Little

Chapter 10

When he returned back to the room, it was late evening. Peter was laying on his bed, playing with toys.

"Boom!" he said, hitting two toys together. An X-Wing and a TIE fighter. "Luke shoots down the bad guys! The Rebel Alliance wins!"

Peter continued to play and ignored Stephen. That was fine with Stephen. He picked up the file that contained info on Peter and started to leaf through them. There was a lot of boring, useless stuff he wasn't really interested in. 

He stopped at one page as it caught his eye. He started reading it.

Apparently Peter had attended one of year of school, kindergarten, before he stopped and switched to online school.

He read through the school reports that his teachers had written for that one year of school. Countless comments from teachers, students, and even the principal about his kindness, his empathy, and his intellect.

He continued looking on through the reports. Peter had won for his grade in the school science fair, and had even advanced to district. Continuing to flip through the pages, he found more reports, pictures, all describing Peter's achievements. 

How he dismantled a Stark phone and put it back together. 

How he wrote his name when he was two. 

Stephen began to realize that Peter was extremely special.. He was gifted, really smart. Like Stephen was at that age. 

He felt something tug at his sleeve. "Can I eat?" Peter asked, quietly. Was Peter scared of him? Why was he talking softly?

"Yeah, give me a minute," Stephen said. It was then he finally realized: Peter had been happy, once. Stephen couldn't have possibly controlled the deaths of his parents and uncle, but he could've saved his aunt's life. Could've given Peter a happier outcome. But no, it was his fault. And he finally felt guilty.

He got up and went to get Peter some food.