Guardians of the Galaxy One-shots and Preferences

Thanksgiving In Space

Thought I might write something up for Thanksgiving. The reader and Peter decide to plan a Thanksgiving out in space with the other Guardians.

A swear word or two in this one. Enjoy.

"Hey, Peter," you speak up as Peter was busy fiddling with his iPod. The ship which was parked on some random planet while Rocket made some maintenance on it.

Peter didn't seem to hear you the first time, so you pull the headphones off his ears, which scared him and made him jump to his feet. "Damn it, (y/n)," Peter scolds, "You know better then to sneak up on a guy when he's listening to his tunes."

"Sorry," you giggle lightly, "It's just, I found something in my box of things I brought with me from Earth, thought you might want to take a look at it." "Sounds important," Peter sarcastically states as he follows you to the back of the ship.

"So, what is this great big thing you wanted to show me in your box of special Earth trinkets?" Peter asks you and you pull the box out. "Well," you begin, "This actually wasn't something I had intended to bring, believe it or not. It just ended up in there anyway." At this point, Peter was thinking it could be anything from random prom pics to skin mags.

"So," you say, "I was rummaging through my things, like I do sometimes when I get nostalgic, and...I ended up finding this." You pull out what appeared to be an old notebook. "Uh, wow," Peter says, trying to act excited by this random find, "What is it?"

"It's full of old recipes of the things my mother used to make," you tell him, "..before she died that is." "Yeah, I can relate," Peter says, "Not to the recipe thing but to the dead mother thing. The one thing my mom left behind when she died was a love of good quality music."
"Well, anyway," you continue, "I was going through these and I found a few the caught my attention. Maybe you'd want to take a look at them."
Peter takes the book and reads, "Deep fried turkey, green bean casserole, gravy, stuffing, pumpkin pie. These sound like the kind of dishes one would eat at Thanksgiving." "They are," you tell him, "And I'm surprised you'd remember Thanksgiving. Usually after Halloween, that's when everyone starts taking out the Christmas decorations." "Hey, from what I remembered I loved Thanksgiving," Peter tells you, "I mean, maybe not so much its origins, but I always loved the food being served. My own mother, before she got sick, cause of my dad, she'd go all out with the dishes. The turkey, cranberry sauce, which I hated, the gravy and stuffing. And she'd always pull the wishbone with me. Good times."

"You know, I just realized something," you continue, "Thanksgiving is around the corner back on Earth. This week in fact." "Really, you keep track of that?" Peter frowns. "I like to know what's going down on Earth every so often," you tell him, "Holidays are one, elections another, though I would try to avoid Earth during the latter. But since the elections are over, maybe we can swing over to Earth and grab the things we need to make those meals. I mean, this ship can take us to whatever grocery store we want." "Seems cutting it close," Peter points out, "Since it's three days away, who knows how much stuff we can get, we'd be lucky if we can find a Turkey or a pumpkin pie." "Then we better get going," you say.

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"So remind me again why we're going back to Earth," Rocket speaks up, "And what is even Thanksgiving anyway?" "It's basically a holiday where families come together to feast and give thanks for what they have," Peter explains. "Sounds like fun," Drax comments. "I am Groot," Groot agrees. "It does sound sentimental," Mantis agrees, "But, why?" "Well if I had to guess, it's mostly so giving people something to feel good about since the holiday's origins somewhat border along the lines of genocide and colonization," you admit, "but hey, what do I know? all I know is it gave me a few extra days off of school so I could eat some turkey, casserole, and pumpkin pie."

"Okay then," Gamora says, "I keep forgetting how weird Earth is with all its traditions and customs." 

"Well, looks like we're almost here," Rocket announces as they approach the planet. "Oh boy, I can smell the fried turkey already." "All this fuss for a dead bird," Drax grumbles. "A dead bird that comes with a wishbone," Peter quips in. 

"We got an incoming call," Mantis announces looking at the ship's control panel. "It's from S.H.I.L.D.," you notice, "This isn't like them to make incoming calls to us we've done this before."
"Let's just put it through," Peter says, "Guessing they have new polices in place post election."

You pull up the screen so everyone could see who was calling. "Guardians of Galaxy," the caller addresses.  You didn't take long to recognize both the voice and face with the eye patch. "Fury," you greet back, "This is...unexpected. No really, this is unexpected." "Yeah it really is," Peter quips. "About as unexpected as it can get," Drax adds. "Okay, now that we've established that this all unexpected, what do you want Fury?" Rocket deadpans, "I mean it's not like it's the first time we've Guardians have been to Earth, you know that, you know full well we're not threat, so what's the problem?"

"Uh yeah about that," Fury says, "Although we don't usually get too many visitors from outer space, some persuasion from Colonel Danvers suggested we place a temporary restriction of space travel to Earth for the time being." "What? Why?" you and Peter ask at the same time. "Yeah, this really isn't a good time," Fury says. "Come on, Fury," Peter urges, "What could possibly be so bad that we can't land on Earth right now?" "I am Groot." "Yeah, what is there some kind of world-wide plague going on right now?" Drax adds.

"...Well..."

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"Well that's typical," you deadpan on the ship, "You leave Earth for a few months and it all goes to shit."

"What kind of idiot thought it was a good idea to create a super virus and just leave it laying around in the first place?" Peter exasperates, "I mean, it's just...ugh, it's so inconvenient." "Yeah, tell that to the millions of people back on Earth who are infected right now," Gamora deadpans.

"I am Groot?" Groot asks with concern.

"I don't know what we're gonna do now," you sigh, feeling depressed, "And I was so looking forward to having an authentic Thanksgiving. I was going to break out the deep friar for the turkey and everything."

"Guess it's back to business as usual then," Rocket says, "Just as well, there are few jobs we can pick up on the way back to our side of space."

"I am Groot," Groot stands up. "What's that?" Gamora asks. Groot stands up and gives his speech, "I am Groot? I am Groot. I am Groot, I am Groot. I am Groot!"

"...wow, Groot," you say afterwards, "That, uh, that was surprisingly moving."

"He does have a point," Mantis quips in, "it shouldn't matter where we celebrate Thanksgiving. If it's about being together and being thankful for what we have, then that's all that matters right?"

"I guess so," you agree, "You and Groot are right, Mantis, as long as we're together, what does it matter where have Thanksgiving. We don't even need a turkey or a casserole or a pie. Anything we can scrounge off the ship is good enough for me."

"...We may not have to," Drax speaks up, getting the rest of the Guardians' attention, "I may have an idea."

------Sometime later---------------

It took a few trips to a few planets, but you and the Guardians had manged to find similar ingredients to the traditional Thanksgiving dishes (it took especially some time to wrangle the avian like alien animal on one planet to substitute for the turkey).

Surprisingly, you were able to transfer the much of your mom's cookbook with the ingredients you had on hand (you kinda had to sort through some of the questionable spices that were acquired by Rocket).

"Well it's not quite what my mother makes," you admits as the team set up the table and place the dishes where they need to be, "but I wouldn't have it any other way."

"I still don't know what's all the fuss about a dead bird," Drax says as everyone serves themselves.
"I am Groot," Groot agrees.