At first, Nikki was mad. Her arms crossed under her chest and glaring at the Nova as he began to list off the faults within her companions but it wasn’t until he got to Quill that she began to actually pay attention. The fact that he hid behind women made her wiggle a bit in her chair. It wasn’t exactly fun to hear that in the files of a guy she had come to enjoy being around, there was information that said they were messing around with women. She did her best not to look over at Quill but she couldn’t help but flick her eyes towards him as the Nova spoke more than more about his life growing up. But upon the mention of who Quill’s father was, Nikki’s gaze locked on the Nova. Even Quill didn’t know that information. How did they have that in his file but he didn’t know?!

When Rich left the group sat in an awkward silence, Nikki, with her arms crossed, glaring at the table. How could he say such rude things about everyone? They were trying to change their ways and that should be acknowledged because they are trying. Instead the Nova would rather see them be reminded of their faults and make them sad for it. The look on Gamora’s face was a pained one as she kept to herself, merely standing up and walking away. Rocket’s ears had dropped, not liking that the Nova pointed out he was an experiment and only out to get money. If that was true, he would have turned Nikki in for the money that The Collector was offering. 

After a moment, Nikki rose to her feet and stormed down the hallway. Stopping at the door that was the Nova’s temporary room she banged on it. “Yes?” An arrogant and nearly teasing tone echoed from the other side of the door.

“You owe these people an apology!” She barked through the door.

There was a sigh that echoed through the door before it was pulled open. The dark haired young man was in nothing but a pair of pajama bottoms. His large figure was muscular and fit to the point that Nikki’s jaw nearly dropped. Can you blame her though? It was her first shirtless human she had ever seen and, well it was also the Nova Prime. Yes, everyone knows of the Nova Prime but seeing him outside of his suit was a rarity. Much less for Nikki who didn’t really know that many people; swallowing softly she continued. “You shouldn’t be talking like that to these people. They are trying to right their wrongs and do good; they were pardoned and they deserve to be treated with a clean slate.”

“Princess hear me out.” He said softly leaning himself against the doorframe, resting his large hand up on the top of frame, “Coming from my direction I can’t help but be skeptical of their future based upon their past. They need to be careful because they could get themselves in a lot of trouble. Even though their slates are clean; they can still get dirty again.”

“But that doesn’t mean they will. And continuing to remind them that they’ve done things wrong in the past will not allow them to change. They need to know that the change will be accepted. You’re assuming they’re still bad people and they have shown me more kindness than anyone else has in a long time. That should say something for their characters.”

“It does,” He said softly leaning forward a bit, a smile on his face as he did so. “It says you haven’t been treated right at all. But don’t worry things change. Especially when someone new has arrived,” He leaned back and placed his hand on the door, leaving her with a bit of a dumbfounded look on her face. “You have me here now. You can expect to see a lot of changes around the ship. And it all begins with how you’re treated tomorrow.” With that he gave her a charming grin and slowly shut the door. “Goodnight Princess, you know where I am if you need me… for anything…” With that the door shut and Nikki was left standing in front of it with a dumbfounded look on her face and still in a daze. Okay, that was an interesting way to end the night.

The next morning Nikki woke up beating everyone else, or so she thought. Dressed in a pair of short shorts and a black tank top, she walked out of her room to smell something familiar in the air. Sniffing the air, she nearly floated down the hallway and into the kitchen/dining room/meeting room area to find Rich standing over the stove with a pan. He was tossing things into the air and catching them in the pan, a cutting board and knife at on the side of the stove and he turned with a grin. “Good morning Princess. Are you a fan of potatoes? It’s an Earth dish.”

Nikki practically floated to him, her nose leading the way before she stopped at the shirtless Nova’s side. “I love Potatoes.” She said in a nearly dreamy voice staring down at the pan. 

“It’s one of my favorite things too. And as a treat I’ll even let you have the first piece when they’re done.” He said in a bright tone which made Nikki beam up at him with excitement as he stirred the diced up potatoes. Okay so maybe having the Nova around wouldn’t be that bad, especially if he made potatoes…