FIC: The Way You See The World, PG (Gossip Girl)
Yes, I have succumbed. Gossip Girl fic. With lots of Blair, which is expected, because I ♥ her like no other. But, hold up! The other main character? Not Nate, or Serena, or Chuck. It's Dan, y'all. Because even though I think Blair and Nate are MFEO, MTB, the OTP of the GG world, &c., I secretly harbour a love for Dan/Blair, simply because they are so cute together in pictures. Yes, I'm shallow. I'm a fashion student. Looks matter more than anything else!
Anyhoo. This isnt even a complete fic. Its more of a prologue, where I twist the events of 'The Wild Brunch' and 'Poison Ivy' into something that (hopefully) makes the Dan/Blair to come believable. YES, I'm about to start off on another WiP. So sue me. Um, actually, don't, cause I'm kinda broke.
Song title is from The Virgin's 'Rich Girls'. Approx 2600+ words. G, for the moment. Spoilers up to Poison Ivy.
*
When Serena walks away from him in the courtyard, Dan can’t help but feel a chapter of his life has just come to an end. It’s hard to believe that it all began only two days ago, yet so much has happened that he kind of feels like he’s in a TV series, where his life is just one drama-filled scene after another, and there’s no time for peace, because that’s just filler and a waste of airtime.
He leaves then, stalking through the crowds of Manhattan, heading home to seek refuge from the Upper East Side and all its complications. No point in sticking around or embroiling himself further - it had only been worth it for the girl, and he’s already lost her, if he ever had her in the first place.
He thinks he should have known Serena wasn’t the damsel in distress, waiting to leave her life, waiting for her prince to whisk her away. No, Serena was the princess of her world, and she had just let him play in it for a while.
When his dad and Jenny get home, he tries to tell them how it’s all for the best. “Turns out, her world - it’s not for me.”
They seem to believe him, and he heads for his room, just wishing he could have convinced himself. Because as he climbs out onto the fire escape, he still can’t help but be disappointed that the girl of his dreams wasn’t as perfect as he had hoped, and that he hadn’t been her white knight.
Still, it had been nice to pretend for a little while.
*
When Dan leaves, Blair watches him go, feeling only a little bit guilty for hurting an innocent bystander. But only a little, because really? She’s been hurt way worse, and if there has to be a casualty, someone who was fawning all over perfect little Serena is probably the best option.
Besides, she’s probably doing him a favor - Serena would hurt him, too, and he seems like a good guy, too good for that. Even though he needs better shoes.
Her work is done for the moment, however, and she figures it’s the best time to leave, so she hails a cab back to her penthouse. Nate’s standing two feet behind, just watching her, so she sighs and tilts her head slightly at the cab, but not speaking as he gets in beside her. They continue not speaking even as they reach her bedroom and lie on the bed, not touching.
“I’m sorry,” Nate says finally.
So am I, she thinks, but just stays silent. Nate sighs, and inhales deeply.
“Look Blair,” he says. “Either we put this behind us and move on, or we end it.”
He’s got some balls, giving her an ultimatum like that, after all he’s done, but a part of her has to admit he has a point. She just doesn’t know which option she wants to take just yet. But he puts his hand on her arm, a solid reassurance that he’s there, even if it’s not true, and she raises her hand to rest on his, trying her best not to clutch to him like the lifeline she wishes he would really be.
It’s easier, more comfortable to pretend that her life can still be perfect. She’s spent her entire life doing exactly that.
*
Dan cuts himself exactly seven times as he shaves, and by the end he’s swearing like a Tarantino film and looks as if gremlins had attacked him. He doesn’t know why it was so difficult to function - actually that’s a lie. He’s still a little preoccupied with the whole Serena mess, plus it’s an important day, Dartmouth usher position et al, so of course things would go wrong.
Still, he makes it past Dad and Jenny’s commentary, and into assembly on time, where he can’t help but notice Serena is not there. He does see Blair Waldorf though, looking amazingly perfect and poised and not at all like she’d been betrayed by her best friend and boyfriend in one fell swoop, and admires her self-control.
When assembly breaks, the first person he runs into is, who else - Serena.
“Please don’t tell me it’s over,” she says anxiously, and for a moment Dan is gratified, because maybe she had been thinking about him the way he’d been thinking about her.
But his pride has always been a weakness, so he says, “You were there. I would say it’s pretty over.”
And then it turns out she wasn’t even thinking about them, but the assembly, which is - okay, understandable, but Dan still wishes she hadn’t just blinked at him. He manages to wish her good luck - with the assembly, with Ivy Week, with her friends, with her life - and leaves.
He thinks he hears her return it, but then Blair Waldorf turns up and is a total bitch, and Dan is distracted by wondering how much hurt Serena had inflicted to cause such venom from her best friend. He’s also distracted by the fact that he actually understands what Blair is doing, and even worse, he sympathizes.
It’s a good thing he and Serena didn’t work out, he tells himself again.
*
The next day is the start of Ivy Week, which is a little bit surreal because while Blair’s pretty much been waiting for it all of her life, she’d almost forgotten about it what with Serena coming back, and finding out about Nate, and - she’s just grateful for her day planner.
That doesn’t help much with the nerves, but talking to Dorota helps, and so does seeing Nate smiling at her from across the courtyard, in a way he hasn’t smiled for a long time: like he’s really happy to see her. She smiles back tentatively, hardly daring to believe that things could finally be going well; even seeing him leaving assembly to smoke up with Chuck doesn’t faze her, it’s almost a throwback.
Kati points out that Serena is missing, and Blair feels both vindicated and anxious, then annoyed with herself for feeling that way. The part of her that still loves Serena hates that she might have played a role in keeping her away; the other part that’s still pissed off hates that she cares about Serena’s future.
It’s the latter that takes over Blair, when they come out into the hall, only to see Serena standing there, still standing and looking perfect, even talking to Cabbage Patch, who has obviously fallen under the Serena spell. Blair doesn’t even know him, but she feels a vicious pang of jealousy and rage, because Serena gets everything, and she lashes out.
“Brown doesn’t offer degrees in Slut,” she snaps, and Serena laughs, but it’s bitter, and Blair wishes they could solve this another way, but this is the only way she’s ever known.
*
Dan doesn’t get the Dartmouth usher position, which hurts, but not as much as seeing the name of who did get it. And then seeing the person himself.
Nate Archibald has the audacity to ask if he got the one he wanted.
And Dan snaps, because it’s too much. He thought he’d be used to the rich kids, the good-looking kids, always getting what they want without even trying - after all he’d been at St Jude’s for three years now. But something about Nate’s completely ingenuous, non-offensive manner pisses him off way more than if he had been an asshole like say, Chuck Bass.
“Look man, you don’t know anything about my family,” Nate actually says, like he’s a misunderstood soul. Like he isn’t the guy who broke his girlfriend’s heart and slept with Dan’s dream girl.
He isn’t sure why he’s suddenly thinking of Blair Waldorf’s well-being so much, but outrage on her behalf, as well as bitterness on his own - because Nate doesn’t even know the Dartmouth rep had written a book - makes him storm out.
He runs into Serena again, and wonders darkly if the gods are punishing him for the time he’d broken Jenny’s favorite china doll and blamed it on a stray cat. Because really, this is getting ridiculous.
*
When Chuck calls back, Blair is relieved. They were all hurt by Serena’s disappearance, but Blair’s tired of feeling constantly torn about taking revenge, and Chuck is the only one who will retaliate without feeling even worse.
“Serena came home for a reason,” Blair points out. “And nobody likes to be on the ground floor of a scandal like Chuck Bass.”
“I am a bitch when I want to be,” agrees Chuck.
“Opportunity to cause some trouble? Uncover a secret?”
“That’s a yes for an answer,” Chuck tells her, and Blair smiles. It’s so much easier to be the bitch when there’s someone even worse right next to you to help and cheer you on.
And Chuck doesn’t disappoint: the pictures of Serena walking into the Ostroff Center are beyond incriminating, and Blair feels a savage surge of triumph and vindication. Still, she can’t help but wonder. “What’s she doing there?”
“It’s a facility for the disturbed or addicted,” Chuck reminds her. “The question is, what do you do now?”
Blair smiles, in the way she knows is sugary evil, which is apropos, because the thoughts of vengeance are sweet and she rolls the words around in her mouth with a thrill. “I was thinking, total social destruction.”
She doesn’t allow herself to feel guilty, not in front of Chuck. He wouldn’t understand hesitation, and anyway he’ll be doing most of the dirty work. She’s just a beneficiary.
Nothing to feel guilty about.
*
Serena shows up for drinks for the Yale rep, and Dan can’t stop himself from asking. “You wanna go to Yale, then?”
“No, Brown,” she admits. “It’s just this whole thing with Blair…”
Again, Dan feels offended on Blair Waldorf’s behalf. The girl might be a bitch, but she still doesn’t deserve such crappy treatment. “I get it. I mean, since you don’t have to worry about actually getting into college, why not make the entire evening about screwing over Blair?”
Serena at least has the decency to look guilty and refuse the drinks.
Then Nate Archibald shows up, and actually gives Serena the silent treatment, which is very fifth-grade, but at the same time Dan’s a little happy that the guy is at least doing what his girlfriend wants, finally.
“So, what’s he like?” he asks, in a tiny olive-branch-like gesture.
“Like a Dartmouth English Lit professor I have nothing in common with,” Nate admits. There’s a self-deprecating, sardonic twist to his mouth, and a spark of humor in his eyes as he adds, “Guess I could tell him how, everything I have, I got because I’m an Archibald.”
Touché. Nate rises in his esteem for that, and then a little more when, in an olive-branch gesture of his own, he tells Dan to go speak to the Dartmouth rep in his stead.
The Upper East Side royalty have their moments, and for a while Dan is happy to be amongst them, even though he knows it’ll all come crashing down soon enough.
He just didn’t realize how soon.
*
Blair’s anger at being displaced - yet again - from the Yale rep by Serena turns quickly into fuel for vengeance, when Chuck introduces her to Dr Ostroff. Now all she has to do is wait for the right moment.
She watches as Serena goes to get a drink, and is glad when Cabbage Patch doesn’t appear to fawn all over her. He’s smarter than he dresses, obviously. She’s even more glad when Nate ignores Serena, and when Serena leaves, looking crestfallen. She’s a little confused when Nate leaves and Cabbage Patch heads over to the Dartmouth rep, but whatever. The Captain will take care of it.
Everyone is in the courtyard, which means it’s the perfect time to set her and Chuck’s plan into motion. She steps up onto the mini-podium. “May I please have everyone’s attention?”
Everything falls perfectly into place from there. Serena is looking shocked, holding onto Eric for support. Cabbage Patch looks like this is the final nail in the coffin for his Serena-worship. Chuck is gleeful. And best of all, all the college representatives look disapproving.
But Serena has always had more guts than sense, and she steps up to try and give a speech about forgiveness. And she even tries to come up to Blair later and tells her that she’ll stop if Blair will.
Blair forces herself to remain cool because otherwise she’ll scream, “You’re just saying that because today you lost. And you’re gonna keep losing. Now if you’ll excuse me, unlike you I have a future to get back to.”
It’s a bittersweet triumph that lets her turn from her best friend.
*
The entire scene unfolding before him is somehow - though he doesn’t know how its possible - actually worse than what happened at brunch.
Again, he doesn’t know whether to feel sorry for Serena, who Blair Waldorf keeps trying to destroy, or for Blair herself, because as much as Dan hates to admit it, she’s got good reason for acting out the way she is.
Dan’s still torn between whose side to take - though he’s not entirely sure why he’s so involved in this whole mess in the first place - as he watches Serena approach Blair. “Are we good now? We square?”
“No,” Blair hisses, eyes wild and desperate but keeping her composure nonetheless. Dan is a little creeped out at how well she maintains her façade of WASPishness. “Because nothing I do will ever be as bad as what you did to me.”
The stony exterior finally cracks when she walks away, leaving Serena standing helplessly in the courtyard for a moment before she flees the scene.
Dan makes up his mind and chooses a side.
*
“Blair! Hey, Blair!”
She turns around, not recognizing the voice, and blinks in surprise when she sees who it is. “Cabbage Patch.”
“Dan, actually,” he corrects her, but she just gives him a blank look, because she’s supposed to care, why? But he seems to think that maybe she’s retarded or something, because he tries to explain, “My name.”
She blinks again, gives up and doesn’t bother reminding him that she’s not actually stupid, in case he couldn’t tell by her being chair of this whole mixer. “What do you want?”
He gives her this crooked half-smile. “Well, you’re direct.” She raises an eyebrow impatiently. “I just - I overheard you and Serena.”
She waits a moment for him to continue, but when he doesn’t, she rolls her eyes. “And you’ve come to tell me I was out of line? Well, it’s sweet of you to be so protective of her, Cabbage Patch, but you’ve only known her for a few days. Give it time, I’m sure you’ll see her true colours.”
“No, that wasn’t what -” he begins, then shakes himself a little. Blair’s thrown by how much emotion he wears so plainly. “I wasn’t going to defend her. I understand - at least I think I do - why you’re doing…what you’re doing.”
Blair’s kind of gratified, but she won’t show it, not to someone she doesn’t even know, especially not with those shoes he’s wearing. “Well, thank you for your approval, I’m sure I’ll sleep much better at night now,” she says blandly.
He grins at her, like he can see through her carefully placed masks and can tell she actually kind of meant what she said. “Anytime, Waldorf.”
She looks at him suspiciously for a moment, trying to see if he’s playing some sort of weird game, but he’s surprisingly sincere. She lets a hint of genuine smile touch her lips. “See you, Cabbage Patch.”
*
Okay, that's sort of it for now, because now I have to plan out the rest of the story, like, for example, getting Dan and Blair together without hurting Nate or Serena. Anyway, hope someone anyone likes it! Comment and crit, as always, welcome! ♥ xoxo
Anyhoo. This isnt even a complete fic. Its more of a prologue, where I twist the events of 'The Wild Brunch' and 'Poison Ivy' into something that (hopefully) makes the Dan/Blair to come believable. YES, I'm about to start off on another WiP. So sue me. Um, actually, don't, cause I'm kinda broke.
Song title is from The Virgin's 'Rich Girls'. Approx 2600+ words. G, for the moment. Spoilers up to Poison Ivy.
*
When Serena walks away from him in the courtyard, Dan can’t help but feel a chapter of his life has just come to an end. It’s hard to believe that it all began only two days ago, yet so much has happened that he kind of feels like he’s in a TV series, where his life is just one drama-filled scene after another, and there’s no time for peace, because that’s just filler and a waste of airtime.
He leaves then, stalking through the crowds of Manhattan, heading home to seek refuge from the Upper East Side and all its complications. No point in sticking around or embroiling himself further - it had only been worth it for the girl, and he’s already lost her, if he ever had her in the first place.
He thinks he should have known Serena wasn’t the damsel in distress, waiting to leave her life, waiting for her prince to whisk her away. No, Serena was the princess of her world, and she had just let him play in it for a while.
When his dad and Jenny get home, he tries to tell them how it’s all for the best. “Turns out, her world - it’s not for me.”
They seem to believe him, and he heads for his room, just wishing he could have convinced himself. Because as he climbs out onto the fire escape, he still can’t help but be disappointed that the girl of his dreams wasn’t as perfect as he had hoped, and that he hadn’t been her white knight.
Still, it had been nice to pretend for a little while.
*
When Dan leaves, Blair watches him go, feeling only a little bit guilty for hurting an innocent bystander. But only a little, because really? She’s been hurt way worse, and if there has to be a casualty, someone who was fawning all over perfect little Serena is probably the best option.
Besides, she’s probably doing him a favor - Serena would hurt him, too, and he seems like a good guy, too good for that. Even though he needs better shoes.
Her work is done for the moment, however, and she figures it’s the best time to leave, so she hails a cab back to her penthouse. Nate’s standing two feet behind, just watching her, so she sighs and tilts her head slightly at the cab, but not speaking as he gets in beside her. They continue not speaking even as they reach her bedroom and lie on the bed, not touching.
“I’m sorry,” Nate says finally.
So am I, she thinks, but just stays silent. Nate sighs, and inhales deeply.
“Look Blair,” he says. “Either we put this behind us and move on, or we end it.”
He’s got some balls, giving her an ultimatum like that, after all he’s done, but a part of her has to admit he has a point. She just doesn’t know which option she wants to take just yet. But he puts his hand on her arm, a solid reassurance that he’s there, even if it’s not true, and she raises her hand to rest on his, trying her best not to clutch to him like the lifeline she wishes he would really be.
It’s easier, more comfortable to pretend that her life can still be perfect. She’s spent her entire life doing exactly that.
*
Dan cuts himself exactly seven times as he shaves, and by the end he’s swearing like a Tarantino film and looks as if gremlins had attacked him. He doesn’t know why it was so difficult to function - actually that’s a lie. He’s still a little preoccupied with the whole Serena mess, plus it’s an important day, Dartmouth usher position et al, so of course things would go wrong.
Still, he makes it past Dad and Jenny’s commentary, and into assembly on time, where he can’t help but notice Serena is not there. He does see Blair Waldorf though, looking amazingly perfect and poised and not at all like she’d been betrayed by her best friend and boyfriend in one fell swoop, and admires her self-control.
When assembly breaks, the first person he runs into is, who else - Serena.
“Please don’t tell me it’s over,” she says anxiously, and for a moment Dan is gratified, because maybe she had been thinking about him the way he’d been thinking about her.
But his pride has always been a weakness, so he says, “You were there. I would say it’s pretty over.”
And then it turns out she wasn’t even thinking about them, but the assembly, which is - okay, understandable, but Dan still wishes she hadn’t just blinked at him. He manages to wish her good luck - with the assembly, with Ivy Week, with her friends, with her life - and leaves.
He thinks he hears her return it, but then Blair Waldorf turns up and is a total bitch, and Dan is distracted by wondering how much hurt Serena had inflicted to cause such venom from her best friend. He’s also distracted by the fact that he actually understands what Blair is doing, and even worse, he sympathizes.
It’s a good thing he and Serena didn’t work out, he tells himself again.
*
The next day is the start of Ivy Week, which is a little bit surreal because while Blair’s pretty much been waiting for it all of her life, she’d almost forgotten about it what with Serena coming back, and finding out about Nate, and - she’s just grateful for her day planner.
That doesn’t help much with the nerves, but talking to Dorota helps, and so does seeing Nate smiling at her from across the courtyard, in a way he hasn’t smiled for a long time: like he’s really happy to see her. She smiles back tentatively, hardly daring to believe that things could finally be going well; even seeing him leaving assembly to smoke up with Chuck doesn’t faze her, it’s almost a throwback.
Kati points out that Serena is missing, and Blair feels both vindicated and anxious, then annoyed with herself for feeling that way. The part of her that still loves Serena hates that she might have played a role in keeping her away; the other part that’s still pissed off hates that she cares about Serena’s future.
It’s the latter that takes over Blair, when they come out into the hall, only to see Serena standing there, still standing and looking perfect, even talking to Cabbage Patch, who has obviously fallen under the Serena spell. Blair doesn’t even know him, but she feels a vicious pang of jealousy and rage, because Serena gets everything, and she lashes out.
“Brown doesn’t offer degrees in Slut,” she snaps, and Serena laughs, but it’s bitter, and Blair wishes they could solve this another way, but this is the only way she’s ever known.
*
Dan doesn’t get the Dartmouth usher position, which hurts, but not as much as seeing the name of who did get it. And then seeing the person himself.
Nate Archibald has the audacity to ask if he got the one he wanted.
And Dan snaps, because it’s too much. He thought he’d be used to the rich kids, the good-looking kids, always getting what they want without even trying - after all he’d been at St Jude’s for three years now. But something about Nate’s completely ingenuous, non-offensive manner pisses him off way more than if he had been an asshole like say, Chuck Bass.
“Look man, you don’t know anything about my family,” Nate actually says, like he’s a misunderstood soul. Like he isn’t the guy who broke his girlfriend’s heart and slept with Dan’s dream girl.
He isn’t sure why he’s suddenly thinking of Blair Waldorf’s well-being so much, but outrage on her behalf, as well as bitterness on his own - because Nate doesn’t even know the Dartmouth rep had written a book - makes him storm out.
He runs into Serena again, and wonders darkly if the gods are punishing him for the time he’d broken Jenny’s favorite china doll and blamed it on a stray cat. Because really, this is getting ridiculous.
*
When Chuck calls back, Blair is relieved. They were all hurt by Serena’s disappearance, but Blair’s tired of feeling constantly torn about taking revenge, and Chuck is the only one who will retaliate without feeling even worse.
“Serena came home for a reason,” Blair points out. “And nobody likes to be on the ground floor of a scandal like Chuck Bass.”
“I am a bitch when I want to be,” agrees Chuck.
“Opportunity to cause some trouble? Uncover a secret?”
“That’s a yes for an answer,” Chuck tells her, and Blair smiles. It’s so much easier to be the bitch when there’s someone even worse right next to you to help and cheer you on.
And Chuck doesn’t disappoint: the pictures of Serena walking into the Ostroff Center are beyond incriminating, and Blair feels a savage surge of triumph and vindication. Still, she can’t help but wonder. “What’s she doing there?”
“It’s a facility for the disturbed or addicted,” Chuck reminds her. “The question is, what do you do now?”
Blair smiles, in the way she knows is sugary evil, which is apropos, because the thoughts of vengeance are sweet and she rolls the words around in her mouth with a thrill. “I was thinking, total social destruction.”
She doesn’t allow herself to feel guilty, not in front of Chuck. He wouldn’t understand hesitation, and anyway he’ll be doing most of the dirty work. She’s just a beneficiary.
Nothing to feel guilty about.
*
Serena shows up for drinks for the Yale rep, and Dan can’t stop himself from asking. “You wanna go to Yale, then?”
“No, Brown,” she admits. “It’s just this whole thing with Blair…”
Again, Dan feels offended on Blair Waldorf’s behalf. The girl might be a bitch, but she still doesn’t deserve such crappy treatment. “I get it. I mean, since you don’t have to worry about actually getting into college, why not make the entire evening about screwing over Blair?”
Serena at least has the decency to look guilty and refuse the drinks.
Then Nate Archibald shows up, and actually gives Serena the silent treatment, which is very fifth-grade, but at the same time Dan’s a little happy that the guy is at least doing what his girlfriend wants, finally.
“So, what’s he like?” he asks, in a tiny olive-branch-like gesture.
“Like a Dartmouth English Lit professor I have nothing in common with,” Nate admits. There’s a self-deprecating, sardonic twist to his mouth, and a spark of humor in his eyes as he adds, “Guess I could tell him how, everything I have, I got because I’m an Archibald.”
Touché. Nate rises in his esteem for that, and then a little more when, in an olive-branch gesture of his own, he tells Dan to go speak to the Dartmouth rep in his stead.
The Upper East Side royalty have their moments, and for a while Dan is happy to be amongst them, even though he knows it’ll all come crashing down soon enough.
He just didn’t realize how soon.
*
Blair’s anger at being displaced - yet again - from the Yale rep by Serena turns quickly into fuel for vengeance, when Chuck introduces her to Dr Ostroff. Now all she has to do is wait for the right moment.
She watches as Serena goes to get a drink, and is glad when Cabbage Patch doesn’t appear to fawn all over her. He’s smarter than he dresses, obviously. She’s even more glad when Nate ignores Serena, and when Serena leaves, looking crestfallen. She’s a little confused when Nate leaves and Cabbage Patch heads over to the Dartmouth rep, but whatever. The Captain will take care of it.
Everyone is in the courtyard, which means it’s the perfect time to set her and Chuck’s plan into motion. She steps up onto the mini-podium. “May I please have everyone’s attention?”
Everything falls perfectly into place from there. Serena is looking shocked, holding onto Eric for support. Cabbage Patch looks like this is the final nail in the coffin for his Serena-worship. Chuck is gleeful. And best of all, all the college representatives look disapproving.
But Serena has always had more guts than sense, and she steps up to try and give a speech about forgiveness. And she even tries to come up to Blair later and tells her that she’ll stop if Blair will.
Blair forces herself to remain cool because otherwise she’ll scream, “You’re just saying that because today you lost. And you’re gonna keep losing. Now if you’ll excuse me, unlike you I have a future to get back to.”
It’s a bittersweet triumph that lets her turn from her best friend.
*
The entire scene unfolding before him is somehow - though he doesn’t know how its possible - actually worse than what happened at brunch.
Again, he doesn’t know whether to feel sorry for Serena, who Blair Waldorf keeps trying to destroy, or for Blair herself, because as much as Dan hates to admit it, she’s got good reason for acting out the way she is.
Dan’s still torn between whose side to take - though he’s not entirely sure why he’s so involved in this whole mess in the first place - as he watches Serena approach Blair. “Are we good now? We square?”
“No,” Blair hisses, eyes wild and desperate but keeping her composure nonetheless. Dan is a little creeped out at how well she maintains her façade of WASPishness. “Because nothing I do will ever be as bad as what you did to me.”
The stony exterior finally cracks when she walks away, leaving Serena standing helplessly in the courtyard for a moment before she flees the scene.
Dan makes up his mind and chooses a side.
*
“Blair! Hey, Blair!”
She turns around, not recognizing the voice, and blinks in surprise when she sees who it is. “Cabbage Patch.”
“Dan, actually,” he corrects her, but she just gives him a blank look, because she’s supposed to care, why? But he seems to think that maybe she’s retarded or something, because he tries to explain, “My name.”
She blinks again, gives up and doesn’t bother reminding him that she’s not actually stupid, in case he couldn’t tell by her being chair of this whole mixer. “What do you want?”
He gives her this crooked half-smile. “Well, you’re direct.” She raises an eyebrow impatiently. “I just - I overheard you and Serena.”
She waits a moment for him to continue, but when he doesn’t, she rolls her eyes. “And you’ve come to tell me I was out of line? Well, it’s sweet of you to be so protective of her, Cabbage Patch, but you’ve only known her for a few days. Give it time, I’m sure you’ll see her true colours.”
“No, that wasn’t what -” he begins, then shakes himself a little. Blair’s thrown by how much emotion he wears so plainly. “I wasn’t going to defend her. I understand - at least I think I do - why you’re doing…what you’re doing.”
Blair’s kind of gratified, but she won’t show it, not to someone she doesn’t even know, especially not with those shoes he’s wearing. “Well, thank you for your approval, I’m sure I’ll sleep much better at night now,” she says blandly.
He grins at her, like he can see through her carefully placed masks and can tell she actually kind of meant what she said. “Anytime, Waldorf.”
She looks at him suspiciously for a moment, trying to see if he’s playing some sort of weird game, but he’s surprisingly sincere. She lets a hint of genuine smile touch her lips. “See you, Cabbage Patch.”
*
Okay, that's sort of it for now, because now I have to plan out the rest of the story, like, for example, getting Dan and Blair together without hurting Nate or Serena. Anyway, hope someone anyone likes it! Comment and crit, as always, welcome! ♥ xoxo