Translations in B Minor
I still feel this is unfinished and I'm not crazy about the title. But if I don't post it today, I will hurt a kitten.
Title: Translations in B Minor
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Dan/Blair, brief mentions of GG cast
Rating: Harmless
Words: 1,022
Warnings: None, but possibly takes place during the summer before college. Unbetta’d. Mistakes all mine.
Authors Note: Second shot in the dark, assuming you’ll be less forgiving this time. But commenting is encouraged be they good, bad or ugly.
Teaser: Dan had always only meant to deposit a check, pick up a pie for thanksgiving, meet a blonde at a photo shoot.
Hi, means I’m sorry.
Plans that rattle forth followed by a clipped Be there, mean forgiveness.
A kick is a prod, hold me, kiss me, though from anyone else they’d convey the opposite.
On their third coffee date Dan learns the appropriate response to Blair, laugh, and his life improves.
Gets infinitely better.
~
(3 weeks prior…)
Pushed together by an effervescent Serena necking with an Argentinean polo player by an off-handed, why don’t you two hang out while I’m away. Mom and Rufus are still on their trip, Vanessa’s forgiven Nate and, B, he’ll keep you out of trouble, the Bass is beneath, followed by the Baizen.
He hangs up the phone when she calls to complain about Espadrilles because Kati and Iz won’t answer, I don’t care who makes them now, they were peasant footwear once and, there, they should remain!
She tosses the phone on the bed when he calls to ramble about summer readings lists, but begins with another anecdote entirely. She purchases a replacement on her way out, does the Storm come with 'loser’ firewall?
This is silly; he mutters in her lobby, we have more things in common than…'Serena’.
After four years one would think, she turns on her heel and leaves him standing alone.
~
She shows up in Brooklyn, however, when the next catastrophe strikes, a perfect disaster of her own making or an overreaction to a legitimate injustice. Perhaps beginning with one, bleeding into the other as these catastrophic Blair-things often do.
Jenny answers the door and glares at Dan’s impassivity. I’m going out for ice cream she coughs pointedly, clears the air and removes herself.
Dan chuckles.
It’s the symmetry, he explains quickly. I go to you for schemes and you come to me for sympathy. Seems we both have our strengths.
…There are others, of course, but through convoluted logic, sympathy from those who are so utterly helpless themselves is allowed, a mere extension of charity work itself.
2.
A curt shh… means you’re too close to telling the truth.
An abrupt change of subject means don’t ruin this.
When she calls it means I want you.
When she doesn’t call it means I need you.
On their second planned encounter he gives her just enough rope to hang himself with and she puts to him a beautiful quandary: You hate us for our excess and really expect us, in turn, to worship you for your want?
He mumbles a you started it first and all but sticks out his tongue.
~
(2 weeks later...)
They have a mutual disdain for the multiplex. He prefers the BAM Rose or Sunshine Cinema but in a moment of inspiration he invites her to the only Paris he could afford. She orders the tickets in French. He smiles an apology at the ticketer.
His grin isn’t as smug as she once thought, it’s playful. He’ll let you in on the joke if only you ask. He’s been dying for someone to play along. The loner,the loser.
Now he’s gesturing to the popcorn in a buffoonish way of asking if she’d like any and she finally gets it from this distance. He staggers his footfall next to an U.E.S matron who cuts in front of him in the second round of his clownish act and ,he’s the star in his own silent film! It’s a campy classic where the hero is the guy with the too big shoes who trips and falls on the bank robbers, resulting in their accidental capture; he had only meant to deposit a check.
Dan had always only meant to deposit a check, pick up a pie for thanksgiving, meet a blonde at a photo shoot.
Blair unwillingly laughs as he balances two popcorns, two sodas and a pack of malt balls in his hands.
Courtesy of a wistful youth spent wanting to become a Chinese acrobat.
That’s just silly, she smirks.
Because I’m not Chinese?
Because you're not talented.
~
Lily asks him to attend a function in her absence to be repaid by a first edition of his choice; he wears his cater-waiter tie in an ironic gesture and drags Vanessa along, hoping to see her.
Blair overhears him repeatedly making references to Russian aristocracy and call the Rachowsky couple, the Romanovs, twice.
He’s telling jokes to V about goblets of gold and Blair laughs because it’s more entertaining than Joe College the III sent over by his parents to make small talk and a few pre-calculated romantic gestures.
Dan turns at the sound, quick Anastasia, let’s get out of here!
Like I would go anywhere with you Bolshevik, she playfully arches an eyebrow while her companion scowls.
You can stay, but we all know how that ends...
Her mother frowns in disapproval when she exits into the night.
3.
A push is a pull.
A shove is a test.
Avoidance is self protection in every language.
~
Serena is flushed and back and it panics their harmony. Easy laughs, breathless stories, golden hair and effortless adventure causes Blair’s hands to clench reflexively.
Nate, she stole. Dan’s not mine to loose, so she gives him back in unreturned phone calls and pointed attempts to put Serena in his way.
Blair, Buh-, Blai-, Blair! he jumps around the doorman three times his size. We need to talk! I will get past him and past Dorota and past Eleanor.
So she throws the more in the way, their background, the class difference, the wealth disparity along with the fact that under no other circumstances, Humphrey, than…pure desperation and temporary heat-stroke induced MADNESS would I denigrate myself to hanging out with you especially now that ‘proper company’ is back!
4.
Dan pushes back, always pushes back, punches Chuck, strangles Nate.
Speaks in a language she can understand: Need.
~
Hand on small hip, mouth against hers, palm on her face, connecting at the chest, hips, and knees. And she doesn’t laugh when they break apart. She tries to make a sly insult but he swallows it as he does her protest.
Now look what you made me do...
Title: Translations in B Minor
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Dan/Blair, brief mentions of GG cast
Rating: Harmless
Words: 1,022
Warnings: None, but possibly takes place during the summer before college. Unbetta’d. Mistakes all mine.
Authors Note: Second shot in the dark, assuming you’ll be less forgiving this time. But commenting is encouraged be they good, bad or ugly.
Teaser: Dan had always only meant to deposit a check, pick up a pie for thanksgiving, meet a blonde at a photo shoot.
Hi, means I’m sorry.
Plans that rattle forth followed by a clipped Be there, mean forgiveness.
A kick is a prod, hold me, kiss me, though from anyone else they’d convey the opposite.
On their third coffee date Dan learns the appropriate response to Blair, laugh, and his life improves.
Gets infinitely better.
~
(3 weeks prior…)
Pushed together by an effervescent Serena necking with an Argentinean polo player by an off-handed, why don’t you two hang out while I’m away. Mom and Rufus are still on their trip, Vanessa’s forgiven Nate and, B, he’ll keep you out of trouble, the Bass is beneath, followed by the Baizen.
He hangs up the phone when she calls to complain about Espadrilles because Kati and Iz won’t answer, I don’t care who makes them now, they were peasant footwear once and, there, they should remain!
She tosses the phone on the bed when he calls to ramble about summer readings lists, but begins with another anecdote entirely. She purchases a replacement on her way out, does the Storm come with 'loser’ firewall?
This is silly; he mutters in her lobby, we have more things in common than…'Serena’.
After four years one would think, she turns on her heel and leaves him standing alone.
~
She shows up in Brooklyn, however, when the next catastrophe strikes, a perfect disaster of her own making or an overreaction to a legitimate injustice. Perhaps beginning with one, bleeding into the other as these catastrophic Blair-things often do.
Jenny answers the door and glares at Dan’s impassivity. I’m going out for ice cream she coughs pointedly, clears the air and removes herself.
Dan chuckles.
It’s the symmetry, he explains quickly. I go to you for schemes and you come to me for sympathy. Seems we both have our strengths.
…There are others, of course, but through convoluted logic, sympathy from those who are so utterly helpless themselves is allowed, a mere extension of charity work itself.
2.
A curt shh… means you’re too close to telling the truth.
An abrupt change of subject means don’t ruin this.
When she calls it means I want you.
When she doesn’t call it means I need you.
On their second planned encounter he gives her just enough rope to hang himself with and she puts to him a beautiful quandary: You hate us for our excess and really expect us, in turn, to worship you for your want?
He mumbles a you started it first and all but sticks out his tongue.
~
(2 weeks later...)
They have a mutual disdain for the multiplex. He prefers the BAM Rose or Sunshine Cinema but in a moment of inspiration he invites her to the only Paris he could afford. She orders the tickets in French. He smiles an apology at the ticketer.
His grin isn’t as smug as she once thought, it’s playful. He’ll let you in on the joke if only you ask. He’s been dying for someone to play along. The loner,the loser.
Now he’s gesturing to the popcorn in a buffoonish way of asking if she’d like any and she finally gets it from this distance. He staggers his footfall next to an U.E.S matron who cuts in front of him in the second round of his clownish act and ,he’s the star in his own silent film! It’s a campy classic where the hero is the guy with the too big shoes who trips and falls on the bank robbers, resulting in their accidental capture; he had only meant to deposit a check.
Dan had always only meant to deposit a check, pick up a pie for thanksgiving, meet a blonde at a photo shoot.
Blair unwillingly laughs as he balances two popcorns, two sodas and a pack of malt balls in his hands.
Courtesy of a wistful youth spent wanting to become a Chinese acrobat.
That’s just silly, she smirks.
Because I’m not Chinese?
Because you're not talented.
~
Lily asks him to attend a function in her absence to be repaid by a first edition of his choice; he wears his cater-waiter tie in an ironic gesture and drags Vanessa along, hoping to see her.
Blair overhears him repeatedly making references to Russian aristocracy and call the Rachowsky couple, the Romanovs, twice.
He’s telling jokes to V about goblets of gold and Blair laughs because it’s more entertaining than Joe College the III sent over by his parents to make small talk and a few pre-calculated romantic gestures.
Dan turns at the sound, quick Anastasia, let’s get out of here!
Like I would go anywhere with you Bolshevik, she playfully arches an eyebrow while her companion scowls.
You can stay, but we all know how that ends...
Her mother frowns in disapproval when she exits into the night.
3.
A push is a pull.
A shove is a test.
Avoidance is self protection in every language.
~
Serena is flushed and back and it panics their harmony. Easy laughs, breathless stories, golden hair and effortless adventure causes Blair’s hands to clench reflexively.
Nate, she stole. Dan’s not mine to loose, so she gives him back in unreturned phone calls and pointed attempts to put Serena in his way.
Blair, Buh-, Blai-, Blair! he jumps around the doorman three times his size. We need to talk! I will get past him and past Dorota and past Eleanor.
So she throws the more in the way, their background, the class difference, the wealth disparity along with the fact that under no other circumstances, Humphrey, than…pure desperation and temporary heat-stroke induced MADNESS would I denigrate myself to hanging out with you especially now that ‘proper company’ is back!
4.
Dan pushes back, always pushes back, punches Chuck, strangles Nate.
Speaks in a language she can understand: Need.
~
Hand on small hip, mouth against hers, palm on her face, connecting at the chest, hips, and knees. And she doesn’t laugh when they break apart. She tries to make a sly insult but he swallows it as he does her protest.
Now look what you made me do...