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"I want Gamora to dance with me."
"What?" Yondu asks, he's startled by Peter's sudden statement. The boy's been silent the entire time, which is odd, but nice, since Yondu doesn't have to hear his constant stupidities.
Both of them are harnessed up in the higher levels of the hangar, repairing the right wing of the Milano Vol. 2. Well, Peter's harnessed. Yondu doesn't give a damn a bout safety.
They're seated on a backless bench that's held up in the air by ropes. Almost like a giant swing. Peter, being afraid of heights, has attached his harness to the bench underneath them incase he leaned too far back and fell off.
"I want her to dance with me," Peter repeats. He drops his wrench in the red box siting on the bench between them.
"No, I heard you the first time," Yondu says. "What the hell do you mean?"
"I...think I love her."
Yondu picks up a tool and begins unscrewing a panel to fix the fried sensors underneath. "What happened to your theory on females being disgusting and uninteresting creatures?"
"I said that when I was eight," Peter protests. "Besides, I've been around plenty of woman since then."
"So," Yondu drops the tool in the box and selects a new one. "What happened to your 'fuck 'em and leave 'em' plan?"
Peter frowns. "Stop," he demands, not looking at Yondu. "It's not like that. That's not me. I haven't been with anyone since the day I took the orb."
Peter puts his arms on the wing of the Milano, leaning suddenly on it and causing the bench to swing. Yondu quickly grabs for the box of tools so it doesn't slide off and clatter to the ground meters below. "Stop that you idiot!" He gripes, using his feet to steady them beside the Milano again.
"Besides," Peter rests his chin on hand and sighs. "It's not like that with Gamora. I...want to dance with her. I mean, I love her. Like, for real. I love her, Yondu. I want to hold her in my arms always. Durning the morning when she wakes up with her hair frizzed in every direction but still manages to look sleepy and cute, at night when we go to bed, I just want her close. I wanna have my arms around her and make sure she's safe and warm and soft and comfortable. And I wanna kiss her. Hold her and kiss her, give her a kiss on the cheek when she walks in to the cockpit half asleep with a mug in her hands, give her a kiss on the neck when she saves my ass from any kind of danger and manages to look hot as fuck while doing so, hold her close and give her a great big kiss on the lips when we're out there fighting for our lives and it looks like the light isn't shining down on us and things might not be okay and we're at the lowest low...but then things change and we end up mostly okay and no ones dead. I just want to pull her close and kiss her on the lips and tell her that I love her and I'm glad she's okay."
Peter speaks with so much passion, but Yondu isn't completely convinced that Gamora isn't just a fling that Peter's got going on. Something he can put a stop to before it breaks their team apart.
"Like when we were fighting Ronan," Peter's still talking. "I grabbed that stone and it hurt, oh boy, it really hurt like hell but then she grabbed my hand and of course Drax and rocket helped too because we're Drax's honored friends and Rocket had nothing to lose, but she made the first step and she took my hand and I know it wasn't the infinity stone that made me feel sparks between us." Peter takes a deep breath. "And when we were outside of Knowhere. I took my mask off. I had no idea if I was gonna make it. I called on you because I knew you'd come, and even if I died, you'd still take Gamora and she'd live. She could've kicked all of your asses and stolen this ship too, but that's besides the point. The point is, I took my mask off and I could feel my lungs freezing and my body shutting down. At that moment, I was ready to die for her."
The wrench Yondu's holding drops from his hands and clatters to the ground way below. He knows it's suddenly more serious than he'd thought. Peter's grown up, that's for sure, but he didn't expect an outcome like this. This is...something else. A different side of Peter. Yondu wants to desperately backhand him with all the power of his Centaurian ancestors, but he doesn't see how that will help in any way.
The boy— well, technically 'man'— lays his head down on his crossed arms and he's softly smiling. All this talk about Gamora has made him giddy.
Yondu doesn't know why he's reaching this way. Quickly, he lowers the bench they're on until he can safely jump off (which is pretty low, seeing as he's getting too old for this shit.) "That's fuckin' stupid," is his response, before he walks away.
Peter stares after him, confused.
Peter's glad he's gotten the feelings off his chest to someone...although he wishes that someone was Gamora. He wouldn't have to awkwardly wait until she admits she at least likes him to spill his guts to her. But he chose to keep silent to her, out of fear she'd not have any interest in him.
"Peter!"
He's about to enter the mess hall when he hears her call to him. His heart flutters at the sound of her voice and he turns, hand still clutching the handle. "Y-yeah?" She comes closer and he can see Groot is hitching a ride on her shoulder. It's an opposite to how things used to be. People used to ride Groot's shoulders, now it's vice versa. The tree's about as big as Rocket now, which means the not-raccoon has to perch on someone else's shoulder for a while. Peter rubs at the sore crook of his neck. Rocket was heavy as fuck and Peter was about ready to shove the raccoon off every time he perched. Rocket complained that Gamora's shoulders were too small and bony, and Drax was too annoying to be around for more than five minuets. So he settled on Peter's shoulder, using his two tiny claws to pinch at Peter's stubbled cheek and sassily scoff, 'so deal with it, baby boo'.
"I was gonna say to hold the door open for me," Gamora says. Groot happily waves at Peter.
"Oh," Peter pulls the door open and motions for her to go through. He follows her.
Groot turns around reaches his tiny hands out toward Peter, squeaking at the man. Peter picks the tree up and secures him on his shoulder. He's much lighter than Rocket is, so it's not a big deal right now.
He follows Gamora through the mess hall to collect two trays of food and then to sit at a table.
Yondu's been watching them from the other side of the mess hall. He's been there since before they walked in. He's not to fond of the way Peter oogles at Gamora like she's the only thing in the universe. It's kind of odd to see. He knew Peter had the hots for Gamora, but he never thought it to be serious. Especially not when they tended to get in to arguments that quickly turned physical over the stupidest things.
Having the Guardians on the ship is beneficial, in several ways, the ravagers gain five extra pairs of hands? but it can also be a haste. The Guardians of the Galaxy, despite their big, grand title, are somewhat childish. Rocket's favorite word seems to be "mine". He's constantly shouting 'that's mine!' when anyone touches his guns, bombs, and sometimes even Groot. Groot basically is a child, which explains it. Drax...he's smarter than everyone takes him for. He's actually very smart, although he doesn't sound it. His boldness outshines his smart, though, and it always will, so the destroyer has found that it is much easier to play the part of the team idiot (though, they're all idiots). But Peter and Gamora are the worst by far. And, now that Yondu thinks on it, it probably has to do with Peter's extreme crushing on the zen woman.
There's been several times where he's witnessed Peter being held in a headlock (or, a few times it was vice versa), or the pair would be rolling on the floor in a wrestling spat over something as dumb as Gamora using one of Peter's combs, or Peter stepping on Gamora's foot. Thankfully, the wrestling never got more serious than tussling and the occasional biting eachother when it got to be too much. They never threw punches or pulled weapons on each other, so Yondu knew it was genuine. Besides, he'd taught Peter how to fight a long time ago, if they were in a serious fight, both would end up getting hurt badly.
With a sigh, Yondu collects his own tray and marches himself over to the table where the three guardians are, and offers himself a seat. Gamora looks a bit skeptical, but Peter and Groot great him without problem.
"Y'know, Pete," Yondu starts up a conversation to make the situation less awkward. "When I promoted you to second in command, I thought you'd be above making bets over stupid things with the rest of the crew."
Gamora raises an eyebrow and turns to Peter, who's turning red.
"How do you know?" Peter asks Yondu.
"I'm the captain, I find everything out."
"Peter, what did you do?" Gamora places a hand on his wrist, looking up at him. Groot as also given Peter a confused look.
"Well, Taserface bet me--"
"STAR-DORK!" At that moment, Rocket storms in to the mess hall dripping wet with paint. When he catches sight of Peter, he charges straight at the man, full in attack mode. "If this was for one of your stupid bets I'm chewing every last finger off your disgusting hands!" Rocket snarls and lunges for Peter. Who falls back out of his seat and slithers on the floor for a moment before he gets up and dashes out of the mess hall, Rocket hot on his heels.
"I am Groot!" Groot squeaks, looking at the paint that's splattered on to the crown of leaves around his head. He sheds them quickly, allowing them to drop to the table.
"Sorry," Yondu apologizes on Peter's behalf. Due to the large fin protruding from his head, he's able to understand Groot's complaint of 'they dropped paint on me!' and he actually kind of feels for the little guy. Groot puts up with all of their shit and hardly any complaint is heard from him. He's more upset that his leaves were dirtied than the fact that his teammates were probably fighting out in the hallway.
Gamora pushes her now empty tray away from her and slides Peter's over in front of her. It's food and she's still kind of hungry, why let it go to waste? A little bit of paint was dripped on to it, but she have 0 shits and shoveled the food in to her mouth, paint and all.
Yondu cracks a smile. She fits right in with them.
"You know, he likes you, right?" Yondu says, leaning on one elbow.
"I am aware," she replies, continuing to eat.
"Not as a friend," Yondu says, "As somethin' more." He's not interested in his food anymore, so he shoves the plate in her direction. Peter's basically his son, which makes her basically his soon-to-be-daughter-in-law(hopefully), so why not treat her like family, right? She takes the tray and mauls the rest of his food with ease. "You're so fuckin' tiny. Where does all that food go?"
She shrugs. "I know Peter likes me."
"Okay...he doesn't just like you, girlie. He loves ya," Yondu smirks smugly, and Gamora looks unimpressed.
"I /know/," she says, putting emphasis on the word 'know'.
"So then why haven't y'all, Y'know, made it 'official' or whatever?" Yondu pries.
"Have we not..? We share a living quarters, sometimes we share a bed, we spend every day together, we take care of each other...is he not my boyfriend?" She gives him a worried look.
Yondu facepalms with both of his hands...then he wildly howls with laughter.
"It's not funny!" Gamora exclaims.
"The whole lot of ya, all five of ya, are dorks," Yondu claims, taking a deep breath to calm his hysterics. "This whole time, Peter's been chasing after you thinking that you're never gonna be together while you're already two full steps ahead of him!"
"This is not funny, Yondu." Gamora's face is almost pouty.
"It's hilarious. He's all over you while thinking you don't like him, and you think you're his girlfriend. Have you even kissed him?!"
"I...no? Am I supposed to?" She asks.
"So you think you've been together all this time and you've never once kissed his scrawny little lips? Actually, it's probably better if you don't, but?"
"I've never submitted to his pelvic sorcery either," she admits. "But I am his girlfriend..?"
"Are you sure about that?" Yondu asks. He taking advantage of her confusion and playing her like a board game, it's hilarious.
But she looks at him, full of confidence and nods. "Yes."
"Does Pete know that?"
"Not...yet."
Peter returns to the mess hall, slouched over and grouching. He's sporting some fresh new claw marks on his right cheek, and tiny paint paw-prints on his shirt and neck from where Rocket had vertically climbed him to scratch at his pretty face.
"Are you alright, Peter?" Gamora asks, stranding to assess the damage to his face.
"I'm fine," Peter says, sighing. Gamora smiles at him, then leans in to kiss him on the lips.
When she pulls away, Peter's a bit confused, but his heart is nearly exploding with happiness. Then Gamora hugs him, tossing her arms around his torso and holding on to him.
"I am your girlfriend," she declares, not letting go.
Peter's insides are practically imploding, and he turns to Yondu confused. But then he smirks at the captain, pumping his fist and mouthing 'hell yes' before returning the hug to Gamora. He holds her close, her head tucked under his stubbled chin. Groot chirrups at them happily, blooming flowers and dropping them to the table.
Looking back, Yondu realizes he saw this coming from a billion miles away, although he never really thought it was serious. He reaches for the spoon that's resting on the table. He picks it up and flings it, with the perfect aim of a marksman, and it his Peter directly in the forhead.
"Rule number one," he declares, "no PDA. Especially not in the mess hall. It's gross."