Authors Note: Alright, this is my first time writing for Gossip Girl, and my first time writing in quite a long time. So please go easy on me! I've read the books and seen the television show, and I love both. This is a mix between the two and it's pretty AU. Nate and Dan are much like Nate/Chuck in the show, as in they've been best friends sine lord knows when. Nate and Blair never dated, Dan and Serena never dated (she'll make her appearance later in the story but will be AU as well).

I've had this idea in my head for weeks and there's so much going on in my mind this first chapter might come out a little jumbled at first. But please stick with me! I think ever boy should be in love with Blair because she's just all sorts of fabulous, and even though I'm a hardcore Nate/Blair shipper, I'm going to try and challenge myself to write this out and tell this story as a hopefully more than decent love triangle. Happy reading! And reviews are always appreciated.

Chapter 1 - Human

It had always been like this, the three of them, together. From the outside it didn't seem to make much sense to anyone, but if a person spent five minutes with this odd trio they'd understand, and it'd make perfect sense.

Nate Archibald was your typical trust fund baby on the outside. Not only did he inherit millions upon millions of dollars, he also inherited devastatingly good looks. As if his life didn't appear to be easy enough he had a certain charm about him that got him almost whatever he wanted. His life was laid out in concrete plans; it had been since the minute he was born. Prestigious private schools until he graduated and then it was off to an Ivy League school. Over the years his parents had thrown countless parties with the sole purpose of networking him around –professionally and personally. He would placate his parents by pretending to seem interested in the girls that were throwing themselves at him, but would soon find himself bored out of his mind and in a serious need of some distractions.

Midway through a conversation with another blonde whose name he had forgotten the instant it left her lips, he excused himself and quickly slipped out of the room furiously typing a text message as he did.

Code Green. This party makes me want to blow my fucking brains out. See you in five.

He shoved his phone back into the pocket of his tailored pants and dashed toward the safety of his room, quietly shutting and locking the door behind him. When he turned around, he jumped scaring the two people sitting on his bed.

"Jesus. How long have you guys been here?" He asked as he plopped himself down on the couch in his room, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a joint he had assembled earlier.

The tiny brunette rolled her chocolate brown eyes when she saw this before speaking, "We ditched the 'party' like thirty minutes ago. That reminds me…" She turned to face the other body sitting on the bed and held out her hand, "Cough it up, Humphrey."

The boy of eighteen murmured something under his breath as he pressed a bill into her hands and then noticed Nate staring at the two of them with a confused look on his face, which wasn't entirely unusual but he proceeded to explain anyway;

"We placed bets on how long it would take you to escape. She said less than thirty minutes; I said nothing less than forty-five."

"He thinks he knows your party habits better than I do, it's pathetic, actually."

Dan sent a glare Blair's way and she met it by shrugging her shoulders making it obvious that she stood by what she said. A moment later she was staring at Nate, and laughed at the expression on his face, it looked like once of annoyance.

"What's wrong, Nathaniel?" She emphasized his full name, knowing that he hated it, but she was in a playful mood.

"Why didn't you guys tell me you were up here earlier? You know I can barely make it when you two are there, let alone when you leave me stranded by myself."

"Sorry, man. Did you want us to hold your hand or something?" Dan had moved up off the bed and was now standing next to Nate, holding out a lighter for him.

He glared at him and he ignored his mockery, "Shut the fuck up man, just light this thing."

Dan held his hands up in surrender and backed away as a joke, but then stepped forward again to light it. The two boys heard Blair scoff at them. It was no secret that she didn't approve of their "extracurricular activities" as the two of them liked to call them.

Nate inhaled deeply when the joint was pressed between his two lips, taking a big hit. As he breathed out, he smirked at Blair who was getting up from the bed.

"Problem, Ms. Waldorf?"

She crossed her arms over her chest as she made her way toward his door, narrowing her eyes at the blue eyed boy.

"You're such a smartass. Look, if you two are going to do that" she jabbed one of her tiny fingers at the joint that had now made its way into Dan's hand, "I'm going to find something to entertain myself. I'll be back in two seconds, try not to miss me too much"

The last part was sugary sweet with a large side of sarcasm, in only a way Blair could make it.

Sure enough, she was back fairly quickly with two bottles of champagne tucked under her arms and a martini in one of her hands.

"There are still so many people; I don't even think anyone saw me. Your parents don't even seem to be looking for you, Nate."

It took him a second to focus on what she was saying and he just shrugged, not really wanting to think of a response at the moment. She shot him a look and sat back down on the bed, taking a large sip of the drink, almost finishing it off.

Dan chuckled when he saw he practically down the drink and raised an eyebrow

"Got a hot date or something? What's the rush?"

She set the now finished drink on Nate's night table and pursed her lips.

"Well, you two are going to be absolutely worthless in about a minute, so it's going to take this alcohol to keep my level of irritation down to a minimum. Plus, why should you two get to have all the fun?"

Her eyes darted from one boy's face to the next and she was met with the same glassy eyed expression from both. She threw her hands up in defeat and popped open a bottle, aiming the cork at the two of them across the room. Much to her displeasure at first, the two boys found this to be hilarious. But after a second or two she couldn't help laughing either.

An hour, one bottle of champagne, and a couple of joints later the three of them were all lying on the floor staring up at the ceiling silently. Blair was the first to break it,

"Do you think it's ever going to be like this again?"

Dan shifted his position so that he was resting his head on his propped up elbow and stared at the small girl who was curled up in a ball.

"Like what? You well on your way to being pretty intoxicated and the two of us stoned out of our minds? Yeah, probably."

Nate snorted and Blair hit Dan's arm as hard as she could at the moment.

"You know what I mean, don't be a jackass. I'm serious! I mean, I know we're all going to the same school so that'll make it easier, but still, everyone says it changes…"

She trailed off and stared silently above her again, pondering the question.

"To be honest? Things will probably change, but that doesn't mean we have to"

This time it was Nate who disturbed the stillness with his voice.

"When did you get so deep, Archibald? This must be some pretty good shit if it's got you thinking"

Both Blair and Nate laughed at the joke and any tension that might have been in the air was quickly erased, and even more so when Nate bolted up and tried to grab the second opened bottle of champagne from Blair's clutches. She sat up and held it closer to her body, not letting him have it.

"Blair, come on! You know you only need a bottle to feel it, my mouth is dry and I want some"

"Your mouth is dry because you just smoked like three joints, stupid. This is mine!"

Nate eyed Dan and he grinned, nodding. They must have been counting to three in their heads, because at the exact moment the two boys tackled her back onto the floor. She let out a loud squeal as she felt someone crash into her completely, spilling the bottle of champagne all over her Matt Williamson party dress. She looked up to see Dan with a highly amused expression on his face as he grabbed the bottle from a stunned Blair and handed it over to Nate, who immediately downed half of what was in the bottle before passing it back to Dan who finished it off. The two boys released their grips from the girl and fist bumped.

Blair sat up and glared furiously at the two of them. She struggled to pull herself up and the all the boys could do was laugh. Once she was up, she stormed over to Nate's bathroom and slammed the door shut locking it behind her. Dan and Nate exchanged sideways glances and both immediately got up and dragged themselves over to the door, knocking on it.

"Blaaaaaaaaair," Nate spoke first, "We're sorry, don't be upset."

Dan struggled not to laugh before he spoke, "I'll pay for dry cleaning?"

They both heard her huff under her breath and burst into laughter which didn't make things any better. She kicked the door from inside of the bathroom to get them to stop and Dan sighed, running his hand through his hair.

"Come on, don't be like this. We can go get you another bottle if you really want one. We are sorry, but you just shouldn't be so greedy."

There was nothing but quiet coming from the other side of the door until they heard the door unlock, and she opened it. In front of them was a slightly dismal sight. The entire front of Blair's dress was soaked with champagne and her eyes were brimming with tears.

"I HATE when you two do that!" She pouted as she marched past them back over to Nate's bed.

"Do what? We don't usually waste champagne…" Nate knew his comment would just annoy her even more, but he couldn't help it. Dan stifled a laugh and tried to remain serious looking.

"UGH!" She threw her hands up into the air and raced back toward the bathroom but Nate grabbed her before she could get there, pulling her small frame tightly against his much larger one.

"No you don't. We're sorry for ganging up on you. Again. But it's just too easy to sometimes."

He steered her to the other side of the room to his closet and his drawers full of clothes.

"Pick out whatever you want, wear it for the rest of the night. I know how much you like the dress shirts. Just don't be mad, this is a fun night."

Blair looked up at him, sighed, and reluctantly started thumbing through his shirts that were hung up in his closet. Meanwhile, Dan had rummaged under Nate's bed to pull out snacks that he kept there for occasions like these, where were very frequent. He sat back on the couch throwing handfuls of Cheerios into his mouth; Nate joined him shortly after, but with chips. Out of the corner of his eye, Dan noticed Blair peeling off her dress and she was soon standing there in nothing but her bra and boy shorts. His full attention was on her, he didn't even want to chew. Nate noticed he was distracted and followed his gaze and soon they were both just staring.

She threw a light blue dress shirt over her head and turned around, slowly buttoning it, unaware of the fact that her two best friends were watching her, slightly open mouthed. Blair looked up and rolled her eyes when she saw the two of them, grabbing a pillow from a chair and tossing it at them.

"You two are such perverts sometimes. Could you maybe, for one second, stop being guys? It's so difficult to hang out with you sometimes, I swear!"

She looked under the bed and found a bag of Oreos, she had a severe case of the drunchies. Blair sat on the floor across from the two of them and popped a few into her mouth. The three of them sat there quietly eating for a few minutes and Blair continued to stuff her face with the cookies. Dan stared at her wide eyed and nudged Nate, which snapped him out of his trance. He looked at Dan and shrugged his shoulders and Dan nodded his head toward Blair

"Dude?"

Nate was still confused until he noticed how just how quickly Blair was eating the snack. They both knew she was stressed out with summer just about to end and college rapidly approaching, but it took him a second to put two and two together.

Dan stood up and snatched the bag of sweets out of her hand and stared down at her with a look of concern. She gave him a look and then turned her attention to Nate to see if he too noticed Dan's bizarre behavior, but she was met with the same look that was plastered on Dan's face.

"What's wrong with you two? Is the stuff wearing off already?"

Dan threw the cookies under the bed again and sat next to Blair, Nate quickly followed, sitting on the other side of her.

"Blair…" His tone was slightly unfamiliar to her; she wasn't used to Nate being so soft. It made her a little uncomfortable sitting there with the two of them acting like this.

"What? You guys are freaking me out."

She her head turned from one boy to the other a few times waiting some sort of explanation. Dan grimaced and then spoke,

"Look, we know you're stressed and freaking out, per usual, and it's just you seemed to be eating those pretty fast…" He didn't want to continue after seeing the look on Blair's face.

"Oh,"

Neither of the boys knew what to say to that, they were expecting some sort of denial at least. They felt her go rigid between the two of them and anxiety filled the air. Blair bit her bottom lip to try and stop any of the tears from dripping down her face.

"I didn't even realize I was doing it. I mean, I did. But I didn't even think about it. I just figured I would calm myself down with a few and then…"

Nate instantly felt as if he needed to protect her. He hated seeing her like this, so fragile and lost. He grabbed her petite hand and his thumb moved in circles on the back of her hand. Dan put his arm around her and squeezed her close, thinking of what to say.

"Do you want us to take you home? I'm sure your mom can call Dr. Ostroff tomorrow and…"

She jerked her hand away from Nate's and squirmed out of Dan's grasp as she jumped up onto Nate's bed, burying herself in the middle underneath the covers.

"No! I don't want to go home, that'll just make it worse. God, I hate when I do this. I thought I was doing okay and .." She couldn't finish before her sobs broke through her voice and she pulled the covers up over her head hiding herself from the two of them.

She didn't get like this often, so vulnerable and open. In fact, the only two people who had ever really seen her in this state were sitting in this room, and it was rare that they did. They were so used to her being strong and confident that it threw them for a loop when it did happen.

Dan was the first to climb up onto Nate's bed, sitting beside the small figure under the covers. Nate sat on the other side and peeled them back to reveal a sniffly eighteen year old girl. He couldn't help but laugh at her even though it wasn't the right time. But luckily, it seemed to work in his favor because soon the other two were laughing as well.

"How about you stay here for the night? I'll put in Breakfast at Tiffany's and you can watch it until you fall asleep."

Nate knew that movie fixed everything in her life, even if it was only for a minute. Blair nodded and repositioned herself so that she was facing the flatscreen on the wall in front of her. Dan kicked off his shoes and leaned up against the backboard.

She felt another body slide in underneath the covers next to her and her first instinct was to grab his hand. This is what they did on night's when they wanted to escape their own worlds, watched movies and were nothing but comfortable with each other. Dan knew it was their thing, and she he began to leave before he felt Blair grasp onto his arm. He looked down and saw that her eyes were still a little watery and settled back down into the bed. She smiled up at him and then quickly turned her attention back to the movie.

Blair made it about twenty minutes into the movie before the combination of all the emotions she was feeling and the alcohol put her into a deep sleep, resting her head on Nate's shoulder and clutching Dan's hand. The two boys looked at each other; Dan rolled his eyes and motioned with his head toward the sleeping Blair. Nate rolled his eyes even though he was amused by it all.

Soon, the credits played, but no one was awake to turn off the movie. With everything that was going to happen in the next few weeks, and years even, it would be their last night of restful sleep. The tree of them just didn't know it yet.