st_arkintern | [Closed to Quill] The physics is theoretical, but the fun is real.

[Closed to Quill] The physics is theoretical, but the fun is real.

Peter Parker is sitting in the cafe, a textbook sprawled out on one side of the table, a graphing notebook filled with complicated-looking equations and the corresponding math on the other. Today's self-chosen subject of study? Lagrangian mechanics.

Peter idly taps his pencil near the bottom of the page and lets his chin sink into the palm of his free hand. If he keeps looking at this, he thinks he's going to lose his mind. He's been trying to figure out this answer for fifteen minutes now, and he's pretty sure that he's made a mistake somewhere, but he can't find where.

Peter folds his arms against the table then lays his forehead against them with an audible groan. Truly, it is a groan of despair.

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"I like Rocket," Peter says. Even if he's not sure if Rocket likes him back.

That reminds him.

Peter takes a breath.

"Rocket told me Alec punched you in the face. I'm sorry."

Right. About that...

"Nah, don't worry about it." He said, waving it off. "All healed. I got to meet a hot chick named Pike because of it, so it's kind of win-win. but, uh -"

Quill put down the Gameboy. He didn't like real talk and Peter looked very eager.

"I ever tell you Rocket and I and our friends, we absorbed the power stone into our bodies and used it to kill the bad guy?" He asked. "After my universe-reknown dance-off, of course."

"No," Peter says, rapt with attention. This was way more interesting than Physics.

"Yeah, so, once it was taken away by Ronin," Quill explained with that sort of story-teller voice people did, "Someone had to, you know, grab it. So I did and, man. I'm telling you, the power in that stone is unreal. I probably could have handled in on my own, but you know how friends worry, so they we all held hands very dramatically and the power spread out among the four of us and we were able to basically turn Ronin into ash. It was really impressive. You can ask Rocket. He was there."

Wait, I had been trying to make a point. Shit. What was it?

"That's awesome!" Peter can imagine it now. If it were a movie, the camera probably would have dramatically panned around them while it happened.

Maybe Peter doesn't exactly approve of turning people into ash, but the fact that Quill could handle that major amount of power is just a testament to his many impressive abilities.

Right... right. Shit.

"Yeah, well, you know." Quill said, trying to get the words out about how dangerous it was. But the kid thinks I'm awesome. "It's probably because I'm half-Celestial. Most people would have died. I probably saved my friends lives too. Because, you know, saving people is dangerous and stuff."

Gamora does this part better than me

"That's exactly what I want to do," Peter says, still bustling with excitement. "Protecting people, saving them."

Anything that he heard about the potential danger clearly went over Peter's head.

Quill nodded a few times in concession.

"Right. Right?" He said, "Saving people is fun."

He thought about Gamora's stern face glaring at him. Right, job to do.

"But, you know," He continued. "I could have died. We all could have."

He cleared his throat and tried not to gloat about how he hadn't.

Peter boss. He and Quill are obviously very much on the same page with regards to personal responsibilities.

"You didn't, though," Peter points out. "Because you were strong enough."

Kid's got a point

"True, I am pretty strong." Quill agreed, feeling Gamora wherever she was facepalming. "But I only did that, knowing I was strong, you know?"

Peter looks at Quill, puzzled. He's not sure how to respond to this. It sort of feels like Quill is trying to say something without actually saying something.

"Yeah," Peter says, nodding. "But that was your first time holding one of those stones, right? You couldn't have known you were strong enough to handle it, but you did it anyway."

The admiration is clear in Peter's voice.

Another fair point. He clearly sees just how awesome I am. Finally someone does.

He nodded.

"Okay, yeah, I'll give you that too." He said. "I sort of had no choice, you know? It was either that or let the whole planet be destroyed, so."

Peter nods his agreement. "When you have powers like ours, you have a lot of responsibility. I'm sure those people on that planet wouldn't have been able to do anything if you hadn't helped them. Not because they didn't want to help, but because there's some things only we can do."

Peter looks down at his notebook. A crude version of the spider symbol on his suit is drawn in the lower right corner in sharpie.

"I'm really glad that you get it," he says, looking up. "It feels like most people don't."

"People here?" He asked. "I thought this place was crawling with superheroes."

Quill thought back to Alec and rubbed his nose gently. This is probably not going how it's supposed to go...

"Back home, mostly," Peter says, thinking of Mr. Stark and the things he said after the ferry incident. Apparently, there were a lot of people who didn't think he was capable because he was young. "But there's still some people here that think that I can't handle it."

People like Alec.

"I'm still better able handle it than most people." Maybe not some of the more experienced superheroes, yeah, but definitely better than people who didn't have special powers. "But you get that. None of those people on the planet would have been able to hold the stone but you. All of them could have died, but you risked your life to save them, even though you might have died, too. You did what needed to be done because you needed to."

Peter hopes he's not getting too weird. He looks down at his notebook, embarrassed:

"I think that's really heroic."

Quill beamed. If this was a movie, there would be a close up on him and really cool music in the background.

Yeah, I am heroic

"You'll get there one day, dude." He replied. "You're already pretty heroic. You jumped onto a space ship to try and stop a bad guy."

Peter feels something warm up inside of him at the words of praise. It's not exactly something that he gets all that often. Especially about being Spider-Man.

"Really?"

Peter tries not to look as happy as he really feels, but immediately fails at it.

"I can't believe I get to go on a spaceship," he says. "Was it a Millennium Falcon-type ship or a USS Enterprise-type?" Thee's so many spaceship names he can start listing off right now, but maybe it's just easier to ask: "Or was it something totally different?"

"Totally different. Kind of like some big-ass weird wheel thing. Like a big Krispy Kreme" He said and gestured the shape with his hands. "And when we found you, you put up a heck of a fight. I mean, I totally won between you and me and I put a gun to your head until I realized you weren't working for the bad guys - sorry, by the way. But yeah. Spaceship. Planet. Aliens. You get the whole inter-galactic tour."

All of this is utterly bizarre to Peter, and while his brows are furrowed in thought as Quill offers his explanation, he accepts everything he's told without argument. Even the part about having a gun put to his head because he knows that the bad guy they're going after is a really bad guy, and it's probably better to be safe than sorry in situations like those.

"All this, it's so exciting," he says. "Being an Avenger, going into space, fighting with Mr. Stark, fighting with you, it's--"

Peter doesn't even know how to finish that sentence, so he just presses his lips together.

"I'm sure you've been doing this kind of stuff since before I was born," he says. "So I'm sure it's not as exciting for you as it is for me."

"It's still pretty exciting," he said. "Space kind of keeps things interesting. You'd be surprised how many aliens are out there."

He looked at the kid who was clearly excited. Quill grinned. Excitement was key to this sort of thing.

Then he remembered Gamora.

Then Quill's nose started to hurt.

"But, uh. You know, it's not always fun," he said, his expression getting more serious! "I went after Thanos because he took my girlfriend."

"What?"

Peter straightens at that, brows furrowed.

"He took your girlfriend? Why?"

"Well, it's kind of a long story," He said, as he continued anyways, "But Thanos is sort of basically like Gamora's adoptive dad. Which, right? Super awkward potential father-in-law. Anyways, Gamora has information he needs so he took her. Obviously I'm going to get her back."

I just have to find her first...

"Well, yeah," Peter says, nodding in agreement. Of course he's gonna get her back. "If I know that-- " Or is it knew? It's kind-of knew for Quill and know for him. "-- I'll definitely help you find her."

Peter doesn't believe he'll remember anything here when he gets back, but he's sure that even the future-him would help if Quill told him.

"Thanks, dude, that means a lot." He said with a smile.

Quill really liked Peter Parker.

"She's kind of a hard-ass, so I'm sure she'll complain when I save her." He continued. "You know how women are."

Dude was much better than kid, Peter decides.

Peter does not know how women are, but he nods anyway because it seems like the right thing to do. "What's your girlfriend like?" he asks. "Is she a Guardian too?"

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