A/N: No, this isn't CB central (even if they happen to slip in on occasion). My apologies. XD It's just a crazy, silly little idea I came up with during one of my gigging fests with my BFF. ;) Nate-central. Flashbacks to the younger years with our ever so lovely N-JBC. ;p ENJOY! =D

…………………………………………………………………

"Nathaniel, there is nothing on your forehead."

He spoke adamantly, and I knew there was no real reason to doubt him, but…

"Now, now, don't touch it!" Blair reprimanded, pulling my arm back down to its prior position, dangling at my side.

"Blair," Chuck shot a glare in her direction, and she shot one right back. I reached back up to touch my face, but to no avail.

"I'm not going to tell you twice, Sweetie," she smiled adoringly. Honestly, it was starting to freak me out. She hadn't called me 'sweetie' since our last, and final, breakup…six years ago. Chuck and Blair had gotten married a few years into college at that. So this had nothing to do with romantic entanglements. But, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what exactly it had to do with.

It was not the most pleasurable experience, however, when Blair's fingernails dug into my skin on the second trip of arm to side, away from face.

I sighed.

I was a dignified politician! Well, almost. If there was something on my face, I needed to know about it! I couldn't go walking around Manhattan looking like an idiot. I'm sure that shouts Senator like none other. Inward eye-roll.

"I know there is something on my forehead," I spoke pointedly, and very slow. I could feel it or them on my forehead. It wasn't just my imagination. So, either they didn't see it, or…

The two just blinked at me, and after a moment, Chuck looked at me like I was crazy.

"You're having delusions, man," he smacked me lightly on the shoulder and turned to walk away. He didn't get far once he realized Blair hadn't followed him.

…they were setting me up.

"Mrs. Bass," he called out to her, and I could see how it affected her. Her face bloomed into a soft shade of pink and the beaming smile she tried to suppress came out through her eyes. But she was set on analyzing me, making sure I wouldn't touch my face. Almost like she wanted me to look like a complete fool. "Let's go."

She was not moving.

And I could not look away from her penetrating brown eyes. They scared me. Gulp.

Just then, Serena walked up—at random—and announced in her giggly voice, "Oh Nate! You've got stickers on your face!"

I could hear Chuck and Blair's audible frustrated groans, but it was the female brunette who fumed and lashed out at the blonde. "Ugh, S! You've ruined everything!" she turned, muttering something undecipherable on her departure.

"Blair," Chuck called after her calmly, having decided following her was probably the best option.

The blonde before me scrunched up her eyebrows. "Did I…miss…something?"

"Who knows?" I shook my head, and then proceeded to take the stickers off my face. Serena helped.

"Sheesh, these are awful," she giggled, and I had to agree. Where Chuck and Blair got these ridiculous multi-colored stickers, and how they had gotten them on my face would always serve to be a mystery.

"You know what this reminds me of?" she asked, in the process of getting the last few stickers off. Apparently there were pale circles all over my forehead where the sticky shiny shapes had been. I rubbed at it annoyingly.

"What?" I asked, groaning a bit at the situation the two mind-masters had gotten me in.

"That one time in grade school…"

"Huh?" I asked, beyond confused. This had been done before?

"Yeah," she laughed, "We were like in…5th grade, I think," she sighed contently at the memory.

Maybe it wasn't that bad if Serena found it memorable, in a good way.

"You got this ridiculous sucker stick stuck to your head, it was pretty funny," she laughed again, but this time it was less so.

"I don't really…remember this. Are you sure I was the victim in this scenario?"

Serena smiled. "Oh yeah, Chuck and Blair had been planning it for at least three or four days beforehand."

I gaped at her. "Are you s-serious?"

She nodded, laughing again. "Yep." She seemed to have cleared off all the remaining stickers and I had stopped in my constant rubbing of the empty spaces. We had gotten to a park bench and I insisted she tell me the story. Maybe it would all come back to me.

"First of all, before you start…"

She waited for me to continue, seeming to be quite confused when I hesitated for a moment. "Yeah?" she offered up.

"How do you know about this?"

She laughed nervously, turning away from me.

"Serena. You weren't an accomplice in this vile act, were you?"

"Oh, Nate. It was hardly a vile act," she rolled her eyes, flipping her long blonde locks over her shoulder.

"Serena!"

She laughed now. Again. "To answer your question, no, I was not. Half the time I was too tired to participate or even be involved to begin with. But I was aware. I eavesdropped when Blair pushed me away the first time."

"The first time?!" I asked, aghast.

She nodded, fighting the smile that slipped through regardless.

"Yeah," she giggled, trying to stifle it for the sake of the horrified Nate Archibald before her. "I walked in on them in the middle of the night during one of our sleepovers. Chuck had snuck in apparently to discuss the 'plan' with Blair. I was curious when I saw your name on the quite detailed sheet they had before them, but Blair pushed me away, saying I would tell the secret if she let me in on it. I said I wouldn't, but she didn't believe me."

He stared at her in pure shock and disbelief.

"So, yeah, that was pretty much it," she chirped cheerily, getting up to leave.

He pulled her back down. "The first time?" He repeated.

She let a guilty sigh slip out. "Yeah," she paused, "I overheard a phone conversation Blair was having with Chuck too, but they were talking all technical and mischievous, so I didn't bother anymore." She shrugged.

He was still in shock.

She laughed softly. "Maybe I should just tell you…"

…………………………………………….

"Shh! Be quiet!" ten-year-old Blair Waldorf shoved her elbow into the boy standing next to her.

"Ow!" he stifled a shriek, wincing in pain. "Could you be less…physical?" he rubbed at his stomach.

The young girl rolled her eyes at him. "Something tells me you will wish otherwise in about five to ten years," she muttered.

He took no heed to her. "Ok, what are we doing?"

"Well, you came up with the plan. Shouldn't you know?"

His eyes narrowed in on her, and she gestured to the room before them. "What?" he asked.

She huffed at him. "You really are oblivious, Bass," she pulled him into the room after her.

"I am insulted."

"Hush!" she motioned for him to be quiet again, and they zoomed in on the sleeping boy before them. "Look…" she pointed to the sleeping form, and a smile crept eerily across her features. She didn't have to look at to the boy next to her to know he was doing the same thing. She held her hand out to him, and he placed the object in her hand. She grimaced for a moment before recovering.

"Ugh, the non-sticky end, you moron."

Chuck rolled his eyes and adjusted the sucker stick in her hand. "There. Happy princess?" he sneered.

Her lips formed a perfect smile as she turned to him. "Mmhmm."

He crossed his arms against his chest. "Well?" he gestured to the blonde boy as she had done before. "Are we doing this or not?"

She took a preparatory sigh and stepped forward a few feet. "We're doing this."

"Blair…"

Silence. She was so focused on the task at hand, she had blocked his voice from her mind. His calls.

"Blair—" he said again. When she didn't respond for a second time again, he poked her—a little too hard, causing her to almost tumble on the sleeping mass—and she scowled at him. He winced.

"What is it, Bass?!" she whispered it so intensely, he wondered if there was not just a volume adjustment in her vocal chords.

"I was just wondering why we're doing this to Nate," his eyes had narrowed, unpleasing to her irritated attitude.

"You have GOT to be kidding me," she crossed her arms, noticing how he released his own from their position simultaneously.

"What?" he questioned, acting the ever innocent child. "You said you wanted to do this to one of our oblivious blonde playmates, because you thought they'd be so oblivious they wouldn't notice. I just want to know why you chose Nate over Serena. Some sort of favoritism, Waldorf?"

She scowled at him. "You realize you were a part of this decision making process, right?"

"That doesn't answer my question," his fist clenched at his side.

"Fine," she spat, "though this is completely ridiculous and totally not the right time to be doing this," she sighed dramatically. Nate turned in his sleep.

Chuck blinked his eyes wide, expectantly.

She twitched. "Nate would forget eventually. He would forgive you like…instantly," she waved her hand around in flippant gestures. "Also, she's my best friend! Why would I do something like this to her?"

He opened his mouth to respond, but she quickly held up a hand to silence him.

"And before you go off saying that Nate is your best friend and why would you do something like this to him…"

His lips curved into an amused grin.

"Well…" she grappled for the right words, "You guys are boys!"

He raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "And?" he inquired.

"And…" she sighed again, growing annoyed when that stupid smirk of his appeared on his face. "Oh whatever, I am not debating this with you, when we are moments away from achieving our goal." She turned around again, focusing back on Nate. She smoothed down the front of her little pink satin nightie and took a step forward. Chuck shook his head and followed.

"Blair?"

The two spun around instantly to find the drowsy, mess of blonde strands known as little Serena Van der Woodsen, standing in the doorway.

"Get down!" the brunette forced the young Bass onto the floor.

"Oh, cause she's not gonna know I'm down here," he muttered, once she had sufficiently pushed him down and into the shadows of the room.

"She won't if you don't make too much noise!" she whispered through her teeth.

"Why aren't you in bed?" the blonde beauty stepped towards Blair, rubbing her eyes as she went and pushing the blonde swirls away from her face.

"Oh, I just came in here to get some water," the brunette said casually, hoping it passed for 'almost tired'.

Serena nodded tiredly. Then she looked around the room. "This is the boys' room," she commented, confused.

"Right."

The blonde shook her head. "I think my head hurts."

The brunette nodded softly, sympathetically, at her best friend. "Here, come on, let's get you back to bed. I'll be in in a minute," she encouraged.

Serena whined. "But Blair, why can't you come with me now?"

She sighed, glancing back at Chuck for some extra help. He was sufficiently hidden in the shadows though, and gave her no hint or suggestion. Her eyes narrowed in on the devilish boy, but she continued down the hall with her friend.

"Alright, S, but I really need some more water, so…only for a little while."

"Well, I could go with you to get some…" she yawned, "water."

Blair's eyes bulged. Her escape plan was slowly diminishing. "No, no, you don't have to do that—"

"Oh, but I think I want to, B!" the blonde said, suddenly alert.

The girl's eyes furrowed in anxious worry. "No," she drew her arms down from their excited waving movements in front of her face. "I don't think you do. Look at you, you're so…tired."

Her best friend frowned. "I am not," she grumbled.

Blair sighed, pushing the blonde closer in the direction of their sleeping abode. "Come on, S, I won't be long. I promise. You get some more sleep."

Serena side dejectedly. "Ok…" she mumbled. The brunette almost felt bad for her actions, but the steady even breathing of her best friend told her she had been right in pushing her aside. She had been tired, and already asleep before her scheming counterpart left the room.

Gasp.

She could not believe what she was seeing. On re-entrance to the darkened domain of both Bass and Archibald, Blair witnessed the ultimate distress in her plans with Chuck.

"There," the brown-haired boy said, satisfied with his work. He stood to his feet now, and turned to see the fuming look coming from his recently departed manipulative buddy. "Crap."

"You didn't," her voice was so low and accusatory, he almost wished he could disappear into some secret trap door beneath his feet.

"I-I—"

"No, I don't wanna hear your excuses!" the harsh whispers were hard to keep at a lowered level, but somehow she managed it.

"You were gone, Blair!" he defended, "I thought you were gonna be stuck singing lullabies to your sleep-walking bunny friend!"

She looked at him incredulously, and he honestly didn't know if it was more for Serena's nickname or what he was assuming. But it seriously bothered him that he couldn't hear any sound coming from her, not even breathing.

"You stole, the sucker stick," she spoke, low and dangerous, after several long moments of agony (on his part at least).

His eyes narrowed. "For your information, I didn't steal anything. You dropped it when you were escorting your 'sleepy-but-not' friend out the door."

"Fine," her teeth ground together, "But the next time you want to devise another of your pathetic second-rate schemes, count me out." She huffed and stomped out of the room, as quiet as one could while maintaining the desired effect.

His eyes widened, and he panicked. He should've never put that sticky sucker stick on Nate Archibald's forehead. He should've known she would come back. She always came back, no matter who or what you saw her walking out with.

He sighed, running a hand through his mess of brown hair. "Blair," he whined out, following in the direction she had gone. The brown-haired girl poked her head out of her room the second he made it to the hallway. His eyebrows narrowed at this.

"Were you..expecting me…to come out?" he asked, aghast.

She scoffed and shook her head at the boy before her. "No," she said defiantly, clearly annoyed with his accusation.

He was unconvinced, and used this feeling to beat her in her new little game. "You were, weren't you?"

She kept her stance, her eyes widening as he approached her.

"You thought I felt so bad and just couldn't live without you as a scheming buddy that I would come out after you and apologize," he spat, folding his arms across his chest again, and smiling smugly at the feisty ten-year-old before him.

Blair huffed. "Well, why did you come out here then?"

"Water," his eyes narrowed.

It took her a moment to digest what he had said, but he could tell the very moment it happened because of the distinct roll of her eyes. "I'm sure," she muttered, returning back to her room.

He was about to charge in there after her, but she slammed the door in his face, and the only thing he could hear in the following seconds was Serena's complaining groan that some sort of vile noise had waken her up.

……………

The sun rose bright and early the next morning. Blair made sure to be up before Serena, but it wasn't too difficult since the blonde always slept later, and the brunette hardly got a wink in all night. She hated being mad at Chuck, but there was no way she was caving first. He was the one who had done the dirty deed anyways, and he had shown no effort giving her a reason to forgive him.

"Blair?" Nate's head popped in through the doorway. It occurred to her that the door had been closed when she went in for the final time the night before and she was pretty sure he hadn't opened it when he popped his head in. But she dismissed it. Chuck couldn't have honestly come in to check on her afterwards.

"Hey Nate," she almost sang to him, as she approached to the door. "Come on," she escorted him into the hallway, shutting the door behind them. "Sleeping beauty needs her rest." They smiled at each other, and Blair took notice of the sucker stick perfectly placed on his forehead. Her smile widened at this. Maybe she had wanted to place it there, and even made known to the brown-haired jerk how it was her who was supposed to do it, and no one else. But she couldn't have imagined a better spot.

"What is it?" he asked, at her widening smile.

She shook her head briefly. "It's nothing," she grabbed hold of his arm and squeezed gently, "Let's go get some breakfast."

Chuck was there sitting at the table, pushing the pancakes around on his plate. He sighed softly and looked to be struggling to reach the orange juice just a few inches away and drink from it. Blair cleared her throat, though, and he instantly sat up and focused his eyes on her. She was smiling brightly, interlocking her arm with Nate's, who stood there gazing across the room in search of food.

"Nathaniel," Chuck announced, dismissing the brunette's current existence. Her eyebrows furrowed at the action.

"Oh, hey Chuck!" the boy beside her cheered and joined his counterpart at the table, hardly noticing when he slipped out of Blair's lazy grasp.

She fumed. Chuck knew how much she longed to date the clueless heartthrob, and victory shone as heinously as that ridiculous smirk all over his face.

"Nate," she ground her teeth. She spoke a few more times before the boy quirked his head up in her direction, having been distracted by Chuck's pointless chatter talk.

"Hmm?"

Blair rolled her eyes. "I'm gonna go check on Serena," she muttered.

The boy's eyebrows furrowed, but then his face relaxed and he turned back to Chuck. "Okay," he spoke cheerily.

The once again frustrated girl turned to leave the kitchen, but ended up smashing straight into her blonde friend, a sleepier mess than she had been the night before.

"Ah!"

"Serena!"

They both collapsed onto the floor, trying to hold on to each other's hands or arms in an attempt to stay standing. They failed.

"Ow," Blair whimpered, rubbing her head where it had collided with the floor. Serena was still rubbing her eyes, both from the fall and from her recent awake from dreamland.

"Oh, hey guys!" the blonde declared, skipping over to the table, and sliding into the seat next to Nate. She dove into her pancakes and sausages, hunger overtaking the possible concern she might've had over her best friend's frazzled state.

The brunette was furious. This was her house. She had invited them. For the sole purpose of tricking her future boyfriend into the inevitable fate of a sucker stick on his face. If that basstard hadn't committed such a horrible betrayal, they would be laughing about it now, instead of everyone enjoying their breakfast but her.

"Are you coming, B?" Serena chirped.

Her eye twitched, but she shook off the fury and showed all the aspects of the perfect little princess. "Of course, S," she replied, sitting gracefully down in her seat, cursing the fact that the little Basstard was sitting next to her. She could feel his eyes on her, but she refused to let him know his affect on her. "I was just losing my bearings a bit," she finished, stretching that fake smile across her face as far as it would go.

"Hey Nate!" Serena called out, mouth full of food, to the boy beside her, and quite loudly at that. "Did you know there's a sucker stick on your head?!" She giggled for at least 10-15 seconds at this revelation, after which the blonde boy felt for the item on his head, and then pulled it off.

"Huh?" he asked.

Chuck avoided his gaze, and Blair just rolled her eyes, pushing away from the kitchen table.

"Suddenly I'm not hungry," she grumbled, stalking out of the kitchen.

Serena was oblivious, and Nate just continued to look down at the sticky sucker stick confusedly. They heard a door slam though, and both the blondes snapped their heads up in the direction Blair had gone. Before they could register what was happening exactly, Chuck had gotten up and strode out of the room. The two blondes looked at each other curiously and then returned to their plates of breakfast food.

"Blair…?" the young Bass boy knocked lightly on the door the young Waldorf girl had walked through and slammed.

"Go away!"

Sigh. "Blair, if you don't open the door, I'm coming in."

CLICK.

He growled. "Blair, unlock the door." His voice was low and dangerous. He wasn't backing down.

CLICK, CLICK, CLICK.

She huffed, spinning around once she felt his presence in the room. "Since when do you have a key to my room?!"

He shrugged, slipping his hands in his pockets. "I've got connections."

She rolled her eyes, plopping on the edge of her bed. "Oh, I'm sure."

He joined her on the bed, she turned away from him. He turned his body to where she was facing, and she turned away again. His sigh was so deep and long and aggravating, but she wouldn't budge.

"Not only did you totally ruin my moment, but that lame best friend of mine just stole our thunder!"

He couldn't help it. That smirk slid onto his face and didn't stop stretching as soon as she said the word 'our'.

"Our thunder, Waldorf?" he nudged her, but she tensed. His face fell again.

"I don't wanna talk to you, Bass," she straightened her posture and focused her eyes on an insignificant bare spot in the wall. "You've ruined everything."

"Hey!" he spun her around. "I'm not the one who told Serena to blow our cover, which by the way is still not blown, since Nate doesn't know how that stick was so conspicuously placed on his face."

Her face lit up at that fact, only a little but he saw it.

Gasp.

Both of them zoomed in at the doorway. There was Serena. They didn't know how much she had heard, but they knew it was enough. And then she was gone.

"Serena!"

In a haze of brown hair and silk pajamas, Blair flew after her best friend, pouncing on her the minute she caught up…half-way down the hallway.

"Ah!"

"Serena!" They screamed simultaneously as they crashed to the floor, for the second time that morning.

"Don't. Say. Anything," Blair growled, grinding her teeth.

"Blair, what are you talking ab—"

The girl's hand covered over her best friend's mouth, muffling the words that were trying to come through.

"Nothing. You understand?" It was a demand. There was no room for questioning.

Serena seemed so confused, but then Chuck came into the hallway and crawled down in front of them, pulling a roll of duck tape out from behind his back and unrolling it about three inches.

"Do you comprehend?" he asked, holding the sticky tape only inches away from her face. He seemed so light about the whole preposition, and yet his voice had lowered almost as deep as Blair's.

The blonde's eyes widened and all she could manage was a small nod. Blair released her grip, and lifted herself off her petrified best friend with the assistance of her partner in crime, Chuck Bass.

"It's good to see we have an understanding," she beamed. "Come on, Chuck. I do believe we have yet to finish our breakfast." The girl headed in the way of the kitchen with Chuck following close behind. And if Serena wasn't mistaken, the two were smirking at each other.

"Well done, Waldorf," he shook his head in awe at her, nudging her shoulder before re-entering the kitchen.

Her head turned briefly, and her eyes twinkled up at him. "You're forgiven, Bass."

His smirk widened into a smile. She walked on ahead of him, but he caught up with her.

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" he leered over her.

She pushed him away, pretending to act disgusted. But then her lips curved into a smile, spewing out a bucket full of giggles. "Well like I could actually place that stick anywhere more perfect than where you put it," she announced, quite professionally, tossing her long hair over her shoulders, and walking faster again until they made it to the kitchen.

Serena was nowhere in sight, and yet…there was Nate Archibald, fast asleep on the kitchen table, in the midst of breakfast food, napkins, syrup and that oh so symbolic sticky sucker stick that had ended up back on his plate and so therefore back on his forehead.

Minutes later, when the two devilish masterminds helped him clean up his face, they made careful allowances for what stayed and what was peeled away. Thanks to their new trust in Serena, she didn't say a word, and that trusty sticky sucker stick remained pasted to Nate's forehead until he returned home later that day and his mother nearly shrieked at the 'trashy' item that had been there since breakfast. Or, if Chuck and Blair were coerced enough, the night before.

……………………………………………………………………………

"Are you…serious?"

Serena's smile spread from ear to ear. "I said it before Nate, and it's still true, regardless of your doubts."

He leaned back against the park bench, trying to take in everything she had said, when an idea occurred to him. "Wait a minute!"

Serena turned to him, amused by his enthusiasm. "Yes, sticky face?"

He rolled his eyes at her. "Is that my new nickname?"

She cleared her throat, avoiding his gaze.

"What? That is a new nickname, right?" His eyes penetrated and she couldn't deny him the secrets she'd been resigned to keep for at least eight years.

"No," she shook her head.

He furrowed his eyebrows in a panic. "You mean—no, they didn't," he spoke quite seriously.

She nodded, giggles seeping out once more. "Yeah…it was kind of their secret nickname for you over the years."

He sunk farther into the bench, completely aghast. "I don't believe it," he was almost whispering.

"Oh! But what were you gonna say?" she nudged him.

He turned his face to her and looked at her in disbelief, somehow finding the strength to ask his original question. "Uh…how did you know all these details? You were either half asleep or out of the room for most of it."

She nodded, somehow predicting this question would come. "Eric was also at the sleepover. Just in a separate room than all of us, and uh…he…he's pretty sneaky in and of himself," she smiled softly at the thought.

Nate was still stuck in his look of disbelief. "Eric?"

She smiled.

"But he's like two years younger than us. So, he was like EIGHT when this happened."

She laughed. "Yes, I suppose that's true. But he was always quite the prodigy."

Now Nate laughed, still in shock but finding a way to move past it. "Wow, this is…this is a revealing day," he chuckled.

"Mmm," she nodded, her eyes flicking up in the distance once she saw the familiar couple that had rushed off in a flurry only minutes before Serena embarked on her enchanted story. "Oh, look!" She pointed them out to him, and his eyebrows furrowed in another solid confusion. There they were, looking every aspect of the perfect romantic couple. Fingers intertwined, adoring gazes hardly parting from each other, and the occasional peck on the cheek and the lips. He couldn't believe these were the same people they had seen earlier.

They looked nothing a lot.

"Wasn't she—"

"Mmhmm."

"And Chuck, wasn't he—"

"Yep."

He sighed, shaking his head and rubbing his hand all over his face in an attempt to understand it all.

"Can you—"

"Nope. Absolutely not. I couldn't understand them then, and I don't understand them now."

"Hey, S," Blair greeted sweetly, taking a seat beside her best friend. Chuck stood behind her, playing with her hair, and resting a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Nate looked close to having a migraine with all the confusing information he had absorbed in last forty-five minutes.

"Aww, your stickers are gone!" Blair commented, but it seemed predictable by the playful tone in her voice.

Serena smiled, but said nothing, hoping Nate would take the hint.

He didn't.

"Yes, I have just been informed of my prior sticky situations," Nate told her, looking a little too proud for his findings. "Blair, Chuck?"

Chuck's hand stilled in the brunette's silky long locks. Their eyes zoomed in on Serena, who was trying desperately hard to avoid the flaming fire erupting from their deep brown orbs.

"Serena," Chuck voice was low and dangerous. So much scarier than it had been at ten years old.

She gulped, turning hesitantly in their direction. "Now guys, before you say anything—"

"I mean, sticky face?!" the blonde boy exclaimed, now sufficiently in his own little world.

That was the last straw.

"SERENA!!!!!"

Blair lunged at her best friend, in a mix of brown and golden haze.

And they say history doesn't repeat itself…

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

A/N: Ok, so it was CB central. I clearly can't help myself. Lol. Holy crap though. I did not think this was going to be so long. Over 5,000 words and 14 pages long? I was going for maybe 1,000 and 6-8 pages. Lol. This has got to be the longest one-shot/chapter I have ever written in my life. Lol. At least word-wise…maybe…okay, just in the oneshot category I'm thinking now. XD. Anyways, I hope you loved this! Please review! It would make my life to know that you loved reading it as much as I loved writing it! ;p