Finally the translation is done. I hope you will like this (pretty long) chapter^^

And for those who care: This chapter is gonna be pretty important for future chapters, so please keep this in mind ;).

Chapter 7

Yondu's gaze was cold and stern and he saw the boy shudder, felt how he was trying to squirm in his steel-hard grip. His head slowly took on an interesting color, as the blood flowed into it, but he didn't care.

Served this little thief right!

A growl loosened from his throat, as Peter looked pleadingly up at him.

"Where is it?" he growled at him, his eyes almost impaling the Terran boy.

"Wh-where is what?"

He narrowed his eyes, tightening his grip around the boy's ankle, which made him flinch, as he seemed to understand the warning.

"Ya know exactly what I mean, ya little thief!"

"I didn't steal your figure! I swear!"

"And why isn't it standing where it should be? And how did ya even get in here?!"

"I'll explain everything to you, Yondu, but please...let me go. I'm getting dizzy."

For a few more seconds, the Centaurian looked at him sternly, before his facial features softened a bit and he let go of Peter's foot, causing the boy to fall not very gently onto the Captain's bed. When he sat up, Yondu was already at his desk, as he had finally seen the figure standing there. Lovingly, his blue fingers stroked over the black cat, which he now held in his hands, before he placed it back onto the shelf.

Peter thought he was going to give him a terrible punishment here and now when the pirate turned around to face him, but to his astonishment, Yondu didn't look at him as angry as before. No. His eyes looked different, almost as if he was too tired and exhausted to punish him for what he had done. He was about to open his mouth and apologize, when Yondu approached him, but he didn't get the chance to do so, because the Ravager was faster than him when he apologized to him.

"What?" Peter said disbelieving, as he watched the older man run his hands through his face, before sitting down next to him on the bed.

"I'm sorry, Petey," he repeated his words and Peter could clearly hear how exhausted he was. Apparently he seemed to have a long day behind him. Great. And just today he had to break into his quarters. Very smart...

"Actually, I have to apologize to you, don't you think so?"

Yondu's mouth twitched slightly upwards when those words reached his ears.

"Ya didn't do it on purpose."

"So you believe me?"

"Yes. Or is there a reason not to do that?"

He turned his head to him and Peter shuddered, when he saw the now stern look and the warning that resonated in it.

"No, there isn't. I really didn't want to steal anything."

Almost immediately, Yondu's gaze softened again and he relaxed a bit as well, lying down on the bed next to Peter and closing his eyes. He heard the rustling of clothes, as the boy scooted to his side and he almost felt his curious look on his body, causing him to open one of his red eyes and look at him.

Peter knelt right next to him and looked at him questioningly.

"Everything okay?"

Yondu nodded at the question and brushed his hand through his face again.

"Aye, I'm just tired."

"Oh...maybe I should better leave then?"

A small, gentle smile appeared on his face.

"Ya don't need to leave. If ya want to, ya can stay here. Besides, ya can tell me how ya got in here and what ya wanted here."

The boy giggled.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Aye. So, spit it out. How did ya get in here, ya little brat?"

Peter grinned and before he started to speak, he straddled Yondu's legs, his hands resting on his stomach and he looked right into his face. He couldn't help but see the curious glint in the Ravager's red eyes, which showed him that he was genuinely interested in hearing how Peter managed to enter his quarters without being caught.

"Do you see the ventilation shaft there?"

"Aye."

The Terran deliberately stopped talking, his grin widened, his eyes twinkled and he waggled his eyebrows and that was all Yondu needed to know.

"Are you serious, kid? Ya came through the ventilation shaft?"

"Yes."

"How did ya get in there?"

"I just crawled in."

"Did ya fit in there?"

"Yes."

There was a brief silence between them and Peter could see Yondu thinking about his words for a moment.

The little Terran surprised him more and more. Maybe he could someday use this to his advantage. Peter didn't seem to be scared anymore, he had become bolder and more brazen, if he was honest. But that was good. Actually very good. After all, he lived here in the midst of a gang of space pirates and he had to get a thick coat to survive here. The boy was creative and courageous. Perfect conditions to become one of them. And perfect conditions for their raids...

But he kept these thoughts to himself, just grinned and poked the kid's belly, which made him giggle.

"You're becoming more and more one of us, kid. Not bad."

Peter's face brightened and a wave of pride rolled over him.

A compliment from the Captain himself!

And as Yondu looked at him, he seemed to mean those words honestly.

"Kraglin also told me ya should have helped him brilliantly lately when ya two were down in the engine room."

Peter almost blushed with so much praise all at once.

"Did he really say that?"

"Aye, he did."

Again, the pride rolled over him, which Yondu could see this time, because Peter, without even noticing it, craned his chest forward.

The Ravager chuckled and poked his belly again, causing the Terran to giggle and he quickly rubbed his hand over the spot where Yondu had just poked him.

"Don't think that alone makes ya a Ravager, son. To become one of us requires more than crawling through ventilation shafts and repairing machine parts."

"Son?"

Only when Peter repeated the word did Yondu realize what he had just said.

Son...seriously?

"That...that was just a metaphor. Nothing more," he tried to quickly talk himself out of the situation and he avoided vehemently the eye contact with the boy, who then raised an eyebrow skeptically.

But Peter decided to keep his mouth shut, as he could see that this topic seemed to be uncomfortable for Yondu. But he couldn't help but notice that the pirate was behaving very differently towards him lately. He was much gentler than usual. Just like today, because he hadn't even punished him after he had caught him. Strange, because otherwise he punished him on the spot. Not today. No. Today he was very different. He even allowed him to stay here, sit on his legs, talk to him...

Somehow that was strange, but Peter liked this new side of him. He even liked it a lot, because he wasn't scared of him anymore, even enjoyed spending time with him. Just as he enjoyed spending time with Kraglin or Tullk...

"Why did ya even come here?"

Yondu's words tore him out of his thoughts and his eyes returned to the blue man's face. He shrugged his shoulders, before he started to speak.

"I was bored."

Now it was Yondu who raised an eyebrow.

"You were bored? And then ya thought that breaking into my quarters would banish yer boredom, huh?"

The boy grinned cheekily into his face.

"Aye!" he said and his answer was only commented by a playful eye roll of the Captain, who folded his arms behind his head and made himself even more comfortable.

Yondu had to admit that the boy reminded him of himself and his time which he had spent on Stakar's ship; right after he had saved him from slavery. He hadn't been nearly as gentle with him as he was with Peter now, but Stakar had always been something of a mentor, if not a father figure for Yondu. He had raised him, had made him a Ravager and he had showed him how to survive in the galaxy.

But there were times when the little kid in Yondu, that the Kree had imprisoned for twenty long years, seemed to have come out of his prison. Even if it had been short moments, he still remembered it well and how he had almost drove Stakar and the rest of the crew crazy at the time. He had stolen from them and if he had been caught, he had laughed cheekily right into their faces; no matter how hard the punishment for his wrongdoing had been. No matter what they had done to him, he had never wanted to learn his lesson, had continued to play pranks on them, even when he had become older. Nice times, when he thought about it and yes, he missed those times.

That's why he didn't punish Peter for this little misstep. The boy didn't want to steal anything, maybe he just wanted to look around his quarters, because he had never really done that before and besides, Peter reminded him of himself. He had also been young and wanted to have fun...

"What are you thinking of?" the boy's voice tore him out of his thoughts again and his body jerked slightly startled and his red eyes turned to him. And again there was that mischievous twinkle in Yondu's eyes that made Peter shudder.

"I am thinking about what I'm going to do to ya if ya creep into my quarters again."

Peter's eyes widened.

"What? I thought you were not angry at me?"

The other grinned.

"No, but only that you are so brazen as to do something like this deserves some punishment. And then ya choose the same hiding place over and over again. Next time, I'll take that weird thing away from ya I always see ya with if ya do that again."

The boy's eyes narrowed and he growled at the Centaurian.

"Don't you dare to take my Walkman away!"

But Yondu was not intimidated. His grin only widened and the mischief began to sparkle even more in his red eyes.

"What do ya want to do against it, kid?" he asked challengingly and he found it extremely amusing to watch how Peter puffed up his cheeks and glared at him, trying desperately to fling a matching answer into his face.

"Otherwise I'll take your stupid arrow away from you!" was the only thing he said and defiantly he crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Yondu's face, who still grinned at him.

"Oh really? Ya wanna take my Yaka arrow away from me? I would like to see yer pathetic attempt in trying it, boy."

Instead of a verbal answer, Peter started to look around and search for the arrow, but he didn't find it and when he heard Yondu laugh softly, he growled and glared at him, as he turned his head back and faced the blue man.

"Ya can't even find it, kid."

"Pfft, you'll see. It's certainly where your Ravager clothes are."

And without another word, the boy slipped off Yondu's legs and turned around. As he was about to jump off the bed, two strong arms wrapped around his middle. A startled outcry loosened from his throat, as Yondu picked him up, only to throw him onto the bed a few seconds later and lean over him.

Grinning, the Ravager looked at the boy as he glared at him again and growled a, "Hey! What are you doing?!".

"That, my boy, is a little lesson."

Peter raised an eyebrow questioningly as he asked, "What kind of lesson?"

"Never ever turn yer back on a Ravager. Especially not on me..."

A shiver crept down the boy's back and it didn't get better when Yondu grabbed his wrists and raised his hands over his head. When he got a faint idea of what the Ravager was up to, his lips already twisted into a wide grin and he squirmed like a worm on a hook under him, trying to break free, but he couldn't.

"Oh, ya think that's funny? And how do you like that? That's funny too?"

Yondu took one of his hands away, holding the boy down with only one hand now and using his free hand to tickle his side.

"Or maybe that?"

The hand moved on to his belly and the Ravager had to laugh himself, as Peter squealed and squirmed so much under his nimble fingers that he managed to free his hands. But that didn't help him much, because Yondu was taller and far stronger than he was and so the Centaurian just let him go and used both hands to tickle him and he couldn't help but chuckle himself, when he watched the boy and how he rolled from one side to the other, laughing louder and louder as he did so. He tried to grab his hands and push them away from his body, but he just couldn't make it and whenever he wanted to kick Yondu, he dodged the attack and kept going. Until Peter could feel how tears of laughter gathered in his eyes and until he started begging for mercy.

Only then did Yondu let go of him and withdrew from him.

Again, a small laugh crept out of his throat as the boy, still giggling, curled up into a ball, pulling his legs against his body, wrapping his arms around his upper body to protect it from further tickle attacks. It took a while for him to get back to the point where he stopped giggling and rolled over onto his back again. When he opened his eyes, he saw Yondu and how he still grinned down at him.

"Ha, ha, ha...very funny," Peter grumbled with a soft blush on his face and he slowly sat up, stroking his tousled hair out of his face.

"Oh, I think yer little Terran weakness is indeed very funny."

"Terran weakness? As if you weren't ticklish..."

A smug expression appeared on Yondu's face.

"I don't think so, Petey. This only works on you."

"Oh yes? And how do you know that? Until recently, you didn't even know that such a thing existed."

The older man opened his mouth for a suitable answer, but quickly closed it when he didn't know what to say. In principle, the little Terran was right. But of course, Yondu would never say that aloud...

His thoughts came to an abrupt end, when suddenly a weight threw himself against him and forced him down onto his bed. A grunt escaped his throat as he suddenly found himself lying on his back, with Peter straddling his legs. Before he ever got the chance to scold the boy, he already pressed his small fingers into his sides and it happened...absolutely nothing.

Within a few seconds, the roles were reversed, because now it was Peter who grumbled out of frustration and Yondu who sneered at him and to tease the little Terran a bit more, he crossed his arms behind his head and let him continue to try to tickle him.

"See? Told ya: Terran weakness."

"No way! You can feel pain, why not tickling too then?" the boy grumbled and he kept on trying, but with each passing second, in which he got no reaction from the Ravager, he became increasingly frustrated. But he didn't want to give up. He shouldn't forget that Yondu was not a human being and that his body was most likely very different from his own.

Maybe he was too gentle with his tickling?

He pressed his fingers a little harder into Yondu's shirt and into the skin hidden underneath, letting his fingers walk up his sides and over his ribs and even higher, and then, finally, he got a reaction, because the moment his fingers touched the bare skin under Yondu's arms, a strange sound broke from his throat and then everything happened very fast: Yondu's arms came crashing down, only trapping Peter's hands underneath and he looked at the boy, as if he had just had to watch how his entire crew got sacrificed to a hungry space monster.

And Peter?

He began to laugh loudly and full of joy, as he realized what had just happened, which made Yondu growl. Oh, how much he hated having a weakness...especially since it was a weakness he had never known about. And besides...that feeling was strange, almost scary and he didn't like the fact that this tickle thingy worked on him too.

However, Peter didn't seem to see it as serious as he did, because he managed to free his hands and attacked him again. This time, his target was Yondu's belly and before the Ravager could do anything about it, he felt the tickling fingers and how they slipped underneath his white shirt and dug into his blue skin. He didn't understand why he suddenly felt the strong urge to laugh, because he saw nothing amusing about this whole situation. But no matter how hard he tried to fight it, in the end he lost the fight. He started to laugh softly through gritted teeth and tried to push Peter away and when he did so, he quickly rolled onto his side, but the young Terran didn't want to give up so quickly, throwing himself onto his back, leaning over him and digging his fingers again into his belly.

"Ha! I knew it! I knew it would work on you too!" the boy cheered and Yondu would have liked to growl if he wouldn't have been busy with holding his laughing fit back...

That game continued until Yondu had enough of it. He turned onto his back, grabbed Peter's hands and pushed them away from his body.

"Stop Petey, that's enough."

He grumbled as the boy giggled.

"Ya better not tell anyone about this, kid!" he growled as he was able to speak normally again and he narrowed his eyes at him, but that didn't seem to intimidate the boy.

"And what if do it anyways?"

The Ravager growled like a hungry wolf.

"Then I will eat ya!"

And that warning seemed to be working, for Yondu saw how Peter's eyes widened and a little hint of fear was to be seen in them too and yes, he regretted his harsh words immediately, but he couldn't help it. His crew was never allowed to find out that he was vulnerable and weak. No matter what it was about. A weakness was a weakness in his eyes.

In the end Peter assured him that he wouldn't say anything and that it would stay between them. After all, even Yondu had kept his promise to never tell anyone that he also had this "weakness", as he liked to call it. So it was only fair that he would keep his mouth shut too.

After a few more moments, the mood relaxed again and Yondu let go of Peter's hands and sat up, so that the boy slipped off of him.

"Are you still bored?" he asked, grinning at Peter slightly mischievously, to lighten the situation a bit. With success, because the Terran grinned back at him and shook his head.

"Good. Then ya can go back to yer quarters. Sleep a little."

"But I'm not tired."

The blue man sighed and let himself fall back into his pillow again.

"If I had as much energy as you, Petey..."

Peter chuckled, scooted closer to him and looked into his face.

"Hey, Yondu?"

"Hmhm?"

"When will you teach me how to fly an M-ship?"

Well, that question literally came out of the blue and Yondu was so surprised by the sudden change of topic that he blinked several times, before he looked confusedly at Peter.

"You're too young for that, Petey. Before you are ready to fly an M-ship, ya first have to learn how to fight. What use is a ship if ya don't know how to defend yourself against enemies and how to properly use a weapon?"

"Oh come on Yondu. Please~. "

"I'm sorry, kid. But I'll teach ya that when you're old enough. And before I teach ya that, ya must have learned how to fight."

The older man grinned when something had occurred to him.

"How about this: Ya defeat me in a fight and then I think again about teaching ya how to fly one of our ships. How does that sound?"

Peter pouted and crossed his arms over his chest.

"That's not fair. You win every training session!"

"The galaxy ain't fair, kid. I know that better than anyone else. But that's life."

The boy didn't reply, even defiantly turning his face away from him.

"Oh come on now. Stop pouting."

Still no answer.

Once again, Yondu sighed and sat up, cracking his knuckles.

"Okay, fine. Round two then..."

The human child's eyes widened and before he even got the chance to escape, the Ravager already lunged at him and the tickle fight started all over again.

And only a few seconds later, Peter was rolling around on the bed again, laughing his little heart out with Yondu chasing after him, laughing himself and tickling him.

He would teach the boy everything he needed to know to survive in space, but there were things he was just too young for and flying an M-ship was clearly one of those things.

But one day he would be ready and Yondu would gladly teach him, just as Stakar had taught him how to fly a spaceship.

But for now, the boy had to learn how to fight and how to use a weapon, because such things were more than important; especially if he wanted to be a Ravager.

Maybe he would introduce him to the use of their standard laser weapons these days and then he would see if Peter was ready for something like that or not.

Yes, that sounded like a good plan...