DOG MAN || One-Shot Stories

I don't know how you keep smiling

January 22, 2024

2024 It's the year of Dog Man! I'll be making as much dm content as I can this year, gotta represent
I'm also working on two other whole dm books including a new AU I'm crafting up. That I want at least get out this year, so hopefully that goes to plan.

About Petey going to visit his mom's grave.
This is just pretty sad im sorry I just love writing things with strong feels in it or I just love writing about Petey.

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    Petey pulled at his jacket, fidgeting with the straps as he dragged his feet lazily across the thick snow. Crunching with each step below him, he thought twice of why he chose to come over here during the horrid snowy weather. Surely, it would calm down soon, he told himself as he got dressed to head out. While he stepped out the door, a framed photo in his freezing hands. Why was his blood running cold before he took a step outside, maybe it had something to do with the picture. Because when he stared at it he swore he felt his head spin.

Shoving his hands into his jacket pockets, he made his way over the creaky and aged wooden bridge. Wondering how long the bridge had been built here, he thought while he tried to occupy his mind.  Anything besides the memories that developed to run through his head.
But it would eventually betray him as the memory rushed in, his mother and him, sat on the bridge.
Mid summer sun shining on orange, white and black fur, they both practically glowed in the golden rays. Legs dangling down, paws gripping the wooden poles, a picture book opened in her lap. His mother humming a tune so gently, he wondered if he would ever be as calm as then.

Almost there, mom.

It only took a few minutes, really. He saw the gray, small tombstone as he slowly approached. A large bare tree decorated with snow on its branches beside it. Accompanied with strangers all around, there they laid.
But as Petey would say, they didn't live there, they were everything that blew and everything that you loved. Yet, finding himself here, he hugged himself, and hung his head low. Would the wind ever be able to replace her presence, would the sun shining on him, or the water that basked him at night or the snow at his feet.

  Petey brought the framed picture up, fingers brushing on the cool glass, he stared. He couldn't remember who took the picture, but it was most certainly not his degenerate father. Evident with the bandage that wrapped around the end of his own tail. Most likely a passerby stranger his mom asked to take the photo for them. Funny how a simple gesture from a stranger might have shown more kindness than his own father had ever. He heavily sighed, shoulders sinking. From the expression in the picture on his young face, the look in his eyes, he could tell he wasn't happy.

He wished he'd have smiled.
It was so simple.
Maybe, it would have made her smile beam even brighter.

  Petey hated how his life was riddled with utter guilt everywhere he looked. It sank into his bones and rested. It would probably never let go, it would make a permanent resting of him. He deeply breathed, stomach sinking down.
No.

It wouldn't, he knew he was on a path of recovery he really did believe the ache would subside, he had already completed the achievement of moving on from his father with the help of his son. Petey didn't find himself completely haunted with the feeling of loss in every waking moment as he did in his teens. But, he would be lying if he said he didn't miss her, so, so much.
  He looked back up at her tomb, with his other hand he placed it on the cold concrete. Brushing off the fluffy snow that piled on top. The snow melting into the fabric of his gloves, the cool water sinking into orange fur.