Captains and Scarves

Quill and Rocket share a brief moment of team bonding, and Quill pushes questions of his dusted past

His dark eyes squinted and blinked, and his nose twitched. He stared at the ceiling, tiredness ebbing away. He had gotten good at managing his sleep patterns. He was breaking his old habits, bit by bit. He had slept through the night (well, since 2am at least) without jolting out of a nightmare or waking with the need to check the ship, and on Nebula, making sure she was still there, and on the rest of his team, making sure they were still there. He sat up, stretching. His cybernetics were acting up a bit, and a little blood was weeping from one of his chest implants, but he simply wiped it away and pulled on his jumpsuit, tucking the ends of his scarf into it as he left his room. The implants played up all the time, especially these past few years, but the pain wasn't unbearable anymore. When they did act up, it was usually a dull ache. Today would be manageable. In fact, sometimes he simply forgot about it…

"Mornin' Sleeping Beauty. Thought I'd have to call in Mantis to wake you up." Rocket jumped, hearing Quill's jeer from the pilot's seat. He rolled his eyes, hopping into the co-pilot's seat and folding his arms. He was always first up; first to wake up the ship and definitely first to pilot it every morning. It must have been later than he thought. He could hear Drax and Mantis in the kitchen, the smell of their breakfast wafting through the ship. Rocket rolled his head to the side, eyeing Quill.

"Any word from Thor?" Quill huffed, rolling his eyes. It wasn't that he didn't like Thor. On the contrary, when they weren't failing missions and squabbling over the controls, they got on quite well. On one particular pilot battle, Rocket had been observing from afar with Nebula, while Groot, Mantis and Drax ignited the fight with comments and quips. At the beginning, it was amusing watching Thor get under Quill's skin and vice versa. Now, it was probably for the best that Thor was taking a little time to himself. He could be captain of his own pod. Nebula had crouched down to the creature's level, something that Rocket used to find demeaning and insulting. Not anymore.

"Why do you not tell them that you should be the captain?"

"Quill has always thought of himself as captain. It's his thing."

"You have been piloting this ship for years, and you don't mind them taking over?" He knew Nebula was not trying to stir trouble. They weren't about to lead a coup now. Truth was, he didn't care all that much for being the captain anymore. He had five years to do so, and without his family on board, it was a chore. Keep the ship going, get supplies, remember to eat, try to sleep, yada yada yada. He still liked to steer the ship and man the weaponry, because weapons were his thing, but if it kept Quill happy, he could gladly take the wheel.

"Keeps Quill entertained. Out from under our feet. If Quill's happy, then there's more of a chance he'll shut the hell up and we can be happy too." Nebula seemed satisfied with this answer, but Rocket knew that Quill's 'happiness' was a front. Unless they found Gamora, he'd never be truly happy...

Rocket was pulled from his memory as Quill answered.

"Called half an hour ago. Asked where you were. Said he'd be back in a day or two. Joy."

"If you want I can tape your hands to the wheel so he can't move you. Oh, I've got some hard-core superglue I stole from the big greenie's lab back on Earth, if you want to use that instead." Quill gave a short laugh before turning to observe him. He was gone for five years, they all were, without knowing any different. He shuddered to think how Rocket managed to keep his sanity being partnered up with Nebula of all people, who still didn't brush well with Quill, yet somehow got on with Rocket better than anyone else. Being separated from Groot must have been a nightmare for him.

"You mind not staring into my soul? I can see you, you know."

"You didn't call it Terra."

"What?"

"Earth. You didn't call it Terra."

"Yeah, because it's called Earth, dumbass. People on Terra don't call it Terra. I kinda just forgot about it."

"You been there a lot? To Earth?" Rocket fumbled with the controls, looking for something to do. Quill wasn't looking at him anymore, but was staring at a supernova in the distance.

"Couple of times, yeah. Maybe five? Six? Stopped for supplies every now and then when we were passing." Quill turned to look at him again.

"Can I ask you something?"

"That's all you've been doing. Try piloting the ship, or you might as well just give the job to Thor."

"OK, first off that was rude and a little overly-defensive, and secondly, I'm going to ask you anyway."

"I swear, Quill, of this is some dumb heart-to-heart I'll…"

"Why are you wearing my scarf?" Rocket stopped mid-rant, absentmindedly looking down at the garment around his neck. What was he supposed to say? That he missed them so much that one night five years ago he tore through Quill's belongings to find something to comfort him? That he found that dumb red scarf that still smelled of Quill and made it a part of his outfit? After a few days, it had definitely lost his scent, but it still made Rocket feel closer to him...to all of his snapped teammates. No, Rocket wasn't up for that conversation, and maybe he never would be.

"It's been a whole ass month and you've only noticed it now?"

"Answer the question," Quill mumbled, messing around with buttons on the control panel.

"Why, you want it back or something?"

"No, you can have it, it probably reeks of you by now anyway," Quill maneuvered the ship away from a stray meteor, tilting the entire ship. A crash came from the kitchen and Drax swore. Mantis howled with laughter. "So, did you just…take all my things while I bit the dust or…?" Quill was teasing him, and he knew it. Rocket pulled the red material off, tugging it over his ears and chucking it over to Quill. The human stopped teasing. "It was a joke man, you can keep it." He fired it back to him.

Rocket straightened it out on his lap. It was well worn now, compared to when Quill wore it all those years ago. Tatty, even. But he was still attached to it.

"You sure? Whenever you feel slightly more pathetic than usual, you can smell it and think of me," Rocket teased back, wafting the material back and forth under Quill's nose. The captain swatted him away.

"No thanks, dude. I smell enough of you around the ship as it is. I mean, did you guys not clean up at all while I was gone? Jeez, it's like raccoon central here, and there's only one of you!"

"I'm not a raccoon, jackass," he shot back, before wrapping the scarf around his neck again.

A blue hand landed on the top of Rocket's chair, and Quill jumped. Nebula hardly made a sound before appearing. Rocket had gotten used to that.

"The two idiots in the kitchen want you both to know that they have made breakfast. One of them has new hair. I thought you should know."

"Oh yeah. Mantis braided her hair. Even fastened it with a band of your special titanium wire, Rocket," Quill raised an eye brow, one side of his mouth curving upwards into a crooked smile, knowing full well who was behind the woman's sudden fashion awakening.

Rocket tucked the ends of his scarf into his jumpsuit again, hopping off the seat.

"Shut it, Star-Mulch."

Author's Note

I was originally going to do a random scattering of one-shots (which I'm still doing) but I would also like to add an element of chronological order to my drabbles, so this particular one-shot takes place the morning after 'Braids'. Please read and review and thanks for all the support of my previous chapter!