Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Hello internet, I have risen from the grave. No actual story bits will be up yet, but I will be sharing the details about the AU, so fair warning. This AU is a sort of dark in a way, but you prob guess that by the word 'killer'

Alright, let's get to business.

We all can probably agree this dog has serious letting go issues.

Adults mysteriously disappear if they are affectionate towards Sherman. And they have to move as a result probably so zero chance of being caught. Sherman is confused about why they move a lot. But, I'm sure Peabody has many reasons why a person disappeared and the reason behind the moving. It's quite a frustrating time when someone showers Sherman in affection and now they have to move again.

Everyone wants to shower that boy with love and affection, me the narrator included. But, that cannot do. Peabody isn't sharing his puppy. It's like, get your own puppy, this one is mine.

I imagine Sherman must be homeschooled in this AU or at some point he is.

So to sum up, Peabody will kill anyone who shows affection to his son and the author too if she tries to steal him as her own son. Extreme 'I don't want to let you go' is the theme for this AU.

Extreme overprotective dad who doesn't want to share his son, hence the name, Papa Wolf Killer.

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Getting too close to someone can be considered dangerous. You don't know what will happen.

But, for personal reasons, he didn't like people favoring his son. Those people could be dangerous, they could be predators. The problem would be eliminated, however, another troublesome issue would come up.

Not Sherman's question of why the person disappeared overnight.

Peabody could not risk even the slightest chance of what happened, so he took extra measures to cover up anything that happened. Police could not figure out who the murder was and why. After months passed, they assumed it must be a serial killer.

The first time it happened, he knew that specific human needed to go. He sincerely hoped that'd be the end of it. But, no, almost every time he took his son out for public outings, isolation is not healthy after all, people would try to get close to him. The worst had to be the women who gushed about how adorable his boy was and wished they had one like him.

Peabody tried to tell himself, it's an innocent comment.

Remember last time someone said an innocent comment?

His mind was made up long ago, getting close is a dangerous idea. Especially towards his son.

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Peabody did not often think back to his pup days. But, there's one moment that's forever engraved in his brain, most likely for all his life.

Another normal day, unwanted, he only paid attention for a few minutes before turning his eyes away.

"He's so adorable!"

Seconds after that comment, more children were saying similar things along with, "I saw him first!" He looked back over and found himself unable to gaze away from what he saw.

They were all pulling on the dog, trying to pull or attempting to drag the pup. He yelped and whimpered in pain as his tail got grabbed, his ears pulled. The kids did not seem to notice the dog's distress and pain.

Looking back, he assumes the kids must be rotten since surely a child would notice they are causing a living creature pain.

The dog suddenly jerked his head to the closest hand.

The child shrieked and pulled their hand back. "He bit me!" And like that, all the kids backed off as if scared the dog would bite them also.

No one wanted that dog after that and that dog would probably not want anyone. Before Peabody left, that dog would cower near any human and after too many times of this dog biting people.

He was put down for violent behavior.

Now every time he heard "He's so cute." "He's so adorable." He flew into his own kind of fight or flight mode.

Should he get them both out of there so that person doesn't hurt Sherman? Or try to endure it and keep an eye on them just in case they attempted to hurt his child. It was always a hard decision to avoid Sherman from getting suspicious or concerned about his actions.

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He often would have this weird feeling in his gut. It was such a strange pattern.

Sometimes he would hear people compliment him, it was flattering and a little embarrassing at times. Sherman swore Peabody would tense up, but in seconds his dad would be back to his normal posture so maybe it was his imagination.

But, why would those people go missing the next day? Then skip forward, they'd be found dead. Sometimes even the people working for his dad would be reported dead. Normally a child would be frightened living in a building where people die a lot. But either this place had a ghost (even though Peabody told him repeatedly that ghosts don't exist and even if they did, their home is not haunted) that hated workers, or someone was sneaking in somehow and doing the deed for the similar reason. But why Peabody's workers?

This was hurting his head to think about. So he decided to stop thinking about it.

There would be a similar stage set, he would see people whispering, Peabody would stiffen. Then relax again, Sherman never heard what they murmured about, but his father didn't like what they were discussing. That much was clear.

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Peabody was strongly against using his dog functions to remove dangerous people. He preferred not getting blood on him so he usually used injections to, ahem, make them sleep eternally or just poison whatever they're going to drink. However, he considered that there might be a day he'd have no other choice. So he decided to file his claws. Making them sharp.

He had no time to cover what he was doing when Sherman walked in on him, in the middle of saying his name.

Peabody lowers the tool. "Do you need something Sherman?"

The boy dodged the question, now more focused on what his father was doing. "What were you doing?"

Luckily he could come up with reasons lacking any flaws. "Can't let them get dull or dirty, now, did you need something?"

"I forgot," Sherman lies, "I'll just let you get back to that." He quickly exits the room.

He was going to ask about a sudden recent disappearance, but his dad seemed busy so he figured maybe another time.

Dull? Dirty? Why is he only doing it now?

Sherman shook his head.

Maybe I just never noticed before, this is just the first time I've walked onto it.

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"Mr. Peabody?"

"Yes, Sherman?"

Sherman looks up then down. "Where did your secretary go?"

"She betrayed my trust, so I had to refill her position."

Sherman frowns. "That's a shame, I liked her, she gave me candy last time I saw her."

Peabody repressed his annoyance. I know. It really bothered him, not only was she showing his son a sign of affection but also trying to steal Sherman's attention.

Peabody woke up to a suspicious sound, he slips on his glasses and bowtie and follows the source of the sound quickly.

Sherman mumbles tiredly under his breath as his finger struggled to press the stop button on his alarm. He wakes up a little more when his father came in, the sound of the alarm must have woken him up. He stares at the phone screen then asks something that confused Sherman and thought he must still be dreaming.

"Sherman, who on earth is Alarm and why do they call you at 6 AM every morning?"

"...Mr. Peabody, it's my literal alarm, no one is calling me."

Peabody stares at him for a solid five seconds before turning to leave, "Alright then."

This event finally sent red flags into Sherman's brain. Because his father for some reason thought someone was calling him.

At 6 Am.

He would have just written this off as Peabody being tired, but his phone disappeared. Sherman asked him about it, however, his father said he doesn't know where a phone could disappear to.

Peabody glares out of the corner of his eye as he notices one of his employees' approach.

"Here are the blueprints you asked for Mr.-"

The man was, in seconds, interrupted by Peabody's threatening tone of voice.

"Stay away from my son."

The other stares at him, not sure if he should be confused or weirded out. "Uh... okay, well, I'm just here to give you this then I'm back to work."

This just seemed to make the dog angrier. "Did I stutter?"

Now the man was confused "I've been down on floor 36. I haven't seen him. He lives up here. With you..."

Peabody decided to proceed to the point.

"I heard what you said this morning, during your little unscheduled break."

He was now stunned. "Did- did you bug my office?" Not understanding why Mr. Peabody would do such a thing.

"I didn't quite appreciate the comments you made on the phone."

The man backs away. "I'm outta here, your obsession with that kid is dangerous."

Peabody was irritated at that but he was gone before he could say anymore. He didn't have an obsession! He was keeping Sherman safe! He had to take notice of even the smallest things. He knew he had to 'fire' this employee too.

"I can't go out tomorrow, sorry, the boss is hounding me to get this blueprint finalized, because he wants to be with his kid or something"

When Sherman was trying to press stop on his alarm, it's me every morning, it's so frustrating like turn off!

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He had numerous poisons, some he was easily able to get and extracted the poison and one that was a chemical. He makes sure they taste good so the victim is unaware they are being killed. Like when one of his employees are getting themselves a coffee, he calls them up for an emergency and takes the chance to slip into the liquid. He admits it’s a bit difficult on strangers when they greet Sherman, but nothing he can’t handle.

“Hey, Mr. Peabody?” Sherman couldn’t help but take note of how quickly his father shut the book planner he was writing in.

“Yes Sherman?”

Sherman rocks on his shoes repeatedly before continuing. “You wouldn’t kill any of your employees, right?”

Peabody’s heart starts to race. “Of course not Sherman, what could have made you come to that conclusion?”

“Sorry...It’s just...they just randomly get fired-”

“Sherman, they don’t randomly get fired, there’s always a logical reason.” He cut his son off. 

“But why so many of them?” Sherman wasn’t willing to let the subject drop.

“Most of them betray my trust, some do things that are unacceptable.” 

“Alright…”

Peabody could sense his boy had another question. 

“What about that one person who said hi to me, then never was seen again?” 

Peabody folds his paws behind his back. “Sherman, people just don’t arrive at the same location every day, he could’ve just been passing through that day. I’m sure he’s fine.”

“If you say so…”

Peabody was a little nervous that his son may be figuring things out, which he knew would end in Sherman overreacting. There’s no way his puppy could ever know about this, it would be dangerous.