Day 55 FLUFF FRIDAY
Nebula pulled Tony’s limp body into her arms and held him close. His chest stopped moving in its short uneven jerks, as a matter of fact it just stopped. All of him just stopped, and with him everything else came to a stand still. Nothing moved, not even Nebula. She just sat stone still with the dead body of the last person in the universe she cared about in her arms. Her father. The only person who had ever been a real father to her, and he was dead in her arms.
The only thing that moved was a small droplet of water slipping down her cheeks.
She was going to kill Thanos even if it took her dying breath. She was going to wipe him out of existence. He had taken the last thing from her. He had taken her real father and he would pay for it dearly.
A heavy metal clank rattled the ship, but Nebula still did not move. She didn't especially care what it was that had latched onto the ship. The only thing she cared about was dead man in her arms. She had watched him die, and she hadn’t been able to do anything as he had convulsed and choked. She had only been able to hold him. Every jerk from his body had torn her apart, then he had lie still, his chest had risen and fallen in a few short gasps, and the had gone completely and utterly motionless.
Footsteps echoed through the halls of the ship, and Nebula remained holding onto her last family member's body
It was a gasp that made her finally look up. A deep purple metal suit of armor stood before her.
No words were spoken between them, they both seemed to come to a silent understanding that they both cared very deeply for the dead man that lay in Nebula’s lap. Nebula did not question nor protest as the other woman picked him up. She only followed loyally as the armored woman carried Tony’s limp body through the airlock, and onto another ship. There were other people on the ship, but she ignored them, keeping her eyes on trained on Stark’s limp body. She was quite sure that people were speaking and moving around her, but her world was focused on Tony, and his silence filled her world. She focused on him, and all other sounds became irrelevant.
Silence.
She watched his body jerk as someone pounded on his chest.
Silence.
Another jerk shook the man’s body.
Silence.
His body jerked a again.
Thud.
Nebula listened harder, and the sound came again.
Thud.
She let the sound from the rest of the ship flood back into her consciousness.
“We got him!” The man who had been pounding on Tony’s chest sighed, “Pepper get the oxygen mask.”
Nebula watched as the people on the ship worked.
“Hey,” Nebula jumped, she had been so absorbed in watching over Tony that she hadn’t noticed the woman in the purple suit of armor approaching.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” The woman apologized
“No it’s fine I just-” Nebula trailed off, “Just spaced out.”
“Understandable,” The woman took up a position standing next to her.
“Are you Pepper?”
The woman’s smile answered the question for her, “He told you about me?”
“All the time,” Nebula nodded with a fond smile.
“Can I get your name?” Pepper asked after a few minutes of silence.
“Nebula.”
“Nice name.”
“Hmm.”
They both lapsed into silence after that. Nebula didn’t mind it, she actually preferred it. It made it easier to focus her advanced hearing on Tony’s weak heartbeat. She was glad that Pepper seemed to be just as content to stand there and watch over him as the man (probably a doctor) worked on him. The man lifted Tony’s shirt and then made eye contact with Nebula.
“How’d he get this scar?”
“Thanos.”
The man raised his eyebrows.
“He survived a fight with Thanos?”
Nebula nodded. He had only survived because Strange had sacrificed half the universe for him. She didn’t say that though, because she wasn’t sure how these people would react. She didn’t know if they would blame him like he blamed himself.
“What happened to him?” Pepper pinned Nebula with inescapable look.
“We were all out of the fight. All except for him. He went toe to toe with Thanos, and it- it ended badly.”
“How badly? How did he get that wound?” Pepper demanded.
“Thanos had him beat, but he kept trying anyway. He tried to stab Thanos, but um he- he got the sword.”
At the time Tony had just been a distant figure on the battlefield, just another meaningless fighter trying hard to stop Thanos. At the time her feelings when he got stabbed only went as far as, yet another person had failed. Then everyone had died. Everyone but him. It had just been them, and then they had spent two weeks together, and instantly bonded. He was her father now, her family, now when she looked back, the memory made her sick.
She was going to kill Thanos.
“Psst, Nebs.”
Nebula snapped awake. She hadn’t even realized she had fallen asleep.
“Your awake?!” She sat up straighter in the seat she had been in, "Do you need something? I can- Are you okay?”
“Yeah, surprisingly enough I am,” Tony replied resting his chin on the top of Pepper’s head. The woman had climbed into the bed with him and gone to sleep with her head tucked into the crook of his neck. She could see the relief in his eyes at knowing that Pepper was okay.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like hell.”
Nebula furrowed her eyebrows in concern.
“But I’ll be fine,” Tony added reassuringly, “Just fucking hungry.”
“They have you on an IV,” Nebula nodded toward the line going into his arm.
“I want real food,” Tony put the emphasis on the real, “Like a cheese burger.”
“A cheese burger?” Nebula frowned.
What the hell was a cheese burger?
Tony’s jaw dropped.
“Hold up! You have never had a cheeseburger?!”
Nebula shook her head.
Tony shook his head in disbelief, “I do not care what kind of horrible disarray the Earth is in when we get back, when we get home the first thing we are doing is getting you a cheese burger. Saving the world will wait the hour that it takes us to get you one.”
“Sounds good.”
“I can’t believe you have never had a cheese burger!”
“It’s not my fault!" Nebula objected. She was very grateful that Tony had steered their conversation away from his poor health situation. She never wanted to think him dead again.
“We’re getting you a cheese burger,” Tony’s eyes closed, as he mumbled, obviously still exhausted from the past two weeks of hell, “and me a cheese burger… cheese burger for you… cheese burger for me… Cheeseburgers all around…”
He trailed off into small content snores, probably now dreaming about whatever the hell a cheeseburger was. Nebula climbed onto the bed, and curled up next to Tony. She rested her head on his chest and listened to his steady relaxed heart beat. He reached an arm around and rested it across he shoulders and back.
She smiled.
She loved his hugs.