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“Um,” Rocket said, watching an epic explosion of the Chitauri flagship, and then turned to Groot. “Whaddya think, should we wake Quill up?”
“I am Groot,” he answered evenly.
“I think nothin’ big’s goin’ on,” Rocket argued. “It blew up – great! Now they have other problems and won’t notice us for sure.”
“I am Groot,” leafy finger pointed at some red dot that looked like a person dangling in open space.
“Come on, where would they come from? Only Quill’s dumb enough to pull shit like this,” Rocket sneered and ran his fingers over the console, trying to catch any signals from the thing. Considering the incoming data and the thermal trace, there was someone alive inside – but not for long.
“So,” Rocket looked at Groot. “Are we gonna save them?”
“I am Groot.”
“Yeah, sure, heroes. And maybe we’ll get lucky, and they turn out to be filthy rich.”
Rocket quickly turned the ship around, and a couple of minutes later they were the happy possessors of some red-and-gold space junk.
“Hey,” he knocked on the faceplate. “You still there, or we can throw you back out?”
“I am Groot.”
“Wasn’t jokin’,” Rocket shrugged and finally managed to move the faceplate, revealing a Terran man. “Alright, so now is the time to call Quill.
“I am Groot.”
“Yeah, I’m real disappointed he’s not rich.”
***
“Woah there,” an unfamiliar man held Tony, not letting him to get up. “Hi, how are you?”
Tony blinked.
“Am I dead?” he voiced his first thought and immediately felt like a complete moron.
“I don’t think so,” the guy smiled. “My team picked you up near the destroyed Chitauri ship. Did you do it?”
“Well, yes,” of that Tony was absolutely sure.
“Drax will express his admiration to you later. He’s a big fan of determined and forthright folk here.”
“Okay,” Tony agreed after a small pause and rubbed his face. “Where’s my suit?”
“We went a little too far trying to get you out,” he admitted. “By the way, the name’s Peter Quill.”
“Tony Stark.”
Peter’s eyes went wide.
“For real?!”
***
“As a kid, I loved robots, and my mom’s always set you as an example that age didn’t matter. All you needed is to study and try hard, she said.”
The amount of information made Tony’s head spin. Not about Peter’s childhood, of course, but the fact that he currently was in thousands light years from the Earth on a spaceship, the crew of which consisted of a talking raccoon and a talking tree. In contrast to them, the green woman and Drax didn’t stand out as much, thought they were definitely hard to lose in a crowd.
“We call ourselves the Guardians of the Galaxy, and we save the world. Not every day, but often enough.”
“’Cause we’re that dumb,” Rocked nodded in agreement. “No match for you, though. For real, man, taking a bomb into a portal leadin’ into the open space. You even surpassed Quill, who shook his ass in front of a villain.”
“Better the portal than Manhattan,” Tony sighed. “And… ass, Peter?”
The man hummed and answered tranquilly, “Harsh means for harsh times.”
***
Of course, they promised to get Tony home, but there was always something getting in the way, and the trip has been postponed again and again. Tony visited a black market for space junk, created in a head of prehistoric monster, saw a planet entirely made of diamond and met an insane amount of weird creatures. At some point, when he was bantering with Peter and showing him dance moves to 80’s music, laughing, he felt a part of a family for the first time in his life. Rather weird, a bit scary and peculiar family.
Nobody judged him here, nobody tried to find faults with his every word and action. They accepted him without trying to shape to their own liking.
“I am Groot,” Tony felt a touch on his shoulder and turned around.
“Yeah, pal, you get me best of all.”
***
“Who ordered Terra?” Rocket asked loudly. “Yo, Quill, make a dash for muffins, willya?”
“Yeah, sure,” Peter snorted. “Hey, Tony, you all right?”
Tony shrugged and put on his helmet. A couple of moments later it switched on.
“Sir, I am happy to see you alive again,” there was as much relief in JARVIS’ voice as when Tony came back from Afghanistan.
“Me too, buddy,” he smiled.
“How can I be of service?”
“Show me the latest news, please,” Tony asked.
JARVIS started from the big thing. Tony saw his own obituaries and honorable funeral – not everyone got their casket carried by Captain America himself – and then learned how life went on without him. Pepper and Happy got married, SHIELD was compromised, Fury died, but, it seemed, this rumor was rather exaggerated. The Avengers got together once again, joined by Rhodey.
Tony took the helmet off, catching wary looks on him. Even Gamora looked worried.
“Dumping us, eh?” Rocket crossed paws on his chest, and Drax hit his shoulder to shut him up.
“Well…” Tony grinned. “Depends on how hard you’re gonna laugh at me if I say that I want to be a part of your team.”
“Pft,” Rocket rolled his eyes, and now it was Gamora who shoved him.
“We’ll be happy if you stay with us,” Peter said firmly.
“I am Groot.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Rocket nodded, jumped off the stool and started pushing Tony towards the exit. “So hurry up, say your helloes, show them that you’re still kickin’ and come back. And don’t forget the muffins!”
***
The Earth was a tiny dot somewhere far behind them, and now the whole galaxy was his new home.