Chapter Text

“These are guest quarters for government officials,” Steve explained, finishing the brief tour of Avengers HQ. “You can stay here for the time being. We’ll be having a debriefing at 0200 hours.”

Steve Rogers had allowed himself five minutes to hold the dust of his best friend in his hands before locking his emotions back in their Star-Spangled box and entering full-on Captain America mode. He traversed the secluded nation where the battle for half of the known Universe had taken place and found no end to disappointments – for every member of his team alive, they came with news of someone who had been lost. Vision, Wanda, Sam… the king of Wakanda himself, which meant their lost battle had left a nation with heavy casualties and political instability. Eventually, he found his “alive” list was quite familiar, and he wondered if he’d be moving forward with the exact same team he started out with.

And then Thor told him there was one more. One, who he warned, might need some time.

Steve had slowly approached the “rabbit” allowing the rusting of the bushes as he stepped over them to announce his presence. The creature, who had looked so alive and agile earlier in the battle alongside Bucky, only responded with a small twitch of his ears. He was on his knees and grasping a wisp of dust that had no doubt once been a pile of someone… a dear friend. Steve knew the moment he saw the scene.

There was so much he wanted to say, and so much he wanted to ask, but his words came out closer to barking an order than he intended. “If you have nowhere to go, come with me.”

When Rocket finally responded, it was with a simple nod. He stood up and followed Steve back to the transport, back to Avengers HQ, to where they now stood in the same awkward silence neither had the interest nor energy to break.

“Welcome to the Avengers.”

Rocket didn’t move. He stared at the door to the guest quarters in front of him, and Steve was starting to wonder if the creature was capable of speech or if he’d imagined a Raccoon talking to his best friend as some sort of weird coping mechanism. “Any questions?”

“…I don’t need your pity,” Rocket finally said. Despite this, he sounded like he could use a good few days of sleep.

“Rest assured, I don’t have time for pity,” Steve said. “Thor trusts you. Bucky trusted you. You’re here because you could be an asset if you choose to be. We are not planning on taking what Thanos did laying down, and we’re going to need all the help we can-“

“Okay, okay, you can stop anytime,” Rocket turned towards Steve with his hands up in a mock placating gesture. “You’re the leader of this garbage barge, right? Which means we already tried your crappy plan, and that went absolutely swimmingly. I’ve already got a team, and the only reason I’m not already blasting off to find them so we can shove Thanos’ overpowered oven mit where the sun doesn’t shine is because Quill once told me that this awful planet doesn’t even have any decent spaceships to begin with.” Steve crossed his arms and let him continue, if only because the insults seemed to be revitalizing Rocket in a way. “So! Here’s how it’s gonna go down – I don’t need any of you. If you want to let me crash here, that’s your call, but the moment the Benatar enters the stratosphere I am out of here and never want to see this mudball of a planet again as long as I live.”

“…Okay,” Steve replied before walking off. “You’re welcome to join us for meetings whenever you’re ready.”

“Don’t hold your breath.”

“…And, I’m sorry about your friend. He must have meant a great deal to you.”

Rocket blinked. He opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out, so he settled for glaring daggers at Steve until the Captain rounded the corner. “Pft. What would he know?” Rocket asked no one as he entered the stale white-walled room. It was too clean and too big, like a laboratory. He climbed onto the cot, put his arm over his eyes, and tried to think through the fog of the last several hours.

His first matter of business: figuring out what he was going to tell the others.