sam is tired. sam it out often and comes home grumpy. and knox just keeps thinking of laying in his lap on mt. pyre, wistfully saying that everything's changed and wishing that it hadn't. but does he want to go back to self-induced isolation? his exile on the mountain?

with the rest of the world so far away, it was hard to hurt sam. it was easy. easier. 

he already regrets his stint on the boat. and it's been literal hell, not giving in to the new/old cravings burning like fresh flares in his chest, his heart, his skin. so he gets around it with loud music. with cracked grins and updating his fucking social media to let anyone and everyone know he's back on the grid.

but it's not as fun, what with tinder and grindr deleted. and no desire to answer any messages from his old hookups. 

to say he's been avoiding summer is an understatement, but it really hasn't been hard. she's almost as busy as sam, which is saying something. and he doesn't expect her to be home right now. so he looks up from the comic he'd been pouring over and opens the door. 

runs his hand through pastel pink hair. "red," he says flatly. 

Summer Atreides

☉

In truth, Summer wasn't sure if she was expecting her brother to open the door or not. She was going to enter his room one way or another, whether he liked it or not.

But, to her surprise as she reached for the door knob, it twisted and there he stood. Knox, his hair pink like cotton candy, looking tired and... like shit, really. She dropped her hand to her side, crossing her arms over her chest loosely before she cleared her throat.

"Hey," she said.

Well, that was... awkward.

Why did she feel like there was a huge rift between them? Summer knew that Knox was grieving over Ollie, that everything was a shit show since that night. It wasn't like he was alone in going through mental spiraling. But... it felt like he was pushing her away. Out of his space.

"Are you okay?"

Summer hadn't exactly had the time to come and check on him either, which might have been part of the problem as well. But she wanted to make things better. They had a new life now. One where maybe, for the first time, they could actually be happy.

"I haven't seen you in a while."

knox prescott

☉

the comic is still in his other hand, finger tucking into it to mark the page. he tosses it on the bed, feeling childish for holding it in the first place. because here he is reading comics while his partner and his sister are off cleaning up bodies. 

when she asks him if he's okay, he laughs. just straight up barks a laugh in her face, bewilderment turning to exasperation. with a shake of his head, he abandons the threshold of the door and crosses his room to his bed. pushes the comic aside and takes out his phone. 

and there, he finds the video. because he hasn't deleted it. in fact, he's watched it. over and over and over again. 

"maybe we can get a lead, if we take him out." summer's sing-song voice. he slides his finger, plays it back. and again. then just lets it play. 

pop. and there goes ollie's head!

"fuck you, summer."

Summer Atreides

☉

Summer furrowed her brows. This was not a good sign. She watched him, her jaw tightened, as he threw his comic on the bed and went there himself.

She didn't enter his abode. His safe space. She watched as he pulled out his phone, and she heard it.

Of course Knox didn't get rid of the fucking video. And of course the video was cut, to make it sound all wrong.

"Do you really fucking believe that bullshit that your father sent you? He was a manipulator, Knox. You know damn well that he was going to change anything I said to get you to come, no matter what."

Fuck, he was already pissing her off. That's what she got for being a good sister.

"I was trying to save your fuck boy ex-boyfriend. You know who ended the conversation? You know who pulled the trigger? Your daddy did. I tried to save him, to get him out of there. But you never fucking listen to me."

knox prescott

☉

merrick's a liar, through and through. of that, knox has never had any doubts. but summer? she's of his ilk, has been wrapped around his finger for years. she'd struck the killing blow against him, saved them both, sure, but how much of him is still inside of her? she's twisted up and terrible. 

she must be, if knox was never once under his thumb and is, by all accounts, worse. 

his jaw clenches. "okay, he pulled the trigger. but why the fuck was he there in the first place, summer? huh?" his icy gaze slides from the phone to her. "tell me right now that you had absolutely nothing to do with him being there."

Summer Atreides

☉

That wasn't something that Summer could deny. She knew as much. Because how could Merrick Prescott find out about Ollie and how to track him down without someone who knew him well enough?

Who knew Knox's relationship history well enough?

"I didn't think that he was going to put him in the interrogation room. Or kill him. He was my out to give you and Sam time to leave. So you both didn't die," she snapped.

"I had no intention of bringing an innocent person into this. I used a name, and Merrick went from there. I had a plan to take him to find you but let him go along the way."

Summer put her arms on her hips.

"But after everything he fucking did to you, why are you crying over him? Do you not remember all the shit he did? Every single word, the things he would do! Ollie was as horrible of a person as you and me, Knox."

knox prescott

☉

and therein is her truth, but of course she feels no remorse. because summer knows everything, of course. knows what the rest of the world saw. she doesn't know what it's like to love and to be loved, what it means to fight tooth and nail for it (but doesn't she? were ollie and his father really so different?) 

"yes, summer. i remember what ollie did. the bad and the good." not that she gave a fuck about him smothering knox with kisses and homemade soup when he was sick. or showing him how to live life at the zenith, at the top of the spire, with reckless and wanton abandon. 

but really, it's the last part that gets him. that makes his ears go red. 

"and if he was just as bad as us, then maybe i fucking deserved him."

Summer Atreides

☉

Summer almost barked a laugh. Appalled. What good did Ollie ever do to Knox? Egg him on, to kill himself? Continue past his limits, when he said no? Ignore him, cheat, lie, the whole nine?

"You're looking at him through rose-tinted glasses. He was never good. He wanted you dead, Knox."

She wanted to scream at him that she did him a favor.

And then he spoke, and the words shocked her. It was like a slap in the face. Because what about Sam?

"Oh? So you think you want to be with Ollie? You regret everything and wish you never left him? What about Sam? How the fuck could you say that, Knox? When he's family now! You-"

Summer wanted to go off on some vocal tirade, but there he was. Sam. She looked behind her, looking at him with a sad look in her eyes.

"Sam..."

knox prescott & samuel carter

☉

maybe part of him knows that. maybe part of him knows that all the niceties don't make up for the shit ollie put him through. but if he accepts that, how can he accept loving him? having loved him? how can he forgive himself? and it shouldn't matter - none of it shoulder matter. ollie's six feet under and the world keeps turning. 

but anger flickers through his gaze and he opens his mouth to lash out at her, to tell her stop fucking talking about shit she doesn't know about. because no, he's happy with sam. he's happy, right? he's happy?

but something's lodged in his throat because sam is in the doorway and he's giving knox a look that makes knox want to be anywhere else. 

his fingers clench in the sheets and then he stands, shoulders past summer. stands in front of sam. puts his hands on his shoulders and says, "no, sam. that's why i don't deserve you." he grits his teeth.

samuel carter Summer Atreides

☉

if you're busy with something else. and also, caught up in the whirlwind of emotion summer had brought out of him, it takes him until this moment to realize that sam is covered in blood. and he can't help it. he takes a step back as that smell hits his palate, as the memories swim too real and too sudden back to the surface. 

watching the video on loop had desensitized him. but having it flung full force back up his nose, fresh on his eyes, he can't help but feel overwhelmed. 

"you weren't supposed to hear that," knox says, finding his voice but looking away. refusing to acknowledging sam's apology, but not returning one in kind: the knox special. 

he looks down at his hands, at the faint stains marring them, and grimaces. his head's too full of everything and he's stuck between sam and summer. always, always trapped. and it's summer's fault this time. summer's fault she's yelling things she shouldn't be, putting words in knox's mouth. putting thoughts there that he's struggled to rip away himself. but like weeds, they keep crawling back.

knox side-steps around sam and hunches his shoulders as he walks down the hall. "i'm going swimming," he mumbles. 

samuel carter Summer Atreides

☉

Summer couldn't believe this. Poor Sam, tired from a day's work, and Knox, being an unappreciative and unapologetic brat. What the fuck was wrong with him?

"Fuck you, Knox. We did this for you. I did it for you. And now you're going off without so much as an I'm sorry to your boyfriend."

She scowled, seething as she watched him go. Then she turned to Sam.

"I'm sorry, Sam. I didn't think he'd turn out like this... and seriously, if you're getting worn down or working too much, take a day off. That's an order," Summer said, a look of genuine concern flashing in her eyes as she chased down her brother.

knox prescott & samuel carter

☉