Apparently the kid decided he was free to ask all the questions he wanted, because the next time Yondu dropped off food, he found himself bombarded with them.

Peter was sitting on his bed, waiting. The second the door opened and the alien walked in he said, "Why'd you kidnap me?"

Yondu frowned. He wasn't about to answer that, so said nothing as he walked to the dresser to switch trays. His brow rose when he realized the old tray was untouched, but he put the new one down without comment.

Peter wasn't fazed by the silence. "You said you wouldn't let the other aliens eat me... so... you gonna do weird experiments on me?"

Yondu flinched. The word 'experiments' brought to mind a certain... unpleasant raid on a Kree research facility, and startled him into answering. "No."

Peter sighed in relief. The alien could be lying, but he held onto the belief that he wasn't.

Experiments were the worst scenario after being eaten, but he had channeled plenty more from various movies and Twilight Zone episodes. "Are you gonna sell me to a zoo?"

"Nope," Yondu said with an air of nonchalance... like it was his idea to start answering. He turned to leave.

"You gonna make me into a slave?" Peter tried.

"Nope." He was almost to the door.

"You gonna... brainwash me to help you take over Earth?"

That one made Yondu's eye twitch. What would he want with a dirt planet covered in Terrans? "No..."

Peter got of the bed and rushed to get one more in. "You gonna hunt me for sport?"

"Thinking about it." He cut the kid off by shutting the door.

That was... not what he expected. The boy was growing bolder, any fear of him fading. Yondu actually found that thought kind of pleasant. He remembered wanting kids, once upon a time, but he had forgot about that pesky little thing where they were made of questions.

Next time, he'd be prepared.

Only he also forgot that trick kids had of saying the absolute worst thing possible without realizing it. The next day he walked into the room and was immediately asked, "So what are you, anyways?"

Yondu froze, his eyes suddenly sharp, while his face remained carefully neutral. With all the wars going on, people knew not to ask each-other that question, especially not of a species you didn't recognize. You ran the risk of reminding someone they were a displaced refugee... or worse.

But the boy didn't know. He was asking out of innocent curiosity.

"Mr Udanta?"

He blinked. He'd been staring at the boy for a couple of seconds, and Quill was starting to look worried.

"You call me Yondu like a normal person," he growled stiffly. "And I'm a Centaurian." He didn't care. It didn't mean anything to most people anyways.

Peter surprised him by rolling his eyes. "No. I mean are you like... a pirate? Or a smuggler? Are you like Han Solo? 'Cause he wouldn't go stealing kids."

Yondu almost laughed. So that's what the kid meant? "Pirate and smuggler are pretty much on the nose." He didn't care what a 'Han Solo' was. "My crew's called the Ravagers."

"That sounds like a name for a metal band," Peter sneered. He then clapped his hands over his mouth as he realized he was insulting a pirate. So far this guy had done nothing but bring him disgusting alien 'food' and talk to him, but that didn't mean he knew who he was, or what he was capable of.

On Yondu's part, he had no idea what that statement was supposed to mean, but he could tell it was negative, and the kid's reaction after saying it was adorable. He chuckled and said, "I didn't pick it."

He frowned when he saw the tray from earlier; still untouched. "Why aren't you eating, boy?"

Peter considered the reasons. He wasn't hungry. He'd never see his Mom again. He'd probably never see the rest of his family again. A bunch of aliens wanted to eat him. He felt kinda sick already, and was scared the food might turn him inside out. He opted for a miserable, "That stuff's gross..."

"Did you try it?"

Peter's eyes widened in shock. He couldn't believe it... the alien was pulling that card? His Mom was supposed to say stuff like that, and his Grandpa, not some stupid blue guy who had him locked in a room on what may or may not be a giant space ship. He was actually getting really mad. "No! That brown stuff looks like rabbit poo, and the purple chunks? That ain't natural! And the rest is just leaves!"

Yondu was a little perplexed by the sudden burst of anger in the boy, but so far the 'being nice' tactic was working, so he put a hand on his chest and said, "Hey, I sympathize boy, but you're gonna have to get used to not knowing what half the shit you eat is, or you ain't gonna make it out here."

"I don't wanna make it out here!" Peter stood on his bed to get some extra height. His hands were balled into fists and tears were threatening in his eyes. "I wanna go home!" His voice cracked at the end.

Yondu was unmoved. "That ain't gonna happen," he said with a small smile on his face.

The boy was shaking now, wiping at his eyes, too furious to speak. He turned his back on Yondu and instead punched the wall; like that would do anything.

Yondu shook his head and switched the trays. As long as Quill kept drinking the water (which he was) he could go right ahead and starve himself. Most species could go about a month without food, and the Terrans were pretty standard. That was more then enough time to get him to his father and be done with him.

The kid was full on sobbing as Yondu left, like this was the worst thing that ever happened to anyone. It made him feel a tiny bit bad, which pissed him off. He stopped. "You know what I really hate, is folks who say they want something and then whine about not getting it."

Peter stopped crying and glared, wiping at his dripping nose.

Those red eyes glared right back as Yondu said, "If you really want something, you shut the hell up and you take it."

He stepped out and gestured at the door violently. If it was capable of slamming, it would have, but as he walked down the hall, he started to laugh.

He essentially just ordered his prisoner to try and escape.

By the time he reached the mess to drop off the untouched tray and empty bottle, he was wiping tears from his eyes and getting worried looks from the crew. He left the food on a table. It was only a day old. Someone would eat it.

He grabbed a bottle of alcohol (some purple A'askvarii stuff with an unpronounceable name) and went to the bridge.

Kraglin was sitting in the Captain's chair, watching a video on one of the floating monitors. He chuckled as a busty Krylorian nurse declared that the hero's evil twin was in a coma.

Yondu whacked Kraglin upside the head and muttered, "Get outa my chair," as he walked past. He took a good swig of his liquor and stepped up to the window, staring out at the Universe that was a few feet away. Space could be breathtaking, with its stars and nebulae, and countless phenomena. From one window he could see more then he could even comprehend.

But that was part of the problem. Space was also exactly what it sounded like: empty, cold, and infinite. Searching for anything out there without a map or informant was less like finding a needle in a haystack and more like finding a single atom in a star; even more so when what you were looking for might not even exist.

And now, finally, he was so close...

He took another swig and sighed as the burning liquid soothed his throat. "When's our next stop?" he asked over his shoulder.

Kraglin, who had shuffled to his own chair and gone back to watching his video, looked up. "We're about two days out from Tau Bootis 5."

Yondu frowned. "Don't think I'm familiar with the place."

With a wave of the hand, his First Mate's screen turned into a 3D map, and a binary star orbited by an exceptionally large, red gas giant appeared. "It's right here," said Kraglin. He moved his hands to zoom in on a tiny little bit of space rock that was barely visible next to the behemoth of a planet.

Yondu moved into the map to get a closer look. By the numbers next to the asteroid, he could tell it was smaller then the average moon. It also had towers and buildings covering it's surface. A Space Station? And here he'd been hoping for a nice planet with good atmosphere.

Kraglin must have noticed the disappointment on his Captain's face, because he said, "We're too close to the warfront. This here's the only fuelling station Nav could find that wouldn't be covered in Nova Corps."

Yondu sank heavily into his seat. He was weary all of a sudden. The kid had hauled some shit to the surface that preferred to keep good and buried, and he was starting to get a good drunk on... bad idea. He could feel ghosts at his back, breathing down his neck, and he swore to himself he couldn't get rid of little Peter Quill fast enough.

In his room, Peter carefully sorted batteries. The dead ones were tossed on the floor in front of the door, and the good ones were placed in his bag. He was getting dangerously low on good ones, but that was okay.

The rest of his stuff was packed and ready to go.

When he was done, he looked over his handiwork. That big dumb alien thought he didn't want to go home bad enough, but next time Yondu walked through that door, he'd find out what it meant to mess with Star-Lord.