For Donatello1 and Khel:

Donatello's prompt: Groot learning to walk

Khel's prompt: Something fluffy

This one's really short, but I don't like dragging stuff out if I get everything I need to in certain number of words. Enjoy your brief squee.

"Goo," Groot grumbled, adorably as it were. He'd been replanted again, that past week, into a large plastic tub, and was now approximately Rocket in size.

"Yeah, I know," Rocket replied, scratching Groot's soft bark lightly. "But ya need to eat proper-like. Soak up the water 'n steal all the carbon dioxide us mouth-breathers belch out."

"What does he want, Rocket?" Drax asked, squatting over the planter, adjusting Groot's sun lamp.

"He wants out."

"His root system is becoming more like feet; the last replanting revealed that his original ball of roots has split pretty cleanly in half. Groot, would you like me to dig you out?"

"'S not too early?"

"As long as we are gentle. The worst that may happen is a few of his smaller adventitious roots break away. However, this happened every time we've repotted him before."

Rocket frowned.

"It would be the pain equivalent of clipping nails," Drax provided helpfully.

Rocket looked down at his on sharp claws, imagining clipping off one of his forms of defense, shuddering lightly.

"It would be the pain equivalent of me clipping my own nails," Drax corrected.

"…fine. Groot, you win. Let's get you out."

Groot tumbled playfully out of Drax's arms, after Drax, with some assistance from Peter, carefully pulled him from his tub.

He did have legs and feet, stubby as they were. Groot flexed one proportionally large foot, looking down at his legs, grinning, before unsteadily trying to stand.

He fell flat on his stomach, Rocket's tail caught underneath.

With a yelp, Rocket pulled himself out from under Groot, shooting him an indignant gesture. "Hey, hey, hey. No."

"He can't walk with feet like that," Peter commented, picking up one of Groot's stubby legs in his hands. "They're all balled up, knotted, and uneven."

"I am Groot," Groot replied helpfully.

"When saplin's uproot, they are held by some a' the elders in turns as they run in place over rocks."

"Like exfoliation?" Drax ased. "How long would it take?"

"I am Groot."

Rocket frowned. "A few years."

"Figures," Peter said. "Would it hurt if we cut some of those knots off for you, bud?"

Groot shrugged.

Rocket was lost in thought, starting to come around to the idea of pruning his friend a lttle. "It might be like icin' a wart or when ya shave my fur. Why don't we nick ya, and if it hurts, we stop? You grind 'em off over time, anyway."

Groot nodded, energetically with a smile.

"I have not done any whittling in a long while," Drax said, clapping his hand on Groot's shoulder. " Let me go get a knife that would be appropriate."

"Ditto," Peter added.

"You have skill with a knife?" Drax asked, as the two went to their respective quarters below the galley.

"Used to make birds from branches with my grandpa."

Peter and Drax each took one of Groot's stumpy feet in their hands.

"I will begin, Groot, and if you are in any pain at all- any- stop me and we'll do it the slow way. Got it?" Drax asked sternly, much like a parent asks a child.

"Groot."

"Take it away, then," Peter said.

"That was the plan."

Drax lightly began scraping away the roughest bark and root tangles, and, when Groot began humming quietly like he was simply getting a haircut, Drax got a little more aggressive with a particularly nasty bulb root that reminded Peter of a bunion. With a nod from Groot, Peter, too, began to attack Groot's other foot with gusto. Rocket watched with interest, and after a while, Peter instructed Rocket on how to hold and handle the blade, which looked less like a knife and more like a short sword in Rocket's paws.

After thirty minutes, Peter and Drax compared Groot's feet, finishing some minor slices so the two were even.

"Rocket," Peter said, as he stood up. "Why don't you keep the knife? Groot'll probably need to be pruned now and then if he doesn't have a grindstone."

Rocket nodded, clipping the knife into a munitions pocket on his battle suit.

"All right, Groot, you wanted to walk. Up."

Groot pushed off the floor with his hands, took a full three steps, and fell again.

"What now?" Rocket asked.

"I think he just needs practice. His weight distribution is different than before," Drax said.

Rocket looked at Groot, grinning, already back on his feet to try moving again, before falling like a small child.

"C'mere, idjit," Rocket said, flicking Groot on the side of his face. "Hold on't my shoulders and let's get your balance back."