Bring Out The Best In Me And In You

[Jen]

Story Title: Bring Out The Best In Me And In You

Type of story: One shot

Main Characters: Dex, Sasha

BTTB rating: G

Genre: General (Siblings/Friendship)

Does story include spoilers: Yes [Post Episode 5538 reaction fic]

Any warnings: No

Summary: Dex wishes his life were more like a movie, with the epic romantic moments and grand gestures of affection. Instead he gets a sister who likes to interfere.

A/N: Title from All I Want by Joni Mitchell. Written as a reaction to Episode 5538, wherein Dex and Sasha are the best kind of siblings.

--

bring out the best in me and in you

It’s not like it plays out like it does in the movies; where there’s a big swell in the music and there is a light breeze as the charming and suave and handsome young man declares his undying feelings for the girl of his dreams and she jumps into his arms and they --

“Oh, God. Could you be any more of a girl?”

Dex pointedly ignores Sasha as she walks into the lounge room. She glances at the tv and she not-so-gracefully plops down beside him.

“Tissues, ice cream, sappy romance movie,” Sasha lists, taking stock of everything in Dex’s immediate vicinity. “This is a new low, even for you.”

“Can’t you just leave me alone so I can wallow in my own pity?” Dex replies, eyes not leaving the screen.

“Oh no, I can’t even think about leaving you when you’re in this state,” Sasha says. “Someone needs to watch just to make sure you don’t start writing depressing journal entries and wearing a skirt. Then, you would have hit rock bottom, and I’d have to explain it to dad.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Dex mutters.

Sasha raises a curious eyebrow. “Well, now you’ve got to tell me.”

“When you’re older.”

“Oh shut up, Mr. Must-Be-In-Bed-Before-Nine-PM,” Sasha retorts.

“Hey, it is important to get a full eight hours sleep,” Dex points out. “And besides, I’m going through a break up. This,” he gestures at the quilt cover pulled up into his lap, the heaped spoonful of ice cream balancing in the plastic container, remote on the armrest, “This is all completely warranted.”

Sasha pauses, examines him carefully. “This is pathetic.”

Dex doesn’t even bother with a response. He’s had enough abuse thrown at him from April, and lack of response from Lottie, that he’s already feeling pretty down on himself. This is just more dirt to add to the pile. Soon, he’ll need a wheelbarrow to move it all, or at least another tub of ice cream before he gets off the couch.

“I pegged you as more of an action flick watcher post-break up,” Sasha comments.

Dex shrugs. “Indi’s got all of those in her room.”

--

“You need to talk to her,” Sasha says, and Dex just rolls his eyes. “Man up!”

“Hey!” Dex protests. “I am plenty man. I’ve already put myself on the line for April. Twice if you would recall! And both times I was shut down. I’m not about to go for a hat trick.”

Sasha ended up staying beside him on the lounge, watching out the movie with him. She sort of ruined the atmosphere because every time Dex’s eyes would start to get puffy or he’d let out the tiniest sniffle she’d elbow him, hard, and remind him, once again, to man up.

“You know some girls would be all over this,” Dex says, as he rubs at his rib cage after a particularly pointy elbow. “It’s called being sensitive. You might want to try it.”

“Yeah, some girls,” Sasha says with a roll of her eyes. “Like April?”

Dex feels his cheeks burn, and not from the heat of having a blanket pulled up to his chin in the middle of the afternoon. His eyes are prickling again and he’s not going to cry about this. He swallows instead, and Sasha goes quiet.

“I’m sorry,” she says softly. “That was a low blow.”

Dex shrugs, trying to appear nonchalant. He fails.

“If it’s any consolation, I haven’t spoken to Casey in over a week and I’m pretty sure he’s deliberately ignoring my texts,” Sasha adds.

“Poor you,” Dex deadpans.

Sasha huffs. “I’m just saying, you’re not the only one whose relationship is down the toilet.”

“Yeah, you and your imaginary relationship with Casey Braxton. That’s totally the same as dumping a girl so you could be with the love of your life, only to have her completely shut you down.”

He can’t help it. When he gets pissed, the sarcasm comes out.

Sasha stiffens beside him, and Dex knows he’s gone too far as well.

“Sorry,” he mumbles.

It’s almost scary how alike they are, him and Sasha, given they spent the first sixteen years apart. They eat their Tim Tams the same way (biting off the corners first, how else is there, really?), they both kick their shoes off left then right (Sid is always yelling at them both for leaving them scattered just inside the front door), and they like to play this game of one-upmanship as far as who has it worse. Right now Dex thinks he’s winning, but its close.

And that’s why it wouldn’t have worked with Lottie. They were too similar. They both had the same interests, and liked the same movies, and had the same passion for long, intelligent conversations, but that was it. It was comfort and friendship and when Lottie said that she liked him in that way, Dex had no reason to say no. I mean, why should he? He didn’t exactly have offers being thrown at him every other day.

But truth be told, it was nothing like when he was with April. Where he wanted to kiss her til he was breathless, and lie for hours on top of her bed saying nothing, and sure, they never got as far as the sex thing, but Dex thought about it. A lot.

Lottie was easy and uncomplicated, but there was no spark, no slow-burning ache that continuously simmered underneath the surface of them both, that was just looking for a way to escape. When Dex finally realised this - when he realised that he loved April, of course he loved her - it wasn’t like a bolt of lightning, some giant shock. It was just -- of course. He always had.

But now apparently, she does not.

“I just don’t understand what I did wrong,” Dex laments. “I told April I loved her, isn’t that what girls want to hear?”

“Yeah, but -” Sasha begins, and then she bites down on her lip, like she’s actually contemplating what she says next.

“Go on.”

“Every girl wants to be told that they are special,” Sasha sighs heavily, “That’s why I kept going back to Stu for as long as I did.” And this is new. Sasha doesn’t really talk about her relationship with Stu. It was such a big, emotional time for all of them that once it all ended it was like a release and everyone could just get on with their lives. But it happened, and sometimes Dex forgets that Sasha lived through it. That she felt, and cared, and even loved Stu for a while.

Dex is watching his sister carefully; the way her brow is slightly crinkled as she thinks, turns her silver ring around her finger before she speaks again.

“Girls want to feel loved, to be shown they are loved, and you, dropping the bomb on April right in the middle of all this stuff going on with Bianca says to April that you’re thinking about yourself, and not her.”

“But I wasn’t!” Dex protests. Why is it that whenever he tries to do the right thing someone ends up getting hurt.

“I know you weren’t,” Sasha says sympathetically, and this time Dex can tell she means it. She’s gone quiet, looking at him with sincerity in her eyes, and Dex lets out a sigh, sinks back into the couch cushions, heaps another mound of ice cream onto his spoon.

“We’re pathetic,” Dex concludes.

“Speak for yourself,” Sasha replies, snatching the spoon out of his grasp before it even reaches his lips and shovelling it into her mouth.

--

“Can you pass the potatoes?”

Silence.

“Can you please pass the potatoes?”

Silence.

“Dex, would you pass Sasha the potatoes?” Sid asks, and Dex begrudgingly obliges. But that doesn’t stop him passing the warm bowl off to his dad who then has to place it down near Sasha before she can reach.

Sasha drops her fork with a clank onto her plate. “Dex, this is ridiculous! You haven’t spoken to me in over two hours. How long are you going to give me the silent treatment?”

Dex doesn’t answer. He can’t, on account of the aforementioned silent treatment he’s giving Sasha.

“Dex,” his dad warns, in that serious-doctor-tone he sometimes uses when he’s getting ready to be parental, but Dex remains resolute.

“You know,” Indi says, “I’m actually impressed. Normally when Dex is really angry about something he just locks himself in his room and blogs about it to whoever cares on the internet and then he gets over it. You must have done something pretty bad.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Sasha protests. “At least, I didn’t mean to. And Dex, I’ve already said I’m sorry.”

“It’s no use apologising,” Indi supplies. “When he gets like this there’s nothing you can do. No amount of grovelling or apologising will make a difference. He’s like a dog with a sore ear.”

“It’s bone,” Dex corrects automatically.

“Ha!” Sasha exclaims, triumphant.

“Technically, I was correcting Indi’s misuse of a phrase, not you,” Dex explains calmly.

“But now you’re talking to me,” Sasha says with a bright smile.

“No, I’m not,” Dex says quickly. “I’m merely pointing out your incorrectness. Just one more thing we can add to the list of Things Sasha Should Never Do; which includes confronting my ex-girlfriend who I want to make my girlfriend again, making her so angry she’s probably never going to want to speak to me again. Thanks to you.”

“Dex,” Sasha whines, “I said I was sorry. I didn’t know she would take it that badly.”

“And how, pray tell, did you think she would take it? You were the one who said my timing was bad. How is this time any better?”

“I just thought I could give her a little push in the right direction. She needs you Dex, and you need her. You’re just both being so stubborn that neither one of you are going to make the move to finally go for it.”

“Hey, I made a move. I kissed her! She just didn’t kiss me back.”

“Okay guys --”

“Dad, just stay out of it,” Dex snaps and Indi scoffs, covering up her laugh with her hand, but her lips are still turned up into a smile, however, Dex is still too annoyed at Sasha to care. “First, you push me to be with Lottie, and now you’re pushing me to be with April. You need to make up your mind!”

“This isn’t about me!”

“Oh really, because I thought everything was about you. Why else would you have such a compulsive need to get involved in things that are none. of. your. business.”

And with that Dex stands from the table, ignoring the horrible screeching his chair makes against the linoleum floor and storms out.

--

Maybe Dex could have handled himself with a little more decorum at dinner, but Indi was right on one account. He made a blog post about annoying little sisters that already has two notes, so he’s feeling a little calmer by the time there is a knock on his bedroom door some time later.

“It’s open,” he says and looks up from his laptop screen as the door creaks open on its hinges.

Sasha pokes her head around, two steaming mugs in her hands.

“Peace offering,” she says, holding out one of the mugs to Dex.

Slowly he closes the lid of his computer and scoots forward to the edge of the bed. He peers into the mug suspiciously -- hot chocolate, with those little marshmallows Dex loves, floating on the surface. He takes the mug with both hands and sips at the warm liquid.

“Thanks,” he says finally. “And I’m sorry about dinner.”

“Me too,” Sasha replies sitting down beside him on the edge of the bed. “For dinner, and for talking to April when it really wasn’t any of my business. I just -- and I’ll forever deny this if anyone asks -- I want you to be happy, Dex. You deserve it.”

Dex pauses, watches Sasha for a moment. It stuns him how a sixteen-year-old girl who has been through what Sasha has been through can still believe so fiercely in love like she does.

Dex has always been the youngest of the Walker family, but the most grown up of them all too. He was the one who held Indi when their mother ran off with Indi’s boyfriend, the one who packed up Indi’s bedroom when everything blew up with Nicole and they had to leave town the first time, the one who had to track down their father when they both knew they wanted to come back. He’s never had someone looking out for him.

Until now.

“It’s like that thing you were telling Lottie about,” Sasha continues.

“You’re going to have to be a little more specific, sis.”

“You know, that thing about the cat and the box?”

“Schrödinger’s cat?” Dex questions. He and Lottie had had a rather long and philosophical discussion about the merit of the original study one afternoon when To Kill A Mockingbird became too mundane -- although Dex could talk about that book for hours. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“You and April. Your relationship is like that cat.”

“You’re saying we’re stuck in a box?”

“No,” Sasha says, but her lips are turned up slightly into the smallest of smiles. “If you let me finish. Your relationship is in the box. It’s neither dead or alive until one of you decides to open it, but you’re both scared, because what if you open the box and it’s dead after all? What if it’s not like it was when you were together the first time? And while you keep the box closed, no one gets hurt -- no one has to admit that it’s too late.”

“Gee, thanks,” Dex deadpans. “So, you’re saying my relationship is dead before it’s even started. That’s comforting, Sash.”

“No, I’m saying, that what if you open the box and the cat is alive? What if the cat is big and beautiful and more fluffy than you ever remember it being?”

Dex squints at his sister curiously. “I think somewhere in that analogy there is a message that we need to open the box.”

“You need to open the box,” Sasha echoes.

“I hope April still wants to open the box.”

--

“You’re welcome.”

“But I didn’t say thank you,” Dex says, confused.

“Oh, I know,” Sasha replies smugly, “But feel free to say thanks at any time.”

“And why would I want to thank you? The only thing you’ve done since I’ve got home is walked around with that cheesy grin on your face and made fun of my cooking.”

“That’s because you’re the most pathetic chef I’ve ever seen,” Sasha points out as Dex almost takes off a finger using the potato peeler. He puts it down carefully on the kitchen counter and turns towards Sasha who’s perched on the edge of the dining table. “And, I saw you and April.”

At just the phrase ‘you and April’ Dex feels his cheeks blush and he has to bite back the smile that threatens to break across his face.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You are the worst liar,” Sasha says, but she’s smiling too. “I saw you in the Diner. Everyone saw you in the Diner. You were practically making out horizontally across one of the tables.”

“It was not like that!” Dex protests, but again, he’s grinning so it’s not that menacing.

“It so was! I thought Irene was going to have to separate you using a mop.” Sasha stands up from the table and walks over to Dex. “But I’m happy for you, really.”

“Thanks,” Dex replies shyly.

“I take my payment in chocolate and compliments,” Sasha says as she snatches up the knife on the chopping board and begins to cut up the carrot that Dex has finally finished peeling.

Dex huffs, but he can’t be mad. Not when he feels his phone buzz in his pocket and he pulls it out to see that it’s April asking if she can come over while she’s on a break from the hospital. He may have to pay Sasha off with a year’s supply of Cadbury, but it’s worth it.

END.

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