I'm not very happy with this fanfic, but I wanted to write a story with Kraglin and, for once, without Yondu. BlackxValentine suggested something about Kraglin/youg!Peter relations and since I've found out yesterday that - according to Kraglin's actor - Kraglin is a friend/enemy to Peter, I thought that Kraglin was mean to Peter and Peter was annoying Kraglin and their relations resembled something between elder and younger brother relations in early stages.

(Which kind of contraddicted with the way Kraglin acts in my other works. Man, one day I will have to do some massive retconning.)

Friend or Enemy?

The glorious war between Peter Quill and Kraglin Obfonteri started at the very same day, when the boy had been taken from his home planet. Yondu Udonta's second in command was one of those Ravagers, who were constantly scaring Peter about eating him and he even took the kid's backpack, while mocking him on and on, when Quill was protesting. Later Peter realized that Kraglin and Yondu were friends, an actual friends. And since Yondu was a giant douchebag, Kraglin was douchebag too, although, Peter couldn't decide which one of them is bigger one.

However, Peter did decide that he didn't like Kraglin. When he realized that the Ravagers weren't as scary as he initially thought they were and that he was going to be one of them, he got a new goal – to make the guy's life a hell. The Ravagers' second in command was already treating him badly – he was calling him names like "brat", "weakling" or "idiot"; he was mocking him at every failed attempt of fighting, stealing or running away; and he was pulling on kid some really nasty pranks. Kraglin quickly became Peter's archenemy.

From this moment both of them began a silent war. They were bickering, calling each other names, pranking one another, sometimes even fighting (although, Kraglin was the one, who was mostly winning).

They were annoying each other every minute, every hour, every day spent in the same place, and the fact that Yondu was choosing Kraglin more and more to be Peter's babysitter, didn't help much. For some reason, the captain of the Ravagers wanted them to get along. Maybe it was because they were going to be comrades in the future, and they should learn to put their differences aside and work together; or maybe because, while training Peter and with Kraglin at his side, Yondu was spending many hours in their company. Nevertheless, subsequently, while getting on each other's nerves, they were getting on Yondu's too. And when he was finally yelling at them to stop acting like a pair of kids…

"Seriously, Kraglin, you're supposed to be an adult here!"

…they were instantly shutting up. However, the war wasn't over. It was simply a moment of peace, before the bombarding. The next day (or even the same day) Peter and Kraglin began another battle.

The only times, they weren't fighting, were during the nights or when they had something to do away of each other. When Peter was training in another part of the starship; when Kraglin had to perform some repairs; when Peter was sitting in his room and listening to his walkman; when Kraglin was sitting with Yondu in captain's quarters and discussing something important; when both Peter and Kraglin had certain tasks given to them by Yondu; and finally when the Ravagers were making a stop and both Peter and Kraglin knew what they wanted to do – that were the moments of rare truces between them.

Of course, sometimes Peter – being the kid, who was constantly bored, even on the spaceship, filled with aliens – was coming to Kraglin, when the Ravager was in the middle of doing repairs, and the kid was annoying the alien to no end with his mere presence.

One day, during one of such instances, Kraglin tackled his sleeves to clean up little mechanisms of some machine more conveniently, and that was when Peter – while sitting few feet away on the floor and observing everything – saw the tattoo on Kraglin's left arm.

Peter didn't know what it was exactly, but he was almost certain that it was a line of some alien letters. Unfortunately, his translating chip was useless, when it came to written word, so he couldn't make out what it meant. The kid has seen also scars on Kraglin's forearms and hands, but for some strange reason, his eyes were focused on the tattoo, like it was hypnotizing the boy or something.

Kraglin quickly realized where Peter was staring. The Ravagers' mechanic and second in command stopped the repairs and moved his annoyed gaze on the kid.

"Stop staring, Quill. It's just a tattoo." He said harshly and went back to his work.

"What does it say?" Asked Peter, still mesmerized by the tattoo.

"It's none of your business, brat." Kraglin growled. He tried to focus on his task, but Peter could clearly see that he had problems with it.

"I bet it's something like," The kid wasn't giving up. "'My name is Kraglin. I'm a total idiot.'"

And he chuckled. However, the Ravagers' first mate didn't say anything. He just froze for a moment and Peter had an impression that a flicker of pain crossed Kraglin's face. The boy expected some kind of witty banter as always. That was how they rolled – when one was insulting the other, the insulted one was saying something back. So Peter was quite surprised, when Kraglin only frowned and hissed:

"Shut up, Quill."

But Peter wanted to continue, since the matter obviously was irritating Kraglin and irritating the guy was always fun.

"Or maybe it says: ''I'm a monkey's butt.' Or even better!" Peter's got excited as another ideas were coming to his mind. "'Hi, I'm a moron and I can't remember my own name.'"

Kraglin clenched his fists and turned to the kid abruptly. His eyes were cold, so cold that Peter's good mood immediately faded away. And then Kraglin came to the boy, took him by the collar and nailed to the wall, still observing him with those cold eyes. Peter felt sudden wave of fear coming to him.

"You really want to know what it says?" Kraglin said with the hissing voice. "Do you? Well then, how about we sell you on the nearest planet to slave dealers and you get your own tattoo?"

Peter's eyes widened.

"Slave dealers?" He whispered weakly.

"Yes, you little brat. Slave dealers." The Ravager's hands started to shake a bit and Kraglin's eyes changed from cold to sad. Nevertheless, he chuckled grimly. "What? I've never told you who I was before I got here? It's a funny story, really. I was captured by slave dealers on my home planet and got sold to a mine." He stopped smiling and Peter could see flickers of pain in his gaze. "I've spent most of my life as a slave and this…" He showed the tattoo to the boy. "Do you really want to know what it says?"

Peter gulped.

"It says that I'm a property of mister Hallor Brog." Kraglin spoke those words quietly, with shaking voice.

He loosened his grip and let astonished Peter slid down on the floor. The boy was still observing him with wide eyes. The Ravagers' first mate, on the other hand, was standing above him and giving him the look of sadness.

"That's what it is, Quill. It's the proof that I once was someone's goods and nothing more. I hope you're happy with the answer."

Peter was processing what he just heard. He never suspected that Kraglin's past would be that horrible… Actually, he never thought about Kraglin's past at all. For him the guy was only a jerk constantly making fun of him, and his archenemy on this ship. Now, when Kraglin revealed before him that he was a slave once and when he was observing the boy with those sad eyes, Peter felt something, he never suspected to feel towards Kraglin, of all people.

He stood up and with the most apologetic voice he could muster, he said:

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Kraglin. I didn't know."

The expression on mechanic's face changed from sadness to surprise, or even a confusion. For a moment Kraglin was observing Peter with astonishment and seemed not to know what to say, as Peter continued:

"I will never mention it again. I promise."

He really meant it. All the mean things Kraglin had done to him and all the mean things Peter thought about the guy suddenly wasn't important. There was only compassion that kicked in and as much as Kraglin wanted to see Peter's reaction as fear, he couldn't deny that the kid was actually sorry for him.

For a moment Kraglin was speechless. His eyes softened and he gave a heavy sigh. Then, still silent, he went back to his work, like nothing happened.

This moment changed everything. Yeah, sure, Kraglin was teasing and mocking Peter, he even scared him once or twice… but there were also times when he was actually nice to the kid. He was comforting him, when he was scared, he defended him from bullies that tried to steal Quill's walkman; he was even taking him to the "arcades" once in a while and actually playing with him, when he had nothing else to do. Their little war was stopped by occasional truces and after some time the battle actions weren't as spectacular as in their past encounters (unless, of course, Kraglin and Peter decided to organize a prank war; then the whole starship was one, big mess).

When Peter got older, he started to see few things more clearly, like that Kraglin was a good pilot and skillful strategist. That was why Yondu kept him as a second in command and trusted him so much. Kraglin was also an awesome mechanic – he could fix almost anything (he even fixed Peter's walkman once!). And one day Quill realized something weird: that he considered the first mate someone along the lines of an elder brother.

Well, Peter was an only child. He didn't have any siblings, but he did hear from his classmates on Earth how it was like to have an elder brother. Elder brothers generally were split between two kinds: the "Really Awesome I-Want-To-Be-Him-In-The-Future" guys and "Total And Utter Pain-In-The-Ass" jerks. And Kraglin – who was almost always by Yondu's side (and Yondu was obviously the father figure here) – was a big brother that covered both kinds. One time he was so mean that Peter wanted to strangle him, the other – he acted very protectively towards Quill. The kid also had lost count on how many times he was saved by the guy from any kind of dangers.

Now, when Peter had his own ship and was hardly meeting with the Ravagers recently, the relations between him and Kraglin were rather amicable. Yeah, they were teasing each other and after Yondu had put bounty on Quill's head, Kraglin was following captain's orders, but other than that both men acted like old friends. Actually they were something between friends and enemies. Not quite best buds ever, but not the archenemies either.

They were brothers. Nothing less, and nothing more.