Groot was so excited to find a movie from Terra at the intergalactic trading post. How he came across it and paid for it no less (the baby tree didn't exactly have money to buy surprises for anyone) no one was really sure, but when he came skipping back to the group carrying his prize, no one questioned it.

Whenever he plopped the case in Peter's hand, excitedly chattering about his find, it took Peter a second to realize what it was (even though Groot was trying to be so helpful explaining exactly what it was in the background).

"Oh! It's a movie!" Peter exclaimed when it finally hit him.

"From Terra?" Rocket asked, and Groot nodded eagerly.

All the guardians looked expectantly at Peter.

"What?"

"Well?" Gamora said, like they were all waiting on him. "Is it a good one? Should we watch it?" Apparently they all expected Peter to be familiar with it and instantly recognize it.

"I 'unno. I've never seen it." He turned it over in his hand, studying it more. "I've never even heard of it. Lilo and Stitch. I never saw this one. Oh! Look here!" He said eagerly, pointing to some markings on the back of the case that were indecipherable to the rest of the crew. Peter's native language was weird, and not a priority for most intergalactic translators. Even though they knew they couldn't read this so called 'Engle-Ish', all of the guardians leaned in closer to try to see what he was pointing at. "It says it was made in 2002," he explained, underlining some weird symbols. "I left earth in the 1980s. Holy crap, 2002? That doesn't sound like a real year," Peter chuckled to himself. "This was made, what, 20 years after I left earth. But that's alright. We can all watch it together!"

"How do you know what it's about?" Rocket asked the young tree as he popped another dried insect in his mouth. They had all settled in front of the large media screen with snacks after Peter declared 'movie night!'

Quill was immensely pleased when he opened the case to find a small memory disk that was compatible with one of the disk readers in the ship. He had no idea how a movie from earth had made it this far out into the galaxy in a format that that his ship could actually play, but he was incredibly thankful for it.

"I am Groot."

Rocket gave him a weird look. "What do you mean it says so?"

"I am Groot."

"Since when the hell can you read that stuff? Who the hell taught you how to read?!"

"I have been teaching Groot the letters of the intergalactic alphabet," Drax proclaimed quite proudly. "I am quite an excellent literary teacher. Groot already has half of the letters memorized, no doubt thanks to my superior teaching ability."

"No, Groot says he can read Terran," Rocket corrected.

"I am Groot."

"That's how he knew the movie was from Terra," the furry translator supplied for the rest of the team. "The back says stuff about family and friendship and aliens and bounty hunters. It's a Terran kids movie about aliens and alien bounty hunters? This might not suck so much after all."

"Sweet! Nice pick, Groot!" Peter gave the little sapling a high five for finding an earth children's movie that was made years after Peter left that just so happened to be slightly relevant, cause, like, aliens.

"I still don't get how you learned to read Quill's goopy-ass language." Rocket narrowed his eyes in accusation.

"Don't look at me," Peter said, raising his hands up in defense before he returned his concentration to working his old-ass system, fiddling with the buttons and switching some of the input wires.

"Got it!" He shouted when the speakers finally blared to life and the screen flickered on. He absentmindedly wondered if there were more earth movies that had been transferred onto a readable format that meant the guardians could watch them (he was pretty sure no one had a VCR in space, and the memory disk this movie was on was as far as one could be from a VHS tape anyways). Or maybe this was one of the most popular movies ever made on earth, and that's why it was actually in a format that could be played in most galactic space-faring ships. He made a mental note to look into that later as he took his seat on the floor with his team as the movie started.

"Wait, can you guys understand this?" Peter whispered after the first character started speaking in, well, English. He hadn't even thought about that. He hadn't even thought about that, but the Guardians couldn't read English though…

"Yes," Gamora informed him sharply. "The visual components of universal translators have nothing programmed for Terran languages, but they process the auditory input of your native language just as well as all the rest. Now shush. You're interrupting the movie."

It was only a few minutes into the movie when everyone bristled.

Finding out that one of the main characters was an alien creature that was a product of illegal genetic experimentation was a bit too relevant.

They even called him 'experiment 626'.

Peter's jaw clenched, his hands turned to fists, remembering the day the guardians first met. How when they were arrested, they called Rocket 'subject 89P13'.

When that plot point was dropped everyone bristled and looked over at Rocket, to gauge his reaction.

Rocket, meanwhile, just kept munching on the snacks, looking at the screen.

"I thought we were watching a movie," he snarked when everyone kept staring at him and being the exact opposite of subtle.

At his response, Peter looked at Gamora, who looked at Drax, who looked at Groot, who looked at Peter before coming to what appeared to be an unspoken group decision. Without a word they all turned back to the screen, letting out a collective sigh of relief. They were all able to relax knowing that this didn't hit too close to home.

"I know this song! I know this song!" Peter almost shouted, repeatedly hitting Gamora's leg in utter excitement when Elvis Presley started playing. Gamora gently stayed his hand, but didn't have the heart to tell him to be quiet or give him a sharp look as his whole body seemed to be vibrating with excitement. He was almost bouncing where he sat, his eyes wide and bright, the biggest smile on his face. 100% childish joy and utter jubilation. He was so happy.

He was even happier, though, when the next Elvis Presley song came on. "I know this one too!" He shouted even louder than the last time.

He was unduly excited to find out the whole movie soundtrack was filled with Elvis Presley songs. Freaking the heck out and laughing, actually. So happy. This was amazing.

He didn't think he'd recognize any songs in this movie. It came out over 20 years since the last time he set foot on earth.

But this movie was filled with songs that came out before his mom was born. His mom always did have the best taste in music. She liked the King too. Peter smiled, bittersweet. She would have loved this movie.

Pretty much everyone was crying by the end of the movie. Groot was openly weeping, his lip quivering as he snuggled into Gamora's lap (he had climbed there in the middle of the movie and she softly stroked his back). Out of the corner of her watery eyes she could see Rocket wiping at his own, a little sniffle at his wet nose that she chose not to acknowledge or point out. Even Drax was shedding tears, a smile on his face.

And, of course, Peter was crying too. Almost as much as Groot was. It was probably a tie, to be honest.

How could they not be crying at this? With that ending?

With Stitch saying "This is my family. I found it all on my own. It's little, and broken… but still good. Yeah. Still good."

How could any of them remain dry eyed after that?

"Earth's a flarkin' messed up planet if this movie is meant for kids," Rocket said once the credits started playing, making all of them laugh.

Afterwards, Rocket said he would shoot anyone who compared him to Stitch, and if anyone dared call him fluffy, they wouldn't live to regret it. He directed his threats mostly at Peter, who quoted movies he hadn't seen since he was a child to this very day.

Rocket became almost as protective of the movie disk as Peter was of his walkman. He insisted on keeping it in his room when it wasn't being watched by any of them.

They watched it together as a team quite regularly, and individually whenever one of them was down or needed a pick me up, or just wanted to watch their favorite movie (of course, they all considered Lilo and Stitch to be their favorite movie). But unless someone was currently watching it, Rocket was adamant it stayed in his room.

And if the team could hear Hawaiian music slipping past his door some nights, they'd just smile to themselves, and know that they were home. They're all home.

~FIN~

AN: You feel me fellow trauma survivors? That moment when that trauma is dropped as a plot device and all your family turns to look at you thinking this week's episode of -insert show here- might be too triggering? I figured all the loving and supportive guardians would instantly whip their heads to check on Rocket after hearing 'experiment 626' thinking they might need to turn the movie off.

This was actually another one of my bare bones fics from months ago, and I literally just rewrote it into something publishable today. This one was from March. And I only came up with it cause I was actually writing a psychology paper on Lilo and Stitch at the time. Since I waited so long to publish this fic though, I can proudly state I did get a 97 on my college paper about a kids movie featuring aliens and shenanigans.