White Collar Ficlet - Quiet Days

[elrhiarhodan]

Title: Quiet Days
Author: elrhiarhodan
Fandom: White Collar
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Peter Burke, old and young
Spoilers: None
Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Word Count: ~ 500
Summary: From my Promptfest Archives, a story about young Peter Burke and his family.


A/N: Updated and published for rabidchild67’s KidFic Fest on the whitecollarhc comm. Title from the Battlefield Band album of the same name.

__________________



It's never really quiet in the city, except right after a big snowstorm when all the traffic's been brought to a halt. That type of quiet unnerves Peter; it's unnatural, it’s wrong. The City is a vital thing, a vast organism that lives and breathes, and the sounds it makes are its pulse beats. When those sounds are silenced, it's almost like the City has died.

The country; however, is another story altogether. Peter likes the utter silence of a country night, especially in winter. Because it's never really silent, it's just quiet. He can stand outside, on his grandfather's back porch and hear only the rustle of the oak leaves clinging stubbornly to their branches, the snap of a twig broken by a passing deer.

Some of his best childhood memories are wrapped up in the quiet of a country evening in the winter. Standing in the empty fields with his father and grandfather, learning the constellations - he was the oldest boy by far, and had the privilege of leaving his younger siblings behind. Orion was his favorite (he loved the story of the hunter and his faithful dog), followed by the Winter Triangle with the three brightest stars in the sky. The quiet of those nights was in distinct counterpoint to the raucous joy in the mornings, when his brothers and sisters and cousins would tumble down the stairs, clamoring for breakfast, to go out into the woods, to go sledding and skating and have snowball fights. No quiet then.

At least, not until midday, when everyone fell into piles of exhausted children and the adults convened in the kitchen for smokes.

These quiet times were good too, and Peter would sneak upstairs, cram himself into the window seat and read. The bright sunlight afternoon warmed him even as cold air whistled through the old window. He'd stay there, lost in whatever fantasy world created by his books, until his mother or his grandmother or one of his aunts shouted that dinner was ready. Then noise and children erupted from all of the corners and nooks and crannies of the old farmhouse, their happy shouts chasing away the quiet until night fell and the moon rose again.

FIN

Comments

[traintracks]

Oh I LOVE this!!!!

[elrhiarhodan]

{{{{{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}}}}}

Thank you!

[ebeneezerdark]

Sweet...

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you!

[embroiderama]

This is a lovely look at young Peter.

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you. I have always thought that Peter Burke had a lovely and very stable childhood. I think it was that line from Pilot about earning things.

[secretsolitaire.livejournal.com]

Lovely imagery here.

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you so much!

(And love the new icon - definitely springtime).

[secretsolitaire.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yay for spring. :-)

[love-82.livejournal.com]

Nice look at a young Peter.

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you!

[pipilj.livejournal.com]

Loved the look at Peter.

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you so very much. I hope this rang true for you.

[nieseryjna.livejournal.com]

so unusually calm picture :) lovely young Peter.

[elrhiarhodan]

I have always thought that Peter had a very solid childhood, filled with many generations and connections. I hesitate to use the word "traditional" - as if non-traditional families don't make for grounded adults.

But there is something to be said for having a grandfather who'll teach you how to navigate by the stars.

Thank you.

[droodlebug.livejournal.com]

Nice Peter background. If that's the kind of childhood he had it makes sense that he grew into the solidly grounded, thoughtful man we see on the show.

[elrhiarhodan]

It's funny - I wrote this LONG before that scene in "Where There's a Will" where Peter uses the sextant! In my head canon, PEter's grandfather taught him how it navigate by the stars.

Thank you

(Pets the sad little puppy).

[sholio]

Awww! I can easily imagine Peter as a quiet, bookish kid, and I like the idea that he had this kind of support, growing up surrounded by siblings and loving family members.

[elrhiarhodan]

As I'm replying to comments to this story, my head canon for young Peter keeps growing - it was his grandfather who taught him how to use a sexant and how to navigate by the stars.

How can you grow up to be anything by Peter Burke when you've got a childhood like this?

Thank you!

[frith_in_thorns]

This made me miss the countryside! Loved the idea of Peter learning the stars, and reading by himself. Very sweet :)

[elrhiarhodan]

LOVE YOUR ICON!

Thank you so very much.

[ferryboat george (from livejournal.com)]

You paint a beautiful picture with words.