“Grown-ups,” said Cooper “People our folks’ age.”

“But why do they pretend?”

“Cos everybody else is.”

A sigh nestled into the pit of Peter’s stomach and the sadness of that thought sat there for a while.

“So, you’re telling me you int happy, Pete?”

“Yes,” said Peter. “I suppose I am.”

And the weight of admitting to not being happy, of having failed at happiness, was almost unbearable. After all, he’d tried so hard to be. But that pressure had been so much heavier than Peter expected, that when his body finally let go of it, he felt ashamed for letting Cooper down. Shame that he was the main reason both of them were even here in the first place.

“S’OK,” said Cooper. “We’ll fix it.”

“But how? You’re never going to be happy here.”

“No. Not here. It can’t never be here. I think our daydreamin’ is more than just because we int happy, Pete. It’s somethin’ else.”

“What do you mean, something else?”

“There’s somethin’ you need to know about the Dead. There’s somethin’ I’ve gotta show you.”

“Up in the hills above town.”

Cooper looked up, seeming at once alarmed by what Peter already knew and somehow at peace that another part of him could finally be open.

“I saw you in the woods,” said Peter. “I saw all of you.”

Cooper squeezed Peter’s hand, as if he knew that might be unsettling when they hadn’t even shown all of themselves to each other yet.

“I was just marking the trees with my scent, Pete. To keep the Dead from town.”

“But I thought—”

“What did you think?”

Peter shook his head. “It doesn’t matter now.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. I’m sure.” Then, once his nerves had a chance to settle. “I don’t think I was afraid of you changing into a monster. I think I was just afraid of you changing into someone who didn’t need to love me any more.”

“Pete, there’s no part o’ me that don’t belong to you. But we ain’t gonna be together all the time. And we ain’t always gonna see eye to eye.”

“I know that.”

“It don’t mean I don’t love you.”

“I know.”

“Do you, though?”

“Yes.”

“But do you?”

“Yes,” said Peter. Then, “I think so.”

Cooper held the back of Peter’s head, lowering his forehead until it touched his. “Sometimes this is all too big for me too, Pete.”

“What?”

“Love,” said Cooper. “It needs both of us to look after it.”

“I know.”

“And you and me is gonna have to do so much better than this if we’re ever gonna make it to the end.”

Peter looked up. “Make it to the end of what?”

“Our lives together.”