Peter nods. “Maybe people will stop hating me…. if I give them something tasty…….”
Kraglin frowned at that, while Carlos just looked concerned and Mikey looked uncomfortable. “Pete, that’s… that shouldn’t be a reason to hand out snacks,” Carlos said gently.
“It ain’t your business if they don’t like ya,” Kraglin told Peter. “Concern yourself with only the IMPORTANT people likin’ you.”
“….but if they stop hating me…. they will stop beating on me……. they won’t hurt me anymore….. “
Kraglin tensed and Carlos had something flash across his face – anger and a bit of aggression.
“Petey… you’re supposed to tell us when yer havin’ trouble with others… you remember that, right?” Kraglin asked carefully.
Peter looks down. “It don’t stop them…… they just do it worse after… Sure it stops for a little while but then they start up again harder then before….. nothing changes….. I work just as hard as everyone else….. but…….. I’m just the.. cargo…….. the one that ain’t supposed to be there….. captains pet terran…….. I don’t want to be a ravager anymore and….. don’t wanna get beaten no more but…… I don’t have any one one else…. and no where else to go……”
“Then we get rid of them!” Kraglin asserted. “Pete, you ain’t cargo anymore! An’ you ain’t a pet! An’ if nobody can get that, then Captain and I will deal with them!”
Mikey looked at Carlos, very confused and concerned. “What’s… what’s happening?”
Carlos sighed, shutting his eyes and gritting his teeth slightly. “Pirates… aren’t the best company sometimes,” he said slowly. “We’ve had some issues with yahoos thinking… they can just bully someone without consequence.”
Looks up at him and sighs nodding. “I just don’t want to be the reason for another mutiny and it gets you all killed…I don’t wanna lose anyone else….”
“You ain’t gonna,” Kraglin told him. He pulled his arm from Peters grasp and wrapped it around the younger’s shoulders. “THe Cap’n’s too stubborn to leave this reality, and he ain’t going to leave you alone.”
Peter looks at him and nods leaning against him with a smile. “Thanks bro. Your always there for me. Love you.”
Kraglin smirked slightly. “Yeah… love you too,” he muttered quietly, almost as if he didn’t want Carlos or Mikey to hear.
Carlos smiled at the two of them, relieved that things didn’t seem to be going downhill in this instance.
Peter puts his arm around kraglins waist as they shop and points to a shelf of little cute plastic critters. “Dad would love these guys…”
Kraglin snorted. “He’s got enough junk…”
“Pick one out,” Carlos said. “Each of you. I think he’d like it if you guys were thinking of him.” He smiled at the two Ravagers.
“You too carlos…. so he has something from you to remember….” Looks at the figures and picks up a littlest pet shop pinkish purple glitter dragon and smiles. “It’s Head bobbles too! He’ll love it.”
Carlos blinked at Peter. He reached up and scratched the back of his head. “I… I dunno,” he said softly. “I- I mean, I don’t wanna contribute too much to his collection back on the Eclector…” That was a lie, really. Carlos just didn’t think he should be giving Yondu some mixed messages. If this morning was any indication, clearly the guy would have swept up Carlos and flown away the first chance he got. The problem was that real life was a thing… and there were consequences to that. Carlos had obligations on Earth and… he couldn’t just leave.
Kraglin frowned at Carlos a bit as he picked up a little critter that looked like a green reptile of sorts. God, these were sickeningly cute… Yondu would be all over them.
“Littlest pet shop…. good lord Krags… dad would collect them all… how many are there?!”
A teen girl starts digging through them to find one she wanted. “There are over 3,000 and I have nearly every one haha!”
Peters eyes get big looking to Kraglin. “3,000!!! Brooooo….. dad would go ape for these things! Common Carlos. You gotta chose one now. Gotta start Dad off with a new collection you know.”
“C’mon, Carlos, just grab one,” Mikey said with a grin.
Carlos mentally groaned at himself. But he turned to look over the selection. There were so many… he thought maybe he should pick one that looked closest to an actual animal to… kind of give Yondu an idea of what lived on Earth. There was a little white horse with a blond mane, and Carlos picked it up to look at it. It wasn’t any weird colors – the only thing strange was the outrageous eyes. Yeah, Yondu would like it.
Kraglin looked at the one Carlos picked and nodded, approving silently.
Peter chuckles at the pink dragon with glitter ✨. “We got snacks. Little cakes. Dad some little critters… hmmmm…” thinks as he looks around and spots something and grins running over to it. It was a big thick blanket he knew exactly would could use it. Halfnut. He always got so cold and this was one you plugged in and it was heated. And knowing Tullk he’d have a power cord adaptor for the plug. It was perfect.
Carlos looked at it with a raised eyebrow. “Who’s this for?” he asked Peter, genuinely curious.
“It’s for halfnut….you know how ever since getting spaced and so sick he gets really cold easy….. I think he’d like this and Tullk won’t have to worry as much that he’s to cold….”
“Oh, I see,” Carlos said, and he smiled. “That’s sweet of you, Petey.”
“The guy’s name is Half-nut?” Mikey asked.
“We got another guy named Scrote,” Kraglin told him. Mikey snorted before he started giggling.
Peter grins. “Yeah I laughed at that. He don’t get it though. His kind don’t have them soooo yeah. And half nuts real name is Jamie. He’s called halfnut more like a nick name because he glitches…. was a bad attack when I was a kid…. he kept me safe but got shot in the head…. he forgets, and stutters and repeats himself sometimes forgetting he already said it. He… uhh recently had a close encounter in space with no protection…. he gets cold easy now…. he’s… lucky he survived…”
“Oh geeze… sounds like it,” Mikey said.
Looks for a good color and finds a nice red and yellow on and smiles putting in the cart he thinks and sees a red black one too and looks to Kraglin but puts it back he had a mind he was coming back before they took off from the planet. “Ok… I think that’s it.”
“Alright,” Carlos said. “Let’s head to check-out.”
“Okay,” Mikey said as he started to wheel ahead – he’d be the one paying after all. “Oh – everybody wanna grab a drink from the refrigerators?”
Peter grins and pulls out a Dr Pepper and Tosses Kraglin one. “Trust me Bro. Just trust me.” Follows to the check out and starts putting everything on the Check out belt.
Kraglin looked at it. It seemed… unappetizing. His stomach was still moving around and he didn’t feel good enough to eat anything else. But he put the drink on the belt like everyone else did and he just stood back, waiting for Mikey to do his bargaining or whatever with the cashier.
The Perfect Scientist 