A/N: This one-shot revolves largely around Chuck and Serena and there is a minor sexual encounter between the two. Please be aware of this before you delve into this story. Dan and Blair are mentioned briefly and a future Dan and Serena and Chuck and Blair reunion is implied. For those of you who follow the series, I will be starting The Week Of The Anniversary very soon. I have been on a brief hiatus due to the lack of writing inspiration. Please review!
Of Past Regret And Future Fear
Serena knocked frantically on the door, her golden locks in slight disarray and her phone in hand. Once. Twice.
"Chuck!" she shouted when he failed to respond. "Open the door! Come on! This is important!"
She heard shuffling and mumbled curses on the other side of the wooden barrier before it swung wide open moments later, revealing a very pissed off Chuck in nothing but his purple silk boxers.
"What could possibly be so important at nine in the morning sister dear?" he drawled, running a hand haphazardly through his tousled hair.
The blonde gave him no answer, glared at him, and shoved her cell phone into the palm of his free hand. Chuck rolled his eyes at her dramatics and glanced at the lit up screen. His heart skipped a beat when he realized that he was reading the latest Gossip Girl blast. He had tried to avoid them all summer. The only ones Serena shared with him involved Blair and as of two weeks ago, Blair and Dan. An almost unnoticeable flicker of hurt danced across his eyes as reread the message over and over again, unable to stop himself from doing so, but Serena could see how much he was really hurting. She had felt the same way when she had first come across the message this morning. Dan and Blair were heading out to the Hamptons after becoming a couple a mere two weeks ago, the one thing that Chuck and Serena had both feared all summer.
"This is all our fault, you know?" Serena whispered after a period of prolonged silence, her eyes watering at the reminder that Dan was now dating her best friend. "We brought them together."
Chuck remained unresponsive and only sighed in frustration as he returned to the comfort of his room, leaving the door open for Serena to follow. The blonde accepted his silent invitation and strode in after him, closing the door firmly behind them. Chuck headed towards the bathroom to take his morning shower, while Serena flopped onto his bed, her heart still heavy with overbearing thoughts of her ex-boyfriend and her best friend.
"This really is all our fault," Serena repeated her earlier conclusion, raising her voice a smidgen so that Chuck would hear her over the running water. "We both betrayed their trust Chuck. We pushed them to seek comfort in each other. We have no one to blame but ourselves for this."
Serena waited patiently to hear more than sole running water assaulting her ears, but when Chuck still remained completely unresponsive to the situation they were all currently in after a whole minute had gone by, she marched straight into the bathroom to confront him. How was he not concerned about Dan and Blair coming to the Hamptons together?
"Chuck!" Serena reprimanded him from the other side of the shower curtain. "How can you be so calm about this? Blair is dating Dan now. Does that not irk you one bit?"
He calmly poked his head out from behind the plastic barrier, acknowledging her fury, his hair bubbling with already applied shampoo.
"Look sis," he explained to her, rolling his eyes for the added touch. "We both messed up and my unresponsiveness to the situation in no way infers that seeing Blair with that sad excuse for a human being doesn't get to me, but I'm Chuck Bass. There is no way I'm letting Blair see how miserable I was without her this summer or how much I regret leaving her at that helipad for Amelia. Besides, we had a good time comforting each other this summer, didn't we?"
"First of all," Serena started, counting the points she was about to make with her fingers, lips still pressed together in obvious annoyance. "Stop calling me sis."
Chuck opened his mouth, prepared to retort, only to hold his tongue at a single warning glare from the blonde.
"I feel like hurling when I'm reminded of how I've been sleeping with my step-brother all summer regardless of the fact that we're not blood related," she continued, although in truth, hurling was a bit extreme. "Secondly, Dan is not a sad excuse for a human being. You just don't know him like I do and finally, don't flatter yourself. I always have a good time."
"You wound me sis," he mocked her, taking cover behind the shower curtain once more. "And to think I thought I meant more to you than just comfort sex, although I don't blame you for having turned to me. Humphrey couldn't possibly have been satisfying you."
"How can you be so sure?" Serena challenged him, crossing her arms over her chest in irritation. "I'll have you know that my sex life with Dan was amazing."
Chuck smirked as he stepped out of the shower, unwilling to believe her words, lingering water droplets rolling down the expanse of his naked skin.
He pulled her into him without warning, tightened his grip on her waist when she struggled against his grasp, and whispered hotly into her ear, "That's not what you said last night sweetheart."
Serena stilled in her movements as she felt his familiar breath on the nape of her neck.
"Chuck," she murmured helplessly, although she tilted her head to the side to give him better access to her soft skin. "Stop."
He turned to kiss her lips then, ignoring her weak protests as he felt her unraveling beneath his touch. Serena bit back a moan as his tongue invaded the depths of her mouth, relishing in the feel of his wet skin against her own. She knew this was wrong, but it was what they had both desperately needed all summer. It was what they both desperately needed right now. The blonde pulled back briefly after a moment when she finally needed to breathe, staring intently into his eyes as he too took the time to regain his steady breathing. She laced one hand through his disheveled hair, pulling him closer until their lips were almost touching. Almost.
"This thing between us is over the second that Dan and Blair break up and take us both back, am I clear?" Serena whispered, her eyes glossed over with an unspoken threat.
He nodded numbly in lieu of an actual answer, watched her strip shamelessly in front of him, and followed her wordlessly back towards the running water.
"Am I clear?" Serena questioned him once more, dissatisfied with his earlier nod.
"Crystal," Chuck breathed before losing himself in her heat, the cascading water serving to wash away their every inhibition.