amayabikuni:

batmanisagatewaydrug:

batmanisagatewaydrug:

good: Nebula is gay

great: Nebula has a girlfriend

fucking fantastic: Nebula is in a relationship with Mantis and Valkyrie, they’re a big gay space disaster but they’re cute and love each other a lot

so Nebula and Mantis are Good because they have no social skills but in, like, opposite directions, right? Nebula’s instinct in any new situation is to lean against the wall scowling and acting like she’s too scary to give a shit, because if you’re mean and scary nobody cares if you don’t know the rules and holy shit she doesn’t know the rules. she doesn’t know how to be Anything except what Thanos made her and she hates it, but it’s easier to just snarl at anyone who gets too close than try to learn all their stupid rules.

except. except. Mantis wants to run headfirst into everything. she wants to say hello, touch things, experience all the good and bad the galaxy outside of Ego has to offer. and Nebula wants to follow her, because being with Mantis makes her chest ache so bad that at first she thought something was going wrong with her cybernetics. also because the world is full of dicks, and sometimes it helps if Mantis has someone a little scary at her side to make dicks behave. Nebula is happy to do that too, because she’s not really sure what the point of her life is anymore but keeping the smile on Mantis’ face is as good an option as any. maybe better. 

she just likes her so much, more than her stupid emotionally stunted brain will ever be able to form words for – but then, she doesn’t have to, does she? Mantis feels what Nebula feels for her every time they bump elbows squeezing past each other in the tight confines of the ship, or bashfully take each other’s hands, or when Mantis presses her first exploratory kiss to Nebula’s cheek. Nebula’s gone still, one full-body tense muscle, which might discourage anyone who couldn’t feel the terrified ecstatic flustered brain-flashing joy sparkling through her entire body. 

neither of them knows how to relationship, really, and they’re lacking in good role models, but they’re figuring it out in fits and starts. 

enter Valkyrie. 

bisexual space disaster meets angry space lesbian. Nebula sees a lot of nigh-indestructible Asgardian swagger and the skills to back it up; Valkyrie sees a tight-wound badass who who needs to relax. the interest is, as they say, mutual. Mantis is supportive; she and Nebula both missed the lesson on monogamy-as-desirable-norm, and why shouldn’t she encourage her girlfriend to pursue something that’s obviously holding her interest?

 Nebula and Valkyrie are an emotional shitshow, and both of them are determined to pretend that there are actual feelings behind the weird, rough sex they’re having. Valkyrie is relationship-phobic to put it lightly, and she’s convinced herself that Nebula is the worst possible person to ease herself back into emotional commitment with. she’s got baggage to rival Valkyrie’s own, she never talks about her feelings, she already has a girlfriend who’s a bug. so what if Valkyrie can’t stop flirting, can’t stop trying to get Nebula to open up, thinks for days about every little bit of vulnerability she coaxes out like it’s the best haul in history? these aren’t feelings. obviously. 

this might have dragged on forever (maybe almost literally; Valkyrie is thousands of years young and who knows what all those modifications have done for Nebula’s aging?) is Mantis hadn’t intervened. she knew how Nebula felt, and it took all of three seconds to be sure Valkyrie felt the same way. (well, three seconds and finding an excuse to bump into Valkyrie long enough to touch her. it was VERY subtle.)

(it wasn’t.)

Don’t forget Valkryie getting super, SUPER drunk as hell. When Mantis gently tries to ask her girlfriend’s girlfriend if she is okay, Val starts drunk crying, smooshes her face and does the whole “I shouldnt have drunk so much?? I cant protect her” bit. Nebula short circuited for a second watching that