(Archived) Poth Short Stories and One-Shots

A Well-Crafted Celebration - Chapter 2 (End)

Have a long chapter~

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Goth opened his sockets as the world formed around him; once everything had snapped into place, he reached his hand up to knock on his dad's office door. Reaper's voice called out from the other side to come in and the smaller skeleton pushed the door open without hesitation. The elder greeted him with a smile, "Hey kiddo, how'd it go?"

"Nothing too out of the ordinary," Goth reported, pulling the roll of parchment from his pocket to hand over, "One of the older humans got a little angry, but he was easier to talk to once I figured out he was mad because he mistook me for a kid working a dangerous job."

"Heh, I wish I coulda seen the look on his face when he realized how old ya actually are," Reaper chuckled as they accepted the list. "Speaking of age...," the skeleton set the paper aside and leaned over the desk, "Someone's a year older today."

"Eh?" Blinking in surprise, Goth's eye light glazed over as he mentally counted out the days... and realized it was his birthday today.

Reaper laughed, their sockets pinching in mirth, "You forgot, didn't you?"

He could hardly be blamed when it was at the beginning of the month; the day always snuck up on him! The smaller's cheeks puffed up in indignation, "You're one to talk! You never remember holidays; I bet mom had to remind you!"

"Guilty as charged," the god shrugged, quirking their socket, "though I'm surprised ya didn't realize it until now; I would've thought Palette'd be banging down your door wishing ya happy birthday first thing this morning."

Goth's mood sank along with his gaze as he explained, "Palette wasn't home when I woke up this morning; he left a note saying he went out to get something."

"Ah, sounds like he's getting something together; I should go ahead and give ya this so ya can be on your way, then," Reaper leaned over to reach behind their desk and Goth's curiosity had him on his tiptoes to see past the metal surface; his socket widened as a brightly colored box was revealed and handed over with the prompt, "Go ahead and open it."

Goth eagerly reached for the box, sliding his finger across the taped underside to quickly remove the paper and ribbon covering his present. The wrappings fell away and he read the text on the box with an air of wonder, "Starry sky... rotating LED projector..."

"Your mom reminded me earlier this week and this is what we decided on after some brainstorming," looking up from the box, Goth noticed a hint of apprehension in his dad's expression, "... ya like it?"

Setting the box on the floor, Goth dispelled that uncertainty by running around the desk and throwing himself into Reaper's lap for a hug, "It's perfect, thank you so much!"

A pair of arms wrapped around him as the older skeleton laughed, "Guess that gift put you over the moon."

Goth snickered into the elder's cloak, "Yeah, it's out of this world."

Reaper barked out a laugh, nudging him to release him from the hug, "As fun as this is, I shouldn't keep ya any longer; I still have plenty of papers to get through and I'm sure there's a certain someone who's waiting with a surprise of his own."

Crawling out of his dad's lap, Goth retrieved his gift and smiled, "Thanks again; I'll make sure to call mom later, too."

"Sounds like a plan. Have fun kiddo," Reaper waved, his visage dissolving as Goth teleported back to the front of the apartment complex... where black smoke was drifting through his apartment's cracked window.

Goth's soul lept into his throat as he dashed up the stairs and threw open the front door, quickly identifying the kitchen as the source as the fire alarm in the living room shrieked to life. Tossing his gift onto the couch and making a detour to the closet where the fire extinguisher was kept, he rushed back into the kitchen as another door opened farther down the hall and a voice yelled, "Oh stars!"