Chapter 4
Dinner was going by smoothly as it can go when you have a couple of aliens, wizards, a half human half Hulk, a spider child, two old men out of time and a couple of master assassins. Morgan was trying to bond with Nebula, and at first the blue woman was put off for a moment, children weren’t exactly her thing (maybe because she has never been around many children) but soon she warmed up the little girl and they started talking about unicorns and every other fantasy animal. Peter, Carol, and Peter were talking about eighties and nineties movies, and Quill refused to believe that Footloose was not the greatest movie of all time.
“It’s just not that good dude.”
“You’re lying! Your generation doesn’t know a good movie when they see one!”
“No, we know what we’re talking about and Footloose is horrible!” Carol challenged back, clearly her and Parker were trying to tell Quill to think the latter on the movie.
“If anything, Aliens is the best.” The teenager said.
“Oh no! If anything, Terminator is up there on the list.” Sam jumped in.
“As fun as this is to talk about all of your horrible taste in movies, we do have to address the elephant in the room.” Tony cut in.
“What is this elephant you speak of?” Drax asked while looking around.
“Yes, I see no elephant.” Mantis added while helping him find this said elephant.
“It’s just a metaphor guys.”
“Stop looking for the elephant!”
“I am Groot?”
“It’s a metaphor. There is no elephant here.” Wanda said calmly to the teenage tree.
“Okay, what’s going on?” Pepper cut in quickly.
“We have to return the stones soon.” Everyone paused and looked at him in confusion. Many of them thought that he and Natasha who want to wait a few days to talk about what happened, after all it was a PTSD situation.
“I promised the soul stone that we would return he-“
“Or she.”
“Most definitely a he Tony. Anyway, we have to return the siblings to their original timeline.”
“I would like to keep living.” No one said anytime for a moment, trying to process everything that they were just told. There were so many questions flying through the heads sitting at the table, but no one knew how to approach the subject.
“So,” Steve started, looking at the woman sitting next to him, “The stones are siblings and they talk?”
“Yeah, well at least the soul one does. I don’t know about the others.” Natasha said with a shrug before digging back into her streak.
“The stone talks?” Bruce asked, still in disbelief.
“I think we already talked about that Brucie.”
“We don’t have any more particles. Hank would have to make us more and I don’t know how long that would take.” Scott added in.
“You guys used my dad’s particles to time travel?” Hope asked with questioning eyes.
“Yeah, don’t hate us! Please!”
“You didn’t invite me!”
“I’m sorry!”
“In our defense you guys were flying around as dust.” Rocket said, which caused Quill flicked him in the back of his head.
“Okay. Okay. Hope, do you mind asking your father how long it could take?” Steve asked with hope and joy written all over his face.
“Yeah, I’ll call him after dinner.”
“Thank you.”
“No issue.”
“So, the stones are brothers and sisters?” Rocket grumbled digging in to the mac and cheese that he has taken a liking too.
“Well, they were created at the same time, so it only makes sense.” Strange added in. The others nodded their heads before continuing their conversations and dinner.
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Once dinner was over, the children offered to clean the kitchen and put the leftovers away. Quill stuck away outside and leaned on the railing just looking at the nature around him. He was happy that Natasha and Tony were back because it made their family happy, but he couldn’t help but to feel upset that Gamora wasn’t here with them. Yeah, he saw her during the battle but that wasn’t his Gamora.
“Hey. I thought I’ll find you here.” A voice said from behind him. He turned around and saw Natasha coming out with a blanket around her shoulders and another one in her hand.
“Hey.” He said back giving her a small smile. She handed him the blanket, which he took and wrapped it around himself.
“I didn’t know if you got cold, being half alien and all.”
He let out a quiet laugh, “No we get cold too. What are you doing out here? I didn’t think Steve or Clint would let you out their sight.”
“I could ask you the same thing. As for Steve and Clint they’re just over protective.”
“Just out here thinking.”
“About Gamora?”
“Yeah,” Peter let out a shaky breath, “I’m happy that you and Tony are back honestly, but I miss Gamora. I saw her on the battle field but that wasn’t my Gamora. That was the 2014 one and she didn’t recognize me at all, but it made me happy that I got to see her face for the first time in five years. I can’t make her fall in love with me clearly, I just want my love back.”
Natasha could only nod before placing her hand on his shoulder and rubbed his back in small circles. She completely understood how he was feeling on losing a loved one, hell she lost half of her family five years ago and she tried her damnest to hold it together.
“Listen it’s okay to be upset about it. She would’ve wanted you to vent about how you were feeling and not hold everything in.”
“The last time I vented about losing her I messed up the plan on Titan.”
“So?”
“So?” He looked at her as if she grown a head or two. Did Tony not tell her what happened on Titan? He let his feelings get in the way and they could have pulled off the gauntlet five years ago and everything could’ve been avoided.
“Natasha I’m the reason why everyone got dusted. I-“
“No, you’re not! The only person who is responsible for causing the pain that we went through is Thanos. Not you, not Thor, no one but Thanos. So, don’t blame yourself for expressing your love for someone that was taking from you because of him.”
“I-I just thought that-“
“Thinking is not your thing then.” The Russian said teasing him with a wink. Peter could only laugh, a true laugh for the first time in days, at her teasing.
“I’ve been told.”
“I think we can get her back if we return the stone. The saying is a soul for soul so if we return the soul stone-“
“Then we should get her back.”
“I don’t want to give you false hope Peter.”
“I know, but I appreciate you coming out here out here to talk to me.” He said with a smile, in which she returned.
“Everyone needs a talking to once in a while. If you ever want to talk, whether it’s here or outer space, I’m just a call away.”
“Thanks.” Peter turned to her and wrapper his arms around her middle and buried his face in her hair; Natasha returned the favor by wrapping her arms around his chest. Soon the two parted and smiled at one another.
“Now don’t do any stupid until I say so.”
Quill could only bark out a laugh, “Yeah, that’s going to be hard.”
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“I’m really happy that your back Mr. Stark.” Young Peter said as he and Tony dug around looking for movies. Morgan wanted to show the Guardians all of the Disney movies that she liked, however that meant Tony would have to go to the basement and find said DVDs and Peter offered for the job. Now the two were looking for Sleeping Beauty and talking about everything and anything that came up.
“I glad too kid. Listen Pete,” Tony said as he stopped looking for the movie and turned to look at the teenager; said teenager stopped as well but was confused on what his mentor had to say.
“I’m sorry for losing you on Titan. I-I carried that guilt for five years and I never give up on looking for a way to bring you back. I felt, still feel actually, responsible for bringing you and losing you and May hated me for the longest, she had every right. When Morgan was born all, I could think about was how excited you would be to meet her. You’re like a son to me you know. I care about you a lot and I’m sorry if I failed you.”
“You didn’t fail me. I went up to space knowing I may or may not make it back down, but I didn’t care about that. I got to go to space with you, Tony freaking Stark, my idol and it was the best time ever, well not the dusting, but we got to spend time together. You’re like a father to me, and I cried for hours when I lost you because everytime I get close to someone I lose them.”
“You’re never going to lose me again. I promise you that much. Come here.” They both embraced, Tony trying his best with only one arm, but they cried and held onto each other for what had seemed like forever.
“I love you Pete.”
“I love you too Tony.”