Chapter Text
They were both exhausted and slept soundly. Hal never slept for more than a few hours straight, and it was dark and quiet when he woke. Nebula was apparently a light sleeper, too, as he could feel her stir almost immediately. He rubbed her back and murmured, “Now that I’m less tired I realized how much I could use a shower.”
"Mmm. Same." She stretched and sat up. "How's your arm?”
“Sore, but better.” He sat as well, and kissed her shoulder. “You wanna share?”
She leaned into him a little. "That sounds fun.”
Her shower wasn’t really meant for two people but they didn’t mind getting cosy. Standing and kissing in the spray of hot water felt intimate and oddly romantic. Part of him had been afraid it would be awkward when they woke up. But it had felt perfectly natural, and now they were making foreplay out of washing.
Of course, foreplay became kissing, which led to him lifting her up against the wall of the shower. Which ended in them panting, slumped against the wall, as the water turned cold.
Nebula reached over to turn the water off and he could feel her chuckle a little. "We seem to be making up for lost time.”
And here he’d thought that was just him. “I thought about it at the Christmas party. But I…I honestly have no idea what I’m doing with women.”
She smiled, pressing a kiss to his jaw as she pushed the door open and stepped out of the shower. "I'm not exactly good with men.”
“I realized if you’d died I’d have had a lot of regrets.”
"Yeah," she said quietly, wrapping a towel around herself and holding out one for him. "Is that why you were grouchy?”
He took the towel and dried off. “Was I grouchy?”
"You were unusually quiet. And Cosmo seemed to think you were grumpy.”
“I was tired and my arm hurt and I was annoyed about having some asshole come in yet again and mess up my town and…worried you were going to blow yourself up trying to drive that ship. I may have been a little short tempered.”
"I suppose I can't fault you for that." She reached out and hugged him, kissing his jaw. "I'm usually short tempered for much less reason.”
He sighed and pulled her closer. “We have a lot to do tomorrow. We might want to try and get some more sleep.”
"I don't need much sleep," she told him. "But laying down sounds nice.”
“I suppose I’ll find some way to entertain you.”
"Mmm. I'm impressed at your rebound time.”
“Making up for lost time,” he replied with a grin, pulling her back to the bed.
They did, eventually, get a little more sleep, waking again when Knowhere had turned enough to face the nearest star and have proper sunlight. Nebula's window was open part way and Hal could hear the town waking up, now full of the sound of children's voices and laughter.
“Do you have any experience with children?” he asked her.
"No," she said, tucked between him and the wall with her head on his shoulder. "I didn't really have a childhood.”
“Me either. Literally. They grow the clones in tanks.”
"Oh, you had your own tank? I had a share a bed with two other girls.”
Hal laughed as he sat up. “Must have been nice to interact with other children. I only had scientists.”
"If by interacting you mean fighting to the death, sure, it was great.”
“We should probably try to not teach the children to fight to the death.”
"Probably not, no." She stretched, sitting up. "Though it is good exercise.”
Someone was knocking on Nebula’s door. With an irritated sigh, she reached for a robe dangling off the edge of a chair and tugged it on. "What?" she called at the door.
It was Kraglin. “Sorry to bother you, but the Ravagers are here to pick up your sister.”
Nebula tipped her head back and seemed to think a minute. "Thanks," she called back, then glanced back at Hal. "I should go say goodbye.”
“You should,” he said, getting out of the bed so she could do the same. He knew her relationship with her sister was rocky, but sincere.
“Hey Nebula?” Apparently Kraglin was still out in the hall.
“Yeah?”
“Look don’t yell at me, because it’s none of my business and I’m only asking because Mantis insisted. But, uh, is Hal in there?”
She glanced over at Hal, then shrugged and looked back at the door. “Yes."
“Can you ask him if we can raid the bar’s storeroom for snacks? The kids are hungry.”
“I can hear you,” Hal said, trying not to laugh. “I’ll come down and unlock it.”
“Thanks,” Kraglin replied. “None of my business, but, you know, good for you guys.”
Now Nebula was glaring at the door, so Hal said, “Thank you, but if we have to have this conversation with everyone, people are going to get stabbed. Tell Mantis I appreciate the assist but also, would she please shut the fuck up.”
"Right. Understood." There was a brief pause, then the sound of his footsteps walking away.
"Thanks," Nebula said quietly.
“Maybe we can scare them away from teasing.”
"I find threats of bodily harm are usually effective.”
He leaned over to kiss her temple. “I’ll see you later?”
She nodded. "We have a lot of logistics to figure out. I'll need your help.”
He inclined his head. “I’ve done it before. We’ll figure it out.”
"Thanks." She kissed his mouth, just a fast brush of her lips against his, and stood, heading for the pile of clothes to one side to get dressed.
Hal had to put on the clothes from last night, minus the shirt she’d had to cut off of him. He was contemplating the awkwardness of a dash back to his room shirtless when Nebula gave an annoyed grunt and then thrust a shirt of hers into his hand—which did turn out to fit.
In addition to being several sizes too big for her—he was not a small man—it was brightly colored and had a cheerful graphic of some kind of fruit on it, not a shirt he could imagine her actually wearing under threat of torture. “Dare I ask?”
"It's Thor's," she explained. "I don't know how it ended up in my stuff, but I haven't gotten around to getting it back to him.”
“It’s downright festive.”
"Yeah, well. That's Thor. Feel free to keep it. Or burn it.”
It wasn’t really his style, so he might. But it would do for now. “Thanks.”
He went downstairs to unlock the pantry, and Drax and Kraglin unloaded armloads of bar snacks to feed the children, whom they’d spent the night looking after. It was probably selfish that Hal and Nebula had gone upstairs and locked the door, but he kind of didn’t care. He, at least, was not any kind of superhero.
The bar was also an enormous mess from the fight, so he decided to start with that. He was still just sweeping up glass when Mantis came through the door. “Hal, I need to talk to you.”
“What’s up, Mantis?” he asked, bending to knock a stubborn piece into his dustpan.
"I'm going to be leaving," she said. "I need to be on my own. Find my own way. Not depend on the others, the way I have been. And I just wanted to tell you something before I do.”
He looked over at her as he stood to take the glass pieces to the trash. He and Mantis had a few shades of their backstories in common. “Good for you. I think it’s good.”
She smiled brightly. "Thank you. I know you're in love with Nebula.”
He was in the middle of dumping the broken glass and nearly dropped the the dustpan in the trash. “I don’t need you to tell me that.”
Though, maybe he did. He didn’t have a whole lot of experience with the emotion. He’d never loved anyone and no one had ever loved him. Like he’d said before, feelings were generally a handicap and he had no idea why all the clones like him had them.
But they’d always been there. And he had no idea what to make of the ones he had for her.
"What I really wanted to tell you was: she loves you, too. Deep down. Very deep. Buried under a lot of other stuff. But she does. I don't know if she'll ever say it, or understands it. But I wanted you to know. So you don't give up. Because I think you'd make each other happy. And Nebula's never been happy.”
His chest felt tight a moment, and he remembered sitting up on the catwalks, her telling him how she’d never been anyone else’s first choice before. “I think we do okay,” he said with a small smile.
Mantis smiled widely. "Good. I hope so. You both deserve it. And lots of good sex.”
“Thank you.” He faced her fully. “Good luck,” he said, then added, “There will always be a chair at my bar for you, whatever happens.”
She stepped forward and hugged him tightly. "Thank you. I hope to see you soon." Then she let him go, waved, and walked out of the bar.
Hal watched her go a moment, then went back to cleaning. He had no real idea what he was doing. He’d never had a relationship before, just casual sex. Maybe he’d fuck it up. Maybe she’d want to pretend it was casual sex for some period of time and he could sort his head out. Or maybe the casual would hurt. They were on an undiscovered moon, it felt like. Anything could happen.
He was left alone with his thoughts and cleaning for a couple hours before Rocket appeared, hauling himself onto a stool. "You got any intact bottles?”
“I keep the good stuff locked up,” Hal replied. He ducked in the back to get one from his still. Finding an actual drinking glass was a little harder, and he had to settle for a coffee mug of indeterminate plastic. But he did have two of them, so he poured himself a drink as well.
Rocket raised his as if in a toast and took a drink. "You know," he said. "I have an excellent sense of smell.”
Hal mad a face. “Did someone puke in an air vent again?”
"No. But you fucked my best friend.”
He sighed and took a swig of his drink. This was the posturing thing men did when they thought someone was taking advantage of the woman in their lives, wasn’t it? “Rocket, what in the name of that Christmas Cannibal makes you think that I am the top in this relationship—or whatever it is? I couldn’t poke her shoulder with my pinky and keep my hand if she didn’t want me to touch her.”
Rocket waved that away. "I know that. Hell, I don't care what you do, you're both consenting adults. But Nebula and I have been through a lot together. Neither of us dusted, and living those years together… well, you know. So I know that she's the most fragile un-killable badass cyborg in the galaxy. So if you hurt her—and not in the make her bleed way, but in the make her cry way—I will remove your organs with a rusty kitchen spoon. In alphabetical order.”
“I mean…I might. I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing with this kind of thing. I was grown in a tank.” He looked up at Rocket. “But if I do, I’ll let you. I’ll deserve it. I…I find her worth the risk.”
He nodded. "Good enough for me. And trust me, she doesn't know what she's doing either. She's better than she was, but that's still a light year from normal.”
“Kraglin congratulated us. Mantis gave me a pep talk. You’ve threatened me. I’m going to guess Quill will also threaten, Drax will either congratulate or not notice for six months, and Groot will tell me mammal reproduction is gross and beg us to stop talking about it.”
"Hey, as long as they're doing it to you and not her. Embarrassment doesn't do her temper any favors.”
He chuckled. “The only person I know that I can imagine getting that worried about me is, well, her. So it’s probably fine.”
"I hope you make each other happy," Rocket said gruffly.
That made him smile. “Me, too.”
*
Peter was going back to earth, which Nebula thought was probably the best thing for him. He needed to be somewhere his memories of Gamora weren’t. Mantis, bless her, took the Abilisks with her on her jaunt, so at least they didn’t have to deal with them for however long she was gone.
She expected they’d both be back again at some point, but at the moment she had to worry about what was in front of her. Which was her somewhat spontaneous declaration she wanted to turn Knowhere into a giant orphanage of sorts, helping this menagerie they’d acquired grow up with the childhood she hadn’t gotten.
Though the whole child raising was going to be mostly Drax’s problem. The infrastructure was hers. And, she imagined, Hal’s. Though she hadn’t asked him. Maybe he also had some urge to leave now. She decided not to think about that.
She’d gone to check the temporary pens that had been built for the zoo, and was glad to see someone had put water and some manner of food in with them. Who and how they knew what to feed them, she had no clue. But Knowhere had some very competent people on it.
While walking back, Cosmo found her. “Nebula, I was looking for you.”
She looked down. "Here I am. What's wrong?”
“I know that you and Hal have been mating.”
Nebula sighed, covering her eyes. "Don't call it that.”
“It is a very distinct smell.”
"I'm sure it does. It's just… humanoids don't use that word. It's sex.”
“Whatever it is, it makes people cry a lot. So I must warn you that if you are not nice to him, I may have to squish you. I am very sorry.”
She blinked down at Cosmo a moment. "I understand. I'm going to do my best to not make him cry. But I'm… new at this. Probably bad at it. But I'm trying.”
“That’s okay. I watched him learn how to be person.”
Nebula smiled a little. "He did a good job.”
“And he never once called me Bad Dog.”
"I see why you like him so much.”
Cosmo’s tail wagged. “And he always has treats.”
"I see how it is. Should I start carrying treats for you?”
“Everyone should carry treats at all times.”
"I will keep that in mind." She took a deep breath. "Do you know where Hal is now?”
“He’s been cleaning. There’s a lot of cleaning.”
"Right." She rubbed the dog's head. "Thanks, Cosmo.”
She checked the bar first, mostly because that’s where he’d start. It looked mostly like it had before Goldie had attacked them, so obviously Hal had put it back together. All of the bottles on the shelf behind the bar—and at least one of the shelves—were gone.
Eventually she found him in one of the common rooms, which was half cleaned, on one of the couches taking a nap. His arm had fresh bandages, which were stained blue with his blood. He must have accidentally opened the stitches.
With a huff of irritation, she left and went to the infirmary. There, she gathered new bandages, wound cleaner, and some glue that would help reinforce the stitches. He was still asleep when she returned, so she sat down on the floor next to his couch and started cutting off the bandage as gently as she could.
He cracked one eye open. “Stealth first aid, eh?”
"I didn't want to disturb you. You clearly needed sleep.”
“I was designed to nap more than sleep, except when I’m healing. I probably should have stayed in bed longer.” He turned his head to look at her fully. “Thank you.”
"It's fine. Clearly I didn't stitch it well enough the first time." She let the bandages drop to one side and sat up, inspecting the wound as she cleaned it.
“I was doing more manual labor than I should have.”
"The bar looks good. Did you lose all the liquor?”
“No, but I did lose a lot. I need to put together a list for a supply run. We’re going to need a lot more of everything.”
"We need all new things, too," she told him. "For the kids and animals.”
“Drax told me you and him would be raising the children together but that he had no intentions towards you, and hoped I wouldn’t want to have duel.”
She closed her eyes briefly, then shook her head, leaning in to blow on his arm, drying the cleaning residue so she could glue and bandage it. "Good to know. Cosmo said she's squish me if I made you cry.”
“Rocket will gut me if I make you cry,” he replied. “So…everyone knows."
"Yeah. Cosmo said mating was a distinctive smell.”
He chuckled. “Rocket, too. Not sure this was information either of us needed, but…”
"Maybe I'll set up some air freshener bombs outside my room. For the sake of their noses." His skin was dry now, so she cracked open the glue container, running a line along the wound and blowing again for it to dry.
A shiver went through him, the hairs on his arm standing up. “First time hurt,” he murmured. “That’s turning me on a little.”
Her mouth quirked. "Does that door lock?”
“I don’t know, but I fear hearing about what the couch will smell like.”
"Well, let me finish bandaging you and we can relocate.”
“Nebula,” he said quietly. When she looked up, he said, “This is my home. The only one I’ve ever had. So I will stay here and help you with it no matter what happens.”
She frowned. "I know. I didn't think you were leaving. Despite everyone else being in the mood to do so.”
“If you wanted to leave, I’d want to go with you.”
"Oh." Looking away from him, she opened a roll of bandages and started to wrap up his arm. "I don't want to leave. I want to stay here. I want you with me. I sort of want you to move into my room with me. I want to have more sex with you. And I want to figure out how to tell you how I feel, but I don't have those words. So I'm trying to show you, by bandaging your arm.”
“I think it’s the same things that I feel,” he told her. “Neither of us has much of a foundation in this area. But the only person I’ve ever felt it about is you.”
"Same." She tapped down the bandage and leaned back. "Feels all right?”
He leaned over to kiss her. “Feels perfect.”
She sighed, cupping his cheek to return the kiss. “Good."
“Wanna go back upstairs? Cleaning can wait.”
"I would very much like to go upstairs."