From the stars
Peter sighs as he flops down on his bunk and starts dialing up the signal for terra. They were goi g to be close and he knew if carlos said he wanted to see Yondu then they would visit. “Hey Carlos! Hehe. So we’re gonna be the closest we have been since we left only a few jumps away from terra. I really want to visit but you know how dad is…. he won’t come unless you call him… something about getting in your way or something. Damn man I miss you. Oh and tell your dad I’d loooove a life time supply of those tamales!”
A call from Peter was just what Carlos needed and he answered the communicator tired, but happy. “Pete, it’s so good to hear from you,” he told the younger man. “You’re close? What brings you to our back-water part of the galaxy? Heh…”
“A mission of some sort that I wasn’t allowed to go on……. was soooo stupid….. dad got shot in the arm…. would not have happened if I’d been there. But noooooo. Heh. So yeah I mentioned to dad to come by but he said not unless you invite us. Something about you being busy and stuff.”
Carlos wasn’t busy. Wasn’t busy at all. At least, not in the way he really wanted to be.
“I’m never too busy for you guys! Absolutely – swing by if you can! We’ll have dinner,” Carlos said, smiling.
“Awesome!!!” There was the sound of peter running then jumping on the bed the camera going all crazy then a flash of blue and glowing red. “Dad! Carlos says we can come visit! Common get up!!!”
“BOY GET OFF ME!!!! FUCK OWWW!!! PETER JASON QUILL GET BACK HERE!!!”
Carlos chuckled. God, he missed these peoples’ craziness.
“Yondu, you but holes in that boy I’m never buying you ice cream again,” Carlos pretended to scold, speaking loudly into the comm to make sure Yondu could hear him.
Yondu takes the com and sets it down so it showed him sitting up in bed shirtless and peter in a head lock getting tickled to death. “Now come on carlos. That’s just playing dirty.” Grins at him. He had a few bandages but didn’t look to bad.
Carlos blinked at Yondu, a little surprised at his state of
undress. Did Peter call in the middle of the night shift?Carlos cleared his throat and smiled. “Um, so… How are you
guys doing? Not getting into too much trouble I hope?”Yondu grins at him. “We’re ravagers always getting into trouble hehe.” Yawns a bit and let’s peter go as the boy plops down on the bed next to him. “Little shit woke me in the middle of the night cycle..”
Carlos sighed. “Peter…” he chided gently, looking at the lump of human teenager next to Yondu.
Peter grins. “Only time I can call you man especially with us being so close! And this grump is happy and he knows it!”
Yondu whacks down with a pillow. “Go back to sleep or when we do get to terra you’ll be here scrubbingbthe floors!”
Carlos smiled at Peter. He folded his arms on his desk and leaned in closer to the viewscreen on the communicator. “I’ll talk to you in a bit, Pete,” Carlos promised. “After Yondu and I iron out some details about you guys swinging by here.”
Peter huffs But then nods and jumps off the bed Yondu smirks hearing kraglins grumpy shout as peter returned to the shared bed with the older boy. “These boys are gonna be the death of me.”
Carlos just kept smiling. “But you love every minute of it, don’t you?” he asked. He propped his head up on one of his hands and looked at Yondu. “How are you doing, big guy?”
Yondu lays back floating the pad above him yawning. “I’m living. Missing you… that hasn’t changed. Just got done with another hybernation… Krags is coming out of his…. hence why peters sleeping with him. Pete either sleeps with me or krags…. sometimes Tullk or Jamie…… or Oblo never is away from someone he doesn’t trust…. never sleeps alone either. He’s been talking to someone. It’s a over comms so we can still travel. He did a lot of crying for a while…..a lot of clinging but I think he’s better now… to a point.”
Carlos hummed and nodded. “That sounds pretty normal,” he
said. “I mean, at least by human standards. We – especially kids – have a habit
of clinging onto things and thinking things are our fault. So it’ll be a while
to break him of that. But if you think he’s getting better, then I trust your
judgement. He’s… he’s not begging to go back to Earth when he’s in crisis mode,
is he?”“Not as much. Only when he gets really upset….. keeps saying he’ll go live with you though with the argument. Kid loves you.”
Carlos chuckled. “Yeah… um, I’m glad he does,” he said. Though Carlos wasn’t sure if that should ever happen. As it stood, he was still unemployed – unemployed for a whole year, in fact. It was getting harder to explain why he hadn’t been hired yet, because really he didn’t know. He was living with his dad and his brother right now, and Mikey was the only one making any money with his software and software repair work. Carlos would really prefer Pete to stay with Yondu where he can be cared for and not feel guilty about being one more mouth to feed.
“Your thinking to hard carlos. Even if my came to lmy be with you it would be short… he doesn’t know how to live the terran life style. Anyway… how’s wheels and your dad? They doing good?”
Carlos looked at Yondu. “Huh? Oh, yeah – they’re good. They’re happy I’m still around. I, uh… haven’t gotten the chance to move back out yet. Just… haven’t had the opportunity.”
“Work hard to come by? At least one you like. With your needs and that doesn’t make you want to jump out a window. You know your job here is still available.”
Carlos sighed. “I know, Yondu, I know, it’s just…” He paused, trying
to think about all the shit he’d gone through that past year. “I…
found out my last employer was an absolute nutcase. Like, he’s been
convicted of attempted murder of one of Earth’s heroes and is in jail.”“Wow….. sorry about that…. hey.. it will look up. That guys locked up yeah so you’ll be ok. Your really valuable just gotta take the right person to know your perfect for what ever they need you for. And earth has hero’s? Oh… John Wayne says hi…. he and he group are floating with us.”
Carlos made a little groaning noise. “I dunno,” he admitted finally. “I just… maybe he’s the reason I’m not hired yet – because people see ‘Hammertech’ in my employment history and assume I’m crooked or something. The… the guy Hammer tried to kill was literally the richest guy on Earth, and he spends his time flying around in a mechanical super suit helping people. Who the hell is crazy enough to try to kill someone like that??”
The mention of John Wayne caught Carlos off-guard. “You found the pod again? How are they doing? Has John Wayne gotten any bigger?” He wondered if Yondu was trying to distract him now. Carlos probably needed a distraction…
The Perfect Scientist 