Author's Note: Thank you to all who reviewed and liked "Moving the Stars". Hopefully you'll like what else I have in store in this series :) There's going to be a loosely threaded together plot that's going to take the Milano to Knowhere and then Xandar, with many familiar faces along the way from the movies, comics, and animated series. But first maybe Peter should probably figure out this whole parenting thing…


Not Quite Paradise

By: Silver Spider

Looking back on it, Peter should have realized what the problem was before it ever became a problem. He had maybe assumed that since he'd turned okay having been raised by space pirates since age eight, caring for Victoria, who was definitely more mature than he was at her age - and arguably even now - was going to be a piece of cake. It wasn't like she was that little and couldn't outright tell him if something was wrong. Right?

It wasn't even he who noticed it first. Drax approached him one day while he and Rocket were in engineering arguing about the latest modifications the raccoon wanted to make to the ship.

"Are you aware," the big man frowned at him, "that your small child has fallen asleep in the galley again?"

"Drax, we've been over this," Peter pinched the bridge of his nose. "She's my kid sister, not my actual kid."

"She is a child and she is your charge. Any relation beyond that is irrelevant."

That was Drax's irritated voice. Not let-me-go-gleefully-gut-some-monsters voice, but the get-your-shit-together-and-be-a-responsible-adult voice. He usually heard it from Gamora but it was her turn to pilot and the galley was generally Drax's domain. While he didn't necessarily see anything wrong with taking a short nap in the kitchen, Peter knew Drax was not going to let it go, so he rose and made his way over there where he found Victoria with her head cradled in her arms on the table. He checked the ship's clock which read out a little past 1400 back to him.

In other words, the middle of the day.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked quietly, picking her up.

The girl acknowledged the question with an indistinct noise, nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck, and fell asleep again. Weird, Peter thought as he carried her back to his quarters and because that's what his mom would have done, pressed a palm to her forehead. Nope. No fever. He gently deposited her on the bed and was just about to leave when Victoria rolled over and made a face.

"Lights?" she asked groggily.

"Oh, right. Sorry."

He dimmed the lights and returned to engineering, surprised to find Drax still there, still frowning. "Is she ill?"

"I don't think so. Why?"

"Her sleep patterns are odd. Children should grow out of this behavior in infancy. Are Spartoi different?"

"I understood about half of what you said, man."

The next time a similar incident occurred he was the one asleep. Even resting, Peter knew the Milano so well that even the slightest motion that didn't belong woke him. He figured no one was shooting at them because no alarm bells were going off yet, so he stretched and made his way to the cockpit where he found Rocket and his sister. With a mixture of horror and amusement, Peter realized that the flight controls were switched to his usual seat, the one Victoria now occupied.

"Permission to come aboard, Captain Victoria." The girl swiveled and gave him a sheepish look followed by a small nod. Peter shook his head with mock disappointment. "No, no, no. You're supposed to say, 'permission granted'. What have I been teaching you?"

If Gamora was here, she'd have a lot of answers to that question, not all of them positive.

"Anyway, this looks fun," he leaned on the door frame and crossed his arms, smiling, "but 'Don't take over the Milano to have imaginary space battle while the actual captain's napping' isn't a rule I thought we needed. Do we need it?"

Victoria blanched, but Rocket just rolled his eyes.

"I wasn't gonna let 'er crash or anything," his teammate protested, but switched controls back to his own seat. " 'Sides we could always use another pilot. At this rate she'll figure it out faster than Drax."

"Not the point." But yeah, good point… He held out his hand to Victoria. "Come on, kiddo. It's way past your bedtime."

"But I'm not tired."

It was as close to whining as she came, because generally speaking Victoria was infinitely better behaved that he'd ever been around the same age. In comparison, it was a small wonder Yondu didn't deliver him to Ego or actually make good on his threat to eat him just to be rid of him.

"Your 'not tired' is noted, but no more pretend space battles. I'll teach you how to fly for real when you're a little older."

"When's that?"

"When you're…" when had Yondu started with him? "ten. When you're ten, I'll start teaching you how to fly the Milano, I promise."

"That's three whole years from now!"

"I know." He paused when they got to his quarters, the broken sleep finally catching up to him. "Look, I know you're a little bored up here. As soon as we get to Knowhere, we'll get you some books and toys, but you can't play with the ship's systems. It could be really dangerous. Okay?"

"Okay." No, she didn't whine, but boy, could she pout like a pro.

Peter pulled out the Zune from his pocket and handed it to her. "Why don't you listen to some tunes while I get a little more shut-eye?"

His eyes closed again almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. Before sleep completely took him, Peter felt the mattress shift around a little as Victoria made herself comfortable at his side and if he listened hard enough, he could just make out the song she was listening to. Not quite paradise, but it sure feels like home...

He awoke for the second time to the sound of muffled laughter. He tried to lift his arm from over his face only to realize that it wasn't even his limb, and that, yup, Victoria's foot was, in fact, right in front of his nose as the girl had somehow ended up turning nearly 180 degrees in her sleep. And taking all the blankets with her.

Which explained why Gamora was standing over the bed and trying hard not to laugh.

"You know," she cleared her throat, amusement still apparent in her voice, "if I had ever pictured finding you in bed with another pretty girl, I have to admit this isn't exactly what I pictured."

Peter groaned and removed the foot before Victoria accidentally kicked him in the face in her sleep. "Please tell me there's coffee."

"There's something that passes for coffee," Gamora offered. "We won't get the real thing until Xandar, you know that."

"Can't believe Knowhere doesn't have coffee," he complained, but rose and followed her to the galley. The remainders of Drax's latest culinary experiment were still in the sink, and Peter did his best to avoid looking there as he poured himself a cup.

"You're need to deal with this sleep issue of hers sooner rather than later," the woman pointed out. Peter squinted at her over his cup, not quite awake himself yet. "Tell me you haven't noticed how random her sleep is."

"It's space. Everyone's on a different… oh, crap." All at once he knew exactly what the problem was, and it was all Peter could do not to smack himself. "She's not used to space. That's the problem. She's lived on a planet all her life with normal solar cycles, but up here day and night are completely artificial and depend on what shift you're on. I went through exactly the same thing when the Ravagers first picked me up. I can't believe I forgot. I was miserable for a week."

"And then?" Gamora prompted.

"And then," he tried to remember, "Yondu put me to work. Small stuff at first, like cleaning things around the ship, making sure all the weapons worked properly. I had chores to do just like the rest of the crew."

In hindsight, knowing what he did now, Peter realized that it was the moment Yondu must have decided to keep him. Who cared if he was a little tired and cranky while he was cargo for Ego, but a real crew member? A real crew member had to be sharp, well-trained. Peter pushed the thought away and focused on the immediate problem.

"You had a schedule," Gamora finished the thought for for him.

He nodded. "Usually by the time I was done with all my chores and whatever Yondu had to teach me, I was too tired for anything but sleep."

He and Gamora looked at one another for a long time until she spoke again. "So schedule?"

"Schedule," Peter agreed.

He'd see if he could get Victoria to sleep more or less when he did. That way if they were both up at the same time, he could start teaching her things around the Milano. Not flying yet, but if she learned at least a little bit how the various systems worked it would be a step in the right direction and she'd be less inclined to think of the ship as a toy.

He was feeling quite pleased with this breakthrough until Gamora spoke again.

"You know one of these days we're going to have to talk about living arrangements, too."

"Oh?" This should be interesting…

"About Victoria."

"Oh." Not so interesting.

"She's a little girl now," Gamora went on, either oblivious to or ignoring his disappointment, "but she'll grow, and adolescent girls need privacy, especially from their fathers or brothers."

"I'm not her father," What was with everyone?

"That's not the point."

"I don't get the point."

"You do," she gave him a look. "I know you made room for her, and that's fine for now…"

"M-ships are great, but they're not luxury cruisers," he pointed out, because as much as he loved the Milano, it really wasn't as spacious as he'd like to pretend and because Peter was going to put off thinking of his sister's coming teenage years for as long as he possibly could. An idea came to him, and he gave Gamora a sly grin. "If you're concerned, why don't you move in with me, and Vicky can take your room? Captain's quarters are the biggest."

"I have a better idea," Gamora folded her arms and put on her oh, so frequent nice-try-I'm-not-impressed-Peter-Quill expression. "Why don't you move into my quarters, and Victoria and I can stay in yours. Since the captain's quarters are biggest."

Swing and a miss, Star-Lord, but he wasn't actually disappointed. What they had - no longer unspoken, though still undefined - was still very new and for once in his life, Peter felt that it was much more important to nurture the new… whatever it was, than to rush it. Besides, he had a couple years still to convince her that his proposal for the living arrangement swap was the most brilliant idea ever.


Getting Victoria on a tighter schedule definitely helped. The girl was much more alert and active when she was awake, and Peter found he could usually coax her to sleep with a few choice songs from the Zune or bedtime stories, some that he remembered from his childhood, others he simply made up.

"...and then it turned out that the princess hid the plans for the Death Star on the little droid, so Luke and Obi-Wan..."

"What's a Death Star?" Victoria interrupted his grand retelling of A New Hope.

"You'll see, oh impatient one. Where was I?"

"Princess Leia. She's not doing anything, though." There was a note of disappointment in her voice.

"Hey, she does plenty," Peter objected on behalf of the sci-fi icon. "She back talks all the bad guys, even Darth Vader. And just wait! Later on she fights this really nasty gangster that looks like a giant worm."

"That's pretty cool," Victoria perked up. "Go on."

"Nope." He pointed to the clock. "You know what time it is. No more stories until tomorrow night." Her bottom lip protruded slightly, but he shook his head in mock solemness. "I'm growing immune to your magic pouting powers, but nice try, princess."

"I liked 'Captain Victoria' better," she declared but climbed off his bed and padded across the room to her own.

"A woman after my own heart," Peter chuckled.

"What are we doing tomorrow?" she asked after he tucked her in.

"I want to show you how the ship's life support and backups work," he told her. "It'll take a few tries, but it's really important you learn how they work, especially the emergency systems. Just in case."

In case any part of the ship is exposed to the vacuum of space, and… Peter closed his eyes momentarily to put a halt on that train of thought. He wanted to sleep that night too and like all kids, Victoria was damn good at picking up on his moods and tended to stress if he did.

"It's important," she repeated. Peter nodded and leaned over to kiss her forehead.

"Good night, baby sis. I love you."

He just managed to rise before Victoria asked, "When are the others going to teach me things?"

Peter's brows drew together slightly. "What kind of things?"

"Gamora said she'd teach me how to fight."

Oh, really? "I think Gamora and I need to have a talk about that. I don't want you to get hurt. Go to sleep now. We have lots to do tomorrow."

He still couldn't quite decide if he was mad or not by the time he found the green skinned woman. Gamora and Drax were sparing in one of the few places on the ship open enough to accommodate it, both already sporting an impressive array of blossoming bruises. Maybe he wasn't going to be mad, but annoyed sounded about right.

"Guys," he let out a sharp whistle to get their attention. "Sorry to interrupt, but I need Gamora for a minute."

Both warriors stopped and looked at him. Drax tilted his head. "A minute doesn't seem nearly long enough to…"

"Dude!"

"What is it?" Gamora wiped her forehead, not even batting an eyelash at the direction Drax's comment was going in.

Peter shook his head to clear it. He didn't really want to chew her out in front of anyone else, but just in case Drax was also thinking about teaching Victoria something dangerous, maybe it was a good time to talk about some boundaries.

"Did you tell Vicky you'd teach her how to fight?" he asked.

"I told her I'd teach her how to defend herself," Gamora replied, apparently not seeing anything wrong with that. "Why?"

"Because I wish you'd talked to me first," he tried to keep the frustration out of his voice but failed, "because I would've said that she's fifty pounds soaking wet and doesn't need to end up looking like you two right about now."

"We're talking about basic self-defense," Gamora's hands were on her hips, a clear sign of displeasure. "There's a right level for everyone and every age. You do understand I wasn't planning to beat her up, but space is hostile and she needs to be able to protect herself."

"There are more than enough adults with more than enough weapons on this ship to protect her," Peter protested but stopped when he felt Drax's hand on his shoulder.

"I will die," the other man said seriously, "before I let any harm come to another little girl, but Gamora is correct. You may not like it, but some form of training is warranted."

He hated it when they ganged up on him. It wasn't that they were wrong, Peter knew. He just wanted Victoria to be a kid as long as possible, and allowing combat training meant acknowledging that, yes, sometime, likely in the not-too-distant future, she might actually need. He bit the inside of his cheek.

"I still wish you talked to me first," he told Gamora, who inclined her head in acknowledgment. "We'll carve out some time for it. Life support systems first, though."

Two days later, he'd wish he'd said yes right away.


Author's End Note: The title for this fic is taken from another great scifi movie with an awesome (mostly 90s) soundtrack, Titan A.E.. Also Victoria's preference to being called 'Captain' instead of 'Princess' is a nod at the animated series and comics where, despite being a princess of sorts (the illegitimate daughter, though still possible heir, of Emperor J'Son), she takes a lot more pride in her role as Captain of the Royal Guard of Spartax.