[GotG Oneshot|Hurt/Comfort|Fluff]
CW: Implied Abuse, Bruising, Whump, Unconcious, (mentioned) Violent actions
I actually wanted to write this whump ff for a long time now but wasn't sure about the outcome of it. Can't help it, I'm a sucker for the Found Family trope ahhhhghf... :')
Enjoy this cute lil oneshot :D
He had no idea how long he was laying there on the cold metal flooring. It could've been hours or several minutes. Peter's mind began to slowly drift away, he couldn't see anything through the darkness and his blurred eyesight. And then there was pain. On his upper arm, hip, his right thigh. His head was aching, as his legs from severe exhaustion. Upon the boy's flushed cheeks ran tears, his lips were cracked and bleeding while the little body was trembling in a mix of fear, cold and agony. He was weeping, letting out a soft cry along with quiet sobbing that filled the silence of the empty hall.
The child's crying became faintly, when he felt someone's strong hands reaching under his knees and on his back, slowly pulling him up, which made him wince and whimper to his injured body. He didn't dare to look the one in the eye, who was holding him in his arms, as he was too scared it would be another of them and he would be beaten up again for disobeying their orders or just for fun. Second mostly followed with the first one.
"Who done this to ya, boy?"
The voice was a familiar one, although out of everyone on this ship, Peter would've lastly expected it to be Yondu, who came here. The kid slowly blinked his eyes open to look at the man while pressing together his lips, tears still streaming down. Peter opened his mouth, he tried to respond to the question the captain asked.
"I didn't listen... to them...", The child muttered under his breath in a weakened voice, but loud enough that he understood what the boy meant.
Yondu knew very well who was responsible for that. He knew that part of his crew had been out on a mission in one of the galaxy's most dangerous quadrants. And it wasn't difficult to count one and one together to tell that they dragged along the boy on it too.
Blame on yerself. Should 'ave done what 'em told ya.
Thoughts like these ran through the Centaurian's head. He seemed to not rather care about the fact that they had beaten Peter up but they had ignored his order when he told them to leave the boy alone so that he could focus on his combat training sessions.
But also considering that they even dared to lay a finger on the child - not to mention he had threatened them if they ever did - made him grit his teeth in anger. He cussed them for that in his mind, screwed up his face in the thought of how they probably stood there in a circle, laughing while the kid cried and pleaded in pain.
Without any hesitant he decided to surely have a little chat with them about that, tomorrow morning.
But right now, his gaze fell upon the wounded child in his arms, which he had carried from the ship's hangar into his own quartier. He felt that the boy was shivering, probably because of the cold or because he was afraid of what would happen next. Completely unfounded was that fear though, when the Centaurian laid the small frail body on the way too big bed. Peter winced and whimpered in cause of his several wounds when he lay down, pulling his legs closer to his body.
"It hurts so much...", He quietly whined.
And although some would anticipate to say something like I know, i'm sorry or don't cry, you're safe now, like that were the words that came firstly to someone's mind when seeing the injured child, he still responded with the same old tone: "Better save 'em breath of yours, boy."
For real, if the boy will continue making such a fuss about every little thing, no one would ever take him seriously on this ship- by the lack of respect they all already have for the Terran. His crewmen were already annoyed by the child's permanent complaining and whining, so if it wasn't for Yondu, the kid would be pretty much dead by now.
The Centaurian had eyed the still shivering child for a moment or two, until he took a blanket from the bed and covered him with it, so that the boy would finally stop crying, for flark's sake.
Peter immediately felt the warmth as he was wrapped in the blanket which nestled softly around his small body. As he tried to slowly turn on the side, he narrowed his eyes, letting out a little sob as his hip still was aching. He started to feel dizzy as from the exhaustion or all the crying, that he felt his pulse pounding in his head.
"My head hurts..." Peter complained while slightly screwing up his face as he turned his head towards the captain.
No wonder from all 'em cryin'.
"I want ya to rest now, boy. Kraglin be there tomorrow checkin' up those wounds." Yondu mumbled to the boy who peered at him with reddened eyes, looking so exhaused and tired, but also ever so slightly comforted.
His voice was so unusually calm but also completely stolid, so you could not make any emotions out of it, that Peter wondered why that was the case. Wasn't he the one who also had beaten Peter up during their training sessions, just so that the boy learned to fight? How was he then the one comforting him too, after his crew did it now instead? To be fair, then he only gave the kid a black eye - almost nothing compared to what he experienced today - but that still appeared odd to Peter.
"And stop bawlin' yer eyes out, boy. It's makin' me furious." Followed right afterwards.
Peter paused and his glance fell again to Yondu, still no sign of emotion. The kid wondered if he was annoyed with him. Usually annoyance looked different on the Centaurian's face. Gritted teeth, accompanied with warning glances and snarls; whenever Peter got in trouble for something. Mostly, it was also him being lectured by the Ravager about sentiments being a sign of weakness over and over again.
"Never show 'em ya vulnerable." He always gets to hear.
or "Boy, quit whinin' now or i'll let 'em eat'cha!" or "One more complainin' of yers and ya'll be dinner!"
Soon or later Peter got used to it. He got used to the threats, to the constant mocking. Life among a bunch of coldhearted cruel pirates sure wasn't easy for a child like him but he also had nowhere else to go. They were his family now.
After a moment of both staring at each other in silence, the Centaurian had averted his eyes from the child and wanted leave the room, when Peter dared to speak up and raise the question that had now circled in his mind all along.
"Why are you doing that?" The child asked.
"Being nice to me..." The captain hesitated after that sentence.
He couldn't help but smile and turned back to the bed, to the kid, who was looking up to him in a confused expression and big tired eyes. Sure, it was rare that he showed - if even- some kind of affinity towards others, praise was also something you won't get to hear from him ever nor nice words coming out of his mouth. So he understood the boy's confusion and was also a bit amused by it.
After a brief moment of pondering and thinking what to reply to such a question, Yondu eventually went back and sat on the edge of the bed next to Peter as if he was a parent telling their child a bedtime story.
"Well, if ya want me to kick ya outta 'ere and punish ya for wailin' down there, that's fine too, boy." The Centaurian ducked his chin until he could meet the child’s eyes while his crooked grin revealed some of his skewed teeth, of which Peter had been so afraid the first time he ever saw him.
A lot has changed since. During his first days on the ship, the kid was terrified of everything and everyone, flinched when any of them - including the captain - came too close. At first, Peter had refused to eat anything the Ravagers tried to give him, so that to the point, where the boy was close to starving, Kraglin had made him something that was closest to food on Terra and Yondu had forced him to eat it.
Peter interrupted these thoughts by another question as he didn't comment on the reply the Centaurian had given him. He changed the topic.
"Kraglin keeps telling me something about a Ravager code. What is that actually?" The kid wanted to know and looked up to the captain, still sitting on the bed's edge right beside him. The boy's bright green eyes met his as he raised that question.
"When ya become a Ravager one day, you gotta follow our code. Keepin' an eye on yer crew, never betrayin' each other, that's the thing." He told Peter, who still glanced at him with big eyes. "That's how ya be gainin' honor above all."
By speaking out these words, he again became aware that he already broke that code by the abominations he committed when taking innocent children to Ego for big rewards and a promise that nothing would happen to them. A promise that was now broken. And Peter was that broken promise. The boy lay there beside him, breathing, listening to him as he told him that. He was the only one among many who survived, who got a chance to live, to become a man, a Ravager. Someone better than he himself could ever be.
"It says, when ya die as Ravager, 'em skies will be filled with colors of all kinds, shinin' above your grave." Yondu then continued, looking out of the windows of the quartier, remembering, when his captain had told him that back then. "Showin', yer life was worth it."
Peter had listened so interested in what the captain was telling him. He imagined how such a funeral would look like. Bright colors, accompanied by pretty nebulae and millions of stars. So different from funerals on Terra, where they just put dead bodies in a wooden box under the ground. Kinda sad when you think about it.
"I think that's beautiful..." The child said quietly, slowly starting to close his eyes, which the Centaurian didn't notice as he was still staring outside the room's windows into the vastness of space.
"Well, I dunno how ya Terran's funerals be lookin' like but here in space we-
He hesitated in the next moment, when noticing that the boy had snuggled to him. Peter was laying there on the man's lap, breathing softly as his eyes were closed. The tears had disappeared from his flushed cheeks, his heartbeat slowed down, the little body stopped trembling. Something about that tiny way of showing affection made his heart skip a beat.
He had absolutely no idea how to react in such a situation. What to do, what not. So he stayed still, didn't even dare moving an inch as to not wake the kid and just watched him. And he just couldn't understand why the hell he was so nervous. He'd never been a man to hesitate or overthink a lot. Never had he feared something - not even death - when putting himself over and over again in mortal danger. But now, all of this side of him was gone. Washed away in an instant moment of physical affection.
He had sworn to himself to never grow something pathetic like such. He didn't even know what those were actually, tried to keep them away as far possible from him.
But then the boy came into his life. The little Terran, who is so full of joy and life, who seemed to warm up the Centaurian's cold heart.
One brief moment after, he carefully put one hand on the boy's shoulder - not even fully understanding why though - and slowly pulled him a bit closer to his side. The kid let out a soft whimper in his sleep but didn't wake up, to his relief. In his mind, Yondu cursed to himself, as he forgot about the wound on the child's upper arm.
Damn it, yer such an idiot!
He didn't want to hurt the boy even more, he has been suffering enough tonight. The child finally got the sleep he deserved.
So he listened to his breaths in silence, watched the slow rise and falls of the little chest and the softness in the boy's face.
The Centaurian pushed these thoughts aside.
And yeah, he could try to make it appear like he didn't care, that he also just could've left the boy down there in the cold hangar. But there was something, deep down in his heart, that told him otherwise.
Hell, what'chu doin' there, you moron?
It certainly wouldn't seem like it but deeply he adored everything about the boy; his smile, when he listens to his Terran music, his witty and easygoing demeanor, his stubborn yet so sensitive and frail mind. He adores talking to Peter, wheter he teases or praises him, he adores watching him dance secretly at night in the canteen when everyone is asleep, he adores teaching Peter how to fly a space ship, shoot with a gun or steal things without anyone noticing.
Ever since he saw the boy that night, he had a feeling, which he had never experienced before. Before, it was like his mind had been completely dull, no life, as if he was a statue, not even a living being. That child had made him feel at least something, for the first time in his frickin' god forsaken life.
Since the day of Peter's abduction, Yondu realized he would do anything in his power just to protect the kid and make sure he is safe from this cruel universe.
Is that love, he wonders.
How could he tell? He himself never knew how it feels to be loved. How should he then be able to give love to others?
