To Catch a Thief | Peter Quill

Part 12

Peter POV

Arriving in Wakanda with Ronan and Korath, Peter knew this was going to be an interesting retrieval. Peter preferred working alone, Rule #5: Work by yourself every chance you get, but since no one knew where to start the search The Collector thought it best to send a couple of people with him.

Ronan laid a map of Wakanda on top of the Jeep's hood and decided the necklace had to be in one of three spots: City of the Dead, Warrior Falls, or Jabari Land. Peter wanted to check out Warrior Falls first since Valkyrie's story happened near water, but he got outvoted. Instead, they went into the City of the Dead because the Trinkets believed if you wanted to protect something keep it close, but Peter disagreed.

As Peter suspected the City of the Dead was a dead end. They wasted a whole day only to come up with purple flowers. Korath drove back out of the city towards Warrior Falls and Peter couldn't keep the smile off his face. He knew they should have started at the Falls, but they didn't listen. He wasn't an idiot he knew what he was doing. Rule #200: Research what you are stealing.

"Peter come in, Peter you there," you said through his comm. "Sorry new to this...um...cough if you can hear me." Peter coughed, but it turned into one of those coughing fits. "Calm down, I only needed like a single cough; no needed to cough up a lung." He continued to cough but couldn't stop the smirk from appearing on his face.

"Sorry, something in my throat," he coughed again before taking a sip of water.

"I thought you were dying, guess I was mistaken," Ronan chuckled, staring out the front windshield as Korath drove through the forest.

"Shut up you Big Turd Blossom," Peter scoffed. "How far are we out?"

"It shouldn't be much longer," Korath chimed in, looking at the GPS.

"You finally get a date with the FBI agent neighbor of yours."

Peter tried to say something, but Korath interrupted him. "Star-Prince a date?" Korath laughed, slapping his hand against the steering wheel. "Good one, Ronan."

"Come on man." Peter rolled his eyes staring back out the window. "I don't think she'd give me much of a chance anymore anyways," Peter said softly enough for the comm to pick up.

"Yeah, Pete. Kraglin here. If that was meant for YN, she's not here. Gamora made her go eat dinner. She hasn't eaten much since we got to Wakanda. If you ask me, she's worried about you man."

Peter breathed a half smile as he stared out the window. With all that's happened, he was worried about you, too. He hated ignoring you and pretending to be busy when all he was doing was drinking his sorrows away at Trash Panda. You needed time to process everything, and Peter wanted to give it to you. He promised he'd talk to you when this is all over.

"We're here Star-Crunch!" Korath said grabbing his gear out of the back of the jeep.

Peter stepped outside the door and stretched making his back crack. "Already?"

"We need to hike the rest of the way and set up camp. Dusk will soon be upon us soon," Korath stated. Peter tilted his head up seeing blue skies, but he couldn't see much more with the tree coverage.

Peter moved to the back of the Jeep to grab his gear when he saw Ronan coming out of the trees. "It's clear I took care of the guards. Time to move forward," Ronan mentioned.

"Wait, you killed them?"

"Call it an occupational hazard."

"Come, let's get this over with." Korath walked past them and into the rainforest.