Saracen Dexter
Hey, Dex Vex! Where r u? I'm missing you a lot, haven't seen you in a while. Hope all's okay. I mean. We haven't properly spoken since the war.
I thought things would be different now.
Sorry. That was stupid.
It's fine, Rue. Just, please, leave me alone. I'm adjusting to living life without three of my best friends. Four, if you count Valkyrie.
Dexter, please, talk to me. skulduggery's not the same as having you around. He's so focused on getting you back and the reflection, Stephanie, seems to suck up his time.
It isn't good, Dex, he's getting used to her as a person.
Maybe she deserves to be treated humanely.
No, Dexter, she's a reflection. IT's a reflection. A mere copy of life.
Rue, go away. Stop this. I can't handle you. Or Skulduggery. Don't try and talk to me for a while. A long while.
Saracen Fletcher
Fletch, have you seen Skulduggery or Stephanie recently?
No, Saracen, I haven't. I'm sorry but I haven't spoken to Skulduggery for, God, about three months? And only then I said hey and had idle chit-chat.
Skulduggery doesn't like idle chit-chat.
Exactly. So it was basically hey, how are you, what's new, where's Darquesse now, what's up.
I haven't spoken to him for four months. Except an email.
Email's don't count.
Exactly.
Saracen, I have to go. Talk soon?
Talk soon.
Four months later...
Dexter Saracen
Can we talk?
Wow. The elusive Dexter frickin' Vex asking to TALK? Now I must be hallucinating.
Don't be an asshole, Rue, I just need to talk about stuff.
Stuff?
Stuff.
Sounds fun, my friend, but I am a very busy man.
Rue. I'm going to call you. You're going to pick up. We are going to TALK ABOUT THINGS and then you will be civilised.
Three missed calls from The Asshole Called Vex
Rue, PICK UP NOW.
Rue: what do you want?
Vex: finally you pick up
Vex: and you call me elusive
Rue: since our little conversation I realised. Why should I be ready to go anywhere at your call? So I got myself a life.
Vex: I miss you all.
Rue: and I missed you
Vex: past tense?
Rue: very
Vex: I took months getting over Ravel and Bespoke and Shudder and Cain
Rue: what's with the last names?
Vex: they can be used as mere adjectives and words, they hold no significant pain. Ravel as in unravel. Bespoke as in tailor. Shudder as in shiver. Cain as in-well, an idiot spelling of cane. And now they hold only a small amount of pain. I will never heal. The scars are too deep but if I numb the pain, talk to my friends, my remaining friends then it will all be okay. Okay?
Rue: touching speech, Vex.
(silence for a minute)
Rue: Rue means regret.
Vex: I know
Rue: I regret every moment. I regret not knowing that Erskine was bad. My power is knowing and I didn't know! How stupid does that make me? How much of a conceited self-centred self-obsessed person does that make me?
Vex: touching speech, Rue.
Rue: shut up, you aren't any better.
Vex: I regret it all too.
Rue: have you heard off Skulduggery?
Vex: I saw him and Stephanie the other week.
Rue: oh?
Vex: they seem to get along
Rue: of course they do, he needs to remember that it isn't Valkyrie. It isn't a real person.
Vex: she's got a personality. Personality.
Rue: that doesn't change anything, Erskine had a personality. A good sense of humour. He's not a person, he's a devil. He's a demon sent from the fiery depths of Hell to condemn us all to misery and a Hell on Earth.
Vex: woah
Rue: I've sort of been writing. Gordon inspired me.
Vex: you've seen Gordon? How is he?
Rue: sad. lonely.
Vex: oh dear
Rue: is that all you can say? Oh dear?
Vex: what am I meant to say?
Rue: shit, I'll go visit him soon and comfort him.
Vex: well that then
Vex: rue?
Vex: damn it
Vex Rue
You hung up?
Yes
Why?
why what? Why don't you care about your friends? Why are you creating a void between us? Why are you ignoring me? Why don't you admit that that kiss meant something?
Saracen.
What? Doesn't that name hold too much emotional pain?
Shut up.
Did the kiss mean ANYTHING to you?
Or was it just a kiss.
It was a mistake
Fine
It was a mistake to not have taken you back to my hotel that night. It was a mistake to have ignored you for months.
It was a mistake to block you out.
It was a mistake that you made, Dexter, and I can't forgive you yet
I love you, Saracen Rue, god dang it and I love your smile and your dimples and your puppy fat and your relative shortness and your kissing techniques and I love you.
Dexter frickin' Vex, you got my heart again.
I love you.
I'm sorry. I'll have to take my heart back.
Saracen...
No. It won't work. Nothing will ever work again. I am ice and stone.
I am in love with you.
And I you but it isn't enough.
We deserve happiness
I can't do it. I can't admit that everything in the last couple of months, the pretend playboy act was a ruse.
I love you so much
As a boyfriend?
As more.
As a love of your life who you want to spend your remaining 500 or so years with?
As that. Maybe more.
possibly more.
Definitely more.
More.
More.
More.
More.
Oops this turned vaguely Dexcen-y. Ah who gives a shit when they are the most perfect gay 'ship in the whole goddamn series? (monster hunters run a close 2nd). And I say vaguely Dexcen-y but it's got a strong STRONG tone of Dexcen running through here with several fuck you's to the reflection.