Peter Quill was bored. Like, bored, bored.

Things were different on the Milano now. Now that stupid trash panda had let him join the crew. It wasn't like he wasn't cool or amusing or anything. He was both cool and amusing. Also incredibly and undeniably annoying.

There was also a huge Gamora-shaped hole in the atmosphere, which was impossible to ignore, even with Blue Swede playing in the background. It didn't feel like 8 months since that last visit to Earth, fighting Thanos, Gamora's death and apparent resurrection and gaining a new crew member. Things had gone downhill since then and they hadn't had a pay day in ages. No obvious evil empires trying to take over the galaxy by making their plans completely obvious by announcing them to the world. They paid well.

So that's why Quill could be caught doing something he very rarely ever did (because it was Gamora's job). Reading through the reports of things that had happened in the galaxy recently to see if anything would potentially pay well. Maybe someone wanted they could bring down. Anything.

And it was boring.

Quill looked up from the little screen he was looking at and sighed. He'd accept any company at the moment, even Nebula's, who, of course, was not here, but wherever the heck Gamora was. Drax was doing whatever Drax did. Mantis was likely with him. Rocket was with the god and Groot was obviously with him. So he was alone with just Blue Swede to accompany him.

Then the little portable screen buzzed in his lap. Quill looked down at it, intrigued, because a new report had just literally popped up. Maybe this could be worth a couple million units.

In Knowhere? Great. Knowhere was the worst.

The Sovereign were involved? Even better.

A Ravager craft was involved, but no Ravagers were? Strange...

Damn, there was a wanted person and an accomplice involved, but wanted by the Sovereign. Well, that was just great, seeing as they were also wanted (dead) by them. Quill sighed, but kept reading the article. It was being updated as he read, and while he'd never admit it to Rocket, he did actually enjoy helping people and actually putting the effort in, not just the money. Not as much, of course.

Wow, as he read, Quill had to admit his respect for this wanted guy – Loki he was called. How did you pronounce that? Lock-y? His accomplice looked familiar in the one snapshot they had of him, but he wasn't sure why yet. Apparently Loki had really offended the Sovereign in some way about a week ago and then outrun the entire fleet of ships sent after him, which was no easy task. He'd managed to evade them for a week, when there'd been a call from someone on Knowhere. Less than an hour ago, the Sovereign had sent a whole fleet of ships after him again, the first few hundred he'd tricked into dive-bombing the city and causing a giant explosion (respect) then managing to get out of Knowhere, only to be followed by, wow, two fleets of a thousand ships each, gone through four jump points before... after that it wasn't clear. Apparently he'd made all the ships explode mysteriously. But how was that possible?

Well, if the Sovereign was stupid enough to go after a guy like that, he was sure Loki would have some good times making them run around like headless chickens. He had Quill's respect.

Quill was still reading the article when the door opened and Rocket came in with Groot and him. He wasn't about to look like he was enjoying reading with Rocket around, so rearranged his face to one of boredom and started tapping his feet along to the song.

Luckily, Rocket hadn't noticed him. He was busy ranting about something, as always. Groot was nodding along, saying the occasional "I am Groot" to agree with him.

Then, just Quill's luck, he decided to talk to him.

"Greetings, Quail," Thor said, waving at him as though trying to change the subject from Rocket's ramblings. He couldn't blame him.

"Quill, it's Quill, Thor," he corrected, automatically.

"That's what I said," Thor insisted. Quill gave up.

Thor didn't look like he had when he'd first joined the Guardians, rather more like the pirate angel they'd met all that time ago. Without the eye patch. He'd even given himself a hair cut, to eventful consequences. (Quill was hoping Thor would give Rocket a hair cut. That would be hilarious.)

"And another thing!" Rocket was saying, the other three watching him. "You two need to stop messing with my stuff and maybe you won't blow a hole in the ship!"

"Wait, who's blown a hole in my ship?" Quill asked, suddenly interested.

"I am Groot," Groot said, looking as sheepish as a plant could look.

Quill sighed. What had he done to deserve this? "I'm agreeing with Rocket on this. You leave his stuff alone, OK?"

"I am Groot," Groot said solemnly.

"Go and fix it then," Quill told Groot, waving in dismissal. Groot stood up and moodily went off the go and fix the ship.

"So, Quail, did you read anything interesting?" asked Thor, trying to change the subject. It was awkward.

Quill shrugged. There was no way he was admitting he'd found the reading interesting. Not in front of Thor or Rocket. "There was one thing that happened in Knowhere with a wanted guy. The Sovereign's offering over five million units for their capture."

Rocket's eyes widened. "Wow, that's as much as they want for us."

"I know right?" Quill said. The screen buzzed in his lap again with an update. They'd identified Loki's accomplice and offered a reward for him too, only 10,000 units though. Now Quill knew why he looked familiar – it was the wizard they'd met on Titan, the one from Earth with the glow-y circles. It beat him what a Terran was doing in space. "Only offering 10,000 for his accomplice though."

Rocket looked unamused. "Had to be those conceited douchebags didn't it? What did they do?"

Quill looked at him, intrigued. "Rocket, you aren't interested are you?"

"What? No," Rocket said, but he'd always been a bad liar, and even though he couldn't blush, he seemed to be anyway.

Quill smirked to himself. "Well, not-interested-Rocket, in simple terms, the Sovereign are pissed because this guy destroyed over two thousand of their ships when apparently they sent them after him when he offended them in some way. Knowhere's been wrecked."

"Well, he's got my respect," Rocket said sarcastically, though Quill had a suspicion he meant it. "Doesn't seem like there's any money in it though."

"Well, that's not the only worthwhile thing in the galaxy, Rabbit," Thor said, making Quill jump. He'd almost forgotten Thor was there. He turned towards Quill. "Who are the Sovereign people? I think I've heard of them."

"Space jerks who want to kill us," Quill shrugged in answer.

"High and mighty conceited douchebags," Rocket added.

"I am Groot!" Groot called from the other end of the ship.

Thor nodded as though remembering. "I thought so. Asgard had an alliance with them for a while before Ragnarok."

"Huh," Quill said, scrolling on the screen to the wanted ad for Loki. "Lock-y's from Asgard too. That's a coincidence."

"Lock-y?" asked Rocket.

"The wanted guy," Quill explained.

Thor's face suddenly went pale, and red, and happy and horrified and disbelieving, all at the same time. He murmured something like, "Low-key?" which didn't make much sense until Quill realised he was saying Loki's name.

"Um, might be, yeah," Quill said, exchanging a concerned look with Rocket then back to Thor, who's face still couldn't decide what expression to adopt. "Why? Do you know him?"

Thor said nothing, but held out his hand for Quill to give him the screen, who complied, still confused. Thor read it, his eyes wide. He seemed too shocked to say anything. "There's no way..." he kept whispering to himself repeatedly.

"Thor?" Rocket said tentatively. Thor didn't reply.

"Are there no pictures?" Thor asked without looking up.

"No clear ones," Quill responded. "Thor, are you going to tell us what's going on?"

"I thought he died nearly six years ago," Thor said, and he seemed to be talking to both himself and to them. "When Thanos attacked our ship. The day you saved me as well. I'll never get the image out of my head of Thanos strangling him and throwing him down by my feet... dead. Dead."

Quill was still in the dark, but Rocket's eyes had lit up as though he too, understood.

"Who?" Quill asked.

Thor looked at him. "Loki is my brother."