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It’s been six months since Yondu… left them. Peter had accepted a while ago that he wasn’t coming back, but it still hurt. He had been so close to closure, so close to finding out who he really was, and then his father turned out to be a raging psychopath, and the man -alien- who had raised him only had the chance to show Peter how much he meant to him moments before death. Gamora had tried to talk to him afterwards, but she had so much to think about with Nebula coming and going that they never really got through to each other properly. Drax was obviously no help, and Groot was a moody teenager now by earth standards so he couldn’t be expected to fill in as yet another pseudo parent. Peter didn’t even think to try with Rocket, even though he had spent the most time with Yondu out of all of them. It just didn’t feel right to vent to him when they were at odds so often.
He missed his mother, he had never really stopped missing her but there were days when he imagined scenarios where he had never left Earth and his mother had never died. He sat awake sometimes wishing he had held her hand, but he couldn’t change any of that now. He and the team were committed to each other, and they were their own little dysfunctional as hell family. Soft footsteps on the metal grating in the hall went past his room, and swiveled to come back to the door.
“Hey Peter, are you feeling alright? You didn’t come up for dinner.” Gamora peeked through the doorframe after knocking twice. Peter slipped off his headphones and stood shuffled forwards to take her hand.
“Hey, yeah, I’m fine. Doing great, just not hungry, ya know?” She steered him back to sit down on the bed and tucked a leg underneath her. The tip of her other boot dangled towards the floor and she shuffled it around a bit.
“You know, you can talk to me about things if you want to, “ She shimmied a bit closer to him, “if you’re feeling sad I want to cheer you up.” Peter sighed a bit and gave it up.
“I guess today is just one of those days where I can’t quite feel good about myself for some reason.” He shrugged a bit and avoided looking at her. The way she pulled on his arm gently meant that she knew something was wrong, but no what it was.
“Peter, you know that however much I like you, I still need help figuring you out sometimes.” She smiled softly and grabbed his headphones and the Zune and scrolled through until she found just the right song. Standing up and unplugging the headphones she started to sway. “Do you remember when we first danced to this song?”
“Yeah, I never thought you’d actually do it.” Peter smiled genuinely for a moment. “That was the best part of that day.” They were dancing together in earnest now, hands clasped and pressed up against each other like they had that very first time.
“Please tell me what’s bothering you…” Gamora spun out and back in towards him while his smile dropped.
“I guess all it is is that I’m missing my family.” He screwed his face up, “That came out wrong, that’s not what it is.” They had stopped dancing now, just standing and looking at each other, still close together in the center of the floor. “You and the team… you guys are my family as much as anyone will ever be. We’ve been through a hell of a lot together and that means something to me. Hopefully to all of us.” He sent a pointed glance Gamora’s way.
“Of course it means something, you think we would do all of this for people we didn’t care about?” She took a step back, “You think I would do things like this for someone I don’t care about?”
“No. I know that you and I haven’t always been on the same page but now we are and…”
“And the unspoken thing is out in the open.” Gamora took his hands again, “So talk to me, please.” So Peter did; he told her all of the doubt he still had in himself and the frail sense of identity he had now. It even surprised him how much he had hinged his sense of self on discovering who his father was, and how important it was to know. Finally, Yondu had given him the revelation that family didn’t have to be blood, and he had lost that father as soon as he met him.
They found their way back to the bed as their song faded out. Gamora reached out and turned off the Zune so she could give him all of her attention. She spoke a little slower than usual, wanting everything to come out perfectly.
“Peter, I know you miss your father, and Ego was an awful thing to find in your lineage but remember that it doesn’t matter.” He looked up a bit sharply but she held up a hand.
“Whoever your parents were, wherever you came from, isn’t important. The only thing that should matter is who you are.”
“The thing is, I’m scared to have all of this,” he gestured to himself, “completely on me.”
“But it isn’t. You grew up compassionate and brave and funny and so aware of how much you impact people around you.” She reached for his hand again. “You decided who you were long before you rejected Ego. You chose to be the person you are now every time you met someone new or made a decision for yourself. You chose right.”
Peter leaned in and pecked her on the forehead, and they pulled each other close while Gamora turned the music back on.