wish someone else was saying that to me right now. his nose crumples at his own humor. it's not summer's fault his 'relationship' with sam is a big fucking mess and she'd interrupted something that was supposed to help fix them up a bit. and make knox happy. and sam happy. and gods, his lips are still warm from their kissing and - 

he shakes his head. he hugs her back and lets her cry it out. knox has already spent all of his energy when it comes to this. been there, done that, marcus and dad's little henchman are dead (and it's all sam's fault). 

he'd been waiting for this, for a sign from her. for something. it hadn't taken long. 

"'course i did, red," he says and extrapolates himself from her. he opens the baggie and takes the gray pill for himself. "i'll take demons. doesn't look like you need anymore of those." he winks and tosses it back, swallows. 

he looks around her at the bottle on the ground. "you getting soft, red? you're a mess and only a quarter of the bottle's gone." he teases her because he wants to say it's okay. nothing bad has happened. nothing bad will happen. 

Summer Atreides

☉

he's not used to this. sure, they've had their moments, but for most of their lives they've been at each other's throats. it makes him a little wary, if only because she's babbling about the amount of danger he's in if anyone sees them together, and there's not a whole lot that can shake summer prescott. 

he reaches for the ball sam had given him, after the heat of the moment had died down. he thumbs it and then drops the ball at his feet. his gardevoir emerges in a flash of shimmering blue light; she tilts her head, still unsure of her place beside knox. 

needless to say, he's not well versed in 'thought speech' and her brows crease in confusion when he tries to tell her mentally to stay on guard. 

"damn it. stay on watch please. if anyone shady's watching, uh, let me know?" she dips her head, still looking a bit puzzled.

he'd have her will them away, but she's not nearly as strong as sam's gardevoir. it took her a few tries to get her this far. her teleportation, he promised, is reliable, but it's like a muscle that needs exercising - eventually she'll be able to travel more freely, and with more cargo.

an interesting development, such as it was, for the smuggler.

"i've got us covered," he says. "and i have a few tricks up my sleeve if we get into a spat. now calm down, red, and take your medicine." he waves the pill in front of her. 

Summer Atreides

☉

"fucking christ, you really did polish a bottle, didn't you?" he holds his hands out to steady her. and when she pokes him in the chest, he winces. sam's gardevoir might be incredible, but she doesn't work miracles. he's still a bit battered and bruised and being tossed around and prodded isn't exactly peachy. 

he waits patiently for her to snap the treat from his hand. and when she does, he grins, and he watches her wheel away from him. 

"hypatia?" and then suddenly she's there. knox nearly jumps out of his skin. "jsjdf don't do that. holy fuck." 

she apologizes with a thought, but the exasperation is written all over her face. when she shrugs her shoulders, knox takes that as a 'you're good. no one's coming to kill you.' still, he asks her to drift behind them and make herself useful as a watchman. 

"mm, y'know, exotico's right around the corner here. be cool to chill in the middle of a fuckin rave when the acid hits." acid-laced molly, that is. or, at least that's what he thinks the pills were. they looked familiar to ones he's taken before anyway. 

"glowsticks and glitter galore. you gonna tell me why you texted me, red?"

Summer Atreides

☉

why is it everyone's calling me stupid lately? between her and eden, he's starting to think he really has lost some brain cells. but no, he hasn't. they're just drifting because he's drifting, and his skin is like water, rolling and cold and oh, shit, he forgot about what he'd taken before his very much interrupted romp in the hay with sam. 

his brain goes on the fritz and colors start bleeding in all the wrong ways. he's dazed, for a moment, but then he reins it in, struggling (yet still succeeding) to parse what's real and what's not. 

it's easier in lonely alleys like this, out in the street, in some semblance of a world.

it's another thing entirely, though, when he takes summer by the arm and drags her into the club in question. as lights wash over them, as neon body-painted dancers greet them, her words click in his head and he blinks. 

"you talked to sam? when?" 

but she's gone. or maybe he's gone. is that her at the bar? or is that her dancing beside him? he spins, says to her, maybe, "'course i'm safe. got my own fucking crazy guard dog now. WHOOF!" and then he howls. others join in.

Summer Atreides

☉

there's a fucking wolf here? he's looking up at cages, but all he sees are go-go dancers. and then he's looking at everyone else around him and he's seeing their dagger teeth, their claws for hands, and he's thinking they are the wolves. we are the wolves.

i'm a sheep in wolf's clothing.

he laughs at his own wit and loops an arm around summer's shoulder. "you're the wolf," he says with a growl. 

"do you feel it yet, red? do you feel it brimming? tripping? fuck, this is some good shit."

Summer Atreides

☉

"maybe," he says with a laugh. he snatches at her supposed tail, tries to pet her ears, but comes up empty. "mmm-no. just human. how boring." 

summer bows under his weight (all one hundred something pounds of nothing that he is) and knox lurches as the room skitters. gravity says, time to fall, bitch, but momentum says, i gotchu. and then they're back up and swinging and in the middle of the dance. 

he releases her because he's afraid he'll get smacked, or she'll take him under, but he also finds he doesn't want to let her go. 

because they were here for a reason, right? because something's wrong. 

but it doesn't have to be. we could make it right. 

"let's fuckin' - let's fuckin' do shit, you know? like fuck parties. we partied already. let's rob a bank. or steal some shit. or end capitalism. yeah? yeah?"

Summer Atreides

☉