Title: Bleeding Heart

Fandom: MCU.

Pairing: Mantis/Nebula.

Rating: G.

Words: 700

Summary: "I like you, too," Mantis says, quick and quiet. "I like you a lot," she adds, and then she smiles: big and bright and beautiful.

Content: Post-IW get together.

bleeding heart —

expressing your emotions openly; extreme empathy.

When Mantis first touches her, it's an accident: a hand curled around the crook of an arm, thrown out in the last second to stop Nebula from plummeting to the ground. The two of them are standing close, huddled together in the midst of one of Quill's gatherings. They've been that way all evening—Nebula uncharacteristically social.

Mantis halts at the contact, her breath hitching as she watches Nebula right herself. Her eyes are wide, unblinking. Her antennas alight with a gentle, rosy glow. "You—" she starts, but stops as Nebula looks down at her, suddenly shy.

She pulls her hand back with a quick movement, and as Nebula opens her mouth to ask what, Mantis turns and flees. Nebula watches her go, confused.

And then, she follows.

[]

"Open up!"

Nebula's voice is calm yet commanding, her hand banging lightly on the capsule she knows Mantis is hiding in. This ship is like a home, now. A place Nebula knows inside and out. Somewhere she'd come to in the aftermath of her father's defeat—to recuperate, she'd said. A place to stay until she could return to something that resembled normal.

(She's had the opportunity more than once. She still hasn't taken it).

There's a pause, followed by a click and a hiss, a door pushing forward to reveal Mantis sitting on the other side. She looks worried, almost, as she stares up at Nebula. Looks anxious.

"What's wrong?" Nebula asks. "Why'd you leave?"

Mantis blinks. "When I touched you," she says, "I felt—I felt..." She trails off, stares up at Nebula with big, wide eyes.

"What?"

"You like me," Mantis says, and Nebula almost takes a step back, her face hardening in a matter of seconds: the worried expression disappearing like a survival tactic, as if the act of hiding her emotions is a well-practiced art.

"I—"

Mantis shakes her head quickly, cuts her off. "I like you, too," she says, quick and quiet. Her hand lifts, hovers in the space between them, as if she wants to touch but isn't sure if she can. "I like you a lot," she adds, and then she smiles: big and bright and beautiful, and Nebula has to swallow around the sudden tightness of her throat. Isn't used to feeling the uncomfortably pleasant sensation that Mantis inspires in her.

"Then why run?" she asks, because she has to. Mantis' smile falters for a second, but it doesn't disappear.

"Because they will joke," she says, simple and innocent. "They were watching, and I... I..."

Mantis trails off before reaching out to touch Nebula. She goes for her hand, their fingers curling together as the light from Mantis' antennas brighten. Mantis gasps again, louder, this time. Happier. The sound full of unveiled awe. Nebula stares as Mantis feels her emotions, as she lets it overtake her, overwhelm her.

Nebula waits, but Mantis doesn't pull away, not entirely. Instead, she stands properly, looks at Nebula's face for a fleeting moment before sliding her hand up to curl around Nebula's shoulder, fingers twisting in the collar of her jacket as she darts forward and presses her mouth to Nebula's: quick and clumsy and experimental but enthusiastic and endearing all the same.

Nebula's eyes remain open, her entire body still before she slowly starts to relax, the tension disappearing gradually as Mantis presses herself closer. Keeps kissing her gently. She curls an arm around Mantis' waist, lets her eyes shut right before they pull apart, and keeps them that way as they stand close, bodies brushing each other's.

The act of intimacy isn't one Nebula is accustomed to—is so far from her norm that it makes her uncomfortable. But the discomfort is drowned out by adoration, by the feelings she's been burying since boarding the ship.

"Is that—" Mantis starts to ask, but the question is cut off as Nebula captures her mouth a second time, this kiss more confident than the last. Less experimental but still on the chaste side. As if she doesn't want to rush it.

And there's no need to. Nebula doubts she'll leave anytime soon.

They have all the time they need.