Work Text:
"What are you doing?" Ronan watches with amusement as Peter adjusts a green hat over Delta's head. The small raptor barks at him in disagreement and proceeds to nudge the hat off her head for the third time.
"Halloween requires Halloween costumes, Ronan," Peter says, picking the hat up off the floor and kneeling to strap it back on to Delta's head. He scoops her into his arms and she squawks in disapproval at him, clawing at the hat. "Whatever," he tosses her on the bed where she lands with a bounce. "Fly away, Peter Pan."
"Peter Pan?"
"Yeah...He was the main character in a movie. One of my mom's favorite movies when she was a kid, actually. It was about a boy who never grew up because he wanted to be a kid forever, if I remember right. He and a bunch of other kids went to a place called Neverland, where they would never have to grow up. My mom-- she loved him so much she named me after him..."
Ronan takes the information in, also taking in the way Peter is dressed, and thinks back on how childish Peter could be at times. "She picked your name well."
"Um...thanks? I guess. I used to dress up like Peter Pan when I was little, too. My mom would wear her blue dress and pretend to be Wendy. That was before she got sick...she could not go on adventures with my anymore. She didn't have the strength or energy to run along side me anymore..."
Ronan does not ask who Wendy is. He does not want to ruin Peter's moment.
"What is the point of this?" Ronan takes a step back as Blue scuttles under his legs and nips at his boots. "What is she?"
The blue and gray raptor is sporting a brown vest with a matching cowboy hat. Peter's slung a small brown bag over her and taped a whip to it.
"She's Indiana Jones!"
"Right..." Ronan does not know what an Indiana Jones is, either. "Why?"
"Halloween, I already told you. It's a day on Terra that people celebrate! I mean, some people celebrate it. The rest, like all the kids, are just in it for the free candy! People dress up in costumes and go from door to door collecting candy. Some people decorate their houses, too. Sometimes it kind of scary, some times it's cool."
"Why would you want to dress up?"
"Because it's fun!"
"Fun..." A snort escapes the larger man.
"C'mon now, don't make fun of me!" Peter stoops to pick up blue and put her on the bed beside the raptorized Peter Pan. Immediately, Delta and Blue begin to honk and roll around in a play-fight.
Hearing her sisters having fun, Echo rushes in to join, Charlie clumsily stumbling after her. She's wearing a coat with black and white stripes, and Peter has strapped a ball of green fuzz to her head. Charlie is dressed from head to toe in brown fur.
"She's Beetlejuice," Peter explains, reaching down to pick up Echo and place her on the bed with her sisters when she tries (and fails) to do so on her own.
Happily, the brown dinosaur joins the wrestling match.
"It's from another movie back on Terra," he says when Ronan gives him a strange look. He has to kneel to pick up Charlie, because she's too small, "It was the last movie I watched with my mom before she...when...before I left Earth."
Peter forces a melancholy smile on to his face and gently pets Charlie's snout with a finger. She bumps his hand like a cat and licks him, as if she's trying to make him feel better, and Ronan kneels beside him and snakes an arm around him.
"What's Charlie supposed to be," the Kree asks, aiming to distract Peter from his thoughts.
At that, the smaller man perks up. "She's Chewbacca!" He lifts the smallest raptor in to his arms and the pair stands up. He doesn't put her on the bed, the others might squash her.
"She is...cute?" Ronan reaches out to pet her as well. She trills happily and stretches her long neck, flailing her tail and legs to get closer to his hand like an overly excited puppy. "And you are?"
"Han Solo," Peter smirks, grabbing a lapel of his black vest and pulling it forward. "Coolest man in space!"
Ronan knows full and well what Star Wars is, courtesy of Peter. He's seen a few of the movies, and he's listened to Peter talk through the entire films and about each film.
"Does that make me Princes Leia?" Ronan jokes.
"Only if you wear the slave outfit..."
There's a moment of silence before the pair breaks out into a fit of laughter.
"You would look really hot in the slave outfit, though!" Peter says, glancing up at Ronan.
"No."
"I can imagine it, really! And since you're taller and big, it would be small on you...oh, wow," Peter blushes and shifts around a bit. "It's, uh..."
"You're getting turned on at the thought of me in that costume."
"N-no!" exclaims Peter, turning to face the other way. This is almost as embarrassing as the time Gamora caught them grinding on each other in the cockpit of the Milano.
Ronan leans over, his nose almost brushing against Peter's ear, "Admit it."
The smaller man giggles at the tickling feeling of warm air against his neck and ear, "No, stop! I take back what I said! Yo can be Darth Vader because you're ugly!"
"That is not what you were thinking two seconds ago!"
Peter's reply is cut off by a loud thud and a squawk. With the worry of a parent, Peter sits up to see what his other three girls are doing.
Blue has shoved Echo off the bed and is sitting proudly on top of Delta who wriggles underneath her older sister's weight. She lets out annoyed barks at Blue, who only sassily lifts her head up higher and makes herself more comfortable on top of Delta.
"Girls," says Peter, walking over on his knees, he's hold Charlie against his chest. "Play nice with each other or none of you will get to play at all!"
He sets Charlie down on top of one of the soft pillows and pushes Blue off of Delta before helping Echo back on to the bed.
"Blue," he plucks the largest lizard off the bed. "Stop bullying your sisters. You're supposed to be their role model and protect them! You aren't supposed to sit on them and shove them off the bed!"
He talks to her as if she actually understands, but she doesn't. Instead of listening, she nips at his wrist so he can put her down.
"Blue!"
She squawks at him.
"Don't get sassy with me, miss!" He bops her lightly on he nose and sets her down. "I swear, the four of you will be the death of me. You came straight from satan's lair to wreak havoc on my fragile heart." He extends his hand to pet whoever is closest. The squad of oversized lizards scrambles forward to receive their pets, shoving each other out of the way to be petted first.
Ronan watches with amusement. Sometimes, the interactions between the animals and Peter is...strange. The velociraptors always flock to Peter whenever he's close by and they want to be petted or cuddled.
He doesn't fully believe it when Peter tells him that they think he is their mother. Sometimes, they trail after Peter like children would, but Ronan does not think the animals would be smart enough to see Peter as their mother. Or maybe they were too smart and knew Peter was different from them? Blue did actually live with her real mother at some point in time, (before Ronan struck the beast down with his hammer.) surely she would've remembered and seen the difference between her mother and Peter. And maybe she told her sisters? If the four of them could actually understand and communicate with each other...But Peter believes that they think he and Ronan are their parents, and whatever crazy shit Peter believes in somehow ends up being real in some kind of way.
At the end of the day, though, Ronan does not care what the dinosaurs do or do not think about. He just hopes Peter stops allowing them to sleep on the bed with them. He's getting fed up with having to peel slumbering baby dinosaurs off of his chest every morning.
"So," Peter says, pulling his hands away and turning to Ronan. "Do you think they would care if you wore the slave outfit?"
"Peter!"