Hello everyone! I hope you enjoy this chapter. I have many more that I have the first draft done and will get posted. This chapter is a little T rated for implied things but nothing graphic. If you enjoy this story and like this chapter please let me know, the makers of things like to know if their work is enjoyed! My favorite set of chapters is coming up soon!
The Milano was built in layers. Nowadays, with so many beings crammed in, there was usually something happening on just about every level. Gamora was in the cargo hold, in the lower belly of the ship, making use of the punching bag and workout stuff tucked away in corners. Groot was up in the kitchen watching Drax attempt to prepare dinner for the team. The tree man was near the sink, the closest source of water, in case anything went wrong. The level above the living quarters was the cockpit, where Philly and Rocket were busy discussing the modifications Philly wanted to make to turn this new ship more like how the old Milano used to be. When Nova had rebuilt the ship they had conveniently forgone the smuggler hidey holes and the other mods commonly used in illegal activities.
A few hundred yards away from the ship their star lord, Peter Quill, was stumbling to the ship with a skimpily dressed female. They stumbled as they walked as their legs kept getting tangled. He led her up the gangplank and punched in the code from muscle memory as his face was otherwise occupied and his eyes were closed.
Gamora, breathing hard form her daily workout, spun around in reaction to the hatch to find Peter and his…companion hanging off each other and stumbling through the hold.
Peter gave her a wave as they pasted. Gamora didn't really know what to do, she was torn between throttling Peter and snapping his neck. Her face felt hot and she got queasy. She went back to her punching bag to make something else feel like her gut did.
The way the ship was laid out Peter had to go through the kitchen to get to his room. Groot's tilted his head to the side curiously. Peter and a strange woman were stumbling through the kitchen neither at all seemed bothered that they had an audience, merely blazing though.
Drax stood uncertainly wondering where he was going to sleep that night. And not sure what to do he went up to the cockpit, "Philly."
"What?" The pilot asked absentmindedly and not looking up.
"There is a woman on the ship."
Rocket rolled his eyes, "yes Drax, in fact, there are two."
"Three." Drax corrected.
"Huh?" Philly looked up and gave him her full attention, "What do you mean there are three women on the Milano? Wait." Philly got up from the floor where she'd been sitting and checked the in and out logs from the front door.
"You got to be kidding me." She groaned when she saw Peter had come back. "You said he had a girl with him, where are they now?"
"The room I share with Quill," Drax answered. The pilot squeezed past him down the ladder, marching towards Peter's room.
He followed after like a shadow, "I came to request a place to sleep for the night cycle."
Philly paused in her furry, considering the current sleeping arrangements. There were three bedrooms on the Milano. The smallest was formerly storage or a prison cell when the occasion called for it, but it now belonged to Rocket and Groot. Drax had moved into Peter's room and Gamora into Philly's. But Philly mostly slept up in the cockpit and used the room for storage so Gamora mostly got the room to herself. Of course, Gamora and Drax was a potential recipe for disaster so…
"Um, if I can't get your bed back for the night you can take my hammock in the cockpit and I'll bunk in Gamora's room. Sound good?"
"Yes," Drax agreed, "That would be acceptable."
"Good." Philly nodded in approval as they went toward Peter's door. Gamora had come up from the hold with her face pinched up in a scowl and was stalking in the direction of the cockpit.
"You are handling this?" She asked Philly with a frown.
"Yeah," She sighed, "Just give me a minute and I'll try to straighten this out."
Gamora nodded and leaned against the cold steel wall with her arms crossed over her chest. Groot and Drax did basically the same thing, all waiting to see if the matter could be resolved by their Zeldonian friend. Rocket was just there to see how this would play out; his sleep wouldn't be interrupted either way.
Philly rapped on the door sharply three times with her knuckles. They could hear the noises inside, noises Philly didn't want to think about, come to a stop.
"We're a little busy," Peter yelled pointedly; the noise started up again.
Philly knocked again, with the side of her fist this time. It was much louder and they heard Peter stomping to the door and grumbling under his breath. The door hissed open somehow sounding more slammed even though it was on a set speed. Peter's mouth was pressed together, and his eyebrows were pulled down as far as they would go. He was very frustrated Philly knew as she let her gaze trail up and down his form. His overcoat was gone, belt was undone and his shirt untucked and unbuttoned halfway down.
"What?" He demanded his gathered team and Philly's disapproving frown.
She gave him a sound smack on his arm, "what do you think you're doing?"
"What's it look like I'm trying to do?" Peter shot back in a whisper yell.
"It looks like you're trying to disrupt our routines and boot Drax out of your shared room." Philly said with extra emphasis.
"We have other places to sleep," Peter shot back, "Drax doesn't mind."
"That's not the point!"
"This has not bothered you in years, Philly." Peter pointed out. "What's the big deal?"
"The big deal?" Philly echoed, raising her voice ever so slightly. "The big deal is that you brought home a bed warmer without any form of warning or consideration if it would bother any of us!"
"I gave you a warning." Peter returned. "Did you check your messages?"
Philly narrowed her eyes, "that's not the point. The point is you can't do this here anymore now that we have more people living here."
Peter grinned triumphantly, "so you didn't check your messages before you stormed down here! So I'm not breaking any rules, am I?"
"I- you." Philly growled and cursed under her breath. He had her and he knew it. A low throaty voice, yet still decidedly feminine called out from within the room asking where Peter was and how long he was going to be. She said it in different words though.
Peter grinned giving Philly an almost challenging look, "If you'll all excuse me."
He waited a moment to see if anyone would try to stop him before closing the door and locking it with an audible click as the manual deadbolt was locked into place.
Philly growled and kicked the wall with her stockinged feet. Then, with as much dignity as she could summon, limped into the kitchen.
…
"I can't believe him!" Philly ranted, setting up a pot of water to boil for the hot chocolate drink of Peter's home planet. It was one of her favorites ever since he had introduced it to her.
Gamora sat at the table, as still and intense as a hunting predator, her lips were pursed thoughtfully, "he has done this before?"
Philly hummed in confirmation.
"And often?"
Philly sighed, and answered the green-skinned woman, "Yeah, he's a real dog."
"…I do not see how Peter shares a likeness with canines." Drax commented, his brow line scrunching down in a puzzled look.
"It's a slang thing." Rocket explained. "mean's our leader likes to get it on with anything female with legs to spread." No one bothered to defend Quill but Drax's expression told them he still did not understand.
"It means that Peter is afraid of commitment of the female partner for life verity." Philly reiterated, setting up four mugs out and one bucket of water and botanical nurturance Groot liked. "It also means that he might be bringing girls abord to do some … er… fornicating… if we're not careful."
"What did you two mean by 'not breaking any rules'?" Gamora asked.
"Well," Philly started carefully, "a few weeks after I first moved in with Petey I came home one day to find clothes all over the ship and him and a girl doing it right out there on the kitchen table."
Rocket gave a short laugh, Gamora looked appalled and subtlety removed her elbows from the table even though she knew this was the Milano 2.0 not the original.
"What did you do?" she asked.
The pilot laughed, "I went out the way I'd come and went to see a movie. Then when I came back, I sat Peter down and we established some ground rules for future fornicating plans."
"Such as?" Drax prompted.
"He has to call ahead if I'm here and or leave a rag tied to the ladder if I am not." Philly said, "If they will be using the whole ship, enough food and provisions for however long they're planning to go for will be left in the cockpit and the hatch properly sealed. There's some other stuff but those two were the most pressing. I guess we need to rewrite the rules now that we have more people living on one ship."
"I guess we should be grateful Quill made it this long." Rocket shrugged.
Philly added, "and that we didn't walk in on anything before tonight."
"But this is still unacceptable." Gamora said firmly. "We all live here now as well and should not have to be booted out of our rooms or shuffle around his door."
Philly gave a short laugh, "Just wait until tomorrow morning when his bed partner might come to breakfast, and we pretend to be polite."
"Why would we do that?" Drax asked as if that offended him.
"Well," Philly started with a wicked grin, "because the calmer and more civilized we are the more riled up they usually get."
…
The next morning was bright and clear with only a few wispy clouds and an almost non-existent breeze. It was perfect for flying and Philly wanted very much to take advantage of it. However, Peter was still out cold and the woman's clothes were still here which by extension meant the woman was still there.
"It's part of my end of the rules," Philly explained when Rocket asked why they were still here. "With the exception of an emergency I can't leave until the girl leaves."
"He broke the rules so can you." Rocket tried to persuade.
Philly shook her head, "Absolutely not. Most of the girls Peter has over don't really like waking up in deep space with no way to get home."
"We could stuff her in the airlock." Rocket suggested and Philly couldn't tell if he was kidding or not.
Gamora walked in just then and interrupting Philly from asking. "Peter is showing his… guest out right now."
"Good," Philly nodded, "I have some words for him. I'm sure we all do."
The man himself strode into the kitchen chest puffed up with satisfaction and his collar askew. Philly guessed he had gotten a goodbye something. Drax and Groot, who had been grappling in the cargo hold were on his heels and neither were looking particularly happy.
"Good morning everyone!" Peter grinned at each of them in turn. "How did you all sleep?"
"I am Groot."
"No worse than normal," Rocket replied casually. They were the only two whose sleeping arrangements had not been interrupted and the other three were slightly jealous.
"Peter," Philly started her rehearsed speech. "Sit down."
"Is this an intervention?" He asked in a teasing tone but did as she asked.
"Yes."
"Oh." The grin slipped off his face and was replaced by a frown. Peter propped up his chin on the palm of his hand and waited.
"Now, I know we established the rules. And I know you followed them. And I know-"
"Just get to the point." The Tearrn cut her off.
Philly didn't get the chance because Drax beat him to it. "It is unacceptable to bring strangers into our home if you want to be the team leader. Not to mention irresponsible and rude."
Groot nodded along with his words. Gamora silently watched Peter. She looked like a volcano preparing to erupt.
"Quill, let's put it this way," Rocket said. "It's fine you have your needs as long as it doesn't involve uprooting our entire night and subject us to listening through the very thin walls."
"That's not fair!" Peter yelled jumping out of his seat.
"We put it to a vote." Philly told him, "and we unanimously decided next time you ask 'my place or yours?', the answer will be her place."
"But I didn't get to vote." Peter protested.
"Alright," Philly nodded. "All in favor of Peter never having another sleepover pal say aye. Or who you are."
There was an in-sync chorus of 'ayes' and one "I am Groot."
"Satisfied?" Philly asked with a smirk.
"Yeah." The Terran begrudgingly admitted. He pushed past Gamora and Drax who were blocking the doorway and stormed off in a huff worthy of the brattiest youngling who got their favorite toy taken away.
"He'll get over it." Philly shrugged.
What she didn't know but should have realized was he would get over it eventually, but that Peter wouldn't give up without a fight.
