So I've Got This Gotg Headcanon Going About Little Peter Suffering From Nightmares During His Time On

So I've got this Gotg headcanon going about little Peter suffering from nightmares during his time on the Eclector. The boy has slept awfully since his mum's death and after his abduction from Earth, he used to wake up in the middle of the night, completely drenched in sweat and shivering, looking around his dark room in fear. Whenever he had a nightmare back home, Peter just would've run to his mother, slip under her blanket only to get shushed and comforted by her soft voice.

But now things were different and there was no one who could possibly give him that kind of (needed) comfort. In fact, the boy was on a ship full of cold-hearted cruel pirates, who cared about nothing and no one.

Yet, one night, Peter eventually sneaks out of his room, tiptoeing through the ship's empty corridors and comes to halt at the Captain's quarters.

The boy hesitates first but his fear of sleeping alone after that awful nightmare clearly outweighed that so he opened the door with a creak and as quietly as possible slipped into the generous room.

There he finds Yondu, snoring loudly to himself on his large bed, having no clue that the Terran kid just sneaked into his private quarters as he hasn't heard him near at all.

Peter stares a while at the Ravager captain, then a child's dainty hand lands on the Centaurian's rough shoulder, shaking it while a whisper runs over his lips.

"Yondu!"

No reaction.

Peter tries it once again and this time, he hears a grunt, then a pair of red eyes flap open in a sudden. A hand grabs the child's arm (a little bit to hard) and the boy squeals in surprise, making Yondu raise his eyebrow in confusion when he probably expected a threat but not the little Terran almost scaring him to death.

He sighes almost relieved, lets go off the boy's arm and his tensed muscles relax a bit.

"'s jus' ya, boy."

"What the hell ya doin' 'ere in the middle of the night?"

Yondu pierces the child with his look, expecting a good explanation for all of this. No one would dare to wake the captain after all, right?

"I've had a nightmare... and now I can't sleep."

"An'?"

Peter avoids his glance, ashamed, looking to the side and mumbles some words under his breath.

"I uh, can I sleep with you tonight?"

That was when the boy caught Yondu off guard completely. Another confused look and raised eyebrow alongside with a few hisses makes Peter almost regret coming here in the first place.

"What? Ain't'cha too old for this, boy? C'mon, get outta 'ere, kid, 'm tired!"

The Ravager turns his back to the kid, pretending to fall asleep and simply waits for the boy to leave his room again, but then he hears a soft sniffle and a child's whiny voice.

"Please, Yondu..."

He turns around again, seeing, how few tears glistened on Peter's cheeks and another sniffle follows while big green eyes caught the captain's stern gaze. And he told the kid many times not to put on that look on his face, not to whine or cry, because Yondu hated whenever the boy did that and couldn't stand his crying. But there was also this feeling in his chest that he couldn't quite understand even up until that day and should he be damned for it, hell, Yondu somehow just couldn't kick the boy out.

So with a few reluctant grumbles and repressed self-pride, the Centaurian eventually makes a bit of space on the bed and Peter's tears disappeared in a sudden when the little Terran scrambs up to him under the blanket.

"But don't'cha make any noise! If I'm hearin' jus' a single un, I'll kick ya out, ye hear me, boy?!"

Peter curles into a little ball, snuggling into the blanket right beside the hissing Ravager who then hears some further whispered words.

"I won't, I promise."

Odd as it is, Yondu has laid awake for a while now and the sleepiness just seemingly dissolved with the little child pressed tightly against his back so the Centaurian turns, hearing Peter's soft breaths and little hands clenched into the blanket while he whimpers in his sleep.

If he'd stick to his words before, now would be the moment to bring the kid back to his bed because Peter actually broke his promise to stay quiet all night. But Ravagers don't make promises anyway and if they did, they'd surely break them, don't they?

Boy better learns t' stop making promises he can't keep.

And that sure has nothing to do with the little Terran crying in his sleep nor Yondu's hand carefully pulling the kid a little bit closer to him or that warm feeling rising in his chest when the boy snuggled into his arms.

No, not at all.

galaxy’s #1 dad

you can buy the print in my redbubble now! 💙

Sometimes, when your mama tells you that a hand sign means rock on, and that you should use it whenever you do something really cool, she might just have a private joke she ain't sharin' with you just yet. :)

Top tier parenting, I'd say xD

Quill: Take literally any sentence he’s ever said to me and add “–or I’ll eat you.” to the end of it. That’s 97.8% of all the conversations we’ve had since I was six.

You know this trope when a character has power that is so strong they actually sUCK AT USING IT PRECISELY……..

✨🌙  ART LOG ->  @404ama

(Ravager family once again)

Headcanon that the Ravagers – especially the more loyal, kinder ones – actually really liked little Peter. They see him less as a crewmember and more of a very amusing mascot, but it’s something.

Quite a few of the Ravagers decide that this is still a child, a confused and terrified one at that, but with spunk and fighting spirit and funny little grimaces when he tries to insult them back, and a brilliant smile when he manages to convince them to listen to his music.

It becomes a common occurrence that at least one of the men stays close to the child. Mostly it’s Yondu himself, but when the captain is busy, there is Kraglin, Tullk, Oblo, sometimes even Horuz or others, making sure that Peter doesn’t get into trouble or really gets eaten by one of the meaner guys.

They carry him on their shoulders when walking through crowds on inhabited planets so he doesn’t get lost.

They drag him out of fights and put him down at the edge of it – “Stay here, Pete, we gotta finish those a-holes over there” – and come back to him with little trophies from the fight.

They hold him when he’s been injured and needs to be taken care of, holding him still to put the needle with the painkiller in – they quickly discovered that Peter is downright terrified of doctors, so they do the needle-part themselves, asking Kraglin or Yondu to keep talking to the kid in the meantime.

 Oblo shows Peter how to disassemble and reassemble a blaster.

Tullk shows him how to fight with his fist and his knees, reminding him that there are times when he has to.

It’s Kraglin who gives him tips how to pickpocket right without being noticed.

Horuz is the one rather grumpily teaching Peter how to read the alien runes used in the most parts of the galaxy, because Yondu never learned how to read and write very well with his backstory as a slave.

Yondu is the one to teach Peter the things he deems too important to leave to others – shooting, lying, conning, flying, and navigating, for example.  

It’s not a perfect substitute family. They are Ravagers, harsh with their words and quick with their fists, and Peter learns to not show his tears. Learns to bellow insults right back instead of being hurt by words at all. He learns which Ravagers to run from because they would hurt him, and which to run to when Yondu isn’t there to protect him.

It’s far from perfect, but he is alive, and being taken care off, as weird as it may seem.

In return for teaching him, Peter shows the Ravagers how to have fun with easy things. He listens to music, blasts it over the whole ship once he got the songs into the ship’s system. (Yondu swears up and down that he will delete it, but he never does.) He steals little trinkets for Yondu, and shiny things that he thinks Kraglin could like, delighting in their laughter when they pat his shoulder. He teaches the nice Ravagers how to dance. He teaches those who are willing how to read, once his lessons with Horuz have shown success.

One evening they fall asleep on the bridge in a pile, Tullk outstretched on the ground, Kraglin curled up next to him, Oblo using Tullk as a pillow. Peter has climbed onto Tullk’s wide stomach, curled into a little ball like a cat, and is trying to fall asleep like the others, but he is shivering, teeth clacking together in the cold of the spaceship.

He has his eyes closed tightly, trying to will himself into sleep, when there’s a quiet curse next to him, followed by even quieter rustling.

A weight slips over Peter’s shoulders, startling him, but he doesn’t feel threatened enough to startle upwards. There’s a knife in his boot, like Kraglin taught him, and one yell and three Ravagers would jump into action for him, but…

The weight is a leather jacket, Peter realizes when he cracks one eye open to peer down. It’s warm and smells of burned plasma and something distinctly familiar.

 Peering over the edge of the fabric that’s now keeping him warm, Peter spots a retreating figure in the doorway of the bridge, the last bit of light falling in from the hallway letting him catch a glimpse of blue skin and a red fin.

Peter smiles and closes his eyes just as the door falls closed behind Yondu.

It’s not a perfect family at all. But it’s not that bad, either.