at five tomorrow morning."
"He's sending you three on another mission? You just got back from one." She said, crossing her arms and pursing her lips, something that Gamora noticed Maria did when she was annoyed.
Steve whispered something in Maria's ear, trying to make it so only Maria could hear, but Gamora definitely heard.
"It's a HYDRA operation. They have leads on where he is." She heard him whisper, and Maria tensed up once more.
What is HYDRA? Who is the 'he' they are referring to? She thought, about to say something but thought better of it as she made a mental note to ask later.
"How long will you be gone?" Gamora asked, finally speaking up.
"Could be as little as two weeks, maybe as long as a month. I won't know until I know the mission."
Gamora nodded and went to drop the change of clothes off in her and Peter's room before rejoining Maria and Steve, who brought her back up to the top floor where they say Peter and the other Guardians, Emily, and Lilith watching a movie. She assumed that everyone else was elsewhere in the tower or getting ready for dinner.
"I thought you were in the shower." Gamora said, making it sound more like a statement as she faced Peter, who sat on the end of the black leather couch.
"Emily talked me into watching disney movies. I never thought i'd like something that's aimed towards children, but this movie is pretty good." He answered.
"What movie?" She asked, sitting on the floor in front of Peter.
"Mulan." Emily, Maria, and Lilith all said simultaneously as Maria and Steve sat down.
"Mulan is the only disney princess that accomplished something without the help of a man." Maria said, sighing, "Well...I guess you can count the movie Brave, but that's later."
"Yeah, I was gonna say. Mulan is the first to accomplish something without a man. She taught me that I can do anything a man can do and I can do it in heels and a dress. I guarantee you that once I become an agent of SHIELD when i'm eighteen, most of my moves are going to come from this movie."
"So you're going to throw shoes at the enemy if your partner is in trouble?"
Emily only gave Steve a thumbs up as her answer as Natasha and Clint entered.
"Oh did I tell you guys my friends, Tony, and I made this movie into a drinking game and an exercise game?"
"Huh?" Natasha and Clint both asked simultaneously having walked into the lounge at the wrong time.
"Yeah. Every time Mulan does something stupid, it's twenty jumping jacks. Every time we see a horse, we do ten squats. A reference to honor is twenty crunches, seeing Shan Yu and his gang is a twenty-five second plank. Every time Mushu says something funny, it's fifteen lunges."
"And the drinking game?" Clint asked, raising an eye brow at the teen.
"You take a shot when anyone bows, Fa Zu prays, anyone mentions the words honor, war, China, Huns, and Fire. Take a shot when the grandmother enters the screen or says a funny comment, and when Mushu says something funny. Then, when they break out into song, you just take a beer and start chugging it and don't stop until the song ends. You can get drunk on the song about honor alone! I played this at a college frat party last year, and I got so drunk that I just passed out at around the part where they discovered that she was a woman. Some random college girls had to bring me home."
Maria raised an eye brow, "When did you and your friends go to a frat party?"
"Did I say frat party? I meant sleepover. Oh you can make any disney movie a drinking game. Even the second movie."
Maria rolled her eyes, "Emily loves Disney movies. That's going to become apparent over the rest of your stay. You'll always find her watching them. Even the ones that came out in the last few years."
"Hey! You love them too! Maria will watch them with me when she isn't busy and she'll sing along to the songs with me regardless of the fact that we're alone or not. She actually used to sing me songs from these movies when I was a baby."
"I know. And now Disney still puts you to sleep as easily as it did when you we're two."
"I say we should play these drinking games tomorrow night." Peter said, raising his hand like an elementary school child.
"I don't like using disney movies for drinking games because then it starts to ruin my childhood and make me feel bad. We could only use one or two of my least favorite disney movies before I start feeling guilty. Then we can use other movies. Titanic is a great example. Or a horror movie or romance movie."
"Not with the children around to witness this game I hope." Gamora said, knowing that it wouldn't be good if the children witnessed all of them getting drunk.
"Maria and I can have our dad watch them. Or just set Lilith up with her own game or movie and put Jace to bed early." Emily suggested.
"I'll think about it. Oh, want to spend the next two weeks here? Steve, Nat, and Clint have to go on a mission." Maria said, gesturing to her fiance and the two assassins.
"Wait, you aren't going to kidnap Lilith to sleep with you?" Clint asked, a teasing tone in his voice as he blocked a hit that Maria sent his way. Lilith was completely oblivious and not paying attention to the adults conversation, too engrossed in the movie to care.
Maria rolled her eyes.
"Seriously though. If you get that lonely and anxious when Steve is gone, either sleep in a spare bedroom on anyone elses floor or have your own children. Don't steal ours." Natasha said, only half serious as Maria elbowed her in the ribs.
"Why have my own children when I have a sixteen-year-old sister that has the mentality of an eight-year-old?"
Everyone laughed at Maria's comment, all except Emily who continued to watch the movie with Lilith curled into her side.
They all watched the movie in silence until it ended, and at that point, Emily got up and grabbed her car keys, heading towards the elevator.
"Where ya goin' kid?" Rocket called, only to be ignored as Pepper came out of the elevator and into the kitchen to start dinner.
"Perhaps she has to return to her father." Drax said, only for JARVIS to answer for them.
"The younger Miss. Hill is heading home to get clothes for her stay." The AI said.
They all continued talking and actually goofing off until Emily returned and Pepper called everyone for dinner.
Gamora smiled at how relaxed everyone was despite the situation at hand. They all needed to unwind after a long day, something that she seldom did. It was fun.
They needed just that.
Fun.
A/N: Let me know what y'all think! Please review:)