Chapter 3
Rocket sighed clearing his throat of laughter as Cosmo and Kraglin disappeared into the night. The Zune had gone quiet after he'd fired his gun, but now he smiled at it and began clicking until -
The world is a vampire.
Turning the music down until it was whispering in the background, he held out his glass to Nebula, swilling the water from the melted ice around. She rolled her eyes and filled it up. Smirking, he took a sip.
"So," he said, setting down his glass. The hand that was resting on Bucky's arm, the hand Nebula had been quietly keeping an eye on all night, slid off of it and went to Rocket's cheek, proping him up on the bar.
Huh.
"How'd you get away with it?"
Nebula averted her gaze and stared ahead as she poured herself a drink, "Get away with what?"
"Dude, what do you think?" He said incredulously, "You dropped a box bigger than my whole-ass frickin' body on the ground with a guy's vibranium, possibly stolen appendage inside of it and all you can say is, "Merry Christmas."
"So?"
"So what the hell, man?!"
"Nothing happened. I left before he woke up." She said, very pointedly not looking at him.
Rocket stared at her for a moment in confusion and disbelief, then threw his head back and laughed. Hard.
Nebula shook her head, taking a drink.
"I'm sorry," Rocket said, gales subsiding, "I really am, but holy crap Nebs. You are the kick-assest broad in the galaxy, but, and I say this with the utmost respect to your personage here, you are absolutely the most abysmal frickin' liar I've ever met. Now out with it, what happened?"
Nebula glared at him, then tapped her glass. Glancing at her drink and back up at her, Rocket frowned.
"That's extortion."
"He's finally catching on."
Rolling his eyes, Rocket took out his wallet and transfered her 47 units, the price of his drinks for the night.
"Okay," he grumbled, "you'd think a guy could expect a little honor amongst friends, but whatever, sure, this is totally not a betrayal."
Nebula covered her smile by taking a drink.
"Alright, you got your units, lay it on me Bluie."
Nebula put her glass down.
************
It was Bucky who saw the small spacecraft touch down outside the Avengers compound. For a moment it put him on edge, but quickly he weighed the situation; sneak attack, they'd land out of sight. Frontal assult, the ship would be armed and already firing.
Friendlies.
Well, he knew people from space.
Picking up his balonga sandwich and holstering his firearm as a precaution, he hustled out to meet whoever it was visiting. As his feet hit the grass, the gangplank of the small green and yellow ship clunked to the ground and out came a distinctly blue person.
"Hi, Nebula," he said, waving casually with a smile. She was scowling, per the norm. He'd always thought her a bit... intense.
"Bucky," Nebula said in her strange, deep, always-serious voice.
"What brings you to Earth?"
"You."
"Huh?"
In a moment almost too quick for him to see, she'd pulled out a weird gun, aimed, and fired.
Suddenly, and painlessly, Bucky was vibrating. Snadwich flying out of his had, he fell, hard and confused as he went still, lying on his back.
"What the hell?!"
Trying to rise, he found he couldn't move. Then Nebula was standing over him, staring down, her expression unchanged. Then, grabbing hold of his vibranium arm, she pulled just a little and tore it off.
Dman but these Guardian weirdos were strong.
"Whoa, HEY!" he said, utterly bewildered.
"I need this," Nebula said, holding it out above him.
A second later, she was out of his sight.
"What'd you do to me?! I cant move, what -"
"The effects will wear off in an hour. If you need anything, you know where to reach us."
"It's that stupid raccoon, isn't it! Are you serious?!" He shouted, trying to see her from his position on the ground. Her stomps connected with metal as she boarded the ship.
"He's not a raccoon."
With that, she pulled in the gangplank and was gone, back to wherever it was the Guardians went to when they weren't Avenging. Completely nuts.
Bucky groaned, letting his head fall back.
"Screw you, Rocket."
*************
Rocket was laughing wildly as she finished her story, nearly falling over. He grabbed her arm for support, teetering his stool back onto solid ground.
Nebula grinned, finishing her drink.
" 'I need this,' aahahah. Oh, wait wait wait," Rocket said, catching his breath, "What did he look like? When you shot him, what was the look on his face?"
"Surprised."
"SURPRI-HI-HI-HISED!!! AHAHAHAHAHA!"
Nebula started laughing gently too as Rocket rythmically smacked her shoulder in his glee, her forehead pressed against her cool glass. She didnt often laugh, but when she did it was always with Rocket.
"That's awesome," he said breathlessly, smile wide as he took a drink, "Man, I wish I coulda been there. Bucky ain't no slouch, but you kicked his humie ass!"
Nebula practically giggled. All this, it felt a little ridiculous, but alcohol and comfort had taken down most of her walls. She and Rocket...
They'd had a lot of nights like this one. Maybe not so happy, it was a tough five years, but there had been so many times, after a crazy day, when it just the two of them, guarding the galaxy, drinking and telling stories and, sometimes, laughing, though that had been rare. Now, since Tony Stark had snapped his fingers, these moments were few and far between.
The Luphomoid was grateful to be a Guardian, to have been accepted into the family Rocket had found before the snap, accepted by people who, unlike Rocket, didn't know her and had no reason to love her. People who knew first as an enemy and ever-so-breifly as an ally. Life after the snap had taken her down a road she never could have imagined for herself, with friends she'd never dreamed of making, let alone keeping. It was beautiful.
But every now and then? It was nice to, once again, have Rocket next to her, just the two of them, alone.
It felt the most like home.
The song changed, taking her out of her musings. She turned to Rocket in time to see him avert his gaze from her, very quickly, his expression odd for a split second. Nebula listened for a moment; the song was quiet...
Dancing in the dark, til the tune ends
We're dancing in the dark, and it soon ends
Rocket had taken the Zune off of random a while ago, electing to choose what played manually. He was doing it discretely, under the bar's overhang and out of sight from Nebula so she wouldn't notice.
The Smashing Pumpkins, "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"
The Killers, "All These Things That I've Done"
Queen, "I Want To Break Free"
Soul Asylum "Runaway Train"
Paramore, "We Are Broken"
They were all songs Nebula loved. She had noticed.
And now Fred Astaire, "Dancing in the Dark." She didn't even know anyone else knew it was on the Zune.
They listened in silence for a while, more heavy than it was comfortable, staring into their drinks. Finally, Nebula turned to her companion.
"Rocket..."
After a moment, he sighed and paused the Zune. His expression was strange. Sad, ears back against his head.
Nebula waited.
"Nobody ever gave me a present before." He said finally. His eyes fell on the arm beside him, his left hand moving to rest on its surface.
Nebula still waited. Eventually, he sighed again, and continued.
"I've been kickin' around the galaxy for a long time. I was alone. And every time I found somebody, as far back as I can remember..." Rocket's eyes stared forward, unseeing, "they've always gone away, never stuck around. Groot, Yondu, the guys..."
He went quiet, lips trembling for a moment as his brow furrowed, almost angrily. Nebula wanted to reach out. This time, she did, resting her hand on his shoulder. He let a breath go, some of the tension leaving his body.
"I keep losin', Nebs," he said, still not looking at her, "And it ain't fun. Only one thing I haven't lost, and that's..." he hesitated, uncomfortably, eyes shifting to her for a moment, ' and that's you." Nebula's mouth tightened into a straight line. "I never been given anything, before" he went on, "particularly somethin' I wanted... Not 'til today."
"Rocket." Nebula said quietly, her heart heavy. All too well, she knew the feeling.
"You didn't have to go all the way back to Earth to do this. You did it anyway. And..."
He paused...
"I didn't get somethin' for you."
Nebula eyes burned, but she blinked away any tears that might fall. Rocket cleared his throat, his tone lightening.
"After all this time, Nebs, I think I maybe probably should have," he said with a rakish smile. "So. Speakin' a' arms. How do you like that left one a' yours?"
Something in Nebula's heart swelled.
"It isn't mine." She said, voice rough.
"Okay." Rocket continued, smile broadening ever so slightly, "Do you want it to be?"
....
"Yes. I would like that very much."
Rocket downed his drink.
"Cool." Rocket looked at her for a moment, then raised his empty glass, "Merry Christmas, Nebs."