Chapter 10
"GROOT!" Rocket clamored at Peter's arms and the human relented, letting the raccoonoid go and watching him run across the grass to where Groot lay on his side, back to them.
"Give him some space," Kraglin called after him but it was too late. Rocket stopped just short of the adolescent tree and scanned him with wary eyes. He reached out tentatively but did not touch, as if he were afraid.
"Groot? Groot, c'mon man get up," the raccoonoid's voice pricked with anxiety. "You got to take care of the twig," Yondu had said to him, Rocket could see those ugly teeth grinning at him in smug amusement as he looked over the Flora Colossus. "Groot, you have to get up…" Rocket held his breath, glancing at Peter, Gamora and Drax who slowly approached.
"Is he alright?" Drax inquired, leaning up and over them. Groot stirred, shaking his head and rubbing his face with his large hand.
"I am Groot," he breathed, bewildered. Gamora couldn't help but grin as she watched relief flood into Rocket's face. He reached out, touching Groot's arm. He yanked away, grimacing and the raccoonoid stepped backward, alarmed.
"Are you alright Groot?" She asked, he stood up, the panels of his wooden chest slowly began to close. He looked out over the flourishing planet.
"I am Groot," he shrugged, his eyes only looking out on to the green horizon. Above them the trees bustled. "I am Groot," he said after a while, turning back to the Milano.
"Groot, wait what are you doing? You just brought back your entire planet!" Rocket exclaimed, watching him turn away apathetically. Groot only grunted, as Rocket followed him back into the ship, to the engine room. "Where are you doing?" He asked again as the teen crossed their quarters and reaching under Rocket's small bunk.
"I am Groot," he reached down under the bunk and knelt downward, growing out a hand from his vines to fumble under the bed.
"Hey! Groot you can't just ignore, me what are you doing?" Groot only growled in irritation and finally retracted his arm, holding Rocket's small tin box. "Hey! Careful with that!" Rocket made to grab the box away from him but Groot's free hand easily blocked him. The raccoonoid watched with panic as Groot opened the box and gently rummaged through, picking out one of the three remaining twigs from the old Groot. "Careful with that!" Groot ignored Rocket's worry, staring at the flimsy brown twig. His eyes narrowed, one finger gently stroking the stick.
So this was all that remained from the old Groot? Groot took the twig in his hand, brushing past Rocket and going outside once more, he relished in the clean air and the fresh new life. Instead of being inside of him that presence was now all around. Encompassing, guiding him over the hills, past Mantis and Kraglin and the rest of them who were exploring the newly grown planet. Rocket followed after him shouting expletives as per usual.
"Groot stop for a flarking second and give me that twig!" He shouted, Groot ignored him, walking through the forest until he came to a clearing on the edge of a large cliff. Below a river ran out into the horizon, winding its way through the fields of flowers. Groot smiled, this would work. He held the stick to him and tried to the shove the resentment at that original Groot aside. Instead he looked at Rocket, his face wrung with distraught and asking for the stick once more. "Groot! I need that back, please!" Groot turned to him, looking down at the raccoonoid. For all he had done, and hadn't done Groot tried to stir some sense of animosity. Rocket had kept the truth from him, constantly fretted over him and wouldn't let him be, but he tried his best. And it wasn't his fault he had been deprived of love and sunshine and air and all manner of things needed in order for life until so recently. The World Pod within him had taught Groot that. Maybe Rocket was a shattered, tattered little self-sabatoging wretch who took out his anger and pain on those he loved most, but standing with him here Groot saw that love in his eyes. A smudged and flawed love, his parenting unorthodox and troubling but that blue idiot had done something to make Rocket strive to change, at least attempt to and Groot at least owed him some patience regardless what the original Groot had done.
"I am Groot," Groot explained, holding up the twig. Rocket's eyes widened, his tail flicking in uncertainty. The flora colossus did not wait for his reply. Taking the twig, he knelt down one more and placed the stick up right in the ground similar to what he had done with the World Pod. The golden energy that flowed beneath the surfaced rushed upward to the stick, slowly Groot smiled as the twig began to grow upward, thickening the girth as it sprouted new branches and grew. Rocket watched, eyes wide with wonder, mouth agape as the twig grew from a stick to a sapling, from a sapling to an immature tree, branches folding outward and onward, sprouting deep green leaves. It manifested against the sky, unfurling out wider and wider until it's shade covered almost the entire clearing. And then, Groot and Rocket watched as there, at the very thickest point of the trunk just before the wood split off into branches, a nook formed. A perfect hollow little hole, dark and inviting. Groot felt the energy of the tree within him, the roots of it under the ground connecting to him just under the grass. Love, it urged. Love. The flora colossus looked down at the raccoonoid.
"I am Groot?"
"It's perfect bud." Rocket managed through the lump in his throat. He tore his eyes from the tree and looked at Groot beside him. Angst full and rebellious and moody and there beside him despite it all.
"I am Groot?" Adolescent Groot asked, brining Rocket back to the present.
"Yeah, yeah I'm good," he lied. Groot frowned, seeing right through the façade but didn't make any sort of retort. Rocket watched the tree before them, he never understood what Quill meant by the beauty of music. But if there was such a thing as beauty it was surely nothing else then this tree before them.
---
"We should be ready to go cap'in," Kraglin said giving the side of the Milano a good pat. "Looks like Groot and Rocket managed to fix her up." Peter nodded, glancing as the portable navigator in his hand,
"About time, at this rate Lady Qula's never going to pay us." Gamora nodded,
"And those ravagers?" Mantis wondered timidly, "the ones who attacked? Will they be after us?" Peter privately wondered the same thing but shook his head.
"Nah, I doubt it." He shrugged, "Gamora and Drax managed to I.D. them, they weren't ravagers. Some independent operation. But now that we know who they are we can easily avoid them again if we run into them again before Gravior." The empath nodded nervously, smiling as the Destroyer gave her a pat on the shoulder.
"If they do try to attack us, I will destroy them. I was very close last time." Peter laughed, shaking his head as they got on the ship.
"Where's Rocket and Groot?" Gamora asked. Damn it, Peter cursed to himself.
"Groot is probably gaming, and Rocket is probably pissed about it." He said, allowing his hand to touch the small of her back as he guided her back up the ramp to the main bay. To his delight she didn't move away.
"Give them a break, it's been hard on both of them. This new Groot isn't like the old one." She sighed, looking at him.
"I know, I wish he were. We could do with a little less whining moodiness. Plus he keeps taking my albums of the Smiths." Gamora cocked her head skeptically. "Whatever it's fine." He sighed. "I know I ought a give him a break. Can't be easy finding out the truth about Xandar and Rocket didn't exactly do a great job at handling it either." Gamora nodded,
"We should go find them. But be nice," she turned, walking back out of the ship into the silver moonlight of darkness. With the smog cleared, it turned out that three moons orbited Planet X. Peter watched her go for a moment before catching up.
"I just want everything to be alright," he confessed as they walked through the trees. "After everything with Yondu, Ego…I've had enough family drama to last a life time." Even though it had been years, the wounds were old and fresh.
"It will be Peter," she said, taking his hand. He nodded, that unspoken thing lingering in both their gazes as they walked.
"Groot! Rocket!" Peter called as they ducked under the branches of the trees. "Guys, c'mon! We gotta go!" He shook his head, seeing nothing but the rows of trees. "I just, hope," Peter took a deep breath, "we can be the family that Yondu would've wanted us to be." He felt his heart flutter as Gamora squeezed his hand.
"We are. Dysfunction and all, but we are. Groot's just a teenager with an…eventful past. He's dealing with it in his own way and so is Rocket. But look at this," she gestured to the forest. "He made this. He rebuilt his entire planet." Peter looked around, nodding through his goofy grin.
"Makes me wonder what the hell I was doing when I was his age. Defiantly not resurrecting life." Gamora laughed, her melody carried on the cool nighttime breeze.
"We're going to alright Peter." She repeated,
"Thanks." They stood there for a moment, Peter resisting every impulse to kiss her. He leaned in, hopping for the best. She was everything he wanted, and needed. Someone had to help him keep this rag-tag family together. Someone who could…her head turned, eyes narrowing. "What?"
"Look," she pointed through the trees to the top of a hill and started to walk.
"Is it Groot and…" Peter stopped. There before them sprawled a massive tree. It's long branches undulating in the air, smelling of the sweet dark earth. He gently stepped closer, examining the bark closer. The lines of the bark fragmented and uneven covered the trunk, something about the tree's grace, it's poise, it's openness and fullness. It was welcoming, loving, something in the twists and turns of the bark reminded Peter of the old Groot.
"Peter," Gamora nudged him and pointed, "look." There in the hollowed out notch of the tree, nestled together and sleeping were Groot and Rocket. The larger lay on his side, curled up with knees drawn up, branches growing from his legs and arms creating a small nest. Rocket lay curled within, his head against the flora colossus chest. Like two peas in a pod.
"Should we…." Gamora wondered,
"No," Peter whispered, watching the two of them. He'd never seen Rocket that deep asleep, or seen Groot's face that peaceful. No frown, no furrow of brow. Just the two of them resting there in that tree. Peter smiled, happiness filling him. They both deserved this after all the two of them had been through. That gentle, serene love, that peaceful sleep nestled together.
"Aren't they precious?" He laughed, Gamora nodded. "Wish I had a camera, I could blackmail him so hard," the assassin mock glared at him.
"Don't you dare!" He laughed, sucking in a breath and holding it as Groot stirred in his sleep. Rocket nestled closer.
"We should leave them," Gamora whispered. Peter nodded reluctantly. It wasn't often he got to see one of these broken people on his team whole and fully peaceful. He allowed Gamora to pull him away, thinking of the few times Yondu had comforted him in his own nightmares as a child.
---
"We ready?" Rocket asked the next morning after he and Groot came back to the Milano. Peter revved up the engine, casting the raccoonoid a wary glance as it rattled to start. "It's gonna be fine, just punch it."
"I am Groot!"
"We are not gonna die!" Peter took a deep breath as the Milano climbed upward through the atmosphere. "We'll come back," Rocket said, looking over at Groot who stared out the window. His expression was blank but Rocket could read the forlornness.
"Yes!" Drax cheered as blue sky thinned into black. "We made it!" Mantis clapped, Kraglin gave the Milano a nice pat on one of the pipes.
"Alright Guardians it is now safe to get up and move around the cabin…I think. We should be at Gravior soon." Groot got up, exiting the cockpit. Rocket looked at Peter, who nodded to him.
"Groot," Rocket said. The teen halted, turning around. "For what it's worth…I'm proud of you, of what you did on Planet X." He watched a small smile come to the flora colossus's face. All the anger and the hidden secrets, the grief and the pain and the unknown. There he stood. Rocket's stomach churned uncomfortably, emotions were never his strong suit. But as he looked at Groot he sighed. You gave your life for all of us, he thought of his old friend. And from that sacrifice came this little twig who became a new Groot. Life, death, rebirth. All that sentimental shit Groot always talked about when he mentioned this people and Planet X and having faith and whatever. Maybe there really was something to it. You are the little light he gave me, Rocket thought. One last gift. The raccoonoid remembered being on the run after their hijacked ship had crashed and he and Groot were running from the goons. Rocket had nightmares that night, rolling in the dirt, crying out, half-starved. Groot comforted him, giving off those golden spores.
"I am Groot," you will never have to be alone again little Rocket. He was right.
"I am Groot?" Groot asked irritated.
"Tsch, nothing twig." He scoffed, Yondu's face filling his mind."…just a little bit of love reminds you of how big and empty that hole inside you actually is."
Only it wasn't so big and empty anymore.
"I am Groot?" Groot asked again, frowning. Rocket smiled.
"Yes, you are."