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Instincts

Tony left, leaving Peter alone in his room. Soon enough Peter got bored of being alone and went to go knock on Maya's door. No response came at first but soon enough he was able to hear Maya scrambling over to the door.

She opened it. "Hey, Peter!" She said. "Hey, Snowflake. I'm bored, wanna do something?" Peter asks. "Sure." Maya agrees. She opens her door wider, allowing him to come in.

Peter takes a seat on the beam back chair across of Maya's bed. "Can I get social media?" Maya asks.

"You don't even have a phone, why do you want social media?" Peter asked, making a mental note that he should probably get her a phone soon for safety.

"I don't know. I can get Tiktok on my tablet though."

"Tiktok? What are you gunna do on it?"

"I don't know, probably dance."

A smile crept onto Peter's face. "I'll think about it." He agreed. That satisfied Maya, her humming in content. She grabbed her tablet, sitting upside down on her bed.

As Peter shifted in the bean bag chair he thought he hurt some type of plastic sound.
He poked the chair a bit and heard another small crunch. Maya was to preoccupied with her tablet to notice.

Peter opened the zipper of the bean bag chair to find a Cheeto bag stuffed into it. "What the..." He muttered.

"Maya, why the heck are you stashing Cheetos in your chair?" He asked, adding a laugh at the end of his sentence.

"Oh...that." Maya put her tablet down, looking guilty.

"Why are you hiding food in your furniture?" Peter asked again, a grin displayed on his face.

"I..was saving it for later..." Maya mumbled.

Peter stood in confusion. "I get that Clint always takes the chips but stashing them is like next level hunger games." He jokes. Maya didn't laugh, her face filled with guilt.

"Not, not, because of Clint..." She mutters quietly. Peter didn't understand, staring at his sister in confusion. His face slowly morphed from one of confusion into one of understanding.

"Maya...you don't have to do that anymore. Your safe, you can eat whenever and whatever you want." He said, softly.

Maya knew this of coarse. She was constantly reminded by her brother how he would protect her and keep her safe but still by force of habit the fear still lingered.

She was scared Peter would be mad at the fact she hasn't moved on yet. "I, I, know..." She muttered. Maya struggled to differentiate Peter's facial expressions, not being able to tell if he was angry or not.

"I-I'm sorry, I-I know your angry..." She apologized, fidgeting with her hands. Peter set the chip bag down, pulling the small child into a hug.

"Shh, Shh, Tell me what you need to get off your chest. I'm listening." He said, rubbing circles on his sister's back. At first Maya remained quiet until she spoke up a bit.

"I-I know you kept thinking I was better and things were fine now but I don't think they are...and I know your trying to hard to make me feel normal but normal is the opposite of what I feel." Maya began, her voice breaking as she tried to fight her inevitable tears.

"Because normal kids don't stash food, and I tried not to but it's like an instinct that if I don't stash the food I won't have any later on. I know it's not true but I still do these things even if they make no sense!" She said.

Immediately Peter blamed himself. 'I should protect have protected her better. I should have noticed sooner. I should have given her more of my food. I should have tried harder.' He thought.