the pokemon in the water lookes startled and confused, but hecate's ease around this newcomer is the only thing that keeps keldeo in the pond. that, and the water, and the fact that if keldeo moves, then sam will surely wake. as sam's fingers had wrapped around one of keldeo's hooves for comfort the night before and remained still.

this boy that captured and took care of the creature had gotten the pokémon's full respect. but the new one, the new one smells horrible, of blood and disgusting things. keldeo let out a small whine of a noise, but sam's breathing hitches and he let out a soft groan, which has the pokémon's eyes immediately wide and it's body becomes rigid; tense.

slowly, sam blinks his eyes open; golden orbs having lost their shine, eyes red and puffy. the fingers on keldeo's hoove twitch, then he releases keldeo, and doesn't think twice when the pokémon creates a bit of distance. keldeo is skittish and sam found it was easier to let the pokémon create the boundaries and sam learned to respect them.

much like--

adrenaline moves through sam's body.

"please be alive..." he sniffs, eyes red again. he looks through the messages, no new ones, and his lip quivers, and he grips the phone. he shifts then, curling into a ball with his back still toward knox, bringing his knees up to his face, sighing into his knees.

"i can't just cry all day, pull it together."

hecate's coo is a warning to sam, but he ignores it, complaining inwardly that he can't even think, let alone work...he hates that he slept, what if knox needed him?

once again, he pulls the phone up to thumb through messages, calls, but ... nothing.

he's no idea that the one plaguing his soul is just behind him, witnessing his 1948502590195th mental breakdown since he'd left.

knox prescott

the horse doesn't like him. it whinnies and spazzes a bit every time knox moves a muscle. so he opts not to. because staving off the inevitable sounds far nicer than facing his fear. he's able to stay like that for a while, but eventually sitting still, eventually being beside sam again, and listening to the water, is enough to have him nodding off. 

and then the horse gives a start and the splashing about wakes him. he comes to with a jolt, eyes bleary, and he starts to uncurl from his rigid, back-aching posture, but then he freezes. 

he prepares a smile - something kind, soft, apologetic, but in sam's fervor, the boy doesn't see him. he reaches a hand out to touch his shoulder, to turn him around and tell him to stop being dumb, i'm right here, but then he stops. 

there are snakes in his stomach. his fingers curl, biting into his skin, and he allows himself a heartbeat of self-loathing, a hatred that cuts so deep he can barely breathe. 

"i told you i'd come back. i made a promise." he speaks softly, knowing full well anything he says or does will probably startle sam. but he doesn't touch him. he can't. not yet. 

samuel carter

☉

knox' voice chills sam to the bone. for a moment, he wonders if he's imagining it ... again. he twists then, looking at knox. his eyes moisten and he shifts to grip knox into a tackle of a hug.

because more than he had been angry, he had been worried. because more than he wants to punch knox in the nose, he wants to kiss it. and when he leans back he does just that. his nose, his cheeks, then his lips, with tears and snot all over the place.

"oh, shit! i'm sorry--" he winces, sniffs, then shakes his head at his antics. knox is still bruised and he probably just hurt him in a lot of ways.

"are you okay? is, um, is she okay?"

he's still crying, because he's relieved, and because he's felt more in the past three days than he has in the past two decades of his life.

knox prescott

he expects swearing. he expects anger. he expects coldness. what he doesn't expect is sam launching himself at him like a bowling ball. knox barely opens his arm fast enough to cradle and wrap around sam, and he lets out a grunt when his ribs get jostled. 

yet startled, he returns the hug with what strength he can muster. his mouth's been in a flat line this entire time, but he frowns when sam starts apologizing. 

"yeah, she's fine," he says, voice rough, throat raw. his nose busts again and starts leaking. he swears and balls up the cuff of his hoodie, presses it against it. 

"she had a stressful couple of days. i did too. and once the ball got rolling, well, it was hard to stop." he groans. "i feel like shit."

he tosses his phone onto the grass. "but that's mostly because i caused...this." he waves with his free hand in sam's general direction.

samuel carter

☉

when he notices knox nose starts to bleed, and knows it's his fault, he feels himself frown.

"i'm sorry, hang on--" but before he can move, his gardevoir puts a hand on his shoulder, and a hand on knox' nose, beginning a HEAL PULSE on the injury.

"we've, um, we've been working on her healing. it's more receptive to pokémon, but she can heal minor things on humans, like bumps and bruises. when they're fresh, anyway."

knox had motioned at him and he straight ignores it. he doesn't know how to address that, not just yet. he's a mess and he doesn't know how to fix it. he doesn't know how to clean it up. he isn't presentable and he feels like he's been caught after a lazy depressive binge and his mother is scolding him to clean.

pick up the pieces, make it tidy! he sees you like this and that's it, he'll feel like it's better if he just leaves for good. his heart pangs in his chest and he swallows the well of emotions that wanted to bubble and boil out of his throat.

"i'm not particularly good at theorizing days in advance... for example," he clears his throat. "i ... i knew that you were going to come back here, because you, you said that you would always come back but i just kept wondering when that was. and with so little communication, it felt a bit like you were shutting me out."

he shakes his head.

"i know that you were just, you were just out with your sister. but it's the, the constant, the constant texts about your father wanting you dead. i never doubted you'd come back of your own power, knox, but i kept thinking he'd gotten you and taken you from me forever...and then i kept thinking about what that felt like, and what that would feel like," well so much fo keeping the damn down, so much for not being a mess. he's one all over again.

his head hurts, his face is puffy, he moves his hands into his face.

"you don't need this right now. i'm sorry."

he's willing it all back down, telling himself rhymes and poetry to try and control the emotions, to push them back into the maze of his mind, back into the locked doors and expertly labeled safes. trying to lock them down, put them away.

knox prescott

he lets him talk. he lets him talk and he's trying to grasp most of what sam is saying, but the words are reaching muffled ears. he's crashing and he's crashing hard. his body won't fail him, surely, but it isn't happy with him. and the trickling sound of water is so nice. 

sam is apologizing then and knox makes a face as he stifles a yawn. but then that hard line returns with determination as he reaches up to wipe the tears from sam's cheeks. his cuff accidentally grazes sam's temples and leaves a mark. so he wipes that away too and withdraws.

"but you do," he says.

he shuffles and leans into him, hair tickling sam's throat, chin tucked against his collarbone. one arm rests loosely around sam's back.

"don't shut down, okay? i want to listen. i'm just...so tired."

samuel carter

☉

tired...sam is tired as well. he glances at keldeo, who has drawn close to the two. keldeo has witnessed the many facets of sam. the way sam can be completely cold, distant, but pretend to be present. but here, with this new boy, sam is himself, the sam that keldeo saw in the alleyway. the sam that caused the creature to agree to go along with sam.

this boy brings out that part of sam and because of that, keldeo feels at peace being near the two. he slowly sinks into the pond, gives a soft shake of his head.

sam looks, then looks at knox, before moving into the pond with him. no fucks given on their clothes, or any of it. he simply keeps knox against him and moves into the water, holding him close, and leaning against keldo in the pond.

it's soft and tranquil, it's nice. better than if they were to go into the bedroom and try to get comfortable.

"i know you're tired." i can't promise i won't have boxed it all away while you're asleep. "you're here, and you're safe, and that's all that should matter."

knox prescott

wet jeans are probably one of his least favorite things in the world. and he wants to tell sam that yes, he likes water features, but he's not a fucking fish. but he doesn't have the strength or the willpower to complain, and he's already half asleep by the time sam's dragging him in the water. 

it swirls around his hands, washing the blood away. he conks out shortly thereafter and stays like that. 

when he finally comes to, it's with blue lips and shivers wracking his body. his cells fight to detox what it can, cleanse him of his poisons, and after being in the water so long, he's freezing. with bloodshot eyes, he burrows into the heat beside him, and curls, teeth clacking. 

"mm, sam. sam. c-can we go in-nside?"

samuel carter

☉

sam, on the other hand, was sweating to fucking death.

when he'd noticed knox was getting cold, he had asked his houndooms to get into the water with him and curl around them. the hellhounds had agreed, curling around the two of them. he even had his infernape heat the water with her hands. while he had slept, not so soundly, sam had fought to keep him comfortable-- but his shivers didn't stop.

so he tumbled through possibilities. while knox had been gone for four days, he'd done a bit of reading after finding pills scatter around his house. not only had he googled the pills, but he'd read about the long term effects, about what they could do to the body, and worse yet, how a typical ride were to go and how the fall would be after.

and as knox woke, sam realized he was on the fall. he was trying to keep the water warm without it being scalding but knox wouldn't stop shaking.

"it's colder inside," he warned. "the pond's become something of a hot tub. it's not scolding, but it's not cold."

he hopes he doesn't have to say it. you're detoxing. it sounds awful... and he feels angry. angry that after all that time missing knox, he has to deal with this. angry that knox let himself get this way. angry that all knox had hyper-focused on while he was gone was getting shitfaced with his sister.

not coming together with his sister to find a plan. not going to his sister to keep her alive, or to keep her from being drunken all the time. no, to enable the both of them to be immature.

while he sat. waited. worried. didn't sleep. he still hadn't slept but the four hours by the pondside, worrying over knox while he slept to make sure he was comfortable.

and even still, he's patient. he's quiet. his rage is kept caged within his chest and it's aimed at father prescott.

knox prescott

he opens his eyes more and his brain struggles to catch up. he looks down, at his sodden clothes, and at the water bubbling around him. and it clicks, what's happening, and he thinks god, one fucking line and it'd be easier to handle. his nose itches and his veins are trying to pulse their way out of his skin. captain could get him something to ease it, something to fix him. 

then he could properly fix things with sam. 

except he can't move of his own volition and only sam's pokemon are around him. he shrinks down. everything hurts and he hadn't slept enough. not nearly enough to even start repairing the damages done. 

"this is s-so romantic," he says and tries to force a smile. it looks more like a garish grimace. 

he shudders. but now that he's more alert, he has some autonomy over himself. he drops his hands into the water. warmth travels up his arms, up his sides. he bites his lip. 

"that's the w-weirdest ponyta i've ever s-seen," he says while looking at keldeo.

samuel carter

☉

"it's a keldeo."

whether knox knows what that is or not sam doesn't know, but he doesn't feel like explaining it. it's taking all of his brain power to keep himself from snapping.

"as far as romantics go, that's never mattered to me. i'm just content to have you here."

not running away. not running around in circles. not leaving sam behind. though sam had not asked to go along with him, knox also had not asked him to go. he assumed, because it was summer, that he wasn't allowed to go. knox was odd about who sam could and couldn't be around and sam figured he had ever right.

a monster is hard to cage, sam would know.

knox prescott

i'm just content to have you here. is that a backhanded remark? he thinks so, at first, and he makes a face, before reminding himself that this is sam we're talking about. knox is fairly certain sam couldn't tell a lie even if he wanted to. 

he doesn't know what the hell a keldeo is, but he's absolutely certain it's not a normal pokemon by any means. and to think that it's the thing that sam had been holding out here while he'd fretted and worried over knox. he's about to say something about it, to call sam out on being a fucking you-know-what and not saying anything, when he spasms. 

he lurches to his knees, stomach hunching, and heaves. nothing comes out, of course, because there's nothing left to come out, but every muscle tenses and he retches at the air. 

and then the fit is over. 

"ugh." his tongue is thick in his mouth. "can we just fast-forward a few days?" he gripes. "so i can kiss you and make it all better."

samuel carter

☉

when knox moves away from him, sam finds his heart beating a thousand times more a second than it had before. or maybe a million. he sat up with him, and when nothing comes from knox' body, sam frowns.

"you... need medical attention."

and he has half a mind to call eden again, or to take knox to a real hospital and let the doctors lay into him. but knox would hate him, so he quickly amends his statement.

"i'm not a professional. you need food and water but i doubt that you'll hold it down."

he moved to take knox' face in his hands, frowning, eyes shedding even more fucking tears because everything's so bottled that tears are all he can muster. if he doesn't shed tears, he'll explode.

"we cannot fast-forward through this, but we'll make it the next few days. just... tell me how to help, what to do."

knox prescott