AN: Written for the first Gossipink challenge, a retelling of The Brave Tin Soldier.
***
There was a boy. He grew up in Brooklyn, with a mother, a father, and then, a few years later, a little sister. His parents only wanted the best for him, every opportunity, and they showered him with love.
"How remarkable you are, Dan!" his mother cries.
"I am remarkable," he thinks, as he's sent off to school in Manhattan, a long far way from home. There are other boys like him there, but he's the only one from Brooklyn, the only one on scholarship in this enclave of trust fund boys who've been with one another since birth.
"You are remarkable," his father says.
And Dan was, until he saw the beautiful princess in the castle.
***
He's invited to a party with his classmates within his first weeks there. He's still getting used to Manhattan, the grandeur and the squalor, mixed together, so he takes Vanessa with him. It's cold for October, and she has her hands in her pockets as they walk from the subway station.
Unsurprisingly, she mingles much better than he does, and within an hour knows everyone's name and life history. She just laughs when he expresses his awe, tells him, "They won't remember me in the morning, Dan."
He wonders if it's true, if they won't remember him either.
Dan's about to ask her opinion, when he spots a girl across the room, standing on her own. Her hair is long, past her collarbone, and blonde, the way he imagines a fairytale princess should look. She's biting her lip nervously, and he imagines that she's a scholarship kid too, that she's just as out of her element as he.
"We're the same, she and I," he thinks, and lets his imagination run away with him. Vanessa watches him, sees his eyes follow the blonde girl and says,
"Let it go, Dan. That's Serena van der Woodsen." Her curls bounce as she shakes her head. "She's not one of us."
"Of course," he murmurs, but his eyes follow the blonde hair as she's joined by two other girls. Vanessa sighs next to him, her blue eyes annoyed. Dan feels her move away, but his eyes are still locked on Serena.
"She's beautiful," he thinks.
He stays there, far too late, watching her dance and laugh.
And then as suddenly as she appeared, she is gone, and the party is over. Vanessa's stolen his subway pass to get home, or maybe he was pickpocketed, but he's all alone in the streets of Manhattan, and then it begins to rain.
"Of course," Daniel says. "How could this night get any worse?"
He keeps walking as his clothes begin to soak through. He thinks it will be okay, until a limo drives by and splashes him, soaking him to the skin.
"Great, just great," he says, looking around furtively. There's a bum on the street corner, begging for change. He reaches into his pockets, but there is nothing to give.
"Get a job," the bum curses at him, and Dan begins to run. His limbs flail awkwardly, and two street kids give chase.
"I'm poor just like you," Dan shouts, but it makes no difference. He is running, running, and then he sees a flash of golden hair.
He turns the corner and it's gone. There's nothing, yet he thinks, "Oh Serena, how you've saved me."
(We never said Daniel was a sensible boy.)
"If only you were here with me now, I should not mind it so much."
It is cold and dark, and Daniel is lonely, but still he soldiers on. Her hair, he thinks, is lovely, and she is lovely, and she's everything he's ever dreamed about.
"She will be my muse," he thinks, forgetting all about Vanessa and her bright blue eyes and tousled curls that he used to write about for hours on end.
***
October goes, and Dan dreams.
"Impossible dreams," Vanessa scoffs. "She'll never love a poor boy like you."
He sees her at school, immaculately polished even though Gossip Girl has reported on her exploits from the night before, placing her at three different bars until 4am.
"She's not one of us, Dan, let it go."
Still, he dreams.
***
He doesn't like her friends. Blair is cruel, the girls are vapid, and Nate is competition.
Still, she is perfect, he thinks as he watches her from afar.
"Don't wish for what doesn't belong to you, Humphrey," Chuck Bass snarls, and Dan pretends not to hear.
"Are you deaf?" Chuck asks, and Dan just rolls his eyes.
"Fine. Just wait until tomorrow, Humphrey."
***
He never knows if it's Chuck Bass's doing, but Vanessa leaves the next day. He confesses his love, because she is here and she is real and sometimes he is sensible enough to know that Serena is just a fantasy that consumes him.
Vanessa rejects him, and it's as if the sun has gone away. There is an empty hole inside of him, and he thinks if only he could get to Serena, it would be okay.
***
Then suddenly, as she appeared, she's gone again.
Whispers of scandals; babies and cocaine, and maybe he'll never know the truth.
He goes to every party he can though, just in case. Even when he isn't invited.
***
"Do you even have an invitation?" Blair Waldorf asks, a look of annoyance settled over her pretty face. Dan looks at her, wonders how she can be Serena's best friend, and then lets the crowd of people move him away from her.
"What's wrong, Blair?" he hears Nate ask her, as he is swept away.
"That, that Brooklynite! He shouldn't be here."
He knows he'll never see Serena again, and thinks of her resplendent in her drunken stupor, trying to cross the street on that warm Thanksgiving day.
***
And then he finds himself back where he started, at a party, watching Serena. Only this time she's shoving Chuck Bass, and he could not be happier.
This time, she leaves the party with him, and it's as if his heart and soul are consumed.