~Star Lord's POV~

It's been a few days now since Kara woke up, and, like, Rocket's locked himself away again, and all I've heard out of him for the past hour are some pretty ingenious and creative insults. Why's he done it, probably to make a point and get my attention, yes it definitely did. The point he was trying to make, we have no clue. I know he was complaining about having to look after the newbie, Kara? Was that her name? He seemed to actually be getting along with her though the past few days.

"What is that infernal racket?" Drax groaned, glaring at Rocket's room.

"Ohh it's just Rocket being miserable. I'll go talk to him in a minute." Truth be told I kinda didn't. Don't get me wrong, I do care about our resident trash panda, but he has been a bit of a dickhead lately, before we picked up Kara. I did ask Mantis to read him and find out what his problem was, but he wasn't having any of it. Groot was being an average teenager with an attitude, probably not helping Rocket's anger.

I think the break when we landed and he went to the club and got drunk off his furry little ass did help. I guess it can get a bit much, stuck on this ship with Gamora and Drax for him, especially considering he seems to drive them pair crazy the most.

"Fucking useless piece of trash! Fucking no good for nothing hunk of scrap metal!" Well, he sounds angry.. I jumped slightly at the sound of a loud bang behind his door, him no doubting throwing whatever he was working with. Drax sent me an unsure look, before leaving me to sort it out.

Gamora was looking after Kara since Rocket locked her out in his sudden anger fit. I don't know what set him off, or who, but his refusing to speak to any of us now.

Walking over to the door, and after a second of hesitating, knocked on it, I heard him growl. "What?"

"You ok in there buddy?"

"Yes, now go away... I'm trying to fix this stupid frickin jetpack!" I felt my heart jump when another loud bang echoed from inside, the door shaking slightly as something hit it from inside.

"Trying to fix it? Sounds more like you're trying to break it Rocket."

"I am Groot."

"What? Oh I don't know why his so pissed."

"I am Groot."

"Really, you think his pissed because we drank his alcoho-actually thats not a bad assumption." I swear, if thats all his pissed about, I don't know what I'm going to do actually.

"I am Groot."

"Be my guest." I stepped aside to let Groot next to the door.

"I am Groot!"

"What?"

"I am Groot?"

There were a few seconds of silence from Rocket before he hurled something else. "You drank the last of my alcohol!"

"Oh shit." I groaned, now his really gonna be mad.

"I am Groot."

"Damn right you're gonna buy me more!"

"Rocket if you're not mad about the alcohol what are you mad about?"

"Quill! Did you drink it?" He was definitely NOT happy.

"What? No! I knew it was yours, why would I do that?" Hopefully he believed that cause I actually did drink most of it with Drax and Gamora drinking what I left. "We'll buy you some to replace it. Now, what's really wrong?"

"It doesn't matter!" His voice broke off a bit during that last word, almost as if he wasn't sure about whether it actually didn't matter.

"I am Groot."

"No!"

'Whose Lylla?'

"I am Groot."

"Shut up! Just fuck off! NOW!" Ohhh k, his really, yeap maybe we should go.

"I am Groot." I tapped the tree on his shoulder, giving him a pleading look while pointing away from the door. I know Rocket wouldn't hurt Groot, but I didn't want to take the risk of pissing him off to the point we find ourselves in his crosshairs. Did it once ages ago in Knowhere, did it two weeks before we landed and got the mission, did it two days before we landed at the station... Really didn't want to do it again, especially in a ship as small as the Benatar, and knowing my luck this time will be the time he ends up shooting at us.

Groot sighed, reluctantly agreeing to leave the Raccoon alone to cool off. "I am Groot."

"Really, you think Kara has something to do with it?" He nodded, a sad expression on his face.

"I am Groot."

"Oh.. I mean.. Do you think she could actually be able to talk to him? Without getting blasted." The Floral Collosus shrugged with a half nod, before walking off. I took one last glance at Rockets room, and heard nothing. No more cursing, raging or growling, just silence. I don't really know who 'Lylla' was but it sounded like she meant something to Rocket and Kara was somehow reminding him of her. I guess it didn't help that she was found in a lab like the one he said created him.

Walking away, I went to find Gamora and the new girl, hoping that maybe she could help calm Rocket down.. The longer his mad and doesn't have alcohol, the worst he can get.

'We really need to land soon.' I sighed, casting a quick glance at the map to find the nearest civilised planet we could get supplies from was still a fair distance away. Thank god I had got some fuel when I did because we had just enough to reach that planet.

"Hey Mantis.." I greeted as I walked past her, to which she ignored me and continued to stare at some blinking yellow light. I chuckled softly before continuing to Gamora's quaters. Once outside, I rapped my knuckles against the door.

"Come in." She called out after a second. I pushed it open and stepped inside, shrugging in response to her unasked question. "Soo... His still angry?"

"Yeah, I don't know what's up with him to be honest.. Though I'm pretty sure his alot more pissed now he knows we drank his drinks.. Groot told him, not me." I threw my hands up in defence. We had planned not to tell Rocket and just replace it in secret. He doesn't use it often enough to notice his stock slowly going down. Well he does, but I know which bottles he wont notice.

"Great." She sighed sarcastically. "This is going to be a loooong trip."

"Maybe he'll cool off, we gotta make a pit stop next planet anyway for fuel and supplies, we didn't exactly fully stock ourselves last time. We get him some alcohol and he'll be fine, long as we don't drink it. Right now we just better leave him alone, I'm pretty sure his tearing apart that busted jetpack."

"Ma-maybe I c-can talk to him?" We both turned to face Kara, questioning expressions plastered on our faces. Groot did think she might have a better chance then the rest of us to not get killed or in the very least, shot at by him.

"Maybe you should let him cool down a bit first, his really not in a talking mood right now." She nodded in understanding, looking to the ground. I sighed, rubbing the back of my head before dismissing myself and heading towards my pilot seat.

~No POV~

His room was a mess, equipment, weapons and spare parts scattered across. The small furry creature stood at the centre of the mess, glaring at the ground and breathing heavily, paws clenched into fists and his ears twitching in anger. His fur was ruffled, stands pulled out and littering the floor from his own attempts at coping with the stress he was currently feeling.

If anything, he blamed himself for the terrible condition of the ship and the risk they might not reach a planet in time. He had started slacking a bit on keeping the ship in condition, resorting to drink to combat the unfair pressure he had on him, which only ended up worsening the situation. Quill was adamant they would reach the planet in time to restock and do some proper maintence but he didn't realise how quickly the fuel was actually draining. They'd need a miracle to get there in one piece.

All the stress of managing all the other equipment was building up on him. At first, everything was easy to manage, it just slowly became too much to cope with after the Ego situation. All the air-rigs, new weapons and everything he had created all required him to keep them in condition. One 'Raccoon' managing a ship and atleast twenty different weapons with limitied supplies is kinda unfair, but hey, atleast their a Jetpack down now, and maybe about five of his spare guns.

One of his spare jumpsuits didn't fair any better, completely ripped and shredded in his frustration and a flurry of aggressive bites and slashes. He was thankful the others did look after their own equipment, but he still was left with the bulk of the work and it really took its toll. He'd spent nights awake working, not getting any sleep and then getting drunk off his fur covered butt to not have to work anymore.

If all that wasn't enough, the mechanics in his back, they were starting to really become an annoyance, hurting him. He didn't trust any of the others to help, so he had to cope with thay himself: Drax wouldn't have a clue and would only make it worse, Star-Lord, probably shouldn't be trusted with that kinda stuff, Gamora would probably be the safest bet but still, she wouldn't know what to do even if he explained it, Mantis was really only useful for helping ease the pain to a tolerable level so he could do it, how nobody has a frickin clue.

The Raccoon hissed, anger fading and making way for the pain of his implants to once again take over, uncomfortably rubbing against the fabric of his jumpsuit. This was the most common cause, just his bare, furless skin that surrounded the metal making contact with the rather rough material of his jumpsuits usually caused some pain and irritation, more often than the actual implants themselves. It took a few minutes but eventually it faded out.

"Why'd they have to talk about her?" He asked himself, cursing under his breath at the fact he had been reminded of something he wanted to forget. Silence envelopped him, his emotions slowly carming back into his usual hard ass atittude; he relaxed after a few seconds, taking calmer breaths before looking around the mess he had created.

One thing was not damaged, one thing that he still clutched in his left paw. A wrist-computer, sporting Lylla's name carved into the metal above the screen. After Lylla vanished, this was all he had left of her, and he had kept it with him the entire way through. Through the Prison, through Bounty Hunting, through Ronan, Ego.. He had kept it safe, doing everything he could to not lose or break it.

He stepped over the many parts, clutching the wrist computer in his paw as he made his way over to his bed. Even after all these years, he still remembered one of the last things he heard her say. "I never thought I'd see the sky."

They were still on the run then, and all it took was Rocket to turn his eyes away from Lylla to lose track of her. He had searched for ages, with Groot's help and with the help of the odd mercenary and Bounty Hunter to find her, but nothing ever yielded results.

Kara reminded him of her, much more than he cared to admit. Maybe she didn't share Lylla's sentiment, or more friendly personality and instead sported one akin to his own hard headed, cold personality after gaining her confidence, but the female was just a reminder that he wasn't alone, he wasn't the last.

The past few days alone he had grown close to her, not friends or anything above, but he felt calmer around her, and she felt safer around him. The first three days in particular, she really started to show off her abilities, prove her worth and develop her confidence.

~Rocket's POV, Kara's first day~

"Awhh come on Kara.. It'll be fun." It was only a few hours after I had introduced her, and I was already trying to convince her to prank Quill with me. It was a harmless idea that would be a great laugh, but she seemed so quiet and reluctant.

"B-b-but... I-I-I d-don't t-think I should.. I-It's not nice." She shuffled on her feet nervously. I sighed, folding my arms across my chest and leaning against the door of my room. Actually, thats when it kinda hit me she didn't have a room of her own. Mantis kinda took up the last spare one in the ship, and it'd take ages - and cost alot of Units - to get her a room built into the Benatar.

Quill's 'brilliant' solution was... "Why don't she sleep in your room with you?" To which I'm pretty sure freaked Kara out to the point she didn't want to even look up from the floor for a solid twenty minutes. Hence this prank as payback.

"C'mon Kara. It's gonna be fine. His a humie, he can handle it." She wasn't really having any of it.

"N-No.. I-I d-don't want to be s-sent back."

"We ain't sending you back anyway. Like Quill said, we're going to the Nova Corps, they can help us."

"B-But.. W-What a-about that g-guy.. I-I he-heard you mention someone w-was paying a-alot of 'Units' for me.. I-I thought y-you w-were gonna se-sell me." She kept her head down, ears flattened against her head.

"What? No, no way. We ain't selling you to that A-class creep, none of us trust him, especially me, and seeing as how I'm the Captain despite Quill's countless protests, I decided we're taking you to the Nova."

~Day 2~

"Nice one Kara. You're pretty good at this hacking buisness." That was probably an understatement, she was incredible. She has some insane learning capablities, she went from not even knowing what a computer is or what a keyboard does to hacking into the ship after it had locked us all out, and this ship has some pretty serious security hardware. I couldn't do it, I tried.

I can do alot of technical miracles, but straight up plain and simple hacking is not one. She picked it up in less than three minutes, and had us all back into the ship after it's lockdown - that she inadvertantly and unknowningly caused. I noticed her face light up with my approval, and it seemed she was quickly building up her confidence and earning her place as a potential Guardian..

Yes, she was lumbered in my room at the time and needless to say was it uncomfortable. I slept on the floor, with the blanket while she just hugged the pillow. Sooner we get this ship done out with her own little area the better, that is, if she stays with us which she most likely will. I could use another helping hand with all the equipment.

Speaking of which she wasn't too bad at looking after the smaller guns and weapons, though she wasn't comfortable managing the larger rifles that were almost double her size and she couldn't even lift. We really need some food.

"Oh hey, I'm back in!" Quill shouted from the cockpit. "Nice work guys!"

"All thanks to Kara."

"I j-just want to be u-useful to you guys."

~Day 3~

I patted the newest addition to the Guardians - as far as I know atleast, Quill's asking if she wants to stay around for a bit longer. She sent me a smile, beaming in self-pride at the fact she had actually fixed a pretty badly busted up gun. I busted it up, screwed up all the insides and everything just to test her and help her learn these weapons. I made sure not to completely trash it because this baby was a useful weapon.

She looked so pleased with herself. "Good job, you did well for a first time." Just like yesterday with the hacking, she has a super quick learning ability. She still struggled alot with this, but she managed to get it done twice as quick as Quill could. She couldn't lift the damn thing though, so I had to do all the heavy lifting work.

Honestly she really was earning a place here, as far as I was concerned. Still hadn't tested her with weapons or combat, but the others reckoned we should give her atleast a week before she starts doing anything. Heck she was recovering so quickly I could probably test her tomorrow.

"I think you'll fit in well with us here."

She beamed happily, looking like a little kid whose just do something really impressive and got praised by their parents. "You th-think?" I nodded, trying to contain my actual excitement at having a Guardian I could relate to and who could help manage everything.

"Yeah, you've earned your place here anyway."

"W-will the o-others b-be ok with it?"

I dismissed her with a wave of my hand. "They'll learn to deal with it, besides I think they're happy with you joining. I mean, look at it like this, you'll be a part of our family, and you'll have a home." She only beamed with even more happiness, latching onto me in a tight hug.

"Thank you... So much." I just kinda sat there, reluctant to return the hug but eventually I caved.

"You're welcome."