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Christmas, 1988.
T'was the night before Christmas, and all through the orphanage, every creature was still...except for a stubborn little boy named Peter Quill.
Up in his bed sat the 8-year-old boy, waiting and waiting for his moment of joy.
He didn't have to wait long, for he heard a noise, and crept out of the room, careful not to wake the other boys.
He clipped his walkman to his hip, and made his way to the livingroom with a skip.
He looked at the chimney with wide green eyes, hoping it was the big jolly guy.
And down came the man he'd been waiting for all year long, he was looking around, absentmindedly whistling a song.
But...this man didn't look like Santa. No, not at all. He was muscular and blue and seven feet tall...
"Santa?" Peter asked, looking up with hope. "Is that you?"
"Go back to sleep, runt, this don't concern you."
"Are you looking for someone?" The child took a step closer.
"Yes."
"Is his name Peter Quill?"
"...how'd you know?" Asked the man, finally sparing a look down at the kid.
"Because that's me! I'm Peter Quill!" The boy jumped up and down, then dashed around the livingroom, picking up a backpack that was propped against the wall, and dashed back to the blue man and hopped in to his arms.
"How did you know I was looking for you?"
"I wrote you a letter, Santa! You must've got it!" Peter exclaimed, as the man held him with ease, kicking down the front door and running away before anyone could come check out what all the ruckus was about. "You got my letter, didn't you, Santa?! You must have because my Christmas wish was to go far far away from that place and never go back!"
Yondu smirked to himself as he sprinted down the street to the nearby field where Kraglin was waiting with the M-ship. This was way easier than J'son said it would be! That tall Spartan bastard could eat his inaccurate words! The kid who claimed to be Peter Quill matched the description the man gave him. He even upfront said his name was Peter Quill, so this had to be the kid.
The only hard thing was getting in to the building. The only way in was through the chimney. It was a tight squeeze, and he was pretty sure the might've broken the inside of the chimney in several places, but he didn't care. He wasn't coming back to this shithole planet anyway. It's not like he'd have to fix it or anything.
"Wait a minuet, hey! You aren't Santa!" Peter said, looking up at him. "Santa doesn't have tattoos! And he doesn't have earrings or a red mohawk either!"
"I don't even know what a Santa is," Yondu admitted, running up the ramp to the ship and plopping Peter down on the floor before jumping in to the pilot's seat and starting the ship up.
"Santa is--"
"Don't care."
In a nearby chair, there was an older boy. A teenager. He, too, had green eyes, but his hair was dark brown and sticking up all over the place. He leaned forward and said something to Peter, but Peter was not able to understand it. It sounded like an awkward gurgling sound mixed with a few hums.
"I'm sorry, I don't speak Spanish," Peter said, shrugging his shoulders. The teen made a confused noise and furrowed his brow at Peter. The child turned back to Yondu, "Mister..?"
"Yondu. My name's Yondu."
"Right...Yondu. Where are you taking me?"
"Somewhere," he replied, then he turned to the teenager and started talking to him in a completely non-understandable language. Maybe it was Russian? Peter wasn't sure.
"A-are we going in to space!?" Peter asked, looking out the window. He suddenly became frightened. "Wh-what? W-who are you!? Where are you talking me!? And who's he, and why is he speaking Spanish!?" He pointed at the teenager.
"I already told ya, brat, I'm Yondu. And that's Kraglin. And he ain't speaking 'spanish'. The only way you're gonna understand him is if ya got a translator!"
"A translator..? Wha..?"
The teenager made a few more sounds and hums in Yondu's direction and the man nodded. "Yeah, Krag. He can't understand ya...you'll just gotta wait til we get back home. We can fix that."
"How come I can understand you but not him!?" Peter said, looking between the two with wide eyes.
"'Cuz of my fin. That thing you called a 'mohawk'. Are ya done asking questions?"
"Yes! Um...I mean, no. I have one more!"
"Go on…"
"Why are you blue!?"
Yondu bit back the sarcastic remark he wanted to make and shook his head. He's spent ten minuets with this kid, and he was already getting annoyed...
He'd have to give J'son the perfect payback later.
–—-•—–-—
A few weeks later, Peter had a translator installed in the back of his neck. Which later led him to find out that Kraglin was trying to ask him if he was alright when they picked him up. He wasn't speaking Spanish at all.
Peter has gotten his wish, alright. Getting as far away from the orphanage as possible. Even if 'as far away as possible' meant going in to outer space.
It had taken a week to reach the Elector, which meant a week of Yondu translating things between Kraglin and Peter. Although there was a language barrier that distanced them, that didn't stop them from becoming best friends in the short time they knew each other. (Children were quick to befriend each other, uncaring for race, gender, or species. That was the beautiful thing about them, in Yondu's eyes. They did not know the true hated of the universe. They'd yet to see the bad in everyone. To them, everyone was perfect until proven otherwise. They had no room or knowledge to hate each other, and as long as they weren't hurting each other, it was fine.) The translating wasn't very difficult. Kraglin already had a translator, and he didn't say much, so Yondu didn't have to translate much. The boy's natural calmness made it easy to bring him along. And he was younger, less threatening. He would be easy for Peter to approach. Any other Ravager would have annoyed Yondu before they even reached Terra. And they probably would've scared Peter.
The rest of the job would be easy. All they had to do was meet J'son on Xandar and hand the boy over. (And maybe squeeze in some time for Yondu and J'son to catch up on what's happened since they last saw each other…among other things.)
The only problem was that J'son never met them on Xandar.
A call to J'son would clear that up, assumed Yondu. But it didn't.
"What the hell do you mean bring him to you!? All the way to Spartax!? We agreed on Xandar!" Yondu snapped, glaring at the visual of the man on the screen. "Get your lazy ass off that stupid throne of yours and come get him yourself!"
The young man on the screen pouted, "I am an emperor! You cannot deny me of what I want."
'You sure don't look like an emperor when you're down on your knees', Yondu had wanted to snap back. "We are not traveling all the way to Spartax just because you've turned in to a royal brat, J."
"Well, uh…" J'son thought for a moment. "Please?"
"I have a better idea!" Yondu said, faking cheeriness.
"No, no, I know that tone! It's not a good idea!"
The blue Ravager grinned, "Oh, trust me. It's a great idea! Since you won't get off your lazy ass and come get him, I think I'll just keep him!"
"Yondu, no! I seriously can't leave the planet! I have to stay here!"
"Nah," Yondu said, picking up a nearby piece of paper. "I gave you your options."
"Those options suck!"
"I'm sorry," Yondu said, crumbling the paper with a smirk. "I can't hear ya, you're breaking up on me!"
"Yondu I can see the paper in your hand!"
"I gotta hang up! My reception's bad!"
"Yondu! Don't you dare hang up! We're not done here!"
The captain looked up, "We'll be on Ziv'yeh in about two weeks. Be there or the kid is ours, jackass. Bye."
"Yondu you smug son of a--"
Yondu ended the call with a chuckle. This would teach that asshole.
The Ravagers had taken J'son is when he ran from his home planet. But as soon as word got around (somehow) that J'son was needed to take place as the emperor, he up and left without even a thank you or a goodbye. Hell, he even stole some stuff and took it with him. (For that, though, they could only blame themselves. They were the ones who thought him to live like them.) The thing was, they weren't supposed to steal from each other.
Of course, Yondu had tried gunning his ship down in rage.(which he now realized was a bad idea. He could've gotten the other man killed (not that he cared, 'cause...he totally didn't care about J'son...not at all...psh!))
His relationship with the man was...odd. They were like best friends...the ultimate set of bros. With a slight pinch of "I might be a lil bit gay but only for you, dude" tossed in to the mix. They could always be found together. Whether they were leading the crew, plotting courses, or just goofing off.
Yondu had been looking forward to seeing the man again...so he could drop kick him for being a backstabbing motherfucker who had the nerve to ask him for such a huge favor. (And also for not visiting for quite some time.)
Unfortunately, though, J'son did not show up to Xandar. And Yondu knew he wasn't gonna show up at their next stop, either.
In his mind, he was already trying to figure out what size jacket would fit Peter best once he'd grown up.