far and away | quill

thirteen

Warmth.

They walked hand-in-hand to the ship, and once they got there they saw everyone else already ready for take off.

"About time," Gamora huffed in the passenger seat.

Stephen's hand tightened around Quinn's.

She bit back her tongue and went to her bunk. She draped her cloaks over a hook in the wall and stuck her weapons into a trunk.

"Can I have the Stone?" she questioned Stephen. He had been watching the news, examining the different technology onboard. He looked at her and nodded, putting a careful hand into his pocket.

He pulled out the shards and handed them to her. She took them with a wrapped hand and placed them on top of her sheets.

"We have 7 days, not counting today," she stated. "A week to save the galaxy..."

"We'll make it," Peter stated and put the ship into autopilot. She looked at him.

He was quite ambitious. She nodded half-heartedly and ducked away into the back part of the ship.

She found a little room with drawers and cabinets and things. She opened the drawers and found clothing. Peter's probably.

She found a tee shirt and changed into it, tossing hers into a laundry bin. She turned back towards the door and saw Peter in the doorway.

"That's my shirt," he chuckled. He moved passed her to rummage through the drawers himself. "It looks better on you."

She looked down at the beat-in Def Leppard shirt.

He started humming Pour Some Sugar on Me. She sung softly along and leaned back on the wall, watching him.

She allowed his thoughts to meet hers. He was mostly thinking about food, the news, the Stone, and Drax...

A pang of guilt crept into her heart. She stopped singing. She should really tell him... But now wasn't the time. They weren't done.

"When did you leave Earth?" she asked him.

"When I was eight. Not much choice with abduction," he said. He found the shirt he wanted.

"By?"

"Yondu. He's a Kree in charge of a group of Ravegers," he paused and looked at her. "And I became a Raveger. You?"

He casually pulled off his sweat-stained shirt and pulled on the new one. She darted her eyes away, uncomfortable seeing a man strip who wasn't Stephen.

"I was in a space program, Stephen got me into it. I landed on Huron when I was twenty-two, ish. And ran. I found James and he gave me a job and a home."

"Awful sweet," he was being sarcastic.

"He's a good guy. He wouldn't mean anything more than giving me a place to sleep-"

"Oh come on," he chuckled and stepped towards her. "Do you really think any guy in this galaxy would house a beautiful human just out of the kindness of his heart? You're stunning and guys are jerks."

"He never made a move on me, though."

He rolled his eyes and stepped ever-closer, "I believe Drax said you two were 'going at it' when he barged in."

He was playing with her, testing how far he could step on her sweet story.

"Stop," she stated. She had grown somewhat irritated with him. He was squandering her fond memories of one of her few friends. "You're being an ass."

He watched her closely and her furrowed brow relaxed. He was less than a foot away from her.

He touched her finger tips and took her small hand in his strong, calloused one. He placed his other hand on her cheek and she was flooded with a typhoon of his emotions and thoughts. He was horribly paranoid about every move he made.

She couldn't take it anymore; she stood on her toes and pulled his face to hers. She left his hand and placed both of her wrapped, bleeding hands on his cheek and neck. She pulled his head down, closer to her height.

He wrapped his arms around her frame, pulling her against him.

She pulled away and took in air.

"Guys are jerks, huh?" the edges of his lips curled at her statement.

"I never said I wasn't."

"Hey Quinn?" Stephen's voice came from the sitting area, down the hall.

Shit.

"Yeah?" she called back, watching Peter's face turn to guilt.

"You might want to see this..." she rushed out of the room and down to the area with the television projection.

Footage of Drax jogging down a street was played. It panned to the planet of Ontario.

A lady came onto the screen and Drax's face was in the top right corner. She said something along the lines of the presumed-late bounty hunter was found on the streets.

"Quinn," Peter spoke behind her. She looked at him and then to Rocket and Groot, finally to Gamora. "Did you lie to us? To me?" Her stomach twisted.

She looked at Groot, searching thoughts for some sort of advice. He broke their gaze and she was left without words.

"I-I," she started, scared of the consequences, "I was going to tell you guys. But we need to save the galaxy before we can worry about-"

"We thought he was dead!" Rocket yelled, standing on the couch and gripping at the bottom of his vest to calm his hands. "How could you let us feel so guilt-"

"I didn't mean to," she started. "I was looking out for you guys, I was trying to help..."

"You've done enough," Gamora spoke out. She looked at the green woman.

"I-I'm sorry," no one could look at her. Everything was magnified to her, everything seemed much worse than it probably was. But she was seeing it as she was seeing it.

She looked at Stephen. He had no connection to the tragedy, but he knew she had wronged the crew. He pulled her to another area, trying to calm her. She was spacing out and trying desperately not to feel.