SHOW ME YOUR TEETH

Kraglin, despite appearances, is a very courageous guy <3

And I had to do it

fin kraglin

xandarian-rat:

His boot glances off the side of Yondu’s leg. Staggers the heavier man somewhat even as a fist is thrown up for his face. Kraglin’s got elevation, means he can make velocity. He sticks his arm out over the upcoming fist and fucking clotheslines Yondu with it on his way by. 

The momentum drags Yondu back a step or three, Kraglin’s arm across his chest.

Yondu grunts as he loses his footing and he grabs Kraglin’s arm with both hands to hold it against his chest as he starts to tip back. Rather than try to fight it he lets his momentum carry him as he yanks on Kraglin’s arm and let’s his boots leave the floor. He tried to fall with ha slight twist so he wouldn’t hit his head when he hit the ground.

After a little while, he rolls to the side and sits up with his arms draped over his knees. “Glad I got that outta my system.”

That’s approximately three things masquerading as a trip to the mall with, in Kraglin’s mind, the newest crewmember. It’s patently a bonding mission; get them used to each other. He’d assigned plenty of them himself.

And he’d seen Mantis adapt from living on a planet with effectively infinite resources, none of which belonged to her or ever would, to living away from everything she’d ever known, bartering and trading on kindness with the Guardians to collect things she’d call her own someday. And the Guardians had been more than generous in that regard. Still, she’d lost everything, and Kraglin was standing on the decks of the first place he’d ever called home.

Kraglin hold up a hand and ticks off on his fingers. “Food n’ clothes. ID. And some side jobs ‘cause last I checked we weren’t exactly rich. Anything else?”

He quirks an eyebrow at Peter. “She comin’ with me on the side jobs?”

The implication is clear- Peter knows how Kraglin works, and if the side job turns ugly, it’s gonna get very ugly very quickly. And he’s not at Yondu’s back.

“Yep, those things. An’ anything else you see as might come in useful. Remember she’s got that… send folks to sleep thing, so if’n you need to ask her to use it, she will.”

In emergencies. He didn’t want to turn Mantis into some cold-hearted thief, but he was sure she wouldn’t ever get that bad, not around his crew. 

Planets are like towns, in some regards. Not that Kraglin would know this about towns, but there’s ones that are effectively the same. Roll in and there’s the same foods, same floor tiles, same neon smearing the sky in place of stars. Forgettable, interchangeable, unnameable. And, without security tight enough to comb Kraglin out of the biomass.

It quickly becomes apparent that Mantis has no idea how money works and that this has not been helped by the first real discussions of money she’d overheard being million unit bounties. Equally as apparent: Ego had chosen her clothing for her, and had dressed her like a bug her whole life. She doesn’t know to resent the celestial for that, but Kraglin can handle that on his own just fine.

Her desire for things shaped like comfort? Not so much. He tries to shoo her away from the layers and layers of short skirts and long vests that add up to looking like her old clothing, tries to get her to branch out. She grazes his arm and discovers a seething frustration which he then has to explain.

His explanation is deeply unsatisfactory.

He buys her gloves.

She refuses to wear them. He wears them instead, the leather unfortunately soft and green stretched across his knuckles. It’s just ridiculous enough that Mantis laughs when she insists on touching his face.

It gets better from there. 

It’s by no means a smooth journey. They embarrass each other a couple of times and Mantis touches their hand, and turns to smile and giggle at Kraglin after.

She’s so innocent about it. It’s incredible. And he’s wondering where she learnt it.

It becomes obvious after they bounce to a different, danker and darker planet for a side mission. A personal side mission, Kraglin thinks he knows a surgeon around these parts. One who deals in brains. One of the guards tries to grab Mantis’ wrist, tries to pull her away from Kraglin. And before Kraglin can even go on the defensive, the man is slumped on the floor and Mantis is giggling at the other guards like they’re now part of her game. Someone taught her machinations. Probably Nebula.

Kraglin likes her.

He teaches her to pickpocket. Old school, no empathetic misdirection.

She shows him atmosphere filtered sunlight as felt in the middle of an empty field.

She shows him how to empty a bank account with a touch and a smile. It only works for her; no matter what she channels into Kraglin, he’ll only ever be suited to backstabbing.

It takes a couple of days, just shy of a decacycle, for them to return and while they’re not exactly holding hands, the grin their sharing over some new in-joke clearly goes both ways.

And, he’s got a pocketful of side jobs for Peter.

@the-perfect-scientist

Kraglin looks blearily over at the scientist. Grunts the affirmative, still with a fist pressed hard into the side of his stomach. 

Honestly it’s just as strange to see Carlos out of the lair in engineering that they’d stashed him in when they didn’t know what else to do with him as it is to see Kraglin being sick.

Carlos is like Peter, right? “The Terran food is still good.”

With so many species on board, going bad can be a matter of perspective, but it looks like Kraglin’s got on the wrong side of the raw meat supply regardless.

We are space pirates y’all!! 

——————-

Some more of my favorite space pirates! :D

Kraglin buys and sends her hats every time he sees one that he thinks is nice.

She doesn’t wear them, but Her favorite is a black baseball cap with “✨bitch✨” embroidered in a little cursive font on the front. He got it as a joke but she likes it because it’s the perfect combination of sassy but subtle.