headcanon 4
after five years of being each others' only family, when rocket sees nebula (2014) arrive on the quantum platform, he can tell something is off. sure, the luphomoid doesn't broadcast her thoughts the way other people do (especially these frickin' terrans) but he's developed the ability to pick up on the nuances of her body language and expressions. the other avengers are freaking out about nat (and yeah, sure, it's sad, but he and nebs never made gamora's death and all their collective loss in the snap anyone else's problem, did they?) but rocket notices that the tension in nebula's body is different from what he's used to. he knows nebula's i am excited to fight tension, her i am irritable and cranky today tension, her i didn't know i could miss anything but i miss my sister tension, her my implants are causing me pain tension. but this tension is different from all the others. right now, she reminds him of the nebula he'd met on ego: all bundled-up hostility and electric resentment, without a frickin' friend in the galaxy.
he makes a face at her. someone else in the circle might think it's some kind of weird "animal" expression - eyebrows raised, lips grimacing, ears forward-facing and attentive - but nebs knows what it means. it's a face that says dude, are you okay? what the fuck happened out there? you're actin frickin weird. nebula doesn't even blink at him, doesn't even look at him. doesn't seem to recognize him at all.
the other avengers argue out their grief, leaving the platform without a second look to move their mourning to the lakeside. nebs takes her cue from them and disappears, and rocket's like, something's wrong with blue. gotta make sure she's okay. she's his only crew, after all.
stark calls out from the lab. "i'm adding the stones to the gauntlet," he tells rocket. βi could use you and banner there as our other two resident geniuses. just to make sure nothing goes wrong." what the fuck is rocket gonna do if something goes wrong? it's a stupid request. his eyes trail the path nebula took when she left the platform. "pretty sure you science bros can handle it without me," rocket says, turning to follow her.
"you're the one who pointed out i'm only a genius on earth," stark reminds him. "c'mon, pom poko. go get banner and let's do this."
"apparently you're also only funny on earth, 'cause i don't get that reference," rocket says, rolling his eyes. but he grimaces, and reluctantly redirects his feet so he can retrieve banner from the edge of the lake.
