The sun had shown brightly that day and New York was drinking it up like morning coffee. Mr. Peabody was sipping his own mug of the brown elixir as he waited for his young ward to come in from his morning preening, honestly teenagers were so egotistical. And there was no exception when it came to his son, Sherman. Speak of the devil and he shall come, there he was now striding in with long gangly legs and styled auburn hair.
"Well aren't you looking dapper as ever? I absolutely adore that ratty old jumper you're wearing," Peabody said without a moment's hesitation, "It really ties it all together."
Sherman greeted his surrogate father with a shrug and an eye role, they bantered quite often for lack of a better term and most of the time it was nothing if not amusing.
"That's what you think, but penny loves it. Just takes a little honey to get some bees, if you know what a mean." Sherman said more than delighted to add a suggestive eyebrow wiggle. Peabody simply rolled his eyes and continued to read the morning paper, the headliner being the best part as usual (aside from the crossword).
"I'm sure penny adores that rag you call a jacket, you Casanova, you." Peabody said mildly, smirking behind the shield of his paper at his son's laughter.
"Right, even I know I'm not that dreamy." Sherman mumbled opening the fridge for leftovers to scarf down for the morning.
They ate in a comfortable silence the rest of the sunrise, an orange glow filtering through the glass walls and warming the dinner table and its residence.
The day had been long and hard, coupled with the stress of being a single parent, life could get pretty rough around the edges, but in the end Peabody would still have his son. He had just finished recalibrating the wavelength on the time machine and after words he would be done for the day, and if things didn't blow up in face, the rest of the week too.
His ears perked at the sound of the elevator door sliding open and the ding that followed after. What intrigued the hound though, is the lack of greetings. Just silence aside from a bag dropping to the floor and the shuffling of socks on the carpet.
"Sherman? Are you alright? You seem unusually quiet." Peabody called out, venturing from his work shop down the hall.
"Yeah, m'fine. Just tired." Sherman responded sounding like he hadn't slept in days. Peabody wanted to press the matter, but decidedly declined. The boy sounded truly tired and probably needed some rest.
When he was finished he set his tools onto their respective hooks and exited his workshop for some quality time with his son.
As he padded through the kitchen and to his sons room he abruptly stopped, as he listened intently to the other side of the bedroom he could hear muffled sobs.
He took a cautious step back and knocked softly on the bright blue door.
"Y-yeah?" he heard from the other side, murmured and thick with tears. It took all of Peabody's strength not to rush in and coddle his boy. It took even more strength not hunt down who did this to him and make them suffer the wrath that was Peabody's rage.
"May I come in?" Peabody asked gently, the request was met with an affirmative, albeit a near silent one.
As he opened the door Peabody's eyes came upon a sniveling whimpering mess of a boy, glasses taken off and probably thrown to the other side of the room, with a pillow hugged firmly to his face.
"Tell me what happened when you feel like you can, Darling." Peabody said as he laid a comforting paw on his sons shoulder.
"…Someone beat me up today at school." Sherman said blunt as ever, lowering his tear stained pillow from his face. His eyes were red and puffy one swollen and bruised with a cut on his lip budding crimson.
"Oh Sherman, I'm so sorry…" Peabody said bringing his only child into a strong embrace that felt like it would never let go.
"The kid that beat me up got detention, so you don't have to call the school or anything," Sherman said a soft maroon blush settling on his cheeks from past memories. The kids ridiculed him when his father called and lectured the principle on what was appropriate and inappropriate in a school environment. Needless to say the principle wasn't too keen on being lectured by a dog, no matter how smart he was.
"Well that's good, but I still want to know why he would do such a thing." Peabody asked like Sherman would know, though evidently he did.
"He thought I was smarter than him or something and when I said no to him when he asked me to help him cheat, he got kinda mad." Sherman mumbled as he bit his sore lip.
"Well I never- that little bugger I have the mind to go and write his parent or guardian a very strongly worded letter and demand an apology from that- that little imbecilic child!" Peabody ranted on and on, it only made Sherman feel a chuckle bubble up in his chest.
He had to admit when his father went into these raging lunatic stages (or at least as close as he could get) it was very amusing. How he would try his best not to curse in another language as well as English, and how his arms flailed and his teeth were bared.
"Dad, I'm fine, really it's not that big of a deal." Sherman said with a genuine smile on his lips.
"Oh no I'm doing it and I will give them such a tongue lashing!" Peabody yelled storming out of the room in a raging furry.
"Dad wait! C'mon it's just gonna make it worse!" Sherman said as he tried to catch up with his enraged father.
AU~ hey, look! I'm alive! Here you are my darling little readers I hope you enjoyed this you little buggers 'cause I'll give you such a tongue lashing if you don't review! So do it. Now. Like right now this very second. DO IT AND SHOW ME LOVE. Hah just joshing, but seriously review, it motivates me.