It's 3am and I really should be sleeping but I can't. This is what happens when you have pink eye, two ear infections and strep throat all at once. Don't do it, it's not healthy. Anyway, enjoy~

"You idiot! This is all your fault, going into the facility had been your idea!" Rocket yelled at Quill, pacing back and forth in their cell. They had been trying to get information from the lab computers to find out if they were involved with a gang that had been raiding entire cities when they had gotten captured and thrown into a cell. Quill was glaring at Rocket as he yelled at him, he had been yelling for over three minutes now and it was driving him nuts. Little did he know that Rocket was panicking inside, the smell of the cell reminding him all too much of the cages he had been stuffed in back when he had been tested on and the noise of the other inmates sounded far to much like animals in pain for comfort. Rocket was currently venting at Quill to keep himself distracted. "Let's not go straight there, let's take a detour for no fucking reason! I can't believe I listened to you! Goddamnit Quill!"

"Would you quit yelling at me?" Quill shouted at him. Rocket looked over at him, panting from loss of breath from his yelling. "I'm sorry, ok? I took the detour because if we went the other way there was no promise that we would make it through those security measures. How the hell was I supposed to know there were twenty guards down the other way?!" The two glared at each other angrily, nothing but the noise of the other inmates and Rocket's panting breaking the silence between them. Rocket was trying to grasp at something to say and silently begging Quill to say something else. The echo of the shouting and the banging rang through his ears in an endless loop that was taking over his senses and he felt his lungs contract, making it hard to breathe. "Rocket?" Rocket backed away from the voice and grabbed his throat, trying to force himself to breathe. "Rocket, what's wrong man?"

"Hard. To breathe," Rocket wheezed out, trembling as he fell to his knees. He heard Quill get up and go over, kneeling beside him and picking him up. Rocket gripped Quill's jacket with his claws tightly. "So much noise. Make them stop. Make it all stop. Please." Quill's grip tightened and Rocket felt a hand gently scratching the back of his ears.

"Just breathe, buddy. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Come on, just breathe," Quill said softly, a tone that Rocket had never heard him use before. Rocket took the advice and took a slow breath in through his nose then out through his mouth, he repeated the action and his lungs slowly stopped hurting with each breath he took. "That's it, Rocket. Just breathe. I got you." Quill sat back down and held Rocket, letting him even his breathing out, but he was still shaking terribly. Rocket quieted his breathing when Quill started to hum, trying to place to tune in his head but he couldn't find a match in his memory as Quill continued to hum, then slowly sang;

"You are my sunshine,
My only sunshine.
When you're unhappy,
My skies are gray.
You'll never know dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take,
My sunshine, away."

Rocket listened to Quill as he sang, the rest of the words falling on deaf ears as the raccoon fell into a peaceful slumber that he hadn't known in years.

AΩ

Neither of them ever mentioned the incident when the others had come to bust them out, the memory lay hidden with them both. Rocket too embarrassed and Quill too busy thinking about what Rocket might do to him if he brought it up to say anything. Quill had told the others that Rocket had been knocked unconscious in the fight and they hadn't questioned in, in fact they even took extra care in beating guards up after that, making sure to hit them in extra painful spots whenever they could. But three days after it had happened Rocket woke to a nightmare and not amount of tossing and turning or trying to build something would chase the terrifying thoughts away.

In the end Rocket curled up on his bed and whimpered, trying to think of something, anything, that could help him. He closed his eyes, holding himself tightly, and hummed the tune that he remembered Quill singing, though he couldn't remember the words. Something about sunshine and love, Rocket wasn't a fan of either but the thought was such the opposite of what the nightmare was that it comforted him. He felt his body relax a bit as he hummed and he slowly fell asleep, the nightmare being chased away by sunshine.

AΩ

"Hey, Quill." Quill grunted and turned around to look down at Rocket, who was working on a gun on the floor. He was eating fruit out of a can, a fork in his hand and some fruit on the end of it. Rocket looked up at Quill. "What was that song you sang in the cell?" Quill didn't answer right away, taking the question in. Quill ate the fruit on the edge of the fork and swallowed it.

"It's called You are My Sunshine," Quill answered. "It's an old earth lullaby." Rocket grunted with a nodded and went back to working, Quill walking away without having to take a cue. Rocket never asked again about the lullaby but Quill swore he heard the little guy humming it from time to time.

And that's a wrap! Also, the reason I picked that song is because it's 3am, I'm half asleep and I couldn't think of anything else.

Thanks for reading, please review and have a bow chicka bow wow day~

Petchricor, QotG, signing off ;)