Title: how hard i found it
Fandom: Star Wars/Marvel
Rating: PG
Length: 604
Content notes: None.
Author notes: I wrote this at the last minute. This is a side-story to a fic I am writing. Title is from quote in A New Hope: You don’t know how hard I found it, signing the order to terminate your life.
Summary: Peter was four when he found his father's saber.


Peter was four when he found his father's saber. He'd been his father's assistant while he was working in his private lab. Looking back, Peter was fairly certain that he babbled about nothing the entire time and completely forgot about the assistant part. Peter had gotten bored of sitting still beside his dad, so he ran around and around the lab until he made himself dizzy.

He was flat on his back on the floor, huffing and puffing from all of the adrenaline. Peter turned his head to the side and that was when he saw it. Something had been affixed to the underside of table, but the adhesive must have been old because the thing was hanging on by a thread. Without thinking, Peter reached out and pulled it out without much give. It was heavy in his small hand. He twirled it around to see it from all angles. The object looked like the handle of a sword. It was silver and smooth. It was too big to wield with one hand, but that didn't stop Peter from trying.

He fell on his bottom when he tried to stand and wave it around. Peter dropped the sword handle and the thing clattered to the ground, rolling away under the table.

In an instant, his dad was kneeling on the floor, reaching under the desk until he retrieved the handle.

"It's so cool, dad!" Peter exclaimed as he bounded to his feet. "Can I use it? Pleeeeaasle!"

"No!" his dad shouted so loud it hurt Peter's ears. His father bent down so they were eye to eye. Peter stared at the way his dad was holding the handle so tightly that his knuckles turned white. "Peter, Peter, look at me." Peter did and was shocked to see his father looked so scared. His eyes were large and his dad was physically shaking. "Peter, you can never ever tell anyone about this. Do you understand?"

Peter looked away, unable to meet his father's gaze, and nodded. At the time, he wasn't sure if he would be able to keep the promise.

Two months later, his parents were dead. Just like that. Peter didn't remember too much about what happened after his aunt told them they were gone. He knew he cried a lot, and that was too angry for a young child.

Peter remembered his Uncle Ben holding him firmly in his arms as he screamed on the top of his lungs and kicked so hard that Uncle Ben had several bruises. It was because people from the Republic were stealing everything. They were going through their home and boxing everything up. They took his dad's lab equipment and his mom's collection of train tickets. They even stole Peter's toys.

These things didn't belong to them, but they took it anyway.

When Peter was seven, his class learned about Luke Skywalker. He was a true hero to the Republic. He was brave, and he had the same sword hilt as Peter's dad had been hiding. Luke's sword handle belong to his light saber.

Peter didn't know if his dad was a Jedi or possessed the light saber a different way. He could have found it or it could have been a gift. Was it why the Republic took away all of their things? Uncle Ben and Aunt May didn't answer this questions. He wondered if they didn't know either.

Slowly, Peter grew tired and forgot all about the odd sword hidden in his father's lab.

The next time Peter saw the light saber was almost a decade later.