Lines | Guardians of the Galaxy |

Chapter Twenty-Four

They decided not to leave after that and just stick around and enjoy themselves. Avenna grilled the bartender, who said that Groot had disappeared after he looked away for just a second or two. He looked like he was going to cry, so they cut him some slack.

They decided to take Groot with them, rather than leave him behind with the bartender again, which hadn't been a great decision in the first place.

They found Gamora and Quill again, leaned up against one of the walls, talking with each other, and then gave the tiny tree to them. Avenna had wanted to keep Groot around, but Rocket insisted on giving him to the others, considering that they were significantly less drunk than Avenna was and how Rocket was on his way there.

After that, Rocket led her to one of the bathrooms to was the blood off her paws, then outside to one of the balconies to get some fresh air. He passed her a glass that she hadn't noticed him get before and she wrinkled her nose at it, whiskers twitching.

"I shouldn't drink this," she rejected.

"It's water," Rocket said flatly. "Drink it, it's better than alcohol."

She obeyed, washing down some of the bitter, stinging taste in her throat. It was deliciously cool. The fox set the glass down on the ground once it was empty. She attempted to climb on top of the balcony fence, then immediately slid back down. "Whoo, not a good idea. Don't want to fall."

As Avenna turned to look at him, she caught him eyeing her with a look she couldn't quite grasp the meaning of.

"What?" She tilted her head at him.

"That was kind of h—impressive."

"What?" Avenna repeated.

"You didn't stand back while they used Groot as entertainment," Rocket replied. "You protected him and killed that orloni before I could. I like that."

"Like that I did your dirty work for you," Avenna started, lips pulling backwards in a smirk again.

"No, I like that you saved Groot," Rocket corrected. "Before, it would have been Groot saving us. He did save us. Not the other way around, but look, now we're protecting him. You're protectin' him."

Avenna looked down at her paws, which were no longer marred by the orange-red blood of the orloni. "I don't mind."

"I don't mind it, either."

The fox looked up, for the first time fixing her gaze upon the breathtaking view of stars and distant planets in the distance. The pair stood in silence for a long minute.

"I know these stars," she said dreamily, after waiting a few minutes. "They were my friends while I was a prisoner in the Collector's lair."

"Tell me about that," Rocket prodded.

"He had me for a few years but I was freed when some raiders came through. They broke open my cage just because they could and earned my assistance in getting into a locked room that I hacked through pretty easily. After that, I bounced and didn't come back until when Gamora took us to try and turn in the Orb."

She continued letting her eyes trail across the stars, hardly bothering to check to see if her words were understandable.

"The Collector is a creep," she said. "At least it was better than..." she trailed off, not needing to complete her statement. She would let Rocket guess what she had intended on saying.

"You're so pretty."

The words came out of nowhere and absolutely stunned Avenna. She blinked a few times, then slowly turned to look at him as they slowly registered. "...what?"