Disclaimer: I don't own Gossip Girl, any of its characters or anything of that much value.
Summary: They play the game like it is a dance, both fearing the moment when the music stops. Maybe its time for something more elegant, like a waltz. Chuck/Blair following 2x08.
Forward Step
He makes the first move.
Leading her
a hand to the waist.
The dance has begun.
Blair lets out a sigh as she holds court on the steps of the Met. Penelope is whining about some imagined snub from a well to do Unity boy, but Blair just can't seem to make herself care.
"Look I'd rather wait, but maybe in the future..."
Chuck's words echo in her mind and while it makes her feel slightly better, the soft scowl on her face remains. It's only been a week since their last exchange, but time seems to move slower when she doesn't see a hint of his trademark smirk around.
So where is Chuck, and what or who has he been doing? She checks her phone regularly but Gossip Girl is as clueless as she is as to his whereabouts. She is feeling less excruciating pleasure at this moment and more a sense of abandonment.
"I'm going for a walk," she announces, abruptly interrupting Penelope's tirade as she stands. "Alone." She adds when she sees the girls scrambling to follow her.
Most days, the idle chatter of her minions serves to clear her mind while her Queen Bee side shone through. Today, however, it just wasn't having the same affect and her mind keeps replaying the scenes of the past few weeks. Words said and unsaid, dark eyes and lonely roof tops.
She rounds the corner as she heads back to school when it catches her eye. A distinctive scarf, attached to the only person fit to wear it, Chuck Bass. He is leaning casually against the wall, almost as if he was waiting for her all along.
More than likely he has escaped St. Jude's to smoke in peace but in the back of her mind she likes to think he is expecting her.
He hears the sound of her boots against the pavement and looks up as she approaches.
And there it is, the smirk she has been missing since the night he spoke those words to her in her bedroom. Since the night they last kissed.
"Waldorf," he greets her with a nod.
"Bass," she replies with a small smile, her first of the day. Her stride however, doesn't slow down and she continues towards the gates of the school.
"Care to stop and step into my office for a moment?" he says falling into step beside her.
She scoffs, "By office do you mean the wall outside where you like to smoke your joints? We have no business between us and I don't want to be late for next period."
His hand suddenly touches lightly to the small of her back, gently as if guiding her. "Hmm you're right, as always of course," he muses. "I'll accompany you to class."
Her pace falters for a moment as she regards him, trying to see his motive to such uncharacteristic behaviour.
"Since when do you care about your punctuality?"
"Waldorf, can't a friend simply escort another friend back to school?"
"A friend, maybe. But you? I thought you were avoiding me."
For some reason this makes the smirk appear, more evident this time. "Now why would you think that? I had some... things to organise. Were you missing me?"
"Please don't flatter yourself. I was just wondering whether you'd skipped off to Monaco or something. It's always safer to know which direction the tornado is coming from, you can run in the other direction then."
She hopes her voice is level, because her heart is starting to do that fluttering thing that only happens when he is close by. The hand continues to faintly steer her, and its insistence is beginning to unnerve her.
"Actually I was planning on calling you. I would like to extend to you an invitation," his voice is pleasant, almost formal. It's not something she is used to when normally he is throwing witty barbs at her or growling huskily in her ear.
"Another orgy at 1812 perhaps? My answer would be no."
"Hardly. Dinner, at the apartment tomorrow night. My father is returning from his business trip in Italy so all the Bass-Van Der Woodsen's will be in residence."
The request makes her arch an eyebrow. Dinner with the family. It's almost too normal for them. Chuck and Blair belong in a world of limos and secret rendezvous, not in the realm of the ordinary with everybody else. He said it himself Chuck and Blair don't hold hands or go to the movies.
This must be a new game Chuck is playing, though she's not sure she knows the rules yet.
"I think I'll have to get back to you," she says slowly, waiting to see his reaction.
Perhaps he was expecting an outright refusal, because instead of smirking at her again, he offers a quiet smile. "I'll have the car come round at seven."
His fingers brush once more against her back before he steps away and through the gates of the school courtyard.
She is left standing, slightly confused as to what had just happened. Within moments she is onto her phone to text Serena, in case she has any insights into why Chuck Bass seems to want her at their family dinner.
He has made the first move, but she is unsure what her next one is supposed to be.
The dance has indeed begun.
tbc