I Am Groot?

[st_arlord]

 "Knock, Knock," Quill said as he knocked on Rocket's door. "There's a huge pizza, beer, and donuts with our collective names on it."

He glanced down at the pile of food and drink he brought. He hoped this was enough of a piece offering. Maybe I should go get more booze...

Quill was dreading this moment. Out of everyone in the inn, Quill wanted to protect Rocket the most and now Rocket learned about all the bad things. He wanted to do one thing and he wasn't even capable of that.

Comments

[st_ripetail]

It wasn’t difficult to figure out what’d happened. Thor had tattled to Quill about Rocket seeing things nobody’d bothered to warn him about, and now Quill was... doing something. Rocket wasn’t sure exactly what.

It took him a few seconds to figure out whether he even wanted to do this thing, and in the end it was the fact that he had a pretty high metabolism for a small creature that decided it. Food was a pretty good bribe! He kicked the chair he kept near the door into position, climbed on it, and opened the door. “Hey Quill.”

As usual, Rocket’s room was a scary hoarder’s nest of junks and doodads. He liked it that way, but there were reasons people didn’t get let into his space much.

[st_arlord]

Quill didn't mind the hoarding feeling that was Rocket's room. It felt closer to being back on the Guardian's ship than anything else around here. It didn't smell the same, but Quill decided that was a lack of Drax than anything else.

He was surprised when Rocket answered the door. He quietly thanked whoever was listening for Rocket's hunger and stepped inside with all of the boxes and bottles. He couldn't really tell what was going on in Rocket's mind from looking at him. Quill hated how good Rocket could be at that.

"You hungry? I brought up three larges and a dozen donuts for just the two of us." He said while placing it down on a space that was horizontal enough.

[st_ripetail]

Sucking up, maybe? Probably. That’d get tiring, but Quill would get distracted sooner or later by something shiny. “Not sure I’m ‘eat my own fuckin’ body weight’ hungry, but yeah. I’ guessin’ The occasion is Thor tattled an’ you’re panicking?”

[st_arlord]

He paused in the middle of opening box number one. Dammit, Rocket. Why do you have to be so smart? He slowly lowered the lid back down and sighed softly. He then turned to look at his friend and found a place to sit without breaking anything.

"Alright.... okay." Quill said, unsure of how to start.

He rubbed the back of his neck.

"You want me to explain first or you want to tell me exactly how I'm an idiot first?" He asked. "Dealer's choice."

[st_ripetail]

Rocket settled nearby, though out of arm’s reach, curling his tail tightly around him so it wouldn’t do its part to broadcast his mood. “Why don’t you say your thing first. I might get more fuckin’ ideas off it.”

[st_arlord]

Quill knew enough to know he was in more trouble than he thought he was when he was standing outside Rocket's room. Might as well take the plunge into the lake of acid

"When Thor told me what happened, I'm the one who told him not to tell you," He said. "You were so happy here and I had seen what happened the first time Groot..."

He trailed of and rubbed his face with the palm of his hand.

"I was trying to protect you and yes I know you don't need my protection, but you're my friend and friends do stupid things some times to try and be nice to other friends and I thought I was helping, okay?" He explained. "And besides...."

Quill leaned on his knees and looked at the palms of his hands.

"We shouldn't have let it get that far," he said. "We should have stopped Thanos on Titan and we failed. I let you and Groot and everyone down and I didn't want to admit that to you."

[st_ripetail]

“So you figured lettin’ me go around basically blindfolded an’ by myself, makin’ absolutely fuckin’ sure I get blindsided, was helpin’ me.” Rocket didn’t bother to hide the scorn, though he put effort into keeping the hurt out. If there was a time to be indestructible it was now, probably. “You figured I’m too weak t’hear about bad shit, an’ that was bein’ nice.”

He bared his teeth. “I got news for you, Quill, my entire fuckin’ life is bad shit, baby on forward. I was okay here because I spent years in a different place all by my fuckin’ self, gettin’ used to the idea that I’d never see anybody I knew ever again, and here at least I had you. Except no I fuckin’ don’t, because it turns out you made real damn sure I’m still all by my fuckin’ self.”

[st_arlord]

"What are you talking about?" He said back with a slightly raised tone. "Of course you have me. You're not alone, you idiot."

Quill was more upset that he had hurt Rocket than anything else, but his mouth was moving before his brain.

"My hope was you'd never have to deal with it until you came on it in the timeline," he said. "Or, you know, maybe never when Thor reverses the shit out of what happens. I had no idea ghosts were going to show up like a bad version of Scrooge. I'd have warned you before if I knew you'd be seeing that stuff."

He looked at his friend.

"You were happy here. I wanted you to stay happy. " He said. "At least someone deserved that and I wanted it to be you."

You dumb, stubborn idiot

[st_ripetail]

“Idiot!” Even curled as tightly as it was, Rocket’s tailed fluffed and his ears flattened. “You think I couldn’t tell there was shit you weren’t sayin’? You think I didn’t notice I’m the only one from our universe not looped in? You think I can’ piece together what that means? I got a longer baseline than any’a you with this multiple times an’ universes stupid, this shit was normal in Gotham too. Seein’... what I saw... just sped things up. The only thing you fuckin’ did was-“

Rocket looked away, wishing there was something he could shoot. Stupid and weak though it was, he still didn’t want to shoot Quill, which made hurt and sad overbalance anger, finally. “You put me in a fuckin’ box, Quill, you get that? You’re like the second person my whole life who never saw me as a thing an’ you shut me in a box an’ made sure I wouldn’t even know if you needed backup or nothin’. I don’t care if you though you were helpin’’ or bein’ nice or whatever shit. I don’t want that. I wanna be real.”

[st_arlord]

He leaned against his knees more and let out a loud breath. He rubbed his face again as if trying to get his head on straight.

"I don't think I need back up,' he said. "I think I'm dead."

He stared at the carpet for a long minute. When he looked back up, his voice had soften and so had the features in his face.

"I'm sorry, okay?" He said softly. "You are real. If I didn't think you were I wouldn't have wanted to keep you from being hurt."

He sat up.

"I'm an idiot. We both know that." He said. "Maybe I was trying to protect myself a little too."

[st_ripetail]

Rocket watched him for a few seconds, then sighed and didn't just shift closer to Quill, he actually reached to take Quill's face in his hands. Quill wasn't about to take the brunt of a massive explosion to save everybody else, but it seemed like a technical difference. It seemed like a good idea to be close. "You are a fucking moron, Quill. I can't fix shit I don't know about, an' I ain't when you are."

[st_arlord]

He stared back at Rocket while Rocket held his face. It's just not fair you have to lose Groot after everything else.

Quill hesitated before he openly admitted something he didn't think he would ever do in front of anyone.

"I can't have you mad at me, Rocket," He admitted. "When it comes down to it, you're the only one here that really matters."

[st_ripetail]

The hell of actual attachment was that it was hard to stay mad. It was never hard to get mad, ever, but actually burning hard enough for grudges just didn’t happen. Groot knew that all he had to do was stand nearby long enough and Rocket would get over it. Quill didn’t seem to have worked that one out yet, and... well, he hadn’t been party to the years of softening up that had been Gotham. “I’m gonna rub your face in this for a while, but we’re good, Quill. I don’t really have anybody but you either.”

[st_arlord]

Quill paused as he looked at Rocket. He didn't mind having to deal with Rockey rubbing his face in his mistake for a while.

Suddenly he reached out and hugged Rocket. He wanted to actually hug Rocket, but he knew Rocket was not a hugger. Doing this gave them both an 'out' of the sappy moment neither of them were good at.

"C'mere buddy," He said while squeezing tight.

Quill gave enough room for Rocket to squeeze out in protest, but made it look like he wasn't.