Hey =) when Serena decides to drop in on the writer (turned recluse and twitter-fighter Dan, she is unprepared for who she will find at the loft. A story I wrote a while ago, but found only recently. Let me know what you think.
~xx~
It was dark when Serena first caught sight of the Brooklyn loft. Dan's loft now, she thought, it had been so long since Rufus turned 'high society' and gifted it to him as a place to live while he was at school.
It was with fond memories that she first remembered the expression on his face when he was first given the key. It was the perfect place to have rekindle their relationship, there were so many shared memories here. After reading old Gossip Girl blasts, she realized just how much she had missed. And how much she had missed Dan, how his heart still belonged with her.
With trembling fingers, and an overly confident expression, she fished for the spare key under the mat and pushed open the loft door quietly. Visions of reunion and eventual possible lovemaking filled her mind, she knew that Dan would be more than grateful to see her again, to settle down for a little while. Thinking she'd surprise him, she sat down at the narrow table to wait.
But something seemed off, she couldn't quite place it. Maybe it was the marginal difference of the straightened bookshelf, or the semi-familiar bag leaning against the couch. Maybe it was just that she expected there to be more pizza boxes and unused laundry, for a writer turned recluse (and active twitter fighter). Maybe it was
..Blair Waldorf, in a towel, stepping quietly out of a steam-filled room. Holy shit?
She didn't even seem to notice Serena, rather glancing quickly toward the door (as if to make sure Humphrey wasn't anywhere near) before pulling a brush and dress out of the multicolored bag and awkwardly turning to go. It was only when the coffee mug in Serena's hand hit the floor with a loud crash (-What? Prince? Chuck? When? Dan?) that Blair looked up, jumping nearly ten feet. Then froze, and cleared her throat, looking immensely guilty.
"S! What are you doing here?"
She raised her eyebrows, incredulous.
"I could ask you the same question. I thought you were with Louie. Or Chuck. Or even that concierge from the second floor of the Empire."
"As if." Blair interjected. "He's the help, S. Chuck's help.' She hesitated slightly, 'And I am with Louie. It's just.."
"Just what?"
Blair paused, then turned as if to go.
"B! You have some serious explaining to do. Why are you in Brooklyn? Are you living with Dan?"
"No! Well, yes. Kind of. It's complicated."
An eyebrow raised.
"Louie..isn't the person I thought he was. He's turning into Chuck! A mini Chuck. And Chuck is Louie, at least the Louie I thought he was originally to be. And there's all this paparazzi outside, and well. It's Brooklyn. It's where I go, Dan is Dan is Dan. He's Dan. I love him. And it's cold, I'm going to change right now. I'll talk to you.."
"You love him?"
"What? God no, not in that sense. Don't go there, S. He's Brooklyn."
"Apparently, you are as well."
Door opens.
Laden with pizza (-still reeling, and slowly losing hope about an intimate reunion, Serena takes pleasure in the fact she was right about the pizza boxes-), Dan brushes snow off his coat and calls out Blair's name.
Then pauses, really quickly. Serena sees him take in the sight of Blair standing in the living room (is it just her, or does his breath catch, and the boxes he carries falter? No, she's just imagining things), and then reach her; the shards of broken mug around her feet. For a second, he looks really 'this isn't what I expected at all'. Trying not to stumble on words (he is a writer after all) but lost for what to say, offers a tentative.
"Pizza, anyone?"
This seems to bring Blair back to her senses, and she turns quickly to leave, closing the door on the steam filled bathroom. Serena, really unsure what to say, and still caught up in the sudden observation she had when Dan walked through the door, quickly starts to picks up the broken china.
When Dan walked through the door, Serena was watching Blair. And so she noticed how she froze, somewhat self conscious, awkwardly brushing her hair over one shoulder. In that brief moment, an unforeseen vulnerability was caught in her eyes and in the barely noticeable blush that coloured her features.
Blair cares for Dan. A lot. And he cares about her as well, else why else would he let her organize his bookshelf (for that's what was off, she realizes). Fighting to stay angry and push back melancholy, Serena says quickly,
"I thought you didn't like Blair?"
It is a loaded question. As in, a "I thought you liked me?" and a "Didn't we break up once because you couldn't understand the Upper East Side within me?" both at once.
As in a "Do you like Blair, like that, I mean?"
He answered all three questions (except he didn't really).
"She's my friend, and I love her. Right now, she just needs a place to stay. We're not together, Serena. Not like that."
But she can sense there's something more, and it breaks her heart.
"She's pregnant, Dan. With Louie's baby. What she needs right now is to talk to him, not a place to hide."
Even though she really doesn't want to see it, his expression is heartbreaking.
"I know."