(Aside from thanking those who have favorited, followed, and reviewed this story, I don't have much to say, so let's just go ahead and skip to the song suggestions.)
[Song Suggestions for this Chapter: Listen to 'Rescue Me' by Fontella Bass when Yondu's about to give Lydia a tour of the ship. 'Playing with the Boys' by Kenny Loggins should be played immediately after. 'I'm Not in Love' by 10cc is mentioned when to be listened to.]
Chapter Four
Playing with the Boys
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Didn't I wake up to that sound the other night?
BANG! BANG! BANG! "Wake up, girl!"
Raspy voice. Odd accent. I like that accent. It's kinda hot. Where have I heard that accent?
"Do I have to blast this door down too, girl!"
It suddenly came rushing back to me. Oh sprek…
BANG! BANG! BANG!
I tumbled off the mattress, my brown leather jacket sliding off my chest and tangling between my legs which caused me to trip and face plant on the floor. More resounding 'bangs' vibrated against my door. I pulled my jacket free and tossed it aside to lunge for the control panel. Slapping my palm at it blindly, I felt a mixture of satisfaction and dread when the portal door opened. Yondu's hand was lifted in the act of delivering another bout of banging. A scowl was etched onto his blue face. Just like I left him.
I drowsily leaned against the frame, the side of my face pressed to the metal and my eyes struggling to stay open. "Hey, Yondu." I covered my mouth as a large yawn overtook me. "What's up?"
His crimson eyes flicked up and down at me, eyebrows raised. Oh glom, I must have looked a sight. My hair likes to do this thing where it expands over night and it's a battle to brush out in the mornings. Since I'd left my travel bag in the ship's bridge I slept in my clothes which were now sporting fabulous wrinkles. Yondu's gaze drifted to my right shoulder. I glanced down to see my tank top's strap had slid uselessly off my shoulder. I hastily pulled it back in place.
"Um –," I began but Yondu seemed to have snapped out of whatever disgust my appearance must have incurred because he cut me off.
"If that's how ya would have looked the night after I guess I should be grateful you conned me instead."
Ouch. I schooled my features to look unimpressed. "Charming as ever."
"I take it you met the kid seeing as how you ended up in the room next to his."
I opened my mouth to deliver a tongue lashing for leaving out the important detail of Peter's age but he got a great big yawn instead. "You could swallow a planet whole with that big mouth," Yondu said. I was in mid-yawn so I was unfortunately unable to tell him where to shove it. It's probably for the best I couldn't.
When my yawn passed, I fixed him with the best glare I could manage so early in the morning. "You failed to mention how old he was."
"Did I?" He shrugged. "Oh well."
"Oh well? That's all you have to say? I thought I'd be on this ship for a few months!"
"I told you you'd be his care-taker until he no longer needs to be looked after."
"You twisted your words to make it sound like he was ill and it would be a temporary job!"
"It is temporary. You ain't gonna be here yer whole life. Just a couple of years is all."
"A couple of years? Do you know how old he is?"
"Young."
"He's eight. Eight years old. I found that much out from him last night. He's going to need me around for at least five years!"
Yondu leaned his shoulder on the wall and folded his arms. "Hm. That's a shame. Too bad you had a lot goin' for ya back home – oh wait," he snapped his fingers in feigned recollection, "Ya didn't really have anythin' to look forward to, didja? Except lookin' after yer momma. Ain't that right, princess?" He bared his teeth in a cruel grin, his red eyes practically glinting.
A sharp pang sliced at my heart and I swallowed back any retort I had. It was harsh, but true. I had nothing. Yondu gave a lop-sided smirk at my silence and pushed off the wall. "Get dressed; I'm gonna show you around the ship."
I finally managed to form words. "Isn't that something a captain would task a crew member to do? Ya know, since the captain's busy captaining and all?"
Yondu placed his hands on his hips and bared those crooked, sharp teeth at me in a stomach churning grin. "I wanted the pleasure of showin' you around myself, darlin'." I eyed him suspiciously and made no move to pull myself away from the door frame. "Get a move on, girl! I ain't got all day!"
I didn't break my gaze from him as I took two steps back and pressed the button for the door to close. Even after there was a barrier between us I continued to stare at the same spot. Whether it was because I didn't trust Yondu or my brain was still waking up and hadn't registered the closed door, I'll let you decide. I finally pulled away my gaze when I spent about thirty seconds feeling around for my travel bag next to the bed and I remembered that I hadn't brought it with me.
Well this is going to be awkward, I thought, slipping on my leather jacket and running fingers through my tangled hair.
When the door revealed me again to Yondu he furrowed his brow. "You look the same."
"Yeah, well," I grunted as I stretched and gathered my hair in one hand to start braiding, "I forgot my bag on the bridge last night and –,"
"Night cycle."
"Huh?"
"On this ship we refer to them as cycles since there ain't no real day or night in space. We keep to Xandarian time 'round here, so ya best adapt to it quick."
"Right. Gotcha."
"As for your bag, I had it taken to my quarters last night so no one would nose around in it."
I blinked in surprise, my hands going still. "That was actually thoughtful," I said.
Yondu rolled his eyes and turned, walking away. "I did it so ya wouldn't whine about yer stuff being messed with," he grouched.
"Ooof course you did." I sighed. I looked to the door next to mine. "Hey, what about Peter? Shouldn't I have him with me for the tour?"
"He already knows his way around. Stop yappin' and walk!"
I narrowed my eyes at the back of his head and lowered my voice so he wouldn't hear me. I pitched my tone to sound like an air-headed princess. "Why yes, I do find a lack of manners to be a major turn on and I will readily follow any man who orders me around."
"Brosh! Move!" He was losing patience with me. I grumbled and followed after him.
I finished my braid and secured it with a twice broken hair tie. "So, where do we get the grub around here?" I asked, picking up my pace so I'd be at his side.
"Mess hall. It's on the level above us."
"Is that our first stop by any chance?"
He gave me a side glance and smirked. "You hungry?"
"Starved."
"Too bad. Ya missed breakfast."
"Whaaat," I whined.
"Told ya, you best adapt quick."
"Tsk, yeah, no kidding."
The rest of the day – excuse me, day cycle – didn't get any better. Yondu was an absolute borga the whole time. For those of you who haven't gotten a translator implant yet, borga in Threxian loosely translates to mean 'jerk' in Terran. But borga really doesn't even begin to cover how insufferable he was. Oh, he showed me around the ship alright, but it was how he conducted the tour that really grated on my nerves.
The Eclector, as I've said before, is a huge ship. Ginormous! But he didn't treat it that way. Ooooh no, he made us practically fly by everything and gave me the bare minimum of explanations and descriptions for it all. For example, when he showed me the way to the training room, I had barely gotten through the entrance when he said, "This is the training room, it's where you train. Moving on." Then turned on his heel and began to walk out. I can't even tell you what all was inside the room because I didn't even get a proper glimpse. He grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me after him. He let go once we exit the hall, as if he didn't want to be seen touching me.
It was about the time I was climbing the seventh staircase within less than two hours that I caught the devilish grin on his face and realized that he was making the tour overwhelming on purpose! That son of a marg!
By the time we made it to the bridge, I was worn out, famished, parched, and thirty seconds away from strangling him with my bare hands! I probably would have done it if I hadn't been so out of breath.
"Didja get all that, princess?" Yondu asked, smiling smugly.
My eyes bugged out of my skull as I fought the urge to slug that near-perfectly square jaw out of alignment. Maybe that's why his teeth were so crooked; he'd earned one too many punches to the mouth?
At my silence and intense staring, Yondu chuckled maliciously and turned to approach his chair. "I got a few tasks for ya ta do before you hunt down that boy."
"And that would be?" I asked through clenched teeth.
"Oooh, just a few small things."
It was not just a few small things. The giant piece of engine equipment I was lugging around in my arms was nowhere near small! It seemed to gain weight with every second I carried it to the engine rooms at the very back of the ship. I became fairly certain that Yondu failed to mention the locations of any convenient lifts or zero-gravity equipment that would have made my trips – yes, yes I'd made the trek twice already – easier.
The first two times I'd made the trip down to the engine room was with a blue-skinned alien named Aerin. He and Yondu were not the same species though. Aerin's skin wasn't as deep a blue as Yondu's, nor did he have the broad and muscled build of his captain either. Instead of being bald, Aerin sported a head full of thick black hair. He also had pale gold eyes. He was part of the engine team and after making the trip with me a second time, he had to stay and work with the rest of the engine crew, leaving me to navigate my way back to the cargo hold and un-box the final piece they needed. Unfortunately it was the largest one and I didn't have Aerin to help me carry it. Not that he would have been much help since he was a bit on the scrawny side.
A glance around me revealed no nearby crewmembers to ask for assistance so I sucked it up and heaved the hulking metal object into my arms and thought, I got this, no sweat. Ten minutes later and sweat was dripping down my back. I was also very, very much lost. How can a ship that big not have signs posted at all the hall entrances and exits? How did the crew know where to go? How did anyone find anything in this place? Was I going to forever wander the ship, lost and hungry?
"Where are the signs! Why are there no signs! I need my signs!"
I came upon a three way cross section and paused. I had no memory of being here when I followed Aerin. Had we come here? Wasn't I paying attention? I was paying attention! I'm sure I was paying attention!
As I stood there, turning this way and that at the various entrances and wracking my brain to remember which path to take, the engine part gradually began to pull me down with it. I struggled to remain upright but the strength in my arms was running out and I soon realized it was a losing battle.
"Oooooh, spreeek," I groaned, feeling my upper body succumb to gravity. "No, no, no!" I was about to be acquainted with the floor. I had to get moving again. Picking the passage directly in front of me, I dragged my feet forward. My leg movements started to resemble a waddle and my descent continued. I hadn't even made it past the threshold when my body said, "Nope!" and I fell to the floor with a thud. "Ooooouch…"
It was Aerin who drew the short straw to come and find me. I'm being serious here, the engine crew literally drew straws to decide who'd come and find me. I was still lying on the floor, too exhausted to move except for rolling onto my back. I preoccupied myself by counting the number of tiny squares in the grating above my head and had gotten to the upper two-hundreds when I heard foot steps coming my way. I was saved!
"You want me to do what?"
"Go back to maintenance and help them fix the AC," Yondu stated, grinning.
"I was just in there! Why couldn't you have told me that while I was there!"
"Do you have a comm-link yet?"
"…No."
"Then that answers yer question, doesn't it?"
I stared daggers at him but it only seemed to amuse him to the point that I could tell he was holding back laughter. "When do I get one?" I asked with forced calmness.
"Weeell, it won't be ready until the end of the day cycle I should think." He stuck the tip of his tongue behind his front teeth, not even bothering to disguise the petty glee he was experiencing at my frustration.
"Fine," I said through clenched teeth. "Will that be all, captain?"
"For now. Lunch is in two hours."
I gave him a stiff nod and stomped off to maintenance.
Nobody in maintenance had a clue what they were doing! No wonder the AC wasn't working! I ended up having to teach those numbskulls how to do everything! I also ended up streaked with oil stains and remembered that my clothes were being held hostage by Yondu. Could my day get any better?
When lunch time rolled around, I nearly plowed over anyone that got in my way and collapsed with my food tray at an empty table. I went to grab my fork when I caught a glimpse of my hand. It was nearly covered with black smudges. I could only imagine how my face looked. Soooo attractive. Phft! I took out a rag I'd stuffed in my back pocket and tried to rub some of the black off of my hands.
I caught many crewmen looking at me, some sneaking glances, others blatantly staring. I searched their faces, looking for one in particular and not finding him. Peter wasn't there. A bellow of laughter that was fast becoming familiar to me caught my attention. Yondu sat at a table among members of his crew and was regaling them with tales of past exploits. I watched him as he spoke. He smiled as he divulged amusing moments in the story and yet … it didn't reach his eyes. Not like it did when he and I had first met and he thought I was an ordinary girl for him to flirt with.
Shaking off my ruminations, I returned to eating and scanning for Peter. He should have been in the mess hall by now. Finished with my food, I dumped my empty tray and made my way to Yondu's table. I scrubbed at my face and hands one more time before I wadded up the rag in my left fist and stood before him.
"Captain, if I may have a word?" I asked.
He spared me a passing glance. "Ya look like crap, Brosh."
"I have to disagree," one Ravager interjected after getting a look at me. "Even all smudged up she's still hot."
Yondu shot him a warning glare and turned back to me. "What is it?"
"I noticed that Peter isn't here. Do you know where he might be?"
"Isn't that the job I gave you? To be keepin' an eye on him?"
That was it. I'd had enough. "Oh, you're right, captain. When exactly did you want me to split myself in two so I could accomplish half the tasks you gave me as well as watch the kid?" I threw the dirty rag onto the table. "Next time you should give me fair warning cause splitting in two is a rather long process, but thanks for the clarification, Captain Udonta." I turned on my heel and stormed out, not the least bit concerned of what Yondu would do to me later. I was going to find Peter.
I decided to check his room first. Knocking softly on the door, I called out to him. "Peter? Are you in there?"
"Yeah," came his muffled voice.
"Can I come in?"
It was quiet for a moment then the door opened. Peter gave me a passing glance before heading back to his bed and flopping onto it. He had on his headphones and held his music box – Walkman – in his hands. I entered the room and smiled at him.
"Hey," I greeted. He didn't verbally answer, just gave me a faint nod. I ventured to sit next to him on the bed. He tensed for a moment but when I didn't make any sort of move to do anything else, he relaxed. "Why weren't you at the mess hall? Aren't you hungry?"
As if to answer me personally, his stomach gave an audible growl. Peter clutched at his small belly and winced, embarrassed. "Yeah," he said.
"Then why didn't you go eat?"
Peter slid the headphones off and sighed. "I'm too scared to go in there."
"Scared? Why are you scared?"
"Because I'm so skinny and – and what if they try to eat me? Yondu said they wanted to eat me."
"So when do you eat?"
"I go to the kitchen when they're all gone. The food's usually put away by then but I find something else to eat if I can get to it. Most of the time I don't know if the stuff is something I can eat because it's alien food and what if I could die from eating it?"
This kid was scarrin' adorable. Part of me wanted to giggle at the look of anxiety on his face but worry won out as I realized that for two months Peter had barely eaten a full meal. I leaned in as if I were going to share a secret. "Well, if it's any help, I'm part Terran and I've eaten plenty of different food from other places and I haven't keeled over yet. The food they serve in the mess hall may look deadly but I'm still kickin'." I widened my eyes comically. "I am still kicking, right? I'm not a ghost, am I? Hang on; let's see if my hands go through you!" I began to tickle him without mercy. Peter laughed as he wiggled and flopped about as he tried to escape.
"Well look at that; I'm solid," I said, withdrawing once I felt that I'd succeeded in brightening his mood. "So, not a ghost then." I pretended to wipe sweat away from my brow. "Phew."
Peter's eyes seemed to regain a spark in them and I noticed that his had a small ring of brown around the pupils. I remembered Yondu's remark about Peter and me having similar colored eyes. "Got green eyes like you too. His ain't as pretty though…" Had it really only been two days ago that Yondu had been charming and flirting with me? It seemed like a different person.
Shaking off the memory, I glanced down at his music device and smiled. "So, what were you listening to before I came in?"
His hold on it tightened. "'I'm Not in Love' by 10cc.'"
"Never heard it before. Mind if I listen?" I didn't reach for the headphones, I merely turned my hand so that my palm was open and waiting if he decided to give it to me, but the way his fingers went white-knuckled around the box you'd have thought I'd just tried to snatch it from him. I closed my hand and let it fall to my lap. Did he think I was trying to steal it? To be fair, he'd only met me yesterday and I'd visibly gotten excited when I saw his music bo – Walkman.
"Look," I began, gently, "I have my own music box. So you don't have to worry about me stealing it, okay?"
Peter cringed, but his grip didn't let up. "Sorry. Some of the aliens on the ship tried to take it from me before."
I smacked my left fist into my open right palm. "Want me to bust some noses?"
He smiled and shook his head. "Nah. I already bit some of their fingers when they tried." Oh, I liked this kid. His thumb continued to stroke the buttons.
"It must be really special to you."
"Yeah."
"You said your mom gave it to you?"
"For my seventh birthday."
"And the tape?"
"It's a mix tape."
"I'd love to hear it sometime. I've got quite a few mix-tapes of my own if you ever want to listen to them."
"That'd be cool."
We sat in silence for a moment.
"You want to listen to that song?" Peter offered hesitantly.
"Sure."
I made sure not to reach for anything, only moving when the headphones were offered to me. The beat started off slow, almost laid-back, not at all like the barrage of electric guitar and drums that I was accustomed to listening to. After about a minute into the music, I glanced at Peter and smiled. "I like it," I told him.
His posture relaxed, as if he'd been afraid I wasn't going to like it. "I was listening to this song just before…" He swallowed and looked down at his Walkman. "Before Yondu took me."
I slid the headphones off. "Taken?" Now that I wasn't completely exhausted, I remembered Peter mentioning the other night that Yondu had snatched him up.
"Yeah, I was kidnapped by that blue jerk."
Kidnapped! Oh things were getting more interesting.
"Yondu says they wanted to eat me but he stopped them because he saw how quick I was and that I could be a good thief."
That just didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Why would Yondu kidnap a kid in the first place?
"How did he manage to kidnap you?"
Peter told me how he'd been alone outside of a hospital that night when a bright light blinded him and wind nearly deafened his ears.
"Where were your parents?"
"Never met my dad."
"And your mom?"
Peter's lips pressed into a thin line and his eyes became watery. Oh… So that's why he was outside of a hospital. She must have been very ill to be at a hospital. I could just barely hear the music coming from the headphones but I made no move to put them back on.
"My mom's sick too. I would play music for her cause it seemed to help. The one she liked the most was 'Unchained Melody'."
"What do you mean music seemed to help?"
"There's something…wrong with her head."
"Cancer?" Peter's voice warbled.
I frowned at the foreign word. "I've never heard of that illness. She's mentally ill. The units I make with the Ravagers is going to help pay for her treatments at the hospital."
Peter's eyes lowered to his shoes. "Maybe you'll have better luck than I did."
"What do you mean, Peter?"
I stormed through the halls, distantly surprised I was able to find my way back to the bridge without getting lost. I was a woman on a mission, my blood boiling with fury that was directed at one person.
"Yondu Udonta!"
He looked up at me with a scowl as I entered the bridge. "Woman, the only time my full name is used is whenever I announce myself."
"You absolute loxtranti!" I doubt I have to tell you what loxtranti translates into. It's certainly doesn't mean 'sweetheart'. "How could you kidnap a child right after his mother died!"
Yondu faltered only a moment before the scowl returned with a vengeance. "It ain't yer concern, princess."
I was only marginally aware that we weren't alone on the bridge. Kraglin, Halvi, and two others were there. At a twitch of his head, all but Kraglin left the room. "If I recall, captain, you put me in charge of Peter's care and last I checked, his emotional state of mind falls under that description; so yeah, it is my concern, Yondu! You took him less than a minute after his own mom died! He hasn't had a chance to process that!"
"It's been two months; he's had plenty of time!"
"No. He's been hiding out in his room, too scared to even come out to eat because he's trapped on a ship full of space pirates who want to eat him. He's been trying to figure out how to survive, not processing his mother's death."
Yondu rolled his red eyes. "Yer exaggeratin'."
"Am I? Do you know who he called out for when you zapped him up?"
"I suppose you do?" he responded sarcastically.
"His mom."
Yondu was silent.
"Peter told me that he was so scared when your ship showed up, that he forgot he'd just seen his mother die and so the first person he screamed to come and save him was his mom…. Yondu, her death was so fresh, barely a minute had passed, and you came and snatched him away before he could even accept that his mother was gone – is any of this getting through to you at all?"
Yondu's jaw twitched as he glared at a spot near my shoulder, not even bothering to look me in the eye. When it became apparent I'd be getting no answer from him I scoffed in disbelief and turned on my heel.
He lifted his eyes to watch her leave the bridge. He'd felt her anger, seen the rage burning in those green eyes. Hearing her question him like that, he'd nearly grabbed her and shook her right then. She didn't know the whole story. She only had the boy's side of it and it wasn't the complete picture. He was her captain now and she had no right to barge in and yell at him. Yet a tiny voice whispered at him that he'd deserved it. Yondu quickly strangled that tiny voice and sneered at Lydia's rapidly retreating back. He'd punish her later for such behavior. That was the second time she'd bowed up at him in the presence of his crew and that just wasn't going to be ignored. He couldn't let his men think he'd let her get away with it.
"Cap'n?"
He could hear his young first mate cautiously approaching him. He'd made him his first mate less than two years ago after the last one thought he'd start calling the shots himself. That had ended with a whistle, a flash of red, and a hole through the man's skull. Kraglin had shown remarkable loyalty and promise in the past, so he'd made the boy his right hand man. Yondu knew the boy was still wary of getting his job wrong, making him walk on eggshells around his captain, but he still tried.
"Cap'n?" Kraglin tried again when Yondu didn't answer.
"Hm?"
"Should we fill her in? Ya know, since she's gonna be takin' care of the boy an' all?"
"We ain't tellin' her a thing, Kraglin."
"But, cap –,"
Yondu whirled and fixed him with a glare. "Not a thing!"
Kraglin swallowed and nodded. "Yes, sir."
(Well, how was that? Lydia's first day at work wasn't exactly kind to her, was it? I kept giggling as I pictured Lydia's carrying those heavy pieces of equipment and it eventually dragging her down. I loved writing that scene. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. There's more to come so hopefully you'll stick around. Let me know what you thought; what ya liked, disliked, what I could improve on, etc. Until next time, Dear Readers!)
