Nikki didn’t expect this kindness from the Nova, so as you can imagine her smile was bright and her body actions were relaxed and ready for some form of peace and quiet around the ship. That was her original hope until the boys came out to play. Quill seemed a bit, uneasy and the way Rick approached Quill did not come across as a very pleasant one. But then again, Rick seemed to be a bit hard when you first meet him but after the talk last night, she did feel like there was something more to him than meets the eye.

Though she couldn’t help but smile at Quill when he arrived and the comment about the suit made her laugh softly. The Nova Suits were rather incredible, so it wasn’t surprising to hear that it could sustain the large man through space and when he said he enjoyed company that made Nikki grin at him. She had begun to like people again so finding someone who was willing to spend time with her was a wonderful thing. And him openly admitting that he wouldn’t mind spending time with people in general was a good thing. Even if the people weren’t exactly the best of their kind, they were good people and hopefully he’d get a chance to see that.

When Quill left, Nikki turned her attention back to Rick and opened her mouth to say something, only to have the ship jerk from under her and her tumbling and nearly falling backwards onto the floor. The colorful words and scream of pain/surprise drew her attention to the Nova watching him jump back from the potatoes. Then her gaze moved to Quill who said something about an asteroid field, it made sense; I mean, they were in space.

As Rick excused himself, she assured him she would watch over the potatoes and stepped in as the stirrer to insure they wouldn’t burn. Her ears twitched slightly as if looking for the music that should be playing throughout the ship. Sadly there was none yet and she let out a small sigh. 

“Good morning beautiful!” A small voice said from behind her. Rocket had made his way down the hall and climbed upon a chair without her hearing him.

“Good morning Sir Rocket. Did you sleep peacefully?” She asked with a brightness to her voice as she stirred the potatoes, in her mind it’s been a good morning so far!

“I did, thank you for asking.” His voice still filled with pride that she would call him Sir Rocket. “I have something for you. It’s nothing big but I saw it and thought of you.”

With that she turned around to see his little arms stretched out holding a good sized bowie knife in a sheath. 
“Is… is that for me?” She asked, her voice stumbling slightly.

“Well yeah.” He said with an innocent shrug as she took the weapon from him.

She unsheathed it and examined it with great detail. Two sets of footsteps were heard coming back down the hallway, one obviously the Nova back in his suit and the other sounded a lot like Quill’s. “Oh Sir Rocket…” She began, a softness to her voice unlike any other time. “This… this is wonderful. Thank you…”She slowly put the blade back into the sheath. “This is the first gift anyone has ever given me since my people were killed…” With that she reached down and picked up Rocket from the chair and wrapped her arms around him. Not feeling the new sets of eyes upon her she embraced Rocket in a hug, her voice filled with a mix of joy and sadness. “Thank you. Thank you so much…” 

At first, Rocket really didn’t know what to do. He was confused as Nikki picked him up off of the table but as she hugged him, he realized what was going on and wrapped his small arms around her neck returning the hug. A small sniffle left Nikki as she placed him back down on the table and turned back to the stove, placing the blade on the counter and stirred the potatoes.

Behind her, unseen, Rocket climbed down and started towards the hallway only to see the two men walking into the room. He gave them an arrogant smile before disappearing down the hallway walking with a large sense of pride.