This was not what Rocket was expecting, and Quill noticed it. Most of the markets Rocket had probably been to were of the Knowhere variety, cramped, cheap, low dirty stalls. pickpocketing children. Taspis was far more like Xandar (considering how they were still well in Nova territory, it made sense), high rise buildings, clean streets, and only a few parked food stands along the road. You actually had to enter a building if you wanted something. Crazy, right?

Quill rented a personal two-wheeled vehicle with a sidecar, and drove along the street with purpose. Rocket and Groot shared the seat on his right, the former looking out in feigned disinterest while the latter using up enough glee for both. Eventually he stopped at one of the lower buildings in the city, parking the vehicle, and unlocking the door to the sidecar. Groot tumbled out, his outside clearly matching the internal glee he'd held in for centuries. Quill wanted his friend back to full size and able to assist in jobs that didn't involve ferrying a lost member of nobility (which led them to draw straws/survive a firefight in his ship for who had to give up their quarters for three days), sensitive documents (which were thankfully stored in fireproof casing), and 'seriously guys, don't ask' (really, don't look at the squirming box for too long), but he respected the fact that Groot was able to have something of a second childhood. And the whole team really needed the little morale booster.

He'd remembered this place, Yondu brought him here when he was a kid. It was a place that seemed very, well, very not-Yondu, with its gleaming lights and matching salespeople, but finding off-the-rack mature looking clothing for someone child sized wasn't exactly easy. Only a few races in the galaxy topped out at Rocket's height as adults, so unless you were in those peoples' corners of the galaxy (he wasn't), you had few choices. If Rocket wanted something that wasn't juvenile or an arm and a leg tailored bespoke, this was where they had to go.

Quill held the door open and gestured to the pair of imbeciles. "I'm just moral support. This one's all you."

Rocket noticed that there was a small call button at his arm's length. Pushing it, the other door opened automatically. Rocket grinned, sticking out his tongue at Quill as Rocket and Groot strode through the door he opened, leaving Quill standing there holding the other door to nobody.

"…was trying to be nice," Quill muttered under his breath. But he couldn't really be mad.

The inside, rather than being split by genders, sexes, or appendage counts, was instead split by height. Rocket stood warily against a size chart, worried it was going to bite his head off or something.

"I am Groot," squeaked his companion.

"Okay, so I need to go to the blue section?" Rocket trotted off to the left, finally getting a proper look at the place. Instead of the standard upright displays, the store had lazy stepladder platforms, with each being a different type of clothing, so the guests purchasing could walk between, but people Quill's height (or even Groot's eventual loftiness) could walk the wide berth between display sets and also grab things for whomever they were purchasing for. It was an incredibly smart setup for both parties.

When you're short in a tall man's world, you improvise.

Two clerks were in the section Quill followed Rocket to, a round purple alien Quill didn't recognize walking along the tiered shelves, and a hot-pink Xandarian woman an inch or two shorter than Quill who passed him stock. Both wore crisp white shirts, black pants, and vests. The Xandarian crouched down to be at eye level of Rocket and Groot, while the other one stocking the shelves continued working, a small smile forming. "Are you shopping for yourselves or for a gift?"

"Me." Rocket replied.

"I'm Stiph," she said, extending her hand outwardly. The Xandarian greeting, similar to an Earth handshake, except you only touch fingertip to fingertip. "I'll be happy to assist today. How shall I refer to you?"

Rocket clearly was not used to this kind of attention. Being treated by Groot as a person he was used to. Being treated by Quill and the others as a team member he was becoming familiar with. But this person was a total stranger, and treated his as an equal. Granted, she wouldn't have gotten a job like this catering to non-standard sized humanoid aliens, but it was still unusual behavior. Maybe it needed to be a bit more commonplace, Quill thought, but Rocket was still at a loss for words. After a few more seconds of stunned silence, he swallowed whatever lump he had in his throat and returned the gesture.

"Sorry," he muttered. "Not used to outsiders treating me with respect. Name's Rocket."

"Well, Rocket, what are you looking for today?"

"Replacement flight suit, something that can withstand 10 G's. Two. And some casual clothing." He's having a hard time looking her in the eye, but he's trying.

"Okay. Also, there's a special this week where if you spend 100 credits or more, same-day custom tailoring for additional appendages or spines is free of charge- your fight suits alone should be able to hit that, I think. Unfortunately, we don't have anything on the rack that will fit your tail, but we have samples of our most popular items that are precut, and we can match sizes for anything you want we have on the floor that we don't have a proper sample of for you."

"Th-thanks." Rocket was clearly stunned. The Xandarian shopworker stood up and beckoned Rocket to follow to another display further back.

The purple alien turned partway to Quill and Groot, still at the first display. "Does the flora Colossus want anything as well?" The voice was a high register, but Quill knew from experience never to assume gender or sex differences on a species you were unfamiliar with. An experience he had no desire of repeating, thank you.

"Uh," Quill responded, trying to drag it out enough to hope the attendant could fill in the blanks.

"My apologies. Dofa," the alien said, turning fully so the tag in Xandarian was visible, with a small symbol for male next to the name. "Does the young Colossus want anything? Or you? There's taller sizes on the second floor."

"Thank you, sir. And Groot is growing way too fast to get him anything right now. All he'd probably need is a cold-weather jacket once he's back to full size. Sorry about the awkwardness, I always try to err on the side of caution." Quill didn't state why, but curtesy was curtesy.

"If there were more of you or Stiph in the universe, maybe there wouldn't be so much pointless bloodshed," he said, shaking his head with a sense of personal understanding that Quill recognized. "Anyway, let me know if there is anything I can get for you two."

"Actually, yeah," Quill said, as Dofa climbed down from the display. "Is the watch and wearable electronics repair still here? Got something that needs a tune up." Quill lifted the silver clip out from behind his ear, and palmed it, showing the attendant. "It's one of yours, and its old, but I don't have the receipt."

"No need. Insignia's here, plain as day. We don't do repairs in house anymore, but the lass who made this is still here. Let me ask if she'll take a look."

He bounded down the corridor returning a few minutes later with a tan and grey furred alien in the same uniform with a greasy smock tied over in tow. Quill copied Stiph and crouched to be at her eye level, which was half a head taller than where Groot stood now.

"I never forget a piece like this," she said, after carefully taking it from Quill's hand, before looking up to meet Quill's face. "My, I didn't realize your species continued to grow. I remember when Yondu brought you in here. Almost didn't recognize you."

"I was actually still a kid."

"Could have fooled me." She turned the respirator, currently compact in its tiny sheath, around in her hands. "Oxygen tank needs a good cleaning out. Probably only holds about an hour's worth now, yes?"

"And the left screen glitches occasionally."

"I would have expected something this old to need more repair. You take it anywhere else?"

"Nope."

"You done good. Wait an hour or so, I'll have her patched right back up."

As if on cue, Rocket came bounding over to Groot, arms full and a light in his eyes. "Hey, buddy! I ain't so good on this coordination crap, and I'm not buying everythin' in the store. Help a guy out, will ya?" Groot chuckled, and walked back off with Rocket, where Quill could see the Xandarian holding out about ten more items, neatly pressed. This was going to hurt his wallet a lot more than Quill anticipated.

Quill yelled behind, "Keep in under a grand, will you? We need to eat, too!" but they were already out of sight behind the displays. He turned his attention back to the mechanic. "Sorry."

"Friends?" the mechanic asked Quill.

"Friends and crew."

A moment of silence while she stood there thinking. "You're the guys we saw on the broadcast screens, aren't you? The ones who stopped Ronan?" she asked. Dofa let out a small gasp.

"Yeah."

She held the respirator up to the light. "If this helped you stop a mad man from destroying a planet, it's my honor to go and fix it. Can't leave a world-saving hero unprepared." She smiled a wry smile and started walking away. "Oh, and," she said, throwing a small white card like a shuriken, "tell your friend he's welcome to say hello."

Dofa looked up after the mechanic trotted away, "I remember seeing that footage. I don't have much else to say, but thanks. You saved my wife from my own fate."

"Your wife?"

"Stiph. We're not usually out on the floor anymore; we own this store, and we had to cover for some of our employees who got sick. She and I saw the news when her brother, who was on a trading run, called us that morning. Everything stopped and we watched from the break room. She was in tears, frost of sorrow and worry, then of joy." His eyes watered slightly, and he didn't look at Quill in the eye.

Quill broke the sudden silence. "Hey, thanks from me too. Trying to find clothes for Rocket is like trying to find a grain of sand with a telescope."

"There are two others in your crew, right? The Zen Whoberi lady and the muscular one whose people I'm unfamiliar with."

"You seem to know a lot about destroyed civilizations. But yeah, that's the five of us."

"Somebody's got to keep the memory alive."


It was a small wonder that when they went to check out about an hour and a half later (Rocket didn't want to leave until everything had been fixed with a hole for his tail, and Quill didn't object since he wanted his respirator back) that the total came to a single credit, and a thank you card hastily written by anyone on staff present (and a few other customers when they found out who Quill, Rocket and Groot were).

It wasn't until after they'd done the rest of the day's shopping that they'd found the five wrapped packages, one for each. Red and blue uniforms in their respective sizes, except Groot's which was just a massive jacket in the same color scheme. Something that would probably fit well once he'd grown up again.

-To the Guardians of the Galaxy, for not dooming my wife to my own fate.