i have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and the end,


but I do not talk of the beginning or the end.

summer and sam are unintelligible behind him. they mutter in low voices, as though they're afraid to wake the dead. and that's what ollie is. dead, dead, dead. hands in his blood, echoes of ghosts telling him knox was all the worse off for ollie being in his life. 

but it's the other way around. 'round and 'round. and little things spinning along with it - summer, youth still on her cheeks, telling him he's nothing, even his own boyfriend doesn't want to be around him. 

his teeth flash, sob sucked back in with a tight gasp. he reaches for ollie's hand because he can't stomach his ruined face. touches his forehead to his fingers. they're already cold. 

samuel carter Summer Atreides

☉

”there is nobody else in the compound but those in this room, eos has confirmed through telepathy.” sam informs her.

but summer speaks as if she doesn’t know that sam has already made this decision. the moment he decided to keep knox in his life when all the shit originally hit the fan.

for every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

”wether he accepts it or not, he is my sun and my stars, summer.” the words come with a softness to sam’s features he doesn’t usually displace. it’s a softness that his usually cold, calculated, and calm exterior doesn’t allow.

but in the heat of everything, what good had that gotten him? what good had keeping himself hidden away within his own mind done?

knox taught him what it meant to be human and he only learned what it felt like too late. because there knox is, reeling over a loss that sam doesn’t understand. he barely knew him. he barely knew him at all… and he feels terrible for it. the guilt, the anger, it causes his blood to boil and his usual robotics to fail.

he’s… emotional, even if he doesn’t fully see it. even the slightest bit of emotion is proof enough.

truth is, he’s just as broken as the boy on the floor. so he turns his gaze to summer with determined eyes and nods. ”i’m with him.”

eos emerges from the shadows, along with alecto. nyx trots in and gives a snort, met by hades who licks her face. she nips at his before sniffing at ollie’s body, because it’s unfamiliar to her, but she goes no further and her ears sink low at the sounds coming from knox. she whines in protest, then lays flat, crawling forward on the ground to nuzzle under knox’ arms, to show comfort.

knox prescott Summer Atreides

Summer nodded, gazing now at Knox as he cradled Ollie's dead body. Or the remains of it. She truly felt sorry for him, in both grief and judgement.

She knew that Ollie was never a good person or lover to her brother. She didn't understand why Knox broke down to pieces over his death like this. But perhaps it was because she never understood the love of someone quite like that. Or felt like she had.

She dismissed the thought as she turned her gaze back to Sam.

"I know. I've known it for months, now. I doubted it, at first. But I can tell."

However, even though this was an emotional moment for Sam and for Knox, Summer had to bring him to reality. Because this wasn't just about love. This was their life and reality.

"However, if something happens between you two... I will take you out. One way or the other. Just be careful with him, Sam."

With the tasks done for Summer, she sighed, easing some tension off her shoulders as she closed her eyes. She contacted a team to get together to clean up the mess, to not ask questions, and to get it done fast. And she was ready to leave.

"Let's go home."

knox prescott & samuel carter

☉

sam nods that he understands. but his eyes are on nyx, and on knox. he knows what knox needs and it’s not a dead body. it’s not nyx or any of the other pokémon in the room.

what knox needs is … mostly a bath.

so he returns most of his pokémon. he starts with tartarus who has just finished devouring merricks body, leaving no trace. then eos. next he recalls hades and alecto. nyx he leaves close to knox and aether stays beside him as sam approaches knox very slowly.

he knows knox will hate him for this… but he cannot allow knox to just wallow with the dead.

”knox?” the tone is soft, almost uncharacteristic as he places a hand on his boyfriend’s shoulder. ”knox? we have to go.”

knox prescott Summer Atreides

there was good in him. summer never believed it, surely, but there was good in him. in the way he'd sometimes bring knox flowers when he knew he was feeling down. how he surprised him with that ridiculous trip through several of lilycove's seaside mansions; they'd broken off from the tour group, fucked in some long-dead old crone's bed. 

was he making someone else happy? someone who will never know what's happened to him? 

selfishly, he finds satisfaction in that. 

nyx licks the hand on her muzzle and he looks to the side, scratches the side of her face. her tongue lolls, showing bloody teeth. there, flashes of her ripping through sinew and bone, primal growl sputtering as she drew lifeblood from her inflictions. 

knox blinks. he lifts his hand from her and touches his fingers to sam's. looks back at the body. he's fresh out of tears now. 

"we have to bury him."

samuel carter Summer Atreides

☉

Summer beckoned her Pokemon to follow, orders sent to her other two that were releasing the captive children to return once their task was complete. However, as she stood at the door, she heard Knox speak quietly.

A small scowl crossed her lips, as she looked at him gazing mournfully over his ex-boyfriends body. The one that had beaten him, insulted him, done worse to him than she cared to explain.

Why did he want to bury him? To give him flowers and weep at his grave?

"Pointless," Summer muttered under her breath.

Yet she didn't utter anything else out loud, leaving it to Sam and Knox to decide. Ollie wasn't her call anymore.

knox prescott & samuel carter

☉

to sam, it wasn’t pointless because this was obviously somebody important to knox. even if he doesn’t understand the situation as a whole, he understands that in order to move on, burial helps. it was partially why he found consumption as a means of death particularly…

either effective as punishment or beautiful as closure.

”we’ll do whatever you like, but we need to get out of here so summer can work. aether has enough in her to take him with us, and i’ll arrange for his burial. me and you, we’ll bury him, if that’s what you want.”

he slips his hand to return nyx then, knowing the comfort she was offering was no longer needed.

knox prescott Summer Atreides

it's with a lot of effort, and by using sam as an anchor, that he manages to haul himself up. the smell is starting to get to him. so much blood. but he's nothing compared to summer. he grimaces as he regards her. he steps away from sam, is about to open his arms, but sees pieces of the bloodshed on her. 

"fuck," he breathes, still green. 

"summer, i...fuck, i don't know. everything's awful." and that's really all he can manage. because talking is making him feel too much and maybe he's not actually out of tears yet. he grits his teeth, looks past her as hypatia makes herself visible in the doorway. 

she still looks haggard and aether can take them home. so he returns her.

"where...will you go?" he says softly. knox has sam, but summer? will she go back to that empty house?

samuel carter Summer Atreides

☉

Summer was ready to leave, leave behind the blood, the scent of iron, and the horrid sounds of crunching and gun shots ringing in her ears.

However, Knox called out to her. She stopped and turned, looking over her shoulder at him.

"Welcome to the reality of the world, Blue," she said.

He'd been absent from it for a long time, in drug-induced hazes and parties to ignore everything. But this was her reality. What she had to live from day to day. Except now, it was personal.

Where would she go?

"Home. I'm used to being alone by now, Knox. No need to worry about me now," she said with a small smirk.

But of course, Summer was just covering up her insecurities and scars.

knox prescott & samuel carter

☉

while they speak, sam looks to the man on the ground. his eyes glaze over the body, sizing it up. for the sake of a coffin. he thinks of two that will work, if knox even wants to bother with a coffin.

best if he does, more closure that way.

then he looks back up, sees the familiarity of covering scars with words.

”mt. pyre is always open to you, summer. and you have the freedom to choose where you will go now.” then, he braves a topic he wasn’t sure if he was even ready for. ”and knox… after the burial, you won’t have to stay locked up in mt. pyre anymore. you’ll be welcomed home… so neither of you have to be alone anymore.”

but i will be… but i always am; alone with the dead. and that’s okay.

knox prescott Summer Atreides