And the Snap Echoes

Space Forge

"Thor, how long until we get there?"

"That's the fifth time you're asking that question in the past fifteen minutes."

"How do you guys even travel in space, dude? It's so boring."

"Well, we would've gotten there faster, But SOMEONE damaged the hyperdrive, and we can't go at lightspeed for long durations of time." Rocket snarled.

Tony ignored him. He had been enduring jabs for the entirety of the trip until now. Truth be told, he was really hurting on the inside. He and Nebula had done everything in their power to get back to Earth, but they had tried to keep the spaceship as intact as possible, keeping damage to a minimum. However, due to Thanos hurling Titan's moon at them, the ship had been slightly damaged on the exterior. They had tried to repair the damage before taking off, but they did not have sufficient parts, as they were not available on Earth.

Rocket simply failed to understand the helplessness part, instead choosing to taunt Tony every chance he got. And Tony was silently taking it all in. When they had hit some space turbulence due to Thanos-knows-what, Rocket had blamed it all on Tony, saying that he didn't know how to pilot the ship and had damaged the controls. When their left engine had momentarily failed, Tony was blamed again, this time for keeping the engines running for too long. When they'd jumped out of lightspeed abruptly, he was blamed again.

"JUST GIVE ME A BREAK!!"

He'd had enough of the rodent.

"I DON'T GO AROUND FLYING SPACECRAFTS EVERYDAY!! I DON'T KNOW THE TECHNICALITIES!!"

Rocket tried to interrupt, but Tony was on a roll.

"I DID THE BEST I COULD!! NEBULA AND I, WE DID EVERYTHING WE COULD DO TO ENSURE THAT THE SHIP WAS IN THE BEST CONDITION!! THANOS HIT US WITH A MOON FOR GOD'S SAKE!! HOW DO YOU EXPECT YOUR SHIP TO BE IN PRISTINE CONDITION THEN?!! YOU WERE OFF GOD-KNOWS-WHERE, TRYING TO HIDE FROM HIM!! YOU DIDN'T FACE HIM!! JUST ACCEPT THAT YOU'RE TRYING TO PIN YOUR FAULTS ON SOMEONE ELSE GODDAMNIT!! STOP BLAMING ME FOR EVERYTHING!!"

Rocket was speechless, but Thor replied.

"Stark, calm down. Rabbit doesn't know what he's saying." He looked at Rocket, almost as if signaling, "Apologize Now!"

"Hey, Stark," Rocket called out. "I'm sorry. For all my actions. I guess you're right. I was trying to run away, to hide from Thanos. And I guess that I love this ship a little too much, so much that I'll be willing to lash out at people who damage it even one bit. But I guess I should actually be thanking you for bringing it back in flying condition."

He continued.

"Thanos took away everything I had - Groot, Quill, Gamora, even Drax. And now, he's killed Nebula, who was the last guardian alongside me. And when someone does something like this, I get mad. Very mad. Thanos doesn't know what's coming for him. We're going to defeat him. Together."

Thor was smiling at Rocket, who was actually surprised that he was able to say something as deep as this. Usually, he was limited to war talk.

"Stark," Thor said. "I hope you understand what Rabbit's trying to say. We all get carried away in a bit of anger. Remember Ultron? I lashed out at you because you'd lost the sceptre? Remember the first time we met? In that jungle? When you were taking Loki? I thought you were wrong. I thought all of you were wrong. But now, I think that you guys are amongst the best in the entire universe. And I couldn't have asked for a better team. And if we fail in this mission, I'll be glad that I went down with the bravest people of today's generation."

You had to make it emotional, didn't you?" Tony asked, a small smile on his face. "Nobody's dying in this. No one except Thanos. We've all had our fair share of death. I think that's enough for one lifetime."