About a month into their tenuous partnership, the Guardians end up making an emergency supply stop for rations. Peter counted on Drax eating a lot, but no one expected Rocket to eat what seems like half his weight in food every day, and no one's quite figured out yet the best thing to feed a growing Groot. After a minimal amount of arguing, Drax and Gamora take charge of the supply run, while Peter keeps an eye on the Milano. (Which, roughly translated, means keeping Rocket from blowing anything up, and Groot from blowing himself up.)

Now, watching Drax and Gamora head out to scrounge up supplies, Peter feels more than a little trepidation. He's only about fifty percent convinced they can manage it without tearing out any spines or slicing any throats, but hey, he has to start really trusting them sometime, and so far as he knows, Ontarans are supposed to be super polite. At least, that had been his own experience. He'd had a run-in with them a few years back, and they'd treated him with what his mother would have called proper manners, even after they'd caught him in the middle of a business deal involving some really illegal items. In fact, Peter was absolutely certain he'd never been thrown out of a spaceport with such politeness before or since.

Although now that he stops and thinks about it, he's not sure Drax or Gamora will respond well to someone who expects them to say please and thank you and follow the rules of civilized conversation. But he's tired of playing babysitter to a bunch of touchy characters, so he just shakes his head and tries to forget about the possibility of knives coming out and heads rolling and having to add yet another planet to the list of places that they really shouldn't go back to.

Yeah, not thinking about that. He ducks back into the Milano, and heads down to his bunk to crank the music and maybe get a little bit of peace before the crew is back together and something inevitably goes wrong.

Halfway through the Awesome Mix Vol. 2, Peter starts to notice an odd noise punctuating the music. He tries to ignore it for a bit, then gives up. Sitting up, he drops the headphones down around his neck and listens intently. The dulcet strains of ELO are still faintly audible, but now he can also identify a definite metallic clanking coming from the direction of the left engine access. Given that Drax and Gamora won't be back for at least another hour or so, Peter figures it's probably just Rocket messing around with the machinery.

Just Rocket plus spare parts... Yeah, it's definitely time to go keep an eye on things. Last time, Rocket dismantled the main hatch, then put it back together again new and improved. Which wouldn't have been a big deal, except he booby-trapped it, "to keep out intruders," and Drax nearly blew a hand off trying to open it. Drax was (understandably) angry, Rocket nearly got skinned alive, and, unsurprisingly, Peter is no longer letting Rocket tinker unsupervised. (And no, Groot does not count as supervision.)

Still, Peter has to admit that even with Rocket's propensity to include explosives in his various remodeling projects, the Milano is flying better than it has in a very long time. And if Peter's being honest with himself, he knows exactly why.

Peter loves his ship, he really does, but the truth is, the Milano will always come second for him. And his beat-up Walkman and those old cassette tapes will forever be first. He'd never tell Rocket this, but every time he got short on units and had to choose between repairing his ship or his Walkman... well, the ship always lost out. One time he was grounded for a month after his drive system failed on him, 'til he scrounged up the cash to get her running again. But it was worth it, because after twenty-six years in space, that Walkman is still running.

Sure, it doesn't really have many of the original parts anymore. Pretty much every piece of it has been broken and replaced at least once, and Peter's spent a fortune on getting the exact right parts to keep it in working order. Most times, they've got to be fabricated from scratch, and each time, the repair guy seems to sense how desperate Peter is, and charges him an outrageous price. Which Peter pays, without quibbling, every time. He's not willing to run the chance that the guy will say no and the Walkman will become nothing more than a useless memento.

So he shells out the units, and scrapes by on what's left. Yondu's crew always mocked him for the sorry state of his ship: "What's the matter, Quill, you too stupid to take good paying jobs? Nah, man, don'tcha know he blows it all on women? Heh, dumb Terran don't know that your ship's your life." It woulda been even worse if they'd known the truth, though - that Peter has spent enough money on that Walkman to overhaul the Milano's systems twice over.

And he's never regretted it, not one unit.

Rocket, on the other hand, is constantly moaning about how poorly Peter treats his ship. From the way the raccoon goes on about the ancient parts and shoddy patch jobs, you'd think the ship has personally offended him. Or, more accurately, that Peter has committed some sort of unforgivable offense by letting his ship go. Rocket would deny it vehemently, but Peter has caught him several times murmuring reassurances to different bits of machinery throughout the ship. "Don't you worry, we're gonna fix you up good, and then we're gonna throw Quill off this ship 'cause he ain't been looking after you and he doesn't deserve a ship as good as you, and I do, so it ain't mutiny or stealing or anything."

It's moments like that where Peter's glad Rocket doesn't know why Peter's been neglecting his ship all these years, 'cause he's pretty sure the raccoon would actually make off with her at that point. And might even shoot Peter for good measure - Rocket's not really one to tolerate stupidity.

As Peter muses on this, he makes his way from the bunk area down to the engine hatch, where Rocket's feet are just visible, the rest of him hidden under the main port-side power supply. Clearing his throat loudly, Peter leans against the wall and waits.

Rocket ignores him entirely. Groot, however, emerges from some crevice in the engine, covered in grease and looking very pleased with himself. "I am Groot!"

That gets Rocket's attention. "Wait, you did what?" He slides out from under the power supply. "What'd I tell you about helping me? No touching unless I say so!"

Peter seizes the opportunity. "And what have I told you," he stabs a finger at Rocket, "about messing with my ship? No touching unless I'm watching you!"

With an irritated twitch of his snout, Rocket starts to scoot back under the engine block. "You're not the boss of me."

"Maybe not, but I'm not leaving you here alone to turn my engine into a bomb or booby-trap it or god knows what else."

Rocket pulls himself out from under the engine and faces Quill, crossing his arms indignantly. "You act like I've never seen a ship before; well, I have, and better ones than this junk heap."

Peter doesn't have the energy right now to be offended by that slight to the Milano, and besides, Rocket's kinda right. Even with the Xandarian rebuild, she's still a patchwork of misfit parts, old hardware, and even older programming.

With a quick lunge at Groot, who was about to poke an arm into one of the engine vents, Rocket scoops the grimy sapling up onto his shoulder. "We had our own ship before we met you, y'know. And she was a real beauty, worth at least eight hundred thousand."

Folding his arms over his chest, Peter quirks a dubious eyebrow in Rocket's direction. "That's one hell of a ship, if you're telling the truth."

With a soft snarl, Rocket leans forward. "You calling me a liar?"

"No, no." Peter raises his hands slightly in surrender (or in preparation to fend off an angry ball of fur, although he hopes it won't come to that). "It's just... That's a lot of bounties."

"Ha! You think I bought it?" Rocket seems to find the very idea hilarious, and his snarl morphs into a smug grin. "Nah, we stole her right off this billionaire's private spacedock, while he was watching - never seen anyone's face turn that purple before."

Groot tugs on Rocket's fur. "I am Groot?"

"Yeah, he was purple to start with, but that ain't the point!"

Peter chuckles then (though not so much at the story as at the way Groot seems to know how to push Rocket's buttons). "So whatever happened to your beautiful pirated ship?"

"That one? Bit of a long story, Quill, 'bout a stupid Terran with a nice bounty on his head, who got us locked up and our ship impounded, who was too busy rescuing his Walkman to ask if anyone else left anything important behind at the Kyln." Rocket shoots Peter a glare, but he hasn't pulled a gun or anything, so Peter figures Rocket can't be too mad at him.

"I am Groot," chimes in Groot.

"Yeah, yeah - I know we can just steal another one." Rocket goes back to tinkering with the components scattered across the deck in front of him. "What do ya think I'm working on right now?"

Shaking his head, Peter pulls out his Walkman and moves down the corridor a few yards, leaving Rocket to mutter to Groot about how the Milano'll be theirs someday, when Quill ain't paying attention. Peter's not too worried, though - he figures Rocket's only about fifty percent serious. And as long as Rocket can tinker with the ship to his heart's delight, that'll probably be enough to keep him happy; no ship-stealing necessary.

Author's Note: I've seen Vol. 2 twice in the past week, and it motivated me to finally get my butt in gear and work on this story again. I've had this scene 90% written for two years now but never got around to polishing it off. I had to edit it a bit to comply with the info from James Gunn's Q&A the other day about Groot's memories, but aside from that, it didn't need much tweaking. And damn if it wasn't lovely to be playing in this sandbox again.