Entry tags:

anakin skywalker, peter quill (star-lord)

Who: Anakin and Peter Quill
What: Anakin stops by Yondu’s to drop something off, he meets Peter instead
When: Dec 27th
Where: Yondu’s (and now Peter’s) place
Rating/Warnings: Um, swearing?
Status: Complete

Anakin paid the Uber driver, grabbed his backpack and the cardboard box off the seat next to him, and then exited the car.

He tugged the hood on his sweater over his head and cursed the cold. All over the county was reporting that more than two feet fell on Christmas. And that was Not. Right. In Anakin’s opinion. He could see his breath – he came to the OC so he wouldn’t have to deal with this nonsense.

He knocked on the door and then occupied himself while he waited by stomping his feet and thinking up curses in a language not found on Earth.

---
It was strange, living at Yondu's. Even before, when they lived within yelling distance of each other, Peter had never really spent much time in Yondu's house.
Sure, he was very comfortable with the front yard (softest grass to pass out on), but there'd been a line before that said 'grass okay, couch not'

And now that line was gone, since here he was, on Yondu's couch, eating Yondu's food, wearing Yondu's clothes. Peter could only imagine the bill he was racking up, because like he'll Yondu was doing any of this for free.

At the sound of the knock, Peter got up. When Yondu took off to run some lame errand, he'd made it very clear that Peter was not to blah blah blah. Peter had absolutely no idea what the older man said, seeing as Peter had been taking full advantage of the wifi to update his iPod. Chances are he'd said something like don't answer the door, but since Peter wasn't listening -- well, he could hardly be blamed for anything.

Opening the door in nothing but ill-fitting sweats, his iPod in one hand, earbuds draped over his shoulders, he quirked his lips at the sight of Anakin. Who the fuck was this kid? "Oh my God, it's millenial me. I hope you're not as much as a disappointment as I am, because holy shit, does Yondu know how to pick 'em."

---

Anakin deadpanned back at Peter a moment before saying, “Right…” He wasn’t exactly here to chit chat with a stranger. He didn’t know Yondu had a roommate, but it wasn’t as if Yondu poured out his secrets or any details about life.

He tried to peer around Peter to see if Yondu was home.

“Is Yondu here? I have… something for him.” He gestured with his right, mechanical hand, that was holding the cardboard box.

---
Peter made no movement to let Anakin in, instead choosing to lean on the doorframe and cross his arms in front of him.

Not for warmth. No, of course not. It's not like it's winter and Peter has no shirt on and did not think this through like always.

Nope.

Glancing at the box (and noticing the arm), he raised his eyebrows. "Yondu's out but enough about him -- that's a cool arm. Do you have disco lights on it? Do you want some? I can do that, you know. Install them. Make you cool. No bigs."

---

Anakin paused, looked down at his hand, and then sighed.

“You’re one of us,” he observed. “My condolences--” and he was quick to add, “You’ll get it in a few weeks.”

He couldn’t help from rocking on his feet. It was cold. Really cold.

“Forget about the arm, it’s made from a metal alloy not reproducible on Earth ‘cause It’s not from Earth. Modifications can’t be done with Earth tools.” He kept trying to look past Peter.

“Can I at least come in and leave this inside?”

---

Peter snorted. "Not from Earth? Dude, I may have just gotten out of prison, but I'm not that stupid." Rolling his eyes, he pushed the door open with his hips and motioned to the kid to go in.

The door closed behind, allowing the room to warm up, and Peter with it. With a wave of his hand, he continued. "And you'd probably know better than me where to put...whatever that is.". Watching Anakin, Peter froze in thought. What if the blah blah had been 'don't let a weird punk with a trippy arm in the house'? Damn, Peter really should have been listening. "Say uh," he added suddenly, with a weird boost of confidence, like he was sizing the other male up. "How'd you say you know Yondu from?"

---

Anakin shrugged, it didn’t affect him if Peter didn’t believe him, and he wasn’t there to get into a never ending discussion about who was right. Peter would figure it out soon enough. And Anakin was grateful that he finally got to go inside someplace warm.

“What does prison have to do with stupidity?” He casually asked, making a bee-line for a table to set the box down on.

“I’m helping Yondu rebuild his ship.” Anakin left off the “space” part, just in case Yondu hadn’t filled Peter in about this Special Pacific Bermuda Triangle.

He paused, realizing that just leaving a nondescript cardboard box wasn’t exactly informative.

“Give me a second, I need to leave a note,” he said as he started digging into his backpack for a pen and something to leave a note on. “He’s going to be freaked out by what’s in here.”

---

A ship? Was Yondu a sailor now? Maybe that was why he moved to California -- be closer to the coast. Watching Anakin write a note, Peter tried to put the pieces together.

Facts: Yondu had a ship. Yondu had friends (apparently). Yondu had a house, a life, and a dog.

Facts: Peter was recently out of prison. Peter had zero friends. Peter didn't own a single thing to his name.

When did Yondu become the better person?

"So this ship," Peter said, rubbing the back of his head. "Has a part that will freak Yondu out. Is it a mirror? Cause there ain't nothing more terrifying than seeing that ugly mug in the morning."

---

“Ya...” Anakin said, a vague reply while he was concentrating on what he should put in the note. “I convinced him to look at a different kind of diagnostic system for his ship. He thinks my designs are...” what was the right word? “Nightmare inducing.” Those weren’t Yondu’s exact words, but Anakin got them from context.

Ambulatory Diagnostic System 2.0. To activate them, use the included control, press your thumb on the ‘green square’. To deactivate, press the ‘red square’. Relayed feedback will appear on the control’s screen.

-Skywalker

Ya, Anakin thought that would be enough.

He was just planning to leave the note on the box and just go. But it occurred to him Yondu’s friend might take a peak, and it would be just easier to show them to him.

“Do you want to see?”

---

Diagnostic systems? What? Peter was getting more and more confused, but his curiousity was stronger.

"Will Yondu be pissed if I look? Because if the answer is yes, I'm in.". Oddly enough, Peter would never have opened the box himself, lest he face Yondu's wrath, but he sure as he'll would have been in the vicinity when it was opened.

---

Anakin shrugged. “I don’t know.” Anakin wasn’t often concerned about other people’s anger. And he didn’t think Yondu’s wrath was something to worry about in this instance.

He grabbed the box and pulled the tucked flaps apart. He picked up the controller and thumbed the green icon on the touch screen. An ominous scratching sound came from within the box. In a matter of seconds, black, spindly legs pulled black, metallic bodies out of the box. Each was a robot of varying design, but all had at least two legs and were small enough to fit in a hand. And all had “heads” mounted with unnerving sensors. The sensor lenses had been fashioned to resemble googly eyes, some had just one, some two – each facing in opposite directions, some had more than two “eyes”.

The worst kind of blending of science and horror, the spider-like robots jumped down and starting climbing and crawling over every surface. Their googly eyes turning around to scan anything and everything.

Two climbed over Anakin, but he didn’t flinch, he’d made these little guys. But a few headed towards Peter.

---

“Jesus fucking Christ!" Never in a million years did Peter expect creepy spiders. Never. With a jump, he leapt up onto the kitchen counter, and looked down at the little fuckers.

It took him a while to realize that the spiders were actually robotic, and Anakin didn't seem bothered in the slightest bit.

"What are those?"

---

Anakin did not hold back from laughing. He stretched out his arm while one of the robots climbed over it.

“It’s an Ambulatory Diagnostic System,” he explained. “They’re all wirelessly linked. Their purpose is to monitor the function of Yondu’s ship. There will be a central core diagnostic computer that will analyze the information these little guys gather.”

The robot now crawling along Anakin’s hand stopped when one of its feet meet open air at the end of Anakin’s fingers, so it started probing the space looking for purchase.

“They could also be used as centuries for security and defense. But I don’t think I want to make Yondu a weapon yet.”

---

"Yah, let's not give the guy access to tiny killer robots. The first thing he'd do is get them to hurt me or something." Now that Peter had had some time to get used to them, the little things were actually kind of neat. He could feel that familiar itch, that need to dismantle them and giure out how to make them go.

"You just do this in your spare time? Who are you again?"

---

Anakin asked, quirking his chin the side, as if this information didn’t compute with what he knew about Yondu. But Anakin could be… uniquely oblivious to the frustration he caused in other people. When he wanted to be. It was quite possible Yondu was very annoyed with Anakin and Anakin have no clue.

“Anakin Skywalker,” He held out his right hand. His metal hand. This was a test, if someone balked at his arm, he knew what at what distance to keep them.

“Ya, during the day I design jet engines. For the rest of the time, as long as I can stay awake, I’m usually working on projects like this.” He left out the Force training.

“Who are you?”

---

"Peter Quill" Normally that would have been accompanied by a handshake, but since he was safely sitting on the counter, that was a no. Sure, the killer robots looked neat and all...Peter still wasn't too sure they weren't going to create skynet though.

"This," he said with a wave, "is the extent of my life. I've become a pro at television watching. Can do a one hour show in 45 minutes.". That was a joke, albeit a lame one. Peter chuckled at himself anyways. "I like to create things too though. Nothing...sentient though. That's just weird."

---

Anakin blinked at the unreturned gesture, and as he dropped his hand down to his side his open expression changed. Not a frown, but not a smile anymore either.

“Oh, these aren’t sentient,” Anakin waived to the whole rooms, because by now the robots were spread out. “They have no self-determination protocols. They do have more complex coding than a Roomba, but these can’t self-actualize. They follow set input-output parameters. To make them return, it’s a simple command. See?” Anakin held up the remote as he entered the function to make the robots return to him.

“Giving Yondu A.I. would be wrong from a moral perspective,” Anakin said.

Anakin gave Peter a glance over. “So are you one of his bounties or someone who helps him?”

---

With the robots safely back to Anakin, Peter gingerly slid off the counter. He was still more intrigued than anything else, completely dying on the inside with the need to take apart the robot thing.

Once he was alone with the box, he'd indulge.

"I'm neither," Peter answered honestly, although he probably could easily have a price over his head. "Just Peter. Yondu's stuck with me right now, some sort of deathbed promise he made to my mom." He shrugged. "Whatever. It's handy to have him around right now, not like I need him or nothing. Could totally make it on my own and all. Just living here because I want to. Free. Choice. It's what makes us more human than monkeys."

And there he goes, rambling.

---

And Anakin let Peter ramble. But he didn’t try to hide that he didn’t believe everything Peter was saying. Did Peter really expect someone to believe he was couch surfing because he wanted to?

Well, maybe, Anakin thought; but he bet the chances of a real answer was slim.

But Anakin fully believed that Peter’s mother must have had something on Yondu to make promise to let Peter do this. Anakin didn’t ever want to owe a debt to Yondu, he didn’t think that would work out well for him.

“It’s one percent of our DNA that differentiates us from primates,” Anakin pointed out.

Anakin wondered if he should go. But it occurred to him that he might want a little more information from Peter, if the man was going to be a part of the Network-connected.

“Have any strange Dreams since crashing here?”

---

"Dreams?" Peter frowned. What a random question, he thought to himself as he tried to figure out what that meant. "No? I mean, I don't usually dream about much other than the usual showing up in school naked dream. Or sometimes I dream I'm falling and then I find myself on the floor, but don't tell Yondu -- he doesn't need to know I still fall out of bed." That was followed with a grin and a wink, since Peter didn't take that dream question too seriously.

"Do..you have dreams?" Was this a conversation starter? Maybe it was. Peter really had no idea. "I mean, since we're sharing? Or something? I'm really not sure what's going on here."

---

Anakin wasn’t sure if those dreams explained much about Peter. He’d known the man all of ten minutes now. Hardly enough time to assess his mental condition.

“I do. They’re terrible.” He didn’t elaborate. Maybe he would tell Peter in the future.

“So,” he set the box down on the table, folding the flaps back into each other and then tucking the note on top. “If Yondu doesn’t call to yell at me about these, I’ll know you’ve done something to them.” Not that Anakin would do anything other than just make more.

“Nice to meet you.”

---

Peter just gave Anakin a look, and a nod. "Sure, yeah, nice to meet you too." And now that he was down on the floor, closer to the guy (and still cautiously away from the little robot things) he tilted his head and smiled. "I guess I'll see you around, hey?"

It was always good to know people, he thought to himself as he saw Anakin out. After all, no man was an island, and Peter had been isolated long enough. Once the door was closed, he rubbed his hands and smiled. Now he had something to do. There's no way he could just let all those robots escape. He had to get into one of them. Peter hoped there was no fail-safe or bomb or something, or else he'd have a lot of explaining to do.