[Pete and Beaver
belong to Stephen King, and original canon characters from Dreamcatcher,
the book. Original characters have been added for filler. This is all AU. What
if Beaver and Pete hadn't have been killed that year at Hole in the Wall? What
if they married and tried to get on with their lives? Warning: this
is slash. Pete/Beaver slash, in fact. If homosexual ideas offend you, do not
read this.]
[300 word drabble, written by Vitko]
Novembers at Hole in the Wall never really changed and it was by their own concordance they kept the tradition alive. Having grown up, grown older, and grown away, it was getting harder and harder to remember certain things about certain times during certain years.
Most of the time Pete would just let it go. One thought in, the other going out. It was a steady stream of conveyor belt knowledge and his brain always seemed to be working overtime. Bringing parts in. Shipping parts out. Halle-fucking-lujah there's a sale on aisle four and everything must go!
There are things that Pete refuses to let go. He keeps them in boxes stored away. Locked behind a steel-protected door. Do Not Fuckin Enter, Penalty of Death. Things he loved would be kept in there. Things like his mother's lasagna and his daughter's first steps. He remembers the way his ex-wife's face shone when she finished delivering Frannie. That was the only time Lynn had ever truly been beautiful. You look like a million bucks, baby, he'd said, kissing her brow- damp from exhaustion.
Some nights, Pete would sit in the middle of his warehouse and sift through the boxes. He'd be drunker than the night before, and the reeking stench of Budweiser would saturate the room. There were folders, lots of folders. Pete didn't have to open them to know what was inside. The smell of Beaver's shampoo was all over them and he never once wondered how that gentle scent could cut through the smell he always associated with himself.
Beaver always treated Pete better than he thought he deserved. He just couldn't swallow the idea that the Beav treated him exactly like he needed to be -- saw things in him that Pete refused to see in himself.
But he always did love that smell.