A/N: Okay, this is the last little fic I am writing before getting to Reminiscent View's epilogue. Seriously, I've delayed too much, whether people are actually reading it or not. *choosing to ignore this fact* Heheh. I've also just updated Sweet, Sour & Spicy, if you were reading that. And no worries if you were sad at its end, I have been engulfed by a few spoilers and my mind is refusing to shut down on that one. Heheh. Just give me time to adjust the outline and get a few more other fics out. Heheh.
*With that said, this fic is my first real NV fic, even if it is only a oneshot. I have CB nailed and completely in character basically all the time, I only hope I can give NV the same amount of credit they deserve. It makes me sad that they're over, and from the interview I heard by Jessica Szohr, it appears they're over for good, and Nate is just her 'first love' but she's moving on. This is ridiculous, by the way. They are so incredibly cute and meant to be. I can't believe the writers would just throw that away, because they're moving on to college. *huffs* So this fic is just a glimpse into the future, of how after all the relationships they had…they just couldn't avoid what was true all along.
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Five years.
It had been five years since Nate Archibald had graduated high school, and moved on to Columbia University.
He was so proud for getting in.
For making a name for himself by himself. It was a good feeling.
The girls along the way though…
Sigh.
There were too many.
Bree, Ashley, Susan, Serena (at one point), Jenny (again), Marissa, Carlee, Michelle, Maria…
Sigh.
And that was just the first two years.
Nate ran a hand through his hair and kept walking.
It was nice here. Walking where he used to live, where he grew up. He hardly visited these Manhattan streets anymore. It felt like he always lived in New Haven or the Hamptons, or…anywhere but here. He was rising in politics, just like his grandfather wanted, and there just was never really a free moment. It wasn't that he was entirely pleased with the place he had gotten to in life; he was just too exhausted to fight for his rights anymore, to even care. Besides, the women pleased and life was always interesting, so…
What was the point?
None of them satisfied. That was the point.
None of them helped him find his way. Serena did though, and that was nice. But in the end, they were just friends. Had been for awhile. And forcing a forgotten feeling really didn't work well on Nate Archibald. He was the 'man of the moment'. Whatever 'felt right' was okay in his book. He would justify it later.
Nate Archibald: Class Whore
High School labels didn't matter anymore.
Giggles though. Giggles around a piano…while Chuck investigated in the pathetic denial of Blair Waldorf.
Most beautiful woman, my ass. Bet any amount of money that skank wasn't who he was envisioning that mistakable night.
Chuckle.
The sound of birds chirping filled his ears, and he figured he was getting closer to that Brooklyn Bridge and farther away from the noisy atmosphere of Upper East Side New York City. The place wasn't desolate, wasn't as decrepit and low class as Chuck and Blair always insisted it was, and still insisted it was. It just wasn't the ritzy place they had all grown up in.
"Nate?" he spun around.
Oh.
Mistake. Someone with his same name…greeting someone else, a stranger to him. A stranger to his life.
How did everything speed up so fast? What happened to those laid back days in high school and college? Everything seemed so carefree then, like you could take on the world if that was what you wanted to do. He wasn't even seeing anybody right then, and that was a surprise in and of itself.
"No, no, Sir. Thank-you though. All I'll be needing is the purple and red swirl scarf," she giggled.
It couldn't be.
"Well, alrighty, Miss Vanessa, but if you change your mind—"
Her eyes twinkled in laughter.
"I'll let you know."
Swirling skirt of colors, frilled on the bottom. She was known for color. Cool black top adorned with a soft short matching jacket. Fall was coming after all. Who would blame her for snuggling up in her apparel?
He certainly wouldn't.
God, she was beautiful.
"Vanessa!" he called, from across the street. She turned to see who had called and registered on the tall blonde jogging to her, not even looking to see if cars were present on the road. Luckily for him, they hadn't been.
He stole her breath away.
Like himself, she had tried to wash away the memories of him through other lovers she met in college and elsewhere, even Dan himself. But…
"Nate!" she said, quite shocked herself. "How are you?" her eyes penetrated his. "I haven't talked to you in ages." She giggled.
God, he missed her giggles.
Dimple.
And her dimples.
"Yeah, I know. Life got crazy, huh?"
She nodded. "Yeah, it did." Her eyes twinkled up at him, and then she shook her head free of the reverie, motioning to a bench beside them. "So, what have you been up to Nate?"
He sighed deeply.
"That bad, huh?"
He turned to her and grinned. She smiled with him, and he couldn't remember the last time his heart had soared so vividly.
After a few moments her smile lessened, and she concerned herself with his answer. "Nate?" She seemed almost worried.
He missed her being worried about him.
"No, it's nothing," he assured her.
She nodded unconvincingly.
"Well, okay," he began turning to her, "I just feel like life has gotten away from me, you know?"
She nodded sympathetically, but then a little smirk appeared and he stopped himself.
"What?"
She shook her head. "Nothing. It's just…I feel like this is a conversation that needs several hours to be properly talked about."
He just about snorted at that and turned, facing towards the street. He sighed. "Maybe it is." He crossed his arms lazily across his chest.
A lingering silence, and then a spark ignited within him.
She had touched his arm, squeezing gently, and he turned back to her.
"Do you have the time to spare?"
He gaped. Seemed after all these years, she still never ceased to amaze him. His eyes were glued to her. He couldn't even speak, couldn't nod either. But she took his silent reaction as a sign and pulled him to his feet.
"Come on, Archibald. I think that old café is still open."
He laughed, and followed her.
It was a moment too long before their hands dropped to their sides. It would not be spoken of that their fingers had been intertwined…or caressed, for that matter.
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Hours later, and extended recaps of the last five years told…he still couldn't get enough of her. It seemed the same could be said of Vanessa.
She was still an Abrams, too. And this couldn't have made Nate happier. It relieved him to a point he couldn't have imagined or predicted. He was over her, over them. But he knew…if she had spoken of a boyfriend, perhaps the Scott character she had hit it off with freshman year of college…he wouldn't have been happy. He would've had to force himself to be happy for her.
And he didn't know why.
"What about you, Archibald?" she nudged him from across the table, their fingertips inches away from each other both before and after the act that sent sparks flying through him. "Any steady girl these days?"
"Heh," he laughed a bit awkwardly. He hadn't really had a steady girlfriend for an incredibly long time. A few years at least.
"I'll take that as a no?" she assumed, taking in his silence.
He didn't deny it.
"Wow, Nate. Unexpected, I have to say."
He focused back on her face, allowing himself to graze over her figure: her crossed arms, the same way he had been positioning himself outside on the bench some blocks down.
He nodded.
"Didn't you have like…forty girlfriends the first year of school?" she spewed.
He shook his head and laugh. "Not quite that many, Vanessa."
She shrugged, a smile slipping through. "So I exaggerated a little bit."
He looked at her intently, unable to turn his face away. She was spectacular.
"In my defense, my sources were not entirely reliable."
He couldn't stop smiling, and in the heat of the moment, reached forward the half centimeter and grasped hold of her hand. Her eyes immediately zoomed in on what he had done, and she almost recoiled.
She had no boyfriend though, and it was innocent enough, so…she stayed.
"I've missed you."
She blinked at him, lessening her smile from its wide-out grin of just moments before. They had meant to stay friends, meant to get together and do things and really try to be friends, try to be in each other's lives. That was supposed to be the underlining theme in the backpacking trip to Europe. But, it just didn't happen. He got involved with girls and politics. She got involved with the occasional relationship and the college life she had never even dreamed about before he came along. He was her first love, and she'd be lying if she said she never thought of him. But she tried to push those thoughts away. No sense in hurting yourself if you can help it. That was her theory anyways.
"Nate," she spoke softly, pulling her hand away and dropping it in her laugh. Her eyes set on the table now, not his soon to be heartbroken face. "We were never really good at being friends."
"We were never really friends."
He couldn't believe it, and, as predicted his face fell into a sorrowful pit of puppy dog eyes. He was that little boy again, unable to believe what was most precious to him, what he thought was his all along, what was his to begin with and no one else's…was being taken away again. He had heard those words before.
Silence.
Slowly, the brooklynite lifted herself from the roughly crafted chair and went to leave. It took him a moment, but everything clicked and he set off after her out the door.
"Vanessa, wait."
She shouldn't have stopped. She should have kept going, forgetting she ever saw Nate Archibald, the first and really only boy to break her heart. She could even go so far as to admit that she saw him and they caught up briefly before going on their way.
They didn't have to admit to feelings. Feelings she knew would never go away, no matter how many relationships she tried to pursue. Every guy had a flaw. Every guy wasn't Nate Archibald.
She turned around, and he walked to her.
"Vanessa," he cradled her head in his hands, and she leaned into the embrace. Her mind screamed at her to leave, to fight for the strength she knew she had somewhere.
But, with her knees shaking and her heart beating faster than she had remembered it could…all she could do was stare into his eyes. She closed her own briefly, wondering if this was all a dream. But when they opened, he was still there. He was still there.
It seemed to her that all noises were silenced and the volume had turned up on the breathing between them.
"Nate," she said, finally finding her voice again.
He watched her, wondering what he was so set upon doing by following her out the door.
"I've missed you too."
She smiled sadly and leaned in closer to him, and kissed him. She would curse herself later if he just walked away. She would be the only one to blame for the ignite in feelings she had buried for so long.
But, that did not happen, and would not happen. Nate Archibald returned the kiss, wrapping his arms around her as she twisted her own about his neck. Everything inside of him was exploding and the stars blinding her behind those closed lids.
"Kiss me, Archibald. Kiss me, and don't ever stop," she murmured against his velvety lips.
He kept kissing her.
…………………………………
"I always come back to you," he would whisper late into the night.
She would smile softly at him, and her eyes would twinkle.
"Let's hope you won't have to leave this time," she would say.
And he would smile, and pull her closer, and dwell on how brilliant she really was.
They could never be just friends.
"I love you."
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A/N: Hehehe. *proud of self* Nope, I am not telling you who said ILY. Let's just leave it to your imaginations. ;p Thanks for reading, please review, and let me know if this was in character!!! ;D