Set shortly after the events of Guardians of the Galaxy. Vol. 2 – deviation from movie plot where Nebula decides to stay with the crew after she and Gamora make up. Just an idea I had for why it might be that Gamora has such a hard time opening up to Peter, when she is clearly interested in him as more than friends. Hope you enjoy. May be multiple chapters.

Gamora and Drax had gone into town for some supplies while Rocket worked to fix yet another part of the ship that was always breaking while Groot watched him.

Peter wandered around the ship and saw Nebula sitting alone looking through some books he had collected over the years. She had only been with them for a few weeks and was having a difficult time settling in, but she was coming around as they all tried to make her feel welcome. They invited her to meals, and he noticed that the relationship between her and Gamora was melting a bit from completely frigid to now just mildly icy. He could tell the women cared about each other very much, but they still had a long way to come.

"You can read any of those you want," Peter said approaching her cautiously in case she snapped at him, which she had a tendency to do. Instead she looked up and admitted. "I'm not sure where to start. It's been a long time since I read a book. We had the best tutors when we were Thanos, but we mostly read books about strategy and warfare," she said.

Since she had opened the door, Peter took the opportunity to try to further engage in conversation. He had actually been hoping for the chance to probe her about her and Gamora's upbringing, and now was the perfect time with Gamora off ship. He and Gamora had finally admitted they had feelings for each other, but that was about it much to Peter's frustration. He knew that Gamora had such a difficult life with Thanos, but he expected there was more to her weariness about being in a relationship that just that.

"This one's great," Peter said selecting the book "Girl on a Train." It's full of mystery, sex and violence. Right up your ally I'd imagine," he quipped lobbying a joke her way to see what happened. He detected the faintest hint of a smile as she reached out and took the book from him. "Thanks," she said simply.

Peter then continued to test his luck and sat down in a chair across from her. She looked a bit startled but didn't get up to leave, so he decided to give it a whirl.

"Mind if I ask you something?" he asked.

"What about?" she responded suspiciously.

"Gamora," he answered honestly.

She still looked suspicious and said, "Maybe, what?"

Peter decided to go for it. "Well, I think it's pretty obvious that I care about your sister a lot," he said. "And, she's pretty much admitted that she cares about me too, but I can't seem to get close to her beyond that. I was wondering if you might have any insight."

Nebula looked at him for about a minute trying to decide whether to answer or not. She was still trying to forgive Gamora for so much, but they were working through it. Gamora had surprised her recently with her openness to try to actually act like sisters again. She hadn't had that in so long. She remembered the moment it had all changed – a moment that would enlighten Peter quite a bit about why he was having a hard time having a romantic relationship with her. She could tell that Peter really did care about Gamora, so she decided to tell him.

"I do have an idea," she said. "But you have to promise you won't ever tell her I told you this."

"Scout's honor," Peter said holding up two fingers. Nebula had no idea what that meant but inferred he intended to keep the secret.

Nebula began.

"When we were teenagers, Thanos was training a new crop of recruits for his army. One of the trainees was a young man not much older than us named Apollo. It just so happened that he was from Gamora's home world but was traveling with his family when Thanos destroyed it. Gamora instantly fell in love with him. I think he brought her a comfort and hope. There was so little to ever be happy about when we were with Thanos. Apollo felt the same way about her, and they began a secret relationship. But you see, Thanos forbade us from being involved with boys. He said romantic love was a weakness and distracted us from our missions. I'm not really even sure how they managed it, but they were able to sneak away often to be together for about three weeks. We learned all this later, but another recruit saw them kissing under a stairwell. Hoping to garner favor with Thanos, he told him about their relationship. Shortly thereafter, Thanos announced that he had a surprise for Gamora, which he would give her at dinner. He did this often – presenting her with a new weapon or mission. She was his favorite, so we didn't think anything of it. We started eating, and Thanos called for one of his men to fetch Gamora's surprise. That man left and came back in dragging a bloodied Apollo. He had been nearly beaten to death already. I'll never forget the look on her face when she realized what was happening. Thanos retrieved Apollo and brought him right up in front of her. She begged him to punish her instead saying that Apollo didn't know she wasn't allowed to date. Thanos said he was punishing her and slit Apollo's throat spraying his blood all over her. It was awful. Even I'll admit that. She cried as he slumped to the floor. As further punishment, Thanos then targeted her to go on missions that required seducing some big leader or warlord in order to either kill him or gain favor. I think she died a little more inside on each of those missions. It took her about five years to get to a point where he wasn't punishing her for it. He still loved her best, but he wanted her to suffer for betraying him and breaking the rules."

Peter was a little in shock and his heart broke at the horrifying story. Plus, his stomach turned at the thought of her having to sleep with men because Thanos commanded it.

"That's so sad," he managed to say.

"Whatever part of Gamora's heart was still open shut the day Apollo died," Nebula continued. "We were actually pretty close until then, but after that happened she became cold and mission-focused. A survival tactic I guess. I didn't think I'd ever see her care about anyone that way again," Nebula trailed off. "That is until I saw her with you," she finished.

Peter looked up at her.

"What do you mean?" he prompted.

"Don't expect me to get all lovey-dovey," she cautioned, "but I've never seen Gamora look at anyone the way she looks at you. I think she's in love with you. So, if I were you, I wouldn't give up on her, but I'm guessing you'll have to give her a lot of time to get comfortable with the idea of being with you in that way."

"Thank you for telling me that," Peter said. "For what it's worth, I'm in love with your sister, and I'll give her all the time she needs."

Just then Gamora and Drax returned. Gamora spotted Peter and Nebula talking and approached them suspiciously. "What are you two talking about," she quizzed.

"I was just telling Nebula about some of these books," Peter covered with only a partial lie. Nebula nodded backing up his story. "This ship is so mind-numbing, I'm willing to try anything to not kill myself from boredom," she added in her typical dry tone.

It was enough to convince Gamora.

"Fine. Now come help us unload all this stuff," she said.

They both hopped up to help, a look of new trust and friendship passing between them.

Peter vowed internally that he would help Gamora finally overcome such a horrifying experience and let him love her. He knew it would be easier said than done.

What do you think? Reviews welcome!