Marvel owns the X-men and the Guardians of the Galaxy, no profit is to be made from this work.
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"They're talking about me."
The big guy, Drax, glanced up from his knife sharpening to fix her with a curious look. Scooting a little closer to the table he was working at, Jubilee reached for one of his knives and tested the edge with her thumb. A whetstone was offered and accepted, joining him in the strangely soothing act after a few pointers.
"You're likely right, but tell me why you think they are talking about you?" Drax asked, spitting to wet his stone on finding it too dry.
"Well, it got really loud and then really quiet. I bet if they had a door they would have closed it."
"And this is something you are accustomed to, people talking about you where they close the door?"
Finding it hard to work up the spit to wet her stone with how dry her mouth had gone, people talking about her behind closed doors was something she was indeed used to. From one foster family to the next, she just hadn't fit in with the little family they had been playing at. Running away made a lot of sense after listening to one too many arguments had in hushed voices behind closed doors.
A surprisingly gentle, callused hand took her own, enveloped it in a welcome warmth. Drax looked like he could throw down with Logan and give the ol' Canucklehead a run for his money, he obviously liked to get into knife fighting range too. But in his eyes she saw something else was no strange too, the look of a man who had his reasons for fighting, and not because he wanted to but because he had to just to keep his ghosts quiet.
The knife was eased out of her grip, the edge tested and found to be satisfactory if his nod was anything to go by. Clutching her thumb in her balled fist, Jubilee knew just how sharp the edge really was, a cut too close for comfort telling her so by how much it stung.
"Mind if I play some music?" Jubilee asked.
The problem with how quiet it was, was that it left her with too much free time to think, and all that thinking had her worrying. She was scared for Scott and Jean, and that wrestled a sad smirk from her at the thought that they were probably just as worried about her and hoping she was safe. She couldn't even bear to think about Logan, if he came back for his hat and found the house trashed and all of them missing.
Pulling out her phone and looking for something, anything to keep her mind off of all her worries, she wanted something loud and angry to banish those dark thoughts.
"Walkman?" Drax inquired, looking genuinely intrigued.
"What? No, iPhone."
"Quill has taught me to use his stereo, I have come to appreciate your worlds music even if it is rife with meaningless metaphor. I could show it to you."
"Thanks, but Wolvie taught me ya don't touch the stereo without asking, that and the driver gets to pick what plays. Rules of the road he called 'em. But check it, bluetooth speaker."
He didn't look like he understood so much as he was waiting for her to explain it to him, she had to do that with Logan from time to time too. Setting up beside his knives, she didn't know what kind of music Peter played, but she thought Drax might like her mix.
"Get ready for some Shinedown to start off with." Jubilee said as she hit play, eagerly watching Drax for his impression of some of her favourite tunes.
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"Corsair?! The Shi'ar Empire's Public Enemy Number One! That Corsair?" Shouting and not giving a damn who heard him, Peter couldn't believe Rocket.
"What is the girl's connection to Corsair?" Gamora asked.
"She was staying with his kid, at least that's what I got from the whole Ward of the Child of Corsair spiel they broadcast while chasing us down. And here I thought my translation mod was a shoddy piece of turd."
"Ward? What is she, Robin?" Realizing they wouldn't get the reference, Peter shook his head and looked back to the depths of his ship where Drax was keeping an eye on the girl.
"What of Corsair's child?" Gamora bore a weary expression of patience as Peter interrupted Rocket with his nonsensical question.
"Victim of a snatch and grab the likes that me and Groot tried to do to our favourite Humie here. Apparently, and this is just what the kid told me, but apparently his wife is a genuine mind reader. So she told the kid to run and that's what we did, like there's anything else to do when ya got Shi'ar blowing up your bedroom."
Staring out into the void, Peter tried to ignore the nagging of his conscience. They had a clean slate, and it was a full-time job keeping his crew from getting back on the Nova Corps radar. That wasn't to say they had gone straight, there were enough jobs out there in the grey to keep them out of orange jumpsuits or running into the red as far as expenses went.
But what Rocket was asking was crazy, getting in touch with Yondu was reckless enough without adding in Corsair and the Shi'ar. A gentle touch at the small of his back was the only warning that Gamora was up to playing dirty, her hand finding his as she joined him in his survey of the infinite vastness of the Universe that lay beyond the cockpit window of the Milano.
"You're not gonna give me the losers speech are you?" Peter quietly asked as he enjoyed the warmth building between them.
"It was a good speech, a little rough around the edges, but it had heart. A lot like a man whose lead I've chosen to follow."
Laughing a little at that confession, he didn't see himself as a leader, just a guy trying to get from one day to the next. He couldn't even imagine where he'd be if Yondu hadn't shown up that night, the world he'd thought had been so big sure had gotten smaller since then.
"We weren't given a chance, raised by Ravagers and a mad Titan. You'd deny that girl hers?"
"No, no I won't." Smirking as he admired her reflection, she was too good at playing him, right from the first moment they met.
Knowing that Gamora would see through any of his moves that had worked on all the other girls of the galaxy, Peter entwined his fingers in hers and enjoyed the company. Rocket became background noise at the helm of the Milano, easy enough to ignore and imagine that they were alone. The only thing that could make the moment better would have been some Redbone playing from somewhere in the depths of the ship.
"What is that awful noise?" Gamora asked as the first harsh notes carried from below deck.
"Oh she better not be touching my stereo!"
Leaving Rocket at the helm, Peter lead the way taking the steps two at a time. The girl was close enough to where he'd left her and Drax, except that she looked to be teaching him how to headbang. This wasn't music as he knew it, not even from the vague memories of hair metal he had.
"Quill! This is music that I can truly enjoy despite the nonsense they sing of! Come, let us rock out together as the child is teaching me!" Drax bellowed in greeting.
It wasn't a ghetto blaster making all the noise, in fact it wasn't that much larger than his own Walkman. It was the girl's strange bit of tech and something that had him wondering just else she had in that knapsack of hers. Yet it was the words on the tip of his tongue that had Peter fall short, because they were words he wouldn't dare speak.
"Rock on Drax, rock on. I'll be at the helm." Peter cried above the noise, throwing the devil horns up that were too eagerly mimicked by both Drax and the girl.
He wasn't about to become his grandfather by telling them to turn down the noise, not now, not ever. Leaving Gamora to pick her camp after noticing her head bobbing to the hard beats, at least Groot seemed to appreciate real music if how dismayed and confused he looked was anything to go by.
"Remind me to install a door..." Peter muttered as he fell into a chair beside Rocket.
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"Where are you going?"
Looking up from her rummaging of her knapsack, Jubilee saw Captain Kirk about an equal distance from the door she was headed for.
"Bathroom?"
"Well, you can wait until I'm finished in there."
Now, granted she was thoroughly enjoying the sight of Captain Kirk shirtless and looking ready for a shower if the towel wasn't a fashion statement, but she wasn't keen on waiting until he was done making a mess in there to have her turn.
"No can do." Jubilee firmly stated, taking a couple of determined steps forward in their little stand off.
Peter looked a bit surprised to get called out, word from Drax had it that the was his ship after all, but it was all old hat to her by now. Logan had been a lone wolf when she met him, so she knew how to play the game.
"Where's the fire, pipsqueak?"
Running away taught her what was important in life, or at least what a person needed to get through from one day to the next.
"Uh, other than seriously needing a shower, I gotta take care of business. Ya know, like feminine hygiene business?" Jubilee said with a shrug and rummage of her knapsack to find a maxi pad, "...yeah, that usually shut Wolvie up pretty quick too."
His towel was offered without a word more, and after a sniff Jubilee slung it over her neck and skipped into the bathroom. Waiting until she couldn't hear the slap of his bare feet against the deck, all her bravado was forgotten now that she was alone. She didn't have to be strong anymore, she was safe for the moment so she could cry all the tears she'd been holding onto.
Curling up in the warmth of the towel and treating it like a blanket, lessons from before she had run came back to her. Letting the shower run on cold, she was now truly alone and anyone who knocked at the door could be ignored because she didn't hear them.
"Quill asked me to..."
Gamora froze after barging into the bathroom with a bundle of clothes, the one thing Jubilee hadn't remembered was to lock the door. Wondering just how pitiful she looked huddled up against a bulkhead in a towel, with red rimmed eyes and tear stained cheeks, Jubilee found the floor plenty interesting in that moment.
Hearing a click that told of the door being shut, the spray of the shower quieted the hammering of her heart that would have told how embarrassed she was to be caught crying.
"A change of clothes for after your shower. I'll get yours washed."
The bundle of clothes was set between them, a stolen glance finding Gamora looking nearly as embarrassed as she felt just then. It didn't fit her image of the woman, the one who gave Peter and Drax so much shit as they ran for the ship.
"Seriously retro..." Jubilee mumbled, opening up the found tee for a look, "Where'd you get this?"
"It was what he was wearing the night Yondu abducted him."
Struggling against the punch to the gut those words had been, Jubilee gulped and gasped for breath. The T-shirt literally had summer camp written all over it, right along with a pair of Levis. Puzzle pieces came together, from the pop music that Groot liked, to the Walkman and tape deck she'd seen.
"...I just thought he was a space hipster or something." Jubilee whispered, finding the courage to slowly strip bare of her clothes that had seen her through her flight from Earth.
Running the water hot and hoping it would last as long enough to chase the chill that had crept into her bones, Jubilee stepped into the spray and washed clean her tear-stained cheeks. The door closed with a bundle of clothes taken in the place of another, yet in the tee that sat on the counter she found out she wasn't so alone after all.
"Yeah, but I'm going back, I'm gonna find Chris and we're gonna go save Scott and Jean."
It'd all be a story to tell Wolvie once he came for his hat, that and the ass kicking he was due for leaving her all alone. Except he hadn't, and just maybe she'd thank him for that now that she realized it.
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