The kiss had been incredible, not exactly the setting or the situation he had dreamt about on several different occasions, but it was still enough for him. Peter had learned a long time ago he'd take any amount of Rich offered and years ago it had been just enough platonic love to keep him sane. Their friendship, their bond, forged through fire and turmoil, surviving literal death and pointless fighting and yet still somehow unbroken, the metaphorical string that kept them tethered together remained attached.
He wanted to get angry about Rich's response though, he would not take the blame for being cautious. He might put on airs and act the seasoned mature man when it came to the two of them, but he was still a person. He could still have his heart broken and he did everything he could to protect it from Rich. Loving someone so fiercely but knowing when not to push, it took both great strength and restraint. He never wanted to lose Rich's friendship, not that he ever thought the man would leave his side over a crush, but things could have been different. Their bond could have shifted.
Now he felt like an idiot and a laugh leaves him, resting his head against Rich's as his body shakes. " I hate you. I'm still in the prime of my youth. " A lie, they were both old soldiers . . . it was better late than never he supposed.
" We've been idiots, haven't we? " He finally asks, blue eyes rising to meet Rich's gaze and he leans in to capture one more kiss on the lips before breathing in harshly and moving his mouth to trail down Rich's jaw, peppering kisses in a long line along the sharp stubble lined edge. He hoped every kiss translated fully into how he was feeling. Relief, eagerness, happiness, absolute devotion? How the flark could he even begin to express what this revelation meant to him? How do you tell someone the extent of your feelings when you've died for one another? No love could really top that and yet he tried with each kiss, reaching his neck and immediately burying his face there and inhaling.
" Rich. " His voice comes out muffled and he kisses at the man's neck and just because he could, he shifts tactics nipping at the same spot he kissed and then eagerly sucking on the spot, his body suddenly pressing tightly against his best friend. " On earth they call it going steady, is that what we're doing? " He asks, one hand reaching up to card through dark hair while he does his best to plant kisses beneath the hem of his shirt where the collarbone was. Damn clothing.
" Seems a tad juvenile for us. We already love bombed one another and people visit our flarking memorial as a tourist attraction. We're our own ridiculous tragic love story already. Boyfriend is not the word I'd use to describe you. " Not that Peter wasn't itching to take Rich out on dates or hold his hand or do other stupid romantic things with him like other couples do, but he still remained sure that dating felt too casual for them.
Another harsh breath later and he's pulling away, beaming with newfound excitement as he pecks at Rich's lips yet again. " I love you. There I'm saying it again. No war mongering planet, no black hole, no exploding supernova can stop me from saying it. I love you and I resent the fact that I wasted so many years pretending I was okay with just being your best friend. " This time it's him that grabs at Richard's jaw. " Let's not waste anymore time, sound like a plan, gorgeous? "
The best realization, he could flirt as much as he wanted, the lightyears he was going to get out of that.
"aren't you over a hundred now, technically..." they haven't really talked about that. not really, especially about the part about peter having a kid. the reality of that hovered over him sometimes. but there was always the next big thing, the next galactical threat, the next political drama. to say that he was tired of it all would be an understatement. to say that he would for a second stop doing what he'd been charged to do, what he made his mission in life to do, what he thought was the right thing to do, would be complete lie.
but sometimes, perhaps, he deserved a little bit of a reprieve, a break from it all, even if just for a moment. at least that's what he's been trying to learn. (people need saving! but people always need saving...) and now, now was one of those moments. with peter, the man that he'd seem to always come back to no matter what happened between them, no matter what duty or heritage or otherworldly circumstances stood in their way. "we certainly have..." richard nodded, kissing the other back, pouring everything feeling he ever felt for pete into it. this was new to him. sure he'd always had feelings for the man, no matter how deep they went and even before he fully understood them. admiration, respect, camaraderie, friendship, loyalty, devotion, love. but he'd never acted upon them, at least not till now. with pete, richard felt everything profoundly, soul deep, every emotion, even the less than savoury ones. no one had made him exactly feel like that, even if gamora often came close (not that either were a substitute for the other). and peter, well, he was the first man richard had ever kissed. not the first he'd dreamt of, but definitely the one time he had acted on it. "really dragging it out and making each other work for it." he wondered if they would have ever reached this stage of the relationship if he had never brought up the idea aloud in the first place.
trust peter to take things further. hands moving to grip the blonde's hairs as the other trailed kisses from his stubbled jaw down to his neck. giving it a light tug as peter tried to suck a bruise into his skin. a groan leaves richard's lips as peter crowded himself into his personal space like he was trying to fuse them together. "d'ast, please let's never use the word 'steady' ever again." he cringed even as he said it. he'd never liked it, not even in his youth. why couldn't people just talk about it like they going on dates instead? he agreed with peter however on the word 'boyfriend'... it was too basic and could hardly encompass everything they had been through, both together and apart. earthborn and yet the stars had always called to him ever since the first fateful day that rhomann dey bestowed the power of the nova force onto him. two parts of him warring constantly. earth had been his home, and of course he'd missed it terribly each time he was away; whether in space or lost in the cancerverse. but the years and experience had... in way soured that picture of it. he'd left that place time and again, left behind petty squabbles shared between earth's superheroes, especially when there were bigger first to fry. but with peter, half terran, half spartoi or in other words half of space ā essentially the two parts of richard himself, it was no wonder the nova prime had gravitated to the star-lord. with peter, he was home. staring into the blue eyes in front of him as peter confessed once again, professed once again his love for him. who was he not to return the factor? "i love you too, peter jason quill. more than every star in the universe and beyond. now, would it be too corny to that you're the love of my life? that you've completely changed my life time and time again. a force of nature, you are." a pause. "my flarking force of nature."
"though... you're laying it on real thick huh?" one could hear the grin in his voice. he couldn't fault the other man for that. but if he was gorgeous, what was peter? bright shining star ā yes, richard was well aware of the similarities between them and the imagery of them. memorial etched like peter had mentioned. "you've always had me wrapped around your finger, you sly fox." peter knew this and exploited it constantly. and richard knew it too and inevitably always let him do so. they wouldn't have been back here, ties mended when he'd popped the question that led to all this, otherwise.
