InsaneJournal

Who: Yondu and Anakin
When: Sometime in July
Where: Space, the Quadrant
What: Anakin trying out Yondu’s M Ship, talking about dreams
Rating/Warnings: Low
Status:



Yondu watched the main console’s panel as the image of his M-Ship moved about the grid. A part of him felt bad that he had let Anakin, not Peter, try out his ship. Yondu had well acquainted himself with his own ship from the dreams before letting anyone else try it, and had jealously guarded it from Peter who he knew was itching to fly it - at least until his own M-Ship, the Milano, showed up. But Yondu, as much as he knew Peter was an excellent pilot, just couldn’t get himself to trust the kid with it. Peter was impulsive, reckless, and an adrenaline junkie.

Anakin, on the other hand, was more level headed and analytical. Which meant Yondu knew he could trust the kid to not crash his ship into the moon trying to do ‘cool moves’. What he hadn’t expected was how damned impressive a pilot he was.

“Hey, Anakin, what exactly were you in the dreams? Cuz I gotta say, that’s some damn fine flyin’ I’m seein’ out there.” his Southern accent drawled over the comms. Looking up out of the immense floor to ceiling viewport, the ship came into view, gleaming with the sun’s rays reflecting off of the silver paint.

***

Anakin didn’t know what it was like to have a father figure in his life (much less a father). His mother had never revealed to his father was. In this regard, his dreams had something his life on Earth lacked. But Yondu was steadily stepping into that roll.

Anakin didn’t quite know what to think of it – things had started with the chance to put together a spaceship and how could he have said ‘No’ to that? Anakin probably would have taken the deal if the devil had offered it. And Anakin hadn’t cared enough about Yondu – or anyone – at that point in his life about a year ago to be bothered by the way the man yelled and tossed around insults. Which really did work to Yondu’s advantage, because along the way they both go to know each other

And now maybe Anakin did care what Yondu thought.

“A lot of different things,” he said.

He liked the way the M-Ship flew broke out of Earth’s gravity into space. Some of the ships in his dreams didn’t handle that transition well. But, really, he’d had a smile on his face the moment Yondu let him take over the controls. He loved reaching out, through the Force, and touching space. With his particular talents in the Force, it felt to him, as if he and the ship were one and the same.

“Sometimes I had a spaceship to fly. Sometimes I had a fleet.” He tried not to bring up too much detail about his dreams. “I flew an F-22 until two years ago, in the Air Force. Until I lost my arm. Now I can’t fly unless you or… well, you let’s me.”

***

It was amazing that in a year’s time Yondu hadn’t exactly asked much about Anakin’s dreams or even this life. They had worked on the ship, barely saying a word for long stretches of time, with only music in the background. It struck him that maybe he really was a crappy conversationalist. Oh well. Better late than never.

And he was not disappointed. “Hold up a tick, you’re former military? Well hell, I was a Marine myself.” He was grinning even if the kid couldn’t see it. It was always fun running into former military. “You probably heard this a ton of times but I’m gonna say it anyways, one vet to another - thank you for servin’.” And now that that was said, “So you had a fleet? Kinda young to be in charge of a whole fleet, even in the dreams, dontcha think?”

***

“And thank you,” Anakin said back, happy to return the gratitude.

“Well,” Anakin explained. “I was raised by a kind of warrior monk cult. When a galactic civil war broke out when I was about twenty I’d already been educated and trained as a warrior going on eleven years. And I had an apprentice during that time, she was fourteen when the war started.”

***

"Huh. Well how about that." Yondu replied. "I was a warrior m'self. Kree battle slave, technically." He frowned. Why was he telling the kid this? It wasn't like it was warm and fuzzy memories. "There was always some such conflict them Kree thought was worth fightin'. A-holes."

***

Anakin didn’t need any prompting, “All slavers are assholes. Do your dreams get better?”

***

"Ain't that the truth." He paused a moment as he stood and stretched, popping a few joints along the way. "Yeah. They do. Get a couple pretty good decades in before my card comes up." He realized he wasn't one hundred percent sure how much of his dream relationship with Peter the kid actually knew. Again, Yondu hadn't been big on conversation during construction. "Dunno if you know this or not but Peter an' I share the same dreams.”

***

“Huh,” Anakin said. He didn’t take his eyes off where he was flying the ship, but he was still definitely paying attention to the conversation.

“Things make a lot more sense. He said you helped raise him here. You do that in the dreams too?” By now, Anakin saw that there were patterns to the lives of people who shared dreams that reflected here on earth.

***
Yondu paused at that. "He told you that huh?" There was a touch of emotion there, just barely. Yondu hadn't thought he'd much 'raised' Peter in this life, more like kept a promise to the boy's mother to keep an eye on him. It seemed Peter saw it differently now.

But in the dreams? That was accurate.

"Yeah. I raised him. Sorta. It's complicated." He wasn't about to admit he'd kinda kidnapped Peter as part of a job to deliver him somewhere and then reneged on that job and kept Peter instead.

***

Anakin shrugged. “Family’s family,” he said. “No matter how you shape it.”

But he thought he’d ease off the emotional stuff out of respect for his copilot.

“Aside from the war-slave part, what is your dream world like? You have space ships, so that’s cool.”

***

"Oh hell, it's pretty dang awesome. Spaceships and aliens of all kinds everywhere. Every world crazier than the last. And you can go from one system to the next with engines like what the Quadrant has here." He patted the console affectionately even if no one was there to see it. Well, except for the googly eyed robot doing something over in the corner.

"Bein' a space pirate has its advantages. Get a lot more travellin' in than most folks. Hell, there are entire planets dedicated to certain things. Like Contraxia. Or Knowhere." Well, Knowhere wasn't exactly a planet but saying "skull of a dead celestial" didn't exactly sound attractive.

***

But that was the word that drew Anakin the most, Anakin was good at that kind of thing.

“Nowhere?” He didn’t know he was thinking of the wrong homonym. “What certain things do you find at Nowhere?”

***

Yondu had a feeling Anakin was probably thinking of the actual word 'nowhere'. "Knowhere with a 'k'. It's a place you go to to buy an' sell the kinda black market stuff even the black market don't know about. The rarest of the rare. Man named The Collector lives there. Has some of the rarest creatures an' items anywhere. Also it's a mine."

***

“I’m guessing knowing about this place was a ‘need to know’ thing?” he asked. Because more black that the black market didn’t sound like a place that could thrive without a cover of societal invisibility.

***

Yondu chuckled, assuming that Anakin was making a joke while literally asking. “Yeah, you could say that. Ravagers like me an' my crew knew about it. We’d traded an' sold stuff there lotsa times. Payout is usually better. Space pirates know where all the good shit is an' where to sell it.” He smirked. Kraglin had taken an interest in the googly eyed robot in the corner, carefully sneaking up on it. “Uh, hey, I think one your creations is actin’ up. Keeps walkin’ into the corner. Kraglin, leave it be!”

***

“Well,” Anakin said. “Go look at what it’s focused on. It’s supposed to focus on things.”

If Yondu still said it was broken, he’d offer to come back and take a look at it.

***

Yondu got up and sauntered over to where the googly robot and his dog were. Kraglin extended a tentative paw at the spider like bot, carefully booping it on the head. The spider bot dipped down under the weight of the paw then sprang back up, looking at him and raising two legs like a defensive spider.

"Alright boy, leave it be. Let's see what he's up to." Yondu said, gently pushing the dog away. "What'd you find there little fella?" The bot's uncanny googly eyes looked at Yondu then back down at the corner before it lifted a small corner plate of flooring with its legs.

A surprised Porg let out a shrill screech.

"Dammit. That's where you've been, you pain in the ass!" Yondu blurted, reaching in and pulling the creature out. It chirped and screeched, flailing its little wings. Kraglin barked and jumped up and down, wanting to get at it for a closer look.

"Down!" Yondu bellowed at Kraglin before heading back over to the console. He put the Porg on top of it so it could calm down looking out into space. "Found the damn Porg. Made a little nest in the floor." He'd been trying to find it for a week, concerned it had gotten lost in the extensive bowels of the ship, risking starving to death.

***

“See, the robots are doing their job,” Anakin said with a laugh, a bit proud. Not that he had doubts, but it was always good to receive confirmation that his creations were thriving.

“I’m gonna come back and dock. This was fun. How likely is it that I can convince you to let me do this again?”

***

“So long as you keep flyin’ as well as you are, I don’t see why you can’t take her out for another spin sometime.” he paused. “Just don’t tell Peter. He’s liable to get jealous.” Because Yondu still hadn’t let him fly his ship and he wasn’t about to anytime soon.

***

Anakin smiled, not that Yondu could see. Flying again was amazing, if only he had his own ship.

“I won’t tell him,” he promised.