[ Yeah. This is complicated, and Peter sighs, scrubbing at his face. ]

No. If anything, I owe a debt to him.

[ Groot, apparently, has his interest piqued, and while he hasn't turned to look at Peter, he's very obviously listening.

And man, is it too late/early to go explaining his life story. In a different moment, Peter might have made a face and said he didn't need to explain himself to a total stranger before cutting the line, but apparently he's too tired at the moment to realize this is an option.

(Which isn't to say he won't later, if it gets to that point, but for now, this is what he offers: )]

Okay, so, like. This is gonna get weird. He was— bigger. Older. More mature, I guess. But that wasn't him, it was another him, I guess? Like, his predecessor. His dad? Sort of.

[ ... Peter has literally never explained this aloud. Is it obvious? ]

So his— previous self, I guess, died protecting us. The team, I mean. And we raised this Groot from his remains. We've been looking after him ever since. He's young, yeah, but he ages rapidly, and he's learning.

And, yeah, it's risky and potentially stupid to bring him along while he's like this, but we all know he's vulnerable, so we keep an eye on him and protect him. But it's not like he's defenseless. Hell, I'm pretty sure he's more useful than I am. [ don't tell the others. ] So he protects us as much as we protect him.

We're a family that fights bad guys, and he's relearning the ropes, is what I'm getting at.