A/N: I want to thank you all again for the lovely reviews. They make my day! More Dyson/Kenzi in this chapter and the next. There's also Vex and Tamsin again because I love them both and I'm squeezing in as much Vex as I can before he goes on his little holiday and leaves this story for a good long while – So, sorry for the Vex over load in this chapter and the last!

…

Vex watched the sappy interaction between Dyson and Kenzi with dismayed disgust. "One of these days I'm just going to lock those two in the dungeon of my club, see whether some alone time and some extra toys will reap better results than this silly dancin' around each other. I mean, look at them! It's disgusting how obvious they are."

Tamsin glanced across at him in half-hearted interest. After twenty minutes of ribbing each other back and forth, they'd since dissolved into mindless chatter. She wasn't enjoying herself nearly as much as him with it, her demeanour bordering on a mix between exasperated and angry. She hadn't made any move to leave, though, and the reason for that wasn't something he had to guess at.

She didn't have any other friends – and, hell, he wasn't even a friend – and it didn't take a genius to work out that even self-enforced loners like her got lonely sometimes. She would never admit it, of course, and he found her persistent denial over the fact all the more amusing. "What? Dyson and the human? I thought he was in heat for the succubus."

He waved the idea aside. "Oh, that's old news. You truly are behind on the times, love. Well, you and everybody else. I swear, I'm beginning to think I'm the only one with eyes and sense around here."

She sized him up. "Well, eyes at least. Though I'd be more than happy to change that for you," Tamsin added, voice turning saccharine sweet.

Bloody bitch. "Ha ha."

She rolled her eyes. "What do you care, anyway? They're all as annoying as each other, in my opinion. As long as their lives don't interfere with mine, I couldn't give a damn who they want to fuck."

Vex had to give her that. "You've got me there, love. Though, the human's alright. At least she knows her way around an eyeliner. No hope for the rest of them, though, that's for sure."

Tamsin was unmoved. "Whatever. You know what I think? I think you're getting soft."

Vex scoffed, staring at her in affront. "Soft? Me? That bleach you use 'as found its way into your brain cells, love." Granted, her hair colour was completely natural but he'd found that it seemed to rile her up a bit to imply otherwise.

She appeared far from convinced but he chose to ignore that. Bitch was daft at any rate. It was that Valkyrie blood – screwed with your brains. "Fine. Then why are you still here? Aren't you supposed to be gone already?"

He scowled at her defensively. "In a tick, love. Flight leaves at 12, just getting in one last drink." He raised the beer in his hand to take a swig in order to empathise his point, deciding not to linger on how she knew she knew he was about to bugger off from this sad country – paranoia just gave him wrinkles. "Be unfair to deprive the locals of the chance to wave farewell to their precious Vex. I'm quite the celebrity." He smirked across at her, though she didn't look entirely believing.

"Mm, famous for being a sad little joke, maybe."

"Hey!" he cried, insulted. "I'd be willing to prove to you there's nothing little about me."

Tamsin mimed a gag. "I think I feel my dinner coming back up."

Vex turned away to glare into the surface of his beer, muttering angrily. "'Little'…"

She leaned in towards him, smirking. "Are you sure that's why you're still moping around this joint?" She glanced momentarily across to where Kenzi and Dyson sat, many seats away. "You didn't come here to spy on your pathetic little 'friends'?"

At this he had to scoff. Now he knew she had peaches for brains. "Friends? Not exactly the word I'd use to describe my relationship with the succubus and her merry gang. More like enemies on hold."

Tamsin shrugged her shoulders unconcernedly. "I'm sure that's how they see you." She levelled him with a look and the dig was clear – they may still view him as their enemy but his own feelings towards them were far fluffier. Utter bollocks, of course, so much so that he didn't even dignify such a perverse theory with a response.

Scowling, he went back to spying on the hopeless pair seated away from them. kidnapping them and hauling them to his dungeon might be a bit difficult but maybe a lust charm of some kind? He could do a lust charm – have them boinking like a couple of randy bunnies in a heartbeat. Now that sounded like fun.

…

Dyson watched her, unable to stop himself from being faintly amused at her persistent devotion to his team, even if her support was now unnecessary. While Team Dyson had once been a contender in the games for Bo's heart, that was now no longer the case. He could see very clearly that her heart now belonged to Lauren and he was glad for her, for both of them. He wanted Bo to be happy and if that happiness could be found only with Lauren then he wished them the best.

He noticed that Kenzi was now looking at him with the slightest traces of nervousness and he wondered what it was that she wanted to say. He inclined his head, prodding her to go on. After a moment she did so.

"Hey, we never really talked about that – you know, Bo and Lauren, all with the kisses. How you felt about the two of them shacking up and that. And it's me so you can be as catty as you like. Well, doggy."

He smiled to himself. "While I appreciate the invitation, I'll pass. I'm alright, Kenzi." She looked entirely too doubtful of this so he insisted, "Honestly. What Bo and I had . . . it's passed."

Her eyes narrowed insistently. "But you got your love back. Curtsey of moi, may I just remind you, for which I think you owe me a couple of drinks off Trick's top shelf."

Dyson chuckled and nodded his head. Of that, she was most certainly right. Noticing that the drink he'd already bought for her that night was empty, he raised a hand to hail Trick over. "That I do."

The Blood King approached them somewhat reluctantly, eyeing Kenzi as if she might spell disaster. Considering the last time she'd been in the Dal, she'd gotten so drunk she'd started tap-dancing on his bar, Dyson couldn't really blame him. Not to mention he'd complained to Dyson earlier about having to deal with having a Teenage Bo up there as well. Nonetheless, he took their orders without a fuss and placed two bottles of his finest on the bench, imparting Dyson with a warning glance before he left.

Taking a breath, he knew he had to explain to her why he and Bo were no longer viable, even if he didn't truly understand it himself. "What you did for me, Kenz . . . it changed everything and I'll never be able to repay you for it but it doesn't change the fact that Bo and I are over."

She frowned at him as if he was talking in some incredibly complex Fae language she didn't quite understand. "I don't get you. You got your love back. You love Bo. Why would it be over?"

Sometimes, he asked himself that very same question. After everything they'd been through, everything he'd sacrificed for her and all they'd fought to get him back to where he was now, able to love, how could it just be over? At the same, everything that had happened was exactly why it was finished.

"Too much has happened," he murmured, knowing before the words left his mouth that she wouldn't be able to understand. For some reason, Kenzi had become unhealthily invested in his and Bo's relationship working out. He didn't quite get it, seeing as her best friend was just as happy with Lauren now as she had been with him, maybe even more so (though he didn't like to think on that). Yet the woman beside him was still unsatisfied with the arrangement and he couldn't help but wonder why that was. "And Bo's happy now. Happy with Lauren."

Kenzi's expression was sad as she frowned at him. "But you're not – happy that is."

So that was why, why she refused to let sleeping dogs lie and give up on the idea of him and Bo somehow making it work.

Dyson smiled, touched at her concern for him, and pulled her gently into a side hug. He forgot sometimes how much Kenzi cared for all those she considered friends, not just Bo. That care was one of the most precious and rare things he'd come across in his long life and he knew he didn't appreciate it nearly as often as he should. "Yes, I am. I don't need Bo to be happy, Kenzi. I just needed to not feel so empty anymore and, thanks to you, I don't." He needed to know that he wasn't destined to a long, loveless life – that he could indeed find happiness again. She'd given that possibility back to him and for that he would be eternally grateful.

She allowed herself to settle in his arms and pouted slightly in a manner that he would never tell her he found adorable. "Still sucks balls though."

Indeed it did.

Dyson sighed, pulling her slightly closer, unable to stop himself from inhaling her scent. It was entirely Kenzi: spicy but sweet – apple and clove with just the faintest underlying of jasmine. He breathed it in, comforted.

On the subject of his love, he thought back to his conversation with Bo, of what she'd confided in him about Kenzi. It had been on his mind a lot lately, the knowledge that he'd hurt her, this woman who had done so much for him, who had never deserved his brash treatment of her. He'd wanted to apologise for it, to ask her forgiveness – even though he knew she'd already given it to him, undeserved – but the timing had never been right. For starters, this was the first time they'd been alone together since Bo's stay in Hecuba Prison.

"About last year," he began. He didn't let her go from the hug, not quite ready to miss her warmth. "My behaviour towards you in the beginning, it wasn't right. I'm sorry for hurting you like that."

Kenzi shrugged her shoulders against him, avoiding his gaze. "No big."

"Kenzi," he reproached, knowing that for her it had been 'big'. Bo was right, she had trusted him and he had trampled that trust without hesitance or acknowledgement.

She pulled out of his grip slightly and sighed, still not quite looking at him. "I guess I just . . . wondered. You know, whether the only reason you ever put up with me was because of Bo. I mean, your love for her was gone but you could have still loved me, right? Unless you hadn't, even when you loved her. I don't know." She fumbled, shrugging her shoulders self-consciously. "You were my friend. I thought it was mutual."

Dyson frowned, a pain erupting in his chest and spreading outwards at her words. He'd known that he'd hurt her but he'd never once guessed that he had made her doubt them. That he had made her think, even for a second that, that he hadn't ever loved her, that their friendship was false, wasn't something that he thought he could ever forgive himself for. "It was, Kenzi. Believe me, it was. But when the Norn took my love, it was never just my love for Bo, it was all the love I had in me to give. I couldn't love anyone after that. Not Bo, not Hale, not Kiara, not Trick and not you either, Kenzi. I could care but I couldn't love."

She glanced across at him. "Oh." Her eyes were sympathetic as she gazed at him, which hadn't been his intention. "I didn't know that." She bit her lip for a moment before letting out a groan. "Damn that sucks, D."

His mouth twitched slightly at her ever eloquent way with words. "Yes, it did."

"I knew you were empty, I felt it when I was in there," she told him, gazing at him with compassion and sadness in her eyes and touching a hand to his chest. Tiny but strong, it rested there against his heartbeat. "It was horrible. I just didn't know how much. But before . . . before you lost your love . . . "

"I wasn't your friend just for Bo's sake," Dyson confirmed for her. "I'll admit, in the beginning she was the reason I tolerated you. That didn't last long." He smiled suddenly, fond and amused. "You seem to have a gift for making people love you."

Kenzi flicked her hair over her shoulder as she turned to face the front of the bar, now pulling fully out of his grip. "It's my unquestionable awesomeness. People are just powerless against it." She smirked at him sideways and he couldn't help but chuckle. Her awesomeness was indeed unquestionable and he knew it was something he would never cease to be powerless against.

…

Vex smirked as he watched Dyson pull Kenzi into a one-armed hug, both amused and nauseated by the sickening display of affection. Friends hugged, of course, but Vex would be as stupid as the Valkyrie beside him if he thought for a minute that that was all that existed between the two. He was no succubus but even he could sense the sexual energy that trailed after them like a smitten puppy whenever they were together.

Speaking of which, why hadn't the succubus picked up on it? And she called herself the Chosen One? Failure for a Fae was what she was. Not that he could really talk, seeing as he was somewhat deficient in his own abilities at the moment.

"Oh, can you just imagine the drama if Bo's beau got with her little human pet." The thought made him positively gleeful. He'd pay good money to see the succubus gobsmacked in such a way.

Tamsin didn't seem to agree. "Urgh," she rolled her eyes, "that's just what we need – more drama. As if it wasn't unbearable enough to be in the same vicinity as them." She glared over at the pair, no doubt disappointed that Bo wasn't there, too, in order to do some proper scowling at her as well. Speaking of sexual energy, those two had their own game going on, also with similarly irritating levels of obliviousness.

Vex stared at her, disappointed. "You've gotten boring in your old age, Valkyrie."

She smiled sweetly back at him, eyes failing to hide their lethal dose of venom. "And you've only gotten more annoying."

"Come on, I can't be the only one who sees . . ." he waved his arm around wildly at the picture of Dyson and Kenzi, trying to find a word appropriate to describe the bleeding irritation that was their situation. "That," he decided on finally.

She looked for her part rather bored. "Again, why do you care?"

Vex sputtered, taken aback by the question. He realized that he didn't actually have an answer, none that he liked anyway. "Well it's just bleeding infuriating, isn't it?"

Tamsin remained nonplus. "I don't know. I'd say the infuriating never stops."

He sighed, giving up on trying to convince her of his case. It was stupid anyway. He'd probably come back from his jolly holiday to find that the two had fucked like bunnies and moved on. More to the point, the Valkyrie was right. He had no reason to care what was going on with them, with any of that silly gang.

Really, he was becoming far to invested for his own good.

And that was worrying.