Chapter Text
“Bungee jumping?” Gamora asked, confusion on her face. You and Peter were talking about things people on Earth would do for fun, that you were both too young to get to experience before you left Earth, and you had just mentioned to Peter that you thought bungee jumping would have been cool.
Realizing the others probably wouldn’t know what that was you explained. “Oh, it’s where your ankles are secured to one end of this long stretchy cord, and the other end is secured to a bridge and then you jump off the bridge.”
“Why would you want to do that?” Drax asked, clearly thinking your kind was insane.
“For fun?” Peter answered. “You don’t get hurt, the cord is stretchy so when you fall to the end of the cord it jerks you back up. You don’t hit the ground.”
Drax and Gamora both looked at the two of you from where they stood like you had orlonies crawling out of your ears.
“Geeze, you Terrans are weird.” Rocket said, shaking his head and Groot nodded in agreement.
“Yes, they are strange!” Mantis piped up. “Just the other day when I was helping Peter I found-”
Peter’s expression quickly turned concerned, he had a feeling he knew where this was going. “Nah uh! Mantis, No!” Peter interjected.
“What? Let her talk.” Rocket grinned, thinking it must be embarrassing if Peter didn’t want her to tell. “You were saying, Mantis?”
“Well the other day I was helping Peter and-”
“No! Bad Mantis!” Peter pointed at her like a parent scolding a child before grabbing her arm to pull her in and saying in a low voice, “That’s supposed to be a secret, remember?”
“Hey, be nice, Peter.” you joked. “Come on Mantis, don’t listen to him, you can tell us.” you laughed, intrigued as well.
Mantis opened her mouth but before she could speak Peter interjected again. “Trust me, you won’t want her to say it either, pipsqueak.”
You gave him a dirty look at the nickname. “Um, why not?” you ask, wondering why you would care.
Peter approached where you were sitting and hesitantly whispered what Mantis was going to say in your ear.
You laughed, “I don’t see how that’s my problem.”
He bent back down to whisper again, letting you know just why it was your problem as well, and your eyes got wide. “Um, good point. Mantis you can’t tell anyone.”
“Oh, now I’ve got to hear this.” Rocket laughed, his project completely forgotten.
Just then Yondu and Kraglin walked into the room. “Hear what?”
“Nothing!” You and Peter both say in unison. Yondu may not have known what Mantis had to say, but he would have definitely known what she was talking about if she got the chance to say it.
Kraglin raised an eyebrow and Yondu gave you both a strange look.
Rocket grinned wickedly and spoke to the pair. “It seems like Mantis discovered something about Terrans that our Terran friends over here,” he gestured to you and Peter, “don’t want getting out.”
Peter breathed out through his nose in irritation at Rocket. You tried to change the subject. “Look, it’s nothing interesting. It’s actually really boring. Peter, why don’t you tell them about hand-gliding? That’s way cooler.”
“Nice try, lil’ girl.” Yondu grinned, turning to Mantis. “Spill it. If it’s so borin’ then they must not mind if ya tell us, right?”
Mantis grinned happily and started to speak when she was again cut off by Peter scolding her.
“Hey hey hey!” Yondu playfully reprimanded Peter. “Let the girl talk. Now sweetheart, ya were sayin’?”
Mantis’s expression had changed from excited to concerned. “I’m not sure. I don’t wish to make Peter upset. He seems to really want to keep this a secret.” she said.
“Hmmm…” Yondu pretended to think. “How ‘bout this; ya tell me what it is and I’ll decide if ya should tell the others.” he grinned in mock sweetness.
“You are the oldest here… so you should be the wisest…” Mantis reasoned innocently, contemplating his offer.
Yondu laughed. “That’s damn right.” He looked at Kraglin. “I knew I liked this one.”
Peter protested. “Or… we could not do that.”
“How about we take a vote then.” Yondu was grinning wickedly now along with Rocket. “All in favor of Mantis spilling the secret raise your hand.”
Soon everyone but you and Peter had their hands raised.
“Gamora!” Peter whined. “You’re supposed to be on my side!”
“Sorry, but this is far too interesting now.” Gamora grinned, walking towards Peter.
Peter went to protest again but was silenced when Gamora surprised him by pinning an arm behind his back and clamping her hand over his mouth. He responded with angry muffled noises. “Sorry, but this is the only way to prevent you from stopping her again.” she chuckled. “We can’t keep this up all day.”
Suddenly Gamora made a disgusted face. “Ugh! Peter you’re disgusting.” she reprimanded. “You can lick me all you want, but I’m not letting go.”
Peter giggled, no doubt thinking of a dirty joke in response to her reprimand. This earned another scold from Gamora. The strawberry blonde man then rolled his eyes and unsuccessfully continued trying to pry her hand away from his mouth with his free one.
Mantis leaned over to whisper the secret in Yondu’s ear and you got up to leave, thinking perhaps you could escape the embarrassment to come. However, Peter snagged you with his free arm, giving you a glare that clearly said ‘You are not about to leave me here!’
You started to protest when you could hear Yondu laughing. Gamora released Peter and his shoulder’s fell a bit when the Centaurian turned to look at him and spoke.
“Ohhhoho,” he laughed, “the two of ya are so screwed.”
Peter tried to glare at the blue man and you winced.
“Don’t look at me like that.” He teased. “Ya’ll had’ve known it was only a matter of time before the rest of ‘em found out about that.”
“You already knew? Then c’mon man! Don’t leave us hanging!” exclaimed Rocket.
“Looks like the two of ya have a couple options.” Yondu’s wicked grin grew wider. “Ya’ll can either tell ‘em yerselfs, or I can show ‘em.”
“Now that sounds like a plan!” chuckled Rocket, rubbing his hands together, eager to see Quill get embarrassed.
“Oh yes!” exclaimed Mantis. “It’s so funny to see!” she giggled and clapped her hands.
You and Peter exchanged worried looks. You saw his eyes dart for the door and you got his message loud and clear. Run.
Unfortunately Yondu had also caught this silent exchange and called for his arrow when the two of you tried to break for it. You both stopped dead in your tracks and the arrow rapidly whipped back and forth between each of your faces, getting closer each time. Before you knew it the arrow had the both of you backed up against the wall.
The Ravager Captain chuckled and stepped forward. “Looks like we’re goin’ fer option two.”
Peter and you scanned to room for help, only to realize you wouldn’t get any. Mantis was giggling gleefully next to a grinning Gamora, who was obviously intrigued to see how Yondu was about to take Peter down a peg. Groot, looking as gleeful as Mantis, sat next to Rocket who was evilly rubbing his paws together, anticipating to learn what it was that the Terrans were clearly scared of and no doubt looking forward to using it against you two. Drax looked confused by what was happening, but at the same time clearly fascinated. Kraglin clearly wouldn’t be any help either, as he stood next to Yondu, most likely awaiting orders. Yondu spoke again.
“Now what these two don’t want ya’ll to know is that Terrans have a specific weakness. Ya remember what that is, don’t ya Kraglin?”
“You mean from when Pete was a boy?” the Xandarian asked, surprised.
***
He remembered back when Peter was younger, a little while after being taken aboard the ship. Yondu called him into his Captain’s Quarters, and he arrived to find young Peter also present. Yondu motioned him to come in and closed and locked the door behind him, saying that he needed to show him something. Something that involved the boy. Peter looked a little nervous as the Centaurian approached.
After a couple minutes demonstration the captain asked Kraglin, “Ya ever seen anythin’ like this before?”
“No, Cap, can’t say I have.” the first mate answered, not completely honestly, but not altogether lying either, a look of confused amusement on his face. “It’s kinda cute though.” he laughed, crossing his arms and looking back at the child.
“Yeah, well maybe we shouldn’t tell the rest of the crew ‘bout this.” Yondu looked at the boy, now curled up and exhausted in the chair. “Ya hear me, boy? Ya ain’t to tell none of the crew ‘bout this. They’ll have a field day with ya.”
Peter weakly nodded and answered. “Trust me, I wouldn’t tell them if you paid me.”
Yondu looked at Kraglin sternly. “Agreed?”
“Yes, Captain.”
***
“Wait, I thought he outgrew that?” Kraglin asked, looking at Yondu confused.
Yondu chuckled. “Oho! He lied! Found out while back from this little girl,” he pointed at you, “that apparently they never outgrow it. He only pretended so we couldn’t use it against him anymore!” Hearing this made Rocket grin wider. So it was something he could use against you two.
“Is that so? Well that ain’t no good. Ya can’t lie to your captain without some kinda punishment. Right, Cap?” Kraglin smirked.
Peter swallowed as the two former Ravagers gave him an evil look. You could feel butterflies in your stomach and you instinctively moved closer to Peter for safety.
“Now which one of ya wanna volunteer? What ‘bout you, boy?” Yondu asked, cracking his knuckles.
“Can’t we talk about this?” Peter tried to bargain.
“Can-it, Star-munch. I wanna hear more about this weakness.” Rocket interjected.
“Ah yes,” Yondu laughed. “as I was sayin’, Terrans have a very specific weakness.” He walked closer, smugly. “All ya gotta do is just touch them in certain spots and they’ll be reduced to a hysterically laughin’ mess, offerin’ up almost anythin’ to make it stop. Ain’t that right, Quill?”
Peter glared in response, a slight blush creeping into his cheeks.
Rocket started laughing. “Are you serious? That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard!” little Groot laughed right along with him. You began to blush as well.
“Jus’ you wait, rat. There’s more. Let me show ya.” Yondu laughed. “Now, have ya two decided which one of ya is gonna volunteer we can get this show started, or do I need to pick for ya?”
Peter was blushing harder and you were trying to melt into the wall behind you. You both stammered incoherently for a moment before Yondu took a step forward, at which then Peter blurted out your name.
You looked at him in shock and punched him in the arm. “Peter, you dick!”
Yondu laughed. “Selling her out, boy? She’s practically yer baby sis!” he clicked his tongue. “Looks like maybe you should be the one getting it, son."
Yondu looked mischievously at the flushed face of the elder Terran. "Now are ya gonna run when I call my arrow back, boy? Or are ya gonna be good and take it like a man?” he laughed.
“Yondu, c'mon. Don’t you think we’re too old for this?” Peter nervously giggled, much to his own embarrassment. He had tried to make his voice strong and steady so as not to look too weak in front of Gamora. It clearly didn’t work.
“Oh sure, now we’re a ‘we.’” you sneered, still salty that he tried to throw you under the bus. “I hope he wrecks you.”
Yondu grinned at your disavowment of your fellow Terran and turned back to Peter. “Oh, you’re never too old to laugh, my boy.” The blue man grinned wickedly before quickly calling his arrow back and launching his attack on Peter’s ribs before he had a chance to run. You quickly got out of the way and stood near Kraglin to watch as Peter got what he deserved.
Peter let out a strangled yelp and clenched his jaw in an attempt to not give in to his own laughter as he tried to grab hold of the blue man’s wrists, already doubling over. However, he couldn’t suppress the giant grin that cracked his face, or the squeaks that escaped when Yondu began spidering his fingers higher up his ribs.
“Aww, innit that cute, Cap? He’s trying to fight it.” Kraglin laughed. “Better try that one thing ya used to do that always drove him crazy.”
“Wait, no no no!” Peter protested, knowing he would be a goner if Yondu did that, resulting in his giggles finally being able to escape. You smirked at his misfortune.
“Ah, there’s that laugh.” Yondu chuckled and moved his fingers to his belly, making Peter’s giggles erupt into full out laughter and causing the man to slide down the wall and onto the floor while laughing and pleading, much to the amusement to everyone else. Yondu chuckled with him. He had actually missed playing with his boy like this.
“Oh this is much funnier than the other day!” Mantis giggled.
She had been helping Peter a couple days before on a plumbing issue. The others were busy so he had enlisted her help to hand him tools while he was working under the pipes. Everything was fine until he stretched back to reach a pipe further in the back, causing his shirt to ride up and exposing his belly button. Not having one herself, due to hatching from an egg and not being born like a mammal, Mantis was naturally curious. She noticed Drax had something similar, but had never asked about it. Peter’s also seemed more open than Drax’s and she wondered if it was the same, so she decided to ask.
“What’s this?” she said, poking inside it with her finger as she spoke. This resulted in Peter jerking and failing to stifle a giggle. Hoping she’d ignore that, he attempted to act nonchalant and asked her for a wrench instead of answering her. However, she didn’t ignore his reaction and out of curiosity she poked him again to see if she would receive the same reaction, which she did. “Oh! this is funny!” she giggled, continuing to poke his belly button.
“Wait wait wait! Mantis please!” Peter whined through his giggles, reaching down and pushing her hand away.
“Is this your laughter button?” Mantis asked. It made him laugh when she poked it, so “laughter button” seemed logical to her.
“No.” Peter answered, starting to blush as he tried to return to work.
“But you laugh when I poke it?” she began poking it again for emphasis, starting his giggles and twitching anew. She could feel he was slightly embarrassed, but didn’t understand why because she could also feel the mirth from his laughter.
”Mantis please!” he whined again, but decided finally answering her might get her to stop. “That’s my belly button, and I’m laughing ‘cause that tickles! Quit it!”
”What are tickles?” she asked, pulling back at his request. “And what is the belly button for?”
Peter groaned and mentally cursed the empath for catching him off guard and himself for letting his reaction slip. Knowing he might as well get it over with he told her that a belly button was just something mammals are born with, not caring to get into why, and then explained that tickling was just a dumb Terran thing he couldn’t control and he didn’t want the other’s to find out about, so she wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about it.
Clearly that didn’t work out as well as he hoped.
“I don’t understand.” said Drax. “He is laughing as if he is having fun, but is begging as if he’s being tortured. Yet if it is torture, he is barely fighting back.”
“It’s ’cause he can’t,” laughed Kraglin. “It weakens them.”
Drax thought for a moment, still not getting it. “So is it torture?”
Gamora shook her head and laughed. “Really, Peter? You just said your kind jump off bridges for fun, but you can’t handle… whatever this is?”
Peter protested through his laughter that instead of teasing she could be, you know, helping him.
You laughed at his struggle, prompting Yondu to look up at you, not halting his attack on Peter. “You know, we can’t let Peter here have all the fun, now can we?”
You swallowed, you didn’t like that look. You went to back away but Kraglin had taken Yondu’s lead and grabbed hold of you before you could escape.
“Hey- wait-” you started, struggling to free yourself from Kraglin’s hold.
Yondu continued, “She’s worse than Peter here is, same weak spots n’ more.”
“Got it, Cap.”
“Wait! Krag! Please!” you whine, already giggling as you struggled to pull away.
Kraglin paused. “I ain’t even touched you yet.” he said in amusement.
“Told ya she was worse!” the Centaurian laughed, now straddling Peter and gently clawing at this underarms, throwing him into hysterics and making him clamp his arms down and kick, much to the amusement of Gamora who silently thought it was adorable.
Without warning Kraglin attacked your ribs, sending you into a squirmy frenzy and making you a giggly mess. Unlike Peter, who had some fight in him, you weren’t able to hold back at all, and it didn’t go unnoticed by the others.
“I am Groot!”
“You’re right,” Rocket laughed. “She couldn’t hold back at all! She’s already on the floor! Man, I can’t wait to try this.”
“Then don’t wait. Come on over here and try it out while I got him down.” Yondu paused his attack on Peter and the Terran tried to catch his breath.
You could hear Peter yelling at Rocket, “Don’t you dare, you creepy little raccoon!” through your own laughter as Kraglin started tickling your belly, making you squirm and kick on the floor.
“Aww, she’s adorable!” Mantis cooed, walking over and kneeling next to you. She reached out to touch your arm and started giggling. “I’ve never felt mirth like this!” she looked up at Kraglin, “May I try?”
After giving Mantis a couple pointers like Yondu had previously done for Rocket (mostly: gently, or you’ll hurt ‘em!), Kraglin moved aside and she began, making you a giggly mess all over again.
Drax was still confused. “Why does that make them laugh? What purpose could it serve?”
Yondu shrugged his shoulders as he had no idea. Choking through your laughter you and Peter both, somewhat inelegantly, cried out that even the two of you didn’t know, and that nobody really fully understood it.
Gamora looked at the two of you thoughtfully, walking over to Peter to experiment. “Maybe it’s protection?” she theorized. “It seems to only work in areas where it’s most important to protect.” she said after testing out the same motions she saw Yondu doing, performing them instead on Peter’s shoulder and getting no response, then observing how Peter nearly elbowed Rocket in the face when the raccoon performed the same motion on his ribcage.
“MANTIS!” you squealed from your place on the floor a few feet over, “If you don’t stohop tickling I’m gonna- I’m gonna… behehe really mad!” You tried to threaten her, but not only did you not sound convincing, you also couldn’t think of anything to do to her that you wouldn’t feel bad for saying later. Damn her innocence!
“Tickling? Is that what this is called?” Gamora asked, intrigued. She was now holding Peter by the wrists to prevent him from accidentally-on-purpose injuring Rocket while he clawed in his armpit and to stop him from accidentally crushing Groot as he wiggled his tiny fingers on the human’s tummy. Yondu was currently taking a break but remained sitting on Peter’s legs, knowing how much you two kicked and squirmed when tickled.
“Yes! That’s whahat it’s called!” Peter cried. “Now get OFF!”
“Now, boy, I haven’t shown ‘em the best part!” Yondu teased.
“Don’t you dare, you blue idiot!” Peter tried, and failed, at sounding menacing, earning a giggle from Gamora.
“Ya know, yer right. I haven’t given any attention to yer sis over there yet. But don’t worry, boy, I’ll come back to ya.” He got off of Peter and started over towards you. Now free to kick and twist, Peter now tried to use that to his advantage to try and free himself, without much more success that scaring Groot off of him.
“Hey, sweetheart. Ya miss me?” Yondu teased when he reached you.
“No!” you whine, knowing full well he knew all your weak points and was about to exploit as many of them as he could.
“Aw that’s not very nice.” He joked, motioning Mantis to move aside and saying to her, “Here girly, let me show you how it’s done.” as he sat on your legs and started drilling his thumbs into your hips, making you buck and laugh with abandon. Mantis continued giggling at the sight of you laughing, a blush on your cheeks and your nose crinkled in mirth, thinking it to be the cutest thing she’d ever seen, especially when Yondu started rapidly spidering everywhere, changing spots constantly and sending you into a squirmy frenzy. Kraglin merely sat back and laughed with Mantis.
“Yon- Yondu please!” you laugh after a moment, already giving up. “I-I need to breathe hehehe!”
“Alright, sweetheart, go on and breathe.” He relented with a smile, letting you catch your breath. After a moment he said, “Wanna help me with Peter?”
You panted for a moment more with your eyes closed before opening them and looking at Yondu. “Ab-so-frickin-lutely.” After all, it was Peter’s fault you two were in this mess anyway, not to mention how he tried to sacrifice you. Only fair he should receive a proper punishment, right?
You move over to Peter and Yondu retakes, with some difficulty due to Peter’s squirming, his place on top of the Terran and you sit down on the side opposite to Rocket, who stopped his attack upon your arrivals. Gamora released Peter’s wrists, taking the halt in his thrashing to mean he was no longer a threat to the smaller team members.
“Now, m'boy, ya ready for yer favorite part?” Yondu was wearing his wicked grin yet again as he stared down at the panting man.
“His favorite part? But I thought he didn’t like this?” Drax said in confusion.
“Learn sarcasm, man.” Kraglin laughed.
Peter, who knew exactly where this was going, began to plead immediately. “Wait! No! No no! Don’t you dare! I swear I’ll force you out an airlock, you blue bastard!” he threatened. However, it was hard to take these threats seriously as Peter was already giggling like a fool in anticipation to the torment to come.
“Awww, what’s the matter, Peter?” you said in a teasey voice, lightly spidering over his neck and collarbone, making him scrunch his eyes shut as he giggled. “Are you tired of the tickles?”
Peter whined and squirmed while he giggled like a child as you made teasey tickle noises while gently tickling him. It was different from his loud desperate laughter from earlier.
The other’s noticed the change in reaction and Gamora was the first to speak up. “What are you doing?” she said in amusement.
You blushed, looking up. “Oh- I… well…” you didn’t know the proper words to describe it. You had just done it without thinking, like you used to do with your best friend as a child. You glanced over at Yondu momentarily before continuing. He had taken on a more relaxed stance from his previous ‘Let’s wreck Peter!’ stance, clearly also intrigued by what you were doing, as the only tickles he had known before now were the kind that would throw Peter into loud, helpless, desperate laughter. “Just, uh… playing? It’s fun to fluster him with these noises. I don’t know. It’s just something people do on Earth.” You blushed again, pulling back.
“Oh, so this is also a form of play on your planet?” Drax said, looking like it all made more sense to him now.
“This is fascinating…” Gamora interrupted, taking a moment to lightly spider her fingers over Peter’s upper ribs, starting a new round of adorable high pitched giggles as he tried to block her. “What does it feel like to make him squirm away like this?”
“It just tickles, ok! Stohop it!” Peter whined. “Now let me up!”
You could tell the others were looking to you, the only other person apparently able to experience the feeling, for answers. Answers you didn’t exactly have. “Yeah, I actually don’t have a better way to describe it.“ you winced. You never thought about how awkward it might be to explain something like this until you were faced with other’s who didn’t have a clue about it.
Peter was getting impatient. “Let. Me. Up!” he demanded again, trying to push Yondu away.
“Um, did you forget you tried to sacrifice me?” you scolded, now your turn to smile wickedly at him. “And not even an apology! So rude!” you teased.
“Girl’s right. That was a dick move, son.” Yondu laughed. “Remember what I used to do when ya were being a little brat, boy?”
“Oh, he’s just gonna to love that.” taunted Kraglin, elbowing Rocket in the arm. Drax returned to looking confused once more. Just as he thought this was supposed to be a child’s game, now it seemed they were going to use it as punishment. But if it was punishment, why did they say he was going to love it? Was that more sarcasm? He doubted he would ever understand any of this.
Peter glared at the blue man on top of him, face red in embarrassment at the fact that he was about to be reduced to a squealing puddle of insane laughter in front of his whole team. “Don’t. You. Dare.” he growled.
Yondu sighed and backed off, sitting back on Peter’s legs. “Hm, maybe yer right, boy. Maybe ya are too old for this.” he sighed again. “I’ll let ya go.”
Rocket looked like someone had just shot his best friend, he had really been looking forward to seeing Peter tormented. He shot Yondu a disappointed look.
Peter sighed in relief, relaxing a bit. “Really?”
Yondu flashed a sly smile, “Nah, I lied.” he said as he quickly pulled Peter’s shirt up and bent down to blow raspberries and gnaw at his belly, instantaneously sending Peter into a squealy, screaming fit of laughter, just like when he was a kid and Yondu would “eat him.”
Rocket lost his shit, doubled over in laughter at the sight of Peter pleading and squealing for mercy. The others, including you, were now laughing as well and most had backed up a bit for safety, as it became apparent that what Yondu was doing affected Peter like nothing else, making him thrash like hell.
“NoahaAHAha! Yondu PLEASE! NOT THAT!” Peter squealed, fighting in vain to push him away. Not only did he have to deal with the gnawing and raspberries, but his scruffy beard rubbing on his tummy absolutely killed. “Please Plhehease! NO! Pleahease! I’m sorry! AHAHA.”
“Aww, look at him beg.” Rocket laughed to Kraglin, Groot giggling beside him.
Kraglin grinned in response. “Yeah, he never could stand that. We used to tell the rest of the crew he was getting a beatin’ to explain the screams.”
“You mean you kept this goldmine to yourselves?” the raccoon asked incredulously.
“Well, yeah, rat.” Kraglin stated as if it was obvious. “Crew didn’t like him and would’ve definitely abused this. Would’ve likely kept going til the lil’ shit ran outta air. Cap didn’t want the boy to die so we kept it secret.”
“Oh.” Rocket responded, now slightly subdued from his previous high. He hadn’t considered that this had a possibility to be taken too far.
“YONDU! Stop stop! NO! C’mon!” Peter continued to beg. Mantis momentarily bent down to touch Peter on the forehead before his thrashing made the endeavor useless and she pulled back, giggling from what she had been able to briefly sense.
“Ya learn to quit bein’ a brat, boy?” Yondu laughed, briefly surfacing to speak before bending back down to continue his attack.
“YES! YES! Pleahehese!” the Terran cried, tears of mirth now springing from his squinted eyes. “I give up! Yondu please! C’mon you win! AHahaha! WAIT! Nonono C’MON, DAD! STOP! I give! Pleahehease! You know I can’t stand it!”
Yondu halted. “What d’ya say, boy?”
Peter sucked in lungfuls of air, residual giggles pouring from his mouth. It actually hadn’t fully registered with him yet what he had said, what with being tickled out of his mind and all that.
“I said you win.” He panted, covering his eyes with his arms. “I give up.”
“Aww! He called Yondu ‘daddy’!” Rocket teased, not one to let something like that go if it could potentially embarrass Peter.
Peters eyes went wide as he jerked his arms away from his face, his cheeks burning as he realized what he had done. “Wait! No! That’s not what I-” he tried to protest before being cut off by Kraglin interjecting that yes, he did.
Yondu simply wore a soft smile and shook his head as he started to mimic the gentle tickles you did earlier on Peter’s belly so he couldn’t focus too much on being embarrassed by his slip, saying “See, knew ya were my boy.” He chuckled as Peter giggled and held his sides, this time not begging right away for it to stop, no doubt low-key grateful for the distraction. However, nice as it was to see his boy laugh like this, he knew he probably should give him an out. “Ya had enough yet, son?” he laughed, stressing the last word on purpose to make the Terran blush, to which Peter nodded his head quickly.
“Yes! You win! Plehehease!”
“Promise not to shove me out the airlock when I stop?” he joked, referencing the threat Peter made earlier.
“YES!”
“What d’ya think, missy?” the blue man asked you, not yet halting his attack.
Feeling merciful, and hoping Peter would take this into consideration when he inevitably decided to seek his revenge on you later, you agreed he probably had enough and joked that you supposed you could forgive him for trying to sacrifice you to the tickle monster; a statement which made the others give you queer looks and prompted your quick and awkward explanation that it was just a dumb game kids played back on Earth.
Yondu finally ceased his tickling and moved to stand up. Peter was panting and still giggling slightly from the floor.
“You are an ass!” the Terran whined when he finally felt he caught enough air back to stand up.
“I know.” Yondu laughed in return. “But I still know your weakness, boy, so I guess I win.” he shot a toothy grin at the Terran who, despite his blush, glared in response and shoved him in the arm.
“But did you really need to show the others?” he complained as you both now noted how Gamora and Rocket seemed to hold smirks regarding their new found Terran knowledge. Groot and Mantis just simply seemed delighted and Drax still seemed like he was trying to grasp the concept of what he had just been shown.
“Ya both know they would have found out eventually anyway.” Yondu chuckled, clapping Peter on the back and giving you a cheeky grin. “It’s not like yas could hide it forever, especially not this one.” he poked you in the ribs for emphasis, making giggles pour out of your mouth and a blush creep over your face as you swatted him away. You wanted to retort, but honestly you too were surprised no one else had managed to discover it yet before now, not to mention how Peter’s cover had managed to be blown before yours. You looked over to see Rocket still wearing a wicked grin.
“Don’t get any ideas, rat.” you warned, knowing full well it was already too late and Rocket would most likely soon become the bane of your existence with his knew found way to torment you.
“I don’t know what you mean.” he lied, not-subtly-at-all winking at Groot. “I totally wasn’t thinking about using that anytime you called me a raccoon.” he turned to leave, beckoning Groot to follow. “C’mon Groot, I’m thinking of making some amaranth.”
“I could go for some of that.” Kraglin said, following the other two out of the room with Drax close behind, asking Kraglin to further explain if tickling was supposed to be fun or torture.
Gamora looked at the three of you and laughed. She knew that if not you, then Peter at least would inevitably slip up in calling Rocket a raccoon, probably sooner than later. “Yondu is right. You are going to be screwed.” With that she also left the room. Peter trailed after her with you right behind him, teasing him all the way as he attempted to ask her, in the manliest way possible of course, if she could possibly protect him from Rocket, though he denied heavily that’s exactly what he was requesting.
That left behind a giggly Mantis, and Yondu who grinned with warmth in his heart as he watched his two surrogate kids leave the room.
“Oh, Terrans are so funny!” Mantis cooed.
“Yeah, that they are.” he laughed, readying himself to head to his quarters, thinking maybe he’d get in a mid-day nap. However, he stopped when Mantis spoke up again.
“Especially how they actually don’t hate the tickling as quite as much as they complained.”
Yondu blinked, turning to face the empath with amusement in his eyes. “Come again?”
“Other than some embarrassment and annoyance, they didn’t completely hate it.” Mantis giggled again, “And they look so adorable when they are being tickled! I’m not sure why Peter wanted me to keep it a secret.”
Yondu’s lips pulled back in a grin at this new information, revealing his crooked teeth. “Don’t completely hate it, eh?” he thought. A slightly evil glint had found its way into his crimson eyes and he chuckled lightly as he responded.
“Is that so?”