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Yondu didn’t see much of Peter at first after he brought him to the Eclector. As soon as Kraglin let go of him, Peter took off running and no one saw him for hours. Tullk eventually heard him crying in one of the storage rooms and immediately reported it to Yondu, who ordered food to be set outside the room occasionally, though it was never touched.
After a few days, Yondu was making one of his many trips past the storage room when he realized the boy was standing just inside the door instead of hiding behind the boxes in the back of the room.
Yondu stopped walking and stared at the Terran. Peter quailed a bit at the formidable sight and started to back into the room again, but stopped when Yondu spoke, though he flinched at the tone.
“Why ain’t’cha eatin’, boy?”
Peter took another step back and shook his head.
“What’s wrong? Can’t ya talk? I ain’t believin’ I got a Terran that can’t talk. Guess it’s a good thing I ain’t keepin’ ya fer yer talkin’.”
Peter’s brows constricted. “I can so talk!”
Yondu raised a brow. “What else can ya do?”
“I can do lots of things!”
“That right? Well, how ‘bout answerin’ my question.”
Peter looked down at the tray and made a face.
“My food ain’t good enough fer ya?”
“What is it?”
“It’s food. That’s all ya need ta know.”
“It doesn’t look like any food I’ve ever seen.”
“Well, ya ain’t seen much.”
Something in the bowl chose that moment to splash around and Peter yelled as he backed up a little more. “It… it moved!”
“Course it did. It’s better when it’s fresh.”
“I’m not eating that.”
“Then I guess yer gonna starve.”
Peter’s eyes filled with tears.
Yondu wasn’t used to tears and didn’t know how to deal with them, so he decided to handle it the same way he handled his crew. “Yer gonna eat it or yer gonna starve. Ain’t no other options.”
“Can’t we go to the grocery store?”
“Tha grocery store?”
“Yeah, that’s what… what my mom did when we needed food...” He trailed off quietly and looked at the floor as his hand moved to his Walkman on his hip. Yondu didn’t think Peter even realized he’d done it.
Yondu was decidedly uncomfortable at this turn of the conversation. “Ain’t no grocery stores ‘round here.”
A tear slid down Peter’s cheek. “Where… where are we?”
“We’re on our way to Morag.”
“Where’s that?”
“Near Xandar.”
“Where’s that?”
“Listen, boy, I ain’t got time fer no geography lessons.”
Peter looked at the floor again, and Yondu sighed. “We’ll go ta Xandar. They got some shops that sell Terran stuff. Maybe we can find some Terran food fer ya.”
“What’s… what’s Terran food?”
“Food from Terra… where yer from.”
“I’m… I’m from Earth.”
“Earth, Terra, whatever.”
Yondu’s wrist communicator beeped. “What is it, Oblo?”
“About to land on Morag, Cap’n.”
“Change of plans. We’re goin’ to Xandar.”
“But Cap’n, I thought we’s goin-”
“I said change of plans! Get us to Xandar.” He disconnected the call and turned back to Peter. “Come on.”
Peter hesitated, then followed Yondu down the hall, giving the bowl with the still-splashing creature in it a wide berth.
___
As they walked to the store that sold Terran food, Yondu realized he had no idea what kind of food to feed a Terran.
He cleared his throat, then asked, “So whad’dy’all Terrans eat?”
Peter opened his mouth to answer, then stopped, his thoughts swirling. He realized he had a unique opportunity to never have to eat his least favorite foods ever again.
“Well, boy?”
“Oh, well, candy is the biggest food group. We eat it for most meals.”
“Candy, huh? What’s that?”
“It’s… it’s got lots of vitamins in it. Helps us kids grow.”
“Huh. What else?”
“Pizza is also good for us. And ice cream and chips.”
“Well, surely this shop’ll have some of that stuff.”
As they entered the shop, Peter made a beeline to the Terran candy. “This is the best stuff for us. Chocolate. Oh! And these, too.”
Yondu narrowed his eyes and Peter was afraid Yondu had figured it out, but Yondu only said, “I ain’t payin’ an arm an’ a leg fer all this, so ya better jus’ pick out what ya need. I ain’t stockin’ up fer a year.”
Peter released a breath. “Okay.”
Yondu turned to look behind him. “What’re these?”
“Oh, those are… um… vegetables. They’re… they’re only for special occasions. Kids only get them if they do everything their parents ask them to do. We… we don’t get them often.”
He tried to look longingly at the broccoli to sell his story, but found it hard to do.
“That right?”
Peter nodded.
“Well, we ain’t buyin’ no veg’tables today. Ya gotta earn ‘em!”
Peter tried to look disappointed. “Okay.”
“Here, get some more a these candy bars. An’ ya better eat ‘em all or I’m gonna… gonna eat’cha.”
Peter’s eyes went wide. He had no problem with eating the candy, but he was taken aback by Yondu’s threat. Surely he wouldn’t eat him… Little did he know that it would soon become Yondu’s favorite threat, along with “Ya better do what I say or there ain’t gonna be no vegetables fer ya!”
Peter filled his basket with candy, frozen pizzas (which would have to do until he figured out how to have pizza delivered to the ship), and several tubs of ice cream. Yondu picked up a few more candy bars, not wanting the Terran to starve.
“Oh! I need to get something to drink. Like, um, soft drinks and chocolate milk. Water is… bad for us.”
Yondu quit walking and stared at Peter. “Water’s bad fer y’all? That don’t sound right.”
“Umm… maybe not bad. But… uh… we shouldn’t have it too often. We’ll… um… get… water sickness.”
“Water sickness?”
“Yeah, it’s bad.”
“Well, jus’ don’t drink too much of it. I ain’t gonna be worryin’ ‘bout takin’ ya ta no doctor.”
“I won’t.”
“’Cause if I catch ya drinkin’ too much, I’ll eat’cha!”
Peter’s eyes went wide and he nodded.
___
Back on the ship, Peter was trying to distract himself from his current situation by sorting his new stash of junk food. The fact that he’d lost his mother and been taken from his grandparents and his planet hadn’t yet sunk in completely. He turned up the volume on his Walkman and opened a candy bar, his mother’s favorite, as he laid down on his jacket to listen to the music.