(Here it is! Another chapter for you, Dear Readers! I'm glad you've chosen to return instead of moving on to better stories. I hope I'll continue to keep your interest. In this chapter, things take another interesting turn in Lydia and Yondu's relationship. It's short compared to the others but it's still got a lot to offer.)
[Songs used and suggested for Chapter 9]
~ "Money, Money, Money" by ABBA (play at the beginning)
~ "I Want Your (Hands on Me)" by Sinead O'Connor (play during the opening to the sparring room scene)
~ "Angel" by Love/Hate (listen while Yondu and Lydia are training.)
~ "A Whole Lotta Woman" by Sam Cooke (play towards the end)
Chapter Nine
I Want Your (Hands on Me)
Four Months Later
Terran Date: March 1989
I felt my mouth go dry as I gazed at the numbers on the screen. That was a whole lotta units; units I was quickly running out of. Mom's bills were adding up at an alarming rate, but she was still responding to the treatments. Every time we communicated I'd see a tiny trace of the old Mom coming back. If I cut back on those treatments, I could loose her all over again.
I let the info disc slip from my fingers and plop safely onto my mattress. Flopping onto my back, I stared up at the ceiling and tried to come up with a solution that didn't involve me asking Yondu for the gazillionth time to include me in more missions. He'd said 'no'. In fact, I'm pretty sure he resorted to telling me 'no' in every langue he knew just in case my translator was malfunctioning. It wasn't, in case you were wondering.
My music box was playing music via speaker atop my night stand. It was some band called ABBA and I found their music to be …meh. I was only half-way listening because I was too engrossed in coming up with a plan, but when I finally tuned back in I realized the song that was currently playing mirrored my thoughts a little too well.
"Money, money, money,
Always sunny
In the rich man's world
Aha aha!
All the things I could do
If I had a little money
It's a rich man's world…"
Halvi had put the idea into my head ever since he informed me about the different rates of pay among the crew. Being a part of the ground team that Yondu took with him off the ship had a desirable pay that would no doubt cover my mother's bills and leave just a bit to tide me and Peter over until another mission came by.
I had no other options for earning extra units. It's not like Yondu or the other Ravagers would just give me the money if I asked. I'd pester Yondu to death if I had to.
"Absolutely not!" Yondu bellowed at me from his captain's chair.
I cringed and glanced around at the crew. Well, so much for trying to keep it hush – hush.
"Captain, please, let me accompany the ground team just once and if I screw it up past the point of no return then I'll never ask again."
Yondu gave me a sardonic look. "Honey, if you screw up past the point of no return, I doubt you'll be able to ask again; 'cause you'd be dead." He turned to Reagan and signaled for him to take over. Reagan wordlessly punched in the transfer codes and resumed control of the ship as Yondu stood from his chair and walked towards the exit. I wasn't going to let him get away so easily. I hurried after him into the hall.
"Yondu," I called urgently.
He glanced over his shoulder and groaned. Turning to face me, he placed his hands on his hips and stared me down. "What do I have to say to make you understand that it ain't gonna happen?"
I pretended to think about it. "Nothing comes to mind."
Yondu sighed. "I keep tellin' ya, girly. Do the job I hired ya to do. Take care of Quill and fix the broken crap around here. Ya can't take care of the boy if yer dead, which is exactly what you'd be if I put an untrained girl on my team."
"Then train me!" I said with exasperation.
"What!"
"Train me and I won't bother you about joining the team until you say I'm ready!"
Yondu leaned against the wall and began to pick at his teeth with a silver toothpick. "And what if I don't ever say you're ready?"
I folded my arms and fixed him with a glare. "Then I'll know you're just being a petty tookum and I'll take matters into my own hands."
"Is that right?"
I gave him a firm nod. He looked at me with keen interest, studying my features. He grunted and looked at the silver pick. "Darlin', what's this really about? Not too many members of the crew are as anxious as you to be put on the ground team cause of how risky it can be. So what gives?"
A part of me argued that I owed him no explanation, but over the past few months, Yondu had been acting a tad more civil towards me. I shuffled my feet a bit, debating on what to tell him and settled for the truth.
"It's my mom's bills. They're just a little more expensive than I originally figured and my units are really being stretched thin between paying for her treatments and covering Peter and I. If I end up having to cut back on Mom's treatments, the doctors told me she'd be at risk of a relapse."
Yondu never looked up from the toothpick as he ran his index finger along its thin surface. "How much more expensive?" he asked.
"Seven thousand units more expensive," I reluctantly answered.
Yondu winced. "Yeah, sounds pricy," he acknowledged.
"All I'm asking, Yondu, is to be given a chance to earn more units. I'm not asking for you to give me the money for nothing, I want to prove I'm worth it."
That made him lift his gaze from his hands and fix upon me with a look I couldn't figure out. I met his stare and silently begged him with my eyes. Please…I need this.
His jaw muscle twitched and he looked away. He scratched at his stubbled chin and grunted. "Meet me in the sparring room after the crew's sleepin' an' we'll see what we've got to work with."
I almost let out a squeal of happiness. Almost. But I'd rather have done that instead of what I actually did. Without thinking, I launched myself at him and wrapped my arms around his torso. "Thank you!" All of a sudden, I was all too aware of the solid muscle I felt beneath his shirt and leather jacket. Glom, it was like hugging a rock!
I quickly released him, my face burning from embarrassment. "Um, see you then," I muttered and hurried away to my work station.
Yondu watched her go and reminded himself to stop clenching his fists so tight. Feelin' her against him like that…damn. He bit the inside of his cheek and stomped off to the mess hall for some much needed dinner and possibly a way to distract himself until it was time to meet with Lydia again. He carried out his duties and nodded goodnight to his crew on the way to his quarters. He'd told Lydia to wait until about two hours after the men bunked down for the night cycle. Setting an alarm to wake him, Yondu lay on his rather spacious bed and closed his eyes to catch a few winks of sleep.
All too soon, the alarm went off and he resisted the urge to fling out his arm and crush it.
When he arrived at the sparring room, he found Lydia already practicing with her spear and music was playing through the room's speakers. How the girl managed to figure out a way to hook up her Walkman to the room's sound system mystified him.
"I want your hands on me
What I want, give me
You know I wanna please you
What I wanna do to you
You don't waste no time, do you?
You know I'm looking through you
Why you wanna tease me
I want you to come and please me…"
She hadn't noticed him come in and Yondu took the time to observe her techniques with the spear. He noted some things she could work on; blind spots she left open, a better way to keep her balance, the proper way to grip her spear and not risk having it snatched out of her hands, and so on. But all in all, she wasn't half bad.
Had she ever needed to use that spear against someone on Knowhere? She made the spear for a reason, didn't she? The thought made his stomach clench.
There was a bit of gracefulness to her movements – synchronization to the flow of the music. She must have been down here practicing for a while before he arrived; her freckled skin had a slight sheen of sweat.
"You know that I can thrill you
I want you call me to you
I wanna move, will you? I really wanna feel you
Put'em on, put'em on, put'em on me
Put'em on, put'em on, put'em on me…"
Her choice of clothes seemed practical; a sleeveless top and closely fitted pants so as not to get caught on anything…Very closely fitted pants.
"Put your hands on me
Put your hands on me…"
His fingers twitched with the desire to do just that. He absent-mindedly ran the tip of his tongue along the edge of his upper teeth as he watched Lydia thrust her spear into the air as if piercing the body of an invisible assailant. She frowned and repeated the move. Giving an unsatisfied 'tsk', she did it again with more energy. Yondu looked at her feet. She was putting too much weight on her heels. She needed to be on her toes and bend her knees more.
He stopped himself from stepping forward and physically adjusting her stance. He pictured placing his hands on her legs – Hell, no! None of that!
Scowling at himself, he snatched his mind back and refocused on the reason he was there in the first place. He was there to gauge Lydia's skills…but that didn't mean he couldn't have any fun with her; especially since her ass looked so good in those pants.
A smirk worked its way onto his face and revealed those sharp, crooked teeth. A little bit of fun wouldn't hurt. Using stealth, Yondu snuck right up behind her and gave her butt a good slap. Lydia yelped and whirled around, spear lashing out, but Yondu jumped out of reach with a cackle.
She stared at him in startled disbelief for a moment but it was soon replaced with a frown. "That was a bit childish, don't you think?" Lydia asked, unaware of how much her lips were pouting while Yondu was made all too aware of the Cupid's bow shape of her mouth.
"Ain't nothin' childish 'bout that, woman. You would've gotten more than a love tap that night back on Knowhere if you hadn't had other plans."
Lydia's face flushed beat red.
Sprek! Sprek! Sprek! Sprek! Sprek!
I could feel my body reacting to his words by flushing red and I turned away so he wouldn't see; only to almost immediately whirl back around and give him a warning glare with my spear at the ready if he tried to smack my butt again. He chuckled and raised his hands in mock surrender.
Those hands had been on my mind a lot lately ever since that moment in the M-ship when he'd placed them over mine to guide my steering of the ship. I found myself a bit…fascinated by them. I started taking notice of the subtle changes in hue of the blue skin, the scratches and scars that littered them, the way he'd motion with them when he talked, and their strength.
"We don't need this crap playin' while I'm trainin' ya."
I snapped out of my rumination in time to see Yondu moving towards my music box and reaching out to turn it off. I side-stepped him and lightly struck his outstretched hand with the flat of my spear head. He leveled me with an annoyed glare and I lifted my eyebrows in warning. "No touching the music box," I said.
He grunted, rubbed at his hand and backed away. "Whatever," he snorted. I smiled in triumph. I followed him to the well-worn mats that covered a large corner of the floor and he began to remove his leather jacket.
"First thing's first, darlin', ya gotta work on yer sense of balance. You over compensate 'cuz of the spear's weight an' it's throwin' ya off."
I glanced at the spear in my hands and had to agree. I'd felt my stance was a bit off, I just couldn't pin-point what it was until Yondu pointed it out. I nodded and looked back up at him. "Right. Got it."
He maintained eye contact with me as he unclipped the harness attached to his arrow holster and began to remove a second jacket he wore underneath the first. It wasn't leather; it was made of a deep purple material I couldn't identify. My brow wrinkled a bit at the number of buttons, buckles and zippers the man had to undo. What was with that?
I returned my attention to Yondu's face and listened to what he was saying about grounding my center in order to avoid loosing my balance. My attention was short lived however when I realized he was taking off the shirt underneath his second jacket and suddenly Yondu was shirtless and …
Mmmh. Glom. Ahem.
I tore my eyes from the sight of solid blue muscled abs and biceps and strained to keep them focused on Yondu's face because he was still talking to me about things I needed to improve on. I nodded and hummed in agreement but I have no idea what I was agreeing about because glom it, Yondu was fit! My eyes slowly lowered from his face and took in the sight. I noticed something else about his bare torso. Horrible scars littered his skin.
On his right shoulder was a cluster of jagged scars that branched down his arm. On the left side of his chest was a long, smooth scar that looked as though a blade had grazed him. When he turned to toss his shirt onto the pile he'd made of his discarded clothes, I caught a glimpse of round-shaped scars that could have only come from the impact of a blaster gun. Several more scars were spread along the planes of his back.
He turned to face me again and after a moment I realized he'd grown quiet. I lifted my eyes to meet his. "Is there a problem, princess?" he asked, giving me a wicked, toothy grin and folded his arm over his chest in a way that flexed his biceps. I gulped. His grin turned absolutely feral. "Take yer shirt off."
"Say what now!" I squeaked.
"It's gonna get real hot in here and yer gonna sweat through that shirt. Ya got an undershirt on, right?"
Wrong. I was only wearing my undershirt. The Tailor was in need of repair and its mechanics required parts we didn't have on the Eclector, so until Yondu had us make port and I could hunt for the needed partswould have to make do with the clothing I had. Unfortunately, it had been two and half months since the Tailor broke and I was in desperate need of new clothes. So, I was running low on tops and had to resort to wearing my camis as shirts.
I licked my lips nervously and answered him. "Um, yeah…ish."
Yondu tilted his head questioningly. "Ish?"
"This…is my undershirt."
Yondu lifted an eyebrow at that but said nothing. He gave my shirt a once-over and shook his head. "Material's too thick; you'll sweat through it in minutes. Take it off."
"I'm not about to train in my bra, Yondu!"
A wolfish grin nearly split his face in two. "You ain't got nothin' I ain't seen before, sugar."
"Uh, I beg to differ, 'cause these are mine," I argued as I crossed my arms over my chest.
"I would have seen 'em if that night had progressed to my liking. But like I said you –,"
"I know, I know; I had other plans," I grumbled, irritably.
She was blushing up a storm and Yondu's face hurt from grinning so much. Her lips formed into a pout as she glared at him. He was fairly certain she wasn't aware her mouth did that. He found it adorable.
Leaning back on the equipment next to her music box, he gestured at the device and said, "Would it help if I put on some strip tunes?"
He hadn't thought it possible for her to turn redder but she managed. How was it this was the same vixen who'd wrapped her legs around his waist when he'd held her against the door of his quarters? Why was she being so coy now?
He tapped his wrist as if he wore a time keeper. "Time's a waistin', darlin'."
Lydia inhaled deeply through her nose, eyes closed, and exhaled from her mouth. She opened her eyes and narrowed them at him. "You're a borga."
"Hell yeah, I am."
She turned her back to him and removed her shirt. Freckles were scattered across her back like a galaxy of stars. When she faced him, he let out a teasing wolf-whistle and she flinched. When nothing happened, she gave his pile of clothing a curious stare. At first he couldn't figure out her reaction, and then it clicked.
"Oh, don' chu worry 'bout my arrow. It don't light up every time I whistle."
"Then how does it know which is a command and what's …" she made a face and gestured at him. "You being you?"
He chuckled lightly at that and pushed off from the equipment to walk towards her. He roiled his shoulders and stretched his arms to work out any kinks before they could get started with her training. "It ain't programmed with a set of commands, darlin'. That arrow is attuned to me. I use my heart to guide it."
"How did you manage to do – ah!" She ducked in the nick of time to avoid Yondu's right hook, but the sudden movement threw off her balance and she stumbled to the ground. "What the heck, Yondu! I wasn't ready!"
He crouched to be eye-level with her. "Ain't nobody in this galaxy gonna give you a fair fight, princess. You gotta be alert for the slightest hint of trouble and act or else yer gonna get yourself killed."
Lydia huffed with reluctant agreement. "Right. Lesson learned." Her left leg suddenly swiped at his feet and he toppled over onto his back. Lydia sprang up with her spear in hand and whirled around to aim it at his throat. She gave a smug smirk. "How's that?" she asked.
Yondu's crooked teeth bared themselves in a grin. "Ain't too bad; just a bit obvious though."
Lydia's brow furrowed in confusion. "Obvious? I caught you off guard and you went down."
A raspy chuckle rose from his throat. "You think you got me beat, huh?"
Before Lydia could reply, both of Yondu's hands swiftly latched onto the space just above her weapon's spearhead and pulled it towards him. Lydia's face blanched in a brief moment of panic, thinking he was about to impale his own neck but at the last second he jerked his head to the side and the blade pierced the ground as he used the spears pole as an anchor to pull himself up. The wind was knocked put of Lydia's lungs when Yondu's shoulder connected with her stomach and sent her flying over his head and she landed heavily on her back.
A pitiful wheeze escaped me as I stared up at the ceiling and waited for those pesky spots to clear my vision. "I…want…to kill you," I gasped.
Yondu moved to stand over my head and bent over to give me an upside-down toothy grin while using the spear to support his weight. "You ain't doin' too well at suceedin', darlin'," he taunted.
I met his grin with a less than pleased glare and lifted an aching arm to point at him. "Diiiie," I whispered.
"Hmph," he grunted in amusement and took a step back as I attempted to stand.
"Could we start with something simple?" I asked, kneading at the sharp pain in my right shoulder.
"Only if you get rid of any notions you've had that yer a decent fighter."
I opened my mouth to argue and he held up a hand to stop me.
"You got some quick reflexes but they ain't consistent. You've got some skill with this here gadget of yours, and I can say from experience that you can pack a punch, but it ain't enough, sugar. We're gonna have to start you from scratch."
I gave a shrug. "Scratch is kinda where I'm at anyway."
Yondu's eyebrows knitted together at my words. "Where'd you learn how to fight?"
"I taught myself. Had to. Some guys just won't take 'no' for an answer," I told him with as much of a nonchalant air as I could. I wasn't going to go into detail about the times back on Knowhere when I'd been cornered and managed to get away by luck, or when I'd been mugged at the age of thirteen and came home with a busted lip, a dislocated arm, and a sprained ankle and had to take care of myself because Mom was too far gone to even realize I was hurt. I wasn't going to share how every fight I got into was how I learned another form of defense or attack because they'd been done to me. I was lucky to be alive after all those years on Knowhere, but that wasn't any of his business.
Yondu watched Lydia's face closely as she said, "I taught myself. Had to. Some guys just won't take 'no' for an answer." She made it sound like it was no big deal but he knew better. There was more to it than that. Way more.
He didn't expect the sudden anger that came over him as his mind supplied him with all the reasons why a girl in her situation would have to teach herself how to fight. Knowhere was a harsh, cruel place and didn't show mercy to decent folks. Most of the galaxy was like that but Knowhere was just about the worst. How did this little girl manage to keep some of that goodness after all these years?
A dull ache from his knuckles brought his attention to the tight grip he had on her spear. He relaxed his hand and released a sigh as he met her gaze. "Let's get started."
He hadn't meant to start her off this way. He'd fully intended on teaching her attack maneuvers but those two words changed everything. "Had to." She'd had to learn in order to survive. She'd had to fight so she could get away. She'd had to protect herself because no one else was gonna do it for her. No one on that forsaken space mine had her back, but on this ship, he was her captain and the captain was responsible for the lives of his crew. He'd also given her momma his word that he'd keep Lydia safe. That included keeping her safe from his own men.
For three hours he pushed her harder than he'd ever had with any other member of his crew if he thought them worth teaching a thing or two. He could see the exhaustion on her face but she didn't complain. Most of what he taught her consisted of escaping from someone's hold and she was a quick learner.
He managed to pin her to the ground on her back and straddled her hips, hands clamped down on her wrists on each side of her head. "I ain't gonna go easy on ya this time, sugar. Throw me off," he instructed her.
She writhed beneath him for several minutes and he'd be lying if he hadn't found it a bit arousing but he redirected his focus on the reason he was doing this. She tried to lift her legs and angle them so that her knees would strike his back but he remained just out of their reach.
After a few more minutes of letting her struggle, he asked, "You ready for me to show you how to escape me?"
He could see she wasn't ready to admit defeat by the way her eyes darted about, trying to find a way out and coming up with nothing. She huffed and finally nodded. He chuckled and released one of her hands in order to reach down and tap at her right thigh.
"Use yer pelvis to buck me off."
"Are you kidding me? You're too big for that to work!"
"Try it, sugar." He reapplied his grip on her wrist. "Okay, go for it."
He didn't ease up on his weight or loosen his hold on her wrists, so when she bucked her pelvis and succeeded in dislodging him from sitting on her stomach, it was all due to her efforts. The moment enough of his weight was off of her middle, she twisted her lower body and managed to draw in her legs and knee him in the groin. Pain made him curl in and instinctively reach down to protect himself from further injury and that's when she planted a foot against his chest and pushed with all her might. He landed on his back and listened to her scramble a safe distance from him.
He grunted in pain but a chuckle of approval followed. "Good work, sugar." He used his elbows to ease his upper body up and take a look at her. She was out of breath, hunched over with her hands on her knees, and sweat trickled from her brow. She was barely standing but Yondu wasn't done. This was the kind of state she had to push through; when it felt like she was going to collapse and had nothing left. That was when she needed to fight the hardest because no one was going to give her a chance to catch her breath.
"There's one more move I'm gonna teach you tonight and then we'll call it a night," he assured her as he stood to his feet. Lydia gave a tired nod. He didn't give her a chance to stand up straight. He charged at her and within seconds she was pinned to the wall. She thrashed around but his strength and size once again put her at a disadvantage. Her hands were trapped above her head and he'd parted her legs with his knee as he leaned in close to her face. "How do you get away from me now?" he asked in a low voice. He heard her breath hitch but chalked it up to her already breathless state.
She tried to kick out with her legs but met empty air.
"What's in reach right now, sugar?"
He felt her still beneath him.
"Do what it takes to get yerself free," he encouraged her.
After a moment's hesitation, Lydia's forehead butted painfully into the bridge of his nose. Using his strong hold on her wrists as an anchor, she lifted both her legs off the floor so that she was suspended from the ground and quickly planted both feet on his chest and pushed. It pried him away from her and as he stumbled back, she delivered a round house kick to his head. He went down like a bag of rocks and lay still.
"Yes!" Lydia cheered, a triumphant fist lifted to the air. "How did I do, Yondu?"
"….."
"Yondu?"
"….."
"Yondu? … Oh sprek!"
Lydia dropped to her knees beside him and pushed him onto his back. "Yondu, come on! There is no way someone as hard headed as you got knocked out by my skinny legs!" She shook his shoulder. "Wake up!"
A muscled blue arm suddenly sprang up and wrapped around her middle, dragging her down, followed by the other arm. She let out a squeak of surprise and Yondu let out a raspy chuckle. "Unless you shot them in the head, don't get close enough for them to grab ya, sugar." He held her flush against his chest as he caught both her wrists in one hand and pinned then to her sternum while one arm remained wrapped around her waist.
Lydia slumped in weary defeat and sighed. "Noted."
He cackled in amusement and craned his neck around to look at her face. "Ya did good, sugar."
In a moment of pure exhaustion, I allowed my body to lean on him and let my head dip back and rest on in the curve where his neck and shoulder joined. I was too tired to get up, my muscles ached all over, and he felt so glom comfortable.
At any moment I expected him to push me off and grump about using him as a piece of furniture, but to my surprise, he didn't. He let me rest against him. I wasn't about to look a gift hoona in the mouth. I felt the pad of his thumb lightly stroke the outline of the bone structure of my hand. I held my breath. Was I imagining it?
When I felt the silence beginning to stretch, I spoke up and asked him something that had been on my mind about two hours into my training. "Yondu, all these moves you've been teaching me tonight…" I swallowed nervously when I felt his chin drop onto my shoulder and he waited for me to continue. "They kinda seemed like they were geared towards a scenario of me being raped."
He withdrew his chin with a grunt and I felt him shifting behind me. He was moving to stand so I followed suite. He walked towards some towels on a rack at the wall and grabbed one. He began to mop at the sweat on his face and chest which I willed myself not to watch. After a moment of silence, he finally turned to face me with a stern expression.
"Lydia, you're a damn fine lookin' woman. A face and body like yours can make a man ignore his better judgment. My crew… they ain't the brightest to begin with and they ain't gentlemen either. They're Ravagers, sweetheart, and you bein' a part of the crew ain't gonna change that."
"But I thought that Ravager's looked after their own."
"What do you think this was all about tonight?"
I went quiet. He could have taught me any number of fighting techniques tonight, but instead he'd chosen to teach me how to escape.
He tossed the towel onto his shoulder. "We're done for the night. Get some rest." He gathered up his clothing and bundled it under his arm. "I'll train ya for two months and at the end, I'll determine if yer ready to join the ground team or not."
"Thank you."
"Thank me by not naggin' me to death about it for the next two months." He turned to go and was almost out the door when he called over his shoulder. "By the way, sugar; ya got some nice tits to go with that ass."
My face suddenly became unbearably hot as I blushed scarlet to the tip of my ears. Yondu spared a quick glance at me and I heard his booming laughter echo down the halls after him as he left.
(Hope this chapter keeps you going until the next installment. Loved it? Hated it? Did you get a giggle out of it? Let me know! Feel free to give me some pointers. I really would appreciate your feedback! I have so much more to share with you in this story and the only way I can make it better is if you Readers let me know your thoughts.
Until Next time, Dear Readers!)
