"Should we go check on them?"
Tony hesitated, looking out into the darkness of the night at the soft glow coming from the far end of the training field. A glow that was a product of a couple of battery-powered lanterns and a Bunsen burner that had been placed in a specially designed fireproof holder, which was designed to detect and control the flow of the flame and damp it immediately, if something was off.
He shook his head.
"No. They're old enough to be trusted to make good decisions." The billionaire looked at the kitten that had been handed to him when Peter and Ned had gathered some tings and headed for the field as night was beginning to fall. "Unlike certain kittens I know…"
The two turned their attention back to the others.
They were in the lounge and there had been something of an informal farewell party for the guardians. Dinner had been a boisterous affair, and there was alcohol being consumed – although everyone was being careful not to get too inebriated. Steve, Strange and Carol were sitting with Peter Quill and Rocket, while Gamora and Drax were sitting with Wong, Fury and Bruce. Groot was out in the tent with Peter and Ned – and by now they were probably gorging on s'mores.
"This collector guy," Steve was saying when Tony and Pepper returned from looking out the window and seated themselves at the table. "He's just going to hand you over a couple of bags of money? Or is it an electronic thing? Like direct deposit?"
"He'll pay in credits," Rocket explained, looking at Pepper, who was seated closest to him, now. "It's a chit that is a bearer note, indicating that the money is owed. So we can use the chit anywhere and collect all of it at once, or arts of it at a time."
"He's good for it, too," Quill said, smugly, at the thought of the bargaining that they'd be doing for the reality stone. "We're going to be able to write our own check for this one."
"We definitely owe Peter," Rocket agreed. "Kid's going to make us rich."
"So, no more being space pirates?" Pepper asked, reaching out and brushing her fingertips against Rocket's whiskers, automatically, wiping away a couple of drops of the beer that he'd been drinking. "You could settle down and become honest businessmen…"
"That's boring," Rocket told her, not at all offended at her audacity to touch him – although it wasn't something that he was used to having done to him, either. "We-"
"Are not space pirates," Quill interjected, smoothly. "That's just a rumor."
Carol smirked.
"And if it enhances your reputation and allows you to charge more for your services, you're all for it, right?"
"Absolutely," he said, looking a little smug. "It looks bad if we call ourselves that, but if others do… well, who are we to tell them not to?"
"So where are you going to tell him you found the stone?" Strange asked, curiously. "I assume you're going to leave Peter and the Earth out of it?"
"Yeah." Quill nodded. "I talked to Peter about where he found Sirah, and got an idea of what the place looked like. We'll say that we happened by, stopping there to get supplies or something, and found the spaceship crashed, the girl badly injured."
"She lives long enough to tell us who she is and where she's from, hands us the stone and says her master will reimburse us for returning it. We promise her we'll return it and drop her on some planet where they can try and heal her," Rocket said. "And then take the stone back to the collector for our reward."
"Sounds like a good story," Tony said, approving.
"What if he doesn't believe it, though?" Pepper asked.
"He doesn't have any reason to doubt it," Rocket said. "The guy's smart, but he's obsessive enough to not care where we got the stone; he's just going to be happy to get it back."
Pepper looked worried, though, and they all noticed.
Rocket smiled, touched by the concern. He reached out and patted her hand, reassuringly.
"We're going to be fine. He wants his stone. We'll name a price that's ridiculously high, he'll counter – maybe – and we'll end up settling. It's all good."
"Does he have a lot of security? People he could send after you to get the stone and then take his payment back?"
Showing her suspicious side.
"He's been around forever," Gamora said, having heard the last part of the conversation as she walked over to sit beside Quill. "His network is impressive, but he's not a threat. Neither are his people."
"They're nothing we can't handle, Pepper," Quill agreed.
"But if you run into any problems, you'll call?"
She knew that the Avengers wouldn't be much help, of course, and she knew that the guardians had been taking care of themselves all this time… but still…
"I'll go with them," Carol offered, looking at Peter to see what he thought of the idea. "I can pose as one of their crew, make sure things don't go south and then, once they're on their way, I'll come back here and report on it so we all know we don't have anything to worry about."
"We're not paying you," Rocket said.
Danvers smirked.
"I don't need you to."
"We accept," Gamora told her. She wasn't worried about the Collector, either. And she knew Carol wanted to get out and take a look at what kind of effects the light unleashed at the death of Thanos was having on the rest of the universe. The Collector would know. "Thank you."
Quill frowned, and Rocket scowled, but neither said anything to reject the idea. Steve was aware of why Carol wanted to go, also, and he didn't even frown at the plan. He just nodded. Best of all, Pepper looked relieved, well aware that the addition of Carol would make all the difference if something unexpected happened.
"No uniform," Peter reminded her, shrugging. "We're not an organized outfit."
She nodded.
"I can blend in." Danvers looked at Steve. "I'm going to go pack."
He nodded, too.
"I'll come with you."
OOOOOO
"I am groot?"
"I'm not sure…" Peter admitted, watching as his marshmallow caught fire and started to turn black.
"What did he say?" Ned asked, curiously.
"He wanted to know who made the first s'more and why someone thought they'd put the three ingredients together…"
"Probably a boy scout," Ned answered, taking a bite out of the one he'd just created. The boy was looking pretty pleased; they'd been allowed a flame to make their s'mores (with the promise that they were careful – and the addition of a fire extinguisher – and now they were sitting on their sleeping bags in the tent, listening to the sounds of the night, outside. "They probably had a few different leftovers from a camping trip on their last night and just threw it all together."
Peter nodded, and then had to explain to Groot what a boy scout was.
"You're going to MJ's, tomorrow?" Ned asked when Peter was done.
"When we drop you off," Peter confirmed. "But we'll go do something; the park, or maybe an arcade. Something like that."
"That's a good idea. She's been worried about you."
Peter shrugged.
"Mad at me, anyway."
Ned nodded.
"Yeah. She's worried. You know how that works."
Peter sighed.
"Yeah."
He knew, alright.