Attempt 2 - Quill and Thor Drinking

[st_arlord]

"And another thing -" He continued. "Why is it always the guy's fault when you run out of toilet paper? Girls use toilet paper like, way more than guys do and yet somehow we're always to blame."

He couldn't remember what they had been talking about except they had been talking about women giving them difficult times. Quill down the rest of his drink and presented his empty glass to Thor to fill. Thor told him that he lost last time. Quill had very little memory after talking about Thanos, but he was sure that Thor was equally as drunk. This time he was determined to have the God of Thunder pass out first.

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[st_arlord]

"You're lying." He said as a knee-jerk reaction.

Quill tensed up and wanted to punch Thor. He didn't. He realized Thor wouldn't make something like that up, but Quill still wanted to punch him. His hands formed fists on the counter top and he looked down at the counter.

The silence lingered.

"How bad?" He said quietly. "...who's left?"

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor does not protest when Quill accuses him of lying. He doesn't speak again until Loki

"I don't know," Thor admits, looking down at his drink. "The people who were with us on Earth, I know which of them are gone and lost. You and Tony and the others..." Thor feels his jaw tighten. "I don't know."

[st_arlord]

"I don't care about me," He said quickly. I care about Gamora and Mantis and Drax and Pete and even Stark, but... "Rocket and Groot went with you. What about them?"

Quill forced his eyes up to Thor so Thor couldn't lie.

[st_ormbreaker]

"Groot's gone," Thor says, and he's surprised how easily it comes out. "Rocket still lives."

[st_arlord]

Silence permeated the room again while Quill thought. The death of Groot him him hard, but he knew something even more important.

"He's not to know." He said decidedly. "Rocket. He's never to know. Do you understand?"

[st_ormbreaker]

It unnerves Thor to see Quill so serious.

"Even if he asks me?"

[st_arlord]

Rocket'll probably hate me for this

"Even if he asks you. You lie." He answered. "Promise me, Thor. It's the only thing I ask of you. Rocket can't know about Groot. Ever."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor looks at Quill, his brows furrowed, his lips slightly parted. Two parts of him are warring now: the part of him that's done keeping secrets and the part that understands the importance of hiding things.

He swallows. Then finally, he opens his mouth to speak.

"You have my word."

[st_arlord]

He watched Thor as if deciding if Thor's declaration was truthful or just for show.

Quill's shoulders relaxed as if he decided Thor was telling the truth.

"Good." He said. "He almost lost Groot once - It'll kill him if that happens again."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor stares out a the space behind the bar and doesn't say anything for a few long moments.

"Tony believes there might be some way to change things," Thor says. "I've been telling him and my brother everything I know."

[st_arlord]

Quill was already thinking about how to prevent what happened.

"Something had to have happened on Titan," he said. "We just need to figure it out. It's a good plan. There's no way it should have failed. Whatever happened, I'll make sure when I get back we follow the plan."

[st_ormbreaker]

"If we go back and remember things, you can just make sure everyone sticks to the plan. You know about it now, so you still might be able to change things."

Thor drains his drink, then pours himself another.

[st_arlord]

Suddenly Quill was hit with a memory and he rubbed his nose. Dammit.

"You planning on telling Pete?" He asked warily.

[st_ormbreaker]

"I'd want to talk to Tony before I do anything," he says. "He considers Peter like a son."

In short, he doesn't know.

"There's Rogers, too, and Barnes. They were on Earth fighting Thanos and his people when I arrived there.."

[st_arlord]

Rogers and Barnes made no impact on Quill when Thor spoke them. He didn't know who they were except that they were fighting Thanos too.

"Avengers?" He asked. "And I wouldn't tell the kid. At least, not yet."

[st_ormbreaker]

"Rogers is," he says. "I've been away from Earth so long that I don't know if Barnes is." Thor hadn't bothered to ask him.

"I doubt Tony will want to. I don't know what he's thinking, but maybe some part of him thinks that if he can change things, he won't ever have to."

[st_arlord]

"Right from the beginning?" he wondered out loud. "I knew Stark was from further back than I was, but is he really that far back to change everything?"

Could I still say Gamora somehow then?

Quill looked at his full glass, but didn't reach for it. He wasn't thirsty anymore.

[st_ormbreaker]

"About four months ago," he says. "My brother came from just a few weeks before everything happened. Rogers is back even further. Barnes... probably around the same time."

[st_arlord]

Quill calculated some strategies in his head.

"Do you think they can stop it all from happening?" He said. "Get to Thanos somehow before he gets the stones?"

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor finishes his drink, pours himself another.

"We know where five of the stones are. We know someone who knows where we can find the sixth. I know where the gauntlet was forged and probably roughly when."

Thor rubs the back of his neck, then settles his hand back around the curve of his glass.

"If they remember when they return, I think they can stop him."

[st_arlord]

"Good," He said.

Quill finally reached for a his drink and downed half of it.

"Then we'll bank on them first," He continued. "Than me second."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor gives Quill one of his patented, friendly too-hard pats on the shoulder.

"You're all right," he tells him, though he doubts either one of them are.

[st_arlord]

He coughed, but Quill didn't admit it was too hard. He could take whatever Thor threw at him.

"Yeah." He said with a nod. "I am. Super fine."

Quill smiled. He forced it on his lips until it seemed to be natural and he took another draw from his drink.

"Okay," He said suddenly and with enthusiasm. "Let's get back to me beating your butt."

[st_ormbreaker]

SOME TIME LATER

---

"I still wonder what makes someone worthy," Thor says, tilting his glass towards Quill. He does that a lot. "I never really figured it out before I lost Mjölnir. Never got to ask my father before he disappeared --" Thor raises his hands and wiggles his fingers. "-- into Odinforce." He says those last few words in a mockingly mysterious voice.

"It's like, thanks, father." But the conversation quickly segues away from Thor's dad and circles back to Mjölnir. "You know, I miss that hammer as much as I miss my own friends. That's what's most ridiculous about this. It's an inanimate object, but I'd do anything to protect it."

[st_arlord]

"No, dude, I get it." He replied with a slight slur. "I used to have this walkman? I loved that thing, man. And then it was destroy and, yeah, sure, Yondu gave me a Zune, but it's not the same, you know? It's like how records sound way better than the CDs here at the inn."

Quill's glass of beer somehow ended up with a straw in it and he was swirling the golden liquid around.

"That hammer was your thing, man." Quill continued. "A part of you. It's okay to miss it."