Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
The stranger in the moonlight
Looks stranger in the moonlight
And they meet on Bleeker Street
Or the Park that is Central, oh no
I watched the sun go down
Down, down beneath the ground
It's a new day, it's a new dawn
In New Amsterdam
-Travis "New Amsterdam"
Nate is drowning in a sea of blonde hair and sadness, two feelings he hasn't felt in utterly too long. When he tugs at her hair, she moans delightedly, and it's nice to see that he still has the Archibald touch.
Her eyelashes are fluttering upward as she rolls herself on top of him and he tries to steady her because she's so damn wild. Everything was always such a rush.
Take it down a notch. Take it slow. She would have none of it.
He is physically suffocating as her arms brush his neck with a touch short of smothering, her lips pressed hotly against his to block his flow of air.
There is everything and then there is nothing. The next morning, she is gone.
There are bruises on Nate's entire body that he had never expected to find. There are small hand marks on his neck, shoulders, and waist.
He is almost apprehensive to turn around in the mirror, for fear of what he may find. He was right to be worried.
It's as if an animal clawed at his back last night. He looks like he barely survived an attack with a grizzly. He can't bring himself to care.
There's a quick knock at his door and he briefly wonders if she is back.
It's not her.
"Hey, Serena," he greets lazily, "Come on in."
Serena stares at his chest worriedly as she wonders aloud, "What the hell happened to you, Natie? You look like you were attacked."
Sheepishly, Nate replies, "Things just got a little rough last night. You know how it is."
She did, slightly, although they were never as rough as he was last night. She kept silent on the subject matter. They tended to skirt around the issue to keep their friendships intact.
Nate asks, "What brings you to my neck of the woods?"
Serena scrunches her face together as she ponders his words.
She smiles before she responds, "I could ask you the same thing. Murray Hill? Really?"
"Who are you?" he chuckles, "Blair?"
She laughs with him until they settle into a comfortable conversation. She doesn't leave until nightfall and he realizes he has missed this side of Serena for a very long time.
Nate's first semester at Columbia drags on. It is not as easy as he expected.
Blair is helpful, because they are friends again. He tries not to linger on her dark hair for too long, or stare at her when she wears fitted red dresses.
Red had always been his favorite color on her. Surely, she wasn't doing this on purpose.
Nonetheless, he's tactless when he asks, "Why do you wear red all the time?"
Blair looks stunned when she responds, "I thought you liked red."
Now it's Nate's turn to look sheepish when he replies, "You're wearing red for me?"
Blair rolls her eyes, "It's not for you. I'm just comfortable in it."
It's a terrible shame when she comes over in shades of blue and green and everything but red after this. He doesn't mention anything remotely like it ever again.
It is becoming harder and harder to commute to school from this neighborhood in the middle of nowhere, but Nate still has a little bit of something Upper East Side in him, because he blatantly refuses to move to Morningside Heights.
His real estate broker is becoming slightly agitated with him, but he won't say anything, because Nate is an Archibald and a Vanderbilt and the broker needs his business in this era of recession.
"I won't live north of 110th Street," Nate insists, although he's not even sure the broker is listening.
There is a vacant two bedroom on one of the streets in the 90s and Nate takes him up on the offer with barely a glance at the place. There is a tiny brunette that lives across the hall who nearly chirps when she sees him.
He grins at her enthusiasm.
Nate's tiny brunette neighbor is in his first class second semester.
"Hi," she definitely chirps, small hand held out, "I'm Alice Cullen."
She beams knowingly at him when he takes her hand in his, shivering from the January cold.
"Nate Archibald," he greets her, "Pleasure to meet you."
She giggles, "Turn on the charm a lot?"
He has the decency to look down, but she's still gazing into his eyes perceptively.
"It's easier than…otherwise."
It's cryptic and he knows it, but she shrugs it off without a care in the world as she lets him walk her to her next class.
Nate barely has his apartment for a week before Serena insists on christening it. He wants to disagree with her, but when her golden curls bounce, he's reminded of two nights he can't seem to forget.
He could never say no to a pretty girl. He has never said no to Serena. He finds himself agreeing to the party and before she even asks, he tells her she and Blair can take over the whole damn thing.
She grins beautifully at him and it takes all of his willpower to not crash his lips against her own. He hasn't felt this way about her in a long time, but if he's truly honest with himself, the feeling never left.
He hates feeling honest with himself.
It is not Serena he notices at the party, but Blair. Even now, Nate is conflicted.
Serena comes in red, but it doesn't contrast against her hair quite like Blair's and for a second, he wonders what she could look like with brown hair. He regrets it in an instant.
Serena is predictably drunk when she stumbles over to ask him, "What are you thinking about, Natie?" her hands haphazardly placed on his chest.
"Nothing important," he assures her, "Don't worry your pretty little head about it."
Blair is hand in hand with Chuck in a long silk gown of the blackest material. It looks soft and he wants to touch it. He won't. Chuck has caught his eyes roaming so he turns around and runs into his favorite tiny neighbor.
"Alice, hey," he greets her.
She has a swarm of people around her, not that this is new. She was rather popular – at least amongst the males – in their early morning history class.
She smiles at him, "I'd like you to meet some of my family members."
Emmett is her burly older brother with dark, curly hair. He is no smaller than 6'4" and Nate makes plans to never piss him off. The guy next to him smiles lightly, as if his thoughts are funny.
The smiling guy is Edward, her other brother. This one has bronze hair and angled features. He could easily be a model. To be honest, they all could.
Alice waves her hand in the direction of a tall blond. This one is her boyfriend Jasper. He points to his twin Rosalie and Nate all but faints.
It is her.
She's not Serena and he has no wish for her to be. She is beautiful as she gives Alice a lethal stare and Nate briefly wonders what made her so angry.
Rosalie – even her name was beautiful, he mused – purses her lips before giving him a curt nod. She leaves without a second glance.
He can't help but blurt out, "What's her problem?"
To his surprise, Emmett chuckles, "Don't mind her. She's just a bitch sometimes."
"Sometimes?" Jasper throws in.
Emmett laughs again, "All the time, then."
Nate feels the strange urge to stick up for her, "Isn't that a little rude?"
Emmett cocks an eyebrow at him, "Man, I dated that girl for like fifty years. Whatever. Shit's old."
Everyone but Nate laughs at that and he highly suspects he is being left out of an inside joke. He decides to let it go. He has no other choice, really.
Nate becomes friends with Emmett and Jasper. Edward doesn't seem too fond of him, but it doesn't bother him too much.
Blair is hanging around Alice's apartment one day, but Alice is nowhere in sight. He asks Blair where she is.
Blair casually shrugs, "She's probably shopping. I mean, it's Alice."
"You're not with her?" Nate questions.
Blair shrugs again, "I was going to watch a movie with Edward."
This is news.
He blurts out, "Where's Chuck?" before he can shut his mouth.
Blair laughs, "Downtown. I can have friends, you know."
"Male friends," is the non question that flows from Nate's mouth.
Blair confirms, "Male friends," before settling into a fit of laughter.
It is a random foggy day in August when Nate stumbles across Rosalie for the first time since his party. She's a pretty picture, sitting on a picturesque bench in Central Park.
He greets her, "Hi, Rosalie."
She nods at him and scoots over on the bench, "Hello, Nate."
He wants to ask the questions Are you avoiding me? and Did that night mean anything to you? and Do you know you're the most beautiful girl in the entire world? but he refrains and settles into a slightly uncomfortable silence.
"I don't avoid you on purpose, you know," she whispers, but he's already hanging on every word.
"You don't?"
She turns to look at him, her golden eyes burning, "Technically, I do, but it's for your own good."
He's confused, so he asks, "Are you bad?"
He sounds like a kindergartener as she laughs, the sound tinkling in the wind.
"Let's just say you're better off without my kind," Rosalie confirms.
He assumes the slutty variety, but he's had his share of that and suddenly thoughts of Serena pop into his mind. He briefly shuts her out.
"I want to see you again," Nate insists, "That night…"
"…was wonderful," Rosalie admits, "But you and I aren't right for each other."
Nate is angry when he responds, "How can you even say that? You don't even know me."
Rosalie stares into the distance as she tells him, "I know your type."
"I didn't think you would stereotype."
She whispers, "It's better that you think of me this way, I promise. Someday you'll see."
21 Years Later
When Nate is forty and it is his turn to pick up Sierra from Lawrenceville, he shudders involuntarily against the cold. His daughter is the spitting image of her mother and it makes him smile every time.
Sometimes he and Serena were together. Sometimes they weren't. She floated through life semi single, never wanting to repeat her mother's mistakes, but making her own along the way.
When he finished Columbia, she came back from a whirlwind tour from Asia, and they were together. They had an entire summer before Nate moved downtown to work on Wall Street and then she got pregnant.
He wanted to marry her, hell, he had wanted this years ago – or so he thought – but she wouldn't let him. It wasn't as scandalous as he expected, but there were still whispers amongst the upper crust crowd. There always would be.
Serena floated between him and her freedom. Her freedom won out most of the time. Nate didn't begrudge her this, but he had a daughter to take care of. With his busy office hours, it was easier to send her to boarding school.
Last he heard, Serena was in Europe being followed by Carter Baizen. Nate shook his head. They had always loved the same girls.
As he steps outside to wait for his daughter, he sees the telltale curls of another blonde head. She is shaking her hair left and right and he has the strange urge to see her face.
You idiot, she's probably one of your daughter's friends, he thinks to himself.
She turns and he remembers a face he hasn't seen in over two decades. Her golden eyes are still smoldering, but this could not be the case. She is unchanged by time.
Nate blinks.
And then Rosalie is gone, the ghost of her memory imprinted on his brain forever.