Kiss Away The Distance
Title: Kiss Away The Distance
Fandom/Pairing: Gossip Girl - Dan and Serena
Summary/Prompt: All we know is distance/We're close and then we run/Kiss away the distance/I know you hate this one
Rating/Word Count: T/~862 words
A/N: A drabble prompted by the wonderful Kelsey (singyouhome ) who wouldn't let me forget that she had prompted me this. I told you I'd get it done, Kels.
Relationships were a foreign concept to Serena, something she had never done or seen before; at least not successfully.
She was the girl that was always caught up in the excitement of the moment, the thrill of the chase, the over-powering, all-consuming feeling of lust.
She was the never the girl to be caught up in the familiarity of a monogamous relationship, being with the same person, and only that person day in and day out; she felt too much like a caged animal in Brooklyn Zoo.
It took exactly two months and two days with Dan before the suffocating feeling crept up on her, and without thinking she fled from the skyscrapers and crowds of New York City to the open space of the Hamptons with Nate.
She never expected her summer away from the bright lights of the city to be any different from previous vacations. Her time with Dan was short and sweet, and she would always remember what they had together, but when she headed back to reality for school in the fall enough time would have passed for them to try a friendship.
She never expects this thing to remain. His innocent smile wasn’t meant to confuse her like it does, his wit and sarcasm wasn’t meant to make her giggle like a little school girl.
So they try again. She tries again. After all, it’s Dan. Dan isn’t like any of the other guys; he’s one of the very few, genuinely good ones out there and he was going to do nothing to hurt her.
She snuggles under the covers of his bed with him as they watch old movies and eat the Chinese leftovers from the night before.
They steal kisses when they’re out with friends, when backs are turned so Blair won’t gag and their fingers entwine as they walk down the paths of Central Park; losing themselves in the day.
She feels safe and secure in the knowledge that Dan is there. She likes that she can be around him, and be herself and not worry about appearances or the precious family reputation that her mother seems to be constantly trying to uphold.
When her torrid past begins to resurface, as it was eventually bound to do, secret after painstaking secret; she starts to second guess herself - her relationship with Dan.
She had been playing a game with Dan, and she’d been doing a good job of it up until this point. Forget. Forget who she was, who she had been and what she had done. Pretend. Pretend that she was the girl that her mother wanted, that Dan saw with the rose-tinted glasses he wore when he looked at her.
This time it was to the vast expanses of Europe. A quick apology left to Dan before he could talk her out of leaving.
This was who she was; the wild, enigmatic, unpredictable Serena who would be in Spain one day and Switzerland the next. Her flirtatious smile and childish giggle taking her places that others could only dream of; wild flings with European boys who knew very limited English before she’d be gone the next day.
She reveled in the distance between New York City and the cities of Europe; away from Dan and the girl he’d spoke her up to be.
Her return, no matter how long she tried to delay it, was inevitable. Lily wanted Serena stateside, told her she was to finish school at Constance, where she could keep an eye on her.
Neither of them saw themselves returning for a third shot at the relationship that was doomed to fail, but it was only a matter of time until they were buried under the covers of Dan’s bed again, kissing away the distance; her hair, lightened by the European sun, entwined through his fingers as they whispered sweet nothings to each other again.
They’d always continue to kiss away the distance, they realized silently; because the distance would never keep them apart for long.