This will be a series of five one-shots. The story is complete but I haven't decided on a posting schedule. It's probably going to be about one a week.

I'm not sure how this pairing came about in my mind. But I'm quite fond of odd pairings like this and wanted to write a short story for them while I worked through my writers block for one of my other stories.

This is pretty much canon up until after Endgame, so don't read if you don't want spoilers. But seriously who hasn't seen Endgame?

Bruce finds himself smiling as he watches the odd pair walking away, rounding a corner and leaving his sight completely. He thinks about what Tony would say. About his adorably innocent protégé and the bloodthirsty daughter of Thanos.

He would have hidden his concern with humor, his confusion with sarcasm, and shown his approval with mocking.

And he would have.

Approved that is. At least, Bruce thinks he would have. Tony had developed a camaraderie with the vengeful woman during their time adrift together. Even after Tony had distanced himself from the Avengers he kept in touch with Nebula. And she was one of the few people he trusted.

Even more surprising, the same could be said for her. She sought his counsel whenever she needed it and doted on Morgan after she was born.

Morgan for her part was enraptured by Nebula, lovingly calling her Auntie 'Blue' like her father had. In the years following the Snap, Bruce had only ever seen Nebula smile around the young girl.

Bruce on the other hand had been slow to warm to her. Nebula didn't exactly make it easy with her cold stare and standoffish ways.

When he'd expressed his reservations about her to Tony. He had told him, "None of us can change the past." He said with the weight of their still all to poignant failure coloring every word. "All she wants is a family. She'll fight for family." He'd gotten a far-off look after, remembering what made him so sure about her he assumed.

Bruce had accepted Tony's answer and he'd never been given a reason to doubt her. Not even when her father had reentered their lives.

After Tony's funeral, Nebula had sought out Peter. Bruce hadn't meant to eavesdrop. He'd been looking for a quiet corner to remember his lost friend when he stumbled upon them. Sitting close together on a bench in Tony's workshop, facing away from the door he had been walking past.

"He spoke of you often," Nebula had told Peter in her slightly robotic voice. She didn't look at him and ignored it when he sniffled and hastily wiped his face. "He would have done it if only to return you to this world." Her words were definite and sure, proving how well she knew the eccentric man. Because Bruce thought the exact same thing.

Peter's voice came out thick and weak, "I failed him. I failed everybody. He's gone. I should've done something. Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, everyone lost him. And- and- he had a da-daughter," he finished brokenly, shoulders shaking with his stifled sobbing.

"Morgan," Nebula informed him gently, her tone soft and echoing the reverence she held for the girl. And then she told Peter something even he didn't know. "If she were to be born a boy, they had planned to name her Peter." Bruce believed it to be true because he'd never known her to lie.

Nebula attempted to rub his back awkwardly, unused to comforting people, when his sobs intensified.

"There, there," she murmured clumsily. A snort came from Peter, amusement breaking through, his despair fleetingly minimally.

They fell silent. Bruce had thought that was the end of it. But as he went to step away Nebula chose to speak once more.

"If I had the chance to get my sister back, I would gladly give my life to do so." Bruce and the others had heard about her sister traveling with her from the past to help stop Thanos. Unfortunately, she had been sent away with Tony's Snap. She had technically been part of his army. If she had stayed, it might have endangered the timeline even further from what they had done. Nebula had been inconsolable. Only leaving her room at the Avengers compound when Rocket reminded her that Morgan and Pepper had lost Tony. It brought a fresh wave of grief over her- losing a man who'd she'd become close with- but the task of helping them grieve helped her bury her own. "Trust me when I say that there is no easier sacrifice than to give your life for the ones that you love."

Peter released a shaky breath. He'd stopped sobbing but Bruce could tell it wasn't far away. He leaned forward, resting his arms against his knees, letting out a shaky breath.

"Being stuck on that ship for so long must have driven Mr. Stark crazy," Peter mused.

Nebula snorted this time, "Yes. I considered venting the oxygen many times."

Peter laughed and said something else, asking a question that Bruce didn't catch, having already begun to retreat. Returning the privacy, he'd stolen from them.

It had not been unusual to see the two together after that. No one was positive when it evolved into something more. But whenever Nebula was on earth, she spent her time with Parker, who had thrown himself into the Avengers with a determined vigor that concerned the rest of them.

Nebula was the one who managed to slow him down.

He had caught on some time ago that Nebula would play up her ignorance of Terran life to Peter. She had done the same thing with Tony. Whereas it was meant to make Peter feel compelled to show her everything earth had to offer, for Tony is was meant to frustrate and annoy him.

The day Nebula had pretended not to understand how the toaster worked and the proceeding three hours of fruitless instruction from Tony never failed to make him chuckle.

Peter had taken her to the movies, carnivals, all across Queens, and anything he could think of. This just happened to have the added benefit of reminding him that he was a kid. But if one were to point that out to Nebula, she would show complete bewilderment.

Bruce likes to think doing those things with Nebula, got him back some of what he'd lost. Some of what he'd thrown away out of guilt.

Every time Nebula left, Peter lost some of that friendly neighborhood Spiderman spark she managed to bring back.

Now she was back for Peter's graduation. He'd be attending NYU in the fall, thanks to Nebula's insistence. Peter had confided to him that he was not planning on going to college even though Pepper would be paying for it in memory of Tony (Not that the kid didn't already get a dozen scholarships). He said he wanted to focus on the Avengers. Bruce felt no shame in immediately 'tattling' (Parker's word not his) on him to Nebula. Yes, he'd spent far longer than he would have liked- pushing the bonds of his control over his Hulk side- explaining to her what college was and why it was so important that Peter go. But in the end, she accepted the fact and spoke with Peter.

He didn't know what she said to him, but it worked.

Coincidently, around the same time Peter decided to go to NYU, Nebula announced that she would be relocating to earth permanently. The Guardians weren't exactly thrilled with that decision, but they seemed to understand it was what she wanted.

Remembering the smile on their faces before they disappeared from his sight, he thought it was what they both needed.