Starmora Week 2018
Day 4: Traditions

Better and brighter than before

"Well?" Gamora asked, downright giddy as she sat beside him on their bed. "Do you like it?"

She always got this childish excitement about her when she was able to present Peter with something from his homeworld or culture. And this one was really special- of course she always loved his reaction to bits and bobbles, and Peter always got so happy when she gave him something like a toy or book from his home planet, but those were just nondescript things. Special only because they came from earth. Things that were regular and normal and boring on Terra. Most of the time, when she gave him things, they were special only because they came from Terra. This, she knew, was something special on Terra. Not a normal everyday thing, this was a significant object that was only meant for romantic partners, not a toy originally meant for a child or a book people gave to friends or acquaintances. This wasn't something that just anyone could give to anyone. This was only between romantic partners. She was sure he'd love it.

But he still hadn't reacted yet. She hoped his lack of reaction was a good thing- that he was so quiet right now because of how much he loved it. She hoped that was it.

His silence dragged on as he stared wide eyed at the box in his hand, at the ring inside it.

Peter slowly lifted his eyes to hers, filled with emotion, and nodded. Gamora sighed with relief before a full on beam over took her features.

"Why don't you try it on?" She suggested. "Make sure it fits."

"Uh, you're supposed to put it on me," he said, handing her back the box.

She raised an eyebrow at that, but Peter was of course familiar with how to do Terran customs the right way.

She had to marvel at the craftsmanship as she took the ring out of the box. It was a simple metal band, but it was the engravings that really made it something worth looking at. Something about the interwoven pattern of the three looping and curving lines made it look so… complete. It wasn't enough to draw attention- to make him singled out as a target by pickpockets in bustling market place in some corner of the galaxy- but it was enough to be special.

She took his hand in hers, but he immediately pulled it away.

"Wrong one," Peter said, replacing his right hand with his left. "And it's this one," he added, wiggling his finger to indicate proper ring placement. His hand was shaking. Luckily, when she slid it on his finger, it fit like it was made just for him.

"You like it?" She asked again, though she knew he did with how emotional the gift made him.

"Gamora… of course I like it," he shook his head, almost incredulous at how that was an actual question she had to ask. "I love it. And I love you," Peter said before he kissed her oh so softly.

"Terrans have oddly specific traditions for ring placement," she noted, finding it interesting that not only did it matter which hand, but which finger, no less.

"Well, it's more about the reason for the ring that has all the traditions made for it. That's what's got all the weirdly specific traditions attached to it, not rings specifically. Yeah, there's tons of traditions or variations or whatever for it on earth. Everybody's got a different way to do it, or a different way you should do it. It's probably got the most traditions made up for it, now that I think of it. It's like, pretty much the defining thing for traditional. Man, humans are weird sometimes. All about the ceremony y'know. So it's not that we have specific traditions for ring placement. Rings are just part of the ceremony, that's where the real traditional stuff comes from. It's not about the ring, it's about what the ring means. That's where the tradition comes from."

Gamora tilted her head in confusion at the sudden infodump he just gave her. "I don't understand."

"What do you mean? What part?" Peter asked, knowing that earth culture can be confusing sometimes. Hell, it confused him to this day pretty dang often. Most of his understanding came from what he remembered from childhood, and music, of course. But even he knew what his ring finger was. Duh. He wasn't sure he remembered a lot more than that, to be honest. As an 8 year old, he wasn't exactly clear on the whole process. He'd watched enough rom-coms with his mom to have at least some of the more nuanced wedding tropes committed to memory.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

"Everything you just said. The meaning. What is it that actually has the traditions attached to it then?" Gamora furrowed her brow, pursing her lips and trying to figure out if she missed something. A different way to do it? And ceremony? There was so much he just said that didn't fit with all that she had tried to learn.

Peter blinked at her. Once, twice, three times. Then it dawned on him.

"Oh shit. You're not actually asking me, are you?"

Gamora looked at him, not quite warily, more like cautious as she regarded him. "I don't know," she responded carefully, not sure how to interpret this, though there had obviously been some sort of miscommunication. "Am I supposed to be asking you something?" She peered at him.

Peter utterly deflated all at once- his face fell, his shoulders slumped, everything about him looked so defeated by just one question. It was quite alarming.

"Gamora, why'd you get this ring for me?" More than anything, Peter sounded tired.

She didn't know what happened- he was so happy a second ago, so pleased with the present, and she thought she had managed to do something romantic and sweet for once, instead of leaving it all to Peter to be the romantic one in their relationship. He made romantic gestures all the time.

But it seemed like she really screwed up.

"… As a gift," she said cautiously. "I thought you'd like it. It's from… It's from earth. When I heard of the concept, I wanted to… track one down for you. I thought it would be a surprise and a spontaneous and romantic sweet thing like you always do for me. I thought you'd be happy and like it…"

"And what exactly do you mean by when you'd heard of the concept? What concept do you think rings are supposed to be?"

He was clearly still trying to suss out what had happened.

Gamora lowered her brow, thinking carefully before she responded. "I thought it was a tradition to present one to your significant other. Different colors for different years. Gold, silver, brass," she said, motioning to the one on Peter's hand. "I read that year one is traditionally a gold ring, and year two traditionally represented by silver. Sometimes inset with Terran stones, sometimes not," she frowned, remembering the confusion and all the contradictory information (what little there was available) regarding whether stones were necessary or not. "I know it's a little early, since brass isn't supposed to be until year five, but it was the only one I could find. That I could find and verify actually was from your home planet. I didn't think you'd mind. Besides, it's a little late to be giving you a one year anniversary gift now anyways. But I thought… these were things you usually present a romantic partner with, no? Are they not gifts for significant others?"

"Not quite," Peter said nervously, fidgeting with the ring on his finger, twisting it back and forth. "On earth, it's how you propose to someone. For marriage."

He wasn't looking at her- just staring at the floor, jiggling his knee.

A long and uncomfortable silence followed that, neither of them saying a word.

"Oh," Gamora said simply, without a clear reaction, like he'd just told her about the weather. "I was unaware of that."

Peter nodded with a forced smile, trying to act all casual about it, so he could just brush it off like it was nothing. Pretend it didn't matter to him.

He didn't want to make a big deal out of it. It wasn't her fault.

"Listen, it's not a big deal," he said with a tight throat. "You didn't know. We can just forget this ever happened. Don't worry about it. It's fine," he reassured her, trying to hide any hurt or disappointment that he was barely concealing as is.

Peter started to pull the ring off his finger, but Gamora stopped him, stilled his hand, before he could take it off.

He looked up at her, his expression so bare, so vulnerable.

"If I knew you would've been this eager to marry me, I would've asked you a long time ago," Gamora said. That earned her a smile.

He still shook his head, a quiet chuckle on his breath. "No, come on, you don't have to. Accidental proposals happen. It doesn't have to be a big thing. It's fine. We're good. How we are. We're good." Despite his words in protest, he didn't go back to trying to take the ring off.

"Hey. No," Gamora told him firmly. "How was I supposed to know you'd ever want to do that with me? How am I even supposed to- to broach the subject with you?" She almost exclaimed, barely managing to not throw up her hands to complete the sentiment. "And you never- it's not like you ever hinted at that. How am I supposed to ask the Peter Quill if he ever thinks marriage type thoughts? How many consecutive years of one night stands have you had?" She asked him pointedly, but he was pretty sure it was a rhetorical question.

"Hey!" Peter whined. "That was before I met you!"

"Yes, but it still doesn't point to you being favorable to the idea of marriage. I didn't think you'd actually, you know, want to. If I had asked." She kinda petered out at the end there, pursing her lips. She had this incredibly adorable, almost insecure look on her face, and he probably should have done something about that- something comforting. Instead of, like, the exact opposite. Which is exactly what he did.

"Why wouldn't I?! We're basically already married. We've been living together for years, saving the galaxy how many times, and we- we raised a freaking tree! For all intents and purposes, we are married. So why wouldn't I actually want to marry you?" The only word to describe his voice was fervent. And she couldn't lie- she much preferred the almost determined look in his eye to the hurt and trying to hide it one from before.

Gamora actually blushed, looking down at her lap.

"It's… it's not like that. I just didn't think you'd really care that much one way or the other. Like you said, it wouldn't be any different from how we are now. How we've always been. I didn't think you'd care one way or the other, being actually married or not. I didn't think it'd matter to you," she admitted almost shyly.

"Well, it does," Peter pouted, completely indignant. It was kinda adorable.

"So are you saying yes?" She smiled, though he'd already made his answer apparent. She could stand to hear him accept out loud.

"I thought I already did!"

"I wasn't asking before. I am asking now," Gamora informed him coolly, or at least tried. But she really couldn't hide the happiness seeping out her smile. But that was probably okay. Seeing the spark of laughter in his eyes, she knew it was okay.

Peter raised his eyebrows like he was challenging her.

"And what exactly are you asking?" He said with a sly smile, under the guise of clearing up a miscommunication, but they both knew better than that.

She knew his smile much better than that. Still, she could say it. If he wanted to hear it. It wasn't like that was a problem or anything. He just had to go and be all cute and flirty about it.

"I am asking you to enter into a marriage. With me. Actually married. Officially."

Peter smiled and tilted his head side to side, pretending like he actually had to think about it. "Yeah, okay," he agreed easily not two seconds later.

She couldn't help but laugh.

"Take the ring off and give it back. I want to put it back on you again," Gamora said, ordered more like it, practically brimming with excitement. If they weren't already sitting down on the edge of their bed, he was sure she'd be bouncing on her toes right now. He could barely handle the way her whole face was lit up, grinning like a kid, as she eagerly demanded the ring back so she could… put it back on him?

"Uh, what?" Peter asked, opting to give her a weird look instead of what she told him to do.

"So I can put it on your finger," she said, looking at him like he was a dunce. Like that was what he was confused about, instead of everything else she just said.

"Why?" He asked, still so confused by her request.

"I didn't know the significance of it the first time! I wanna do it now that I know what it means," Gamora whined, quite petulantly at that. God, he loved her.

He twisted the ring off and dropped it back in her hand.

Gamora stared at it blankly for a second, like she didn't expect him to do it or something. Then she raised her head, smiling at him with something sweet and shy.

"This hand," she said, lifting his left hand to rest on her own.

"Mhmm," he confirmed.

She counted out to his third finger, his ring finger, and tapped it, looking up at him for permission. He raised it for her, and Gamora smiled and slipped the engagement ring on his finger. If he felt her hands shaking a little, he didn't say anything. He just kissed her.

Of course they cuddled when they went to bed that night. They cuddled every night. This one wasn't any different. At least in that regard.

"Aw, you were so cute!" Gamora just couldn't get over it, almost squealing as she kicked her feet on the bed like she needed to punch a pillow or something to bare his cuteness. "You were so disappointed at not marrying me!" She exclaimed with glee, honestly giggling at him.

"Hey, don't be mean," Peter pouted.

"I'm not. I'm being excited," she told him. And okay, he couldn't stay mad at that.

Gamora twisted her fingers in his curls, wrapping it around her fingers, right before she let it go and started again. Since they'd laid down to bed she had been alternating between playing with his hair and tracing secrets into his skin with every dalliance her hands had with the rest of him. His cheeks, shoulders, arm, chest, she went back and forth dragging her touch over him, then back to his hair again. He loved being touched by her.

He loved this quiet closeness they were able to share as Gamora wore that lazy, loving smile at the continued contact that warmed him to the core. The brush of her fingertips already had his skin tingling.

She had a habit of drawing looping patterns of her language on his skin. Zehoberis didn't have a phonetic written language, and she was too young when she was taken to remember what the concepts were attached to the symbols that had faded in her mind with more than 25 years out of practice. But she remembered designs, she'd told him. Shapes and lines, how they interacted with each other, even if she didn't remember what they meant.

He'd noticed early on in their relationship that she always seemed to trace the same specific patterns onto his skin, but he didn't bring it up. He knew she'd tell him what they were when she was ready. From the look in her eye, he knew they were something special.

"What do they say?" He'd asked when she finally told him much, much later that her fingertips had been tracing her native language onto him, burning the memory into his skin.

"I don't know," Gamora smiled sweetly, sadly. "But they look lovely."

"You wanna marry me so bad," she murmured, her hand drifting from his curls to his temple, then trailing down his cheek with her soft touch.

At first his instinct was to deny it- not the wanting to marry her part, but the so bad part- or just try to minimize it somehow out of embarrassment.

But the way she said it… it wasn't a question, but there was a lot of uncertainty and insecurity in the statement. Like she was afraid he was going to say no.

And he realized that she really did want this as much as he did. On her own.

It wasn't like he doubted her, when she said she honestly did want to marry him after the whole accidental proposal thing. Cause he didn't doubt her (after they cleared it up). It was just… it didn't really hit him until this moment.

Peter gave a weak shrug. "I do," he said quietly, not looking at her as a blush spread across his cheeks.

She tilted up his chin so she could see his eyes, wanting to make sure he really got the message.

"I wanna marry you so bad too," Gamora murmured, cupping his cheek. Then they were just smiling at each other like nervous lovestruck teenagers. Peter looked so happy as he laid his hand over hers and closed his eyes, exhaling something like pure adoration, and she felt like her heart was going to burst.

The rest of the night was filled with warm whispers of love and snuggles and sweet kisses, cause hell yeah.

They just got engaged.

~FIN~

AN: Poor Gamora... she's always researching Terran stuff for Peter and it doesn't always go well. Most of the Galaxy doesn't care about Terrans as much as she does :'(

Her Terran loves her too, though.