Hello all! Hope you're doing well! This is an idea I've been playing around with for a while now and I started working on it as way to deal with my bitterness after Infinity War. Hopefully you all like it!

Speaking of Infinity War, I blame everything that happened in the entire second half of that movie on Doctor Strange. He was the one at fault, not Quill. To get a condensed version of the two hour, red wine induced rant send me a message and I'll share my theory.

A/N: I own nothing =/


It's been less than thirty-six hours and Yondu is already regretting his decision.

Sure, he could have just taken the kid to his father like he was hired to do but noooo, he had to change his mind decide he was going to turn the boy into a Ravager instead. And yeah, that had been a good idea for all of two minutes before the brat bolted through the nearest open door and disappeared into the bowels of the ship. Now he's hiding out somewhere in the ventilation system and Yondu is left to reconsider his choices. Like if he's truly ready to take on the responsibility of raising the child to be a Ravager or if he's just going to wrestle the little shit out of the vents and dump him off at the nearest garbage planet.

He's gotta hand it to the kid though, he knows how to put up a helluva fight. He wasn't the first kid Yondu had been hired to pick up and he probably wouldn't be the last. The boy's father, Ego, apparently just remembered he'd fucked his way across the galaxy for several decades and had children scattered across the cosmos like Easter eggs. Now he suddenly wants all his kids back for whatever reason and was hiring every kind of bounty hunter and mercenary he could to wrangle them up and bring them back to his home planet.

And yeah, the pay was good and Yondu never asked too many questions because it wasn't his business and he didn't really care but he was started to grow a little suspicious at how many of the said children up and vanished the second they made it back to the planet. Like sure, if the guy wanted to practice some weird form of sacrifice and cannibalism that's fine but Yondu didn't really want anything to do with it. He had morales, not many, but still there were some lines even he didn't cross and aiding in the murder of kids was one of them.

So when he got the call from Ego to go retrieve some scrawny little brat on Terra he had pretty much already decided he was either a) going to take the money and run (Ego had a habit of paying half up front) or b) take the money and keep the kid. He hadn't made up his mind either way; it had been an even split right down the middle all the way until they entered the Terran atmosphere and spotted the kid on his knees in the middle of a field. That made their job easier for sure as it meant they didn't have to chase him from here to beyond.

As for the kid, Peter or whatever his name was, well, he definitely wasn't what any of them expected. The Ravagers had run the gamut when it came to the reactions of their charges. There was fear, there was confusion, there were tears. The kids would often cry or plead or beg to be taken back home. They would tremble and shake, going silent in shock or wailing in fear.

Peter did none of those. The kid went from fear to fucking feral in exactly twenty-three seconds and immediately lashed out at the closest Ravager, a hulking Solarian named Ablos.

He was easily three times the size of the scrawny child on the floor of the Ravager's ship but Peter didn't see him as dangerous or even as a threat, he just saw him as an obstacle. One that was blocking the nearest open door and needed to be taken down in order to reach it. So he reacted in a totally rational, sane way and launched himself at Ablos before anyone else had a chance to react.

The element of surprise was the only thing Peter had going for him; no one expected him to lash out the way he did so no one thought to grab him or their weapons to deal with it. He struck Ablos dead center, causing the Solarian to stumble backwards in surprise. And that was all the distraction he needed; the second an opening to the door appeared, Peter bolted.

In all the confusion, a few of the Ravagers pulled their weapons to which Yondu growled, "don't shoot him, ya idiots, just grab him!" Which would have worked in theory but Terran children are apparently very fast and slippery when large, intimidating aliens with large, intimidating weapons are chasing after them.

Peter managed to evade capture for a few minutes before someone caught him around the waist and jerked him backwards. Which, as it turned out, was a mistake. The second someone laid hands on him, the kid started kicking and fighting for all he was worth. His blows were blind, small fists and feet hitting nothing but solid resistance at every angle. But then he kicked back with one foot and happened to catch whoever was holding him in the groin and they dropped him to the ground gracelessly.

Peter hit the ground hard and immediately kept running. He didn't know where he was going and it didn't matter, he just needed to get away. He could hear shouting and thundering footsteps behind him but he never looked back, he just kept running. His eyes landed on a half-open vent shaft up ahead and he made a dive for it the second he was close enough, sliding into the small opening and slamming the grate shut behind him.

That had essentially been the end of the chase because none of the Ravagers were small enough to climb into the ventilation shaft after him. A couple of ideas were thrown around: smoke him out, toss a grenade in there and see what happens, shoot blindly through the grate and hope they hit something. All of those ideas, aside from being terrible, would have been completely ineffective because the likelihood of Peter staying where he was in the same shaft was incredibly slim. The ventilation shafts stretched all over the ship from the engine room to the cargo holds and a small, skinny child could make his way through them easily without being detected.

The other Ravagers were fine to leave him where he was; let the runt starve in the vents or freeze to death when they reached deep space, they didn't care. But Yondu was a patient man in spite of what outward appearances would suggest and was determined to just wait the kid out. He doesn't know much about Terrans but he knows they need to eat and sleep just like everything else in the galaxy and it wouldn't be too long before the kid came out for one reason or another.

He had thought that but now, thirty-plus hours later he was beginning to have his doubts. It had been over a day and half and there hadn't been a single sign of the kid in all that time. Aside from the few muffled thumps and tumbles from the insides of the ship indicating he was still in the shafts, the brat had yet to resurface and Yondu was beginning to get annoyed.

True, the fact that the kid had taken down two full grown Ravagers and managed to escape from some of the most dangerous mercenaries in the galaxy was impressive but he was also proving himself to be a large-scale pain in the ass. The brat had balls, Yondu would give him that, but that was only going to get him so far. If the boy proved to be more trouble than he was worth Yondu was more than happy to leave him on the next planet they came across and wash his hands of the matter entirely.

He finally catches a break a few hours later when he hears the unmistakable thump of a child hiding in the ventilation shaft in the northwest corridor. He's prepared this time though, more so than they were before. There's a discarded piece of metal propped up against the wall in the hallway, a short pole that's just long enough to reach the ceiling overhead, and he grabs it as he walks. He knows he only has one chance at this otherwise the kid will disappear again and there's no telling when/where/if he'll reappear.

Yondu makes his way into the hallway slowly, sliding his coat off as he does so. He doesn't have a net at his disposal so he spreads his coat out on the floor, opening it out as much as possible to it takes up the largest amount of space. With any luck, it will serve the purposes he needs it for and he won't have to come up with a Plan B. The timing on this has to be perfect though so he waits and listens and holds the pole steady until just the right moment.

A few seconds later, he jams the pole up into the ceiling at the lower corner of the grate for the ventilation shaft. The impact has the desired effect and the grate buckles up and then collapses inward, dislodging itself and the occupants of the shaft and dumping them both on the floor down below.

Peter lands in a startled, confused heap in the middle of the floor, splayed out on top of the coat that had been spread out a few moments before. Yondu doesn't give him the chance to move before he stoops down and gathers the sleeves and edges of the coat and bundles them tightly around the squirming mess of a child in the middle. He ties the sleeves across his bony chest, the lower hems around his legs, and basically tangles and ties him up in the coat to the point where he can't escape.

"Caught'cha, brat," he grumbles as he reaches down and hefts the struggling child off the ground and tosses him over one shoulder like a sack of sand.

"Let me go!" Peter demands, fighting and struggling to get lose and failing miserably.

"Not a chance, runt."

Yondu happily ignores the barrage of protests, threats, and a rather impressive string of curses the child throws his way and keeps walking. Yeah, the kid will make a great Ravager once he's done with him; he just has to keep him out of the vents from now on.

He makes his way down the hall toward a recently empty bunk. Being a Ravager was an occupational hazard all its own and there was never any shortage of spare rooms and bunks after a mission gone south. The endless rotation of empty rooms was great for new crew members but also served as stark warning about what to expect once they got on the ship. It sucks but that's the nature of things; your chances of survival dropped dramatically once you became a Ravager.

He locates a room closest to his own quarters and punches a code into the keypad on the wall next to the door. The door slides open a second later to reveal an empty room. It's dark, a little dingy, and it's small but it has an empty cot and most importantly there are no vents in the room which means the kid can't escape again.

Peter is still struggling against his shoulder but it's becoming less frenzied and more resigned when he finally realizes he can't escape. Not only that but he's probably exhausted (to the best of Yondu's knowledge he hasn't slept in all the time he's been up in the vents which means he's running on fumes now) and doesn't have the strength or energy to fight anymore. Which is great because neither does Yondu, to be honest.

He walks into the room and drops the still-bundled child unceremoniously on the cot, rolling his eyes when Peter curses again. "Bitch all ya want, brat, but this is where yer stayin' so get used to it," he tells him before turning and making his way back to the door.

"Wait," Peter snaps, looking from Yondu to the coat still tied around him. "You're not going to untie me?"

The Ravager captain just smirks and shakes his head. "You'll figure it out," he says before the door slides shut and locks behind him, leaving Peter still tied up and furious on the bed.

He can hear a few muffled curses and grumbles from behind the door as he walks away, the boy no doubt still struggling to get loose. Yondu's not all that worried about it; if the kid was even half as determined and resourceful as he was earlier he'll be out of the coat bonds in no time. As it is right now though, the brat has taken up more than enough of his time and energy and he has other things to attend to; he still has a ship to run after all.

Which is why he's surprised when he passes by the room a few hours later and doesn't hear the telltale sounds of a incensed, escaped child on the other side of the door. He pauses for a moment, listening carefully for any sound of movement inside the room. When about thirty seconds passes and he doesn't hear anything, he punches in the keycode and steps into the room once the door slides open.

Sure enough, the kid had managed to free himself the from the tangled knots of the coat but it looks like the struggle had sapped the last remnants of energy he had. He's sprawled out in the middle of the cot, sound asleep with the coat still tossed over him. The boy is dead to the world, completely oblivious to the presence of the Ravager captain standing in the doorway. A bomb probably could have gone off right then and he wouldn't have stirred.

Yondu watches him for a few more seconds, internally debating on whether or not he should step in the room to reclaim his coat. He eventually decides against it for fear of waking the boy. If he woke him up trying to get it back then they'd probably have to go through the whole rigmarole again and honestly he just didn't have the energy or patience for it. So he lets the brat keep it for the night, he'll just take it back in the morning.

He pauses by the door for a second longer before he leaves. When he's unconscious and not being a complicated little shit the kid is actually kinda cute. Enjoy it now, boy, he thinks as he makes his way back to the door. Ya got a long way to go before yer a Ravager.

With that, he steps back out into the hallway closes the door behind him, leaving Peter and his coat in the room on the other side.


Thanks for reading guys! More to come soon! :D