I'm High on Believing.

"See? It's not all that bad." Gamora returned Groots smile. '"I'm proud."

As Groot explored the rest of the cabin she lounged back in her seat, eyeing the console and its hidden contents once more. This time though she didn't dare touch it: Peter was too pissed about whatever secret it was that the dumb ting held. Instead as she kept a careful watch on Groot shedevised a plan to pull the contents out of Peter once they had landed. Surly, as with the gist of Quill's life, it would come out smoothly after a few drinks. She had no problem with manipulation.

---

"Watch it!" Rocket sinveled as he retreated from the radius of Peter's reach with his arms drawn in to protect the watch.

Ignoring Peter's qualms about stuff and things he fixed the clasp of the watch just a little tighter around his wrist. It was still too loose though, even on the smallest setting, and he knew that inevitably Quill would win it back. All Peter had to do was grab it off of him, in a game of sizes Rocket would surly lose. It only took a few seconds for the glimmer of the trinket to capture his attention again tough, drawing his focus off of a pissy Peter: it wasn't his brightest moment.

“I am Groot,” Groot motioned to something on one of the screens, a weather report regarding their destination. It looked like a storm was going to hit not long after they were due to arrive. Groot pulled a face at Gamora, that would be fun, especially if Quill fucked up (like he had last time they’d landed) and parked the Milano a good two miles walk away from the nearest city.

---

Peter wasn’t fucking around. He reached for Rocket again, this time grabbing the scruff of his neck. He hauled him up and off of his feet. “Give it back,” he repeated. He then changed his mind and snatched it off Rocket’s wrist and jammed it into his pocket.

“I swear to god you go through my stuff again I’m kicking you off my ship.” It was an empty threat, one that he’d made plenty of times before.

@ The God of Mischief.
Not sure if I tagged you

@ peter quill.
( I think you did.)

Gamora sighed as she looked at the storm as it built itself on the screen, Groot had a point. It wasn't as though Quill had been attentive lately but telling him to not man his own ship would be utterly disastrous with his current attitude.

"We'll just see what happens, Groot." Gamora's voice, however, was uncertain despite the statement: more than likely they would land obscurely from the their true destination of some small tavern of Peter's preference and end up bitching and whining in the center of an alien storm.

Through all that though, it still had potential, out of everything it gave her more than enough of an excuse to get Quill to drink (as though she really needed one for him, really it just lessened the guilt on her part). And at the worst, she figured, it gave them a new story to recite.

---

"What, exactly, is wrong with you?" Rocket nearly barked as he ran his opposite hand over the slight throb in his wrist, leave it to Peter to forget how tiny his bones were in comparison. "All you do lately is bitch."

A part of Rocket regretted his words, almost wanting to bite them back, while the rest of him knew that Peter needed to hear it if anything was going to get better between the crew. If Gamora, Groot, or Drax wouldn't do it he had no problem being the bad guy. Again. Especially since from his own point of view Peter had no reason to be upset in the slightest: despite the true lack of adventure they had food, water, clothes, and even a destination. Wasn't that all they required?

@ The God of Mischief.

"I am Groot," Groot shot back. Gamora couldn't really believe it would all go smoothly, could she? He seemed to remember that the last time they landed Drax and Quill had gotten themselves incarcerated within an hour of landing.And they hadn't even had anything to drink back then.

---

Peter dropped Rocket. "You ever think that maybe you're the problem?" He was yelling, not that he realised, and not that he cared. He didn't say anything else, instead he stormed back through the Milano. They needed to land somewhere and they needed to do it now, even if it meant changing their destination.

@ peter quill.
"You know how he's been lately, Groot, what are supposed to do?" Gamora was sympathetic with him, not wanting to be thrown out into nowhere herself. "Hijack his ship and land without his permission?"

At this rate though, she just hoped that Quill wouldn't kick the lot of them out into deep space. She stood then, leaving Groot to watch the systems, and decided to look for Peter in an attempt to be the bigger person, hoping to calm him down after their dispute.

---

"I'm not th'one hiding shit an' assaulting the crew!" Rocket shouted from where he landed on the floor, rubbing his back.

Quite frankly he was tired of Quill's shit: of his secrecy, his asshole attitude, and his constant complaining. They were supposed to be a team rather than a bickering family. There was hardly any point in traveling together if there wasn't any trust, no point in looting even-- who was to say that Peter would take any one but Gamora's chest into account when splitting profits?

"You're nothing but a greedy coward." He growled low before taking up back into the pipes above, Peter could go bother the rest of them instead.

@ The God of Mischief.

Groot turned to watch Gamora leave. Once she was out of sight, he shifted in his seat to study the control consoles of the Milano some more. He recognised some of it… most of it really now that he thought about it, but he was far too nervous to actually touch any of it.

---

Peter heard Rocket and, in spite of himself shouted for Rocket to fuck off over his shoulder as he stormed into the bedroom. He practically tore the lid of his hold up, and, when seeing the state of it, ended up kicking the bed hard, which hurt a heck of a lot because the bunk was way harder than Peter thought it was. He let out a long, loud, frustrated howl of pain as he dropped to his knees and started rooting through his stuff. Everything was there… everything except the document.

@ peter quill.
Peter's shout was loud enough to be heard from what was almost the opposite end of the Milano. With a quietly muttered "Shit" she raced off towards it, hoping that she wouldn't have to break up yet another fist fight. The sight of Peter crouched over his hold was a relief despite the utterly disastrous state of the room that went further than mere unmade bunks. Stuff was still scattered about from Rocket's excavation, some from Peter's adding to it, but more disorderly was the look on Peter's face: it wasn't just one emotion.

"What's wrong?" She asked him tentatively as she bent down a lifted an old shirt from the floor and hoped that she wouldn't regret the question.

---

Rocket made no mind to Quill's remark as he nestled up to a particularly warm pipe. Words, of all things, barely caused him worry. However, saying he wasn't confused would be a lie. Sure, he had always had his moments with Peter but as of late they were becoming less of moments and more of days and weeks with hardly any of it being his direct fault, let alone his intentions. He hopped down after a minute of brooding on the idea and went off to find Groot, he needed someone to bounce ideas off of.

@ The God of Mischief.

Peter shook his head. He was rocking ever so slightly on his haunches. He probably looked like he’d lost it, like he’d gone completely fucking insane. He wasn’t going to tell Gamora what had happened though. He didn’t want to explain why he’d asked for the genetic analysis from Nova. He didn’t want Gamora to think he was pathetic. Rocket would, he had no doubt about that.

Quickly, conscious of the fact that his eyes were watering – watering, not crying – he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “It’s cool, Gamora, I just… Yeah.”

He stopped talking and reached for a bottle of jaeger that was in the hold. It was empty: what a pity. He tossed it over his shoulder and onto his bed. After today, after these past few weeks, he really needed a drink.

---

Groot, having heard Peter’s shouting, inclined his head at Rocket when he saw his friend approaching. “I am Groot?” Did you have anything to do with that? Of course you did why am I even asking. Shaking his head, he turned to look at one of the control panels again.

@ peter quill.
Dodging the bottle she sighed as she came up behind Peter to rest a hand on the square of his shoulder. The close quarters were starting to get to all of them, it seemed, but the locked file of his only proved to her that in Quill's case it went deeper.

"Peter, " Gamora all but whispered in fear of breaking him as she came to match his crouch, "what's wrong?"

Her eyes lingered on the stubble that covered Peter's jaw, too afraid to look him in his eyes as she fully expected him to throw her off and go pout elsewhere. She'd never admit it, but there was something comforting in the right view of him to her, something warm and almost lazy. Like a hot summer sunset over the horizon. Not that she could truly admit it to herself, let alone out loud.

---

"She left you in here? In that chair?" Rocket ignored Groot's question, knowing that the dendrite was smart enough to at least come to that conclusion.

Why Gamora would leave him alone in the cockpit though was a mystery to him. Did she really trust Groot with their safe passage? Irregardless, Rocket was simply glad that Groot at least had enough sense as to not potentially kill the lot of them.

"So what's going on here, you know anything about any of this yet?" Rocket asked as he welcomed himself to the pilot's seat and sat sprawled out comfortably to lazily go over the different mechanisms and their statuses.

@ The God of Mischief.

When Peter felt Gamora’s hand on his shoulder, he froze for a moment or two before he brushed it away. He brought his hand up and scrubbed at his face as he shook his head. Reluctantly, he turned to look at her and tried his hardest to smile like it was nothing. “I’m just tired, okay? Tired and a bit…” He shook his head. Why the hell was he lying to her? It made no sense. Gamora had never given him any real reason to distrust her, he needed to grow a pair and tell her what was up.

“No, that isn’t it,” he shook his head again. “Look, the password is my the date my mum died,” he paused, he’d never actually said it like that around any of the others, they had to know what had happened to her, none of them, except maybe Drax, was that stupid, but it was always ‘the day I left Earth’ and never the entire truth. “I don’t want to talk about it though. Okay so read it but then don’t say anything please.”

---

“I am… pie-lott,” Groot replied proudly, struggling to pronounce the last word properly. In answer to Rocket’s question, he simply shook his head. He was pretty much clueless. There was one thing he was aware of though, and that was that his friend was neck deep in shit as far as Quill was concerned. “I am Groot,” he said as he leaned over to put some of Quill’s music on. You’re an idiot, Rocket.

"You're sure you're alright with that?" Gamora stood then, blinking.

It was unlike Peter to be so sentimental but in reality the words were a gold mine to her. At them she wanted nothing more to sprint back and read whatever it was that had been kept hidden for so long. A wash of uninterested guilt came over her: if he was willing to let her go through it, surely it wasn't that horrible, and then why did she have any reason to read it? It had to be something more important than just any old secret though, judging by the solemn tone of Peter's voice and the was his head hung slightly, it had to be personal.

---

"I'll be fine," Rocket replied, more so trying to assure himself than Groot. "he's just got something stuck too far up his ass."

Rocket had to have a small chuckle though as he finally realized what Groot had originally tried to say. Wasn't it just months ago that his vocabulary was only three words strong? That he had little understanding of even the most basic social norms? He was almost proud of Groot, not that it was anything he'd probably say, and he smiled to himself over it: he was doing a good job with him.

"You don't think I'm really th' one at th' fault of all of this, do ya'?" Rocket's voice never changed in tone despite the sinking feeling that the sentence brought upon the air of the cabin.

@ peter quill.
^^Muhphucker.

@ The God of Mischief.

Peter shrugged. He wasn’t really, but they were all going to find out eventually, especially if he went through with what he’d been debating: actually going on a wild goose chase across this galaxy and the next in order to find out who – and what – his father was.

“Look, I’m going to try and sleep. Do me a favour and wake me up when we land… should be in an hour or two, right?” He forced himself up and onto his feet, it was almost like moving was too much for him. He plopped himself down onto his bunk, curled up on one side. It then occurred to Quill to ask:

“Gamora… If you ain’t flying this thing then who is?”

---

“I am Groot,” Groot said supportively. If Quill did end up starting on Rocket, or tried kicking him off the ship like he kept on threatening to, Groot would go with him. He couldn’t see himself travelling without him.

@Peter quill.
"Well..." Gamora trailed off, delaying the announcement that the Milano's integrity was within Groot's knotted hands.

Trust, honest trust in anything other than mission completion, was something Gamora rarely received. With a wry smile she went about trying to find Peter a clean...ish...blanket that wasn't her own. Eventually, after brushing Rocket's fur off of her pants from accidentally trying out his, she settled on Drax's and draped it over him in the odd act of kindness. She figured that with the way his day had went that he deserved it. Plus, it might less the blow of Groot's piloting.

"Groot is." She finished her sentence as she sat down by Peter's feet, quickly covering it with, "You're sure this isn't something you'd rather talk about?"

---

"You know you'd do better with them." Rocket relaxed back into his chair, content with the current status of the Milano. "But I don't think he'd get riddah me, he likes me too much. For some reason."

Apparently Groot didn't quite have it in him yet to understand the true waves behind interpersonal relationships. It was almost disappointing but for the selfish reasoning behind Rocket. Eventually he hoped that Groot would come to understand these things, he was the only one Rocket co uhh pd ever bring himself to talk to about anything other than the superficial aspects of life. Maybe one day. But today he was fine with just bouncing his ideas off of the wall Groot offered.

"I know that I'm hard to live with, but he's th' one hidin' everything. Right?"

@ The God of Mischief.

“Well what?” Peter asked.

When Gamora draped the blanket over him, he tried hard not to smile. He also tried hard not to ask her what he’d done to deserve that. The result was him smirking and stating, “there’s room for two of us in here you know.” Only the smirk was quickly wiped off of his face when he heard who was piloting the Milano. He sat up quickly, managing to crack his head on the underside of the bunk above his.

“You left a teenage talking tree in charge of my ship?” He asked, eyes wide as he rubbed his now probably bruised head with the palm of his hand. He could already feel a lump forming there. “What the heck?”

---

“I am Groot,” Groot replied simply.

Rocket wasn’t just hard to live with he was almost impossible to live with. Yet, Groot had to agree, that they did like having Rocket around. In fact, he had the feeling they’d hit a point in their respective friendships that, if anything were to happen to the annoying sack of fur, they’d find it almost impossible to live without him.

He didn’t tell Rocket that last part. He knew he’d be ripped alive if he did.

@ peter quill.

Gamora was unsure if this was the karma aspect that Peter had once tried to explain, but she found it fitting as she laughed at him, ignoring the urge to tend the forming bruise. There was little logic in investing in Peter romantically: his history, his attitude towards women, his general personality. All of them things she had to remind herself of whenever he made her smile or when he actually shut up and just stood there or the rare moments when he actually gave insight to who he was really was rather than who he was constantly trying to be. She wasn't sure, but there were moments she could swear she felt the odd twang of love for the real Peter.

"Well, we haven't died yet, right?" She smiled, fighting off the last bits of laughter. "It's good for him to learn things like that."

She still didn't stand though. Instead she leaned to the right, propping up the heels of her boots on some book or another that still called the floor it's home, and onto the side of a locker that footed the bunk. She had little worry over Groot's skills to keep the Milano on a straight path, and if anything she was positive that Rocket was supervising him by now. On top of that she had almost two hours before they landed to read the content of the locked file: rather than work around the dynamic duo she'd rather sit in the air of a finally somewhat relaxed Quill. If he'd just be quiet she was positive that she could sneak a quick nap, somewhat next to him in the only way she'd allow herself to be, before the chaos of landing. She shivered and the reclused into herself, ready for sleep.

---

"See? So it ain't my fault, he's the one who needs to knock it off." Rocket muttered as he played around with the console on his chair.

There was more available on the small screen than he'd previously assumed, much more than just the stats on the Milano. Eventually he lost interest with it though: his mind was a little too swirly to focus on anything that wasn't hands on. Instead he ducked below the main dash of the Milano and popped off the lower panel, looking for anything that was loose and unneeded that he could take without killing the lot of them.

"You don't think he's gunnah try to leave me in a bar, do you? Sell me like some animal?" Rocket's voice was foreign to himself, detached, as he rooted around to keep the awkward feeling in his chest at bay.

@ The God of Mischief.

Peter flopped backwards onto the bunk and stared up at the spot that had assaulted the top of his skull. He frowned a little, stared at it. “Oh come on don’t laugh that hurt!” Though, truth be told Peter was trying hard not to laugh himself and he knew damn well Gamora would be able to hear the hint of amusement in his voice that he couldn’t quite disguise.

“You know if he breaks anything, you’re paying for it,” Peter yawned. Of course he wasn’t being serious, if Groot broke anything Groot would pay for it. He yawned again. God, he hadn’t felt this tired in days, not since he’d really started stressing over the implications of what Nova had told him, about who he really was. Though, as soon as he started thinking about he felt his stomach cramp up. There was something terrifying about the anomaly in his DNA. He had no idea what he was, who he was, or what he should think about his father. He remembered all the arguments he’d had with his mother growing up, about how she thought his father would come back for him, but how he’d come to the conclusion that his father had probably been some wino found dead in some park in a rough part of some city or another after his heart or something had given out, or maybe after he’d drowned himself in the duck pond.

He shook his head, trying to rid himself of those thoughts. He needed to sleep. He could start stressing about that stuff again after they’d landed, when he could run off and be by himself if he had to. He rolled over and punched his pillow before he settled himself down again and started to drift off into a relatively troubled sleep.

“Gamora?” he mumbled, his voice slow and heavy. “Wake me up when we land, ‘kay?”

---

Groot didn’t have to look at Rocket to know what he was doing. He heard the panel clatter against the floor. He decided to remind Rocket that it was this kind of thing that would make Peter want to leave him in a bar, or sell him off as a pet. “Don’t touch my stuff,” he said slowly.

@ peter quill.
"Yeah, yeah." Gamora waved her hand as to brush Quill's threat to make her pay for broken things away: the threats he gave her would forever be empty.

Sleep was befalling her easily, even though it was inopportune, and she began to find herself fighting to stay awake once more. As much as she trusted Groot to keep them on a straight path she hardly trusted any of them but Peter (herself implied) to properly handle an emergency should something happen. Pinching her arms she sat up a little more, hoping that the position would help her eyes stay open. Her motivation fell as she thought of having to deal with Rocket versus the quiet that the bunk room offered her, the privacy she had with Peter.

"MMhmm." Something about waking him up? Right.

It was maybe a fully four minutes after she last heard Peter's voice that she found herself in limbo between sleep and awakeness, leaning fully on the locker with her legs curled up beside him.

---

"Wha'd'ya want me to do then?" Rocket snapped, clearly annoyed, as he pulled himself out from beneath the dash: there was nothing good for the taking, anyways.

He was bored as absolute hell, cursing the hour or so left of the journey, and anxious to explore something larger than just the few hundred square meters of the Milano. Even Groot's semi-constant gaze was beginning to put his fur on edge. It wasn't right for him to be so cooped up. With a heavy sigh he sat on the floor and scratched behind his ear.

"Sorry, buddy." He flopped back onto the panel that was still just propped up against the dash. "I'm just a little bored, is all."

@ The God of Mischief.

Peter didn’t hear Gamora’s response, sleep had dragged him under.

---

“Me too,” Groot replied slowly, having difficulty with the words even if they were monosyllabic. He motioned to the accelerators, and then at the navigation panel. Surely if he and Rocket pushed the Milano to go as fast as it could go they’d cut the remainder of the journey down right?

“I am Groot?” He asked, his hand lingering over the accelerator. He didn’t want to speed up unless Rocket gave him the go ahead.