Poth Short Stories and One-Shots

Finding Yourself in Hot Water: Chapter 1

"Come on, we're burning daylight!" Palette shouted, thundering over the hot sands of the beach with an orange and red beach ball tucked under his left arm while a giant red umbrella and a blue towel were tucked under the right. It was a wonder he hadn't hit anyone by accident considering how excited he was; he had a feeling if he did, the lifeguard stationed a fair distance away would yell at him.

Reaching a clear spot in the sand, he unfurled the umbrella before turning around. Standing at the top of the hill overlooking the beach with a purple towel, beach bag, and picnic basket in tow, Goth gazed upon the ocean; he appeared to be lost in thought, as if he were in a staring contest with an enemy. 

"Hey!" Palette yelled, setting out his own towel, "are you just going to stand there, or are you going to come down here?" Heaving a sigh, Goth made their way down the hill to the umbrella. As the smaller monster set out his towel next to his, Palette removed his shirt so that only his green and yellow zigzag swimming trunks remained. A sputtering noise from his friend caught his attention; his socket quirked upward at the shocked and flustered expression directed at him and he asked, "What's wrong? Is there something on me?"

"N-no!" Goth squeaked, pointedly looking away to fiddle with his bag, "I thought I saw something behind you, but I think it was only the sun glare."

Looking behind himself, Palette confirmed there wasn't anything there and shrugged his shoulders in acceptance. Turning back to his friend, he noticed they still had on a white short-sleeve hoodie that covered part of their red and black trimmed swimming trunks. "Aren't you going to take your hoodie off?" he asked, tilting his skull in confusion.

"Urm...," Goth glanced sideways as a blush burned onto his cheeks, "I wasn't actually planning to; it feels kind of weird when I'm not wearing a hood..."

Palette blinked silently at him. "What? But how do you plan on swimming...?" he gasped in realization, "Wait, don't tell me you aren't going to swim? That's the whole point of coming to the beach!"

"Can't we just make sandcastles and have our picnic instead?" the smaller offered hesitantly, reaching for the bag and pulling out the shovels and buckets they'd brought with them.

"We can do that stuff too, but swimming is pretty much a must-have at the beach," the taller skeleton replied, pointing his finger upward in a matter-of-fact way, "besides, it'd be really boring to go swimming by myself."

Goth's eye light fell on the water once more as he grimaced, his resistance waning. "... Alright...," no sooner were the words out of his mouth, Palette was grabbing his wrist and excitedly dashing towards the water; this was going to be awesome! They could play Marco Polo and-

He felt resistance against his arm; it wasn't enough to halt him completely, but it was enough to catch his attention. Palette turned back and for a split second, he saw something flash across Goth's face before it was gone again. "Actually... I was wondering if we could play with the beach ball in the shallows instead?" the skeleton suggested shyly.

Palette thought for a few seconds before grinning, "Yeah, we can do that; let me go get it real quick!" He dashed back up the beach as Goth waited there for him; once the ball was retrieved, both skeletons took turns passing it back and forth to one another in a game to see who could keep it in the air the longest.

They got so wrapped up in their game, neither noticed the change in water level as the tide came in. Ankle deep water stealthily turned into calf-deep, turned into knee-deep, turned into thigh-deep, until the water was lapping at the Goth's lower ribs while the water came in just below Palette's hips.

Stretching up his right hand to catch the ball, Goth's eye light shrunk as his foot slipped on a downward slope; a mere second later, he was completely submerged.

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Word Count: 691