for the next few weeks, at the very least, he will not see his boyfriend. he'd wanted to meet sam's mom so, so badly, and he had and she was everything he could want out of a mother. but lavender town wasn't home and with his newfound freedom, and with sam indisposed 90% of the time while he tried to get his mother's affairs in order, knox couldn't take it. 

it will be fine. i'll be fine, he promised over and over and over again. sam, who couldn't bear not to be by his side - well, he'd had to fight tooth and nail for this. 

but they'll be okay. we'll be okay. he stares down at his hands and then blinks. 

had summer been talking to him this whole time?

"come again, red?"

Summer Atreides

☉

white snow on his face and a glint in his eyes. he can fly, even though he has no wings. did the wax melt off already? were those feathers that swaddled him? smothered him? or just sam's blankets? just sam. 

smothered. what a terrible, awful, scary word. 

his past walks right into him and reminds him that he is lost and he can't stop talking to himself. was he talking to himself?

recognition lights up in his eyes. "fuckin' hey, man." he doesn't know what else to do. it's a cry for help (no, knox, it's not, you over-dramatic fuck.) he throws his arms open and wraps them around jayden before the other boy can say anything else. 

"fuckin' missed you!"

jayden cross

☉

imagine everything is perfect. imagine everything is perfect and he loves you and you love him and he'll never let go of you. imagine he's holding you and he's telling you it will be okay and he brushes your nightmares aside and you love him so, so much. 

and still the complacence, the rightness of it all scares you. that thin promise of a forever that's yet to unfold doesn't seem real. he is perfect and yet i am imperfect. you think i got rid of the monster. we got rid of the monster so he can no longer be inside me. 

but you're wrong. 

so you stare and babble at the mirror in a dimly lit bathroom and think you need to get your shit together and text him - text him and tell him you're going to be home late. don't make him afraid again. 

"bro, can you shut the fuck up?" 

knox blinks. he looks down at his hands. his hands. and he washes out his mouth. did he throw up? he's here with someone. he hates drinking. why is he out? he shakes his head. 

puts on a smile.

emerges.

jayden cross

☉

this is mercy he is still unaccustomed to. his sister was always such a callous thing - always demanded the world, knowing he would fail to meet her expectations. but here and now she offers him escape and she is so weary and knox's stomach flips. sam and summer have been through so much. 

so he stays. so rather than walk away he walks towards her, takes her hand. he shares this burden with a squeeze of his fingers. without looking away. 

blood sprays and he swallows. it's over quickly. almost so much so and then silence lapses. the man's head hangs, shoulders sagging, and knox says, "i'll help you get rid of the body."

Summer Atreides

☉

you...i mean, mr. prescott. his posture straightens, terror clawing into his back as he imagines merrick strolling in from behind him, but logic forces its hand. it only makes his expression sour when he realizes the mr. prescott in question is himself. 

a shiver runs through him and he flexes his fingers. his hands are deft and are quick to remove the pokeballs from his belt. blue and lena stand at his side and the man in the chair makes a face. but that irritated sneer shows some fear when he looks over at summer. 

"frozen roots," he says gently. it's the same command he'd given them all those weeks ago, that same tangled spray of frozen water that had rooted sam to the ground while knox left to met his fate. 

the ice freezes him solid from the waist down. now, at no risk of getting away, completely immobilized, knox turns to summer and then looks away.

Summer Atreides

☉

oh, that's right. summer had been behind a one-way mirror the night hypatia teleported him into their father's hellhole. he reaches for her ball now and drops it neatly. she emerges, beautiful as always, and her elfin features perk up the kids in front of them. mental pulses wash off of her in waves, soothing them as best she can. 

"you're gonna feel a little woozy after she teleports you, but you'll be safe now," knox says to them. one of the girls reaches a tentative hand out to hypatia; the other two give summer and knox a bit more of a berth while they join her. 

they're scarred and scared and knox's eyes go glassy. he swallows past the lump in his throat and then hypatia is gone. 

newfound resolve curls in his fists. "let's finish it then, sister mine."

Summer Atreides

☉

most of them lay unconscious now, mud marring their faces and fancy suits. knox nudges one of them with the toe of his sneaker as they pass. the grunt's head lolls and he looks dead. captain shivers against his shoulder and knox looks away. 

if summer wants to kill them, she can. he won't do anything to stop her, but he can't pull the trigger. can't ask his pokemon to do that. and it's here, and now, where he realizes just why his father shunned him as he did. because he doesn't have the stomach for this. because he refuses to blacken his soul like summer. like sam. 

and he thinks, am i wrong? selfish? for letting them handle this burden, for not being able to bring himself to it, even though at the end of the day, they are doing good. 

the house looms up above them. it's eerily similar to their own, with its ostentatious presence. a couple of guards roam the property. knox looks past them and points to an open window on the bottom floor.

Summer Atreides

☉

he snorts at casey's confession. his scrutinizing blue eyes look up from elsa and sweep over the man. casey is, decidedly, not summer's type. no, she's always been fit for a prim and proper businessman. someone with intellect. someone who can keep pace with her, challenge her. not have to step up to even make himself worth his time.

but he doesn't share his oracle glimpse into their inevitable demise. no, that would be rude. and casey's nice enough. he brought drugs.

the scales on casey's arm ripple and knox looks uneasily at them. casey mentions monster and knox clicks his tongue, tasting lead at the back of his throat. "can't poison monsters," he says. "gotta live with 'em instead."

at the mention of pikachu, captain pokes her head back in. her nose twitches in tandem with her tail and then she bounds up to knox, sparkling a little jolt to his wrist. he bops her on the nose and then gets to his feet.

"cap likes swimming. i like swimming. will cap's friends like swimmming? we should go. like go, go, go. i want to feel the water. but - oh, aw. what if it takes the gold?" he looks down at his (barely) sparkling hands in dismay.

Casey Fincher

☉

he follows sam's gaze and starts walking now, feeling if he stays rooted to that spot a moment longer he'll combust. anticipation licks at his skin. bright eyes watch the two pikachu tussle and he gives sam's hand another squeeze. 

"he's perfect. and maybe it'll keep captain out of trouble."

at the foot of the steps, knox pauses, breath catching. he makes a face and his fingers dig into sam's own, as though suddenly they're at threat of falling apart. 

"i'm so scared i'm gonna fuck this up, sam."

samuel carter

☉

"someone doesn't understand that," he mimics churlishly. but oh boy, he's not actually upset, because of course knox doesn't miss the red tint to jayden's cheeks. he slaps on that boyish smile of his, turning up the charm if only to irritate summer further. 

but he does take the bait and look exasperatedly back at his sister. "look around, red! everyone else is enjoying the party." he flings his arms out behind him, unfortunately catching a waiter carrying a tray of drinks, all of which get unceremoniously dumped on him. the crashing sound of glass breaking brings an uncomfortable silence as all eyes turn towards him. 

he has to stifle a cackle and is oh-so-close to doing so anyway, but across the room, down the hallway, he finally spots ollie. zipping up his pants and looking after some other boy with mussed up hair. he sours, stands, and looks at jayden. 

"help me clean myself up?"

Summer Atreides jayden cross

☉

"there's the charm," he says with a wink at summer. her pokemon are quick to dispatch the stunned foes. while fists and clawed feet continue to fly, nio slaps at the water with his tail, watching the mud spray around him. captain perches on his head, trying her damn hardest to avoid getting her fur muddied. 

and somehow, through all this, they've managed to avoid raising an alarm. incredible, really, how bad some of the security is with his father's underlings. but he can't shake the feeling that they're getting lucky. 

sam and summer both come home with bruises and cuts, sometimes worse. 

regardless, he recalls the quagsire as he jogs after summer. captain leaps onto his shoulder. 

"do you kill the trainers too?" knox says, feeling green as they pass some of the unconscious men. "they...i mean they're just hirelings, right? like we've been?"

Summer Atreides

☉

sam, ever so honest. he looks down at their hands and thinks about how right they feel. he's twined fingers with other boys, with gal friends of his, but never has he felt so solid before. so grounded. and once, some time ago, feeling so attached to something would have sent him running at his first chance. 

it's taken him awhile, a steady accumulation of awhile, where he can't really pinpoint the tipping point. he can't tell you when fear of losing himself was replaced with fear of losing sam - because who is he anymore without sam? 

this boy who taught him how to love and how to be loved, even if knox still doesn't do it right sometimes. 

he raises their joined hands, kisses the backside of sam's. each of his knuckles.

"i think i can do that," he says with that boyish smile of his. he looks around sam, to the house, gives him a tug. "can we...go inside?"

samuel carter

☉

five strong fighting-type pokemon? against summer's motley crew? they'd be dead in a minute. but with nio? nio, his beautiful boy? who has already gotten so tired that he's plopped onto his ass and is reaching up to poke at the pikachu he probably already forgot was on his head? with that talented, beautiful, baby-baby boy, they're golden. 

summer has never enjoyed getting placed on jobs with knox. not because he doesn't get the job done. but because he's, as she likes to put it, a 'nuisance.' 

"well, go on then," knox says and nudges nio with his foot. the quagsire blinks up at him and then slowly gets to its feet. then it starts waddling. knox jabs summer with his elbow. 

"look at him go," he says with a grin. 

the fighting-types all turn at the sound of his approach. nio, at this point, has finally dropped to all fours and is loping towards them. and just before he's about to reach them, he leaps, does a forward flip, and slams a muddy water, drenching them in muck and grime. 

they recoil, nonplussed, shaking out their wet fur as nio plops back down right in the middle of them all. and there's captain, cheeks puffing with energy, launching an explosive shockwave right at the quagsire. electricity pops and sizzles from him, spreading outward and bringing every single one of the fighting-types to their knees. 

"your turn," knox says, laughing. 

Summer Atreides

☉