"Look, I don't know anything about that - whatever it is, going on between Earth and Asgard," Peter said, for what felt like hundredth time. "I haven't been down there since I was a kid. Seriously. Whatever's going on, it's way after my time. "

The Klklk eyed him dubiously. Probably - it was difficult to tell with an eight foot long bug alien with glowing red eyes, even after twenty six years of life in deep space. Some things, you never get used to. He tried again. "I am really not the right person to ask about this, okay? Last time I was down there, they haven't even come up with hyperspace travel, let alone making buddy-buddy with Asgardians."

"Haven't met any other Terrans before," said the Klklk, mandibles clicking, contrasting greatly with the sultry feminine voice Peter's translator implant had thought appropriate. God, was she hitting on him? "Why you out here, then? If you Terrans are so behind."

"That's... a long story," he said, searching the crowd for a glimpse of green. "Very, very long. Probably take hours - no, days -" Hell, at this point, he'd take Drax. Where did they go?

"Tell it to me," she purred - purred - and leaned closer, over her metal cylinder of unidentifiable, beige drink. "Like long stories." Oh. God.

Peter had spent the large majority of his life in space, where other humans were scarcer than hair on Drax's head, and if there was one thing he wasn't, it was speciesist. Pink skin was hot. Extra arms... it only took one encounter in a dark corner of a seedy bar, but he was hooked. Antennae, cybernetic implants, tails - he had a very broad idea of what was attractive. Still, he had to draw the lines somewhere.

Also, he was pretty sure Klklks had a tendency to chomp on the heads of their lovers. Kinky, but it was not his thing.

"Okay, I really have to go," Peter stressed, pushing his chair a bit more behind him. "Listen, babe, it's not you, it's -" He felt a hand on his shoulder, and it didn't weigh down on him like a sack of potatoes, which narrowed it down to - "Gamora, thank you."

"Peter," she acknowledged, and addressed the Klklk, who looked as abashed as a giant, chitin-covered insect could look. "Mind if I borrowed him for a moment?"

"No, no, no," the Klklk stammered. "Didn't know he was taken, swear." Peter was pretty sure it was more the fact that the alien recognized Gamora - like, apparently, every other person in the galaxy who wasn't Peter Quill - than it was about her hitting on someone already taken. Apparently, news of the newly dubbed Guardians haven't reached the outer galaxies - at least, not the news that Gamora wasn't exactly on the side of world destroying, mass murdering evil. Not that he was complaining, right now.

As glad as he was for Gamora's save, he couldn't help but smirk at her as soon as they got out of hearing range. She eyed him with exasperation. "Do not even think about it," she warned.

"No, no," he agreed. "No pelvic sorcery here. None at all."

Gamora elbowed him, and since he wasn't dying of internal hemorrhaging, he figured she wasn't actually mad. "She was asking about Terra, was she not?" She asked him.

"Yeah. What is that, the twelfth time this week? Seriously," he griped. "Twenty six years of people side eying me because of how technologically behind Earth is, now they're side eying me because of - whatever's going on the planet." It had, from what little he knew from barroom chit-chat, involved large explosions in space, Asgardian interference, and - of all things - a Chitauri invasion. "Figures that the planet actually got interesting after I left."

"You truly have not seen your planet for three decades?" Gamora asked, a look of confusion on her face. "I understand that the Ravagers would not have allowed it, but you have possessed your own ship for many years."

"Look," Peter sighed. "The thing about Earth is... well, I could go back. If I wanted to, I mean. Wouldn't be easy, but if I really wanted to burn the credits, I could have flown back anytime. It's just -"

It was hard to explain, doubly so to a woman whose home planet and family were destroyed. Sometimes, he didn't understand it himself. Yondu and the Ravagers had taken him from his home and his family - though his mom was dead, he knew his grandpa would have taken care of him. Mom made him promise, after all, and he had came over a lot even though he always got mad at Peter's mom about his disappeared dad. Disappeared, ancient alien dad, apparently. He was, as far as he knew, the only human roaming the galaxy.

But - and here was the thing - Earth was boring. He had seen deep space at the age of ten, had met people of every shade of color on the rainbow, had found a whole universe that he had no idea existed when he was on Earth. If he went back, all that was gone. Sure, Earth had rainforests and bears and raccoons - seriously, Rocket would blow a fuse if he ever met one - but that was nothing compared to what he had here.

"- You didn't want to," Gamora ended for him.

"Yeah," he agreed. "Earth's nothing compared to space. I mean, they don't even have starships. Last I remembered, they still had guns with bullets. I didn't think Earth would have anything to do with the rest of the galaxy for a few hundred years, but now -" He shrugged. "Even I can tell, and I didn't know who Thanos was for a loooong time - sorry. Anyways, Earth was nothing, a few years ago. Some backwater planet in a distant star system, I'm fine with that. Now, they're fighting off Chitauri invasions and having talks with Asgardians. I thought they were too busy having sticks up their butts to even talk to the rest of the universe."

"So you want to go back," she said. "Now that your planet has become interesting."

"What?" He exclaimed. "Oh, no, no. I'm fine with not going back, ever. Honestly." Gamora raised an eyebrow. "I'm just surprised, okay? I thought I was going to be the only person in the galaxy to care about Earth, but now it turns out everyone's interested."

"I know you left things on your planet that you don't want to revisit," said Gamora, and Peter's heart sank. Dammit, how did she always see right through him? "But you have avoided it for twenty six years. That, I think, is long enough."

"I - Wait," he asked, suddenly suspicious. "What happened?"

She flicked up a hologram wordlessly, and a blue-tinted Earth appeared in front of him. "Corpsman Dey sent a message. The Nova Empire has a job for us. They want to make contact with Terra, and figured that actually having a Terran involved would benefit relations."

"Shit. And, uh, the others are fine with this?"

"Rocket wants access to old technologies that aren't available in most markets. Personally, I think he just wants to show off his technological superiority. Drax has heard of a great Terran warrior of blue, red, and white, and hopes to meet him. Groot does not seem to object either way."

Blue, red, and white? "Captain America?"

"Captain what?" Gamora raised an eyebrow.

"I - nevermind." He sighed. "Well, since everyone's already agreed, I can't really say no now, can I? Anyways," Peter grinned, "I've been meaning to make an Awesome Mix Volume 3."

"Goddammit," said Tony Stark, frowning at the alien spacecraft that had just landed on the roof of the rebuilt Avengers Tower. "Why is it always my tower?"