The mystery of the disappeared Zune

Peter groans as he slowly opens his eyes, and his first instinct is to reach for his Zune. There's nothing better than cool music to help him wake completely up.

However, instead of his cherished Zune, Peter finds nothing.

Shit, where the hell did he leave it?

He immediately rises from his bunk. He has to find the Zune.

He checks everywhere, but there's no trace of the device.

Maybe he left it inside the cockpit. Yeah, it has to be there, or else Peter doesn't know where else he should look for it.

He can't believe he lost it so easily, but he clearly remembers listening to it right before going to sleep, and he was already on his bunk when he did it.

Either the Zune had decided to take a stroll somewhere – which is highly improbable – or something else must've happened.

As he gets into the cockpit, he doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary, apart that... the pilot seat is occupied. By Rocket.

That's weird. Peter thought that the ship was on auto-pilot, and after a closer inspection he realises that it is on auto-pilot: Rocket isn't piloting anything.

What he's doing, instead, is listening to Peter's Zune – he can recognize the small blue device that Rocket's keeping in his paws. The racoon doesn't seem to have even noticed him, and he's keeping listening to the music, humming from time to time and swinging his little legs.

Peter would've called that whole scene cute if only he wasn't sure that Rocket would've clawed his head off if he did.

Since Rocket's still lost in his world, Peter choughs to get his attention, but nothing, Rocket still hasn't noticed him – or maybe he's faking it who knows – so Peter shakes the seat a bit.

Now he has Rocket's attention.

As the racoon notices Peter, he immediately jumps from the surprise, hiding the Zune behind him with a very quick motion. Like Peter hasn't noticed it already.

He isn't angry though; actually, he's quite amused and pleased. At least Rocket has great tastes.

- You know that if you want to listen to my music you just have to ask, don't you? -, Peter says then, trying not to smile, - You don't need to hide -.

- I wasn't doing anything! -, Rocket exclaims, but it's obvious that he has replied more out of habit than anything else. He doesn't look convinced himself, and in fact he sighs and he offers Peter his Zune back.

- Sorry -, he mutters then, and he looks really sad for some reason.

Peter doesn't take the Zune, instead he asks Rocket to make space for him on the seat.

- Are you crazy?! -, the racoon exclaims, -We'll never fit together! -.

- Just do it -, Peter replies and, after a lot of adjusting, they find a compromise which involves Rocket sitting on Peter's lap.

- This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever done -, the racoon complains, but despite everything he doesn't seem to actually mind it so much.

- But now we can listen to music together -, Peter replies.

- Oh... really? -, Rocket asks, looking at the other expectantly, and Peter nods.

- Really -, he says, then he adds, - I can't pass this opportunity, not with someone who has great tastes like mine -.

Rocket seems surprised by that reply, but it doesn't take much for him to smirk.

- Of course you can't -, he says, then he hands an earphone to Peter, and they start listening to his playlist as the ship keeps traveling through space.

They know that soon the others are gonna get up as well, and that if they see them like that they're gonna tease them to no end, but neither of them is giving that too much thought.

They're just enjoying themselves, listening to the music they both love so much like friends, or better, like family.

Author's notes: Peter and Rocket's friendship is probably my favourite relationship from the movie. I'm just a sucker for the vitriolic best buds trope.

Since I love them so much I had this idea to write this short story. It's nothing big, just a little moment.

Also I find really cute how in Gotg2 Rocket uses music as a mean to get closer to Peter. I really like imagining them listening to music together. And also Rocket would totally steal Peter's Zune and secretly listen to it

Disclaimer: before Americans start to nag me about it, yes, I use hyphens for dialogues and quotation marks for thoughts. Why? Because this is how we do in Italy, the country I'm from (actually there's more freedom in Italy but this is how people usually write).

Am I going to change this one day? Absolutely not. This is how I'm used to write and I don't want to change it. If I have to go through hundreds and hundreds of fanfictions where I see quotation marks used for dialogues – something I'm not used to at all – I'm sure you can all go through one story where the style is different without having to point it out every, single, time. Thank you.