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They'd stopped on Earth a few times.
Of course, the Guardians weren't exactly the most well-known team (not like those fuckin' Avengers, what good they'd ever do?!) but they did really stand out in a crowd, and at least one person eventually recognized the strange group, which was an odd feeling to all of them. Being recognized for something good was unusual to them, much the opposite as to what they were used to.
They hadn't expected anything in particular on this trip, exactly...
"So yeah, this is where I used to live. It's changed. A lot." Peter looked at the new skyscrapers, and various other 'unneeded' developments and sighed. "--not for the better, but hey, can't help it."
"...We could destroy all those unneeded buildings?" Drax offered, seeing that as a genuine act of kindness towards his friend.
"As much fun as that'd be, I'm not really eager to get on the shitlist here, of all places." Rocket commented, sitting on Groot's shoulder. "Partially because there's 50 million dipshits with powers here, and partially because I'm pretty sure Peter's not eager for that either--"
"I'm not."
"--so we can't do it. Believe me, I want to."
"We're supposed to be heroes now, we can't cause mindless destruction."
"Yeah yeah, I know." Rocket pouted. "Laws killin' all my fun -- not like I couldn't break us out again..."
"Rocket."
"....." Siiiiiigh. "Yes, deaaaaarrr." Bleh. The raccoon stuck his tongue out at the terran in annoyance, said terran smirking in return. They hadn't even noted the elderly man approaching the group, taking a few looks around - he seemed to be quite old indeed - until he spoke up.
"...Excuse me. You all are the Guardians of the Galaxy, correct?"
"That's us." Peter spoke up, his attention now drawn to the older man. "Star Lord at your service, sir."
"...." The man laughed, shaking his head. "Same as usual, eh?"
"....What'dya mea--"
"--don't tell me you don't recognize me, little Star Lord. Ya look just like you were years ago."
Peter's eyes widened instantly, he froze up, and then he instantly grinned. "Grandpa!"
"There we go, you're not an amnesia--" Quill had instantly run over, hugging his grandfather. "--okay, okay, I'm getting old, my bones are twigs at this point, not too tightly."
"--Sorry." Peter was tearing up, even as he let go. "I'm sorry...for everything..."
His grandfather laid a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head. "I'll admit, you had me worried sick for...a few years, but now you've saved the whole galaxy. I think ya kinda made things up in the end, mostly because I can gloat about that, and it pisses everyone else off at the retirement home."
"--Pffff, you noticed all of that?"
"I couldn't avoid it, really." Grandpa shrugged. "Not like I wanted to. I'm just glad that you're safe....which means I didn't....I didn't entirely fail at my job of keepin' ya safe."
Okay, now Peter was really crying. "--fuckfuckfuck I'm so sorry about that, I shouldn't've ran..." The only one who really had a sense of what was going on was Rocket, and he was barely hesitating from hopping down and taking his hand because he didn't know how to comfort anyone but that was enough for him most of the time so--
"Don't apologize. Hey. You're embarrassing yourself in front of your friends." Grandpa looked over at the other Guardians. "Though they kinda look like they're used to it."
"We are." Gamora chipped in.
"--right, yeah." Peter wiped his eyes. "Grandpa, these are the rest of the Guardians. Gamora--"
"Hello." She smiled. Grandpa glanced between her and Peter as if to imply something, and Peter simply shook his head while hiding his hand that had a ring on it behind his back.
"--Drax, he's nice even if he's got the whole destroyer title and kind of a bad history--"
"Hello, sir." Drax's smile was a bit more awkward, but he still tried.
"--Groot, and yeah, he's a talking tree--"
"I am Groot." Groot extended a branch and shook the older man's hand, smiling.
"...." And then there was an awkward silence as Rocket and Peter exchanged glances. Peter bit his lip like what the hell do I tell him considering we're not exactly the ideal couple and I don't want to give him a heart attack, and Rocket winced as if to say I don't know just call me your friend and if he notices, he notices.
"Right, and this is Rocket."
The old man paused for a moment, pulling his grandson's hand out from behind his back. "...." Peter's smile instantly changed to a nervous one. "...Something you need to tell me, Pete?"
".....okay, yeah, Grandpa....don't judge me for this, but, uh. Yeah. I'm engaged. And...um..." He glanced up at Rocket, who hopped down from Groot's shoulder, slowly walking over and taking Peter's hand. "--yeah, it's not to a girl either. Or a human."
"Um...hello, sir." Rocket had dedicated himself to learning Earth culture for the most part, and apparently meeting your romantic partner's family is some sort of big deal. On top of the fact that he'd been told, entirely intentionally 'I love you and I don't need anyone else ever' via ring. Which he actually had to make sure of. And it wasn't a mistake, either, that was the intention.
Grandpa paused for a moment, looking between the two, pursing his lips as if to think of what to say, frowning. "...I don't know what I expected from you, Peter....this was not it." Shit, shit, shit! This was not going goo--the old man was now laughing.
"...I can't keep that face for long. But anyway, as long as you're happy, whoever it is doesn't bother me at all. Even if I didn't see it coming at all, even with the reports."
There was a collective sigh of relief from damn near everyone. This only caused Grandpa's laughter to increase. "--did you all expect me to disown him or something?! I'm not that much of an asshole!"
He'd definitely missed Grandpa, no doubt, even moreso that he realized that most of his best traits were from him--
"By the way, who wants to hear embarrassing childhood stories about Pete?" --GRANDPA NO--the whole team had grinned and gathered closely for storytime. "He used to want to have a spaceship in almost every leftover cardboard box, an--oh, oh. There was one time where he ran out in the middle of everything and announced--"
"GRANDPA NO."
"--oh, c'mon, Pete, they should know about your cheerful announcement that you'd almost reached the toilet that time...aaaalllmoooosssttt. Let me tell ya, I didn't want to go to the bathroom due to sheer fear, and it smelled like something died--"
"Pfffhahahaha." The team was giggling immaturely. Even Groot. They were not exactly the most mature group.
"--and the one time where he liked that one girl -- what was her name, Josie? Josie, and he spent about a month trying to convince her that he was some kind of dramatic hero, and the one time she came over, he tried to invite her on one of his 'voyages'..."
Peter had just covered his eyes, grimacing.
"...let me tell ya, she wasn't thrilled to hop into a cardboard box. She was pretty smart for her age too, considering her first announcement was 'We ran into an ass-teeroid and died. Can we play house now?'"
"Uggghhh."
"Hey, that was your choice to have her around. Little smartass, though."
"Nothing has changed. At all." Gamora commented. Rocket snorted, nodding.
"Good. I'm guessing that we'll get along quite well."
"--why do I make such horrible choices in life--"
"Love you too. And yeah. Wanna hear about some embarrassing things that he's done on the ship?"
"ROCKET NO."
"...are they even better?"
"Oh yeah."
"Then c'mere, lemmie hear 'em!"
Peter facepalmed with both of his hands as his fiancé and Grandfather swapped embarrassing stories of himself, while the rest of the team watched with amusement. Even if he was glad to see his grandfather again, he couldn't deny that he wasn't exactly a fan of the situation--
"Alright, there was this one time he challenged the guy we were fighting to a dance battle. He started dancin' and singin'--"
and it wasn't going to get better anytime soon.
"--sounds like him, yes--"
"And the guy was giving him a stare like he just went mentally insane--"
"--both you and I know that that line was crossed long ago."
"Definitely."
.....At least it'd all gone well.
And it hopefully would continue to go well for a long while.