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Peter’s Walkman was off limits for multiple reasons.
The first being the kid yowled something fierce if it were in danger. When Kraglin picked it up a week after Peter was picked up off Terra the traumatised kid went off. He launched out of the seat he was in and started beating Kraglin’s leg in a blind rage. The older Ravager dropped it in surprise. Peter scooped it up clutching it to his chest as he warily backed away. He looked down in shame.
“’m sorry for hitting you, but please don’t touch it.”
The two made amends rapidly as Peter happily answered questions about it.
The second reason was because even Youndu knew that it was off limits to mess with the Walkman. As a gift from his mother before she died, Yondu understood that the kid needed something from home. Especially due to the fact Peter was just you know, picked up from Terra with not much explanation just after his mother died.
So yeah, the Walkman was out of bounds. Most of the crew payed no mind and any teasing was done with good nature.
It just so happened that the new crew ignored the memo in the captains run down of the rules. There were Ravagers and then there were just arseholes.
Lil’ old Peter Quill was in their sights.
-
Peter sat with Kraglin at lunch hour in the mess hall. The kid’s face was blackened with muck from the vents where he was cleaning out debris. They ate in compatible silence, Peter ate cheerily with headphones over his ears.
Kraglin patted his shoulder to let Peter know he was heading off. Peter smiled and went back to eating. Within seconds of Kraglin’s absence, the new recruits moved in.
The big men sat at the table, intently watching Peter who played them no mind. Yondu’s words echoed in his ears.
“There gon be some crew who ain’t going to like ya. You’se just gotta ignore em’ or use that handy dandy lil come to call some’un on yer side. Ya got me?”
As long as these guys didn’t start messing, Peter enjoyed pretending they didn’t exist to see them grow increasingly annoyed.
“Whatcha listening to boyo?” The guy on Peter’s right leered down at him.
Peter eyed him from the side, he was good at acting like he wasn’t scared, “music.”
“We’ve heard about yer music kiddie. Why don’t you let us listen?” Another asked from across the table.
Petered turned his gaze on him and deadpanned, “no.”
The men laughed, but it wasn’t like Yondu’s dry laugh or Kraglin’s breathy one. Their laugh gave Peter the creeps, but they weren’t messing bad. He wasn’t going to get Kraglin or Tullk or anyone else. Yet.
“Naw kiddie give us a listen. Ain’t your momma tells you to share with others?” Peter ducked his head, his skin prickled at the mention of his mother.
“Piss off.”
That shut the trio up for a moment, before the first one. A guy with a mullet and different coloured eyes came real close to Peter’s face.
“Now kiddie we was havin’ fun and you just ruined it fo’ us,” before Peter could blink he had snatched the Walkman off of Peter’s lap. The headphones were ripped from Peter’s ears and he yelped in anguish.
“Give it back!” He screamed leaping at the man’s bulging gut. The man laughed and threw it to his buddy. It became a game of piggy in the middle. Peter hated that game when he was on Terra, he was always too short to get the ball. Peter snatched his knife of off the table and charged at the guy who had taken his Walkman. The largely blunt knife managed to sink into his upper thigh.
He bellowed and brought his fist down against Peter’s face. It sent him flying a few meters where he stayed stationary on the ground. Then he was up in a flash and ran back at him screaming. The same thing happened again; the arsehole kicked Peter like a ball.
He didn’t get up as fast this time, the wind knocked out of him. Peter looked up with blurred vision to see the Walkman tossed to hard and it smacked against a wall. It fell to the floor, shattered.
It was broken.
Peter felt something go dark inside of himself, he struggled to breath as he crawled to the device and scooped it up into his arms. Trying to put the pieces back, but it was fruitless. He couldn’t fix it. Peter started to scream into the floor, the mainly empty mess hall looked over at the noise. It quickly garnered attention from anyone passing by. Tullk put his head around the entrance and saw the scene. The angry scot sounding Ravager marched in, making a bee line straight for Peter.
-
“Captain,” Tullk’s voice came through the speaker. Yondu and Kraglin were on the bridge discussing a job offer. “You need to get down to the mess.”
The Ravager’s voice was stiff and it sounded like there was screaming on the other end. Youndu’s expression went hard as he left the bridge.
-
When Yondu entered the mess hall it went silent. The gathered crowd had three new recruits in a prison. Well, it wasn’t quiet. Peter was in the middle screaming into the floor with broken sobs. Tullk was kneeling down next to Quill, rubbing his back.
“Da hell is go’n on here?” Yondu yelled eyeing up the recruits in the ‘cell.’ The crowd was decidedly against the three who looked uneasy at the presence of the captain. A path was made as Yondu walked to the centre of the crowd.
Peter was still wailing as Yondu nudged him slightly, “what der hollering for punk?”
Peter looked up, bruises were forming on the side of his face. Yondu didn’t wait on an answer before he turned to the new recruits.
“Ya’ll got somthn’ to do with dat mark on his face?” All eyes fell to the floor quickly. “Tullk, Horuz get dem down to de brigs.”
The two men leapt into action and began man handling the three prisoners down to the cells.
Peter had stopped wailing, but he was still crying something painful. Yondu picked him up by the back of his jacket and slung him over his shoulder.
“Alright punk yer gonna make me go tone death,” Yondu grumbled for lack of not knowing what else to do. Peter sucked in a breath and tried to keep himself quiet. Kraglin followed them up to Yondu’s quarters where he sat Peter down on a table.
The Captain and first made stood back and examined him. The bruise was darkening rapidly, covering half of his face.
“You still got all ya teeth?”
Peter ran his tongue over his teeth and promptly nodded.
“That’s good at least,” Yondu muttered. “What they do to ya?”
Peter sighed deeply, “they took my music an’ started throwing it n’ doing piggy in the-the middle and then I stab-bed him which is st-pid cos then he-he hit me but I got back-back up,” tears began to flood his eyes again. “Then he kicked me and I cou-n’t breath and, an’ on o’ them threw it an it-it hit the wall an’ now it’s broken.”
Peter began to cry loudly, Kraglin took pity and moved to comfort the boy whilst Yondu stood seething.
“So stupid! If I just g-gave it to ‘im he ainta taken it!” Peter wailed int Kraglin’s side.
Yondu snapped out of his stupor and knelt down in front of Peter, “now you listen ta me punk,” Peter made unrelenting eye contact. “Yer momma gave you that lil’ music box. Ain’t no one allowed to take it offa you. Not even me. That’s yer one thing, everyone got dat one thing.”
Peter nodded, though tears still rolled down his cheeks.
“C’mon shirt off ya said you was kicked and couldn’t breath lets see the damage.”
Quill shook off his shirt and looked to see a boot shaped bruise forming on his side. He yelped when Yondu poked it.
“Get him sorted I’ll be back later.”
-
When Yondu arrived later as he said the three new Ravager’s were long dead. He had taken the broken Walkman to the ship tech guy. She was able take the salvageable cassette tape and some key components and put it on a circuit board and a whole nother stuff Yondu didn’t bother to find out about. In the end she was able to salvage the classic shell with the logo and stick it to the front. It sure as hell no longer looked like a Walkman, but when she put the head phones on it played the music just fine.
Youndu dropped the space Walkman on the chair next to where Quill was sleeping in his own room. The bruise on his face was looking worse despite the fact the kid had fallen asleep on the ice.
Ah well, Yondu thought. Kid’ll think he looks rough.