[Closed to Rocket] Rocket, man

[st_arkintern]

Peter Parker stood outside the door to his neighbors room, took a breath, and then knocked.

Alec's backpack was gone when he finally went back up to their room and Peter knew from their last fight exactly what that meant.

The only advantage he had over then was that now he had a neighbor. When Alec was angry, most of the time he made noise. If that was the case, Rocket might have seen something -- heard something that would give some idea where he had gone or when he had gone there.

And Peter knew Alec was angry. Alec was upset even before he said that really terrible thing. All Peter could hope for was that he could find him and apologize like he should have to begin with.

Peter attempts to pull together a smile before Rocket answers the door. If he answers the door.

Comments

[st_ripetail]

"Usually I start killing an' don't stop 'til the survivors shut up an' fall in line." It was not a joke. "After a while, word got around enough so's I could threaten and get the same effect, but I still did body-count reminders sometimes. Won't work here, though. I'll have to find a new angle. Won't work for you either, we're not that much the same."

[st_arkintern]

Peter doesn't know whether or not to take it as a joke, but given Rocket's earlier reaction in the lobby, he tends to suspect that Rocket isn't joking.

"Yeah," Peter says. "No. Killing people -- it's not really my thing, you know?"

This was probably obvious to Rocket from the get-go.

[st_ripetail]

"Yeah, it's a specialized thing." Rocket's love of murder wasn't necessarily evangelical. He didn't need company, even if company was sometimes fun, and having a friend who could look and be sweet and innocent was useful. Groot had been good for that, everybody liked Groot.

[st_arkintern]

"What are you going to do differently here?" Peter asks, shoving his hand back into his pocket.

Since killing was off the table for Rocket now, too.

[st_ripetail]

"Dunno yet. I'll figure somethin' out." It wasn't entirely true, because he already had a few revenge plots brewing for Alec. It was a pity there were no fake limbs anywhere for him to steal.

[st_arkintern]

Peter was hoping to borrow one of Rocket's ideas. Obviously that wasn't going to happen.

"Do you have a second lesson?" he asks instead.

[st_ripetail]

"Shit, I didn't plan a series. I just say stuff." Rocket's ears flattened briefly. This was the danger of earnest kids, clearly - you imply you have more than one life lesson and they believe you. "I guess prob'ly somethin' like 'you do you'. People're always going to say stupid shit about what's possible. But if it's you, do it anyway. An' on the flip side, if it ain't you? It's not a bad thing if you hard pass." Obvious, but sometimes humies needed to be told obvious things. Like it wasn't real unless somebody outside their heads said it.

[st_arkintern]

Peter kind of wishes he had a notebook to write this down, but he doesn't, so he repeats a few times inside his head instead.

"Okay," he says. "And -- I'm sorry about Alec. He was mad at me. He shouldn't have taken it out on Mr. Star-Lord."

Peter glances at the door. "If you see him, can you let me know? I'm going to leave a note just in case he shows up while I'm out."

[st_ripetail]

"Okay, seriously, lesson three: cut out the Mister shit. Or at least go with 'Mr. Quill'. You do realize absolutely nobody calls him that stupid made-up name, right? He keeps tryin'ta make it happen an' it's just... it's hilarious and kinda sad." Rocket followed the kid's look to the door, then flicked one ear. "Eh. Sure, shouldn't be a problem." Because, of course, if Rocket saw him, ultimately probably a lot of people were going to know about it. Peter might well be one of them!

[st_arkintern]

Peter is a little disappointed that Rocket, too, doesn't have a made-up name, but Rocket's pretty closed to be a made-up name without actually being one.

"Thank you," Peter says solemnly. He presses his lips together and then gives Rocket a smile. "I'm gonna go, but if you need anything, I'll --"

Peter's about to tell Rocket that he'll be in his own room, but he knows he won't be.

"-- I'll be at my girlfriend's room, Room 189. It's downstairs," he says.

[st_ripetail]

"I promise not to set your room on fire while you're gone." The other Guardians would, on hearing that, immediately start worrying about everything Rocket wasn't promising not to do to their room. Peter... probably didn't quite realize all of how Rocket worked, yet.

[st_arkintern]

That draws a smile from Peter, who's convinced that Rocket's joking just to make him feel better. "Thank you," he says. "I'll see you around."

And with that, Peter heads back to his room to grab a few things before heading back to Liz's.