Rediscovering Home

Hiraeth No More

Slight warning for blood, death, and violence in this chapter! Read at your own risk!

3rd Person POV

Walking Time Skip

"How much further do we gotta go...?" Rocket complained as he was perched on Groot's shoulder sitting on Xay's back since he got exhausted from walking through the winding, maze-like tunnels 3 hours ago.

"Yer guess's as good as mine!" JJ snapped as she rubbed her eyes from having to focus on a bright trail in the dark before shaking her head to focus back on the trail to lead everyone and they all looked just as tired from the very short break they got before.

Towards the back of the group, Gora's spines dragged on the ground a bit and she ended up tripping on one, making her fall chin first to the ground with a pained mewl that made JJ want to turn back to check on her but she stubbornly kept facing forward to keep walking ahead.

Rocket scrambled down from Groot's shoulder to help her back up but she gently tugged her spines away from him as she kept walking with her antennae drooping dejectedly.

Rocket looked at her with a rare look of concern on his face so he scampered up to Ash and leaped onto her shoulder startling her a bit before he muttered,

"C'n ya talk to her?" Motioning with his head toward JJ and she raised an eyebrow at him before commenting,

"In case you didn't notice I'm not exactly on her good side either right now. Why don't you ask Zaiavira?"

"Cause she don't know what JJ's gone through."

"And I do?" Ash questioned before trying to reason, "We have one shared experience together and it wasn't exactly peak 'family time...'"

Referring to their kidnapping by Thanos before spending five years in time comas before Rocket argued,

"So you had yer first fight? Right o' passage and all that wi' family ain't it? 'portant thing is to work through whatever issues ya got and make up."

"Have you ever fought with her like that?"

"Eh when we fight, she mos'ly gives me the silent treatment fer a couple'a days and then all goes back ta normal sooooo nah not really."

"Then maybe that's what we should do now." Ash muttered as she shook her shoulder a bit so Rocket could jump back onto Groot's unoccupied shoulder and she could fall back and stay at the back of the group for maximum distance between her and JJ.

Rocket growled a bit at being brushed off and was about to pounce back onto Ash but Bruce held up a hand to stop and whisper to him,

"Maybe let them have their space from each other for now?"

"Don't they need to be working together to save this whole place?" Dylan questioned gently butting into the conversation.

"Yeah but we can't expect them to just bottle up their feelings to deal with later to add on top of the stress of saving the planet."

"That would also most likely block their ability to fully connect to one another if their emotions are clouding their judgments." Zaruk jumped into the growing discussions between the grownups before Zaiavira questioned,

"What are we all whispering about?"

Making them all quietly chorus 'nothing' before drifting apart making Zaiavira shrug and comment,

"Go figure."

Back with Ash, she was staying toward the back of the group thinking back to JJ's words about her being so stoic in the face of hearing about how Gora, her and her family's Granaphoran guardian who was supposed to dedicate her life to protecting them, had run away when their mother needed her most leaving her to die alone trying to protect their home that now they needed to save.