(Archived) Poth Short Stories and One-Shots

Driven Together - Chapter 3

After deliberating for a few seconds, Goth carefully crawled onto the hospital bed to join the bedridden skeleton, "If you're sure..."

"I'm positive," Palette softly confirmed, raising his right arm to make room beside him. Before long, Goth was settled along the artist's side with their skull resting on his shoulder and their braced hand on his chest. He draped his arms around them, rubbing his hand up and down their humerus in soothing circles. He could feel their ribcage rise and fall against him and hear their soft sniffles as they tried to calm their breathing; his boyfriend was here, safe and sound beside him... this was real.

"Palette?" He shifted his eye lights over toward Goth; the skeleton wore a guilty expression while mumbling, "I really am sorry about the car... I-"

"Listen, the car doesn't matter to me... well, it does, but you matter a lot more," Palette asserted, gingerly grasping the smaller's exposed fingers and giving them a light squeeze, "A car's just a thing that can be fixed or replaced; you're harder to fix and impossible to replace. You're alive and that's all I care about right now; everything else can come later." Recalling the hollow gaze from his nightmare, the artist clenched his sockets so he could focus on the warm presence next to him and whispered, "Thanks stars you're alive..."

Goth reciprocated the grasp by loosely gripping his hand as much as the brace would allow; Palette opened his sockets to find the smaller monster staring up at him, "When I woke you up earlier... were you dreaming about m-"

"Yeah; I really don't want to think about it if that's okay," he cut in, not even wanting the words spoken aloud. Trying to change the subject, he asked, "How's your wrist feeling?"

"It's alright; the doctor already healed it. The brace is more for keeping the joints from becoming aggravated by unnecessary movement than anything," Goth mumbled, stretching his fingers a bit in demonstration before laying his hand back down carefully, "as I said, you took the brunt of the impact when the oncoming car t-boned us. It was so much worse watching the first responders pry open the door and pull your unconscious body from the car... seeing the medics attach wires... and stick needles in you... and you didn't react the whole time..."

"And I'm okay," Palette repeated, stroking his thumb across the smaller's socket to chase away the tears that began cropping up again, "The doctor fixed most of the damage, right? Did she say how long we'll be here?"

"She said it depends on how well your injuries took to the healing magic; she estimated about a week for a full recovery, but she's hoping to have you back home sooner," Goth answered, seemingly mollified by his boyfriend's assurances. A calm silence settled over the pair until the hooded monster lifted their skull, "Oh, I texted Mona while you were sleeping to let her know what happened along with the doctor's recommendation for you to take a week off. She replied back about half an hour ago saying that was fine, but she wanted to visit to talk to us in person; she estimated she could be here around noon. Mom also called to make sure we got home alright when we didn't check in... and Dream was still at their house, so they both know what happened now."

"... How did my mom react?" He knew Dream could stay calm in the face of most injuries from all their time working as a physiotherapist, but a small part of him was still nervous that the skeleton would be upset about the car despite neither of them actually being at fault.

"Honestly, your mom took the news better than mine," the smaller murmured, "I believe I heard something about them coming down, but I couldn't be sure since they put me on speaker and there was so much noise on their end."

"That sounds about right," Palette chuckled, starting to feel a bit drowsy now that the earlier tension was dissipating, "So we'll be expecting Geno and mom then?"

"Most likely," Goth sighed, though his voice held little to no actual irritation, "I would have told him not to come, but I have a feeling he would even if I told him not to."

"Well, I guess hearing your oldest son and their bo-" Palette broke off with a yawn, picking up the sentence once it passed, "boyfriend are in the hospital can be pretty scary. What time is it anyway?"

Shifting to look at the wall behind them, Goth said, "Twenty-one past three in the morning."

Palette grimaced at the four-hour gap he had been out and suggested, "We should get some sleep before our visitors start showing up, then."

"Sleep does sound good...," the smaller laid his skull back down and let his sockets close as he mumbled, "Love you..."

"Love you too," Palette whispered, watching his boyfriend fall asleep with a gentle smile before shifting his hand to his boyfriend's wrist and letting it light up in a green glow of healing magic. Though Goth said he was fine, there was a brief flash of pain when he moved his fingers earlier; the undersides of his sockets were also swollen by the tears, fatigue, and worry that came from staying awake watching over an unconscious body for four hours, but that would require rest and TLC rather than magic.

Producing another yawn, Palette let his magic fade and his sockets fall shut to follow his own advice while taking comfort in the weight on his shoulder.

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Word Count: 940