Spoiler for GotG 2!
Headcanon that Kraglin and Peter actually keep up the habit of collecting little cute trinkets and arrange them on the control console for everyone to see. Whenever they dock on a planet, you can be sure that they bring back at least one new one.
The other Guardians, new and old ones, notice that, of course. A few, like Gamora and Rocket, can put two and two together and smile sadly. The others think it a bit weird, but no one dares to interrupt or ask, since both men seem so calm and peaceful when they place the trinkets there, smiling nostalgically at them.
It’s Groot who wants to add something on his own, since he feels that this is important, somehow. He finds the old Ravager badge he, uh, borrowed during the failed attempt at escaping, and places it next to the various trinkets. He doesn’t really understand why, but the crushing hug Peter gives him and the wobbly smile of Kraglin seem to indicate that they very much appreciate the gesture.
Gamora follows with a knife, the most beautiful carved one she owns. It should represent both sides of what she knows, good and bad, beautiful and ugly, and it’s pretty much the most honest thing she could have given. (“I think he would have understood that”, she tells Peter later, and gets a smile for it.)
Drax still doesn’t understand what’s going on, but since everyone is in it, he doesn’t want to be left out, and adds a ring that once belonged to his late wife. This, he thinks, is a good place for it to stay. Peter assures him that this is more than he had to give, but Drax waves it away and reminds him that she would have wanted that, too.
Mantis is a bit out of her depth – there are various feelings and emotions clashing and wavering through the air here, many of which seem to be the exact opposite of each other – but she gets help from Groot. She catches a few flowers and lights the little tree produces in a glass jar and puts it on the console, feeling that she did the right thing when Peter and Kraglin both beam at it once they see it there.
Rocket’s trinket is eyed suspiciously (“This better not be a bomb again, Rocket”) but he just snarls at all of them and shushes them. He has scraped together a few bits and pieces and molten them into something that looks like a tiny arrow, music notes carved into the sides of it. (“It’s actually not a bomb? I’m impressed.” – “Will you shut it, Quill.”)
The collection grows and grows, miss-matching trinkets and little cute things added slowly. Some break over time – a space ship is not the best place for such things – but are replaced with others.
Sometimes, Peter sits cross-legged in front of the console, Zune in and music turned loud, and nobody interrupts him in his silent remembering. Sometimes, Kraglin seeks comfort there when the training with the arrow doesn’t go as planned.
Sometimes, all of them just look at it, remember, and smile.
It’s a good thing to remember a Dad by.
