Alright so moving schools this late in the game, totally not Peter’s idea of a good time and honestly he can do without. But Yondu’s stupid ass got arrested two states over so Peter had to drag his ass from Texas to California but at least the shitty accent didn’t follow him. Thank fuck. The accent he managed to get rid of from Missouri was bad enough, thanks. Now he sounds mostly like Americans on TV, so the presumed English neutral, and that’s his ideal. None of this twang shit Yondu has.
That’d make this new school crap even worse, sounding like he fucks his cousin. Yondu thinks that’s offensive but the dude sounds like he walked out of the goddamn boonies with that accent and Peter is not having it. People are going to stare at him enough, he doesn’t need any more reason for people to single him out. As it is like seven people have walked past him sitting in the office and did double takes. Seriously, have they never seen a dude with blonde hair and blue eyes before? Ok, his hair is actually a light brown but being in Texas for way too fucking long left it sun streaked so it looks lighter at the moment than it really is. But he’s damn sure he’s not all that unusual.
When his stupid schedule finally gets sorted the office lady, who looks like she’s grown roots in her seat, tells him he gets some kind of student rep person to show him around and he’s about to deny any need for that when he turns to see who she’s pointing at. He abandons all thought of not needing a student rep whatever when he sees the guy though because hello, he’s hot. This is a gay state or whatever, he’s probably safer to sniff around the bush than he had been in Texas- those people have guns and homophobia so he wasn’t testing shit out there. Okay so they weren’t all that bad but still, there weren’t many options when he lived in HotAsTitsVille in butt fuck nowhere.
He sticks out his hand, “Peter Quill,” he says, offering a winning smile at least according to Kraglin. Okay gross, that’s basically like saying his mom thinks he’s cool. He needs some damn friends.
Hot Student Rep stares at his hand for a moment before shaking it, “Bucky Barnes,” he murmurs and Peter squints.
Bucky? The fuck kind of backhoe ass country name is that? So not sexy. “Bucky?” he asks, hoping maybe that was a bad dream or some shit because it would be a shame for such a hot dude to have such a gross name.
“Its short for Buchanan,” he says and Peter winkles his nose.
“So not an improvement, dude.” Ok in hindsight that was dumb to say but Bucky laughs at least so there’s that.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t ask my mom to name me after two US presidents, she just did and there were seven James’ in my kindergarten class so I decided to go by Buchanan. Then my best friend decided that was a mouth full so instead of going with the proper short form ‘Beau’ he went with Bucky,” he says, looking properly displeased with this.
“No offense,” Peter says, “but your best friend needs to be shot.”
Ok, not an improvement on your last attempt at bonding, Quill.
*
Holy fucking hell Bucky’s attempts to interact with the new kid are one disaster after another. First he gives the guy his whole damn life story with his name, then he agrees that Steve needs to be shot, then he ends up on a long rant about fucking crystal children. Sam has reliably informed him that his foray into conspiracy theories, cryptids, and other weird shit is not at all sexy, desirable, or even human. Steve called him rude when he said it but he kind of has a point, he’s certain Peter has checked out mentally like six years ago because that’s how long he’s been talking.
Things were easier when he could remember to keep his mouth shut but then he told Steve about all his weird interests and he’s very aggressively ‘be yourself’ so Bucky accidentally got weird. Now people avoid him in the halls when he used to have a lot of friends. Guess that’s what happens when you talk to high school students about interdimensional Bigfoot theory and the boy in the box.
“Oh my god, crystal children? Jesus fuck New Kid, just tell him his stupid ideas are worthless trash, he knows it,” Sam says, sneaking up behind him. Bucky turns to glare at him but Steve smacks his arm before he can say anything in his defense.
“That was rude, apologize!” he says, giving Sam one of those looks he gets when he’s particularly annoyed. Dude might barely clear five feet tall but he’s got the biggest dick energy Bucky has ever seen and he wishes Steve would tone it down to a still slightly above average, but moderate sized dick energy. He’s tired of punching people because Steve has gotten into another fight though he’s secretly grateful for Sam’s help on that front even if most of what he does is throw people in literal trash cans. To be fair his reasoning is solid- it takes enough time for them to climb out that he can grab Steve and drag him off before someone throws another punch.
Sam sighs and turns to Bucky, “I’m sorry you have such trash ideas, its tragic,” he says.
Bucky rolls his eyes, “you’re the human equivalent to the rabiosexual pride flag,” he mumbles and Peter lets out a sharp laugh.
“The what?” he asks.
“Its exactly what’s on the tin,” Bucky tells him but Peter frowns.
“You’re going to need to spell it out for me, hot stuff, because I don’t know what the fuck that tin is supposed to be saying,” he says.
Bucky swears to god his soul leaves his body and enters nirvana because the cute Texan boy called him hot. Sam smacks him, obviously recognizing that Bucky is trying to personally meet God in the astral plane to shake his hand for this beautiful moment. “Sexually attracted to people with rabies,” he says, sort of expecting Peter to react the way Carol does in the background and give him a weird look before running off but instead he throws his head back and laughs.
“Is that the same idiot who did the ‘I identify as an attack helicopter’ thing? Because points for creativity, what the genuine fuck?” he asks, snickering.
Sam looks between the two of them and frowns. “I’m sensing bonding here, why am I sensing bonding? Bucky is fifty shades of fucked up, you should avoid him at all costs,” he tells Peter.
Bucky squints at him, “from the guy who just quoted ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’? Seriously?” Steve gives Sam a disgusted look and Sam frowns at him.
“Baby, he couldn’t have called me on that quote if he didn’t read it too. Don’t look at me like that. We have things we’re ashamed of,” he says, looking away guiltily.
“Like God being ashamed of your existence. You’re proof he makes mistakes,” Bucky tells him. He grins when Peter starts laughing again.
*
Peter shakes his head, “no I don’t, I do not have an accent,” he says. He sounds nothing like Yondu’s garbage filth. Or Kraglin’s garbage filth. He is accent free, as he should be. Well, at least in America- he has an accent everywhere else obviously.
Bucky smiles at him, “oh yeah you do,” he says in a tone Peter can’t quite identify but he knows its not bad so he’s all for whatever the tits it is. He didn’t get all wigged out with the hot stuff comment either so you know, good sighs. Actually he did some kind of something after that comment that resulted in Sam smacking him but he’s pretty sure it wasn’t homophobia anyways. Bucky’s just… weird. Thankfully for Peter he’s used to all kinds of weird shit so this isn’t really a make or break factor. You don’t grow up with a group of criminals and not get used to things being weird.
“I have no accent, I was only in Texas for like five years,” he says. And he moved all over the damn state too, until too many people got Yondu’s description so now they’re here until too many people figure out Yondu is stealing their shit. Then they’ll go somewhere new.
“Well you picked up an accent,” Bucky tells him.
Peter turns to Sam and Steve. “Tell him I don’t have an accent,” he says.
“I hate to tell you this but you sound like you and Texas had a fight and Texas won,” Sam tells him.
“What the fuck does that even mean?” he asks.
Sam rolls his eyes, “it means you have an accent you damn melted cheese stick,” he tells him, shaking his head as he turns to Steve. “‘What does that mean?’ It was pretty damn clear to me.”
Melted cheese stick? Well that’s sure as hell a first for him as far as insults go. Usually people call him anything from the garden variety ‘asshole’ to the particularly creative ‘creation of the devil himself looking to corrupt innocents’. First of all he wasn’t the one who decided sex with the preacher’s daughter was a good plan, that was her, he just went along with it because duh. ‘Course he didn’t believe that and Peter got cursed out some more and called the devil like six more times but the argument pretty much ended when Yondu showed up and looked confused as to why that was sending Peter to hell when obviously there were other more perfectly valid reasons. Like his pretty long juvie record, apparently.
Personally he thinks Yondu should take responsibility for at least half his petty theft charges, its not like he wanted to break into most of those houses. Yondu was the one who decided he was good for thievin’. And the other half, well, yeah alright, that was mostly him and Yondu’s advice was always not to get caught, not to stop stealing. He thinks its pretty good advice too considering he’s pretty good at stealing shit now.
“Your shitty insults are the reason global warming exists,” Bucky tells Sam. They have a… weird relationship but Steve doesn’t seem concerned by them constantly insulting each other in pretty mean ways so he guesses this is a normal thing even if he finds it weird and a little worrying.
“Yeah, well your weird chin is the reason that child poverty exists,” Sam tells him.
“Don’t be rude,” Steve says and Sam glares down at him.
“How come you’re never on his ass for stuff like this?” he asks.
Steve wrinkles his nose but Bucky speaks first, “Steve, don’t go anywhere near my ass. The thought of it makes my dick invert,” he says and Peter starts laughing.
“That’s why I prefer to eat your ass, honey,” Steve tells Sam. Bucky gags a little but Sam looks satisfied for some reason.
*
Yondu starts suspecting something after the first week, which is stupid considering it’s pretty much never Peter’s actions that get them all busted, but he decides to give him the third degree nonetheless. “What the hell have you been doing all week that’s had you out late, boy?” he asks, horrible accent that Peter does not share permeating his words.
“Nothing,” he answers honestly because he’s spent all week hanging out with Bucky and Steve. He’s been warned that they’re weird, well, mostly that Bucky is weird, but he’s got better shit to care about than Bucky’s weird obsession with conspiracy theories. Its not like he pays much attention to the ones that get weird and racist and whatever, mostly he sticks to cryptids and aliens and whatnot. Though he does have a thing for lizard people that Peter could do without, but mostly it’s a harmless interest. Okay also e could do without the seventeen Mothman plushies on Bucky’s bed because those are going to make making out weird, but he’ll burn that bridge when he gets to it.
Yondu doesn’t look like he believes him and whatever, not Peter’s problem. “Something has kept you out late, you don’t stay many places after school,” he says like he actually knows jack all about Peter’s habits. It took him three years to remember his name let alone his damn habits.
“I have friends, Yondu, and we do nothing while we hang out,” he says. Actually Sam made fun of Bucky’s DB Cooper wall for hours and the material he has there is surprisingly endless. What’s weird though is that all of it comes from knowledge of the case so Sam must pay attention to Bucky when he talks even though he pretends like he dismisses Bucky’s everything. He still doesn’t understand their relationship.
“Don’t lie to me boy, what have you been getting into? You know damn well we’re laying low,” he says.
Peter rolls his eyes, “yeah Yondu, I know you did some stupid shit that forced us to run to another fucking state, okay? We’ve done this like six times, I know the drill. If you really want to know I spent like four hours listening to a friend make fun of another friend’s weird hobbies. Not that its any of your damn business,” he snaps. Like Yondu cares, like actually cares, he just wants to make sure its his fuck up that leads to them being on the run again. God, he’s so tired of this shit. For once in his life he’d like to settle somewhere for more than a few months so he can actually get used to things and enjoy one area for an okay amount of time. Or maybe just stay there, who knows?
Yondu looks offended and Peter doesn’t think he has much of a right to. “The hell it isn’t any of my business, who the hell else do you think is taking care of your ungrateful ass?” he asks.
That results in another eye roll. “You picked me up from the side of the road, Yondu. I’m barely a step up from litter collection to you,” he says, walking away while he shakes his head.
*
Holy god damn shit Bucky has hit the jackpot because Peter is hot, not scared off by his weird hobbies, not scared off by Steve’s high level of intensity, and also not straight. This might be the greatest set of perfect circumstances in his whole life, maybe even the best set of circumstances in his whole life. “I swear to god if any of you make a pan fucking joke-” Peter says but Sam cuts him off.
“You’re talking to two pansexuals and an asexual, you’re not going to get pan fucking jokes that aren’t even funny or original,” Sam says. “Also anyone who’s humor is that stilted needs to be thrown into the ocean because ‘do you fuck pans’ isn’t even clever, its just idiocy.” Sam shakes his head because he takes his comedy very seriously and dislikes when people make cheap jokes at subjects that don’t have much humor in them. Bucky once heard him describe ‘haha insert sexuality’ jokes were the Adam Sandlers of the comedy world. Bucky isn’t inclined to disagree.
“Wait, who’s the asexual?” Peter asks, frowning. Probably because they’ve all mentioned their sex lives but Sam happens to be an ace that likes sex, much to Bucky’s annoyance. Like he wants to head about Sam’s sex life, especially since it means hearing about Steve’s sex life and yeah they aren’t technically related but its still fucking rude to inform people of their sibling’s sex lives. Even if they’re more like adopted siblings.
“Sam,” Steve says. “Also avoid Schmidt to avoid pan jokes unless you’ve got a pan to beat him with. Then you can tell him that no, actually pansexual means you get off to beating the hell out of idiots with pans.” He glares at nothing in particular and Sam snorts.
“You’re adorable when you’re angry,” he says and he’s probably the only one who thinks so. Steve might be pocket sized, but he’s got more bravery than a mountain lion on steroids and just as many claws.
Peter frowns, “I worry about you sometimes, your first resort is violence like every time and I feel like sometimes there are better solutions,” he says.
“People who like pineapple on pizza,” Steve says and Peter wrinkles his nose.
“Gas them,” Peter responds immediately, barely even waiting for Steve to finish his sentence.
Bucky gives him a look that’s a mix between offended and horrified not that he can really blame Peter for the comment, its not like he leads with ‘I’m Jewish and like pineapple on pizza, don’t gas me’ because that’s absurd. Steve frowns at him but Sam clues in immediately and starts laughing like the jackass that he is. “You like pineapple on pizza, don’t you?” Peter asks and Bucky nods. “Sorry dude, I said what I said.”
“He’s Jewish,” Steve supplies because Bucky can’t form words right now because how did they get here? How did things align in just the wrong way to get to this?
Peter, to his credit, looks horrified. “No you fucking aren’t, you guys are being dicks right now,” he says but its clear he doesn’t believe his words because he looks like he feels terrible.
“I am actually Jewish,” Bucky confirms and Peter grips his hair.
“Why did I choose gas?” Peter asks to himself, shaking his head with wide eyes. “Next time I’m sticking with guns, everyone gets killed by those, its equal opportunity.”
Sam squints, “to die?” he asks.
“Yeah, dumbass, people who like pineapple on pizza caused the Salem Witch Trials. They aren’t right,” he says.
Bucky’s shock wears off at Peter’s witch trial comment and he starts laughing. “What?”
Peter looks offended, “if Sam’s stupid insults can cause global warming pineapple on pizza can cause witch trials. It wasn’t moldy rye bread or whatever, it was pineapple on pizza. Caused the Satanic Panic too,” he says.
“I think that people who don’t like pineapple on pizza need reeducation,” Bucky tells him. “Your mother dropped you on your head as a child,” he adds.
Peter snorts, “my mom died when I eight,” he says with way too much glee, probably because Bucky looks as horrified as Peter had thirty seconds ago.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” he says meaningfully.
“Whatever,” Peter shrugs, “its not like we knew we were going to potentially offend the shit out of each other when we got insensitive. Just don’t make ‘your momma’ jokes- aside from being stupid and lacking any actual joke potential the last guy who decided that was a good idea got punched.”
“Once Bucky punched an eight year old,” Sam supplies and Bucky glares at him.
“To clarify I was also eight years old when I did that,” he adds fast, “why do you always leave that part out?” Every fucking time- Sam needs new material.
Sam grins, “because the older you are the more offended people get when I tell them that. That joke ages like a fine wine,” he says and Bucky flips him off.
“That preacher guy was right,” Peter says, “I’m going to hell, but for finding that funny and accidentally making bad Holocaust references, not screwing his daughter. Who was fucking wild, by the way- I once watched her snort coke off a buddy’s ass. I was so not the one to corrupt her, she was just like that.”
Bucky has no idea who he’s trying to convince given that that sounds rehearsed but he, Sam, and Steve laugh nonetheless and ask for the story behind that.
*
Okay so Peter is maybe a little stupid in love with Bucky and that wasn’t ever meant to happen, he’s not even around in places long enough for that to happen usually. But he loves Bucky’s stupid Mothman plushies, and his DB Cooper wall, and all the other weird things connected with red string all over his room. It looks like he’s a damn nutcase, but he’s not and even if he was Peter is pretty sure he could look past it because love means overlooking people’s crazy flaws. He overlooks the fact that Yondu doesn’t give a shit about him, he figures this is a lot less sad.
“You seriously don’t mind my seventeen Mothman plushies?” Bucky asks, face close to Peter’s. Almost close enough to kiss.
Peter grins, “nope. I’m in deep, at this point they’re endearing.” He looks over at Bucky’s cryptid wall for a moment before glancing up. “It is a little weird that you somehow found a news paper clipping of me as a child to stick on your ceiling though,” he says, eyeing a picture of him pinned to the wall right above his head. Bucky looks up, frowning for a moment before his eyes go wide.
“There’s no fucking way your mother is Meredith Quill. Oh my god, the timeline matches-” he suspects Bucky would continue but he starts to hyperventilate a little.
“Jesus, calm it Barnes. Yeah my mom’s Meredith Quill, but that’s not really… I don’t see how that’s relevant,” he says finally.
Bucky, because he’s fucking weird and now apparently motivated drags his wheezing ass into a sitting position for a moment before standing on his bed, pulling down the articles that were pinned there. “Your mom died when you were eight but how?” he asks.
Peter squints, “she had a brain tumor, was off about my dad being an alien- the doctors said that was just the tumor talking.” He kind of wishes that were true though, might have taken the sting out of having a father that didn’t give a shit about him. He used to pretend that was true until it got him ostracized at school, then he pretty much buried all memories of that time in his life except for his tapes. God, his mom had good taste in music.
“No way. There is no way you are that Peter Quill. There has to be thousands of Peter Quills on this planet, you can’t be this one. There is no way you were the kid who went missing from- what state are you from?” Bucky asks and Peter frowns.
“Missouri and I didn’t go missing, a couple of my grandfather’s friends picked me up after I ran off from the hospital,” he says.
Bucky frowns, “then why is he still looking for you? No, that doesn’t- I’ll find a picture,” he says, jumping off his bed, dropping the articles onto his pillow as he makes his way to his computer. Peter picks up the articles and scans them, surprised at how much of this actually resembles his life. But there’s no way this could be him, it had to be some kind of freak coincidence.
When Bucky brings his laptop over though Peter doesn’t need long to know that’s his grandfather and that’s a pretty sweet reward too. He wonders if he can cash in if he turns himself in and shouldn’t that be a more messed up thought than it is?
*
Bucky almost falls down the stairs twice because he’s done it, he’s fucking done it! He’s solved a conspiracy- this is like his greatest dream and he’s accomplished it at seventeen. “Mom!” he yells, causing his mom to jump and nearly drop the spoon she’s using to stir the food she’s cooking. “Mom I did it, I solved the Quill case!” Everything fell perfectly into his lap all because Peter happened to look at a picture on the ceiling and yeah its occurred to Bucky that they share a name but Bucky never brought it up for fear of being weirder than he already was and holy shit, he’s done it!
His mom, though, does not look at impressed as he does. “James Buchanan, I have indulged this ridiculous hobby of yours long enough- the conspiracies aren’t real,” she says, articulating this in an insultingly clear way.
Becca looks up from her homework at the table, “I told you he was going to go nuts years ago but you didn’t believe me,” she says and Bucky flips her off.
“James Buchanan!” is the response he gets from his mother and he’s so pissed because as soon as she turns around Becca flips him off right back. Little asshole.
“Mom, I’m not fucking around, I think I actually solved the case,” he tells her. Peter stands awkwardly off to the side, probably processing the fact that he’s a conspiracy theory. Bucky has always wanted to be a conspiracy theory- maybe when people learn about him solving the case he’ll become one, that would be so cool- ok he needs to focus.
“I am taking those damn Mothman plushies-” his mom starts and he jumps in front of her.
“What? No, I love my Mothman- why are those even relevant right now?” he asks.
“How many of those damn things do you even have?” she asks.
“Seventeen. This doesn’t matter- no don’t you take my plushies!” he says, jumping in her way again as she tries to go around him.
“No one needs that many Mothman plushies!” she tells him. “This conspiracy habit has obviously gone to your head and-”
Peter interrupts her, “I’ve found out I got kidnapped as a kid and the first person that’s told this is yelling about Mothman plushies, this is fucking surreal. Also in Bucky’s defense I think he’s right. Guess that explains why Yondu and his crew kept threatening to eat me…”
She squints at him before she turns to Bucky, “what the hell kind of weird shit did you bring home?” she asks him. At the table Becca cackles.
*
Peter sits beside Bucky, unsure what the hell is going on because the cops hadn’t believed him either because, of all things, they think he’s lying about his record. When Peter pointed out that walking into a cop shop and lying about being a criminal is a pretty damn weird thing to do they had agreed, but cited his grandfather’s price over his head as motivation so Peter told them to run his prints or something. Thankfully they took him up on it but this is some next level shit.
Guess all that time Yondu spent training him to avoid police at all costs hadn’t been because of the stealing…
And then there was moving around all the time. Bucky said his grandfather hadn’t stopped looking even though it’s been ten years. And that idiots on the Internet believe his mom’s crazy tumor rambling and thought he got abducted by aliens presumably related to his supposedly an alien father. Fuck people are dumb.
“So,” Sam says eventually, reminding Peter that he and Steve were sitting on his other side. “How the fuck does a person go for ten years without realizing they’ve been kidnapped?”
Bucky glares at Sam over Peter’s shoulder and, to his surprise, links his fingers through Peter’s. He holds on tight, not sure what the hell else to do because this is not how he expected what was supposed to be a relatively normal Tuesday to do. He was supposed to get laid, not find out he’d been kidnapped as a child.
“I mean they said they were friends with my granddad,” he says in his defense. That seems stupidly false now for a number of reasons, but he’d been eight okay. Its not like kids are known for their world-renowned critical thinking skills. He once watched a ten year old look her mother in the eye and try to chug motor oil outside of a small town in North Dakota. Kids are dumb as tits.
“You believed that obvious crock of shit? Dude, that is like every creepy first line in the ‘stranger danger’ handbook,” Sam says, frowning.
“Actually, statistically you’re more likely to be kidnapped or attacked by someone you know. And you’re quite likely to be attacked in your house, no less,” Bucky says, always the bearer of fantastic news of rainbows and sunshine.
“That makes me feel very safe,” Peter quips, hand tightening around Bucky’s a little.
“I mean… the last group of people you lived with threatened to eat you apparently so I feel like if you’ve lived through-” Bucky probably would have continued but Sam’s eyes just about bug out of his head at the news of eating Peter.
“And you did not think to say ‘hey Sam, in my home life, people threaten to eat me so maybe call someone to deal with that shit’? What the actual fuck, Quill?” he asks, shaking his head.
“They stopped threatening to eat me after a couple years, so I figured I was in the clear,” he says, offering the only explanation he could think of. That’s so goddamn stupid but whatever.
“They… seriously threatened to eat you?” Steve asks and Peter nods. Shit was traumatic too, he has nightmares still.
Sam sits back in his seat looking dumbfounded. “Okay, I don’t mean to offend the pale people in the room, which is admittedly almost everyone right now, but that’s some white people shit,” he says.
Steve of all people frowns a little, “I don’t think that’s localized to white people. I mean historically, there have been several groups of people-” Sam cuts him off.
“Steve, pre- 2000 the world was a messed up place where people ate people, Europe did not wash their asses and got the plague, there were genocides, Genghis Khan, and no internet. The world was the damn wild west. But in modern, sane times if you walk up to any black person and say ‘if we were to kidnap a child right now, would you threaten to eat that child in order to obtain compliance?’ They would say no, that’s some white people shit. I’m not saying black people haven’t done some messed up things because we have, but we are not kidnapping children and threatening to eat them,” Sam says with meaning.
Bucky squints suspiciously, “I can pretty much guarantee that is not what a black person would say to that,” he says.
Sam raises an eyebrow, “and what makes you think that?” he asks with a sassy tone.
Bucky shrugs, “probably the fact that that you asked someone to kidnap a child and then threaten to cannibalize said child. They’d probably call the cops or something,” Bucky points out.
“Yeah okay, if someone asked me that I’d chance the cops, the National Guard, the FBI, the president, Canada, Mexico, fucking Batman, whoever I could call to get whoever asked that the hell away from me. Then the white people thing,” he says. Bucky stares at him for a moment before he starts laughing and Steve joins in shortly thereafter.
“Okay you know what, scratch that I’d take the nearest exit the hell away from that noise and would not be thinking about white people or any other race of people until I hightailed it to my mom. If you ever met my mom you’d know that a cannibal would not be able to take her down, she’d kick Hannibal Lector’s ass,” he says, shaking his head. “Also next time when you have some really concerning home life things going on please tell someone about that, Peter. Its not normal for people to threaten to eat you.”
Peter wonders what he’d make of using Peter as a method to steal things and pick up women. Probably nothing good, but to be fair that might be a little bit of a letdown after being threatened with death by consumption and not the tuberculosis kind.
“Yeah, I figured that out in grade five right before we moves states,” he tells Sam.
*
Bucky now knows why Sam thinks cops suck at their jobs because its taken hours for them to find Peter’s apparently lengthy criminal record. Mostly petty theft, Bucky has been told. When the stupid cops finally return though it turns out its because Peter’s name isn’t ‘Quill’ on the paperwork. “Do you have any explanation as to why your last name is ‘Udonta’ in our systems?” the cop asks and Peter sits up a little, fingers loosening on Bucky’s hand a little.
“I uh… that’s Yondu’s last name. Guy who apparently kidnapped me,” he clarifies and the cop must know the name because he turns immediately back to his desk and grabs his phone.
*
Peter feels like a massive jackass mostly because he didn’t think Yondu cared about him but his attempts to cover their trail always linked him back to Yondu as his son. It made more a mess than not apparently given that Peter never forgot his actual last name, resulting in Yondu having to use it in some situations but not others. And that had been the reason for most of the moves too, people figuring out just a little too much so Yondu had been forced to uproot them all again and move somewhere new.
He spent ten years on the run pretty much only because he wanted to keep Peter around. He could have just ditched him somewhere and never looked back but he didn’t, he chose to run around doing his best to try and keep people off his trail almost only because Peter was important enough to him to make the effort. And apparently he isn’t easy to catch- despite his lengthy amount of crimes he’s only ever been caught twice even if he’s a suspect in all kinds of shit. Like all kinds of shit, including some honestly really despicable stuff Peter doesn’t want to think about.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Yondu did care about him, he even let him go to school under his legal name despite the risk. He knows Sam thinks he’s being ridiculous and Steve agrees even though he won’t say it, but Bucky is mostly a wild card in regards to his opinion. Peter looks over at him on his bed and smiles when he finds Bucky staring at the now blank spot on his ceiling. He’s pretty pleased with his fresh new internet street cred for accidentally solving a conspiracy case even if Peter finds the entire conspiracy thing annoying. He’s a damn person, not some wild mystery people can sum up with aliens or whatever other stupid theories are out there.
“Sam thinks its stupid of me to care about Yondu,” he says eventually.
Bucky looks over, head tilted a little. “Sam has a good life,” he says and Peter frowns.
“And you don’t?” he asks. Because everything Bucky has is so much better than anything Peter has ever had so its looking pretty good from where he’s standing.
“Now, yeah, but my dad was an abusive prick. I loved him though, for a long time even if he didn’t deserve it. Yondu isn’t about to win any parent of the year awards, but he was all you had. Its not wrong to care,” he says, smiling a little at him though its more out of reassurance than anything.
Peter leans forward, into Bucky’s chest and Bucky wraps his arm around him. They remain like that for a long moment before Peter senses Bucky is about to talk. “I swear to god if you say anything about your conspiracy solving street cred I will punch you in the balls,” Peter says, mostly not joking.
“Ok but if I solve DB Cooper I will be legendary,” he says.
“Your balls are in serious danger, Barnes,” Peter warns him.
Bucky sighs. “Okay, fine. I was just thinking about how Sam whines about having a dead arm when he cuddles with Steve and I don’t have that issue. Best part about losing the arm. That and the fact that I can tell people I lost live fifteen pounds in a day and when they get excited and ask for my secret I can tell them I cut off a limb,” he says with way too much excitement. Christ, he does love the fucked up ones that much is clear.
*
Things between his grandfather and him are awkward as tits. Peter didn’t expect some kind of deep meaningful bond like on TV but he expected something more than a vague recollection. He definitely didn’t expect an argument over visiting Yondu though in hindsight that should have been a little obvious.
Regardless, he won and that’s how he finds himself sitting in front of Yondu, who’s sitting behind some really thick glass looking remorseful. Peter can feel his grandfather hovering like Yondu is about to somehow snatch him from a prison and run but he ignores that to focus on the phone in his hand that’s probably got diseases on it.
Yondu sighs into the receiver, “guess this was all going to catch up to me some day,” he says, accented voice sounding scratchy through the receiver. Peter almost misses his stupid accent even though he’s still listening to it. “Look boy, I never did anything right by you and that’s on me. You deserve better than what I gave you, I kept you because I was being selfish. I mailed your grandfather a gift I found in your backpack when I found you on the road, ask him about it. And-” Yondu’s voice chokes out for a moment before he takes a breath and gathers himself. “I love you Peter, but don’t come back here. I ain’t got nothing to offer. There’s a whole world for you to go terrorize, have at it,” he says.
*
He sits in the truck with his grandfather in the driver’s seat fuming. “An apology? He owes you a hell of a lot more than that,” he snaps and Peter sighs.
“It’s been ten years, the fuck do you want him to do? Invent a time machine?” Peter snaps. What the hell else is he going to do? He’s in jail, there isn’t anything to do.
“Why are you defending him?” his grandfather asks and Peter throws his hands up.
“Because I don’t know who you are! I haven’t seen you in ten fucking years, so not to be a prick but what the hell do I do with that? Yeah Yondu was a jackass but at least I know him,” he says, loosing steam fast. He sighs, “he said something about a gift he mailed to you. Said he found it in my backpack not that I remember having one,” he mumbles. He doesn’t remember any belongings, just that he’d been sad that his mom just died literally right in front of him. No wonder he bought Yondu’s stupid lies, like he was about to question it when he’d been preoccupied by his mom.
He hears his grandfather rustle around in the console of the truck and he waits until he finds whatever it is so they can go home, wherever the hell that is now. So he gets to move, again, right after getting settled with friends he likes in a new school and there’s Bucky too… ‘Course nothing ever has lasted with him.
“Hey,” his grandfather says softly, holding out a small box wrapped in the most hideous wrapping paper Peter has ever seen. Amazingly it looks familiar to him too. He reaches out slowly, taking it from his grandfather’s hand.
“You… kept this on you? Why?” he asks, baffled by the action.
“I don’t know, its not like I was likely to find you on the side of the road somewhere,” he says. Actually he probably would have if not for Yondu showing up first but Peter doesn’t say that. “I guess I kept it because it reminded me of you, and your mother,
he says softly.
Peter considers the gift- a small physical reminder that for ten years, or however long he’s had this thing, just sitting in his truck. For ten years he carted this little box around with little more than a hope that he’d find Peter again and that’s… touching. No one, not even Yondu, Peter thinks, has ever cared about him that much.
He opens the box and finds a note from his mother and a mixed tape. “Here,” his grandfather says, handing him an old yellow tape player. “It used to be your mom’s. I’m sure she would have wanted you to have it.”
*
Bucky spends most of his time trying to avoid Peter’s damn grandfather because the man is persistent. And dedicated, mostly to Peter. Like the dude uprooted his entire life in Missouri just to move to California so Peter can finish school where he is kind of dedicated and Bucky thinks Peter lucked out on the grandfather jackpot honestly. He didn’t even care about Peter dating a guy. Honestly beyond getting his grandson back he didn’t seem to care about much except harassing Bucky with the damn reward money he keeps trying to throw at him.
Thankfully he’s not home when Bucky goes to harass Peter about college applications though so he gets to avoid another day of turning down money. Peter grins at him from the bed. “I’ve been told I chose very well for a first relationship,” he says and Bucky frowns.
“You chose a one armed conspiracy theorist. You have literally no standards,” he points out.
Peter grins, “yeah well, granddad says you’ve spent the last six months turning down that twenty thousand dollar reward that was on my head until you just started actively avoiding his presence. Kudos to you, I would have taken the money and fucked off,” he says.
“Would not,” Bucky tells him, throwing himself down on the bed beside Peter.
“Okay I wouldn’t have fucked off, but I one hundred and fifty percent would have taken the money. I have no morals to speak of, granddad thinks you’re a good influence to correct Yondu’s life lessons that mostly revolved around compulsively stealing shit,” he says.
Yeah, no one really knew how much Peter stole much of anything, Peter included, until he was called on it. Guess by now it was second nature but shit, Peter will steal anything he can get his little pansexual hands on and that has turned out to be an impressive array of things. Like everything from pop to a thirty two inch TV kind of impressive.
“Just don’t steal from small businesses, corporations can suck my left nut,” Bucky says and Peter snorts.
“Should have known you’d say that,” he says. “Yondu had the same rule so that’s pretty much the same as always.”