This is the last long fic I've published. I wrote it almost two years ago, at the end of the 4th season, because I didn't like how the story went. The structure of the text is inspired by the fic "the Little Princess" wrote by Isabelle ( my favourite Chair writer). So It is divided in two parts. At the beginning, the end of the fist half and at the end of the chapters you'll find a cursive paragraph which represents one of the character thoughts, all the rest is the story. Despite the gossip girl characters, which I don't own, and I write about just for personal pleasure, I want to specify that in this fic you'll find some new characters, born from my imagination, whose storylines intertwine Chuck and Blair's one.
All the names and the characters are invented too.
I hope you'll like it.
I need to thank my wonderful beta, who helped me while I was writing this in italian, and is correcting my translations. Thank you Cry!
Chapter 1: THE HEIRESS
It was November, during my fifteen, when my grandfather took me with him to Prague for one of his boring business trip. I hated them because half of the time I stayed close in one of our family's many soulless properties, while he was doing public appearances and attending galas. It was Andy, the British ambassador's son, who asked my grandfather if I could have accompanied him to one of his friend's party, overcoming my grandfather's diffidence.
He's never got mad at me when he found out that he took me to an illegal party in an old bank's caveau, with too many persons he'd have defined disreputable. I've always wondered if, looking back, he'd felt some kind of remorse not to have cut the problem by the root. As for me, I've cursed that choice for many years because it made me grow up more than a 15 years old should have had. But, above all the many things which followed that night, there was one thing that became part of my life and made it better: Chuck Bass.
Hamptons estate 2012
"Blair… Blair Waldorf?" Dan stood up, watching her approaching the table he had chosen.
"I'm having breakfast with you just because Nate is out with Eric!"
She was always the same, head held high, straighten back, 12 heel and a Chanel bag. Without looking at him, she took the chair and sat, crossing her legs, leaving him still standing.
"Hi, Dan! I'm so happy to see you! How are you? I'm glad you're fine! I'm good too" he ironically raved out laud, keeping on standing, knowing that she wasn't even listening on to him, but that she was ready to give him an order.
"Bring me a coffee, big cup, not watery" despite the two years of their pseudo friendship, every time this scene repeated itself, Dan couldn't stop giving her that look, the one that told about how much he hated taking orders by spoiled and disrespectful people.
"Something else?" he faked courtesy.
"Check if the cup is dirty"
"I'll ask them to hand clean it" he pinpointed with a sarcastic tone, before going to the counter.
"So, are you planning not to tell me?" Dan asked her, after she had called the waiter for the millions time because the milk for the coffee was too skimmed and the cup handle was lightly scratched. Working with her had taught him that this was the morning peak of a Waldorf tension mood.
"I don't know what you're talking about" she pretended to stare at the blossomed flowerbed outside of the window.
"I'm talking about the reason why you're so nervous today" he explained gently, knowing that he was entering into a minefield.
"Work" she answered, sipping at the coffee.
"Work?" he asked, not too convinced.
"What are you trying to insinuate Humphrey?" she turned towards him, aware that his journalistic bent would have continued till he had found even just a fragment of what he thought it was a corroborating proof for his irrelevant theory.
"When was the last time you've been at the Van der Woodsen?"
"Last week. For dinner" she answered immediately, very annoyed by his obtrusiveness.
"So… How are Chuck and Serena?" he asked generically.
"Good" she lied. He looked like if he was doubting it.
"Ok!" she puffed "It seemed they were fine. At least, that's what I think" she looked around, avoiding his gaze.
"You think?" he repeated.
That was the reason why she hated Dan Humphrey so much. He had never learned how to mind just of his own business.
"Ok! Fine!" she was very, very irritated "Serena hasn't spoken to me all night and Chuck wasn't even there. Are you satisfied now?"
He looked at her, while she was trying to stop sadness from possessing her face. She turned her gaze back out of the window, preventing him from finding out the truth, hidden in her silence, the one that resurfaced every time he tested that button.
He look down at his breakfast. Did he have to tell her or was it better to omit?
"Stop doing that face, Humphrey! I already know what you don't know if you should tell me"
"Do you know?" he asked, quite surprised. He had never understood how the Waldorf radar worked, but it worked very well.
"If you're referring to the fact that 'the great Chuck Bass is permanently accompanied by the nephew of the most powerful bank magnate in the world, as well as the third richest men of the planet', well, I do!" she repeated parrot-fashion his article about this story.
"I'm sorry for not telling you about.."
"The fact that you were following Chuck's hunting expedition?"- she interrupted him "We are not together anymore. I don't care who he's dating" she looked at him faking a smile.
"So, the news that she's been hosted by Lily here at the Hamptons, doesn't piss you off..." Dan continued, convinced that the more she had known about Chuck, more she had consequentially behaved. She had suffered too much because of him, she had given him too much of herself to destroy all was left of the only healthy part of their relationship. She deserved someone better. Someone different.
"I'm happy for him" she answered quickly with a forced smile. "And, please. Spare me the ritual argument! I'm good. I'm a successful woman and I have all the men I want. Chuck Bass is just a frail memory of a totally wrong page of my life".
"Glad to hear it from you. You and I both know, you've worked hard to reach the place you're now. Coming back into that delusional phase would be just a waste of time" he agreed, but Blair looked down at the empty cup of coffee.
She had fought hard, tooth and nails, to find back her real self and create her little place in the world, something where to define herself and that could point at the difference between her and the world outside. And she made it. She could say she was Blair Waldorf, a copy editor of an important fashion magazine, not the daughter of or the girlfriend of, not anymore. But even if anyone had ever been able to stop her career, that man kept on doing it, appearing and disappearing on the financial and gossip newspapers.
She had always wondered if what she was still feeling for him was just disappointment for the fact that they could have had it all together, but they had ended up with nothing due to the tons of mistakes which had ripped them apart, deeply.
Yet, even if she hated admitting it, during all those years she had thought about him, many times, realizing that sometimes she missed all the little things that characterized him, that had tied them together. And yes, She had seen all that pictures with that girl, and despite the irritation she could have felt, she was sure that that man wasn't Chuck, at least not the one that she was used to know better than anyone else.
Obviously, she had never told Dan she was still thinking about Chuck. He could have never understood. No one could have.
"I have to go" she closed the Bass argument, reaching her bag on the other chair and standing up.
"Shall I accompany you?" he stood up too.
"And ruin my new Louboutin walking with you on the sidewalk?" she was disgusted.
"I'll walk you to the car" he conceded.
I knew the Hamptons pretty well since my grandmother used to take me there really often when I was a kid. We owned eight houses there, so we used to play a game: when we decided to go there, we used to put all the names in a container and drew lots. However, we used to stay there just for a few days. I've always preferred the house in Ponza or in Capri. The fact that part of my family was Italian helped me in making me love that land so much more.
One of the many things that I hated about the Hamptons was the high society colonization, attending parties everyday just to show our presence in the unlimited luxury we were obliged to, for etiquette.
I've always loved the parties and the fact that my family was one of the most powerful of the world prevented me from hating luxury and its comforts, but my grandparents have always taught me that flaunting could have been dangerous. That's the reason why I grew up in a small town, raised to respect every social level and dropper introduced to the world.
Black and White Party
"I can already imagine what they' say" she whispered, so that he was the only one able to hear her.
"That's the fun in this" he hold out his hand to help her, going down the stairs toward the gazebo.
"Of course!" she smiled "How could I've ever forget it? I'm getting along with the most talked about bachelor of this hemisphere!"
"Causing a stir is my mission"
"Well, that total yellow suit is absolutely going to help"
The silence fell for a few steps, than he stopped and hold her with him. They were just a few feet away from their first public appearance.
"If you really want to stay in New York, this is inevitable" he was serious, but she could feel a pale sign of concern while his hazel eyes were staring at her, looking for a validation, or, maybe, just a promise that everything was going to be fine, for good.
"There's nothing I love more than entering the list and facing the enemy" she reassured him, placing her hand on his cheek to rub out a grain of sand next to his ear. It was one of that kind of intimate acts, they were slowly getting used to.
She couldn't tell him she was scared too. Walking through that door meant publicly changing their life, answer to too many questions. They had talked about that for so long with their families. It was decided, that was the right time and the best way to let their bond fall in the public domain.
Like if they even had another possibility! She thought. Since they had decided that they couldn't care less about the press they had been immortalized on every possible magazine or newspaper. There wasn't another possibility for them.
She took his hand and tightened firmly. When his face relaxed, she realized he was ready.
Everything happened immediately. First the paparazzi's flashes dazzled Chuck Bass and Daphne Ginevra Harvey, then, suddenly, all the presents' gazes were on them, followed by any sort of malicious comments.
"If I don't drink a few shoot of vodka now, I think I can insult someone!" she explained between teeth, faking a smile to the mayor's wife, they were having a conversation with. He stifled a laugh.
"The private bar is on the east side of the house" he whispered in her ear.
"Chuck Bass, In due time you're going to be handsomely rewarded for this" she turned toward him, smiling smartly.
"Ru-fia-na" he answered with seducing voice and malicious gaze, repeating that Italian word in a wrong accent.
"Have you seen Blair? She's back from France" Eric was looking at Blair from the balcony. It was impossible not noticing her, as when she had entered the gazebo all the flashes were on her.
Serena, leaned over the balcony to see her ex bff. Her gaze seemed warmed for a while, before coming back to the indifference mask she's gotten used to wear every time the Blair Waldorf argument peaked up.
"She looks fine" she commented.
"You miss her" he knew her better.
"It doesn't matter"
"She's your best friend" he pointed out.
"She was" she specified "Before she lied to me and fooled me"
"Maybe you just have to…"
"The only thing I have to do right now is going downstairs to entertain Chuck and Daphne" Serena cut off the conversation.
Since she had arrived she hadn't even been able to take a breath. Cece had blocked her to talk about Paris. Lily had introduced her to some new members of Bass Industries, while every single person she knew, wanted to know how she was going, why she did leave the prince but didn't come back home. Too bad, that every single conversation had ended with a comment or a question about Chuck and his new girlfriend.
She needed a drink. A strong drink. She knew that Cece had a bar on the opposite side of the house, where she and the NJBC eused to stole bottles during the summer parties. She headed there, through the corridors where she was used to run after Serena playing hide and seek when they were babies. The old bar room was empty but it still felt warm with its retrò furniture.
She took the bottle, pouring the Martini into the glass. She smiled, realizing that she had chosen the glass with Chuck initials, the one that he had carved by himself during a drunken afternoon. The first sip was liberating, the second one refreshing, on the third she was finally relaxed. Transported by the memories, she remembered when the NJBC lied on the sofa in the center of that room and stayed there for hours, staring at the ceiling, after drinking everything. She still could feel the same quiet and familiarity with that place. Cece hadn't even cancelled the sign of their height, measured every summer and printed on the huge mahogany library against the wall. She couldn't contain the urge to touch the letters with her hand.
Accepting the fact that everything was different just by reading their names on the wood and admitting how much she was unhappy without them, really hurt her. It was so strange. So difficult.
She was touching the C letter when a female voice interrupted her.
"I did it too in my house. My grandmother kept on measuring me till last year".
Blair had just the time to dry the tears on her cheeks before turning and finding that the most talked about woman of the party was standing right in front of her.
Everyone knew her, but she had the fame to be everything but unreachable. So Blair couldn't help but stare at her, surprised by the way her white Valentino with black borders clung perfectly on her body, giving her a touch of impeccable refinement. Or notice the way her brown hair fell gently on her tanned back, without any hairstyle, making her look someone of an innate elegance. She was beautiful. She already knew it from the gossips and the pictures with Chuck, but in person she simply let anyone speechless. She looked untouchable. Hazel eyes, long eyelashes, tanned skin, slightly red cheeks and a hard gaze, but sweet at the same time.
Blair didn't like to feel uncomfortable, but in that very moment she was and she didn't like it. It was just a few minutes later that Blair realized that the girl was studying her too, pushing her to break the silence.
"I don't speak with the strangers" Blair started, plunging the first lama. She didn't like the fact that his ex's girlfriend was trying to talk to her without being introduced first.
Daphne smiled than walked to the bar to pour herself a drink. Blair expected everything but that reaction.
"You know, Blair, I've been waiting years for meeting you. Your fame anticipates you".
"What a wonderful thing! In this case I don't need to waste my time to instruct you about what you can do, or better, you can't do on my land" Blair admonished her sharply. She couldn't say what was pissing her the most: her ethereal aspect or her charm?
"I've been told this too, about you…" she raised the glass and started to sip. Blair boiled, but she knew she couldn't lose the control.
"Very good! So, there's nothing left to say " Blair ended the conversation, ready to leave the room, but the girl stopped just in front of her, preventing her from reaching the door.
"Daphne Ginevra Harvey. This is my name, Blair. Although, I seriously doubt that you didn't know it. By the way, since this moment on, we're not strangers anymore" she smiled at her. Blair stared at her, cough on the wrong foot.
She's one of the smartest and most clever girl I've ever met. She doesn't allow anyone to walk over her. That was the way Cyrus had described Daphne, a while ago.
"And Blair…" Daphne took another sip first "…nobody tells me what to do! I won't do this to you and vice versa. I'm sure, I've been clear, too! To our next conversation!" she raised the glass to Blair, who was now very pissed.
"I seriously doubt it" Blair answered immediately, stepping toward her in order to hint her to make her street.
Daphne didn't, she simply stayed there looking at her without moving. Blair challenged her with her gaze, without any result. She had to turn and leave the room avoiding her. She was fuming. That girl was a threat. She needed to defeat her.
The first time I've heard about Blair Waldorf, it was through Chuck Bass. At the time she was still engaged to his best friend, but it didn't stop me from reading something deeper in Chuck's expression, at the only pronouncement of her name. Through the time I've learned how to know her by his moods and the few sentences which followed a few more glasses of scotch.
One thing about her was clear: no one could have influenced Chuck Bass the way she could. It was like he fully depended on her, like if their relationship worked just on a dual way: living or dead. I've wondered for many years what made her so special to be able to destroy him and then rebuild him stronger, every single time. It was just when I met her for the very first time that I realized it.