Peter Parker was this kind of person who seemed to eat sunshine, with a double rainbow every day. It was so difficult to imagine someone like him being upset about anything at all. For that reason, Quill loved to spend time with the kid, with Peter showing him new movies and apps for listening to music (He was still surprised about the amount of music that a cell phone could have). Quill’s crew couldn’t stand one more joke about Peter², seriously, they could do that for an hour straight.
“But dude, that part of the movie of him talking to her and then throwing his money on her? That gave me goosebumps'' Quill talked excited about one of the movies that Peter indicated for him. The boy chuckled.
“Wait until you see Star Wars then” Peter said smiling, but suddenly his smile died, when Quill looked at the same point, he saw a big paint of Iron Man on the wall.
Quill didn’t know the man at all, they had a conversation once, and Quill messed with the man’s plan. It wasn’t like the redhead thought that the man would have been his friend if he was alive.
“Hey, Pete…” Quill put one of his hands on his shoulders “Do you wanna…” But Peter grinned again and looked at him.
“So there’s the thrift store that I was talking about” Peter made this as subtle as a cat in heat. But Quill didn’t press the matter. Ravagers don’t talk about feelings, boy. What an odd moment to remember of that grumpy man. “Let’s see if we can get you an old lady t-shirt”.
“Man, that’s what I’m looking for” Quill elbowed him, and they walked to the thrift store.
Quill had a lot of fun trying some bizarre stuff, but a tiny voice in his head didn’t leave him alone, saying that he should talk with the boy. It ain’t fun when his friend didn’t look happy at all.
They paid for the clothes (and you can understand that Peter paid, because Quill didn’t have a dollar in his wallet, he didn’t have a wallet either). But Parker was glad to help a friend and plus, Quill promised to take Peter and Ned to space.
The pair were eating junk food, one thing that Quill missed a lot in space, when the older saw the unhappy face that Peter was looking at his cheeseburger.
“Dear Lord, spider boy, you're going to make this poor cheeseburger cry with your face” He said while chewing his food.
“Are you calling me ugly” Peter asked but had a little smile. Quill almost fell for that, but he remembered that Peter tried to avoid important subjects with comic relief. Sometimes, he was amazed with how similar they were.
“You know that you get a handsome face and a nice ass, so stop avoiding the question” Quill waited before asking “Is this because the Iron Man guy?” There was silence and Quill cursed himself for trying to talk about feelings and ruined his friendship with Peter.
“Yes” He listened to the small voice and turned his head to look at the teenager “I miss him every day, but it feels wrong” He grimaced, that kind of grimace that you know the person is trying hard to not cry.
“How’s that?” Wrong? Was Tony and Peter… Nope, Peter was a teenager. But Tony… Oh, God. Ok, listen to the boy then you judge Peter Jason Quill!
Peter looked at him, then dodged his eyes for the ground, he looked so young and insecure, deciding if he could or not talk about his thoughts for Quill.
“Hey, Pete. You can say whatever is passing by this crazy and genius brain of yours” And with hope isn’t some weird kink of Tony Stark.
Peter inhaled before talking.
“Ahn, so… I don’t have any memories of my father, it’s a blur in my mind. When I was fourteen my uncle died” He started and Quill said that he was sorry. “And everything was a mess in my life because of my superpowers, and then, Tony freaking Stark appeared in my house, I’m not kidding, I almost passed out” Quill smiled, he could imagine doing that with his idol, he would totally faint in front of Ren McComark. “He taught me a lot of stuff, gave me a purpose, he wasn’t just my mentor, he was…”
“Like a father for you” Parker’s eyes went wide for a second, before returning to normal size.
“And this is so wrong. I don’t have the right to complain so much about it. Tony wasn’t my dad, he had a real daughter, wife, he had even an entire team that knew him better than I will ever do. I shouldn’t be so bad about it, I don’t have the right to feel so bad about it” He ended up holding his head with both of his hands.
Woah, that was a lot of heart talk. At least wasn’t what he thought that would be. The teenager managed to say all of that without crying, Quill had to at least give the younger one something. ‘You give something of yours, and I give something of mine’.
“My father died” He said and Peter stopped holding his head and looked at the man.
“I’m sorry” The boy said.
“Don’t be. He was a jerk. On the same day, my dad died as well” He smiled without humor. “He ain’t no angel, like he loved to say” Quill had his eyes focused on Peter’s one “He raised me, and he did a poor job at it, and I fought him so many times, and sometimes, I wished him to be dead” Quill said in a cold voice and Peter winced. “Who would say that he would die protecting me, hm? That old man. I was the last person who had the right to mourn him” He said bitterly, the teenager gulped before saying.
“Do you miss him?” It was a stupid question, but Quill got what was behind this: Did it gets better?
“Not gonna lie, it’s weird to not have someone to give me a lecture about the things I’m doing wrong” Peter snorted about it, because he knew the feeling. “Some days I miss him badly, but in other ones, well, I remember that’s ok to remember about him, because in a weird way, he was my dad. Don’t need blood to make it real” Quill winked at the teenager who smiled, a real smile this time.
“I’m going to keep it in mind” He pronounced, sniffling a little “Thank you, Peter”
“You’re welcome, Peter” They laughed about the Peter joke.
See old blue grape? I can do feelings just fine.
“Hey, I need to tell you how I danced to defeat a villain once” Quill remembered.
“No way, you’re just making it up” Peter teased.
“I swear, if you don’t believe me, ask Rocket”