#pallete roller

Pallete was worried. 

It had been three days since Goth had run off after that phone call, and Pallete hadn't been able to get a hold of him since. Calls went unanswered, texts unread. He had even gone over to his house and found the place locked up and empty.

Dream had told him not to worry, that they were probably visiting Reaper's brother or Life or one of their friends. But if that was true, Goth wouldn't be ignoring his phone. If that was true, Pallete wouldn't have needed to worry or ask what was going on because Goth would have told him his family was taking a trip.

Pallete sighed, glancing over at the sunrise painting that sat discarded in the corner of his room. He had been planning to give it to Goth after he was finished, and still hoped to. Just... it wouldn't feel as special now. Just another painting.

Laying back on his bed, for once not having the energy to get up and start the day despite the delicious scent of waffles wafting into the room. He reached over and grabbed his phone off the nightstand, scrolling sadly through the numerous unanswered texts. Almost absently, he sent another. A simple question mark and a frowning emoji.

He had just set his phone down on the bed beside him when he heard the quiet woosh of an incoming text and he reached back for it so fast he nearly knocked his phone onto the floor.

'Sorry. Been busy. Didn't mean to ignore you.'

He replied. Goth finally replied! 'What happened? You seemed scared when your dad called.'

A few minutes went by and Pallete frowned, starting to thing Goth wasn't going to reply. Then another quiet woosh.

'Mom's missing. Never showed up to lunch with Life the other day and no one can get a hold of him. Everyone's looking for him.'

Pallete stared at his phone, worry growing. It wasn't unusual for Reaper to not answer his phone, especially if the phone was new. Pallete had seen him on more than one occasion just staring at his ringing phone as he tried to remember how to answer it. If it was just that, and it had only been a day, he'd tell Goth that he shouldn't worry. That Reaper was probably just busy. But it had been days. 'Can you track his phone?'

Goth's reply came almost immediately. 'Tried. Knowledge found the phone. It was broken and Mom wasn't there.'

That was concerning. Reaper was very careful with his phone, almost hesitant with it. It wasn't like him to be careless enough with it to break it. Let alone lose it. 'Is there anything I can do to help?’

A few minutes went by before the woosh sounded. 'Can you ask your mom if he's heard anything?'

Yes, Pallete could do that. He could do that right now. 

He nearly fell flat on his face as he tried untangling himself from his blankets, in a rush to get to the kitchen and catch his mom before he left.

Goth sighed, pocketing his phone and curling tiredly in his chair as he watched his Uncle Grim going over a map with War, the two gesturing surprisingly quietly as they tried to figure out where to look next. They had finished searching the AU Reaper's phone had been found in that morning, finding no further signs of the death god. No trace of his magic either, other than lingering wisps on his phone. It was as if his phone had gotten there without him. There had been stronger traces of another magic signature in the area however, and Knowledge was busy analyzing it.

A quiet snore drew his attention to where his father was stretched out on the couch, sleeping for the first time in days. Goth suspected Knowledge had something to do with that, and he silently thanked the goddess. It would help no one if Geno suddenly collapsed from exhaustion. Goth was slightly surprised she hadn't done the same to him, honestly. He hadn't slept much either.

A quiet chime had him pulling his phone back out, hoping for but not expecting good news from his friend. For Dream to know exactly where Reaper was. But when he read Pallete's text, he wasn't surprised.

'He says he hasn't. Sorry :( But he'll ask around and keep an eye socket out for him.'

Goth rubbed his eye sockets as he lowered the phone, taking a deep breath to keep the tears at bay. At least there were now more people looking for him. 'Tell him thanks for me. I gotta go.'

Goth pocketed his phone, ignoring the quiet chime, and curled further into the chair. He really should get some sleep.