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They know he's woken up little when he enters the kitchen riding piggyback on Groot. He clings to the tree for dear life. He's probably pretending the floor is hot lava again.
He peers curiously over the wooden shoulder of his teammate to glance at the other three as they enjoy their breakfast. Peter is usually the last to wake, and Groot often waits until they are all awake and eating breakfast to join them. Lucky for Peter, this earned him a free ride to the kitchen.
"Hey, Petey," Rocket greets, not looking up from his plate, but flicking his left ear in acknowledgment.
When he's little, Rocket calls him Petey.
"Hi," Peter whispers, waiting for Groot to deposit him in his chair.
Peter doesn't speak much when he's little, which is surprising. He has the ability to say anything that comes to mind without holding back (because young children are often way too honest without realizing what they are saying can hurt someone's feelings), yet he chooses to be shy and talk way less than usual. But Petey is a good boy. He tries his hardest not to say mean things, and he gets praised by doing such. Especially by Rocket, which makes Petey extremely happy because Rocket's number one trait is trash-talking.
Gamora gives him a small smile, "We already made you breakfast. We did not know you would wake up little today. I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Peter replies, he looks down at his plate, which is loaded with a large amount of food.
Gamora scoots her chair closer to Peter's and gently rubs Peter's back.
She's 100% positive that the reason for Peter's transition into little headspace was their encounter with the Ravagers the night before.
----
Peter had gotten himself tangled up with a small gang of Ravagers, including Yondu himself.
At first, it was just a small group of them, Star-Lord could have taken them all single handedly, because he was just great like that.
But then Yondu had showed up, with Kraglin at his side, babbling something about the second mate, Horuz, being dead because of Peter, and the orb, and all kinds of other things, all the while aiming a gun between Peter's eyes.
Peter had frozen completely unmoving, like a deer in headlights, staring down the barrel of the blaster for what felt like eternity; Until Gamora burst in, swinging her oversized sword in every direction, chasing them off.
Peter followed her soundlessly back to the Milano and said nothing for the rest of the night, lost in his own thoughts.
----
"Peter?"
He looks up at her, "Um..?"
"I asked if you were going to eat."
"Oh, um...I, yeah, just..." He reaches down and flips the spoon in Drax's direction, away from Gamora. He looks up at the muscle mass, who's staring back at him with milk-white eyes. "Feed me?"
"I trust that you will have things taken care of, then?" Gamora asks Drax, standing from her seat and collecting hers and Rocket's empty plates.
"Of course," Drax nods, picking up the spoon from where Peter had shoved/flipped/tossed it in his direction. "I will make sure our Star-Lord is fed and I will clean up the dishes."
She nods and leaves them in the kitchen.
Drax scoops food on to the spoon and feeds it to Peter with unlikely gentleness. He does this a few times, talking to Peter in between scoops. They're simple questions, so Peter doesn't have to step out of his comfort zone and speak more than necessary to answer. Peter was surprised the very first time; he did not ever think Drax could be that gentle, but he was glad to discover that the man was not always ready to get in to a scuffle with everything that breathed. He was also glad to find that the man was understanding. Such as now;
"Im done," Peter says, deciding that six bites was enough to fill his stomach. "Thanks."
Drax nods and puts the food down. "I know you will not return to eat the rest of this, so I will throw it out, but Rocket has left some chopped fruit in the ice box. Im sure he would not mind if you helped yourself to it"
Peter sits with Drax until the destroyer has finished his meal, then they move to the couch in the living room for a brief cuddle session.
Rocket joins them, but he's not the cuddly type. (He'd do anything for Petey, though.)
So he allows Peter to scoop him up and hold him close until he drifts off in to sleep.
When he wakes, Drax and Rocket are gone, his stuffed fox is tangled in his arms where Rocket had been previously. Groot has planted himself in the corner to keep watch over Peter. He's the unofficial baby sitter. Whichever room Peter is in, Groot can be found in the corner, watching; making sure Peter is safe. When Peter falls asleep little, Groot sits by the foot of Peter's bed.
"Gammy!" Peter exclaims, sitting up when the green woman enters the room.
"My love," she sits down beside him and runs a hand through his hair. "Im going to get more food and supplies. Do you want to come with me?"
Peter looks at her and shakes his head rapidly. "N-no."
"Why not?" She places her hands on his cheeks to make him still.
Peter casts his eyes to the floor, "Scared."
"It is alright, my love, I would never let anything harm you," she pulls him close, letting him burry his face against the crook of her neck. "You will be fine."
she awaits his answer
"Alright," Peter mumbles finally, getting up to grab his boots. He puts them on (with Gamora's help), and tugs Drax's jacket over his head. Drax never wore it, and baggy jackets were perfect for the outdoor chill.
They're docked on a planet called Gratuittine. It's similar to Xandar, but with less people, and no giant Nova head quarters. And there where outdoor market booths around the major cities, because the weather was almost always perfect, allowing people to spend as much time as they wanted outside, and allowing farmers to have successful harvests.
Gamora often thought about purchasing a small piece of land alongside one of the lakes. Somewhere where they could escape when they needed to relax. And a safe space for Peter, when he really needed it.
Peter grabs her hand as they exit the ship, sticking closer than usual.
"You're fine, Peter," Gamora assures, stopping at a booth to buy him a snack. It's an apple-like fruit. The outside is purple, the inside is a light peach color. One of Peter's favorites.
"Thank you," he said quietly, looking around at everything with what might've been genuine curiosity.
She pets his hair again and takes his hand, buying a few more things. Peter offers to carry everything, insisting that he wants to help.
She buys him lunch from a stand, and they eat together on a small bench. Afterward, the pair returns to the Milano.
Rocket's asleep on the coffee table when they enter, snoring lightly. He's got scraps of metal and gadgets scattered about, but Peter side-steps each piece and approaches the table to shake the small mammal awake.
"Rocky!" Peter rolls Rocket over.
"Kid?" Rocket sits up, peeling his eyes open. "What happened."
Peter gives a large toothy grin, "Play with me!"
"Not yet," Gamora shakes her head. "First, Rocket needs to clean up. He has left a mess everywhere and it is dirty and dangerous. Little boys can get hurt badly."
Rocket rolls his eyes, but cleans anyways. Then leads Peter to the Terran's room and to the chest full of toys.
"How little are you today, Petey?" Rocket asks, opening the chest. The information is important when determining which Toys and games to pick.
Peter thinks for a moment, then holds up four fingers.
"Okay, not too little, but still a little kid," Rocket smiles and grabs a few toy ships. Maybe they can reenact battle scenes with them.
Peter happily takes his favorite (a Nova pilot replica ship) and sits on the floor cross-legged next to Rocket. The not-raccoon stays standing, since he's not very tall.
After about an hour, Peter finds a new task to keep him busy.
"I wanna brush your fur," He says to rocket, digging a red comb out of the bottom of his small toy chest. "Please?"
"But that ain't fun!" Rocket protests, yet he sits down in front of Peter anyways.
"It is for me!" Peter sits behind him and reaches up to gently brush the thick coat of fur between Rocket's ears. Then he moves down to Rocket's tail. "Will it fall off if I pull it?"
"What? No!?" Rocket looked over his shoulder at Peter. "I already told you, Gamora was just joking when she said my tail was fake! If you pull it, it'll hurt me a lot...so don't even think about pulling it!"
"I won't!" Peter exclaims, trying not to giggle at the thought of Rocket's tail being fake.
They sit in silence after that. Peter brushes Rocket's hair, making a small pile of collected sheded-fur beside him. Rocket lets his eyes fall closed, enjoying the feeling of being combed more than he thought he would.
Neither of them bother to keep track of time.
They're both a bit surprised when Gamora informs them that dinner is ready.
This time she was prepared and did not make too much food for Peter.
Peter does not eat much when he is little, and he's very picky; which contradicts his normal self. Notmally, Peter would eat almost everything, and go back for seconds and even sometimes thirds! But when he's little, he eats small portions of foods. It's not a huge deal, though. He doesn't stay little for more than a couple of days at a time. He'll never be underfed.
Gamora hands him a plastic cup filled with some kind of red fruit juice, and sits beside him, incase he needs her help.
Dinner goes by fairly quickly, and Peter finds himself on the sofa again, with Rocket sitting partially on his shoulder, and partially on the back of the couch with his tail draped over Peter's other shoulder. They're watching a show on the main holoscreen. Or, as Peter likes to call it, the 'TV'. Groot's stationed in the corner, as usual, making sure the two of them don't get in to trouble (sometimes Rocket can be a bad influence in children.)
Occasionally, he reaches up to pet Rocket between the ears, and they spend their evening together like this.
Most nights, when it comes time for bed, Peter will give some sort of protest, but tonight, he's too tired and stressed out. He goes directly to his bedroom and flops down in to his bed without a complaint. Rocket hops on, to sit with Peter until he falls asleep, and Groot lowers himself at the foot of Peter's bed. He stretches vines out along the edges of Peter's bed to create bumpers (Peter has a tendency to roll out of bed, no matter what state of hind he's in). Peter whispers a goodnight to everyone and cuddles his plush fox against himself, falling in to sleep.
Unfortunately, Peter's sleep does not go undisturbed.
He dreams that things went differently the previous night. He dreams that Gamora never jumped in to save him. That Yondu pulled the trigger, and took him out like he had always threatened to do.
His eyes pop open and his breath hitches in his throat. Groot is still at the foot of the bed, but Rocket is no longer there. He's left, presumably to his own bedroom.
Peter whimpers, climbs over the wooden barriers Groot had created, and speeds off to find Rocket.
The raccoon is sleeping soundly in his own bed, but Peter wastes no time in scooping him up and dashing back to his room as fast as he can, jostling Rocket awake.
"Kid?"
Peter shuts the door and drops Rocket on the bed, climbing in with him.
"Hey, shhh, it's alright," Rocket tries his best to soothe Peter.
"Don't leave me alone again!" Peter curls up, but instead of having his plush fox tucked in his arms, he's got Rocket. "Had a bad dream."
"It was just a dream, baby-boo," Rocket struggles a bit to turn himself over to face Peter. He reaches up to run his paws through Peter's hair. "You're safe, and ain't nothing gonna hurt ya. We wouldn't let that happen to you."
"But, it was scary, a-and you left me alone!"
"I shouldn't have," Rocket gently shushes Peter, petting the boy's hair. "But I'm here now and I ain't gonna leave. You can even hold on to me all night if you need to." He curls his tail around Peter's wrist. "And Groot was here the entire time. You weren't alone."
"I-I-wasnt...I...I forgot," Peter sighs. He hugs Rocket and allows the smallest guardian to ruffle through his hair. It's comforting, it feels nice, and it helps Peter (eventually) fall back asleep.
Rocket secretly hopes Peter wakes up little again tomorrow. As stressful as it can be, it's not all that bad.
Plus, Peter's not cocky and annoying when he's little, which is a relief to the entire team. But he'll just have to wait until morning to find out.