Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kraglin didn’t know how these things always happened to him. Things like this never, ever fell onto anyone else’s lap but always onto his own.

Currently Kraglin found himself crawling out of the wreckage of his downed escape shuttle on an uncharted planet, the Eclector being attacked far above him by a rival gang the vermin strapped to his back had pissed off.

Kraglin groaned loudly over Peter’s wails staring up into the sky seeing no signs of a rescue crew in sight. He just sank down into the blue grass of the planet, running his fingers through Peter’s hair to try to calm him and chose to ignore Rocket’s insults. He may not like this situation he was in but he swore to protect them so he would, one in a carrier in front of him and one strapped in a carrier on his back, both wailing loudly.

He just stared up, wondering how he got into this situation.

It started early this morning, his adopted mother (or closest thing he would ever have to a mom), Meredith Quill had called him down to the captain’s chambers. He had arrived on time and even had the foresight to bring her some coffee after the long night she had had dealing with one very angry racoon who had been put out of commission due to a broken leg and several fractured ribs. Kraglin had silently hoped his jaw had been broke in that fight as well and had to mask his dismay that he could still yell at them even from his sick bed.

“Good morning, Darling,” she greeted him as he entered and he smiled to her and his smile only grew larger seeing Peter in her arms. Peter was six months old currently and Kraglin would never deny the joy he felt when his younger brother wanted him to hold him, stretching his little chubby body towards him and cooing out ‘Kraggle’.

Peter settled against Kraglin, little fist already half way into his mouth and Kraglin bit down the aw on his tongue. Peter was the cutest thing on this ship and definitely Kraglin’s favorite useless object.

“Poor baby has been up most of the night with me,” Ma sighs resting her head on his curls and kissing his forehead, “Rocket has been restless and it worries Peter to see him like that.”

“I think its mainly cause the rat is loud and babies don’t sleep too well with loud,” Kraglin grumbled.

His ma shook her head and moved on to what he was called down here for.

“I need to get back down to the bridge today. Two days off and Yondu is already trying to kill all our staff.”

“Captain did try to execute six people yesterday…”

“My point exactly,” she sighs, “They may not be the best around but getting crew, especially full-time crew, is very hard.”

“Sure, I can take Peter with me today,” Kraglin was already up looking for the baby carrier Ma had got from Xandar on their last visit.

“No, darlin’, I need ya ta stay here and keep an eye on Rocket too,” she said firmly directing Kraglin into the rocking chair in the corner and shoving him down hard when his nostrils began to flare in frustration. It was no secret he didn’t care too much for Rocket, little rat loved to keep digging into him and every encounter was an emotional endurance test.

“Ya know how bad he is right now and he can’t be left on his own, I don’t want him gettin’ worse on us.”

Kraglin said nothing, beginning to rock Peter as he became fussy. It served Rocket right, it were his damn fault he got injured. Captain said not to run in guns blazing like that but he did anyway and it resulted in him getting the shit beat out of him by men twice his size cause he couldn’t listen worth a damn. If anything he were lucky it was just a broken leg and a few fractured ribs, it could have and let’s be honest, should have been worse.

“It’s an easy day, Krags, don’t give me that look,” she said giving him that stern look that meant there was no squirming out of this.

“All ya gotta do is act like Rocket is another baby.”

“A mean, nasty, trigger happy baby,” Kraglin grumbled.

“You take care of that nasty trigger-happy baby, ya here me?” Ma had her hands on her hips and that sneer on her lips. Kraglin sighed, there was no getting out of this one.

“I come back and find out ya ain’t takin’ care of Rocket when he needs someone, yer ass will digging the Orloni out of the vents and engine.”

Kraglin made a face, crawling in the vents for any reason was punishment enough but climbing in there to be attacked by the Orloni to scrape out the dead ones sounded like hell.

“Do I make myself clear that ya are ta take care of Rocket as well as Peter?”

“Yes, ma…”

She smiled at their agreement and kissed her oldest on the top of the head then bent down like she used to when he was little and cupped his cheek.

“Rocket ain’t so bad, he’s just hard around the edges, like the captain.”

“Captain don’t intentionally try to hurt people with his words for his own amusement either…” Kraglin finally grumbled looking his mom in the eyes, “He wants me to feel useless ma and sometimes I do around him…”

“I know darlin’,” she whispered pulling Kraglin close to her, both her boys resting against her chest, “He’s hard to be around sometimes but Rocket is a good guy. I’ll have a talk with him, he won’t give ya no trouble today, just do this for me, ok? You three are the most important things to me and yer the only one I can trust to take care of Peter and Rocket.”

Kraglin sighed, he knew that all too well but it still didn’t mean he wanted to deal with Rocket’s mouth today.

“Good luck today, don’t let me down, soldier,” Ma said with a smile and saluting to him before leaving him alone with the baby.

Kraglin smiled as Peter began calling his name, grabbing onto his finger and shaking it, excited to spend the day with his older brother. Kraglin smiled, tapping the end of his nose making Peter squeal in excitement.

He could have been sentenced to worse things today, he thought, in hindsight very foolishly. He cringed hard hearing Rocket yelling for him on the baby monitor, making Peter scrunch his face up and begin crying. He began bouncing Peter on his knee trying in vain to comfort him as Rocket continued to yell through the monitor.

Looking back, maybe chasing off Orloni wasn’t really that bad, taking care of Rocket really was the worst-case scenario here.

Chapter Text

Kraglin stood outside of Rocket’s door, just listening to him grumble and snarl behind the large steal door. He glanced back at the room beside him where he had left Peter, hearing him giggling and a crash of blocks onto the floor. He almost turned back to the baby, almost convinced himself the baby could get injured while he was next door for just a few seconds, but he steeled his nerves and tightened his fists, he wasn’t running from this battle.

In and out, then he could go back to the baby, the one who was little and actually needed him.

He braced himself one more time before walking in, hiding his emotions behind his best apathetic expression, pretend he felt nothing, this was just another boring routine check of an engine (that could and would cuss you out), don’t show him emotions and leave. In and out, no more, no less.

Rocket was on his bed, not like he could go anywhere else at the moment, tinkering with a very large gun that made Kraglin tense up. In and out, he reminded himself firmly averting his attention to the neat stacks of parts lining the shelves surrounding the room. Tools and parts stacked on top of each other, everything having its own place making it easy to find and put back in place when he was done with it. The organized bedroom was strange to Kraglin, he always assumed everything about the rodent was chaos, it felt almost out of character to see the neat and organized stacks.

“Hey, jack ass, what the hell are you doing in here?”

“I was tasked ta---”

“Blah blah blah,” Rocket interrupted him loudly, his sharp voice echoing, “I don’t give an orloni’s ass what ya were tasked. Just get it done and get out of here, I don’t need a worthless asshole in here bothering me.”

“Will ya just shut up fer five seconds?” Kraglin hissed tightening his fists and staring down that smirk calculating him, ready to strike if he faltered.

“Ma said to give ya yer damn meds so ya don’t kill over.”

“Ya in charge of the baby too?” he asked smugly.

“Yeah, that’s not what this is about, he’s fine next door—”

“Probably downing the nearest dangerous object cause he’s little and stupid and helpless and now ya got a dead baby on yer head.”

“Petey is---”

“Well, I guess ya can be happy ya won’t have to live with yer guilt, daddy is gonna kill ya. Probably slowly.”

“The baby is fine and yer gonna take yer damn meds and eat yer food.”

“What if I don’t feel like it?” Rocket challenged, his face determined to give Kraglin a hard time.

“I’ll shove it down yer throat.”

“Come over and try.”

Kraglin clenched his fist hard to prevent him from taking the rodent up on that challenge, that would make his job faster to just hold him down and shove his pills down his throat. He didn’t really want any scars from his claws to mare his body though, he wanted cool stories to tell, not talking about the time a raccoon kicked his ass over medicine.

“Listen, I don’t like you,” Kraglin said with a loud groan, “And you don’t like me but we both like Ma and Peter.”

“Says you, I don’t care about any humie,” Rocket sneered but there was a little catch in his voice that told another story. The little flick of his ear towards the vent was telling, he was listening for the faint sound of the baby laughing only his cybernetic ears could catch.

“All humans are gross and a waste a time, I’d kill em all if I had the energy.”

“Uh huh sure, so you wanna take yer damn meds or do ya want to wait for the baby to swallow something he ain’t supposed to and choke.”

“I already established I don’t care and would find it amusing for his parents to kill you,” Rocket sneered Kraglin’s way, “I’m sick of looking at your ugly face, hurry up and do what you need and leave.”

Kraglin gave him a smug smile before setting everything up for Rocket to take at the bedside table, after making Rocket snarl his way by carelessly knocking his tools messily onto the ground. Kraglin took pride being petty at any opportunity.

Rocket, to his credit, did eat his rations and take his meds though. Glaring fiercely at the mess Kraglin had made, his once neatly lined up tools now clumped together out of his reach on the floor.

Rocket never took kindly to anyone being petty to him, his hair was bristling and his hand was gripping his gun tightly, ready to explode on Kraglin.

That tantrum never quite got the opportunity to begin, there would be worse tantrums soon enough and quite a few petty moments for Rocket to even the playing ground but this particular outburst was lost to missile hitting the side of the Eclector hard making the room shake.

Kraglin grabbed onto one of the shelves, trying desperately to steady himself, Rocket cursing loudly being jostled around making his injuries jolt angrily awake. Once the ship settled both heard the loud wail coming from the other room and Kraglin bolted to get to the baby without even a second glance at Rocket to make sure he was alright.

He heard the siren going off as he ran out of Rocket’s private quarters and the low rumble of demands being yelled as he shot back into the captain’s quarters and slamming the door firmly shut behind him.

Peter’s toy chest was flipped onto its side and all the toys were scattered across the floor, Ma’s records all knocked away from their neat piles and now in a messy clump in front of Peter who thank the gods, seemed uninjured.

Kraglin instantly picked him up, kissing him on the forehead and pushing his head onto his shoulder. He rubbed his head as he examined him, bouncing him lightly trying to bring him some comfort.

“It’s alright baby, it’s Ok, it was just another attack on the ship,” he shushed kissing him again, “Just something to get used to.”

“Shit like this is just bound to happen,” he mumbled kissing him again and smiling seeing he had one of his father’s figures. It was the shiny crystal bipedal critter, the one Ma swore looked like an elephant but Kraglin felt she was missing the mark.

“Captain is gonna be cross with ya again for gettin’ into his stuff,” he scolded gently but didn’t make a move to grab the figure just yet, the baby was beginning to calm down and he needed him to stay that way so he could keep his own wits about him.

He quickly grabbed one of the diaper bags, his favorite one that he and the captain both agreed was the best one. It was yellow with cute critters on it Ma called rabbits from one of her many spending sprees at the only shops that sold Terran garbage.

Peter seemed to agree it was best one as he ran his fingers over the bag and seemed happier looking at. Kraglin stuffed as many rations, diapers and bottles into the bag as he could fit. He had a feeling this attack would lead to an evacuation already feeling the rumbling of the M Ships flying out of the port.

He snatched two baby carries before running back into the hall and slamming the door shut in Rocket’s quarters, sinking down the door and using his body to shield the already wailing baby as another strike hit the ship.

“Shut him up!” Rocket yelled at Kraglin over another loud explosion his hair standing up on end, ears flicking up.

“I can’t just shut him up!” Kraglin yelled back making the baby cry harder, smacking his older brother with his stolen toy as he flailed around, “He’s upset. Being in life or death situations will do that ta ya.”

“Oh boo hoo,” Rocket screamed back towards them, “He needs to be quieter! Be a better baby sitter and calm him down! For fuck’s sake! It ain’t that damn hard!”

“If it ain’t that damn hard, why aren’t you doing it?” Kraglin screamed back over another explosion, rocking them all back and forth and finally managing to knock all the contents off Rocket’s once neatly arranged shelf.

“Look what you are doing! You are making him worse!” Rocket bellowed over the noise as Peter became rowdier, screaming and tossing his father’s toy, smashing it on the ground.

“Calm down Peter,” Kraglin groused as Peter began yanking at his hair in his own frustration and Rocket didn’t make matters better by letting out one of his loud barking laughs at Kraglin’s misfortune.

“No!” Peter bellowed using one of the few words he knew to express his confusion and fear, yanking harder at Kraglin’s hair expecting him to make it stop. Kraglin’s eye twitched in frustration he wasn’t about to his anger let out on a baby who didn’t know what the hell was going on around him and only knew a handful of words. He could however take it out on the rat who was laughing at his pain.

“Watch him a moment,” Kraglin said firmly shoving the screaming baby onto the bed with Rocket, letting a smug smile creep across his face when his back was turned.

“You upset the baby and shove him at me?!” Rocket sneered covering his ears as Peter wailed next to him, “Why?!”

“Cause he loves you and I need to collect some weapons, we need to be ready to run. Things are gonna get bad soon.”

“They are bad now! Hey! Stop touching my stuff!” Rocket snarled, quieter then before as the baby settled next to him in the calm of fire.

Kraglin took this time as an opportunity to dig through the piles that had fallen from Rocket’s shelves, quickly collecting a few discs, just in case they ended up in space. He shoved things aside and pulled out a few smaller blasters shoving them in his belt. He couldn’t carry the supplies, two helpless creatures and any large arsenal all at the same time unfortunately, so he left the larger guns where he found them.

He then made his way into Rocket’s private restroom where his medicine and medical supplies were housed. He collected as much of it as possible from the floor. Rocket’s pain meds and whatever the other few bottles were (Ma had explained earlier but he hadn’t been listening), some extra sealed bandages and the first aid kit he assumed Ma had left in here early this morning when she was in here last.

He smirked seeing Rocket was bristling as the baby petted his fur but made no move to slap his hand away or bite him like he would have done anyone else as he shut the bathroom door behind him. He shoved the medical supplies into the now over flowing bag but with a little luck and a lot of shoving, he managed to zip the bag shut.

“Why did ya only getting the small guns?” Rocket sneered his way batting the baby’s hand away as he got a little too close to his injuries, “They only got a small amount a juice in them and will burn out after a few shots. I ain’t done giving them an extra boost.”

“And put the big guns where?” Kraglin sneered back putting his attention on getting the baby carriers ready now, “I ain’t givin’ ya a large weapon, no siree, that will only back fire on me.”

“In case ya don’t remember, ya idiot, I can’t walk right now and the baby is useless, how you carrying anything?”

Kraglin finally turned back around facing Rocket, holding the baby carries up with flourish, a large proud smile on his face.

“Got it covered!” he called back, “We just need to stay light if I want my hands free to shoot anyone in our way, so only the one baby bag and the two babies.”

Rocket didn’t say anything, holding back his rage as Peter began grabbing at his upright, stiffened ear attempting to pet it. Oh yes, Kraglin could get used to that face, he won this round.

---

Rocket had set a bad example for the baby, again, Kraglin thought darkly trying to wrestle Peter into his carrier. Rocket snickering behind him.

Peter squirmed, bright smile on his face and laughing loudly thinking it was a game to fight Kraglin when he tried to put him in the carry device he was put into almost daily. He didn’t claw or bite like Rocket had done yelling at him during his protest in his weakened state but he didn’t make it easy either. Wiggling around and kicking his little legs wildly.

He managed to get him in though, Peter letting out a yawn deciding to take a small nap against his brother’s chest after what he considered a fun game.

Kraglin knew it was unwise to make a break for the bridge to get more information on what was going on. He had no idea why these people were attacking them or who it was, if it had anything to do with Rocket or if the enemy saw the captain’s son, he would have unintentionally fucked them over on his quest to get more info. He needed to know what was going on to plan his next action to keep his wards safe as he was tasked to do (easy Ma said, yeah sure, he thought bitterly). He slung the bag over his shoulder and pulled out one of his blasters, pressing his ear against the door.

It didn’t sound like they had been boarded yet, so that was a good sign. It had gone quiet in this area, that could only mean they had moved to the lower decks. Any men not defending their ship keeping the engines alive and the ship afloat.

A faint tapping began from the other side of the door, making Peter fidget, Rocket hissed at him to give him a weapon too and not wanting a fight, he tossed him one of the guns tucked into his belt.

He opened the door to Tulk, who was already laughing at the sight before him and the gun poking from behind Kraglin.

“Gun down, rat, we ain’t been boarded yet, yer fine.”

Rocket didn’t lower his weapon and Tulk was too used to the sight to feel any offense to the gun pointed directly at him.

“Ahead of the curve as always,” Tulk chuckled seeing Kraglin all packed up and ready to leave before being given the message to.

“We are under fire, its best not to stick around too long,” Kraglin grumbled shifting his bag to lighten the load on his shoulder a little. Peter perked up seeing Tulk and began stretching towards him, babbling away. Tulk playfully tapped his nose making the baby squeal in joy.

“Gotta say yer pretty creative, Kraggles,” he said with a snicker eyes running up and down Kraglin.

“When are we leaving?” Kraglin said jumping to the chase, not wanting to waste time on small talk he knew Tulk wanted to.

“There is a planet three jumps away, I sent coordinates to yer pad. Can’t spare an M Ship, sadly, they are all needed.”

He shrugged before turning a serious look Rocket’s way, arms crossed.

“ ‘Fraid ya pissed off the wrong folks, rat. The Maou did not take kindly to your insolence, before we got ta ya, you shot the leader’s girlfriend? The fuck is wrong with ya rat?”

“He did what?” Kraglin hissed turning his head behind him, “You told us you didn’t hurt anyone important when Ma dragged yer ass out of there after you ran in like that!”

“It weren’t no one important,” Rocket spat, “Major bitch. And I told Mer, not my fault she kept it to herself.”

Kraglin was internally seething, you didn’t keep massive fuck ups like that to yourself like that when shit like that involved everyone.

“We gotta hurry,” Tulk said feeling the change of atmosphere in the room, “We pissed off one of the biggest gangs on this side of the galaxy and we have a very low chance of getting out of it. Some of the crew is already talking of going over the captain and tossing the gang rat, he the only one they want. Captain told me to get ya out of here now before we lose control of our own. Risk’a death has a way of making people throw loyalty aside and all that.”

Kraglin just nodded, already out the door, weapon in hand. It wasn’t too far from the escape pods, there was a hidden one just for situations like this. Long before Kraglin or even Yondu were born, this had been a war ship for the Shi’ar empire, this pod was originally intended for any higher ups who happened to be on the ship when the shit hit the fan and only the captain and a few of his loyal crew knew of it now for similar situations. Kraglin lead the way to the entrance while Tulk stayed a few feet behind watching his back as they turned down a few vacant hallways before reaching what looking like a dead end. Kraglin passed his weapon to Rocket, not wanting to holster a weapon he may need and to his surprise the rodent took it wordlessly. He stood on his toes and hit a small button hid partially behind a large steam pipe. He stood back as the wall slid back revealing a small passage, he had to duck down and crawl through it.

It was a tight long hallway, Rocket hissed loudly behind him as his injuries scraped against the ceiling but other wise didn’t complain. Kraglin felt bad but he kept his hand firmly over the baby’s mouth keeping his sobs silent as he crawled before finally reaching the entrance to the pod.

He was quick as he brought the pod to life and set the coordinates for his one-way trip to an unknown planet he would be spending a lot of time on it looked like.

Kraglin tossed Rocket into one of the seats and didn’t need to tell him to strap himself in as he did the same at the pilots seat.

“Brace yer self,” he warned Rocket, “It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.”

Kraglin got some enjoyment out of Rocket’s half squeak of surprise as he was thrown back in his seat. He wrapped his arms tightly around the baby and brought his legs up a little to keep him from being jostled too hard as they shot off.