I normally don't write Gossip Girl, but after last night's ending the hopeless romantic in couldn't help it. I never believed that Derena was over. This is completely excluding the previews. So maybe, it's not entirely romantic. But, there is romance. Stopping my rambling here.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gossip Girl; if I did Derena would be forever.

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Serena isn't exactly why she runs to see if her father is really there. It could be because even though he has been out of the picture for years, she immediately loved him the moment she found out he was staying. So she runs.

The disappointment that she feels when she sees the empty lobby crushes her. She can't believe it. It's like a dream. He was her father, he loved her. Or so she thought.

When she hears footsteps, she thinks Nate. She's about to lift her head up to ask him to leave. Then she hears Dan's voice. She really shouldn't be surprised. Of all the times she's run away, Dan has always been the one to follow her. She tells him that he left. Her father left. Suddenly, several men who claimed to love her and her mother. Add another one to the list.

Speaking of boys who claim to lover her, the one who first said it is standing in front of her. She gets comfort in the form of a tissue and familiar fingers running through her hair. It's almost like the past two years didn't happen. She collapses, sobbing, into his chest.

So when she goes to warn her dad that the cops are after him, she isn't sure why Dan's still here. Or trying to stop her. Any sane person would. Instead, he stays in the limo. And watches her. She actually feels his eyes on her. When she gets back in the limo, she thanks him.

She wonders what she did to deserve this boy. Again. A knight in Converse sneakers. Well, not tonight, but normally. She can't bring herself to go home. She rests her head on Dan's shoulder and thinks. She wishes that she had just told him about Georgina. Maybe she would have had him for longer. It does not matter. What's done is officially done. The past is in the past. She doubts anything will change that.

She goes back to the loft. He goes into the kitchen and pulls out a carton of milk in the fridge. He goes into the cabinet and pulls out a pack of Oreos. Double Stuff. He says that it's better than alcohol. She smiles, milk and cookies. Comfort food for second graders. She tells him everything while they are sitting at the kitchen counter with him eating milk and cookies.

When she yawns, he decides that it's bedtime. He offers her his bed. She refuses, so he keeps going with the little kid theme. They make a pillow fort on his living room floor. She giggles; she's never made a pillow fort before. So he teaches her, it's actually fun. She's laughing so hard, she forgets that anything else exists. It's just Dan and Serena playing second grade. And it almost feels like it.

There's a feeling of second grade love going on. They are just two people, a boy and a girl. They give and they take from each other. She feels a sense of forever.

Forever, there will be some form of relationship. Whether it's brother (which she doesn't like) or a lover (she could get used to that).

She lies down next to him. Their faces are mere inches apart. She looks at him and wonders why they never worked out. She leans in closer. Their lips brush.

He kisses her with surprising force. They kiss and she can feel the fireworks. They end up tangled within each other. She sighs contentedly. For the first time, in a while, she feels safe. Cocooned from the outside world. A large part of her brain tells her that this isn't right. A small, but powerful voice tells that large part to shut up. And miraculously, it does.

The next morning, she wakes to bright light. She looks up at the boy whose arms she's currently in. She is happy to find that it's not Nate. Instead, it's a boy who went with her on something crazier than she'd ever done before. A real relationship.

She puts her head back down. Dan stirs. She asks him to not get up yet. So, for another hour, they lay there. Dan breaks the silence by murmuring something she just barely manages to catch. He says he doesn't want this moment to end. She agrees. He sighs and tells her that they must get up. So she goes to get changed. While looking through Dan's drawers to find a shirt to wear, she finds a dress she has been trying to find for months.

She remembers asking him if he'd seen it. He had replied that he didn't. She realizes that he must want one thing to remember her by. She smiles and takes off the shirt she's wearing. She places it in the drawer knowing full well that her perfume will sink into every shirt. She slips on the dress.

Dan is making waffles. He goes bug-eyed at the sight of the dress. She chuckled and told him that there'd be a surprise for him in the drawer where she found it. He takes his shirt off the couch where it was put during their fort building. He puts in her bag and tells her to keep it.

She sits at the kitchen counter. He puts waffles in front of her, and then leans across from her. She makes a shape with her syrup. A heart, of course. He smiles and makes one back.

Eighteen years old and they still play with their food. Maybe it is second grade after all. The smiles on their faces are as big as second graders who are doing something they aren't supposed to. Technically, they are. Exes several times over are not supposed to sit at a table and eat together. Especially after a catastrophic night. But they do. After all, everybody gets in trouble in the second grade.

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My first Dan/Serena fic. Please review.