Whaddya Say? (Kate/Nebula)
"He's never heard it before, Tommy!" Billy points out. "He is pure. Untainted. It hasn't been overplayed for him--"
"It has for me!" Tommy snaps.
"What is?" Kate meanders into the galley of the Milano—if it can be called a galley.
In response, Billy shoves a cup in her hand and drags her down to the floor.
"Don't do it," Tommy says, just as Kate goes, "Oh hell yes!"
She flops down next to Billy and he nods his head to the beat in his head, waiting for Kate to get in the groove, while Quill and his crew and their tree child and Quill's dad and his dad's husband and Gamora's sister all crowd in.
"I love this!" Mantis smiles. "What is happening?"
"Awesomeness," BIlly informs her.
"Don't lie."
"Shh," Kate hushes Tommy as Billy starts to slap the floor, then his cup. She lets him take the first verse so she can have the second.
Nebula. That's her name, Gamora's blue sister. Literally and figuratively blue. She looks like she'd rather be anywhere but listening to this song, so Kate makes sure to direct the next verse at her, throwing a wink in.
"I’ve got my ticket for the long way ‘round, the one with the prettiest of views. It’s got mountains, it’s got rivers, it’s got sights to give you shivers, but it sure would be prettier with you."
Kate has a sudden visual of Nebula driving a red convertible, wearing that sharp grin she has when she's threatening to hack someone's head off. Nebula would not, Kate imagines, respect speed limits.
Nebula proceeds to scowl at Kate and ducks behind her sister, trying to blend into the group. Kate's distracted by this and misses the way Gamora is looking at her, mouth half open like she wants to say something but can't figure out what that something should be.
When they wrap up the song, Quill is unimpressed. Groot walks over and starts tapping on Kate's cup. Kraglin is wiping away tears that Yondu is studiously ignoring; both Mantis and Drax are delighted for entirely different reasons given that Drax seems to think it's a fight song.
Kate shakes her head to clear it, and proceeds to show Groot how to do the first cup section.
..
So, it's clearly not true to say that something is the cutest thing in the universe because the universe is vast but. Groot singing "I am Groot" over and over to the tune of "When I'm Gone" is the cutest thing in the universe.
And like. Now the damn song is stuck in her head as she walks down the halls, tapping the cup she still somehow has along them until she reaches a room full of crates and weapons.
And Nebula.
"Hey," Kate says. "Sorry. Didn't mean to bother you." She shifts the cup from hand to hand as Nebula glares at her, dark eyes gleaming.
Are her eyes like that because of all of mechanics, or are they naturally like that? Probably rude to ask.
They're really pretty.
Nebula still doesn't say anything, her eyes darting down to the cup.
"Right." Kate tears her gaze away from Nebula, makes herself stop staring at the way her skull is sectioned off, a panel of purple dividing the blue, or the silver that wraps around one of her eyes. Skin? Synthetic? Metal? Does it hurt? Will she kill Kate for staring? "I'll, uh. Go then. Sorry to bother you."
Kate turns to leave.
"I thought," Nebula starts, her voice a synthetic-edged rasp, "you were talking about me."
The words trip over Kate's tongue. "What? When?"
"I assumed it would be someone mocking me," Nebula continues, her voice painted over with so much I don't care it's ridiculous. "Perhaps when I was a child I hoped those words meant someone found me...pretty."
Kate is choking on a couple of things, one of them heartbreak for Nebula, what she and Gamora went through.
"You are pretty," she gets out.
Which is true. Nebula is pretty, in a pretty and deadly kind of way.
Nebula rolls her eyes at this.
"Don't roll your eyes. I'm your soulmate. I'm not going to lie to you."
"I don't have a soul," is Nebula's immediate reply.
"Oh, bullshit. Let me see the words. Please?" She adds as an afterthought.
Nebula rolls her eyes again, but her cheeks turn a deeper shade of blue, which might be...blushing? Kate will have to ask later—but shoves up the sleeve of her jacket, revealing a smooth sliver panel that she presses with a fingernail. It flips open with a satisfying click, and there, under a warren of wires and small blinking lights, Kate can see words that aren't ones she thought up but ones she did just say, I’ve got my ticket for the long way ‘round, the one with the prettiest of views. It’s got mountains, it’s got rivers, it’s got sights to give you shivers, but it sure would be prettier with you.
So. Could be worse. She could have been singing Friday, or a very emotional rendition of Walking in Memphis, she could have sung to her blue soulmate about blue suede shoes. Talk about dodging bullets.
Nebula doesn't seem like she's going to ask to see hers, so Kate just unveils them anyway, hitching her shirt up her side so Nebula can see her words on Kate's ribs.
I thought you were talking about me, Kate's always thought she winds up being a terrible gossip, and, nope, she's just cheesy as hell.
Nebula's fingers press against Kate's side for a moment, her touch much warmer than Kate expected from a woman with so much machinery in her.
"For what it's worth," Kate says when Nebula has stepped back, "I do think that, like, a roadtrip would be way prettier with you. Definitely when driving through the southwest."
"I don't know what that is."
"A desert? Don't get me wrong the whole trip would be better, but the southwest part..." Kate trails off again, preoccupied with the thought of Nebula standing under a wide southwest night sky, stars reflected in her black eyes.
"Oh." Her expression doesn't change but Kate thinks she might be pleased.
There's a scratching sound from the hallway and a faint echo of I am GROOT.
Nebula bites back a sigh.
"What did he say? I'm not fluent in Groot."
"He told me to kiss you," Nebula mutters.
"Oh. Well. That's cool. If you're into that."
Nebula considers this before leaning in, pressing her lips to Kate's.
It's electric, though Kate can't be sure if it's the soulmate thing or a Nebula thing. She's willing to wait and figure it out.
"Oh." Nebula is smiling when she pulls away. "That was nice."
Kate loops her arm through Nebula's. "Stick with me. We'll manage a lot more than nice."