Title: All My Days
Couple: Dan/Blair
Fandom: Gossip Girl
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own GG or any of its characters.
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Chapter 8
One month later
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Blair wakes up to her phone ringing.
She groans and rubs the sleep away from her eyes, before turning to her bedside table clock.
Six in the morning.
Her vision is blurry from sleep, but she just makes out Serena Archibald on her phone.
Sighing, she mumbles, "Hello?"
"Morning, B!" Serena sing-songs through the receiver.
Blair closes her eyes. "If you aren't in labor, there's no reason why you should be calling me this early in the morning."
Laughing, Serena responds, "B, don't say that! I'm not due for another three months! I need to keep this babe cooking."
She groans again, but this time out of guilt. "Sorry. But seriously, why are you up so early?"
"Pregnancy insomnia. And since Nate is waking up with me, I've apparently forgotten that the rest of the world sleeps past six. Sorry."
Blair sits up against the headboard and pulls the covers up to keep herself warm. "It's ok. What's up?"
"Well, I was thinking that..." She takes a breath and rushes the last part out, "Since you and Dan are on such great terms maybe the four of us can go out tonight?"
"Who said we were on great terms?" Blair asks curiously.
"No one. It's just-" Serena lets out a defeated sigh. "You two have been hanging out lately and it's been...undramatic."
"That's not a word, Serena."
"Save the grammar lesson, B," she chides. "Not dramatic, then. Whatever. You know what I'm talking about."
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Blair shrugs. "S, we have only been spending time together for work purposes, and we were in public. Even if we did argue, we purely didn't for the sake of not making a scene."
"That hasn't stopped you two before," Serena retorts under her breath. Then, to guilt-trip her friend, she lets out a long, dramatic sigh. "Fine. We won't go. I'll just satisfy my croque-monsieur craving with just Nate yet again. Or maybe I'll see if Dan wants to bring someone else."
This perks her up. "No. I'll go."
"Yay!" Serena squeals. "Reservations are at seven at Pastis."
"It's a good thing I like that restaurant," Blair mutters, throwing back her covers and getting out of bed. "Okay. Now that I'm awake an hour before I usually am, I'm going to go drink my coffee and read the paper for once."
"Ok, I'll let you go. Thanks again, B! See you tonight!"
"Yeah, and S?" Blair stops in her tracks.
"What?"
"Stop playing the pregnancy card!" she says with a smirk, then ends the call.
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He's five minutes early, but since it's a nice night, he waits outside. His day had been stressful and he's so tired he could sleep for a month, but this is just what he needs: a night out with his best friends. Blair still falls under that category, especially given the past few weeks. He'll always be attracted to her, and yes...he still loves her. But things between them have been normal. They haven't really flirted, (other than that one moment in the dressing room), or even toyed with the idea of getting back together. He's been telling himself that that's a good thing: they're both beginning to move on.
When she turns the corner, he nearly laughs at himself.
They are anything but over.
She looks so fabulous his mouth goes dry. She's wearing a fitted black dress, paired with stilettos that showcase her amazing legs. Her curls are tousled, giving her hair a messy, volumized look. Her makeup is subtle, but flawless: cheeks dabbed with a rosy blush, eyes lined with noir, and lips painted the rubiest of reds. Utter perfection.
If it weren't for what she did to him all those years ago, he would surrender their little tête-à-tête, skip the meal, and have his way with her.
He clears his throat the best he can. "Evening, Blair."
"Good evening, Humphrey," she replies back, her eyes sparkling a little. He smirks; she hasn't called him that in years.
"Are Serena and Nate here yet?" she asks, looking through the windows to peer inside the restaurant.
"No, not yet." His eyes haven't left her face. "Want to get a drink while we wait?" he asks, inwardly acknowledging he's just torturing himself.
"Sure."
When she turns to walk into the bar, his hand unconsciously comes up to rest on her back. The room is busy and he doesn't want anyone to run into her, and...okay, he just really wants to touch her.
"Rosé, please," she orders politely, before smiling at Dan so he can order for himself.
They don't speak until their drinks are served; they just sit in silence staring at each other.
"So," Blair begins, "how's work?"
Dan waits until he's taken a sip of his drink before answering. "It's ok. Pretty busy this week. We're doing a double issue, so there are twice as many deadlines and meetings." He laughs to himself. "Which means twice as many people missing those deadlines."
"Oh, double issues..." she remarks knowingly, before taking a sip of her bubbly wine. "Every September I consider taking a leave of absence from the magazine, simply because everyone doesn't quite understand that double the pages equals double the work."
"I know, right?" He laughs again. "Even the interns aren't their normal ass-kissing selves. I expected this of my main staff, but them?"
"Hard to believe we were one of those ass-kissing interns once," Blair muses quietly, sounding much sadder than she'd planned.
"Yeah," he replies, mind wandering back to all those years ago. A moment passes before he says, "They were some of the best few months."
She turns to him and tilts her head, silently asking him to clarify.
"At W."
"Oh." Blair nods. And then because she can't help herself: "Why?"
He shrugs as he takes another sip. "That's when I finally got to know the real you."
At his answer, and his unwavering gaze on her, her heart starts to pound. She licks her lips. "I-"
"Hey guys!"
Blair's reply stops at Nate's greeting. She turns to see the blonde couple with matching smiles and looks back to Dan. He gives her a look that says what were you about to say? before standing to greet the pair.
"Hey man," Dan says, giving Nate's back a friendly slap, before leaning in to kiss Serena's cheek.
After exchanging hellos with Blair, they follow the hostess to their table. "Have you guys been waiting long?" Serena asks, smiling at Nate for pulling out her chair.
"No, not really," Blair answers, looking over to Dan.
He has to find a way to tear his gaze away, yet again, and is happy to have an excuse when the waiter hands him a menu. Blair is invading every one of his senses and he's doing nothing to stop it. Clearing his throat-and mind-he looks down at his menu and asks, "So, what's good here?"
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Hours later and dinner long gone, Dan sits back in his chair, full from the meal. He can't tell if he's a little buzzed from the wine (although he only had two glasses) or from...contentment. It's been a while since the four of them has had dinner; their schedules were always hard to match up, and when they did get together, another friend was always there. He'd loved when Addie was in town, and has grown to like Nate's work buddies and Greer. But there was nothing like the four of them.
He smiles as he listens to Nate talk animatedly about the time he lost Serena on their honeymoon in Venice. They'd spent two weeks traveling around Italy, and after a night of too much wine and not enough food, he'd left her on a bench while he flagged a cab. There were apparently none to be found, due to the torrential rain, and he'd had to walk farther than anticipated.
"When I finally waved one down, I had the guy drive me back to the restaurant where she was sitting."
"Or so he thought," Serena cuts in, laughing.
"She wasn't there!" Nate says, throwing his hand in the air.
Giggling at the story, Blair takes the last sip of her rosé. "Where were you S?"
Blushing slightly, Serena bites her bottom lip to stop her smirk. "I realllly wanted chocolate," she explains innocently, lifting her shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. "So I went looking for some."
Shaking his head at his wife, Nate points to the plate the waiter is setting on the table. "And speaking of."
The waitress sets down a plate of ice-cream topped chocolate crêpes and a raspberry brûlée for the table to share. Serena immediately goes for chocolate, while Nate and Blair turn to the berry dish.
"Mmm," Blair hums, eyes rolling back and the taste. "This is amazing." She's got a bit of whipped cream on her bottom lip that's too distracting for Dan to even think. Her pink tongue darts out to lick it away, which doesn't help at all, and he needs to force himself to remember what they were all just talking about.
"So what happened next?" he asks, using his fork to take a small bite from Serena's plate. She shoots him a gentle glare before continuing the story.
"Well, after I didn't find any, I somehow found my way back to the restaurant. Natie was sitting there soaking wet and looking so worried-"
"The cabbie became impatient pretty quickly and drove off," he explains.
"But we turned the night around," Serena says, a blush gracing her face for an entirely new reason, before stealing a glance at her husband.
Dan groans. "Do I even want to ask?"
Nate winks at Serena, before turning to Blair and Dan. "Have you two ever had sex in an alleyway?"
"Nate!" Serena chides, burying her face in her hands to cover her laughter.
"I didn't necessarily mean them together," he replies, clarifying his previous words.
Blair, who'd nearly dropped her fork at Nate's question, just takes another casual bite of her dessert. Dan fights a smirk; she's avoiding the question entirely.
"No comment," Dan answers, putting the entire conversation to rest.
But when the check comes, and Nate and Serena are engrossed in asking the waiter to wrap up her leftovers, he looks back to Blair. Just from her eyes, he can tell she's thinking about their second date. The one where they'd barely made it through dinner they were so turned on. The one where they'd skipped dessert in order to get home as soon as possible. The one where they hadn't made it to a cab, but instead snuck into an alleyway so he could have his way with her.
Nate and Serena didn't need to know, but yes. They'd had sex in an alleyway. Together.
Even with the memory playing in his mind, he somehow remembers to hand Nate his credit card. Blair's eyes are still looking in his direction, but they seem focused on something far away.
After saying their goodbyes, and promising to make this a bi-monthly occasion, Nate and Serena head off in a cab.
Blair looks over at Dan. "Want to walk for a bit?" She lives close by.
"Sure."
They stroll in comfortable silence for a few blocks, just listening to the city move around about them. It's an unusually quiet night.
As they walk up the front stoop of her building, they both stall. "I'm glad we were able to do this. When the baby comes, I'm sure these dinners will be far and few between," Blair says, smiling at the thought of an Archibald baby.
"Yeah. God, I can't wait to watch them try to handle a child." She smiles at his harmless tease, and nods in agreement.
Dan brushes her hair off her shoulder. "You look beautiful."
Her cheeks turn pink. "Thank you."
He clears his throat. "So, um...what were you going to say earlier?" Her brow furrows in confusion. "About W?"
"Oh." She takes a breath and tucks a curl behind her ear. "I was just-I was just going to say that I had...no...idea what I was in for."
He steps closer to her and her heart starts to beat.
"When we first started working at W..." Her voice starts to shake; his gaze has dropped to her mouth. "I had no idea how much I would come to respect you, annoy you, frustrate you, need you, want you, love-"
Before she can finish her sentence, he captures her mouth with his. She's startled, and it takes her a moment to understand what he's doing before fully returning it. And when she does, she surrenders herself completely. She gasps at the intensity of the kiss; Dan's fingers rake through her curls, holding her head to keep her mouth molded to his. She bites his bottom lip and smirks when she hears him groan. Curling her fingers around his jacket lapels, she pulls him closer. The heat of his body is addicting and she feels the need to lean in more. His arms drop to her lower back, the same spot he touched earlier in the bar, and she feels his fingers lightly tease her waist. She adores when he's possessive. Her body buzzes with arousal, and when she feels his tongue gently probe hers, she lets out a whimper of pleasure. He tastes so familiar and it feels as if they've never stopped doing this-as if they haven't spent three years apart.
She leans away to take a breath and closes her eyes. "I miss you," she whispers, opening her eyes to look up at him. Her lips are just a breath away from his, and he can't help but kiss them again.
"I miss you too," he confesses.
They stand there for a moment, catching their breaths, before he steps back abruptly. "But I can't forgive you still. I'm still so...angry with you Blair." He rubs his face with his hands. "I...I'm sorry. I should go." He turns and descends her front steps.
Watching him walk away, fear rises within her. She can't lose him again. Not when she just had him. Not when she knows they both still want each other.
He needs to hear what happened that night.
"I didn't kiss Chuck."
He stops in his tracks, frozen in place on the sidewalk for a moment. He spins around.
Sharply, he asks, "What?"
"I didn't even sleep with him." Her eyes stare right into his. "I never cheated on you."
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tbc
A/N: Are you surprised? Happy? Bummed? ;) I could never have her cheat! The full story to come in the next chapter...
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