[ She purses her lips when she catches on to his plan and lets out an exaggerated sigh of relief. ]
Tough one, buuut I'm gonna go with Option A. Should be enough to get you in a fight without possibly also getting killed in the process, unlike that second option.
I don't need luck when I've got my wit, charm, and good-- [ He was going to say looks, here, but considering he's looked like he got run over by a cavalcade of semi-trucks for the past several months, he just stops himself. ]
Just-- get ready to haul ass, okay?
[ He pushes off from the counter, and when he's sure the Ravagers are distracted with their drinks and their conversation, Peter saunters over to Spikey.
He leans against the counter, arms crossed over his chest as he looks down the bridge of his nose at him. He ducks his head, says something in Spike's ear, then--
"What the fuck did you just say to me, you little piece of shit?!"
Spikey grabs Peter around the throat -- which was definitely not part of his plan, Peter laments, as his hands scramble to grip the alien's wrist -- and flings him straight into the table of Ravagers. The Krylorian woman screams in shock and darts away as the other Ravagers surge to their feet.
The bastards don't even bother checking on Peter before charging at the alien, and chaos, predictably, ensues. ]
[ Kasumi's eyes go wide, a bit, when Spikey grabs Peter by the throat, wondering if she should intervene somehow, but then he's being thrown at the Ravagers' table before she can even complete that thought. She rolls her eyes at the way the Ravagers completely ignore Peter in favor of jumping into the fray, but she lets the chaos ensue just long enough to be sure the Ravagers are truly preoccupied with the brawl before quickly making her way over to Peter's side. ]
Are you alright, Peter? That got a little scary for a second, there.
[ Her gaze flicks back and forth between Peter and the Ravagers, who are now in the thick of the fight. This is their chance. ]
[ He sits up, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from groaning as he does so. Broken glass falls from his coat -- and it's a damn good thing Ravagers insisted on good quality for their uniforms, otherwise that really could've been nasty. As it is, the crash into the table and the ensuing topple to the hard floor has reopened a cut on his lip, and he's thankful that's the only wound that was inflicted.
-- Well, that, and the fall might've jostled some old injuries along his side, and the sharp bolts of pain are warning him against any sudden movements; he's also pretty sure the room shouldn't be spinning the way it is, but--
No. Suck it up, he commands himself. It was his idea, after all, so-- act cool, Quill. Walk it off. ]
I'm fine. [ He breathes in sharply through his teeth as he gets himself ready to move. A trickle of blood falls into his mouth, and he turns to spit it out immediately. ]
[ Kasumi watches him; he's in pain and she knows it, and she makes a mental note to herself to Medi-Gel the hell out of his injuries as soon as they're able. For now, though, she'll nod and give him a reassuring and extremely carefully gentle pat on the shoulder when he gets up. ]
Let's blow this popsicle stand.
[ In her head, she's already trying to plan the next steps. Getting out of the bar is going to be easy, but where do they go from there? She came in with Feron, and--Kasumi can't help but really think, you could have given me some advanced warning so I could plan, Liara, but the Shadow Broker knows that Kasumi's as good at thinking on her feet as she is planning things out for weeks in advance, so she lets the thought slide. This is, however, vastly different from spontaneous escapes from run-ins with slighted mercs or nosy skilled Spectres. All she knows is that they'll have to lay low, for some time, wherever they end up, and given Peter's condition (which has been newly aggravated by his being thrown around just now), Kasumi's perfectly fine with that. They have to make up for lost time, but more importantly, Kasumi has to make sure that she's there for him. The last few months have been hard on her, but harder still on him, and she'll take that to heart. ]
[ He's in a crouching position by now, having shaken off most of the glass, but as an afterthought, he grabs up bottle that went miraculously unbroken, turns to find someone who currently isn't enthralled by the current fight, and chucks it at them.
Just, you know, to add more fuel to the flames.
When the alien turns to look at him, Peter points at the brawling group near the bar and feigns the sort of wide-eyed, gaping mouth appearance of a fish out of water, as if to say, "I can't believe I just saw that happen."
The alien seems to buy it and-- he's much bigger than Peter had originally thought, once he stands and sends his chair clattering to the floor. All the better when he, too, charges into the fray, sending bodies flying. ]
[ She can't quite hide the entertained look on her face as she watches on, all the while moving to follow Peter's lead; this is pretty much how she also imagined Shepard would try to sneak out of a bar. In any case, she gives him an affirmative nod and a smile. ]
Try not to get your ass kicked one more time on the way out, love. I've only got so much Medi-Gel.
[ Peter pauses when he notices the "love" again, though any mentions he might have made of it go interrupted when glass shatters on the floor just a foot away.
Instead, he grabs her hand and hastens his way over to the door while the Ravagers are busy Spikey and Tiny. He gives the horrified bartender a pitying glance, and as an afterthought, chucks over a data chip with all the units he has on hand.
It's not much, but it's the very least he can do for inciting a small riot.
Once they're out of the seedy little bar, though, Peter doesn't relax. There's still the chance one of those idiots could notice he's not where they left him, so the faster they're off-planet, the better their chances will be. ]
[ By the time they've even stepped out of the bar, Kasumi's already on her omni-tool. Almost as if on cue, she'd received a short, but incredibly helpful message from Feron:
Meet me at our initial rendezvous spot.
And since they're short on time, Kasumi doesn't bother explaining the situation before she grabs Peter by the hand and begins to lead him away, mentally making a note to herself to send flowers and chocolates to Liara and maybe get Feron a new gun because, holy hell, they're seriously spoiling me with this. ]
I've got a contact waiting for us. Well, more like a friend by now, I suppose. I owe them like crazy for this.
[ He blinks in surprise at that -- he had assumed that Kasumi had tracked him down again, had brought in the cavalry in the form of the Milano and his loveable band of misfits.
(He'd never admit it, but he misses those fuckers like crazy. He's looking forward to seeing them again.)
But the mention of a "contact" makes him a little nervous, seeing as how some prior "contact" must have tipped Yondu off about Kasumi. Who's to say it wouldn't happen again? It definitely wouldn't do to put their trust in this person, only to have them turn around and drop them right back in the Ravagers' laps.
And Peter has no idea how kindly Yondu would take to an escape attempt. Probably not very kindly at all. ]
[ She knows the brief pause before her response probably isn't the most reassuring thing, but Kasumi's still trying to wrap her head around how much Liara and Feron are helping her on such a personal endeavor, all the while moving quickly through the crowds to make their way to the rendezvous point.
Feron and Kasumi had worked together on a number of jobs, especially recently. He's Liara's most trusted agent, and despite being the Shadow Broker, Kasumi knows Liara was someone who could be trusted, and Feron would never double-cross Liara. Not again, at least. He's been through too much, and Kasumi knows. Plus, she'd like to think that she and Feron had achieved something of a friendship by now, on top of that. ]
Feron's a good guy. I don't really know why he and his boss are doing so much for me, but I'll sort that out another time. Just--trust me on this one, alright?
[ She's absolutely right on that count -- Peter does not like that pause, nor does he like the sound of-- any of this, really. But he's also not stupid enough to just stop in his tracks so they can argue this out.
He is stupid enough to keep moving and arguing this out, though, because he's surprisingly good at multi-tasking. ]
Look-- we've been burned at least once. I just-- wanna make sure we're making the right decision, here, okay? That we're not bein' too hasty.
[ He may be saying "we," but he really means her. He doesn't want Kasumi risking herself on his behalf, is what he's trying to get at, though not in so many words. Peter may seem so self-involved sometimes that he wouldn't notice a spaceship until it hit him in the face, but he's also practical, knows the worth of things. And by his reckoning, Kasumi's life (and the lives of his team, for that matter) is far more valuable than his own. ]
[ She pulls him into an alleyway, then--it's almost eerily similar to the one she found him in a few months ago, and she keeps moving because there are a million thoughts running through her head and her feet can't help but emulate. She knows the situation isn't ideal; she knows he'd be much more comfortable if there weren't a third party involved, or if they were meeting up with the other Guardians, but there's not much Kasumi can do without risking they get caught. If she had tried to contact them when she found out, how long would she have had between finding him and them arriving? How would they get away without setting off all of Yondu's radars? Why didn't Liara and Feron tell her in advance about this--were they not sure, themselves, and this whole thing was set up so that Feron could confirm before telling Kasumi?
She doesn't have answers to any of these questions, really, but at some point she just takes in a sharp breath to try and explain. ]
I promise you that they're not going to burn us. I've worked with them before on some risky jobs, especially lately. Feron's boss is one of Shepard's closest confidants, and helped me find you the first time around. And then there's the fact that Feron's gone through too much to ever want to double cross anyone ever again.
I don't know why they're doing all this for me, but at the very least I know that they don't mean any harm by it.
[ She squeezes his hand, and perhaps a little more tightly than she really intends to. Part of her's afraid that if she lets go, he'll change his mind, decide it really is best if she leaves, without him, once again. Or worse, maybe he'll just--tell her things will be better off for the both of them if they just stopped being involved with one another--or something. ]
[ ... Well, okay, namedropping Shepard does make him feel a little better about this. He knows from what little he's heard from Kasumi and from the news reports -- the flattering ones, anyway, not the ones that had painted her as insane, raving about a mysterious, ancient race of monsters -- that Shepard is a good judge of character; or at least, she surrounds herself with capable people.
A part of him still wants to argue that they shouldn't take this risk, but he's just-- really sick of not being among people he can trust. He's sick of not being around Kasumi.
Five months and some change is a long fucking time.
So the fight goes out of him after a moment (and he lets himself feel guilty about that for about two seconds -- now's not the time, he thinks). ]
[ Kasumi doesn't really want to argue about the merits of trusting the Shadow Broker and one of her agents, not at the moment. She's basing all of her trust on them on a few successful jobs, the good will of Shepard (which counts for a lot, in and of itself), and the fact that Liara has plainly and unquestionably been the lynchpin to the Crucible project.
The most important thing to her, right now, is getting Peter the hell out of here and away from the Ravagers.
A turn or two down more alleyways later, and she's pulling up her omni-tool and hastily speaking into it. ]
Feron, it's me. We're approaching the LZ. What's your status?
[ Feron's voice comes through on the other end with, "I'm good. Not being followed, if that's what you were really wondering. You've got your friend?"
Kasumi glances over at Peter and manages a smile. ]
Yeah, thanks. See you soon.
[ They're in a rather nondescript part of the town now, away from the bustle of the bars and nightlife, and almost as soon as they step out of the alleyway, there's a familiar whirring in the air from skycars zipping about above them. ]
[ Even so, Peter still doesn't relax. He probably won't let himself take it easy until he's back on the Milano, and even then, knowing that Yondu was serious about being paid his dues--
-- that'll be a thought for another time, he tells himself. He's always been about the here and now, after all.
So while Kasumi might step out of the alleyway, Peter hovers at its mouth, quiet and tense and ready to grab Kasumi's hand and run, if the situation calls for it. If nothing else, these past few months with the Ravagers have certainly heightened his reflexes in that regard.
He trusts Kasumi, trusts her judgement, and he knows he's being supremely paranoid right now. Still, it pays to be cautious. He only wishes he remembered that lesson earlier, so they could've avoided this whole mess. ]
[ She looks back, noticing his preference for staying half-in the alleyway, but within moments she hears the sound of a shuttle descending upon them, and she steps back into the alleyway too, just to be completely sure. This time, it's her turn to outstretch an arm to keep Peter behind, as if to protect him. And in spite of her Trust Talk, her other arm tentatively skirts the pistol holstered at her hip, just to be extra completely sure.
When the shuttle lands, there's a brief pause until the doors open, but when they do, Feron steps out. He doesn't seem to know where they are, at first, but Kasumi pointedly makes eye contact with him for a moment before she starts looking around to confirm he wasn't tailed here or anything.
"Goto," he speaks lowly in the direction of the alleyway, "we should go. I've been tracking the activity on their ship, and it's pretty quiet, but who knows for how long?"
When he sees Peter, he gives him a silent, polite nod. And Kasumi looks back at Peter now, her arm still stretched out in front of him, with a look that's begging him not to have second thoughts now. ]
[ Peter's keeping his eyes peeled for unwanted company, too, even in light of what the drell says. By his reckoning, the Ravagers at the bar would probably be starting the long process of licking their wounds, gathering up their injured. If he and Kasumi are very lucky, they won't even notice he's gone until Yondu does a headcount and comes up one short.
But Peter doesn't trust his luck. Not anymore.
He's glancing behind them, peering down the alley in case they might've missed someone following them, when Kasumi asks her question. His tongue runs over the back of his teeth thoughtfully. Maybe-- he should go back. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe if he hurries, he can return to the bar in time to join the others back to the Eclector. Maybe--
Maybe he should go back.
Yeah. He should go back.
Peter turns back to say as much. He's going to say, "This was a mistake," but that look on Kasumi's face makes the words die on his lips.
So in the end he just-- nods, edging forward out of the cover of the alley. ]
[ She only responds with a nod and a decisive glance at Feron before she moves out of cover, as well, with Feron taking point back towards the shuttle. He swiftly hops in and only waits for the two to get in before beginning to drive up, again. It's a bit of a bumpy ride from there, since Feron's not exactly bothering with traffic rules in the interest of time, but before long they're out of the colony and then out of orbit, out of sight, hopefully for a long while yet.
Kasumi spent most of the ride back to Feron's ship trying to hail the Milano, to give them an update. After all, they had no idea this kind of rescue effort would be mounted. Hell, Kasumi didn't even know. She wanted to confront Feron about it, but figured it's probably best not to do so in front of Peter. And then Peter's injuries--god, he's hurt, so hurt ran through Kasumi's mind more times than she could be bothered to count as she tried her best to tend to his wounds with Medi-Gel. That, however, couldn't heal the other wounds he has, the ones he got from going through hell again. Wounds from trying to protect his friends, and trying to protect her. It took every fiber of Kasumi's being not to start crying in front of him when she saw just how badly he'd been beaten, not just tonight, but every night he's been gone, it seemed. But she did, at one point, keel over next to him and just--took his one of his hands into hers, held it to her face, and let out a long, long sigh.
And then they're finally back on the Milano, after what seems now like a long and arduous process of trying to rendezvous in the shadows, full of trickery, sabotage, and a little help still from the Shadow Broker.
With Peter back on the ship, Kasumi had wondered at first if maybe it would be a good time to leave and let him recover with his friends, and figure out what all happened, but as soon as she even had the thought and made the slightest move to turn around, Gamora took hold of her arm, and gave her a stern look.
"You shouldn't leave now, Goto," she had said, "Quill needs you. Probably."
'Probably,' huh? is Kasumi's thought when she remembers the brief exchange, now, as she sits by the kitchenette with her omni-tool's screen pulled up. ]
[ While Kasumi spent her time hailing the Milano, Peter spent the time half asleep, the adrenaline finally wearing off once they were out of orbit. It's only then that he starts realizing, I'm going home. But he's still tense, and even if his body is exhausted, his mind is still sharp, still active. It refuses to rest until he's back on board his ship, until he can hear his footsteps echo against the bulkhead, until he can feel and hear the hum of its engines.
He fucking loves that ship. It's been his home and his baby for seventeen years.
The injuries Kasumi tends to are old ones: old bruises on top of older bruises; scabbed-over cuts; scars from where he's been stitched up without the aid of Medi-Gel. His left side looks worse than his right. She doesn't ask, which is all the same to him. He's ashamed to admit there were some nights where he was just too bone-tired to fight back, just curled up on his side and hoped that a misplaced blow to the head would knock him out and end their fun.
But he can see the worry on her face, see how upset it makes her, and he feels like a fucking shithead for putting her through this. More than once he wants to tell her to stop, that he can do it himself, because that look of heartbreak on her face is killing him. But he doesn't. Because-- because it's nice. It's so fucking nice to have her hands on him, and her touch gentle and kind, and his eyes prickle as he screws them shut, and he just-- he's missed this. He needs this.
(It's somewhere around month four that the realization that he just might need her had started worming its way into his mind, though it hasn't settled yet.)
The Guardians are not naturally a touchy-feely bunch. Being raised among enemies or just-- being an asshole will do that to you. But the moment Peter's back on the ship, the others nearly trample them in their rush. Gamora reaches him first, because of course she does, and her hold around his rib cage makes him ache, and then Drax is enveloping them both, then Groot, then Rocket begrudgingly leans against Peter's leg.
He thinks they must've gotten this from him, the whole-- physical contact thing. Lord knows he's the only one who'd have done something like this. And he laughs and laughs, and he-- and-- and he just-- he fucking just--
He loses it.
Because all of the adrenaline is gone, and there's nothing left but the raw edges of everything rubbing together. He's an exposed nerve, and he needs to heal, but for now he's just. Relieved. Happy. Because Kasumi is here and his friends are here, and he's home, he's really home, for the first time in five months and some change, and he knows he's called them his family before, but they really are. They're his family, and he hasn't had a family in such a long, long time.
He doesn't know the last time he's fucking wept like this, like a goddamn kid with a skinned knee, and the alarmed murmurs from the others are enough to tell him that they have no idea that sometimes Terrans cry when they're overwhelmed by emotion, even happiness. Somehow, that's hilarious to him, so he laughs and cries all the more until his sides ache all over again, and he pulls Kasumi into the mess, too, because why not? He wants her here. She's as much a part of his life as this group of assholes, whether she wants to be or not.
(He hopes she does. He really hopes she does.)
It's not until he sags, exhausted, that they finally let him go -- sort of, anyway. Drax half carries him to his bunk, and he feigns annoyance at how clean it is, how he was hoping it'd be just the way he left it.
"Like hell we were just gonna leave your crap lyin' around, you idiot," Rocket said, and Peter didn't even realize he had followed them. "Pretty sure there was shit growin' in 'ere.."
"You must rest," is all Drax says, and he deposits Peter on the bunk. "You must regain your strength."
Peter just murmurs something alone the lines of, You got it, dude, and sleeps the instant his head hits the pillow.
When he wakes, he doesn't know where he is, and he panics. The engines sound wrong. It's too quiet. His heart's pounding in his chest and his mind is racing, and he can't remember how he got here, how did he get here? Did they take him here? What the fuck kinda game are the playing at now? Shit, they kept saying stuff about selling him to the Collector, didn't they? But he thought they were joking, but-- fuck, he let his guard down and now he doesn't know what's happening and--
-- and there are hands on him, gripping his shoulders and he lashes out, pulls away on instinct, but then the grip moves to his wrists once he lashes out again to give himself room to maneuver. The hands on his wrist are strong, really goddamn strong, and fucking fuck fuck, he knows what comes next, the punching bag game, the say-please-right game--
"Peter!"
That voice makes him freeze. It's different, and his sleep-addled takes longer to register, "feminine."
"Calm down, Peter. You're safe. You're on the Milano. You're safe."
It takes him longer than he wants to admit to get himself under control, to get himself to stop shaking and to breath like a normal person. Gamora doesn't let him go until his breath evens out. Once he's finally calm he glances around and-- is deeply disappointed.
... He had the inkling she wouldn't stay. And it's-- okay that she didn't. He understands--
"She's in the galley," Gamora says with a small, kind smile. As she leaves the room, she tosses over her shoulder, "I'll retrieve her." ]
[ Kasumi had continued to look back on what happened, inadvertently ignoring the messages that had gone through on her omni-tool (missed correspondence from the last few days of ignoring messages to focus on the last job and then all this) in favor of staring absentmindedly at nothing in particular. Seeing Peter reunite with his friends, and seeing him just lose it at that moment had moved Kasumi so much she almost lost it, too, and sure enough there had been a traitorous tear or two that spilled over before Peter pulled her in. It was nice, so nice, to have been a part of that, a part of him. Sure, she had made some friends aboard the Normandy, but the day you get everyone into a nice big group hug like that? For one, there were just way too many of them, and probably someone would get pissed because they're not the hugging type and then someone else would walk away with a broken bone or two--so this? The warmth of him, her partner, and his friends, his dysfunctional but endearing and well-meaning (whether they would like to admit that or not) friends, who in many ways understand Kasumi more than some of the straight-laced do-gooder on the Normandy? This is nice, and she's glad to be part of it in her own way.
She snaps out of that reverie, however, when she hears Gamora yelling from Peter's bunk. Before she can even pause to wonder what's going on, she's already on her feet, rushing towards his room and nearly tripping over some gadget Rocket was working on--and Rocket yells at her, of course, but luckily Groot manages to stretch a branch out in time to catch her. But she doesn't spare a second to thank them, regretfully, because by the time Gamora's even taken two steps out of Peter's room, Kasumi's already there, right in front of her.
Gamora merely smiles at her much in the same way she just had at Peter and steps aside as if to say, "He wants to see you." Kasumi responds with a silent "Thanks, Gamora," before she slips past her and into Peter's room.
She should probably wait until the door's closed behind her to do anything rash like take off her hood and rush to his beside, but after everything they've been through in the last few--however long it's been? Screw it. She lingers at the door for only a few seconds before she does just that: making her way over to him, letting her hood drop (and it occurs to her that this is the first time she gets to see him without it on since the got taken, and that it would be the same for him), and taking a seat at the edge of the bed, her body hovering over his in concern. ]
[ When he sits up, back against the wall, he realizes he's still shaking, and he tries to stop himself through sheer force of will alone.
It doesn't work, of course, and he doesn't know if it was the panic or the fact that he's just exhausted that's doing it, but either way it makes him feel silly and weak and like a god damn invalid.
And then Kasumi's there, and he was hoping he would have a few moments, at least, to compose himself when Gamora brought her, but no such luck. Peter's never had good luck, after all. ]
I'm fine.
[ His voice is unsteady and hoarse, and he hates himself for it; he knows she won't like that answer, though, so he goes adds as an afterthought, ]
Had a bad dream.
[ And that, he thinks, is believable enough. No need for them to start worrying that he'll wake up swinging every morning, now. He licks his lip as he settles, sitting the pillow up to cushion his back. ]
[ She'll settle for that explanation, for now, because she thinks it's not the time to pry. Right now is a time to relax and rest and heal. She knows, though, that it's not entirely true; she's been beside him during bad dreams, before, and usually they don't get to a point where she has to yell.
What he says--that he'd thought she'd have left by now--makes her heart twist a little, though, and she pulls herself away in guilt. Because she thought she'd have left by now, too, and how goddamn awful is that? That someone you care for so much--someone you might even love--just finally found his way home after going through hell for months, and your first instinct was maybe I should leave? Kasumi's kicking herself enough already for that, but to hear it from Peter too--that stings. She knows he probably didn't mean any harm by it, but it's unsettling all the same.
Because there's a part of her that, especially after all this, doesn't want to leave, maybe ever. There's a part of her that just wants to be with him and always have his back and be there when he needs a well-placed decoy or a silent strike to a tricky enemy, be there whenever he needs someone to sooth him back into sleep after a bad dream. But she knows that's impossible; she has obligations to fulfill and there's still the fact that she's carrying potentially war-igniting intel with her in her brain and she's dangerous and--damn, is all Kasumi thinks. Damn it. I'm such an idiot.
She tries not to let that train of thought run away, but she'll manage her best reassuring smile at him. ]
Sorry. It looks like you'll be stuck with me for a while longer.
[ He's genuinely glad she's still here, at least. He knows she has far more important shit to do, stuff like helping the illustrious Commander Shepard save the galaxy, than waiting for her stupid boyfriend to wake up from an impromptu nap. And he's still tired, but he's awake, now; and if sleeping means waking up like that, terrified and panicked and lashing out at the first touch, then maybe sleeping around Kasumi isn't such a great idea.
He swallows nervously and licks his lips. ]
I didn't get a chance to-- say thanks before. So-- thanks. [ He reaches to take her hand. ] For talkin' some sense into me. I know it's not an easy thing to do.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[ He slides off his bar stool, hands splayed on the the counter. ]
What do you think,: make fun of his weight or claim I slept with his mom?
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Tough one, buuut I'm gonna go with Option A. Should be enough to get you in a fight without possibly also getting killed in the process, unlike that second option.
Good luck, Quill.
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Just-- get ready to haul ass, okay?
[ He pushes off from the counter, and when he's sure the Ravagers are distracted with their drinks and their conversation, Peter saunters over to Spikey.
He leans against the counter, arms crossed over his chest as he looks down the bridge of his nose at him. He ducks his head, says something in Spike's ear, then--
"What the fuck did you just say to me, you little piece of shit?!"
Spikey grabs Peter around the throat -- which was definitely not part of his plan, Peter laments, as his hands scramble to grip the alien's wrist -- and flings him straight into the table of Ravagers. The Krylorian woman screams in shock and darts away as the other Ravagers surge to their feet.
The bastards don't even bother checking on Peter before charging at the alien, and chaos, predictably, ensues. ]
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Are you alright, Peter? That got a little scary for a second, there.
[ Her gaze flicks back and forth between Peter and the Ravagers, who are now in the thick of the fight. This is their chance. ]
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-- Well, that, and the fall might've jostled some old injuries along his side, and the sharp bolts of pain are warning him against any sudden movements; he's also pretty sure the room shouldn't be spinning the way it is, but--
No. Suck it up, he commands himself. It was his idea, after all, so-- act cool, Quill. Walk it off. ]
I'm fine. [ He breathes in sharply through his teeth as he gets himself ready to move. A trickle of blood falls into his mouth, and he turns to spit it out immediately. ]
We gotta go. Now.
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Let's blow this popsicle stand.
[ In her head, she's already trying to plan the next steps. Getting out of the bar is going to be easy, but where do they go from there? She came in with Feron, and--Kasumi can't help but really think, you could have given me some advanced warning so I could plan, Liara, but the Shadow Broker knows that Kasumi's as good at thinking on her feet as she is planning things out for weeks in advance, so she lets the thought slide. This is, however, vastly different from spontaneous escapes from run-ins with slighted mercs or nosy skilled Spectres. All she knows is that they'll have to lay low, for some time, wherever they end up, and given Peter's condition (which has been newly aggravated by his being thrown around just now), Kasumi's perfectly fine with that. They have to make up for lost time, but more importantly, Kasumi has to make sure that she's there for him. The last few months have been hard on her, but harder still on him, and she'll take that to heart. ]
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Just, you know, to add more fuel to the flames.
When the alien turns to look at him, Peter points at the brawling group near the bar and feigns the sort of wide-eyed, gaping mouth appearance of a fish out of water, as if to say, "I can't believe I just saw that happen."
The alien seems to buy it and-- he's much bigger than Peter had originally thought, once he stands and sends his chair clattering to the floor. All the better when he, too, charges into the fray, sending bodies flying. ]
Now we can go.
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Try not to get your ass kicked one more time on the way out, love. I've only got so much Medi-Gel.
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Instead, he grabs her hand and hastens his way over to the door while the Ravagers are busy Spikey and Tiny. He gives the horrified bartender a pitying glance, and as an afterthought, chucks over a data chip with all the units he has on hand.
It's not much, but it's the very least he can do for inciting a small riot.
Once they're out of the seedy little bar, though, Peter doesn't relax. There's still the chance one of those idiots could notice he's not where they left him, so the faster they're off-planet, the better their chances will be. ]
Which way?
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Meet me at our initial rendezvous spot.
And since they're short on time, Kasumi doesn't bother explaining the situation before she grabs Peter by the hand and begins to lead him away, mentally making a note to herself to send flowers and chocolates to Liara and maybe get Feron a new gun because, holy hell, they're seriously spoiling me with this. ]
I've got a contact waiting for us. Well, more like a friend by now, I suppose. I owe them like crazy for this.
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(He'd never admit it, but he misses those fuckers like crazy. He's looking forward to seeing them again.)
But the mention of a "contact" makes him a little nervous, seeing as how some prior "contact" must have tipped Yondu off about Kasumi. Who's to say it wouldn't happen again? It definitely wouldn't do to put their trust in this person, only to have them turn around and drop them right back in the Ravagers' laps.
And Peter has no idea how kindly Yondu would take to an escape attempt. Probably not very kindly at all. ]
You sure we can trust them?
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[ She knows the brief pause before her response probably isn't the most reassuring thing, but Kasumi's still trying to wrap her head around how much Liara and Feron are helping her on such a personal endeavor, all the while moving quickly through the crowds to make their way to the rendezvous point.
Feron and Kasumi had worked together on a number of jobs, especially recently. He's Liara's most trusted agent, and despite being the Shadow Broker, Kasumi knows Liara was someone who could be trusted, and Feron would never double-cross Liara. Not again, at least. He's been through too much, and Kasumi knows. Plus, she'd like to think that she and Feron had achieved something of a friendship by now, on top of that. ]
Feron's a good guy. I don't really know why he and his boss are doing so much for me, but I'll sort that out another time. Just--trust me on this one, alright?
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He is stupid enough to keep moving and arguing this out, though, because he's surprisingly good at multi-tasking. ]
Look-- we've been burned at least once. I just-- wanna make sure we're making the right decision, here, okay? That we're not bein' too hasty.
[ He may be saying "we," but he really means her. He doesn't want Kasumi risking herself on his behalf, is what he's trying to get at, though not in so many words. Peter may seem so self-involved sometimes that he wouldn't notice a spaceship until it hit him in the face, but he's also practical, knows the worth of things. And by his reckoning, Kasumi's life (and the lives of his team, for that matter) is far more valuable than his own. ]
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She doesn't have answers to any of these questions, really, but at some point she just takes in a sharp breath to try and explain. ]
I promise you that they're not going to burn us. I've worked with them before on some risky jobs, especially lately. Feron's boss is one of Shepard's closest confidants, and helped me find you the first time around. And then there's the fact that Feron's gone through too much to ever want to double cross anyone ever again.
I don't know why they're doing all this for me, but at the very least I know that they don't mean any harm by it.
[ She squeezes his hand, and perhaps a little more tightly than she really intends to. Part of her's afraid that if she lets go, he'll change his mind, decide it really is best if she leaves, without him, once again. Or worse, maybe he'll just--tell her things will be better off for the both of them if they just stopped being involved with one another--or something. ]
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A part of him still wants to argue that they shouldn't take this risk, but he's just-- really sick of not being among people he can trust. He's sick of not being around Kasumi.
Five months and some change is a long fucking time.
So the fight goes out of him after a moment (and he lets himself feel guilty about that for about two seconds -- now's not the time, he thinks). ]
... Alright. I trust you.
[ You. Not them. ]
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[ Kasumi doesn't really want to argue about the merits of trusting the Shadow Broker and one of her agents, not at the moment. She's basing all of her trust on them on a few successful jobs, the good will of Shepard (which counts for a lot, in and of itself), and the fact that Liara has plainly and unquestionably been the lynchpin to the Crucible project.
The most important thing to her, right now, is getting Peter the hell out of here and away from the Ravagers.
A turn or two down more alleyways later, and she's pulling up her omni-tool and hastily speaking into it. ]
Feron, it's me. We're approaching the LZ. What's your status?
[ Feron's voice comes through on the other end with, "I'm good. Not being followed, if that's what you were really wondering. You've got your friend?"
Kasumi glances over at Peter and manages a smile. ]
Yeah, thanks. See you soon.
[ They're in a rather nondescript part of the town now, away from the bustle of the bars and nightlife, and almost as soon as they step out of the alleyway, there's a familiar whirring in the air from skycars zipping about above them. ]
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-- that'll be a thought for another time, he tells himself. He's always been about the here and now, after all.
So while Kasumi might step out of the alleyway, Peter hovers at its mouth, quiet and tense and ready to grab Kasumi's hand and run, if the situation calls for it. If nothing else, these past few months with the Ravagers have certainly heightened his reflexes in that regard.
He trusts Kasumi, trusts her judgement, and he knows he's being supremely paranoid right now. Still, it pays to be cautious. He only wishes he remembered that lesson earlier, so they could've avoided this whole mess. ]
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When the shuttle lands, there's a brief pause until the doors open, but when they do, Feron steps out. He doesn't seem to know where they are, at first, but Kasumi pointedly makes eye contact with him for a moment before she starts looking around to confirm he wasn't tailed here or anything.
"Goto," he speaks lowly in the direction of the alleyway, "we should go. I've been tracking the activity on their ship, and it's pretty quiet, but who knows for how long?"
When he sees Peter, he gives him a silent, polite nod. And Kasumi looks back at Peter now, her arm still stretched out in front of him, with a look that's begging him not to have second thoughts now. ]
Shall we?
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But Peter doesn't trust his luck. Not anymore.
He's glancing behind them, peering down the alley in case they might've missed someone following them, when Kasumi asks her question. His tongue runs over the back of his teeth thoughtfully. Maybe-- he should go back. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe if he hurries, he can return to the bar in time to join the others back to the Eclector. Maybe--
Maybe he should go back.
Yeah. He should go back.
Peter turns back to say as much. He's going to say, "This was a mistake," but that look on Kasumi's face makes the words die on his lips.
So in the end he just-- nods, edging forward out of the cover of the alley. ]
We'd better hurry.
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Kasumi spent most of the ride back to Feron's ship trying to hail the Milano, to give them an update. After all, they had no idea this kind of rescue effort would be mounted. Hell, Kasumi didn't even know. She wanted to confront Feron about it, but figured it's probably best not to do so in front of Peter. And then Peter's injuries--god, he's hurt, so hurt ran through Kasumi's mind more times than she could be bothered to count as she tried her best to tend to his wounds with Medi-Gel. That, however, couldn't heal the other wounds he has, the ones he got from going through hell again. Wounds from trying to protect his friends, and trying to protect her. It took every fiber of Kasumi's being not to start crying in front of him when she saw just how badly he'd been beaten, not just tonight, but every night he's been gone, it seemed. But she did, at one point, keel over next to him and just--took his one of his hands into hers, held it to her face, and let out a long, long sigh.
And then they're finally back on the Milano, after what seems now like a long and arduous process of trying to rendezvous in the shadows, full of trickery, sabotage, and a little help still from the Shadow Broker.
With Peter back on the ship, Kasumi had wondered at first if maybe it would be a good time to leave and let him recover with his friends, and figure out what all happened, but as soon as she even had the thought and made the slightest move to turn around, Gamora took hold of her arm, and gave her a stern look.
"You shouldn't leave now, Goto," she had said, "Quill needs you. Probably."
'Probably,' huh? is Kasumi's thought when she remembers the brief exchange, now, as she sits by the kitchenette with her omni-tool's screen pulled up. ]
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He fucking loves that ship. It's been his home and his baby for seventeen years.
The injuries Kasumi tends to are old ones: old bruises on top of older bruises; scabbed-over cuts; scars from where he's been stitched up without the aid of Medi-Gel. His left side looks worse than his right. She doesn't ask, which is all the same to him. He's ashamed to admit there were some nights where he was just too bone-tired to fight back, just curled up on his side and hoped that a misplaced blow to the head would knock him out and end their fun.
But he can see the worry on her face, see how upset it makes her, and he feels like a fucking shithead for putting her through this. More than once he wants to tell her to stop, that he can do it himself, because that look of heartbreak on her face is killing him. But he doesn't. Because-- because it's nice. It's so fucking nice to have her hands on him, and her touch gentle and kind, and his eyes prickle as he screws them shut, and he just-- he's missed this. He needs this.
(It's somewhere around month four that the realization that he just might need her had started worming its way into his mind, though it hasn't settled yet.)
The Guardians are not naturally a touchy-feely bunch. Being raised among enemies or just-- being an asshole will do that to you. But the moment Peter's back on the ship, the others nearly trample them in their rush. Gamora reaches him first, because of course she does, and her hold around his rib cage makes him ache, and then Drax is enveloping them both, then Groot, then Rocket begrudgingly leans against Peter's leg.
He thinks they must've gotten this from him, the whole-- physical contact thing. Lord knows he's the only one who'd have done something like this. And he laughs and laughs, and he-- and-- and he just-- he fucking just--
He loses it.
Because all of the adrenaline is gone, and there's nothing left but the raw edges of everything rubbing together. He's an exposed nerve, and he needs to heal, but for now he's just. Relieved. Happy. Because Kasumi is here and his friends are here, and he's home, he's really home, for the first time in five months and some change, and he knows he's called them his family before, but they really are. They're his family, and he hasn't had a family in such a long, long time.
He doesn't know the last time he's fucking wept like this, like a goddamn kid with a skinned knee, and the alarmed murmurs from the others are enough to tell him that they have no idea that sometimes Terrans cry when they're overwhelmed by emotion, even happiness. Somehow, that's hilarious to him, so he laughs and cries all the more until his sides ache all over again, and he pulls Kasumi into the mess, too, because why not? He wants her here. She's as much a part of his life as this group of assholes, whether she wants to be or not.
(He hopes she does. He really hopes she does.)
It's not until he sags, exhausted, that they finally let him go -- sort of, anyway. Drax half carries him to his bunk, and he feigns annoyance at how clean it is, how he was hoping it'd be just the way he left it.
"Like hell we were just gonna leave your crap lyin' around, you idiot," Rocket said, and Peter didn't even realize he had followed them. "Pretty sure there was shit growin' in 'ere.."
"You must rest," is all Drax says, and he deposits Peter on the bunk. "You must regain your strength."
Peter just murmurs something alone the lines of, You got it, dude, and sleeps the instant his head hits the pillow.
When he wakes, he doesn't know where he is, and he panics. The engines sound wrong. It's too quiet. His heart's pounding in his chest and his mind is racing, and he can't remember how he got here, how did he get here? Did they take him here? What the fuck kinda game are the playing at now? Shit, they kept saying stuff about selling him to the Collector, didn't they? But he thought they were joking, but-- fuck, he let his guard down and now he doesn't know what's happening and--
-- and there are hands on him, gripping his shoulders and he lashes out, pulls away on instinct, but then the grip moves to his wrists once he lashes out again to give himself room to maneuver. The hands on his wrist are strong, really goddamn strong, and fucking fuck fuck, he knows what comes next, the punching bag game, the say-please-right game--
"Peter!"
That voice makes him freeze. It's different, and his sleep-addled takes longer to register, "feminine."
"Calm down, Peter. You're safe. You're on the Milano. You're safe."
It takes him longer than he wants to admit to get himself under control, to get himself to stop shaking and to breath like a normal person. Gamora doesn't let him go until his breath evens out. Once he's finally calm he glances around and-- is deeply disappointed.
... He had the inkling she wouldn't stay. And it's-- okay that she didn't. He understands--
"She's in the galley," Gamora says with a small, kind smile. As she leaves the room, she tosses over her shoulder, "I'll retrieve her." ]
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She snaps out of that reverie, however, when she hears Gamora yelling from Peter's bunk. Before she can even pause to wonder what's going on, she's already on her feet, rushing towards his room and nearly tripping over some gadget Rocket was working on--and Rocket yells at her, of course, but luckily Groot manages to stretch a branch out in time to catch her. But she doesn't spare a second to thank them, regretfully, because by the time Gamora's even taken two steps out of Peter's room, Kasumi's already there, right in front of her.
Gamora merely smiles at her much in the same way she just had at Peter and steps aside as if to say, "He wants to see you." Kasumi responds with a silent "Thanks, Gamora," before she slips past her and into Peter's room.
She should probably wait until the door's closed behind her to do anything rash like take off her hood and rush to his beside, but after everything they've been through in the last few--however long it's been? Screw it. She lingers at the door for only a few seconds before she does just that: making her way over to him, letting her hood drop (and it occurs to her that this is the first time she gets to see him without it on since the got taken, and that it would be the same for him), and taking a seat at the edge of the bed, her body hovering over his in concern. ]
Peter? What's wrong? I'm here--it's okay.
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It doesn't work, of course, and he doesn't know if it was the panic or the fact that he's just exhausted that's doing it, but either way it makes him feel silly and weak and like a god damn invalid.
And then Kasumi's there, and he was hoping he would have a few moments, at least, to compose himself when Gamora brought her, but no such luck. Peter's never had good luck, after all. ]
I'm fine.
[ His voice is unsteady and hoarse, and he hates himself for it; he knows she won't like that answer, though, so he goes adds as an afterthought, ]
Had a bad dream.
[ And that, he thinks, is believable enough. No need for them to start worrying that he'll wake up swinging every morning, now. He licks his lip as he settles, sitting the pillow up to cushion his back. ]
I-- thought you'd have headed out by now.
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What he says--that he'd thought she'd have left by now--makes her heart twist a little, though, and she pulls herself away in guilt. Because she thought she'd have left by now, too, and how goddamn awful is that? That someone you care for so much--someone you might even love--just finally found his way home after going through hell for months, and your first instinct was maybe I should leave? Kasumi's kicking herself enough already for that, but to hear it from Peter too--that stings. She knows he probably didn't mean any harm by it, but it's unsettling all the same.
Because there's a part of her that, especially after all this, doesn't want to leave, maybe ever. There's a part of her that just wants to be with him and always have his back and be there when he needs a well-placed decoy or a silent strike to a tricky enemy, be there whenever he needs someone to sooth him back into sleep after a bad dream. But she knows that's impossible; she has obligations to fulfill and there's still the fact that she's carrying potentially war-igniting intel with her in her brain and she's dangerous and--damn, is all Kasumi thinks. Damn it. I'm such an idiot.
She tries not to let that train of thought run away, but she'll manage her best reassuring smile at him. ]
Sorry. It looks like you'll be stuck with me for a while longer.
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Hey, you're not hearin' any complaints from me.
[ He's genuinely glad she's still here, at least. He knows she has far more important shit to do, stuff like helping the illustrious Commander Shepard save the galaxy, than waiting for her stupid boyfriend to wake up from an impromptu nap. And he's still tired, but he's awake, now; and if sleeping means waking up like that, terrified and panicked and lashing out at the first touch, then maybe sleeping around Kasumi isn't such a great idea.
He swallows nervously and licks his lips. ]
I didn't get a chance to-- say thanks before. So-- thanks. [ He reaches to take her hand. ] For talkin' some sense into me. I know it's not an easy thing to do.
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