/ No sleep tonight for you, better chug that Mountain Dew /

(Okay, okay)

Get your ass in gear, make this whole town disappear /

(Okay, okay!)

Slap me, pull my hair, touch me t here and there and there /

And no more talking. /

Love this dead girl walking. /

Things had started to return to their tentative state of warm-fuzzies over the next several days: Selina, protected by the modicum of respect the Ravagers had for their captain that prevented them from invading his cabin, began to relax and crack her dry jokes again. No one had dared go near her since Yondu stuck an arrow through Taserface's shoulder, which was having trouble healing, and that seemed to vastly help her mood. So did Kraglin. The pair of them took a particular enjoyment in irritating the captain like a pair of clucking hens.

But then Yondu would bring Selina back to his bed and remind her that if it wasn't for him, she'd be in a glass cage on Sakaar.

Both of them enjoyed those "conversations."

"What are you going to do with yourself when I'm gone?" Selina teased, panting. Her breath tickled at his ear; he'd bitten down into the crook of her neck while he tested her flexibility. He had pinned her to the wall, hiked her knees over his shoulders, and had her wrists cuffed together and magnetically stuck to the wall so he could take her without her putting up a fight. It excited her almost more than it did him.

He growled, "Find another ass to fuck." Loathe as he was to give her up. Actually, her leaving was starting to leave a foul taste in his mouth. He would rather not think about it.

She laughed at his ire rather than let it rile her, which made him that much more irritable. "Admit it, Captain, you'll miss me."

But he wouldn't - he wouldn't admit it, anyway. Not to her, not to anyone. Instead, he pressed his face against her saliva-wet neck. After nearly two weeks with the Ravagers, she was starting to smell like them. Not like the body odor, the sweat, the grime, she still bathed more regularly than any of them, but like oil, metal, and leather. Both biting and comforting all wrapped into one.

Why did she have to say it like that? Like she could walk away from him so easily?

Why did he give a shit? They hadn't even known one another a month. "I'm not gonna miss that mouth," he huffed, thinking venomously how lucky she was that he wouldn't gag her for shits and giggles.

Again, she laughed, and it turned into a loud, accidental cry when he ducked down to nip at the erect tips of her breasts. Not another word passed between them until he came, breathing raggedly against her chest with sweat beading like bullets on his brows. He let himself take only a few seconds to recover before he pulled out and knelt beneath her. Selina's legs dropped and the accompanying ache made her groan again, but they still had to compensate for his mass between her knees.

And his nose pushing its way below the thin cloud of hair that had started growing back on her mound.

"What are you doing?" she chuckled, breaking off into a cackle; his hot tongue tickled her swollen clit, and the sensation was almost unbearable.

"I know you didn't come," he grunted. "Now shut up and quit'cher squirmin'." Think of it like a going-away gift.

Selina obediently stopped talking and let him go to town. Her arms were starting to hurt again, anyway, like they were ready to pop straight out of their sockets, and she didn't feel much like teasing him anymore. What was to tease? The tip of his tongue lapped brazenly against her slit, drawing the liquid forward to keep the little bundle of nerves well-lubricated while he-

She gasped when she felt two of his fingers slide into her, inching up and around her walls, seeking out the fabled G-spot that Selina had never been able to find on her own. What was most gratifying about Yondu, though, was that she felt comfortable telling him where to go or what to do. He took suggestions masterfully.

"Farther, farther, right - ah, fuck, right there, suck harder, please-"

It was the fastest he'd gotten her to reach her climax, yet, and he was getting so good at it that Selina genuinely started worrying that she might not be able to find another man who could quite reach the new bar of standards when she inevitably returned home. She gasped out his name several times in rapid succession and violently writhed until his firm hand grasped her hip and pinned her to the wall again, but it didn't stop her from trying to buck against his face while she rode it out.

She even collapsed in his arms in the end when he released her from her shackles, wearing a blissful, dazed grin on her face. "I think they need to start making them like you back on Earth," she giggled. "I could almost kiss you for that, Captain."

It occurred to Yondu that she had gotten sweeter with him as the days passed, but this was the most obvious it had been. She almost started glowing under his attention, and it made him want to see how far he could take it. He almost was starting to believe that Selina was genuinely warming up to him again, that she was having fun in his company, that maybe she wouldn't be in quite as much of a hurry to get back home to Earth-

When he saw the way she stared at the blue-and-white planet when it finally came into view the day they hit her solar system and Kraglin had pulled them into the cockpit for confirmation, Yondu knew he was wrong. His chest ached.

"Can you tap into the global positioning satellites?" she asked Kraglin as they made their way into an M-unit; they needed to keep the Eclector at a reasonable distance, farther away than even the moon. "Then I can plug in my address and direct you."

"What, you can't just point at it and tell me?"

"From an aerial view? Hell, no."

They laughed and climbed into the cockpit, but Yondu walked silently behind them both. He didn't want to sit down. Not even when their ship pulled out of the Eclector's docking bay and flew out like a gnat towards Earth.

"Alright," Kraglin said, punching a few buttons on the dash, "Coordinates locked; let's bring 'er in."

"It's an island," Selina blurted out as if he didn't have the primitive map right in front of him. "Just right off the coast, the bridge isn't even a mile long, but it's still an-"

"'Lina, you really need to chill out."

"I know."

There was a massive cloud bank covering the island as well as a good portion of the mainland's coast, and if it hadn't been there, then maybe they would have turned around and left. But the ship dipped into the thick, white fog, the smile on Selina's face growing with every passing moment, just like the bizarre feeling of dread that Yondu somehow couldn't seem to shake. The ship was only about a hundred yards above the ground when they burst through the clouds and saw the carnage below.

Something had hit the city and hit it hard, like a series of very large bombs. Entire chunks of walls had collapsed on most of the buildings while several smaller, older ones were nothing more than piles of brick and concrete. Smashed cars littered the smashed-up streets, and the destruction became more and more complete as they slowly flew away from the downtown area.

"I'm guessin' your town don't usually look like that," Kraglin said.

Selina had gone pale and collapsed back into her chair, entirely silent as she stared out the window.

"Whoever did it is long gone," continued Kraglin. He was following along the street directions from something called Google Maps, which seemed to have the entire planet routed out. "Ain't no sign of any kind of sentient life over the whole island."

"Well, don't let your guard down," Yondu said quietly. "They could swoop in on us any second."

They turned down a road very familiar to Selina, and when she realized where the concentration of annihilation was leading, she popped up from her chair and ran to the hatch, refusing to see what was waiting for her from behind a window. Maybe there was still hope. The slimmest chance.

Kraglin and Yondu came striding out after her and found that Selina had jogged out only a few steps before she was stopped in her tracks at the sight facing her. "You sure this is your house?" asked Kraglin.

"Was..." Yondu muttered to himself.

Selina weakly nodded, shaking like a leaf. "This... my house... I-"

What it was was a pile of rubble for the entire block with scattered bits of car or the odd, ash-blasted refrigerator to really pull the destruction together. Looking for signs of human life - or any life, really - was foolish. There weren't even skeletons to suggest it. Two devastated cars, actually, were crushed and broken in what used to be the driveway, and Selina walked over to them, feeling like someone else must be piloting the legs she couldn't feel.

"... my sister," she said faintly. "My sister, my nephew, they... they were still here, I..."

It came over her slowly: the hyperventilating. The shaking. The numbness, the ringing in her ears, and she stumbled backward and half-collapsed onto a pile of bricks for sitting.

Yondu and Kraglin were picking their way through the wreckage and came across a definitively alien vehicle, chrome and black and just as smash as any car. "Chitauri," Yondu decided grimly.

"The fuck is a Chitauri?" Selina snapped.

Her tone was forgiven and ignored; all things considered, Kraglin was impressed that she was keeping it together this well. "They're a warrior people," he explained to them, "Somethin' like a lizard and a droid rolled into one. Ain't too bright, but fightin' them's like an ant fightin' a hive of termites. Didn't they already try invadin' Earth?" This last part was said to Yondu.

"Yeah," Yondu agreed with a nod, dropping the machine back to the ground. "Didn't work, neither."

With a frown, Kraglin asked, "Then why-? 'Lina? Selina."

He darted past Yondu, who turned around and watched his first mate catch Selina as she went rigid where she sat, then entirely limp. She didn't completely pass out, she was still conscious, but she was struggling to stay that way.

"Gotta calm down, slow up the breaths," he told her.

She leaned heavily against his shoulder and wheezed, "I know, I know, I ju-" She suddenly covered her mouth and twisted away from Kraglin so she could heave, but whatever wanted to come out was soundly defeated. Selina's hands slipped over the rest of her face and she curled tightly into a ball beside him, doing whatever she could to keep from screaming. The tears, on the other hand, she couldn't do anything about. Those flowed freely while she concentrated on keeping the rest of her shit together.

While Kraglin held her and let her cry, Yondu looked away. Watching her process felt wrong like he was intruding on something very personal and very, very private. No, Selina wasn't a particularly strong person in his experience, but she liked to pretend to be and had the fire for it. He hated seeing her like this. But he had no idea how to comfort her. Sorry your family's dead, want me to fuck you better? No, better to keep several feet between them.

It bugged him that Kraglin was better at it. Through some arcane combination of hushed words and one-armed squeezes, Selina managed to settle again to the point where she could at least answer questions in a coherent fashion.

"Is there anyone you can contact?" Kraglin asked. "Anyone who would've been on the mainland?"

Selina nodded and took a deep, shaking breath. "My, uh… my parents, maybe, or my aunt. I know Mom's number, but Aunt Ettie-"

"I can look 'em up. Just give me full names, we can hack the grid. Earth's security is shit."

That made Selina let out a strangled bark of laughter, and then her complexion turned a delicate shade of green once again. Taking her back to the ship, Kraglin started to hack into the cell phone lines while Yondu searched through the reports, both Terran and intergalactic, to try to find out exactly what had happened.

Selina had more success, first. "Yeah, Aunt Ettie? Hi…"

While she spoke, Yondu flipped through headline after headline. There was very little information: the Earth media reported it as a simple "alien attack" and used it as a chance to bash on the American-based Avengers. Where were they, why hadn't they stopped an entire town from being blasted off the map? There had, apparently, been a metahuman involved, but they weren't named. Off-planet, the incident wasn't even mentioned. So few people outside of Asgard paid any attention to Earth, so that was to be expected.

"... No, Ettie, I- … I was out of town." Selina's explanation was rocky and disjointed, but it was also true. Even if "out of town" was a little less exaggerated than it should have been. "No. No. … Of course not."

Kraglin lifted his eyebrows and glanced at Yondu when he returned to them. They couldn't hear what was going on on the other end of the conversation, but it clearly wasn't going well. And then, by some unholy intervention, the earpiece actually went on the fritz. The voice of a very proper-sounding yet airy old lady split through the quiet.

"-nice man, I can give you the house in Orreta as a wedding present-"

Selina's expression had been growing steadily more beet-color, and now it wrinkled into an angry snarl. "Take your fucking wedding gift and buy a fucking graveyard hole to curl up and die in," she finally shouted over the voice, slamming her hand onto the button to hang up on her. She got to her feet and stormed off and away from the ship again, beating her way down the pulverized sidewalk.

"Lina!" Kraglin called out. "Lina, wait-"

She stopped for a moment, her hands balled up into fists at her side, but she didn't say anything. Her shoulders heaved once, twice, three times… and then deflated. Her fingers relaxed, and Selina just... kept walking. Yondu didn't know what to say, or if there was anything he could have said, but he followed her, anyway. She would speak when she was ready. Or not.

They reached the nearest coast of the island, where all that remained of the wharf were tall, wooden poles and splintered boards. Everything else had sunk to the bottom. At least the bridge to the mainland was still intact, stretching on into the grey, cloudy horizon until it connected with the thin line that was the other shore. The beach was littered with driftwood and kelp, but Selina didn't care. She sat down on a weathered, sun-bleached log near a ring of stone half-buried in the sand and stared out at the water.

Yondu sat beside her and waited. For a long time, the only sound was the tide lapping at the sand and the occasional, far-off cry of gulls. Those, at least, were normal, and she couldn't see the destruction behind them.

Eventually, she said, "We used to come out here all the time in high school. We'd have bonfires and drink beer until the sun rose, and sometimes we'd stargaze. I always hated that. It made me feel about as big as a flea, knowing that my life or death would mean absolutely nothing to the universe. Like eight-digit numbers, it's just too... too big for me to possibly conceive. And now I'm sitting here again, back on the beach twelve years later having been abducted by space pirates while my friends and family were decimated by other aliens."

"Lina-"

"I didn't know it was possible to feel smaller than a flea, but I do. I feel tiny, and I feel powerless." Her voice was thick with angry tears that she didn't want to shed, but he could see the way the rims of her eyes turned red and glassy. "My kid sister and her four-year-old son are dead, and where was I?"

"And what would you have done if you'd 'a been here?" Yondu cut in, coolly ignoring the way she glared at him. "Probably woulda ended up dead like the rest of 'em."

"Yeah," Selina whispered. "Yeah, probably. At least I could've gone down trying."

"But you didn't. You were on my ship, with me."

There was a brief pause. "... With you."

Ouch.

He swallowed. "What're you gonna do now?" Yondu asked, but she shook her head.

"I don't know." The whisper was starting to crack and break, so he put an unsure arm around her. Selina stiffened. "My bitch of an aunt said she'd give me a goddamn house if I promised her I'd think about getting engaged to some dipshit kid of her friend's, and I'll be damned if I sink that low. But ev... everything I had was here. My job. My family."

Selina's baby sister had just started to come back from grieving over her lover's death. Her nephew had just started learning to read. Small words. Tiny ones. His favorite book had been The Cat in the Hat. He liked the mischievous, titular cat, and sometimes Selina's sister would cry into her wine late at night after he fell asleep midway through a story and she thought no one else was listening, but Selina was listening, thinking that she just needed time, time that neither of them could know she didn't have-

She pulled her wet hands away from her face and wiped them on her pants, ignoring the way Yondu had his nose pressed into her hair. "Thank you for bringing me back," Selina murmured. "You didn't have to do that."

"'Course I did." He didn't know how to articulate that he regretted bringing her back to destruction, but he was sorry all the same.

"No, you didn't." With a great sniff, Selina finally pushed herself from the log and out of his arms, then took a few more steps forward until the cold surf could lap at her shoes. She was already making plans. There wasn't any time to stop because if she did, she would fall apart, and then where would she be? A few months' rent on a cheap studio was sitting in her saving's account, and that was enough time for her to find another job. Even a part-time one to tide her over until she found something more permanent. Something off the island, so that she wouldn't have to think about her family's bones reduced to ash beneath her feet-

The wave of anguish threatened to engulf her, but she cut it down just after a strangled sort of hiccup popped out of her. At least it was a more appropriate response than the urge to sing that was welling up in her lungs. That, she would not do. Selina would sooner break down and cry.

"You could always come back with us."

Selina turned around and saw that Yondu was standing, too, and she frowned. "... What-?"

"I'd have to teach you to use a gun," he continued over her. "And we'll have to walk you through actually livin' in space, maybe have Kraglin teach you pilotin' or something of that nature, but-"

Selina abruptly blurted out, "Your crew's made it very clear that they wouldn't consider me part of your faction-"

"Lina, you ain't got nothing, here." Yondu slowly approached her as he spoke, a determination smoldering in his red eyes that kept the muscles in her legs tense and ready to run. No, no, he wasn't going to say it, was he? "The only thing back there is chaos, and them pieces ain't big enough to put back together. But you've at least got somethin' to work with if you come back to the ship. You ain't the first woman Ravager, and you won't be the last. Where the boys is concerned, you're gonna have to teach them that you ain't someone to be messed with. Defend yourself, show them a measure of spine or maybe even knock 'em down a peg, and they'll leave you be." He was close enough now that he could stroke her hair, made to look dull at the grey and grim seaside. Even her skin looked ashen without the sun. "I ain't even sayin' I think you got potential for bein' a space pirate, but at least you'd have a place."

Selina frowned and looked down at their feet, but didn't pull away. He didn't say what she had feared, thank God, but she heard something similar in his voice. "... Yondu, I never wanted to do that."

"I know. I knew what this was. But it looks like you don't got a lot of options, either." The corners of his eyes crinkled a little, softening his expression, and Yondu added, "I ain't asking for the same arrangement, Selina. You owe me nothin' like that if you accept my offer."

Selina kept her arms crossed protectively over her chest, still holding in the screaming breakdown she so desperately wanted to give in to. She couldn't think about it. If she formed that perfect picture of her sister and smiling nephew in her head, then she would be lost. Unable to function. She'd curl up on the beach and wait for the tide to come and take her just so she could join them. Yondu's touch was real, though. That kept her standing.

Her eyes cast around the beach, taking one last, good look of her home planet. She'd never gotten to go to Ireland or Spain, and maybe she never would have. But there were other places to go. Bending over, she picked up a peachy-pink whelk shell, brushing away the stray bits of sand. It would all follow her back to the ship, anyway.

"... Fine. I accept."

"Sure you don't want a gun?" Yondu murmured to her, and Selina firmly nodded.

"Definitely. I can do this with my hands tied behind my back." She would have to. They wouldn't take her any more seriously for having to hide behind a Yondu-supplied weapon.

The three of them had come back to the Eclector, where Yondu and Kraglin both agreed that Selina would need to make herself a part of the crew. Fast. Not just literally, but mentally, too, ingraining herself into the social network. She wouldn't last very long if she didn't. She knew it, too, and had made her decision to confront them all first thing, when most of them were milling about in one of the larger, more popular common areas, alcohol in hand and making a deafening amount of noise.

This was the first time any of the Ravagers had seen Selina since she'd taken refuge in the captain's cabin, and it hadn't endeared her to a single man. But she met every gaze. Show no fear. What was the saying? 'Shoulders down, neck long, think murder, and walk.' Of course, when her eyes landed on Taserface, they stayed there. The ugly, scabbed-over wound gave her a deep, deliciously sadistic sense of satisfaction that she knew would have made her sister proud.

Her sister. The thought of her made her stomach lurch.

"What's the girl doing back?" one of the others asked. "We thought you was leavin' her back where she belonged."

"Unfortunately for you," Selina said calmly, refusing to break eye contact with Taserface, "My plans changed. You boys are looking at the newest member of your little Ravager family."

There was a lot of laughter, but she expected it, just like she expected Taserface's slow stand. She didn't need either Yondu or Kraglin to tell her that he was the one to bite and send scurrying away to gain the respect - or at least fear - of all the others. He'd been the one to force her into submission. The tip of her tongue ran along the edge of her teeth behind her closed lips as she remembered how he'd introduced himself, and she vindictively wished she could have been able to bite hard enough to sever his prick from his body. Scaring him would have to do for the time being.

Wisely, Yondu and Kraglin kept back when their fellow Ravagers made a path for Taserface to approach her. If he expected her to step back and cower behind the captain, then he would find himself disappointed.

His eyes flicked to her feet and then back to her eyes. "... You ain't got the mettle for it," Taserface remarked.

"Well, lucky for me, I don't really need your approval."

A large, threatening finger thrust itself at her to point and it was all Selina could do to not flinch. The last time that finger had been aimed at her, it had been even less threatening. "Just because the cap'n likes your dried-up cunt doesn't make you qualified to be a Ravager."

"No," Selina agreed wryly. "No, it doesn't."

He got closer, the rest of the crew was howling, jeering, trying to help him intimidate her. Selina was ready to run. The muscles in her legs were aching from the constant state of being flexed, and she would hurt later when she finally relaxed them. But first, she had to wait and see what Taserface would do.

At least Yondu was keeping his mouth shut and letting her fend for herself.

As Taserface eventually came close enough for Selina to see the whites of his eyes, she lifted her chin to maintain eye contact and gave him a thoughtful look. "... What kind of a man do you think you are?" she asked him.

"I be a Ravager, woman!" he roared, pounding his chest and making himself look remarkably like a gorilla as he did. "Is that what you want to know? What kind of man fucks some slut living in the cargo bay? The sort of beast who takes enjoyment in a weak, whimpering, pathetic excuse for a creature like a Terran because he can? I be a man who takes whatever the hell he likes, and I likes your fear of me, woman."

She didn't look entirely impressed with his speech. "Really? 'Cause… I think you're a Taylor Swift kind of guy."

"Who-?"

"I stay out too late!" Selina sang out. This time, Yondu heard it again: the echoing timbre that sent creepy shivers crawling up his spine and down his limbs like so many ants, and it was obvious that his crew could, too, from the way they recoiled. "Got nothin' in my brain! That's what people say, mm-mm, that's what people say, mm-mm-"

For a moment, Taserface stood there, gape-jawed and torn between the bizarre sense of hypnosis that Selina put people under and the weird fact that she was screeching a Terran pop song at him as her method of offense. Her threatening stance didn't match the carefree tune.

It worked, though. By the time Selina reached the transition into the chorus, Taserface was dancing. She was, too, a little bit, but it was light, restricted, and beautifully mocking.

"'Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play-"

"Stop this!" Taserface growled. Every single eye was watching him shimmy. Vahkyl powers gave him more grace than he should have had.

"And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, baby-"

"I'm serious-!"

"I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, baby. Shake it off. Shake it off!"

One of the crew members - Gef - very unwisely pulled his hand on the grip of his holstered gun and glanced nervously at Yondu, who caught the look. He lifted an eyebrow. Go on, he goaded, See what happens.

Unfortunately for him, he took the dare and pulled the weapon.

"I never miss a beat!" Selina forcefully said, pointing directly at Gef to make him freeze in his tracks. Her eyes were blazing when they locked onto him and made his hips start moving, popping her head from side to side in the same rhythm. "I'm lightning on my feet! And that's what they don't see, mm-mm, that's what they don't see, mm-mm."

She danced them through the whole. Damn. Song. All the other Ravagers were too thrown off by what was going on in front of them to do anything to save their friends, and none of them wanted to be subjected to Selina's power, either. It wasn't even good music. The worst bit was the physical hypnosis that left the rest of the mind well enough alone. Selina directed both Taserface and Gef into a synchronized dance with one another, even going so far as to make them perform a jaunty swing routine with one another. There were enough ridiculous moves to have the other Ravagers laughing at them for a time.

Until they reached the end, and suddenly Gef was knocking Taserface to the floor and kneeling with one leg on his chest, shoving the gun he had wanted to turn on Selina in Taserface's mug, instead.

The song stopped and the laughter died, but both of them were still frozen. Gef's finger was on the trigger. If Selina had sung two more notes, he knew he would have pulled it.

"Anyone else want to debate my presence on this ship?" Selina called out, glancing around the room, and no one else challenged her. She cleared her throat and broke the spell over Taserface and Gef both. Oh, the fury on the former's face - but also the fear. The tasty, delicious fear. She then added to herself to herself, Calm down, there, Pennywise. "Good. If no one else has any objections, I would like to clarify a few things: you are to treat me as you would anyone else on this ship. Be rude. Salty. Be like a space pirate. Whatever, that's fine. But the second a single one of you touches me without my permission, I'll have you prance into the airlock, force yourself into space, and foxtrot until you die. Got it?"

No one said anything. Some stared, some couldn't look at her.

"Got it?"

Scattered "Yeahs" chorused among the crew, and they didn't sound thrilled. Being humiliated by a woman was one thing, but the fact that it was the captain's whore of the last couple of weeks was what made it awful. They couldn't do much to defend themselves from her bizarre power, either. At least the display was over, and they went back to what they had been doing; instead of loud guffaws and storytelling, the room was now filled with low mutterings, peppered with plenty of derogatory words directed at her like tiny, invisible darts. That was okay, though, she had expected that much. She could deal with that much. Being touched by anyone other than Yondu, that she couldn't abide.

With her face set into a look of grim satisfaction, Selina nodded and turned back to Yondu with her hands on her hips, looking for his approval - or disapproval, even. She found neither. His face was cool and even, refusing to give anything away.

"Not how I woulda done it," he admitted. "But I think you got the point across."

"Yeah? I hope so." She allowed herself to look worried - only a little. Yondu wanted to reach out and touch her, to reassure her, but he wouldn't. Not in front of the boys. "Do you still want to teach me to use a gun?"

"Well, yeah. You think I mastered the arrow and never bothered learnin' nothin' else?" He jabbed his finger at her, nearly touching her nose. "Guns, flyin', and how to keep that voice of yours in check. That's just to start out with."

"Okay."

"And you need to learn to throw a punch. You did okay scarin' the piss out of them, but some of the boys're gonna try to test their luck again."

Selina sighed and gave him a smile, tucking a stray chunk of hair back behind her ear and making the expression seem almost shy. It was unlike her, even off-putting. "Whatever you say, Captain," she told him sweetly. "I owe you."

"No, you don't. I already told you."

Teeth came gnashing playfully at his still-pointing finger and Selina laughed. "I think I do. At least a little, you know?"

Suddenly, he was being tugged back to his cabin. The halls grew steadily more deserted, and in turn, Selina became more and more urgent. She couldn't wait until they were safely squirreled away, no; she had to push him against a wall without warning and drop to her knees in front of him where literally anyone could (but likely would not) walk by.

"What in the hell-?"

Selina shushed him with a silky, purring snicker. "Shut up and quit your squirming," she chided, making him prickle.

The annoyance at having his own words set against him was short-lived when she pushed his pants down and went in for the kill. Her tongue was hot and starving to taste him, bypassing the usual slow-and-steady build up. He couldn't remember her ever having this much excitement before. Was it really the gratitude? Or maybe a habit. The correlation between keeping Yondu sexually satisfied and her being allowed to stay on the ship might be too hard to break immediately. So, too, was his custom to dig his fingers into her hair and pretend that there was something else between them, something more. It was starting to become a dependence, more than a routine. He found himself needing to think that.

She was kissing the head of his cock and then, to his surprise, experimentally wrapped her lips around it. He felt her go rigid beneath his hands and he prepared himself to disengage, especially when Selina pulled away again - but then she jammed the entire thing down her throat, opening her jaw as wide as she could and screwing her eyes shut. Both of them groaned, but for different reasons.

Yondu sank down the wall an inch, maybe two, and he caught her eye, where tears were already forming at the corners. His hand turned gentle and stroked her head, then he told her in a low murmur to relax, but he knew it was hard for her. Doing anything other than sitting back on her heels was difficult when she had so much obstructing her, but damn it if she wasn't willing to try it. If only once. So he guided her, letting her back out a few inches so she could breathe, and helped her into a rhythm. Once she was used to the sensation, her trembling hands held his thighs, as much as she dared to move them. There was such little strength in her limbs, so little resistance. Yondu finally understood how easy it was for his crew to take advantage of her once given the opportunity.

Actually, there was a sharp thrill in knowing that she had no idea what she was doing and that she was breaking a taboo that she, herself, had set. She was putting an extraordinary amount of trust in him. That made up for her lack of skill, whether Yondu realized it or not.

Resistance came when he got too enthusiastic and coaxed her forward, bumping against the back of her throat. He could feel her gag and dig her fingertips into his legs, but she didn't motion for him to stop.

"'M almost there," Yondu said. He leaned his head back and grunted, biting his lip. "Good girl, 'Lina, just a little more." His muscles were coiling in his groin, some on the outer edges fluttering and trying to snap him into letting go too early, when he knew his climax wouldn't be nearly as satisfying as he wanted it to be, but he had to compromise. He didn't want to put her through her paces. Not this first time.

His backburner concern proved to be unfounded, though, because when he did finally hit his peak and spilled himself in the cradle of her soft tongue, a massive shudder wracked him from neck to toes and his moan echoed and rattled down the hall. Selina pulled away the second his seed stopped flowing, coughing yet still trying to swallow what she could. Her hand touched her throat, and she grimaced. Gods, it was sore.

Yondu hadn't quite come down from the high of his climax when he picked Selina up from the floor and held her by the arms. His thumb wiped away a trickle of his own fluids from her chin, and his lips came crashing down into hers. Right away, his shoulders tightened up, he felt the need to bolt, but he wanted to kiss her. Yondu could taste himself, the salt, the bitterness, but just like her scent, a taste of her own was buried underneath there, somewhere. Selina pressed herself against him, her body warm and welcoming. He more than happily held her.

No, Selina didn't owe him anything. But that didn't mean that he wouldn't still take her back to his bed and keep her there.

A/N: Why do I keep posting these well after midnight? I have an exam in eight hours.

Also, hello humiliation via Taylor Swift song that may or may not be on one of my writing playlists. Ahem. At least I'm trying to work on my intensive POV-switching, right?

Thank you, everyone, for your continued support. I continue to be both physically floored and entirely grateful that my first smutfic's being received so well.