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The first time Gamora saw Peter’s letters, she gasped in confusion and pointed at them, declaring loudly that she hadn’t known he had a tattoo, and what the hell did CSJD mean anyway?
Peter had grabbed her, shoving a hand over her mouth and begging her to be quiet, and promising that he’d explain once she stopped drawing attention to them. She shut up, and he started talking.
“They’re my letters,” he explained grouchily, “they’re my soulmate’s initials.”
“What?” she sounded nonplussed, and looked even more judgemental.
“I thought everyone had them, but I guess its only humans. When you turn 18, you get a set of initials. They belong to the only other person who truly gets you, and then it kind of becomes your mission to go and find them.”
Gamora started laughing, sitting down on one of the chests full of crap that Peter had accumulated over the years. “Who told you that? The Ravagers?”
“The Ravagers were just pissed that I woke them up yelling when they came in, actually. My mom told me when I was a kid,” he replied pertly, starting to walk away.
Gamora went silent and watched his retreating back, aware that she had crossed a line and not quite sure how.
*
Drax approached him about it a few days later, sitting down heavily in the chair next to Peter and smiling awkwardly, which just made Peter incredibly uncomfortable.
“I hear humans are told who to love.”
“What?” Peter sneered, fixing his attention on where he was steering and trying to pretend that this conversation wasn’t happening.
“Gamora told me that you have a tattoo of the woman you shall love.”
Peter sighed and switched on auto-pilot, then patiently explained exactly what he’d said to Gamora. Drax sat in silence for a moment, then stood up.
“I do not know why she asked me to speak to you. I have no more knowledge of humans that she does.”
As he left, Peter brandished a finger at him and went back to steering, wishing that people would just stop bringing this up.
*
“So, you’ve got a tatt of some girl you used to have a crush on’s initials, right?” Rocket asked as they ordered drinks at a bar on Knowhere.
“I really don’t, Rocket. Can we just drop this?”
“Fine. I just thought you might want to talk about your feelings mano-a-mano or something. I don’t care.”
“Thank you.” Peter smiled at the pretty bartender, winking as she poured out their order.
“Its just, you seem pretty pissed about it, is all. We’re worried. And by we, I mean Gamora and Groot. Maybe Drax.”
Peter clenched his teeth and said nothing, continuing to stare at the bartender.
“Its just… Forget it, I don’t care.”
Peter snapped. “No, Rocket, you know who doesn’t care? Me. I spent so long caring, so long giving a shit about these stupid letters, that I let myself get all screwed up about it. Because you know what? There’s a girl on Earth who has my initials on her chest, and I’ll never be there for her. She’ll spend her whole life wandering around, seeing other people find their soulmates, and she’ll just be left thinking that she’s doing something wrong, or I’m not trying hard enough. Not only that, but I have to spend the rest of my life knowing that somewhere on Earth there is someone perfect for me, and I can’t ever get to her, because if I ever went back I’d want to stay with her, or bring her with me, and I can’t do that. It would never work.”
Somewhere during his speech, Peter had started shouting, and the entire bar had gone silent. Everyone’s eyes were on him, except Gamora, who was staring at Drax, and Groot, who was giving Rocket the most admonishing glare he’d ever seen.
“Come on, people. Can’t a man have an existential crisis in peace? Nosy buggers, the lot of you.” From a table over in the corner, a blonde woman shouted at the whole bar, embarrassing the other patrons into action. Within moments the noise level was back up at its previous levels, people deliberately avoiding looking at Peter. After a moment’s thought, Peter picked up his drink and approached the blonde, Rocket calling his name as he walked away.
Her attention had left him as quickly as it had been drawn to him, and she had gone back to scribbling on a piece of paper. As he got closer, he saw that it was a book of crossword puzzles. While her eyes were averted, he looked her over. If he’d had to guess, he’d have said she was human, and a very pretty human at that.
“Thanks,” he huffed as he sat down opposite her, causing her to look up. She fixed him with bright blue eyes and smiled, shrugging as she did so.
“No problem, dude. We all have days where we’ve just had enough.”
He nodded and leaned back in his chair, trying to decide whether it would be rude to ask what species she was.
“So, you’re a human?” she beat him to it, sticking her pencil behind her ear and dropping the crossword book onto the table next to her drink.
“Half-human, technically, but born on Earth,” he agreed. “You?”
“Mostly human, born and raised in Boston,” she winked at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “Where’re you from?”
“Missouri, but got grabbed by Ravagers and spent most of my time up here. What do you mean, ‘mostly’?”
“What do you mean, ‘half’?”
He looked at her for a moment, cracking a smile when he saw that she was just teasing.
“I got tangled up in some crap when I was in the Air Force, and now I’ve got some Kree DNA. So, born totally human, now mostly human.”
Peter whistled, leaning forward. “Kree and human? That’s an interesting mix.”
She laughed, tossing her hair behind her shoulder, and Peter realised just how much he missed women who didn’t try to kill you or stab you with cutlery at any moment. He watched her open her mouth to ask a further question, then get distracted by something going on behind his back.
“Don’t look now, but your friends are trying to get your attention.”
“Screw them.”
“One of them’s coming over.”
“Which one?”
“The tree.”
“Dammit. He can guilt me into doing anything. It was nice speaking to you, and thanks for the whole ‘defending me’ thing.”
“Any time.”
Peter stood up before Groot even reached him, marching past him to go back to his original table and collect his things before returning purposefully to his ship, the others scrambling to catch up.
*
Peter was sitting listening to his music and considering how long it would take him to clean his ship from top to bottom when Gamora came and sat down next to him, a massive grin on her face.
Peter raised his eyebrow at her in mild interest. She’d already apologised for bothering him about his letters and getting the others to join in, and as far as he knew, they had nothing else to discuss at the moment.
“Peter, do you have a minute?”
Peter took his headphones off as an answer, and her smile grew.
“So, that human you were talking to tonight. Did you like her?”
Peter grimaced. “Are you trying to set me up with someone?”
“Just answer the question.”
“Yeah, she seemed great.”
“A lot like you?”
“You think I’m great? I’m flattered.”
Gamora hissed and hit him in the arm, making him wince.
“Yeah, she seemed a lot like me, in the whole not-quite-human-in-space thing. Why?”
“Did you think she was pretty?”
“She was gorgeous,” he sighed in response.
“What was her name?”
Peter squinted at her unsurely. “Is this just your way of making me admit that I’m a shallow asshole who doesn’t even know the names of the women he objectifies?”
Gamora shook her head, grin back in place. “No, I was just wondering if you knew.”
“Well, I don’t.”
“You really should have asked.”
“I know, Gamora, but I didn’t. Heat of the moment. Sorry.”
“It’s a good thing you have me around, isn’t it?” she asked, before standing up and slinking off into the main cabin of the ship.
After a moment, Peter followed her, running his hands through his hair as he did so, and berating his decision to join a group of anti-social aliens in his travels around the galaxy.
He stopped short as he entered the cabin, locking eyes with the pretty blonde Kree-human the minute he saw her standing by the door. She looked a little confused, but mostly hopeful, giving him a small smile.
“Peter Jason Quill,” intoned Gamora, indicating him as she spoke, “meet Carol Susan Jane Danvers, aka CSJD.”
Peter was pretty sure he’d never moved so fast in his life, as he covered the distance between them and tackled Carol in a huge hug as she laughed and Gamora smiled.
*
If someone had ever told Peter when he was a kid that he would meet his soulmate in a bar on an intergalactic trading post, and that she would be a mostly-human superhero with the sassiest, bravest, funniest personality he had ever met, kiddie Peter would never have believed them.
Years later, as Peter stood in the middle of Central Park, hand firmly clutched in Carol’s as she introduced him to her friends (including Captain America, because she was friends with superheroes) and reintroduced him to life on Earth, he could never have imagined being soulmates with anyone else.