fic: this is life, (8/?)
Title: This is Life
Author: Lily
Rating: PG-15
Disclaimer: I do not own Gossip Girl or any of the characters. Gossip Girl belongs to Cecily Ziegesar, Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage and the CW.
Summary: Post 1.10. Takes place after Chuck sees Nate and Blair kissing. What would have happened, if Blair hadn’t slept with Nate and Chuck had apologized to her?
A/N - This is my first fic, so don't be too hard on me. :) Special thanks to my beta, Anki. *hugs*
Previous Chapters:
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
*
“Sympathy constitutes friendship; but in love there is a sort of antipathy, or opposing passion.
Each strives to be the other, and both together make up one whole.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
*
“Good morning,” Blair walked into the kitchen, yawning.
“Morning,” Serena replied, looking up to Blair from her muesli.
“Where are Bart and Lily?”
“There are out early; Sorry, I didn’t wake you, I totally forgot to.”
“No problem. We’re taking Chuck’s limo anyway, so we don’t have to hurry,” Blair took an apple and sat down on the kitchen table.
“What?” she asked when she saw Serena staring at her oddly.
“You were smiling.”
“What? When”?
“Just now. You were smiling when you said Chuck’s name.” Serena repeated.
“I wasn’t.”
“You were.”
“No.”
“B-”
“Okay, maybe I was.” Blair rolled her eyes.
“So you admit, that there is something going on between you and Chuck?” Serena continued their conversation from last night.
“I never denied it.” Blair stated matter-of-factly, taking a tiny bite from her apple.
“What?” Serena choked, dropping her spoon and looking at her best friend horrified.
“What ‘what’?”
“You and Chuck,” Serena declared slowly. “Chuck and you.”
“You just said yourself that I was smiling, when I said his name.”
“Well, I thought I saw wrong. I thought it was - I don’t know, a Fata Morgana maybe.”
“Fata Morganas are only in deserts, S.”
“Whatever. What about you and Chuck?”
“We’re together.” Blair announced.
“Since when”? Serena knitted her eyebrows incredulously.
“Since we slept together,” Blair said in an end-of-this-conversation-tone, trying to keep a casual voice. This was so weird.
But Serena kept pressing on. “The night before your 17th birthday party? But-”
“No, the day before yesterday.”
“What - you slept with him? Again? B!” Serena exclaimed resentfully.
Blair looked at her best friend acidulously.
“I mean,” Serena added, by the sight of Blair’s face, “you didn’t have to sleep with him to make Nate jealous.”
“I didn’t do it to make Nate jealous!” Blair exclaimed disgustedly.
“So you… like him?” Serena asked nervously.
Do you… like me? A smile formed on Blair’s face, when she remembered how she had asked Chuck the same question, and how she had told him to murder his butterflies.
“Yes.”
Serena sighed. “You really, really like him?”
“Yes, Serena,” Blair rolled her eyes again. She seemed to do it often lately, when she was with her. “No matter how often you are going to ask me this question; the answer will stay the same.”
“Does he care about you?” Serena asked, still eyeing her doubtingly.
“He has always cared about me, S.” Blair sighed, but calming down a little, knowing that Serena was just worried about her. Chuck wasn’t the guy people would confide in being faithful and having ‘feelings’.
“Not only when you were in boarding school and when he helped me through all this drama with Nate. I can go to him with every problem I have because I know he’ll listen to me. And I know he won’t judge me.”
Serena watched Blair continuing telling her about Chuck, barely conscious of the smile forming on her own face as she saw Blair’s eyes lighten up at the thought of him.
“When I’m with him I don’t have to act like I’m someone else, because he accepts me for who I am. And when we’re together I feel like I’m the most important thing in the world, like there’s nothing else around us. I always have his whole attention. And it makes me so happy, that I have to smile all the time. I’ve never felt anything like that with Nate, you know?”
“Yes, I can see it,” Serena smiled and then took Blair’s hands in hers, squeezing it lightly.
“Then I’m happy for you, B.”
Blair smiled back, “I’m really happy, S. Really, really happy.”
They looked at each other for a brief moment before bursting into giggles. Once they started it was hard to stop and they didn’t even realize Chuck and Eric coming in the kitchen, until they heard Chuck’s voice.
“So Serena has given us her blessing?” Chuck smirked and leaned down to Blair, kissing her softly.
Blair grinned up to him, still giggling. “Yes.” She answered before pulling him down for a proper kiss.
“Okay, enough guys,” Serena said in a disgusted voice. “Do that in private, please.”
Blair broke away from Chuck, peeking to Serena. “Don’t go all PG on me, S. Do you remember how you had your first real date with Dan and you two would have nearly gone R in public?” Blair cocked her eyebrow, pert gleaming in her eyes.
Serena huffed. “That’s-”
“True,” Blair interrupted her. “You would have thought a certain vibrating had been coming from-”
“Ew, B! Stop it!” Serena covered her ears with her hands, looking at her warningly, while Eric burst into laughter and Chuck looked at them amused.
“2-0 for Blair, I suppose.” Eric said, still laughing.
“Thanks, E.” Blair smiled, ruffling his hair.
--
A good morning to the UES and especially to my faithful readers. I just received the most lovely pic - thanks to NewYorkerO8!
Spotted: C, B, S and E stepping out of C’s limo and S doesn’t even look annoyed or bothered. In fact she was laughing along with the rest of this lovely quartet. Looks like our Queen is spreading love by moving in with the Van der Bass family.
You Know You Love Me.
--
“Dan, I missed you so much!” Serena exclaimed happily, hugging him tightly in the middle of the courtyard, before kissing him passionately.
For the whole world to see, Blair rolled her eyes.
She smiled, when she saw Nate and Chuck going to the park. Chuck caught her eyes and smirked back at her, making her insides turning into a puddle of goo.
--
“Do you want one?” Nate offered Chuck a cigarette, but he shook his head. Nate looked at him in surprise, but shrugged his shoulders, lighting up his.
“How are things with Serena?” Chuck asked after a while. “After you confessed your love to her and her boyfriend heard you too.”
“Actually Dan was pretty cool.” Nate conceded. “We got into talking and I decided to spend some time on my own. I mean… how am I supposed to be together with someone if I can’t be alone?”
Nate paused for minutes and they just walked in silence. Then threw the cigarette to the ground and continued. “Now I’ve sorted everything out.”
“Which is?”
“I was just so… obsessed with Serena, I didn’t realize she was only a temporarily infatuation. Blair and I have been together for so long - I think it is her I’ve been meant to be all along. I just… I really miss her.”
Chuck jaw dropped. What the…?!
--
Serena came out of her closet in jeans in a simple shirt.
Throwing a brief look to Blair, who was lying in on the bed, flipping through the Cosmopolitan bored, she started to put on her make-up in front of the mirror.
“What’s wrong?” she finally asked.
“Nothing.”
Serena sighed, sitting down beside her. “Hey, B. You can tell me.”
“I don’t know. I think I’m overreacting.” Blair had buried her head in her pillow. Serena remained silent, waiting for her to continue.
“But… what if Chuck picks Nate?”
“What?” Serena looked at Blair puzzled. Had she lost her mind?
Blair sighed and sat up.
“What if Chuck decides, that Nate is more important to him than me? I mean they are like brothers, they have known each other forever.” Blair said, getting even more hysterical now. “And I’m sure, that they have sworn each other something like… never letting a girl get in between them, I mean wehave!” Blair took the pillow and hid her face behind it once more.
“Oh, B. I’m sure it’s going to be fine.” Serena patted her hair.
“That’s all?” Blair raised her head, peeking to her.
“I don’t think you need me to say anything else,” Serena smiled. “It’s just like you told me - the way he looks at you, gives you his whole attention. I would have never thought that Chuck would look at any girl this way. But it looks like he really likes you.”
Blair nodded hesitantly and Serena stood up. “When are you two finally going to tell Nate anyway? It has been a week already since you found out about Nate wanting you back. The longer you wait, the angrier Nate will be, if he finds out - at both of you.”
Blair sighed again. “I don’t know. I… on one side I want this to be out, so I can just be happy with Chuck. But on the other side I’m afraid of what will happen once we’re public. Especially after Nate wants me back again, you know?”
Serena nodded. “Don’t worry. I’m sure you two will figure it out. Do you think you’ll survive an evening without me here?”
“Yes, sure. I have Chuck.” Blair grinned.
“Ew - have fun then, I suppose. I’m heading out to-”
“Brooklyn,” Blair finished.
“How do you know?”
“Oh, you’re underdressed is all,” Blair stated simply.
--
Blair heard footsteps walking down the hall and excitement cursed through her.
Chuck.
Putting her homework beside, she hopped off the bed and waited a few minutes, to not seem too needy, before almost skipping down to Chuck’s room. Not bothering to knock, she just opened the door and saw him coming out of his bathroom, closing the door behind him.
A grin spread through his face, when he saw her.
“How did the business meeting go?” she asked him excitedly.
He embraced her and placed a kiss on her cheek. “It went. Bart reckoned I could’ve done better.”
She buried her nose in his chest. “You can always do better, you know.”
He cocked his eyebrow.
Then Blair realised, what he must be thinking. “No… I didn’t mean - ugh, Chuck.” She blushed and pushed him away.
“Oh, I know what you meant.” He responded teasingly.
She rolled her eyes. “Please.”
“Come on, I’ve got a surprise for you.” he pulled her with him, opening the bathroom door.
Her jaw dropped and she gasped for air. His entire bathroom was dark, lit by candles. He had made a bath and rose petals splayed all across the floor. The smell of lavender hung in the air.
A huge smile spread across Blair's face.
“You like?” He asked with a smug grin. Always his smug grin.
“You did this for me?” She looked up to him dreamily, her eyes turning into a soft and warm brown tone.
“Oh, wait. I think Lily is waiting outside…”
Blair shot him a glance before walking to the tub, but he pulled her back to him and kissed her.
She smiled as he buried his hands in her soft brown curls.
--
To be continued
A huge thank you goes to my friend Kris, who provided her amazing art skills and made me a gorgeous banner for this story in order to cheer me up. You are such a dear, sweetie! :)
Author: Lily
Rating: PG-15
Disclaimer: I do not own Gossip Girl or any of the characters. Gossip Girl belongs to Cecily Ziegesar, Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage and the CW.
Summary: Post 1.10. Takes place after Chuck sees Nate and Blair kissing. What would have happened, if Blair hadn’t slept with Nate and Chuck had apologized to her?
A/N - This is my first fic, so don't be too hard on me. :) Special thanks to my beta, Anki. *hugs*
Previous Chapters:
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
*
“Sympathy constitutes friendship; but in love there is a sort of antipathy, or opposing passion.
Each strives to be the other, and both together make up one whole.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
*
“Good morning,” Blair walked into the kitchen, yawning.
“Morning,” Serena replied, looking up to Blair from her muesli.
“Where are Bart and Lily?”
“There are out early; Sorry, I didn’t wake you, I totally forgot to.”
“No problem. We’re taking Chuck’s limo anyway, so we don’t have to hurry,” Blair took an apple and sat down on the kitchen table.
“What?” she asked when she saw Serena staring at her oddly.
“You were smiling.”
“What? When”?
“Just now. You were smiling when you said Chuck’s name.” Serena repeated.
“I wasn’t.”
“You were.”
“No.”
“B-”
“Okay, maybe I was.” Blair rolled her eyes.
“So you admit, that there is something going on between you and Chuck?” Serena continued their conversation from last night.
“I never denied it.” Blair stated matter-of-factly, taking a tiny bite from her apple.
“What?” Serena choked, dropping her spoon and looking at her best friend horrified.
“What ‘what’?”
“You and Chuck,” Serena declared slowly. “Chuck and you.”
“You just said yourself that I was smiling, when I said his name.”
“Well, I thought I saw wrong. I thought it was - I don’t know, a Fata Morgana maybe.”
“Fata Morganas are only in deserts, S.”
“Whatever. What about you and Chuck?”
“We’re together.” Blair announced.
“Since when”? Serena knitted her eyebrows incredulously.
“Since we slept together,” Blair said in an end-of-this-conversation-tone, trying to keep a casual voice. This was so weird.
But Serena kept pressing on. “The night before your 17th birthday party? But-”
“No, the day before yesterday.”
“What - you slept with him? Again? B!” Serena exclaimed resentfully.
Blair looked at her best friend acidulously.
“I mean,” Serena added, by the sight of Blair’s face, “you didn’t have to sleep with him to make Nate jealous.”
“I didn’t do it to make Nate jealous!” Blair exclaimed disgustedly.
“So you… like him?” Serena asked nervously.
Do you… like me? A smile formed on Blair’s face, when she remembered how she had asked Chuck the same question, and how she had told him to murder his butterflies.
“Yes.”
Serena sighed. “You really, really like him?”
“Yes, Serena,” Blair rolled her eyes again. She seemed to do it often lately, when she was with her. “No matter how often you are going to ask me this question; the answer will stay the same.”
“Does he care about you?” Serena asked, still eyeing her doubtingly.
“He has always cared about me, S.” Blair sighed, but calming down a little, knowing that Serena was just worried about her. Chuck wasn’t the guy people would confide in being faithful and having ‘feelings’.
“Not only when you were in boarding school and when he helped me through all this drama with Nate. I can go to him with every problem I have because I know he’ll listen to me. And I know he won’t judge me.”
Serena watched Blair continuing telling her about Chuck, barely conscious of the smile forming on her own face as she saw Blair’s eyes lighten up at the thought of him.
“When I’m with him I don’t have to act like I’m someone else, because he accepts me for who I am. And when we’re together I feel like I’m the most important thing in the world, like there’s nothing else around us. I always have his whole attention. And it makes me so happy, that I have to smile all the time. I’ve never felt anything like that with Nate, you know?”
“Yes, I can see it,” Serena smiled and then took Blair’s hands in hers, squeezing it lightly.
“Then I’m happy for you, B.”
Blair smiled back, “I’m really happy, S. Really, really happy.”
They looked at each other for a brief moment before bursting into giggles. Once they started it was hard to stop and they didn’t even realize Chuck and Eric coming in the kitchen, until they heard Chuck’s voice.
“So Serena has given us her blessing?” Chuck smirked and leaned down to Blair, kissing her softly.
Blair grinned up to him, still giggling. “Yes.” She answered before pulling him down for a proper kiss.
“Okay, enough guys,” Serena said in a disgusted voice. “Do that in private, please.”
Blair broke away from Chuck, peeking to Serena. “Don’t go all PG on me, S. Do you remember how you had your first real date with Dan and you two would have nearly gone R in public?” Blair cocked her eyebrow, pert gleaming in her eyes.
Serena huffed. “That’s-”
“True,” Blair interrupted her. “You would have thought a certain vibrating had been coming from-”
“Ew, B! Stop it!” Serena covered her ears with her hands, looking at her warningly, while Eric burst into laughter and Chuck looked at them amused.
“2-0 for Blair, I suppose.” Eric said, still laughing.
“Thanks, E.” Blair smiled, ruffling his hair.
--
A good morning to the UES and especially to my faithful readers. I just received the most lovely pic - thanks to NewYorkerO8!
Spotted: C, B, S and E stepping out of C’s limo and S doesn’t even look annoyed or bothered. In fact she was laughing along with the rest of this lovely quartet. Looks like our Queen is spreading love by moving in with the Van der Bass family.
You Know You Love Me.
--
“Dan, I missed you so much!” Serena exclaimed happily, hugging him tightly in the middle of the courtyard, before kissing him passionately.
For the whole world to see, Blair rolled her eyes.
She smiled, when she saw Nate and Chuck going to the park. Chuck caught her eyes and smirked back at her, making her insides turning into a puddle of goo.
--
“Do you want one?” Nate offered Chuck a cigarette, but he shook his head. Nate looked at him in surprise, but shrugged his shoulders, lighting up his.
“How are things with Serena?” Chuck asked after a while. “After you confessed your love to her and her boyfriend heard you too.”
“Actually Dan was pretty cool.” Nate conceded. “We got into talking and I decided to spend some time on my own. I mean… how am I supposed to be together with someone if I can’t be alone?”
Nate paused for minutes and they just walked in silence. Then threw the cigarette to the ground and continued. “Now I’ve sorted everything out.”
“Which is?”
“I was just so… obsessed with Serena, I didn’t realize she was only a temporarily infatuation. Blair and I have been together for so long - I think it is her I’ve been meant to be all along. I just… I really miss her.”
Chuck jaw dropped. What the…?!
--
Serena came out of her closet in jeans in a simple shirt.
Throwing a brief look to Blair, who was lying in on the bed, flipping through the Cosmopolitan bored, she started to put on her make-up in front of the mirror.
“What’s wrong?” she finally asked.
“Nothing.”
Serena sighed, sitting down beside her. “Hey, B. You can tell me.”
“I don’t know. I think I’m overreacting.” Blair had buried her head in her pillow. Serena remained silent, waiting for her to continue.
“But… what if Chuck picks Nate?”
“What?” Serena looked at Blair puzzled. Had she lost her mind?
Blair sighed and sat up.
“What if Chuck decides, that Nate is more important to him than me? I mean they are like brothers, they have known each other forever.” Blair said, getting even more hysterical now. “And I’m sure, that they have sworn each other something like… never letting a girl get in between them, I mean wehave!” Blair took the pillow and hid her face behind it once more.
“Oh, B. I’m sure it’s going to be fine.” Serena patted her hair.
“That’s all?” Blair raised her head, peeking to her.
“I don’t think you need me to say anything else,” Serena smiled. “It’s just like you told me - the way he looks at you, gives you his whole attention. I would have never thought that Chuck would look at any girl this way. But it looks like he really likes you.”
Blair nodded hesitantly and Serena stood up. “When are you two finally going to tell Nate anyway? It has been a week already since you found out about Nate wanting you back. The longer you wait, the angrier Nate will be, if he finds out - at both of you.”
Blair sighed again. “I don’t know. I… on one side I want this to be out, so I can just be happy with Chuck. But on the other side I’m afraid of what will happen once we’re public. Especially after Nate wants me back again, you know?”
Serena nodded. “Don’t worry. I’m sure you two will figure it out. Do you think you’ll survive an evening without me here?”
“Yes, sure. I have Chuck.” Blair grinned.
“Ew - have fun then, I suppose. I’m heading out to-”
“Brooklyn,” Blair finished.
“How do you know?”
“Oh, you’re underdressed is all,” Blair stated simply.
--
Blair heard footsteps walking down the hall and excitement cursed through her.
Chuck.
Putting her homework beside, she hopped off the bed and waited a few minutes, to not seem too needy, before almost skipping down to Chuck’s room. Not bothering to knock, she just opened the door and saw him coming out of his bathroom, closing the door behind him.
A grin spread through his face, when he saw her.
“How did the business meeting go?” she asked him excitedly.
He embraced her and placed a kiss on her cheek. “It went. Bart reckoned I could’ve done better.”
She buried her nose in his chest. “You can always do better, you know.”
He cocked his eyebrow.
Then Blair realised, what he must be thinking. “No… I didn’t mean - ugh, Chuck.” She blushed and pushed him away.
“Oh, I know what you meant.” He responded teasingly.
She rolled her eyes. “Please.”
“Come on, I’ve got a surprise for you.” he pulled her with him, opening the bathroom door.
Her jaw dropped and she gasped for air. His entire bathroom was dark, lit by candles. He had made a bath and rose petals splayed all across the floor. The smell of lavender hung in the air.
A huge smile spread across Blair's face.
“You like?” He asked with a smug grin. Always his smug grin.
“You did this for me?” She looked up to him dreamily, her eyes turning into a soft and warm brown tone.
“Oh, wait. I think Lily is waiting outside…”
Blair shot him a glance before walking to the tub, but he pulled her back to him and kissed her.
She smiled as he buried his hands in her soft brown curls.
--
To be continued
A huge thank you goes to my friend Kris, who provided her amazing art skills and made me a gorgeous banner for this story in order to cheer me up. You are such a dear, sweetie! :)