Fic: Welcome Aboard (April Fic Challenge)

[csi_sanders1129]

Title: Welcome Aboard
Chapters: 1/1
Author:csi_sanders1129
Ratings: K+
Word Count: 560
Pairings/Characters: Yondu Udonta, Kraglin Obfonteri, Peter Quill
Synopsis: In which Yondu has absolutely no idea what to do with some useless terran youngling.
Comments: Written for my April Fic Challenge 2021, Prompt: Frame. Established Yondu/Kraglin. Also Quill is younger when they take him from Earth. First try at GotG fic. Comments and kudos would be awesome. Enjoy!

Yondu has absolutely no idea what to do with some useless terran youngling. The boy won't stop crying, won't get out from under the desk he's jammed himself under, won't talk, won't eat, won't sleep. He got especially grumpy when Yondu snatched the weird, annoying music box away from him – so much so that he'd given it back just to make him stop screaming for a minute.

He doesn't have time to figure out what to do with the boy, either, beyond deciding that he's not willing to do anymore of these delivery runs for Ego. That decision, though, means he needs to get the Eclector the hell away from Earth before that celestial bastard takes notice and sends someone else to retrieve his spawn.

"Now what, Captain?" Kraglin wonders, standing beside Yondu, their combined efforts to coax the young boy out of hiding having failed. "Could always eat him, I suppose."

It's a joke, Yondu is well aware (no matter how much some of his crew would probably jump at the opportunity if Terran were, indeed, on the menu). Kraglin doesn't know everything about their missions, but he knows enough about what they're not doing with this kid to know that eating him wouldn't be a much better outcome than sending him off to Ego. So, he plays along. "No," he says, feigning disappointment. "Not yet, at least. Wouldn't feed anyone, scrawny as he is."

At this implication, the kid's quiet sniffles cease. Ah, silence. Blissful, terrified silence.

"You're in charge of the brat," he tells Kraglin, trusting his first mate to get the kid settled and keep the other Ravagers away from him for now.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with him?"

"Just," he starts, already exhausted by all the trouble this stupid Terran boy is no doubt going to cause him. "Just… get him the hell out of there, clean him up, feed him, and stick him in the room off of mine."

Kraglin does not look at all thrilled at being relegated from first mate to glorified babysitter, but Yondu is confident he'll follow orders, and, well, he'll find a way to make it up to him later. And, with a resigned sigh of beleaguered defeat, Kraglin nods his acceptance of these orders, "Sure thing, Captain," he says. Then, "You're actually gonna keep him, aren't you?"

Anyone else and he would have denied it, would have made up some bullshit excuse about dumping the kid on some other planet to fend for himself, but this is Kraglin and surely Kraglin already knows the answer, so he doesn't bother replying at all.

Instead, Yondu looks to the kid, who is still huddled as far under the desk as his tiny form can get. His name is Quill, Yondu knows, Peter Quill – based on the information Ego gave them for the pick-up, he also knows the kid is barely five, that his mother just died, and that no one (aside from Ego) wants him. He crouches down, reaches in and grabs the boy, hauls him out and passes the screaming, squirmy child off to Kraglin, who is doing his best to dodge both the flailing limbs and the sheer amount of bodily fluids pouring out of the kids face. "Do what Kraglin here tells you and you might just survive, kid," he says, "Welcome aboard."