Disclaimer: Nope, just a fanfiction writer.
Story: Petra Quill just wanted some downtime. Running into a Nova Corp Officer wasn't in the plan. Neither was getting knocked up. So what to do when splitting from the gang with a baby in tow and after some mysterious orb? That's nothing on that same officer attaching himself to her hip!
Set AU elements the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
Spoilers: Yesssssss…
Warnings: Cursing and violence for now…hm, just in case since I'm usually writing it, bit of crazy humor, perverted humor, morbid or sarcastic humor, and maybe some sexual situations…
Pairings: Fem!Peter Quill/Garthan Saal

A/n: Listen to first "When I Go" by Over the Rhine for most of this chapter and then "It Ain't Me" by Kygo and Selene Gomez at the last part. Then you'll get why this chapter went as it did XD

Can't Take the Sky From Me
Chapter Seven: Beautiful Delusion

So, so stupid –how could she have ever thought, even for a second, that she could have that perfect dream life? That, with Garthan marching into her life resolutely, that there might be a silver lining that she could grasp with her hands and keep for herself?

When she was younger, she had dreamed of fairytales and loved that Disney shit to bits –and even when she'd been picked up by Yondu, nothing had made her not want that fairytale and the happy ever after crap she knew wasn't real but wanted anyway. Even when Yondu or the others had told her kid self to suck it up and said none of that shit was real, all she did was stubbornly crave it and stomped on their feet and sucker punched their guts before running away to hide in a niche or something.

Garthan wasn't a prince, but he was actually scarily close to being a shining white knight. And for a moment there, she had let herself believe that maybe she could be that fairytale princess (like hell she'd be a damsel in distress though) and she'd get that HEA ending that dumbass girls like her still (even in secret) wanted to have.

And then she remembered her dad and her mom, and her mother crying silently to herself at night while spouting romantic nonsense to Petra and then reminiscing in sad but loving tones about a man from the stars that came and left her.

Maybe she was being scared off and being all premature worried, but she'd lived her life up until now in a guarded state and knew better than to let someone in. And maybe Garthan had good intentions and was an honorable, honest man, but she didn't chance anything and wasn't about to repeat her mother's sad love story just so she could mirror Meredith Quill to Petra's own son.

"Shh, shh," Petra tried to soothe Tiberius as she ran, one hand holding onto the bags she was tempted to drop and leave behind, while the other carefully supported Tiberius' head. But she paid good money for those things and she wasn't about to waste the units she just spent. She was a little anxious about all the jostling her running was doing to her baby, but she had no choice if she wanted to outrun Garthan.

She doubted she had done much but temporarily daze him, and that he was probably already up and after her. She inwardly mockingly laughed at herself; if she'd thought she'd even had a chance at knocking him out, she would be foolish. A Nova Corps Officer like him would take much more to be brought down than that, so she knew she only had a bit of time and only a short head start.

But it should be just enough, as she had the Milano in sight and she sighed in relief, quickly reaching it and opening the ramp. She dropped her bags and closed the ramp and headed to start the ship, only to freeze when she saw a stoic-faced Garthan already sitting in the pilot seat and watching her closely.

She sighed again, this time in resignation, and carefully took Tiberius out of his carrier, adjusting him into a more comfortable hold and rocking him gently.

"Let me settle him down and put him into his crib. Just…get us out of here," she said tiredly.

He nodded sharply and she left without another word. In her room, she continued to rock Tiberius, finally getting him calmed down. She carefully settled him into his crib and brushed his hair back, smiling sadly.

"Can we talk now?"

She reluctantly looked over her shoulder to where Garthan waited at the doorway to her room, and after another look to Tiberius, she turned and walked towards Garthan. Together, they moved to quietly sit in the common room.

"Why…how did I scare you off?" he asked, deciding to go first.

"Why would you say you scared me off?" she asked wryly.

"Why else would you have tried to run off without me suddenly?" he said frankly.

She frowned, but didn't know how to lie to that. "Before all this, the only time we met and knew each other was the night we slept together."

"And?" he raised an eyebrow, and somehow that made her want to hysterically giggle. The fact that someone like him was actually blasé about something like that…

"Aside from how much that should say about us and the flimsy 'relationship' we have? Despite that being our only experience with each other, you…for some reason, you know me so well. Too well," her voice cracked. "How can that be possible when we should barely know each other?"

"I feel like I've known you forever," he insisted and she made an aggravated sound.

"But you don't! And there are no guarantees you'll stick around –my asshole dad went and made my mom fall in love with him, and then decided to just go back to the stars and never look back. Then it was just my mom left behind and pregnant, and then she got stuck with me and we had nothing but each other most times. How do I know this isn't going to be the same? How do I know you're not just here for the moment and –" her rant was cut off as Garthan got up from his seat and strode over to her, leaning over her and holding her face confidently but softly.

"I don't know how to guarantee things or prove it to you, except over time. I don't have any way to reassure you right now, except for promises you'll just believe are empty. But they're not –Petra, I'm not going anywhere. I told you. And maybe you have a hard time believing that, but I'll just have to keep proving it to you over and over, until you finally believe it."

And the way he looked at her, just like that night so long ago, all tender and sweet and desire, and she was hooked on him just like she had been then.

Petra grabbed his hands and took them away from her face, at the same time as she surged upwards and planted her lips onto his.

Garthan had known he was going to be a hard sell to her. He was a no-nonsense Nova Corps Officer, the exact opposite of her, and he knew deep down inside that he wasn't the usual type of man she went for. Something that night and something about him (hopefully) had cued her to him, and this was where they'd ended up at.

And he also knew, from the moment she'd first hit him, that she was reacting to him because somehow he'd scared her off. He'd said or did something that made her defenses raise up, and now he'd heard it plainly.

He didn't know what kind of man her father was (though hearing what bit he did made him rather pissed at the man and even reluctantly consider that Yondu was the…better person), but he did know that he wasn't going to be anything like him and that he was going to do everything he could to prove that to her. The past deeply affected Petra, he was pretty sure of it now, and he would have to work through it to convince her that he could be a good father to Tiberius…that he could be a good partner to her.

Even now, as she pushed up against him and claimed his lips in a show of dominance, he knew that her walls were still raised high. But she had crumbled for just a moment, right before she'd kissed him, and he must've said something or done something to cause it, just as he'd caused her to be so defensive in the first place. Right now she might've been between being vulnerable and trying to scramble some sense of control over herself again, but he had already seen the cracks and he knew he was capable of breaching her defenses and slipping through those cracks.

He just had to out-stubborn her.

And as he continued to kiss her, slanting his mouth and pushing her against the couch, slowly regaining the dominance she'd first attempted to claim, he knew that as hard as all of that was going to be, it was worth it –he'd have Tiberius, he'd have her, and he'd have his little family and allow this small possessive part of him to just whisper mine.

All his life something had been missing. He'd ignored it and not thought anything of it. Now he knew what it was and he wasn't letting go.

After pulling away and with the two of them breathing hard, his thoughts pulled back to that kiss and he remembered how, looking at her swollen lips and her flushed face, he admitted her lips had lingered long after she'd left him back then, while her contented and sated face had haunted his dreams.

Cupping her face, he looked into her eyes. "Can I kiss you again?" he purposely asked this time.

He wanted to pull her towards him, smash right back against her like the tides of Xandar's oceans. He wanted to somehow show her through at least physical affection how much she affected him.

She looked back up at him, her eyes roaming all over his face as she stayed quiet right then. Her hands moved to grip his wrists, but didn't make him take his hands away from her face.

"I'm never going to love you," she said suddenly, making him involuntarily flinch. "I can't."

"Can't or won't?"

"Both."

He knew he was more stubborn than her and was willing to take all the time and effort to change her mind. Because despite however many times she said she wasn't ever going to love him, he couldn't find himself believing her words.

So when she kissed him again, he took the baby step as it was and kissed her back for all he was worth.

She could already tell he was going to be a stubborn idiot. But she wasn't going to be playing by his rules –he was going to play by hers.

So this? This she was going to enjoy and just roll with it. She knew better than to let it become anything more than that, to be more than what it should be.

That's why, after feeling herself get pulled into him again, she placed her hand against his chest and slowly pushed him away. She looked up solemnly, watching his face and feeling a deep ache at the tender look he wore so openly.

"I'm not that girl," Petra told him. "Before this, I wasn't ever going to settle down, find a man to be tied to. I know who I am, and I know I was wild and too much. Garthan, I don't know what you're expecting or what you want, but be realistic. If we never had a kid together, was I really going to be your first choice to be with?" He opened his mouth and she cut him off. "After finding out I'm a criminal?"

She didn't want to hear a protest or especially a confirmation, so she continued on. But she couldn't help grabbing one of his hands and kissing his knuckles, feeling something twist inside her.

"I'm not that girl," she repeated quietly. "I'm not your girl."

She really doubted she'd been his ideal girl, that dream girl he probably thought he'd end up with –whether that dream was thought up long ago, or whether he'd made up some idyllic version of her he'd thought up after meeting her that night.

Petra let go of his hand, letting him stay frozen in place as she slipped away from under him and got off the couch. She left him there as she headed to the cockpit and input new coordinates for their next destination, and then she went to her room. Bending over the crib, she smiled sadly down at her sleeping baby.

"We really did make one hell of a baby though," she said, laughing lightly.

She then carelessly sat on her bed and broke down crying.

Started 6/15/17 – Completed 6/18/17

A/n: I knew my playlist was horrible for this chapter to listen to XD Especially listening to "It Ain't Me" by Kygo &Selene Gomez at the end there…I feel like banging my head at the fact I make it so horrible on my couples, lol. Ah well, I hope at least you guys are entertained (and sobbing). Please remember to leave a review and feed my need to be motivated and inspired to write more (peers suspiciously at the dwindling numbers)!