He doesn't know what he did to deserve that face. Even with her opening up her mouth and outright telling him, he still can't quite believe that the murderous exile Ravager captain Yondu Udonta just got called the closest thing to 'dad' that he's ever heard in his life. And while it's not exactly that, and while it's not exactly 'love' that she said, it's more than he's ever had spoken at him.

He'd been telling V that people frequently didn't see him, the real him. They saw that face full of scars or heard he was a thief and didn't realize the battered man in love with big scores was satisfied with a trinket and someone lending him an ear. They saw a man that wanted to fight. While that wasn't wrong, not by a mile, they never saw the man that would spend hours in a cosmic flea market mulling over the right gifts.

"Don't think you don't help me, not for a moment." Sure, he doesn't cry, but those red eyes of his are glassier than usual. He lets go of her face to hold her hands in his own blue ones. "You were one of the first people I ever met that took the time to get to know me... I didn't really let nobody try before that. I couldn't. I wasn't in a situation where it'd be right to..." Sure, his team had when he was younger, but he'd been so very stupid and made so many mistakes.

"Sweetheart you help-"

Ugh, he doesn't want to put this all on a little girl. But he simultaneously doesn't want her to underestimate her importance to him now. Not when she's so worried about doing right by him.

"You help give me reasons to not give up. Ya listen to all my stuff about bein' scared. Ya trusted me with knowin' how bad your home situation was... an' trustin' me was bigger than you probably knew. Ya listened to me when I told ya about me gettin' stupid over that smile." He forces a chuckle. "I only told one other person about that."

He bobs her hands up and down with every other word of the next sentence. "I always know my heart's safe with you."