If someone had told him a couple of months ago that he'd be having a human woman, from Terra of all places, crashing in his ship, he'd probably—well, he didn't know anyone who could have told him something like that.
But if someone had told him, he probably would have laughed. And, probably, he would have thought they'd be getting really friendly by now – or at the very least, there'd be some heavy flirting, after all, his flirting skills weren't too shabby (he was very proud of them, actually, no matter what anyone says), and it wasn't every day he'd meet someone from the same species as his, let alone from the same planet.
But alas, the circumstances (and the woman in question) were far more different than anything he could have envisioned, and he'd ended up with this smart-mouthed, tech-savvy roommate who was starting to become a lot more bossy than he was comfortable with.
Peter sighed. "What are you doing there anyway, that you're taking up both screens?"
Lena briefly looked up from the table screen, to Peter's face, then to the bigger screen (that was currently displaying a handful of messages that Peter did not fully understand), then back to the table computer. "Things."
"You're not breaking my computer, are you?"
She snorted. "Of course not – give me some credit." She glanced at him again. "Besides – didn't you say you had business to do? Go do business." She made a shooing gesture with one hand.
"What are you, my boss?"
"No, but I really can't have you whining on my ear constantly while I'm trying to optimize your system. You said I had to make myself useful, now you go make yourself useful." She paused, typing away for a couple of seconds. "Also, Yondu is going to be pissed at you if you don't get the package back in time."
At the mention of Yondu, Peter straightened up as he remembered the time limit he'd been given to 'acquire' (some would call it stealing) this package and deliver it to the Ravager leader. There was no hurry as of now, but it's always better to do it sooner in case of complications arising.
He exhaled. "Fine." Grabbing his coat, Peter turned away to leave as he shrugged it on. "Just don't break my ship while I'm out."
"I'm not going to break your ship…" Lena muttered. As Peter was climbing up the stairs, Lena called out, "Also don't forget to ask around about the whole hitching a ride thing!"
Peter grumbled a little – just because he'd kinda – completely – forgot to ask about it that time on Xandar, she'd been constantly reminding him ever since. And most of the time, it had no results - no one ever went anywhere near Terra because it was Asgardian airspace, and no reasonable amount of units could convince them otherwise. The only ones who would venture there were the less trustworthy ones, like, say, those slave traders, but he had a feeling Lena wouldn't be very partial in getting a ride with the ones that abducted her in the first place.
Lena glanced at the computer clock for the third time in the last half hour. It wasn't set in any unit of measurement of time that she'd ever heard of, but she'd been looking at it long enough to know that quite some time had passed since Peter left. She'd estimate at least two hours, but it could have been longer.
Not that she was getting worried.
But it was getting increasingly hard to concentrate on other things when her mind kept wondering if Peter had run into trouble of any sort – or worse, if he was coming back at all.
It wasn't like he would just abandon her there (with his own ship), and it might have been irrational on her part to assume the worst, but considering his line of work was mostly illegal and it involved guns – her mind kept wandering into worst case scenarios. Sure, this thing Peter went to do might just be taking a while. Or, sure, he might already be done with it and was just chilling on some bar or something. Or maybe… Something went wrong and he was now dead in a ditch somewhere.
Lena furiously rubbed a hand over her face – next time, she'd make him give her an estimated time before she started assuming she was stranded alone in space.
Another hour passed. Or maybe more, she wasn't quite sure, but what she was sure of is that she was getting restless and sitting still was no longer an option.
Getting up from her seat, she stretched her limbs and glanced up at the stairs. At that moment, she was stuck in a very heated debate with herself in which one part of her told her to sit and wait while the other part demanded that she go out there and drag him back and make him stop worrying her.
That part won.
Lena determinedly made her way out of the ship, leaving no time for second guessing herself. Her resolve did falter a bit once she actually stepped foot outside – the sight that greeted her was not like any of the other planets she'd been on. If she thought they'd been questionable before, this one was downright unscrupulous. It was what she'd seen in the Ravager mothership, except ten times worse. Every single being in here looked like they wanted to murder her or something of the sort, and for some reason unknown to herself, that only made her worry for Peter worsen.
Dammit, Peter, she cursed in her head for what was probably the hundredth time in an hour.
She stood near the entrance to the Milano trying to look casual (don't let them know you're afraid, right?), but all her nerves were on edge. She'd stormed out of the ship due to some reckless decision making, and now that she was out here, she had no idea what to do.
She didn't know where Peter was, or how to find him. She didn't know how to protect herself if worst came to worst. What was she thinking?
Resolve nearly shattered completely, Lena turned back around to the ship but stopped in her tracks, and just as quickly turned back. Then she turned away again, and then back, as she tried to make up her mind on whether or not it was a good idea to go search for Peter. He's probably fine, she tried to reassure herself. She didn't feel very reassured.
The Terran stood there for quite a while, weighing the pros and cons of the situation. The people around her had started to disperse, and suddenly she was alone in front of the Milano.
Then she heard shouting. Angry shouting.
She didn't even think twice about bolting forward, but it was only when her mind recognized one of the voices in the commotion that she ran even faster until she reached the source.
Hiding in the shadows between two ships were two figures – one of which she immediately recognized as Peter.
And he was the one on the ground, while the other – a blue-skinned alien – hovered above him. While holding a gun.
Easy job my ass – for fuck's sakes, Peter!
Not willing to rush forward without a plan this time, Lena quickly ducked for cover – the other guy had his back towards her so he didn't spot her quick dash behind some crates. She stayed crouched for a moment, trying to think of any plan, anything that she could do in this situation that wouldn't end with her and Peter shot or worse. Nothing came to mind.
Carefully, she peeked around the corner of the crate and watched as the guy waved his gun around as he made threats (he didn't have the gun particularly trained on Peter, which was kind of sloppy on his part and incredibly fortunate for her. That was probably the only opening she was going to get.)
"—think I'd let some lowly Ravager steal from me?" She caught what the guy was saying. He was still waving his gun around in a threatening fashion, looking quite full of himself.
"Kinda hoped you wouldn't find out…" Peter remarked with that same grin he always wore despite being in disadvantage – except it looked much weaker now, especially because he had a large gash and trail of blood down his cheek.
"You did, didn't you?" The other guy said. "Let me teach ya a couple of things about breaking into my home, my-" Lena tuned him out as her eyes fell upon a long piece of metal sticking out loosely from another crate that was close enough to her hiding spot.
And suddenly, a very reckless and very dangerous plan formed in her mind – and then her mind was made up and there was no turning back.
After making sure the guy was still ranting and with his back turned to her, Lena slowly made her way towards the piece of metal (that turned out to be a short pipe). She pulled it out carefully, holding it tightly in her hand as she snuck up behind him. Peter noticed her when she got close, but other than a slight widening of his eyes he didn't do anything to betray her position. She held her breath, tightened her hold on the pipe and swung across the blue guy's head.
The guy fell to the side hard, giving her the opportunity to run to Peter and pull him up from the ground. Even though he accepted her help, he still shot her a glare. "I told you to stay on the ship!" He yelled.
And even though Lena was busy watching the other guy slowly recover at the same time she was tugging on Peter's arm, she still managed to snap back at him. "Really, you want to complain about that now?!"
Once Peter was back on his feet, Lena shot forward – as she was not willing to stay and feel the wrath of the guy she'd just whacked on the head. Peter was still a little wobbly behind her, but after stumbling a few steps he matched Lena's pace and the two ran as fast as they could back to the ship.
Somewhere along the way, they started hearing angry shouts coming from behind them and they quickly shared a glance before running even faster.
"What the hell did you do to piss off those guys?" She yelled, throwing herself on the co-pilot seat and buckling in as quickly as she could.
Peter was already pressing buttons and screens, having neglected the seat belt in favor of taking off the ship as fast as he could. Lena didn't really have any objections and, for some reason, kept throwing backwards glances as if someone might have followed them into the ship itself.
"Oh you know," Peter spoke, a little bit hysterical as he turned on the engines, "the usual."
"Lying, thieving and general deceitfulness?"
Peter let out a loud, hysterical laugh as the ship took off from the ground. "Pretty much!"
While Lena may not have been very familiar with space at that point, but even she knew when they managed to escape from the planet's atmosphere and into the blackness of space. Peter didn't stop piloting until a long while, though, as he wanted to make sure they weren't being followed. Once he was sure of it, Peter put the ship in autopilot and leaned back on the seat, letting out a long sigh.
"I need a drink." He spoke, mostly to himself.
"There are no drinks." Lena replied anyway. "Last time I checked."
He sighed again, pushing himself off the chair. "Fine. Water, then."
Lena stared at him as he descended the stairs with an odd look. She quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and went after him, and ended up finding him drinking – well then – water. He must really be desperate.
Peter ignored her as he leaned against the table tiredly, paying attention mostly to his ever growing headache.
"You're bleeding." Lena stated.
He looked down at himself quickly, and then looked up at her when he didn't see any blood. "Where?"
She pointed. "Your face."
He brought his hand up and touched the side of his face that had been hit. Bringing his hand away he saw that his fingers were stained red.
He sighed. "Eh, it's nothing."
When he didn't move, Lena pressed. "You're not gonna do anything about it?"
"It's nothing serious."
There was a long pause as Lena watched him with an intent look on her face and he, in turn, tried to ignore her stare. Peter didn't know what she wanted from him, and he was too tired and too sore to spare the brainpower to figure it out. She'd forget about it soon enough.
Lena was the first to break the silence.
She sighed. "Do you even some kind of medical kit in here?"
"Yeah, yeah, in the bathroom. It's fine." He answered distractedly, touching the cold cup of water to his temple to try and soothe the pain.
She nodded. "Alright." And then walked away into someplace he couldn't care less - his headache was demanding his full attention at the moment.
A minute later, Lena walked back into the common area and dropped something on the table next to him. He glanced down curiously and noticed it was his medical kit. Or at least he thought it was, he hadn't touched that thing in a while.
Peter shot her a questioning look at the same time she pointed at the table and spoke. "Sit." He raised an eyebrow at her. She rolled her eyes in return. "Just do it."
Unsurely, he did as he was told and jumped up on the table. Lena diverted her gaze from his face and turned to the medical kit, examining its contents. Picking up some cloth, she grabbed the cup of water from his hands (after ignoring a small protest on his part), sniffed it to make sure it was really water, and then poured some on the cloth. She set the cup down on the table and slapped his hand away before bringing up the wet cloth to his face.
He tried to protest, say he didn't need her to take care of his wounds as they weren't serious enough to warrant the attention, but every time he opened his mouth or raised a hand she'd stop him.
"You're ridiculous." She started. "And stupid. And reckless."
He winced as the cloth made contact to the cut on his cheek – so maybe it was worse than he thought it'd be. "So?"
"So…" She trailed off. She pressed the cloth against the wound a bit harder and he winced again.
"You worry?" He suggested with a small smirk.
Her hand paused halfway to his face as her eyes narrowed. "I worry… that I'm going to end up all alone in space again, after you go get yourself killed." She then resumed the cleaning.
"You don't have to worry about that." He said, continuing to smirk. "I've been doing this all my life – I haven't died before and I'm not going to die now."
"I have my doubts." She muttered.
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Are you questioning my competence?"
"Uh-huh. Now be quiet."
Peter shot her a nasty look, but he didn't really mean it. And by look she gave him he knew she was teasing him anyway. Slumping down, he sighed and looked away as he let Lena do her thing – he'd give in this time and let her treat his cut.
(It was nice having someone looking after him for a change.)
I don't have a lot to say about this chapter other than interactions! Friendship! Development! Sort of!
I really want to get into the friendshippy part, it's fun c: (and then we can move on to the shippy part ooh yeaa) And again, thank you guys so much for the reviews, they make me so motivated to keep writing, you have no idea! Thank you!
