𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 , guardians of the galaxy

𝟎𝟎𝟗.

"i don't use my head to fly this arrow, boy! i use my heart!"

peter slowly turned to look at ego, and tears pooled in oceanic hues as he remembered his childhood, sitting beside his mother in the grass, a walkman between the two of them, listening to brandy. laughing with drax on the ship, one of drax's hands laid on his shoulder. flying in the air with rocket, laughing. dancing with gamora that first time, the closeness and the warmth between them. his hand over her's, fingers intertwined. yondu teaching him how to shoot a gun, an encouraging hand on his arm.

then.. cassandra.

cassandra, his little girl.

he thinks of the small things first; quiet mornings shared between them in the milano. (oh, how he will miss the milano.) her fingers wrapped around the neck of a bottle of beer, feet kicked up on the dashboard, carefully avoiding each of the buttons placed upon it that peter remembers teaching her about. his walkman would be on, a song would be playing as the two stare off into the distance together, and it is quiet.
silent, even, besides the steady sounds of their breathing and the sounds of her occasional sipping and the song playing quietly, but it is nice. a good quiet, and peter misses it. he misses cassandra, more than anything, and god, he wishes he did so much more. he wishes that he was there for her more, he wishes that he will survive this just because he wants, desperately, to see his kid grow into an adult with her own life.
he imagines living with her on terra, maybe. he wishes that he could give her the life he never got to have, more than anything, and he needs to be here.

he needs to be here.

‐

cassandra woke up with an aching head and.. a million questions. (examples: "what the hell happened?", "is mantis okay?", "am i even okay?", "seriously, what the hell?")

she had answers to only a few, being that yes, she's alright, mantis is.. okay? she's unconscious, but she's breathing, and gamora has her, that matters most. drax could survive fucking anything, cassandra had realized, so naturally, drax was fine. cassandra's knees burned against the cold metal of the ship, hand over mantis's, when gamora's voice pulled her from her thoughts.

"where's quill?"
rocket wore an expression that cassandra did not like.
"where is he?" cassandra asked, voice barely above a whisper, feeling what she could only describe as genuine panic. gamora tried to grab her arm, maybe comfortingly, but cassandra just pulled her arm away and looked over at rocket, who looked up at her, apologetically, a face of something depressing, before glancing down at the timer. cassandra pressed her lips together and tried to recollect her thoughts, but she just couldn't. her head was moving so fast she could barely think anything but where is he? is he okay? what happened to my dad?

he refused to look at her.
"i'm sorry, cass.."
"rocket, where is he!?" tears pooled in her cerulean eyes, voice becoming hoarse and scratchy, and gamora stood up, an only slightly comforting hand placed on cassandra's shoulder.