everything started losing its color. gold-veined outlines remain - around the pond, sam's bed, the kitchen. he spends a lot of his time between the three. sam suggested taking walks about the mountain, that the ghost-types should leave him alone, but he hasn't been able to muster up the energy. instead, he's spent hours in bed on his phone. or sleeping. or staring.

he tries very hard not to scratch his arms when his veins burn, but sometimes, especially when he feels cold, he'll find himself rubbing his skin raw. 

but things are easier when sam is around. easier, and harder. because his smile feels false. because sam is so kind to him after he spends days doing nothing. being stagnant. not progressing. 

he hasn't even taken the time to let his pokemon explore the new place. 

but cry needs to eat. as do the rest of them. but cry gets particularly nippy when he hasn't eaten. so knox is crouching by the pondside with his fingers in the water, letting the chinchou suckle on some veggie puree. he turns his head and kisses sam back. 

he shrugs, but forces a smile. "same as always." he sticks his hand back in the can and then plops it back in the water. cry blows some bubbles to the surface and goes back to his suckling.

"he and lotti are very happy now," he says and as though to prove a point, knox's whiscash breaches the surface with a flick of his tail. 

samuel carter

☉

"happy to hear-- oh, speaking of those who are in the pond..."

sam's words are slow, but he moves his hands into his pockets and withdraws the water types he has. a few different colored pokéballs. while most all of his ghost types are in dusk balls, others are in color corresponding capsules as much as he could control.

his jellicent shows, blobbing about on the surface. then a swampert shows itself, moving into the muddier areas of the garden and having a bit of fun watering the flowers which persephone and sam's combee had been helping grow. she's quick to direct the swampert as to which flowers to water.

the other pokémon he lets into the water is his dhelmise and his dragonair.

"i've named the dhelmise charybdis and the dragonair is called colichis." he smiles at knox. "the duskull line that works in reception is charon, lethe, and styx. i've a golurk named atlas... um..."

for a second he moves his mind through his roster, then nods.

"there's hecate which you know, hades and nyx the houndooms, and cerberus my mightyena who accompanies them."

knox prescott

happy to hear. and he must be, really, even though knox knows he's not fun to be around right now. every time sam calls him starlight, all he can do is think of how fucking dim he is. he's stopped vomiting at least; he's even gained a couple of pounds. but his arms are red and he's starting to hear that incessant nagging, like a thorn in the back of his head. 

"i'm glad, sam. i'm sure they're happy about that." 

lotti, who'd been giving cry a decent amount of space while he eats, gets just a bit more daring. he goes in to snap a quick bite from knox's fingers and knox only just manages to pull his fingers out of the water when a discharge sparks over the surface. 

"we'll need to get some plastic clips for cry. i don't think keldeo will appreciate his afternoon naps getting interrupted by that." cry's bubbles float to the surface as he throws a tantrum; electricity sizzles over the water. lotti remains unaffected and this only seems to upset the fish more.

"i'll try my best to remember their names." but he's been forgetting things lately, too. he blinks, puts the lid back on the can. "do you know your gardevoir's yet?"

samuel carter

☉

"aether." he says the name with fondness, looking to knox. "the other is eos...she also gave the impression that you knew that already."

he isn't upset, shows as much by how he smiles at knox regardless. he's happy. she expressed herself to knox and for that, sam is grateful. but the mention of having to try and remember their names has sam curious... knox did see distant recently, but mostly just tired. his body was healing it was to be expected.

which is why sam didn't think much of it. but knox also rarely actually shared his thoughts. which was why...

"i'll get some clips later. but for now," he stands and extends his hand down for knox. "let me take you somewhere. you can piggyback, or i can get my swampert to carry you if you'd prefer that."

knox prescott

"yeah, she told me. i thought of saying something, but then it slipped my mind." he idly rubs his fingers in the grass. he'd let cry lap up the rest of the meal, but the water's still sparking with electricity. he snaps his fingers a couple of times, but the chinchou doesn't listen. so he sighs, reaches into his bag, and comes up with another dive ball. this one expels his quagsire in the middle of the pond. 

he sits, oblivious to the electricity, and cry nestles into his lap. 

"don't let him do that if any of sam's come around," he instructs. nio's eyes blink one at a time and knox figures that's good enough.

he takes the offered hand, but withdraws when he stands. and then he runs his fingers through his hair, frowning. "i'm not a cripple, sam," he says. "i can walk."

samuel carter

☉

"...i wasn't saying you were crippled, i just wasn't sure how up to a walk you were. it'll take about fifteen minutes on foot."

he uses a gentle tone. patience of a fucking saint, he has. but knox has been so touchy lately, even with sam being 'open' and 'honest' sam has had to find clever ways to say certain things in order to not trigger any sort of anxiety. which, in knox' state, is very difficult.

but hopefully this will help. this surprise, he hopes, will help.

nyx and hades leap up onto the small stone fence that surrounds the garden and pond. one nips at the other, but then they both plummet to the ground with yelps and snarls when ceberus blundred into them while trying to leap up onto the wall.

her tongue's out, her tail's wagging, and she gives a yelp when the other two nip at her as punishment. she takes it, shakes her fur and sniffs around the pond because there are new friends!!!

the two hellhounds, however, move over next to sam and knox. the female, nyx walks beside knox. she is the most affectionate and keeps her body temperature low so that she can get pets.

while hades walks beside sam, a reflection of the beast within him, but always on good behavior as sam is.

knox prescott

"then fifteen minutes it is." i hate that you look at me like that. look at me like you used to, like you did on our first date. like you were enraptured. like i was the moon and nothing else in the sky mattered. 

he's still put off by the houndoom, ever since sam's little fun fact about her ability to give him a forever-burn. but she's been nothing but nice to him. and in fact, she's actually cuddled up to him while he's been in bed, warming him while he idly pet her.

his fingers graze nyx's backside affectionately. she trots happily alongside him and knox looks down between himself and sam. he quietly takes sam's hand in his own and laces their fingers together. his shoulders relax. his face loses its stressed lines.

samuel carter

☉

when knox takes his hand, sam feels the world disappear. he's still focused, still wants to get to the surprise. it's dusk, and the view of the twilight from where he's planning on taking knox is divine. it'll bleed into a beautiful and starry sky, and sam's all to excited about it.

"do you have any hobbies, knox?"

he's noticed it's either phone, sleep, pond, or ... other things he's trying not to do.

"i mean, besides water and electric pokémon? surfing, writing, reading?"

he's not trying to be pressing, just explaining his question further to make it more plain. though, if knox is paying attention to where they're walking, he'll remember that this is the way to the spot where they first met. but, that's only if knox has ever traveled the path from the house to the spot before.

knox prescott

here marks the end of their relationship. here marks the move from passionate lovers to high school acquaintances. their language has devolved so much that sam has been forced to ask icebreaker questions in an attempt to fill small talk. in an attempt to fill the space that knox has put there. 

his hobbies have always been be reckless, do the first thing that's on his mind, and don't give a shit about anything else. but he can't be reckless because that would scare sam half to death, if not to full death, the first thing on his mind is off-limits, and he's come to love the infuriating boy beside him. 

so he plays along, if only because of the latter reason. "i'm decent at sailing. i used to drag summer to the beach a lot when we were younger. i'm a decent dancer. not club dancing. i mean, yes that, but also more 'refined' shit. can't sit still long enough for a book. i like comics though." 

he tries to wrack his brain for more and comes up empty.

samuel carter

☉

even though knox seems bored with the topic, or irritated by it, sam's beaming. he enjoys learning more about knox, whether knox likes to learn more about himself or not is another story. but really? sam didn't know any of that, and he's beyond tickled now that he does know those things.

sailing, dancing, beaches, comics.

yes he's making a list.

"i've never been sailing, though. i was once stranded in the ocean with a boy and a mantine... that was a nightmare." the memory of River Marx moves through his mind, and he frowns. "he was ... annoying."

as they get closer, there are small spots illuminated by garden lights along the walkway. they were pre-powered by a toxtricity that's lazily blowing bubbles with her snot while she now sleeps in a tree.

hecate sits at the end of the walkway, cooing to signify to knox and the houndooms that the area is clear, and then the canines all take off. nyx goes right, hades left, and hecate goes out ahead of them at a sprint. they were tasked with making sure nothing interrupted the surprise he'd set up.

knox prescott

sam's energy, and his smile, is infectious. it slowly eats away at knox, in a good way. it tends to go like this. sam returns comes home exhausted to a block of ice and with patience, and warmth from his houndoom, he's able to chip away at him. and unearth something vaguely familiar. 

"stranded with a boy and a mantine?" he raises his brows and then chuckles at sam's comment. "so you wouldn't mind being stranded with me. good to know." 

he's already stranded with you, dumbass. 

he clenches sam's fingers, startles when his dogs take off at breakneck speed. the lights glow and he realizes it's not the orb-like conjurations of sam's ghost-types playing tricks on him. they're lights. he looks at sam. 

"what did you do?" he asks softly.

samuel carter

☉

"i would enjoy being stranded with you...nobody to put pressure on us, nobody to threaten our happiness."

yes, that would be ideal. that is what sam would love for knox. him to be allowed to do whatever he wanted so long as it didn't get him killed... but... maybe he needed to loosen up on that. if knox enjoyed doing things that nearly got him killed, maybe sam could suffer a few panic attacks so knox could be happy.

"i'm taking you to the place where it all started." because it was romantic? maybe, but mostly ... "you've taken me on all the dates so far, so i wanted to take you this time. show that i want dates just as much as you do. romantic ones, if i can manage it. show you in a way you've shown me that i care for you."

as they make their way down the pathway, the small bit of trees clear to show a blue ringed umbreon in the midst of a small clearing. her golden eyes give off a faint glow, but nothing eerie. she's their 'night light' for the evening, so to speak. something that could draw the moonlight and reflect it for them without being 'a creepy ghost.'

when he gets to the spot he remembered laying beside knox, he takes a seat on the black blanket he'd set out, the umbreon curling near their heads on a rock and slipping her eyes closed, soft radiating rings along her body give light enough for sam and knox to see one another, in dim light, once it gets dark.

for now, the twilight gives enough light for him to pull out the dinner he'd gotten them while out and kept in a portable warmer, keeping it as fresh as possible without cooking it.

knox prescott

being stranded doesn't sound so bad. then again, he's pretty much stranded here already. up on top of a mountain with the city a thousand miles away from him (or so it feels like it). he hasn't let hypatia out since his visit with summer. the temptation's too strong. 

self-induced isolation is bearable, at least, with sam.

"you have shown me, sam," he objects. he's been showered in gifts - something new every day. whether it's a flower sam's picked or some takeout when knox mentions a craving. he's done everything he possibly can to make sure that knox has been comfortable, that his recovery is easy. 

so why the fuck is it still so hard, you ungrateful piece of shit?

he doesn't want to sully what sam is building up to. so he tries to pull himself out of his head. the umbreon curls lazily and he doesn't understand. where it all began? oh. he doesn't recognize the patch of grass because everything about that night is a dream. 

reality faces him and it's so beautiful and that feels so wrong. 

you're going to break this. 

he sits next to sam and his stomach grumbles. fingers splay over his stomach. his ribs are almost hidden again. almost normal. another reason why he hadn't wanted sam to piggyback him down the mountain. his hand covers sam's own and draws it away from the food. 

and instead he lays on his back. and then thinks, no, that's not right, and shifts. peeks up through his hair, stretches a hand out. "right here. that's where you were laying too. and i thought, damn, it'd be so fucking easy to kiss him right now."

samuel carter

☉