Chapter 7
The next day, Quill is out of the med bay and is all fixed up. We're eating in the mess and I look over to see him fiddling with a box in his hands, watching Gamora. I look at the box then at him and smile a bit, kicking him under the table. He looks at me and sees my smile. "What?"
"Is there a ring in that box, Dad?" He blushes and I smirk. "I knew it!" I take a bite of food and he quickly shoves it under the table as Gamora sits across from him. "Hi, Gamora!" I smile brightly at her and she looks at me, suspicious.
"Hello, Rogue. You are very... Happy this morning."
"Oh, very. And I feel like Dad is too. And nervous. Ain't that right, Dad?" I turn to smirk at Quill and he glares at me.
"Shut up, Rogue." He hisses at me and I smile, taking another bite of food.
"Speaking of your father... Peter." Gamora looks at Quill and had something in her hand.
"Yeah, Ga-" He stops talking when he sees a ring in her hand and she smiles at him.
"Wow, you finally got him to shut up. Good job." I smile and laugh when I get elbowed a little hard by Kraglin.
"I have done research that says Terrans give their mate a ring when they wish to stay together for the rest of their lives. Did I do something wrong?" She looks at me and I shake my head.
"Nah. Dad was gonna do the same." Quill glares at me and I shrug. "You were. She just beat you to it." I smirk at him and smile at Gamora. "Terrans also usually ask for them to do that and do a whole speech. You're doing great. Please. Continue." She nods and looks at Quill. I vaguely notice that Yondu was talking to someone and pay attention to the couple.
"Peter, I wish to stay with you for the rest of my life. You are a very good man and it would be my honor to spend the rest of my life by your side. Will you stand by mine?" She watches Quill and he wasn't saying anything so I kick him again.
"Stop kicking me!" He hisses at me and I motion to Gamora.
"Answer your woman, Dad! Are you gonna marry her or what?" The entire mess was silent and was also waiting for an answer as he looks at her again.
"Yes." He smiles and leans over to peck her lips, blushing when he sits back down. I stand on the chair I was sitting on and Quill glares at me. "Sit down!"
"Shut up, you." I look at the crew and yell "This is the part where you embarrass him by cheering really loud!" The entire mess bursts into cheers, loving the thought of embarrassing Quill, and I smile at him. "Congratulations," I say as I sit down and continue eating.
"Thanks... Could've done without you making the crew cheer for me, though..."
"They cheered for us, Peter. Which finger does this ring go on?" I point to Quill's ring finger and she slips the ring on it, kissing his hand.
"Hell yeah! Break the gender norms!" I try to give her a high five and they look at me like I'm crazy. I try to explain for a second and just sigh. "Never mind." I finish eating and Yondu stands.
"Quiet down!" He hollers and the mess goes silent. "Time fer a Ravager weddin' tradition!" The mess cheers and I look at him, confused.
"There's a Ravager wedding tradition?" I whisper to Kraglin and he nods, motioning for me to be quiet as Yondu does the same to the whole mess.
"The Stealin' of the Bride!" Gamora looks at Quill then at Yondu and stands.
"The what?!"
"Ain't nothin' bad. It's a game." She nods and sits down again. "The bride gets taken ta their family ship, cuz Ravagers married into otha clans. The fam'ly would pick the bride up an' the groom an' his crew git her back." I get an idea and smirk. Yondu sees and looks at me. "Wha' ya thinkin', girl?" He motions for me to stand and I do.
"What if we did the Stealing of the Groom? Gamora proposed to Dad instead of the other way around. Besides, I don't think Gamora would agree to it."
"Both versions sound fun, however, I do enjoy the idea of rescuing Peter," Gamora says and I smile, looking at Yondu. He steps away and contacts someone on his wrist com. "What do you think, Peter? Would you like to be rescued by me?" She smirks at Quill and I gape at them.
"Well, sure." He chuckles and I smile as Yondu comes back.
"A'ight, Stakar's Starhawk is gonna act as Quill's home ship." Yondu smiles at Quill and he nods. "It'll be happenin' at any time. We git to plan. Git, boy." Quill nods and leaves the mess. "Ya too, girl." I look at Yondu and he was looking at me.
"Come on, Captain. I can help with this. Besides, I should be in it. He's my Dad."
"How are ya gonna help?"
"I'm small. If you give me a map of the place, I can get in the vents and locate him while giving you notice on where guards are. Plus, I got somebody to engineer me some magnetic gloves to climb around on the walls of ships."
"Wha' ya do tha' fer?!"
"When I need to help you steal stuff on other ships," I explain and he nods.
"A'ight. Yer in." I smile and he pulls up a holographic map of Stakar's ship. "Shut tha' door." A Ravager nearby shuts the door and Yondu explains the rules of the game then the layout of the ship to us. He gives me a downloadable version of the map and I pull it up on my wrist com. He also has a couple of Ravagers get a crate on a table and open it up.
"These earpieces connect to your wrist coms. They will allow you to speak with anyone while we are retrieving Peter." Gamora explains and everyone gets one from the crate, putting it in. We go over code names at Rocket's insistence and I'm being called-
"Mole? That's the best you've got for me?"
"You're going to be our mole. It's the perfect code name, kid!" Rocket smirks at me and I narrow my eyes at him before shaking my head before I remember.
"Moles are only on Terra..." Rocket nods and I smirk. "Ooh, you sly bastard." I chuckle and he smirks still. Gamora goes to check on Quill and there's a ship-wide announcement that he's already been taken.
"That was fast." I chuckle and head to the control room with Yondu, seeing Gamora there already. Yondu has her stand next to his chair and calls Stakar.
"Yondu, Gamora." Stakar had a sly smirk on his face and Gamora was smirking too.
"Stakar. You work quickly."
"It's a good trait to have for a Ravager."
"Well, we'll be just as efficient. I'm coming for my groom." She hangs up and I had seen Quill blushing in the background. "Let's go." I go with Gamora and Rocket to the hangar and get onto an M-ship that matched the color of space outside for stealth. I can feel the ship moving and the doors to the hangar open once we're through a jump to get to Stakar's ship. I get strapped into a seat and so does Gamora while Rocket pilots us out, along with a bunch of other M-ships. We get docked in the hangar and Rocket starts to leave.
"Contact me and I'll come to pick the three of you up when you're done." Gamora nods and helps me into a vent. I activate my mask and turn the map on.
"Come in Mole, Poppins, and M-Team. This is Grinch. Are you in positions?"
"M-Team ready."
"Poppins here. Ready." I press my right ear carefully.
"Mole here. Ready when you are, Grinch."
"Good. Roll out."
"We'll keep 'em busy fer ya, Grinch," Kraglin says and I start to move quietly in the vents.
"Mole, any updates?" Yondu asks in my ear and I look out of a vent opening, pressing my right ear.
"Two guards about to be taken care of, Poppins. With non-lethal force." I open the vent and roll out a small bomb-looking device onto the floor after activating it from my belt. The guards look down at it and it lets out two streams of gas that they breathe in, falling to the floor, out cold. "Taken care of, Poppins." I shut the vent and follow the map to one of my two spots.
"Any sign of the flower or big bad wolf?"
"Not yet, Grinch." I crawl through the vents and look through the slits of one into the security room before moving on. "Nikon room is clear." I go through the vents and see a lot of guards in a hallway. I grab two of the gas bombs and drop them out of the vent after opening it.
"What the-" They're cut off as they fall to the floor, out cold, and continue to the next room I have, seeing Quill in it.
"Updates?" Gamora asks.
"Game room is clear," Kraglin says and I nod, enjoying the fact that they listened to my ideas for the control room and mess hall.
"Same with filth room," Yondu says.
"Mole?"
"I have eyes on the flower. The flower is in the den."
"Move, Mole. I'll be there shortly."
"Copy that, Grinch." I open the vent below me and drop to the floor in Stakar's room where Quill and Aleta were watching what was happening on a bunch of screens. I look up and smile at Quill. "Hey, Dad. You might want to get behind the couch." I say and do that with the two of them just as the door blows open. Quill pops his head up and Gamora is walking in, Rocket's blaster in her hands.
"Are you ready to be rescued, Peter?" He nods and goes over to her. We look at Aleta and she sits back down on the couch. "Are you going to stop us?"
"It isn't my ship. Careful on your way out. Stakar could be anywhere." I nod and motion Quill over.
"Give me a boost." He comes over and lifts me into the vent. "Thanks." I shut the vent opening and nod at them through the slits, crawling through the vents next to them as we quickly move to the hangar.
"Wings, we're ready."
"Copy that, Grinch." I get to the hangar first and look around, not seeing anyone as I press my right ear slightly.
"Be on the lookout. This seems too easy." I notice Yondu and Kraglin with a couple of other people come in behind Gamora and Quill and they start to walk towards the ship they came on. Quill grabs Gamora's arm and pulls her back just as a tall stack of crates comes tumbling down before Stakar comes out from where they were. Yondu and Kraglin push Quill into a mini circle to fight off some of Stakar's crew while Gamora and Stakar fight and I move quietly through the vents.
I stop when I'm right above Stakar and move the vent door to inside the vent before dropping down onto Stakar with a yell. I knock him onto the floor and smirk at Quill and Gamora. "Go!" I yell and Gamora grabs Quill, running onto Rocket's waiting ship. Rocket leaves quickly and Stakar throws me off of him. I hit a stack of crates with a grunt and stand quickly. Stakar's wrist com beeps and he looks at it.
"Damn, that rat can fly. Congratulations, Yondu. Your crew got the groom back." The crew cheers and I spin with a yell, smiling a huge smile behind the mask before I deactivate it. "You seem happy." He chuckles and I nod.
"Hell yeah! This is the first time I've helped win a competition! That was awesome!" I go back over to Yondu and Kraglin and they were smiling.
"What'd you use on my crew that knocked them out?" I just smirk and shrug a bit.
"We have to keep some secrets, Gramps. Besides, Yondu might recruit a Xandarian later down the road that falls my endless amount of charm and we'll have another Stealing of the Groom." I smirk and they laugh.
"I wasn't expecting you to be here. Whose idea was it for you to be in the vents?"
"Mine. I'm the only one small enough to fit in them."
"Clever. Especially getting the drop on me like that. Good job." I smile and bow my head as I do the Ravager Salute to him.
"Thank you." He smiles and ruffles my hair. I look at Yondu and smile. "We should get back." He nods and leads me to his ship with Kraglin following. The rest of the crew go to their ships and the pilots all head back to the Eclector.
When we dock in the hangar, Quill and Gamora are waiting and I get off of the ship, smiling still. We were the last ones to dock and the rest of the crew was gone. I see Quill and the thrill of helping win the competition was back.
"That was fucking awesome!" I yell as I jump off of the ship and smile at Quill. "That was the first time I've helped win a competition! You know how badly I want to do a victory dance right now?" He rolls his eyes and motions for me to just get it out of my system.
I do a mix of the dances I know and end with a spin, chanting 'we won' as I do.
"Feel better now?" Quill asks and I nod, smiling still. "Good. Now... Who the Hell thought putting my kid in the vents would be a good idea?! What if she came across something that wanted to kill her in it?!"
"Hey! Chill out, Dad! It was my idea, calm down." I chuckle and he looks at me like I was insane.
"Why the Hell did you want to be involved in this?!"
"It sounded like fun and it was damned well was! What's your problem with it?"
"I know it was non-lethal injuries, but you still could've gotten hurt badly!"
"I'm gonna get hurt! You can't just expect me to stay on this ship and in my room all the time!"
"The Hell I can't! I'm your father and I'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe! Even if it means putting you in a bubble!"
"You can't put me in a bubble, Dad! Just deal with the fact I'm going to get hurt and move on!"
"You don't tell me what to do, Rogue!"
"It's my damned life and you're trying to keep me from doing something I want to do!"
"Because what you want to do is stupid as Hell!"
"Well, at least we know what I get from you now! Your stupidity!"
"Don't you dare speak to me that way!"
"Then don't treat me like I'm a toddler!"
"Then don't act like it!"
"Fuck you!" I yell and leave the hangar, shoving through the crowd of the crew that had come to see what was happening after all the yelling had reached them. They part for me and I go to my room, locking the door from the inside. I sit on my bed and sigh softly, back hurting from where I hit the crates earlier. "Damn..." I mutter and decide to just go to sleep, exhausted.
When I wake up later, I go to the mess as I run a hand through my hair to straighten it out and get food, sitting at the table with Yondu, Kraglin, and Quill. I fold my arm on the table between my body and tray and look down at it as I eat. "You look like you just rose from the dead." Quill laughs and I ignore him, still pissed at him for earlier. Gamora sits next to him and across from me.
"Hello, Rogue. You look like you slept well."
"Yup," I say before eating a bite of food and lift my hand from the table slightly in greeting.
"You seem to be upset."
"Nope." I eat my food and set a soda on the table for Quill. "From Terra." I continue eating and vaguely notice him take it.
"Thanks, Rogue."
"Mhmm." I finish my food and put the empty tray on the cart before leaving the mess to go to the gym since it's usually abandoned at this time. I put my headphones on and play the music from my Walkman as I practice the hand-to-hand combat Kraglin showed me to let off some steam.
After a couple of songs, I decide to try something new and shift my right foot back a bit. I put my weight on the ball of my left foot and kick my right foot up as I spin my body. I kick the dummy hard enough it falls over and I spin a bit more to get back into my original position before picking the dummy back up. I hear footsteps approach me in between songs and I copy the kick I just did, angling my foot up higher.
Kraglin blocks the kick and I shove my headphones off of my ears. "You don't sneak up on people like that!" I hiss at him, noticing some people from the crew watching, and he nods towards the dummy.
"Where ya learn tha'?" I shrug a bit and think.
"Chuck Norris from Terra." He nods and looks at me. "Time for our training session already?" He nods again and I get in a fighting stance while he does the same. I start to slowly circle him and he follows my movements to keep me in his line of sight, closing the distance as he does.
Once he's close enough, I do the leg sweep he taught me yesterday and knock him to the floor. I offer him my hand to help him up and he takes it. I use it to flip him over and pin him to the mat, arm twisted behind his back for a moment before I let him up, moving away quickly. He stands and smirks at me.
"Not bad, kid," I smirk back and he swings a punch at me. I duck under his arm and get hit in the side by his other fist with a grunt. "But not good enough." I slip my blade out of my thigh holster as I launch myself at his legs and knock us both down, pinning him there with the handle of my blade to his throat, cutting my hand so I don't accidentally cut him. He notices and pushes me off of him, grabbing the knife handle. I let go and grab it from him, putting it back in my holster.
"Wha' ya do tha' fer?" He nods towards my hand and I shrug. "Git ta the Doc," He says and I nod, going to med.
"Doc!" I call as I get there and hop onto a bed as Doc comes around a corner toward me. "Hey, Doc. You mind patching my hand up?" They get some stuff and start to patch my hand up. "Always appreciated, Doc." I smile at them and they nod as they wrap my hand up. "See you later, Doc." I hop off of the bed and go to see what I can help anyone with anywhere. Other than Quill, that is.
I go around the ship until I find Kraglin working on a ship and go over to him. "Need help?" He curses and hits his head on something before coming out to glare at me. "Sorry. Need any help?" He nods and tells me what he needs help with, which is working on the inside of the ship's controls.
Once we're done, Kraglin contacts Yondu and gets on the ship. "What are we doing?" I ask when he shuts the door and comes to get strapped in.
"Tes' flight. Gotta make sure I fixed m'ship proper." He smiles and nods for me to get strapped in. I do that and watch as he gets the ship ready for the test flight.
"Can I pilot for a bit once it's safe to?" I look at him and he was a little shocked. "Come on, please? Dad's being an ass and probably won't let me until I'm way older. Please, Krags?" He chuckles and shrugs a bit.
"Don' see why not." I smile brightly and wait for him to say it'd be safe to do it. "A'ight." I move closer to the co-pilot controls and he guides me on how to do it. I fly it for a bit until we get close to the Eclector again and he takes control again, docking.
"That was awesome." I smile and he chuckles as we both get off of his ship. I see Quill and Yondu waiting for us and lose the smile when I catch sight of Quill.
"Why'd you take her off of the ship without asking if it was OK?" Quill growls at Kraglin and I look at him incredulously.
"Cap'n let her," Kraglin says and I cross my arms over my chest as I glare at Quill.
"Yeah, Captain let me." He glares back at me and points a finger at me.
"You shut up," He growls and I scoff a bit, throwing my hands in the air a bit. "Why'd you take her off the ship? Did you let her pilot your ship?!"
"So wha' if I did?" Kraglin growls and steps closer to him as Quill does the same.
"You shouldn't have let her," He growls back and I lose my temper.
"ENOUGH!" I yell loudly and the three of them look at me, shocked. "I'm sick and tired of your bullshit already. You're being an asshat to everyone around you and it's pissing me off. Get your shit together and go plan your wedding with Gamora. Let me know when you've got that done, and we'll see what happens then." I look at Kraglin a bit and back at Quill. "And yes, Kraglin did let me pilot the ship because he was in a safe spot and was there to take it back if anything bad happened. Stop thinking you're the only one who can keep me safe because there's a whole lot of people that will and you need to get that through your thick skull." I say simply and he just spins on his heel, leaving the hangar. I sigh and rub my face.
"Tha' was fun ta see." Yondu chuckles and I look at him. "I ain't never seen Quill git so fast." He smirks at me and I smile a bit, chuckling softly.
"I have that effect on people." Kraglin squeezes my shoulder and steers me over to some over ships and some crewmates. "What are you doing?"
"Yer good with yer hands. Ya would be a good fit with the mechanics." He smiles down at me and I just nod, not sure what else to do or what to say. He explains as much to the group of crewmates and they look at me before nodding at Kraglin. "Have fun, kid." He chuckles and walks off. I look at the crewmates and nod a bit.
"What can I do?" One of them motions for someone to grab a small crate full of blue metal pads and they set it in front of me.
"Study these holopads. They have the layout and more of every ship in this hangar and more in the galaxy. Once you're through those, we have some old engines you can practice on. Get going." A Xandarian says and I nod, grabbing one of the holopads as I turn the visor on to be able to read them. "They connect to that thing, too." He taps a few things and I can hear a voice explaining things to me. I nod at him and he nods back. "What's your name, kid?"
"Rogue."
"Well, Rogue. You can call me Jay. How old are you?"
"Ten Terran years. You?"
"Probably about the same age. I snuck into the cargo on the last stop on Xandar and they let me stay."
"Nice." I nod and sit on an unopened crate to work on studying the holopads. He watches me for a moment before going back to work on the ship with the other crewmates and I look up when I hear them whistling at him.
"Careful, boy. Tha' girl's Daddy is Quill."
"So? I'd be worried if she were Captain's kid."
"Cap'n's her Grand Daddy." I notice Jay flush blue and smile a bit before going back to studying, listening to the team of crewmates tease Jay a bit.
"Rogue." I look up a while later to see Jay standing in front of me and smiling. "You hungry?"
"Starving." I hop off of the crate and walk next to him as I continue studying the holopad.
"You wanna sit with me and the other mechanics?" I look up at him and he was smiling nervously, face flushed slightly blue.
"Sure." I smile and he smiles back as we get our food. He leads me to his table with the rest of the mechanic's team and I notice Yondu smirking at us as I sit down to the right of him. "So, have you been a mechanic the whole time you've been on here?" He nods and smiles at me.
"My Momma used to own a shop and I'd help her out in it. I never knew my Daddy, but Momma said that he was an amazing person." He smiles a bit and I recognize it, lightly bumping my shoulder against his, making him look at me. "She died before I snuck on board." He says sadly and bumps my shoulder back.
"Well, I'm sure she'd be proud of you because you're using what she taught you. That won't let you forget her, Jay. Trust me." He smiles at me and flushes blue a bit, eating some food. I eat myself and study the holopad as I do. "Thanks for giving me this information. It'll make helping you guys a lot easier. And it'll give me something to do alongside training with Kraglin." I look at Jay and he looks at me, smiling.
"You're pretty." He says suddenly and loudly in the otherwise quiet mess and every head turns to us. He flushes blue and chuckles a bit. "Sorry..."
"No... It's alright... Thanks..." I smile at him and continue to eat my food as the Ravagers around us start to tease us. "Oh, shut up." I roll my eyes, smiling, at some of the Ravagers next to us and they keep teasing us. "When was the last time you told a woman your age that they were pretty?" They shut up at that and I smirk. "That's what I thought." I glance at Jay out of the corner of my eye and he was smiling as he ate, still flushed blue.
"Jay, yer a'most as blue as Cap'n," Kraglin says from behind a couple of Ravagers across from us and he looks up, chuckling nervously. "Wha' ya two talkin' 'bout?"
"Just how much they love each other," A ravager across from Jay teases and Jay flushes bluer. I kick him in the leg and he smirks at me. "Come on, girl. It's all in good fun."
"Well, cut back on it," I tell him simply and he chuckles but doesn't say anything else to tease us. "What do you need, Kraglin?" He sits on the other side of me and looks at the holopad in my hand.
"Wha'cha got there?" He asks and I smile, showing him.
"It's a manual of Dad's ship. It has the entire layout and what the engine looks like. Plus it shows me what each piece is and how it works."
"Why'd ya start with tha' one?" He raises an eyebrow at me and I shrug a bit.
"I just grabbed the one on top in the middle and it was this one. Can I finish telling you what this does, now?" He chuckles and nods. "Good." I turn it towards him a bit and pull something up. "This thing will pop up with questions like a pop quiz on Terra after I've finished a portion of it. I'm already about halfway through it and have had maybe five pop quizzes."
"How did you do on them?" Jay asks from my other side and I shrug a bit.
"I mean, I've gotten all of the questions right so far."
"Good job, kid." Kraglin smiles and I smile shyly as I look at the holopad again.
"The questions are more or less the same once you get past the first few." I shrug and go through a bit more of the program before another group of questions pops up. Kraglin notices and looks at the first one.
"Tha's a big question, kid." Jay looks over my shoulder and starts to point to the answer as I tap it. He looks at Kraglin and they make eye contact before they go back to watching me. I had my eyebrows furrowed a bit, looking at a diagram for the engine for a question, and zoom in on it before clicking the piece that doesn't belong. It pops up green and gives me the last question for this quiz.
"Wow. That one looks hard," Jay says from beside me, shutting up when I elbow him in the side, and Kraglin looks over my shoulder at it.
"Ya got-" I elbow him and he shuts up. I read the question and look at the answers as well as the diagram on it then click the video on it.
"You have to find what made it malfunction," Jay says and I elbow him harder, making him shut up with a slight wince. I watch the video in a slower version and click the reason it malfunctioned, getting all of the questions right again. "Awesome." He smiles at me and I smile a bit too as I continue reading through, eating as I do. Kraglin chuckles and goes back to Yondu's table.
"What was she working on?" Gamora asks as he sits down and Quill looks at him.
"Mechanic stuff. Jay gave her some holopads ta study."
"Does she have a manual for Quill's ship?" She asks and he nods, smirking.
"She's workin' on it, now. Said it was the one on top." He smirks at Quill as he looks over at me and Gamora stops him from going over.
"Leave her be. She seems to be enjoying learning about your ship. And if anything happens to it, we'll know who did it." He nods and sits back down, watching me with the others.
"Come on, girl. Put that thing down and joke with us." One of the Ravagers tries to take the holopad from my hands and I finish my food before stabbing them with my fork. "Son of a bitch!" He holds his hand close and I take my tray to the cart, heading back to the hangar as I continue to study the holopad.
"Girl!" I pause and turn to see Yondu staring at me. "Don' go 'round stabbing yer crew with forks."
"Got it, Captain." I nod and he nods back, motioning for me to continue where I was going. I go back to the hangar and sit on the unopened crate next to the one filled with holopads, finishing the program before I grab another one to start it as the other mechanics start coming back to get back to work.
There's suddenly a lot of clattering and I ignore it, figuring the crew was being clumsy, as I continue studying. "Rogue. Get up and salute," Jay hisses and I quickly do that, seeing a Captain I don't recognize beside Stakar and Sparkles.
"Captain Ogord, Sparkles." I bow my head to them and Stakar laughs at 'sparkles' while the rest of the hangar was silent. I lift my head and see Sparkles was also laughing while the other Captain looked confused.
"This is First Mate Martinex T'Naga of the Starhawk, you should address him as such," He scolds and I nod a bit, looking at Sparkles.
"My apologies, First Mate Sparkles of the Starhawk, but I'm afraid I'll be unable to say your actual name at this time." I bow my head slightly to hide my smirk and Stakar slowly stops laughing as I lift my head, visor still activated.
"Rogue, this is Captain Charlie-27. Charlie, this is Rogue, Quill's daughter." He looks at me and I look back at him.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain. I hope that we can get along better than my father and I do." I smile at him and look at the three of them. "I was in the middle of studying, can I get back to it?" Stakar nods and I hop back onto the unopened crate as I continue to study the holopad.
"Sparkles!" Yondu yells as he comes into the room, flipping Sparkles off, and he returns the gesture before they hug. "Charlie, ya old bastard!" They hug too and I briefly watch the exchange before going back to studying.
"What are you working on now, Rogue?" Jay asks from my right and I show him the engine layout of Kraglin's ship the Cawl. "Nice. How many more do you have?"
"The systems work similarly so I should be done studying them by the time we go to the mess again."
"Wow. You work fast." I shrug a bit and continue to study while he watches me.
"You're being watched by Quill, the Captains, and First Mates, Jay." He looks up and sees that I was right, smiling nervously before zooming off in the other direction. "That was fast. I wonder how long that will work for before guys decide it's worth murder with eyes to try to hang out with me." I look up at Quill before going back to studying and grab a new holopad, having gone through about half of the small crate now.
"Take a break, Rogue. Come with me for a test flight of the Milano," Quill says and I look at him.
"Are you going to let me pilot it?"
"Not a chance in Hell."
"Then there's not a chance in Hell that I'm coming with you right now. I want to finish studying these and practice on some of the old engines Jay says are around here." I hear a couple of Ravagers snicker and throw a rag at them, hearing them laugh.
"How'd that song go?" One of them whispers to another and I notice them shrug. "Damn." They turn and smirk at me. "Hey, girl! You and Jay been sitting in any trees lately?"
"Seeing as there are none on this ship, I'd have to say no."
"Not even kissing?" They make some kissing noises and I roll my eyes, flipping them off as I continue to study. "Awe, sorry girl! You're too young for me!"
"And you're too bald. Now leave me alone, you idiots." They laugh and I roll my eyes again, continuing to study.
"Aleta wants to know if you've figured out your last name yet," Stakar says and I look at him then back down at my holopad.
"Not quite." He nods a bit and I finish the holopad, grabbing a new one.
"Damn, girl. Slow down," Yondu chuckles and I glance at him.
"This is the first thing I've done that wasn't physically tiring and when I'm done, I get to do something cool. I think I'm good at the pace I'm going. Not my fault these damned things are basically the same as the one before it." He shrugs and I continue to study the holopads.