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Pancakes
Downtime was something to be savored for a group like the Guardians of the Galaxy. With most of their jobs being near suicide missions, being able to not worry about being pursued by someone wanting to kill them all was more than nice, as it offered them a chance to take a leisurely approach in going about their day; whether it was on their home on Knowhere, or in their ship.
It was one such morning aboard their ship, not long after a rather eventful and harrowing mission, that the things were calm enough for them to sit down for an actual breakfast upon waking up. It was Quill's turn to make it, and thus stacks of pancakes were served up. However, things were fated to take an unexpected turn, and the inciting incident to it all was when Rocket started to transfer the pancakes on his plate atop the already filled plate of the newest member of the team.
"What are you doing?" Quill asked, and to his credit, there was no sarcasm or irritation in his voice whatsoever, he was genuinely curious.
Rocket shot the human a look and said as if stating the obvious, "What? She's been living in the freakin' walls eating scraps for days. She's gotta be starvin'."
Although touched by Rocket's concern, Floor didn't want her brother to feel any unnecessary concern or worry. She never had any issues surviving during her self-imposed seclusion. "Floor not starving! Floor is fine," she said.
Rocket just smiled at her, and said as he poured syrup over the pile of pancakes in front of her, "Yeah, I know you don't want me worryin', but I ain't ever gonna stop! Sorry. Now c'mon. Eat up, sis. These are pretty much the only food Quill can make without blowing up the kitchen or making everyone sick."
Quill dropped his fork I'm frustration and said, "You really can't go 24 hours without roasting me, can you?"
Drax swallowed and looked up from his plate to say, "I have never noticed Rocket purposely trying to set Quill on fire."
"He means insult ," Mantis whispered to Drax helpfully.
"I have never witnessed an insult causing anyone to be set ablaze," Drax countered.
Truth be told, Floor was just as confused as Drax about Quill's statement. However, that was merely secondary on her mind at the moment, as right now her attention was the plate of food in front of her. She had honestly never seen food such as this before, and was further mystified by the way her brother doused the stack of brown, flat, floppy disks of dough with viscous amber colored liquid. Granted, it did smell good, but the way it looked was quite odd. That being said, Floor couldn't imagine voicing any objections after Rocket had shown such concern. Not only that, Mr. Quill had worked so hard to make this food.
So, Floor leaned in and bit into the tall stack. Several chews in, she froze and her red eyes widened as the incredible sweetness hit her all at once.
"Good! So good!" she squealed out before promptly diving back into the pancakes, which were saturated with the sweet syrup.
Quill couldn’t help but grin with pride at Floor’s reaction. He also found himself somewhat amazed by the way Rocket was beaming at Floor as he watched her eat her fill. Quill honestly didn’t think it was possible for anyone to look so innocently happy, let alone Rocket of all people. Sure, he’d seen Rocket gleefully detonate a bomb or let loose with automatic weapons, but there was something special about the pure joy Rocket was emanating as he watched over his sister.
Mantis chuckled and said, “Wow. Look at her go.”
“I am Groot!”
During all of this, however, there was one person who was looking on in disapproval. Nebula frowned, and she turned to Rocket and said, “You really should stop her. Now.”
Rocket blinked, and then he turned to Nebula and asked incredulously, “Is that a bad attempt at a joke or something?”
Nebula gave Rocket a long-suffering look and asked, “Did you have to pour so much syrup on it?”
“What are you talking about?” Rocket said, still incredulous with the direction this conversation was going, “What kind of sociopath gives someone pancakes without any syrup?”
Nebula stood up and started to back away.
“Where ya goin’?” Rocket, now starting to become irritated.
“I just want to watch from a safe distance,” was her straight faced reply.
Rocket stared at Nebula as if she were crazy and would have told her so if he wasn’t suddenly interrupted.
“Umm, Rocket?” Mantis asked awkwardly.
Rocket turned to Mantis, and she pointed towards Floor. Rocket looked and saw that Floor had pretty much cleaned her plate, but now she appeared to be staring into space and vibrating.
“Floor? You okay?” Rocket asked nervously.
“I am Groot?”
Quill sighed, “Oh boy, I see it. She’s gonna have a-.”
Floro suddenly whooped loudly and went into wild giggling as she jumped off of the table and bounded across the floor. She was vaguely reminded of her experience wearing Nega-Band as her heart raced and an all-consuming thrill surged through her entire being. She jumped up and backflipped several times as she skittered back and forth across the room. “Floor can do ANYTHING!” she exclaimed gleefully.
“-sugar rush,” Quill concluded as he put one hand on his forehead, and his other hand over his mouth to keep from laughing.
Rocket helplessly watched in concern as Floor wildly staggered and rolled around the room, eyes darting back and forth as he sat unsure of what to do. Mantis, on the other hand, could not hold back her own laughter.
Drax stared blankly at Floor’s antics and asked, “Is the strange rabbit broken?”
Before Drax’s unhelpful remark could be addressed by anyone, the overall level of sanity dropped further when Floor began dancing and twirling while belting out loudly, “ Mister Blue Sky! Mister Bluuuueee Sky!”
Quill laughed at this and said with pleasure, “Well, hey, sounds like she’s got good taste in music!”
“ Mister Blue Skyyy-yyyy!”
Rocket blinked, then smirked and said, “Well, she’s a better dancer than you, Quill, I’ll tell ya that.”
“Mister Blue! You did it right! But soon come Mister Night!”
“Oh, come on! You’re just saying that cause she’s your sister!”
“Creepin’ over! Now his hand is on your shoulder!”
“I am Groot.”
“No one asked you, Groot!”
“ Nevermind! I remember you this-!”
“Rocket is right. Floor is better dancer than Quill.”
“No one asked you either, Drax!”
“I remember you this way!” Floor sang, and she continued singing as she hopped away and deeper into the ship.
Nebula stood with her arms folded and said, “Instead of having a pointless argument, shouldn’t someone be making sure she doesn’t damage the ship or herself during her sugar induced trip?”
“On it,” Rocket said dutifully, and he jumped out of his seat and quickly chased after his sister.
Mantis finally gained control over her laughter and took a deep breath. “Okay then,” she said, “Seriously now, she’ll be okay, right?”
Quill waved a hand dismissively and said, “Oh sure. That was me a bunch of times on Earth whenever I drank too much soda. She’ll probably need an ice pack for the headache she’s gonna get, but other than that she’ll be fine.”
“I am Groot,” Groot said while pointing directly at Quill.
“You better not be blaming me for all this. Rocket was the one who gave her extra pancakes and poured all that extra syrup on them,” Quill argued.
“Floor is still the best dancer on the team,” Drax said with certainty.
“That’s not a fair comparison, she has more legs,” Quill countered.
“I am Groot!”
Nebula chose this as the best moment to leave the room, and the inane conversation, and help Rocket reign in Floor.
“Just remember, everyone else on board this ship is crazy, ” Nebula muttered to herself.