Peter was pretty sure that transportation by car was a major reason why Terra was so far behind the rest of the Galaxy. When he had arrived, he had wandered into a coffee shop and asked what the best way would be to find someone he was looking for. The girl at the barista stand looked at him strangely and told him he should try the internet, and they had free wifi if he needed it. He told her he didn't have wifi or the internet, and he was rewarded with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, off the grid, eh? That's cool." Peter wasn't sure what she was talking about, but he nodded.

"Yep, off the grid. How would I find someone if I was off the grid?"

The girl thought a moment and then said, "Well, I would ask someone who worked for the city. But all of the politicians are at that Aerosmith concert going on tonight; it's a pretty big deal." Peter looked surprised. He knew Aerosmith; he'd had Toys in the Attic on tape.

"How do I get to the Aerosmith concert?" the girl laughed.

"Probably in a taxi, honey, but you're going to have a hard time getting in without a ticket." Peter shrugged and graced her with his signature smirk.

"I'll figure it out. Where do I get a taxi?"

"I'll call you one. Just wait right out there by the sign." Peter did as he was told, leaning against the signpost in front of the café, and waiting until a yellow car pulled up.

"Performing Arts Center?" the cabbie asked. Peter nodded, assuming that meant something, and started to open the passenger side door.

"Hey, in the back, buddy!" the cab driver thumbed at him to get in the back, which he did. As the cab screeched away from the curb, he wondered if he would survive the trip. Why these Terrans insisted on cramming into the roadways and trying to go as fast as possible on these narrow roads made no sense to him.

After a harrowing twenty minutes, the cab arrived at a large dome-like building and Peter dug some Terran units out of his pocket and shoved them at the driver, extracting himself from the vehicle and thanking the galaxy that he was back on solid ground.

Looking around, there was one main entrance to the building, and it looked like Terrans had small electronic guns that would scan for the entry tickets. Luckily he saw someone a little way away with a hand written sign, "Need Tickets? Got Tickets?" Peter approached the man.

"I need a ticket," he said. The guy with the sign looked around shiftily.

"How many? Four?" he held up a set.

"No just one," Peter replied, digging out his Terran units again.

"Just one will cost you, these are a set," the man said, eyeing the stack of bills in Peter's hand greedily. "500 flat."

"Fine," Peter said, shoving five bills at the man and grabbing the ticket.

"Hey, these aren't counterfeit are they?" The ticket man said suspiciously.

"Nope, authentic Earth money," Peter said, walking away before the man could change his mind. He was glad that Rocket had traded him the units the month before.

Peter was scanned into the center, and he looked around, getting his bearings. He saw someone standing by a door with a name tag, and approached him.

"Hi, can I help you?" The man said, his name tag declaring him to be 'George.'

"Hey George, can you tell me how to find someone who works for the city?" George was taken by surprise, then laughed.

"If you find them, let me know, I have a few things I want to say to them!" He was obviously entertained, and obviously not going to be any help. Peter frowned and walked further into the venue, finally spotting somewhere he could be at home and hopefully get more information. The bar.

-(.:.)-

"Tell me again why you can't wear your Aerosmith t-shirt to the concert?" Darcy's friend Lisa was ready to go and patiently waiting as Darcy dug through her wardrobe, looking for her "Goonies Never Say Die" tshirt. Lisa never had to worry about finding the right tshirt- she had a natural flowy style of dressing in earthy tones, dark chestnut hair that she pulled back with a clip, and large loopy silver earrings. She had an optimistic viewpoint on the world that drew people to her. Darcy, on the other hand, was constantly sarcastic and self-critical, which is probably why they got along so well. But it did mean that Darcy did a lot more digging through her wardrobe.

"You can't wear the tshirt of the band you're going to see to the concert for that band. It's a rule." She found the shirt she was looking for, pulled it on over her dark long sleeved shirt, layered on a red flannel shirt and her favorite blue scarf, and a green military patrol hat. "OK, ready." Lisa rolled her eyes with a grin and followed Darcy as she grabbed her messenger bag and headed out.

The line to get into the performing arts center was stupidly long, but when they finally made it inside, Darcy started to get familiar pre-concert butterflies. She didn't know if it was being close to expert performers, or the crush of people loving the music, but there was nothing that quite matched the experience. She grinned at Lisa, who looked a little more tentatively back at her friend. Lisa was not as into the whole concert thing as Darcy was, but she did really like Aerosmith and so was Darcy's natural choice to join her with the second ticket.

"Do you want to get a drink?" Lisa asked, scanning for the bar.

"Hells yeah," Darcy replied, and they weaved through the souvenir stand crowd to the bar. As they elbowed in and ordered two rum and cokes, the piped in "pre-concert" music played "The Joker" by Steve Miller Band.

Darcy chatted with Lisa and people-watched. A band like Aerosmith drew in all generations and all types of folks. There were bikers and aging groupies, old hippies and young hipsters. There was even a guy on the other end of the bar who hadn't gotten the memo that red leather vests were not really in, although she had to admit that it was kind of working for him. He had a scruffy look and reddish hair, and while everyone around him looked like they had intended to be there, he looked like he had wandered in from some adventure looking for a drink, and just happened to have a concert going on around him.

"Hey, check out space cowboy over there," she said to Lisa, referencing the Steve Miller song. Lisa turned to look, but was distracted by a tall guy who walked up to her, smiling.

"Hey," he said, "how's it going?" Lisa blushed and gave a small "Hey" back. Tall guy started talking to her about Aerosmith, and she kept the conversation going, giving Darcy a small goofy grin.

"I'm going to go scope out a good spot," Darcy said, trying to give her friend some space. Lisa nodded and turned her attention back to Tall guy.

-(.:.)-

So I took a big chance at the high school dance, with a missy who was ready to play,

Wasn't me she was foolin' cause she knew what she was doin' and I knowed love was here to stay

When she told me to

WALK THIS WAY!

Peter wove his way through the audience, watching people of all ages moving to the familiar song, arms in the air or just nodding in time to the music. Steven Tyler jumped around up on stage, a thick layer of women in the row in front of the stage, jumping up and screaming.

He was making his way to the area just in front of where a big sound table sat on a raised stage, controls and dials rivaling his Milano.

He intended to get a better viewpoint by standing just in front of the sound stage as the crowd pushed forward toward the front, but he found there was already someone standing there. A beautiful someone, he mused, a girl with long curled brown hair, a floppy hat, and my God, a Goonies shirt. He stared at the skull and crossbones underneath the infamous phrase.

Like any strong millennium woman, Darcy had to stick up for herself- even though she reminded herself that she had been ogling this same guy at the bar earlier.

"Hey, dude, my face is up here," she yelled over the music. Peter looked startled.

"Goonies!" he shouted. "I love the Goonies!" Darcy's eyes grew large.

"Did you say you love my boobies? What the hell?" Her mouth dropped in disbelief.

"No, GOONIES!" Peter yelled, smirking at her mistake. Understanding finally dawned on Darcy's face, and she smiled at him.

"Truffle shuffle!" and she shook her body in time to the music. He laughed, and held out a hand.

"Peter Quill," He said.

"Darcy Lewis," she replied, taking his hand. "I have to say I've never formally met someone with a handshake at a rock concert." He smiled, the music making it difficult to communicate.

"What are you doing at a concert alone?" he asked instead, noticing that behind her glasses, her eyes were very blue.

She pointed a short distance away, where a cute looking girl was making out with a tall dark haired guy.

"My friend Lisa got distracted," she answered, downing the remainder of a drink.

"Let me get you another one," Peter said, reaching out for her empty glass. Darcy jumped a little bit as their hands made contact briefly.

"Cool," she said, trying to blame her reaction to him on the charged environment. Of course that didn't stop her from watching him walk back to the bar. Nice.

Lisa had temporarily suspended her lip lock with Tall Guy and came over to talk to Darcy.

"Who was THAT?" she asked her friend.

"Space Cowboy from the bar, remember?" she said, "Oh right, you had something else going on," she teased. Lisa turned red.

"Darce, I really like this guy," she said. "His name is Steve, he does geology work for the state." Darcy grinned.

"I'm happy for you Lis- although I don't know how you found out where he works from all that conversation going on." Lisa pushed her in the arm. They spotted Peter headed back their way and Lisa squeezed her friend's hand before heading back to her guy.

"Water's fine, friend!" Darcy grinned and turned back to retrieve her drink.

"Thanks!" she said as he handed it to her. She stared at the stage to gather her thoughts. Steven Tyler was making out with the amplifier or something, the guitar screeching melodically. Peter seemed to be scanning the crowd, looking for someone.

"Who are you looking for?" She asked him. "Old girlfriend?" He smirked down at her.

"Nah, just looking for someone who can give me some information."

"Anyone I know?"

"Do you know anyone who works for the city?"

"Any particular part of the city? Or are you not that picky with your city worker search?"

"I'm looking for a relative. Someone told me that if I found someone who worked for the city, they could help me." Darcy blinked at him.

"Why don't you just use the internet?"

"Why does everyone keep telling me that?"

"Because only crazy people try to find other people without using the internet."

"Oh so I'm crazy then?"

"You said it, not me."

At that moment a drunken hipster guy stumbled through, invading the space where Darcy and Peter stood. Peter reached a hand around Darcy's waist without thinking about it, moving her closer to him and out of the path of the drunk. When she was out of harm's way, he dropped his hand, but she didn't move back away. He pretended not to notice.

"Well I guess I'd better find this internet thing then," he said, gazing down at her, "if it's so great for finding people."

"It's also great for porn," she said, and then immediately looked terrified. "I can't believe I just said that. No filter."

Peter laughed outright at that one.

"I appreciate your lack of filter," he said. Then he leaned down low and spoke into her ear. "You'll have to show me this internet, Darcy Lewis."

-(.:.)-

And they meet! More fun to come, thanks for reviewing! Will do my best to keep the sass level up. :-)