Poth Short Stories and One-Shots

All Wrapped Up: Chapter 1

"Mmmmh," Goth growled, squinting as he panned his phone's flashlight across the text on each box; he had been at it for a good hour now, but it didn't feel like he was any closer to his goal. "Kerosene... kerosene... plug-in... kerosene...," he mumbled to himself, wishing he could find even a single box containing a battery-powered heater that could be used inside a building. As things stood, he would either have a useless hunk of cold metal and plastic, or they would be camping outside.

As he shuffled over to the next set of boxes for the umpteenth time, the light from his phone flickered and went out, surrounding him in darkness. Checking his phone, the blank screen was enough to tell him that his phone's battery had given out. Charging the phone would be out of the question for quite a while thanks to the city-wide blackout Palette had warned him about earlier; the whole reason he was even in the store looking for a way to heat their apartment, to begin with.

Grudgingly admitting that shopping in a vacant store probably wasn't a good idea anyway, Goth pulled himself from his kneeling position with the help of one of the shelves and readied his magic to teleport outside the building. His world warped and was covered in white as snow enveloped his body, forcing out a full-body shiver as he hovered out of the drift he had unintentionally landed in; there was no way he would be able to walk through this mess. A chill wind blew past him and he shrugged down into his scarf, making his way home through the powerless, snow-covered city; most of it was difficult to recognize under the blankets of snow and, if he was being honest, the lack of life despite it only being six thirty-ish in the evening was pretty creepy.

Spotting the gray roof of his apartment building in the distance, he glided through the flurries only to stop short of the stairs; it and half of the second-floor landing were covered in snow, much like everything else. Letting out an exasperated huff while wishing Palette and he had gotten a first-floor apartment with a proper awning, Goth floated up to the clear section of the landing and toggled the doorknob; with a little pressure, the door finally unstuck itself and swung open.

Unsurprisingly, the apartment was dark and cold like every other building in the area; only the ambient natural light from the windows and his luminescent eye light provided any visibility. Landing on the doormat and dusting the accumulated snow from his jacket and hood, a pair of hands wrapped around him and pulled him off the floor and into a hug with a cry of, "Thanks stars you're okay! I was so worried when you took forever to get home!"

"I told you I was stopping by the store, right?" Goth asked, swearing he had said it aloud rather than thinking it.

"Yeah, I remember," Palette responded with a pout in his voice, "I just didn't think it would take this long and you weren't answering your phone when I tried to call you."

Goth grimaced at the reminder, "My phone died while I was using the flashlight app to browse, I'm sorry I worried you."

"It's okay since you're okay," Palette chirped, nuzzling into the back of Goth's hood, "Mister Geno showed up to keep me company while we waited."

"He was gearing up to go look for you when I arrived, but I managed to convince him to stay put," Palette set the smaller skeleton back on the ground and he turned to find his mom standing in the living room doorway, "I was tempted to go looking myself, but Palette said you went shopping-"

"Oh yeah!" Palette exclaimed, looking Goth over with a hint of confusion, "What'd you get?"

It was now his turn to pull a sour face, "Nothing, every heater I found either needed to be plugged in or could only be used outdoors; it was a total wash."

"Which begs the question of how you managed to go shopping when all the stores should be closed due to the outage," Geno cocked a browbone; Goth hesitated for a moment, suspecting his mom already knew the answer but wanted to hear it directly from him.