Rocket found himself playing in secret with Lotus. Again. With his ears. Peter had gone shopping for some materials the raccoon requested and in exchange he said: "Now you have to babysit her." And that was what he was doing right now. Babysitting. Now he knew how Gamora felt. But it was kind of… nice. It was something new. He never had the chance to be with a baby before Lotus arrived. And when she did… he knew he was screwed up. What? The baby had him around her finger, he had a soft spot for her. Though, he will never admit that. He wouldn't admit he considered himself Lotus' uncle as well. Lotus was a good girl. When she wanted to be. Just like her dad. She was also quite intelligent, which proved to be a slight problem sometimes. Like for example, she knew where certain things in the ship were located and where the important rooms like the kitchen or the deck were. She went there and caused innocent mischief.
Lotus, IT, got tired of playing and crawled away to the nearest, most interesting thing she could find.
Rocket liked her, which was a fact. He knew where she was living and he also knew, like everybody else, she was being raised by ex-criminals. He wanted to protect her young innocence as much as possible.
Which was hard when you were a raccoon that talked bullshit in every sentence. But he tried. He really did. And his nickname for her, 'IT' or The Thing, where just terms of endearment. That's how he cared.
"No, IT. That's a gun with a powerful gunfire, don't touch it." Rocket said as he took away said gun from the baby's arms. He REALLY tried to protect her innocence, but she made it so damn HARD. She wanted to touch every single gun that stood in her way. "No, IT. That's my screwdriver. It could be turned into a weapon if you point it at your eye." He took that away from her as well.
The ten month old baby stood up. She has been practicing so it was becoming natural for her. She gave a few steps towards the most interesting thing she could lay eyes on. The entire room was full of scrap and other things so there were lots of interesting things for a baby. And very dangerous. Rocket made sure she made her way into the less dangerous section.
This got him thinking, IT seemed to have quite the interest in mechanics. The thought made the raccoon smirk. Thinking of having someone to teach all his engineering genius was too good. Maybe… just maybe when she's a little bit older… No. Peter will kill him if he ever finds out he was teaching his daughter about mechanics and guns. The mechanics part? Rocket knew Peter wouldn't mind, everybody needed to learn some mechanics once in a while. The guns part? Peter will make sure the raccoon's life will be hell.
So he decided he wouldn't. For now.
"… Oh screw Peter, kids learn better from a young age." He walked towards Lotus' location and sat down at her right side. "Ok, IT. I'm going to teach you the basics of this techy thing you like to get your hands on every time you come in to my workshop. But not guns, you're too little." He grabbed a simple looking wrist communicator. Yeah, he could start with this. It was also an old model, simple enough to teach a baby. "This thing is a communicator. It helps you to contact someone from wherever you are." He held it close to Lotus' face. She looked at it in awe. Rocket smiled. This was going to be easy.
"Uhhh…" Lotus said in fascination.
For the next two hours or so, he showed the baby some basic stuff about mechanics. He wasn't sure if IT understood him, but he just showed her those things anyway. At the end, IT ended up falling asleep on the floor. Rocket looked at her with insecurity. He had to admit he has never carried her before. Never had the need to. But now he does. He picks her up bridal style, an arm supporting Lotus' head. She felt incredibly small despite her age. He walked outside his workshop and made way to Peter's room, where Lotus' crib was. Since he is small himself, he pushed a box towards the crib and climbed up on it. He slowly put IT on the crib and placed a blanket above her. Rocket found himself smiling at the baby. Sometimes he wishes he could have children, but that was not an option. He was not the fatherly-type. Besides, there weren't exactly more females of his species around.
Rocket pushed the box away from the crib and looked at the sleeping baby through the crib bars. She looked like an angel… a mischievous angel. She was Peter Quill's daughter after all. Rocket smirked and walked back to his workshop, satisfied with his teaching. He'll just have to keep it up and Lotus will be a genius like him. Well, almost. Because he will always be smarter.
He sat on his desk and tried to finish up fixing his latest gun. But he couldn't. Peter had mentioned the other day something about encountering the Collector and something about Lotus being priceless. He sighed. Of course Lotus was priceless, but what did the white haired man meant with those words exactly? Rocket couldn't shake the feeling that this was not good. Not good at all. And if something was about to happen, he was willing to protect the baby at any cost. At. Any. Cost.