Chapter Text
Apparently, this planet revolved slowly, because sunrise took hours. It began as the faintest lightening on the boundaries of the sky, and crept slowly higher and higher. It dragged scars of gold into the dark blue and the stars fled before them, until the whole sky seemed like a dome of molten metal. The first local insects and birds to rise had begun with traces of song at the earliest glimpse of light in the sky, then the texture had built layer by layer, as more and more joined the chorus, and now every tree around the ship’s clearing was singing, or chirping, or warbling away.
Mantis had not slept, but the slowly changing sky had calmed her restlessness, and she sat now cross-legged on the roof of the Benetar, listening, and watching. Beside her, Loki lay with his eyes closed, breathing lightly. She was just trying to discern whether or not he was asleep when she became aware of a slight thumping sound beneath her. The ship, made to withstand the vacuum of space, easily prevented the audible transmission of sounds, but she could still feel the vibrations against her bare feet. Whatever it was came in intermittent, rhythmic intervals that made her antennae twitch. She furrowed her brow in confusion.
“What is that infernal thumping?” Loki did not move, but cracked one eye open. His voice was raspier than usual from having sat out in the open all night.
Mantis shook her head in confusion. “I am not-” Suddenly she froze; her eyes widened; and then she was up like a shot, not even bothering to collect her boots as she scrambled down the ladder.
“Mantis?” she heard Loki call behind her as he raised himself up onto one elbow, but she paid him no heed.
Mister po-o-o-o-o-ostman.
Why don’t you check it and see
One more time for me?
She nearly slipped on a rung in her hurry, but she made it to the bottom of the ladder with all her bones intact and scrambled up the access ramp, slamming her fist onto the door controls, before realising that the doors had already been wedged open with a stool and slipping through the crack.
You gotta wait-a-minute, wait-a-minute!
Wait-a-minute, wait-a-minute!
Woah-oh-oh.
She followed the music at a dash through the ship’s corridors, careening wildly round doorways and corners with a sharpness that would have shattered human ankles, until she slid to a stop at the entrance to the mess hall.
Mister po-o-o-o-o-ostman.
Come on deliver the letter,
The sooner the bette-e-er!
Mantis felt her lips stretch slowly into a wide smile. For the first time since alternate Gamora had left, Peter was dancing round the table like an idiot to something from his Zune, which he had apparently hooked up to the ship’s comm system.
A surprise rush of emotions made Mantis unsure whether to laugh or cry – because six. months. It had been six months since the last song Peter had played. In her mind, the music had been invariably associated with her captain-friend-brother since she’d first seen him at this table, determinedly dancing away the pain of Yondu’s death. When he’d spotted her, he’d reached to pull her in, and led her through both the steps and her own grief simultaneously – her first ever experience of dancing. Peter without his music wasn’t Peter at all, but finally, after six months of wretched and unnatural silence, he was back.
There was a clomping sound behind her, and a creaky kind of grumble as a groggy Groot settled in to watch as well. Mantis glanced at his impassive face and felt her smile grow even further. Without warning, she lunged towards him, feeling him flail in shock as she gathered him up in her arms, laughing wildly, and spun him off the ground. In a year or so he’d be too tall for this, but for now he was still just short enough to pick up, and she continued to whirl him in circles as he yelled angrily at her over the music. Peter grinned at her when he saw them, and soon they were all three of them dancing gleefully in a circle, alternately grabbing onto each other, or laughing as one of them did something particularly outrageous.
Drax came in a few moments later with Rocket on his shoulder, and before they knew it, all five of the crew were jumping around the mess hall, dancing with various degrees of success, but equally broad levels of enthusiasm. Drax was prone to tripping over his own feet, but it never phased him, and he laughed every time like it was the funniest thing in the world. Even Rocket deigned to engage in some mild toe-tapping, coupled with poorly disguised attempts to trip Peter up. Looking round at her friends, as they all made asses of themselves to the metre of the song, Mantis’s heart felt lighter than it had in a long time.
<><><><><>
It was to this sight that Loki entered, having stayed on the roof for a little longer, and he froze in the doorway, looking warily round the room of dancing space-pirates, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. He remained motionless for a few moments, frantically piecing together any scraps of relevant information, and then he inhaled sharply.
“Oh, Norns save me,” he groaned. “This is normal, isn’t it?”