AN: So I received the prompt "Elspeth Quill gets a new little sister" on tumblr, and here is the tooth-rotting fluff that came from it

Elspeth has just turned 6 when they break the news to her. Her eyes widen in wonder once they tell her, and her mouth pops open in the cutest little gape as she stares at where Gamora's hand is resting.

Whether out of returning habit or instinct, she's been laying her hand on her stomach a lot more lately.

She doesn't really have a bump yet- it's still pretty early on.

Gamora's had some noticeable fatigue lately, and some slight bit of nausea on and off (plus having like three breakfasts every morning and always snacking), so they figured they might as well tell their daughter that her momma's pregnant and she's gonna have a baby in a couple months- and then Elspeth will be a big sister.

Before Elspeth had kinda froze, staring at her mom's stomach in awe, but then she starts again, darting forward to her mother and clearly excited about the news if her expression and smile was anything to go by.

That's good. They hoped she would be happy finding out she was getting a little sibling cause momma's got a baby growing in her belly right now.

As is, she's a bundle of energy, zipping straight to Gamora.

"Make it a girl!" She shouts at her mom. Then she zeroes in on Gamora's stomach, shouting at it and bouncing on her toes. "Make it a girl! Make it a girl make it a girl make it a girl!" Elspeth orders, clearly under the impression that Gamora has control over what gender the baby will turn out to be.

"She can be my Nebula! I'll be her 'Mora!" Her voice raises even higher, to the point that Elspeth is really just squealing, the was only 6 year old who was absolutely thrilled could.

Honestly, Gamora isn't sure if she picked up that pronunciation of her name from Peter, or if Elspeth had heard the other guardians calling her by her first name and Gamora really was that hard for a 6 year old to say. It's was Elspeth always pronounces it, though, when she tries to say her mother's name.

Apparently, she's not done giving orders yet, though. "I'll be her green 'Mora, blue baby Nebula! Make her blue, Mommy! Make her blue!"

Gamora laughs, lifting her little girl up in her arms to stop her shouting, and Elspeth becomes a fit of giggles as Gamora dips her back until she's upside down, hair brushing the ground, then brings her rightside up again.

She doesn't know if she has the heart to tell Elspeth that she might get a green baby brother, if not a green baby sister.

It's just too cute, her drawing the parallels between Gamora and Nebula. Elspeth's skin is a bit lighter than Gamora's, but still very green.

The genetic contribution her Terran father provided just led to her being a lighter, paler shade of green than Gamora.

Any future children Gamora and Peter had would be much of the same. She didn't know how to tell Elspeth that if she did end up getting a baby sister, her sister was gonna end up looking a lot like her, not like aunt Nebula.

So she didn't tell her. Elspeth probably wouldn't even remember making the request in two weeks, much less months down the line when the child was was actually born.

Still, it was so unbearably cute.

By the time they find out the baby is indeed going to be a girl, Gamora is definitely showing. Now, when her hand goes to her stomach, it's not out of habit, it's because it's genuinely much more comfortable supporting her pregnant belly with her hand underneath it.

As of the moment, Gamora is the only one who can feel the baby moving. She's far enough along that the fetus has developed past the fluttering movements and doing somersaults inside her- now Gamora can feel very specific movements of limbs that they've been able to see on the sonic imaging at the prenatal doctor appointments (usually it was just Peter and Gamora at these appointments, but they took Elspeth last time because she asked to come, and she absolutely loved all the attention of the med techs fawning over her and giving her a sucker- and asked if she could have a picture of the baby too for herself, which the doctors gladly gave her a small printed out version of the imaging).

Elspeth touches Gamora's stomach an awful lot now, always trying to feel for the baby kicking, even though Gamora has told her that it probably will be another month before anyone but Gamora will be able to. She remembered how disappointed Peter was during her pregnancy with Elspeth when he found out it would be over six months before he would be able to place his hand on Gamora's belly and feel their baby kicking.

It seems like their daughter has taken up the mantle of fastidiously waiting and checking with hopeful hands. Gamora doesn't mind. It's adorable.

Elspeth, Drax, and Mantis are all playing a game when Peter and Gamora come back from the doctor's that day. Their daughter drops everything when she sees them standing in the doorway and runs over to them, following like a little duckling as they move to the table so Gamora can sit down and rest her feet.

"How'd it go? How's the baby?" Elspeth asks the question to Gamora's stomach rather than either of her parents.

Peter grins. "You wanna tell her, or should I?"

"Tell me what?"

"It's a girl," Gamora says. "You're having a little baby sister."

For a moment, she's afraid she broke their daughter, cause Elspeth's eyes just keep widening and widening in absolute silence, checking both Gamora and Peter's expressions like it might be a prank, or just something too good to believe, but when it finally sinks in, she's over the moon.

"Thank you thank you thank you!" Elspeth shouts, smothering both of her parents in kisses, and kissing Momma's belly for the baby just like Daddy did every morning.

Today's baby day. Elspeth's so excited. Even though she has to stay home with Auntie Mantis and everybody else while Mommy and Daddy go to the hospital to have the baby.

She wanted to go to, but Daddy said it might be hours and hours, and that having babies was kinda hard sometimes, so it would help Momma if she said good luck and stayed home with the rest of the family.

Elspeth knows she can be distracting sometimes with all her energy- uncle Rocket always said something like 'keep the kiddo out of my fur' when he's trying to focus on something and concentrate really hard.

So she promises to be good for Aunt Mantis so Momma can concentrate on having a baby.

Plus, Daddy said he'd call right away whenever her sister was born so she could come to the hospital and meet her.

Even Peter looks exhausted greeting Elspeth and co at the hospital entrance, but he still has the energy to lean down and pick Elspeth up after she runs into his arms to give him a bear hug. He settles the 6 year old on his hip and carries her down the hall, to the elevator and up to Gamora's hospital room.

That doesn't last long though.

She squirms out of his arms in the elevator (instead of just asking to be put down), wanting to walk herself. She runs ahead to Gamora's hospital room, counting out the room numbers aloud one by one until she reaches 311. When she finds it though, Elspeth hovers in the doorway, standing there all shy.

Momma's in bed, and she looks even more exhausted than dad does.

Her hair's all messy and shiny and wet like after a hard fight, and Elspeth thinks wow, having babies must be really hard.

Momma's holding a blanket in her arms, smiling down at it.

"Hey baby, come meet your little sister," Gamora beckons her closer once she sees her daughter wavering in the doorway. Elspeth zooms over to the hospital bed, but Peter takes a little longer to get there.

He picks Elspeth up and helps her to sit on the bed next to Mommy and see the blanket in her arms.

Elspeth leans in, with wide eyes, looking closer. She looks curious and reverent at the same time, like she's waiting with bated breath, but when she leans in and sees what her mother's actually holding in her arms, Elspeth frowns, screwing up her face all funny in confusion. "I thought she was gonna be blue," she sounds more than a little disgruntled as she peers at the little green baby her momma was holding.

Gamora laughs, kissing her scrunched up little forehead, and Elspeth loses the troubled crease at the familiar and comforting gesture of affection.

"No, she looks like you when you were born, little girl," Peter tells her, bopping her on the nose. He's reclaimed his seat beside Gamora's bed, leaning over the side so Elspeth is effectively nestled between them, his arms almost wrapped around her and Gamora.

The bed is a little crowded now, with their four person family, but Gamora doesn't mind. She loves how crowded her bed is right now. Feels like home.

Elspeth looks between her mother and father, and down at the little green baby. It's asleep, and kinda gurgly, and blowing spit bubbles at the corner of her mouth.

She doesn't know why the baby doesn't wake up, because it's been asleep for months, and she'd be bouncing off the walls like Daddy always says if she was asleep for months and this was her first chance to wake up.

But Momma looks exhausted and even Dad looks tired, so maybe having babies was hard work for everyone involved.

She's glad she stayed home and didn't have to help out then. If havin' babies was that exhausting.

Maybe having babies was hard work for the baby too, and that's why she's still asleep right now. Her little sister needed sleep.

"Who is she?" Elspeth asks, which was an awful weird way of asking what to call her baby sister. Wanting to know what her name is.

"Say hello to your little sister Meredith."

Even though Peter just wants to hold Meredith nonstop, he's content at letting her rest in Gamora's arms for a large amount of time, knowing she finds comfort in sleeping with their daughter in her arms.

Elspeth is enamoured with her big brown eyes when she finally opens them, and she tries to blow raspberries on her chubby little cheeks like daddy blows raspberries on her tummy, but she doesn't seem to be able to quite get it right. She'll have to ask him how to do it later, she wants to be funny and blow raspberries for the baby too.

Instead she moves onto just hovering over her sisters face, up and down, and petting her head all nice and soft like, being very gentle cause she knows babies are breakable and you have to be careful with 'em when they're all new. No roughhousing.

"Momma! Momma!" Elspeth gasps, hitting Gamora's arm to get her attention. Even though they're still in Gamora's bed, so she's literally right there.

"What is it?" She asks, humoring her daughter even though Elspeth is literally in her lap right now and staring down at Meredith, so it's not like it's a hard guess as to what this was about.

"She smiled at me!" Elspeth beams, and okay, yup, her heart is officially melting.

They had such a sweet little girl. She was gonna be the best big sister ever.

Peter was planning on taking Elspeth home that night, doing the whole bedtime routine, and tucking her in tight before coming back and spending the night in the pullout armchair that was actually incredibly comfy.

But then Elspeth fell asleep all curled up in Gamora's side, and he couldn't just wake her up when she was sleeping like an angel.

It was something like 7 PM when she fell asleep, and Peter decided he'd wait for her to wake up and then take her home whenever that happened to be.

Gamora had been intermittently dozing in and out, and it's very clearly the middle of the night when she awakens this time.

Her husband is asleep and softly snoring, his head resting on his arm on the side of her bed.

Meredith is a warm weight still cradled in her arms, and appears to be sleeping like her father.

Now Elspeth- Elspeth is awake. Still curled up and pressed into her mother's side, and looks to have been awake for some time. She's so calm and quiet though, much more subdued than the rambunctious child she usually is.

Her face is hovering right over Meredith's sleeping head, softly cooing at her and brushing her hair.

"It's okay you're not blue, baby," Elspeth assures her, whispering to her little sister. "I'll still love you anyway."