Peter had a tumultuous relationship with snow. On one hand, snow was a part of some of his happiest memories on Terra. Playing with the other neighborhood kids, making snow forts, snow-people and sledding down the hill at the local park. On the other hand, however, the inability to play in the snow was one of the first signs of his mother’s brain tumor. Something about the sun reflecting off the pure white had hurt her head and she had a hard time going outside in the cold. But Peter was more determined than anything to give Gamora the full Earthen holidays experience and stars be damned she was going to get it. That’s why they had flown to Gradx. The outer planet was known for its snow above all else and today was no different.
“S….so this is snow?” Gamora asked shivering in her black knee length coat.
“Yeah!” Peter exclaimed, trying to put up a cheerful front as always, and as always, she saw right through it. She came closer to him, stepping off the Milano and standing beside him for the first time since her amazing musical number. It had been about a week since that, and she’d been distant, understandably. She’d openly embraced her softer, more silly side, something she’d never done before and Peter cherished her for that. If Gamora was retreating into herself after that, he did not blame her. “It’s fun! See?” He picked up a handful of white powder and flung it at Drax, hitting the large man in the chest.
“Peter!” Drax hardly blinked, wiping the snow from himself. “What is this substance?”
“I told you! It’s frozen water, snow!”
“Well it sucks,” Rocket complained from atop Groot’s shoulder. Peter swallowed his urge to yell at him and lopped a snow ball at the raccoon. Groot whipped out a vine, smashing the snow before it hit Rocket. Gamora laughed, warming his heart as they trekked through between large black, snow covered rocks.
“I like this stuff,” Drax said, rolling another ball of snow. Gamora dodged as the tattooed man threw the ball, slashing it with her sword.
“I am Groot!” Groot exclaimed, flopping down into the powder and swinging his arms and legs around.
“Nice job Groot! You made a snow…tree!” Groot beamed, standing up and taking Rocket off his shoulders, placing him down in the snow.
“This is fun,” Gamora said, watching Rocket frantically pick flakes of snow out of his fur. They attempted to walk through the drifts of white but eventually settled on a snow ball fight. Gamora, Drax and Rocket against Peter and Groot. They counted Groot as two people as he could throw more than one snow ball at a time with his vines. Peter threw a ball aiming at Gamora’s face, he watched it sail across the gap and land true.
“Peter!!” She cried through giggles, taking an arm load of snow. Drax through a huge snow ball at Groot who looked shocked before making a return fire. Memories of the here and now, and the past bittersweet in his mind. Gamora’s well timed throw knocked him from reminiscing.
“I’ll get you!” He shouted, “Groot cover me!” He threw himself out from the cover of their rock shield and ran for it, diving over the other side’s boulder and tackled Gamora, arms going around her waist. He climbed off of her, realizing as they both wrestled in the ground that she may not want that, especially in front of her. She only smiled,
“You are ridiculous!” She laughed, hands grabbing his shirt collar. In the distance Drax, Groot and Rocket decended into tackling each other.
“I know it’s cold!” Peter grinned, blowing snow flakes into her face. They dotted her hair and skin, contrasting so beautifully he wanted nothing more than to kiss her right there. Don’t, he told himself, knowing he should not appreciate it when she was not ready. He loved her enough to put aside those impulses, those wants. “It’s fun!” He laughed again, reaching down and taking a handful of snow. He playfully threw it on the bareness of her exposed flesh between her neck and her shirt. She struggled under him and flipped him over, straddling him in the snow and stuffing his face with the cold biting powder. He tried to bat her away but the two of them dissolved into wrestling each other in the snow, Gamora’s light heartedness encouraging him further as they played. The snow-flakes twinkled in her eyes as he chased her.
Peter had a tumultuous relationship with snow because of the mixed memories of his childhood, but, as Gamora wind up for another snow throw, he tilted his head back, tasting the flakes as they graced his tongue and collapsed as the snow hit him in the chest. It was time to make new memories, better ones.