(Archived) Poth Short Stories and One-Shots

Driven Together - Chapter 1

A third installment from your local Coffee Shop AU, enjoy~

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Palette smiled as he scrolled through the pictures on his phone capturing the highlights from this year's Thanksgiving celebration at the Afterdeath household; his personal favorite had to be the shot of Goth mid-dogpile with his siblings atop the leaves they had previously been raking into a pile. The cheer in his boyfriend's expression despite yelling at them to get off couldn't be beat, though his own mom being present to share in this year's festivities was a pretty close second.

"You said it was this exit, correct?" Goth asked, glancing over from the driver's seat.

The artist switched back over to the GPS and dutifully read off the directions, "Yup, get off here, then stay right and merge onto Jefferson." Hearing the rhythmic ticking of the turn signal as the car shifted into the exit lane, Palette added on, "We're getting close, so you should start to recognize some of the buildings soon."

The smaller held a skeptical look as they reached the merge that led into the city, "I don't know about that; I didn't recognize anything from when you drove last year and that was when it was still daytime. Now that it's dark, I'd be lucky to find the corner store without a GPS." Craning his neck to check the passing road signs, Goth mumbled the street name to himself before continuing on.

"True; the perspective's a lot different when you're the one doing the driving, but I'd say you did pretty good for your first time driving outside the city, especially during holiday traffic," Palette praised, making sure the phone providing navigation didn't idle into sleep mode with a tap of the screen; the estimation read twelve minutes remaining before their arrival home at 11:07 pm.

"Yeah... the guy that tried to come into our lane on the way up freaked me out, though," the scarved skeleton slowed to a stop at a red light and sighed, "it makes me wonder if Raven was onto something teasing me about only now getting my license."

Spotting an opening, Palette reached over to grasp Goth's wrist off of the steering wheel; raising it to plant a kiss on their fingers, he gave the smaller an encouraging smile while idly tracing the hole in their hand with his thumb, "You braked and avoided them hitting us and kept control of the car; that's better than most newbies could manage. As for Raven, you never wanted or even needed a license until recently; even I haven't used the car much outside of traveling to college because it's so much easier to walk around the city."

"Yeah, I suppose that's true," Goth admitted with a faint smile for Palette's spontaneous affection and assurance. The light flicked to green once more, prompting the skeleton to reclaim his hand while looking both ways. Entering into the intersection, he pointed out, "Unlike everyone else, I haven't had to pay for things like insurance, maintenance, and property taxes either."

"Exactly, registration at the DMV's also a pain in the-" Palette added on, only to be cut off when his phone played a tune that shouldn't have went off. "What the...," he mumbled, checking to be sure he was reading the screen right, "why is it telling us to make a U-turn?"

"Did I go the wrong way?" Goth's voice held a note of worry as his eye light flicked between Palette and the road anxiously.

"No... at least, I don't think you did. We shouldn't need to turn for another three blocks," the taller explained, opening the detailed view of their directions. Quickly realizing what had happened, Palette breathed a sigh of relief, "I think I got it; someone reported a slowdown, so the GPS is trying to avoid the extra traffic by taking us a different way. The change added three minutes to our travel time, but it's estimating eleven if we keep going straight into the traffic."

"So I should get in the left lane now, correct?" the smaller asked, flipping on the turn signal.

"Yup, make a U-turn at the light here, then make a left on Burnell at the next intersection," Palette relayed, pointing out the lane they needed to be in.

"U-turn, then left turn...," Goth mumbled as he slowed down at the yellow blinking arrow, reading the sign hanging next to it aloud, "Left turn yield on flashing yellow... so it's like a right turn?"

"Pretty much; the only difference is that you have to look both ways because you're crossing two lanes of traffic," Palette nodded, stifling a yawn; he had stayed up so he could keep his boyfriend company and help navigate, but he was definitely looking forward to the comfort of his bed.

Goth donned a quizzical look, "Aren't I supposed to look both ways regardless?"

Palette reclined into his seat, watching the headlights of the passing cars as he chuckled, "Yeah, but not everyone's as diligent about driving safely as you are."

"Heh, flattery will get you everywhere," Goth smiled, the lavender hue dusting their cheeks; the monster had grown more or less used to Palette's methods of showing affection by this point, but he was still able to get that lovely blush out of them every so often. His boyfriend broke through his thoughts, "I'm curious, why all the praise tonight?"

"Because you deserve it," the taller answered honestly, "You've only had your license for two months, but you've worked hard to make up for the late start and it shows. You even offered to drive to and from your parent's house despite it being the first time you've driven out of state; to me, that's something worth praising."

"It's not that great," Goth flustered, staring pointedly at the cars passing by from the perpendicular turn lane as his blush grew, "I just want to make sure we get home in one piece; you also drove last y-"

*HOOOOOONK*

Both skeletons jumped, barely able to register the noise as a car rammed into them from behind, sending their car lurching into the intersection out of Goth's control. "Nonononono!" the skeleton grunted in a panic, pressing into his seat and jamming his foot into the brake in a vain attempt to stop their forward momentum.

Palette felt his soul leap into his throat and his body tense up as a bright light filled his passenger window; he clenched the armrest as the sound of screeching tires rushed toward them, "G-!"

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Word Count: 1,077