(Archived) Poth Short Stories and One-Shots

My Gift to You - Chapter 3 (End)

And here lies our conclusion, enjoy~

Chapter Warning: Swearing

***

The doorbell interrupted Palette as he puzzled over a math worksheet. Setting the paper and textbook aside, he pushed back his chair and gave the sun and moon bears sitting upon his desk a pat on their heads, drawing a deep breath at the memory they held.

Eventually forcing himself to turn away from the toys, he headed downstairs to answer the door.

The house was quiet today, save for the soft patter of rain coming down outside since his mom was out grocery shopping. He opened the door, initially expecting his mom needing help with the groceries, but he was surprised to instead find Reaper on the doorstep with a plastic shopping bag dangling from his wrist.

"Oh... Mister Reaper... I wasn't expecting you," Palette attempted to smile, but none of his usual cheer was in it. It was roughly a year now since the incident, but he still couldn't muster up any type of enthusiasm. He tiredly reaffirmed, "I'm okay, really... so you don't need to keep checking on me."

"That's just a bonus. I actually wanted ya to come with me, wanna show ya something," the adult winked. Palette grimaced, opening his mouth to decline the offer until they added, "I guarantee it'll be worth your time."

Worth my time...?

With a resigned sigh, Palette answered, "Okay... let me write mom a note first." Reaper nodded as the young skeleton found a pen and paper, scribbling out a message that he would be back soon.

Placing the paper on the living room table and setting the pen on top of it, Palette grabbed a raincoat and umbrella from the closet before slipping on his boots.

Once the door was shut and locked, he unfurled his umbrella and took hold of Reaper's sleeve at their gesture, being whisked away to an unfamiliar city sidewalk. The god floated off in a random direction, paying little attention to the light drizzle soaking into his cloak as the younger skeleton followed along.

Palette gazed up at the cloudy sky as they walked. His mind drifted to the conversation he had with Reaper over a year ago, shortly after the funeral; how Goth knew what was meant to happen and had basically sacrificed himself so the other could live.

Despite the guilt for being the reason his best friend died, Reaper was relieved when he promised he would continue on for Goth's sake and live the life he couldn't.

'Good, you're really important to him and I promised I'd keep a socket on ya. No one would be happy if I had to reap ya prematurely.'

It tore Palette up thinking about his lost companion every day and he definitely wasn't the same after the incident, but he soldiered on with the help of his mom, Reaper and Geno checking up on him, and the memories of his happy times with Goth.

"Ah, here we are," Reaper grunted, stopped at a nondescript alley. By now, the rain had dropped to a fine mist. He cautiously followed the god into the alley, watching curiously as he dug inside the plastic bag he'd brought with them. Palette's confusion only grew when the elder's rifling produced a tin of wet cat food and a few paper plates.

He watched silently as Reaper doled out the cat food onto four paper plates and set them down, making soft clicking noises as if to call something. After a minute or so of silence, a small black object crawled out from under the nearby dumpster: a short-haired black kitten.

As he watched, nearly half a dozen kittens in varying degrees of black and white and a short-haired tuxedo cat appeared to partake of the free meal. The kittens dug into the food right away while what he assumed was the mother flicked her eyes between the plate and the skeletons.