Chapter Text
Ronan wakes, startled, when a heavy weight lands on him and knocks the air out of him.
He lifts his head to see Blue sitting halfway on top of him.
She's huge and heavy.
"Get off!" He wheezes at her. Having a full grown velociraptor sit on your chest is not very comfortable. "You don't fit."
She quacks at him.
He spends the next five minuets wresting dinosaurs off the bed and wondering how Peter does it so well. The four of them whistle and chuff and re-attempt to climb into the bed with him. His eyes go wide when it wobbles underneath their weight.
He can barely reach over and grab the small data pad on the table beside the bed to answer Peter's incoming call.
"Hello," the Kree mumbles, shoving away a green snout.
"Did you feed the babies yet?" It's the first thing Peter says.
"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Ronan replies sarcastically. "And no, I have not fed them yet. I just woke up."
"They should've been fed hours ago! Poor babies!"
"They aren't babies! They're bigger than you!" Ronan protests.
The four raptors begin to honk and whine at Peter's voice coming through the speaker of the datapad. Ronan rolls his eyes at the small hologram of Peter when the Terran starts to coo and talk to them.
"Make them get off of me," Ronan demands, pushing away the head of Charlie, the youngest of the raptors.
Peter had given them all goofy names, in Ronan's opinion. Blue, Echo, Delta, and Charlie.
Blue being the oldest, Echo was the second oldest--Ronan remembers when she hatched. Blue had gone crazy, waking them up by hopping around and shrieking. For the first few days, she followed Blue around everywhere and copied her sister's every move. That's why Peter called her Echo. And then, a few days later, Delta hatched. She was more independent than Echo, but they still followed Blue around everywhere she went. And they thought Peter was their mother. Every time he stepped into the room, they squabbled and honked at him and butted against his ankles.
It took another week and a half before Charlie hatched. The little baby was even more attached to Peter than Blue had been. She was also smaller than the others had been when they hatched. Eventually, and luckily, she grew to a completely normal size. But there was a countless amount of times that Ronan accidentally stepped on her when he didn't know she was trudging right beside his feet. She was so small! Thankfully he never actually squashed her or seriously hurt her.
Ronan didn't have a good, safe history with the raptors as babies. He wasn't as careful as Peter was, and he'd stepped on their tails hundreds of times which led to said Terran rushing in to the room at the sharp and pain-filled cries of his little reptilian babies. He had dropped Charlie once, Delta twice, and Echo four times before Peter made it practically illegal for Ronan to hold the raptors unless it was absolutely necessary.
"Girls, back up!" Peter commands, watching through the holoscreen on the Milano as the dinosaurs snake their way off the bed to give Ronan space.
"They miss you," Ronan says, glancing at the dinosaurs who whine, confused at the absence of their leader, while still being able to hear his voice.
"D'awww."
"And they will not let me sleep," Ronan grumbles. "They refuse to leave me alone."
"They just love their big blue papa." Peter assures, smiling when Delta stretches her neck out to nuzzle Ronan.
"Don't call me that," the Kree snorts. "I am not their father."
"Shh, yes you are."
"Whatever."
"Seriously, though. You need to get up and feed them, Ro. You know what happens when they don't get fed. Nothing lasts two seconds in those powerful jaws. Everything that looks like it can be eaten will be eaten. Besides...why aren't they downstairs on their floor?"
The Raptors have an entire floor to themselves in the large building. It's the second floor, which has been cleared out into one large room, with a gate as a substitute for a back door. When the gate opens, there's a ramp that leads down into a pen outside where they can run about like the animals they are. Peter spoils them.
"They were...crying..?" Ronan answers.
"So you brought them up to our floor to comfort them? Aww."
"No!" The Kree scowls. "They were being loud and disrupting my sleep. I needed them to shut up so I could rest. Even though they became quieter with me, they still did not let me sleep much. You allowed them to sleep on the bed with us far too often. They now think they can still fit..."
"We should get a bigger bed," Peter notes.
"Or they could sleep downstairs where they belong."
"But that's no fun!" Peter pouts.
"It is for me," Ronan finally wills himself to sit up and get out of bed. Peter's right. Without food, they'll destroy everything they can get their teeth on.
He pets Delta's head as he passes by, and they all fall into line behind him, tails wagging.
First, he takes them back down to their floor.
He passes Gamora in the hallway and smirks at her as she stands against the wall to let the parade pass, watching as they follow after Ronan like a line of ducklings. Except these ducks are way bigger than their momma duck. And they have sharp teeth and claws. And long tails.
He doesn't expect Peter to return a few days later with an injured leg. It might even be broken, according to Drax. He hobbles in after Rocket, leaning almost all of his weight on Groot, goes straight for the kitchen to grab something to eat quickly, and limps straight for the elevator without a word.
"Peter," Rocket says, trailing after him. Groot's already standing in the lift with Peter, tempted to carry the human so he doesn't have to walk. "You gotta fix your leg..."
"Gotta see my babies first. They miss me." Peter says to Rocket as the small mammal hops into the elevator before the doors close.
While they're making their trip down, Peter leans over and picks up Rocket from behind.
"Hey!" The raccoon struggles for a moment before Peter places him on Groot's shoulder.
"Gotta keep you up here, buddy. You know how the girls feel about you."
"They're savages," Rocket grumbles, sitting down and crossing his arms.
"They are not," Peter winces when the elevator comes to a stop. "You just look edible."
"Edible!?"
Ronan's sitting underneath the open gate, looking down and watching the girls frolic about outside. Peter lumbers over to sit beside him and calls over to the girls.
Charlie turns around first, hitting Echo and Delta with her tail.
With a happy cry, Blue charges forward, skidding to a stop at the top of the ramp. From behind, her three sisters bump on to her, causing them all to fall on the pair. Peter screeches in pain when they crush his injured leg, and the group quickly climbs off of him to assess the damage that had been done to their pack leader. He was injured, they could sense it.
"What is wrong?! Peter, are you hurt?" Ronan reaches out for Peter, concern etched into his purple eyes.
"The idiot busted himself up while we were away. And it wasn't even in battle or nothing! He fell out of the ship's hatch!" Rocket says, tail swishing back and forth in annoyance.
Charlie, who had pushed her way inside, caught sight of the fluffy limb swaying about. Her own tail began to swing steadily as she pounced, snapping at his tail. She hadn't caught it, but she came close.
"AH! Stop!" Rocket curls his tail closer to himself and jumps up on Groot's head. Charlie barks at him and he hisses like a cat in reply, tail fluffing up. It's not like he can help it. It's instinct. She wants to eat him, and he doesn't want to die.
Peter's leg wasn't broken, luckily; it was his ankle that was injured. A bad sprain, only temporary damage.
"What are you doing?" Ronan asks when he enters the room. Blue has wedged herself into a ball on the foot of the bed, and Peter has his injured foot propped up on her back. The others curl up on the floor beside Peter's side of the bed.
"Resting like you told me to?" His green eyes briefly look up from the datapad he's holding.
"You have not been...why are they up here, and why did you leave the bed to go get them?"
"They're helping me get better. And why are you mother henning me?" Peter snarks back, rubbing Blue's back with his non-injured foot.
"I just want you to get better as soon as possible. So I can kick your ass," Ronan adds the end with sarcasm.
At the sound of voices, Delta lifts her head. When she spots Ronan, she wags her tail, smacking Charlie in the face by accident. That move wakes Charlie, which also wakes Echo due to the fact the she was half asleep on her youngest sister.
With the commotion of the other squad members beginning to growl and tussle, Blue also stirs from her slumber.
"Look, you just woke them all up! I just got them to fall asleep, too!" Peter huffs.
Ronan rolls his eyes and clambers on to the mattress beside Peter. As he passes, Blue pushes her upper body up with her hands and stretches her neck forward so she can gently bop the side of Ronan's face with her nose; Dinosaur kisses. It's their thing. At least, that's what Peter says.
She slowly swivels her large, bony head around to watch him. Then, finally, deciding that being awake is not worth her time, the blue-striped overgrown lizard curls back up and goes back to sleep. Peter breathes a sigh of relief when her sisters follow suit.
He did not expect to wake up in the morning puppy piled by four dinosaurs and one sleepy Kree warrior.