Dan and Serena are both in their senior year at college and live in a mid-size apartment in Downtown Manhattan which is, of course, sponsored by Lily van der Woodsen. Along with her studies, Serena does an internship at Vogue, while Dan spends his days writing short-stories and trying to get them published.

Dan and Serena are lying it bed together as the alarm clock goes off.

„What time is it?", Serena says grumpily, covering her eyes with her pillow.

„6:30am, sleepy head, time to get up.", Dan says as he puts her pillow aside and kisses her forehead carefully.

„5 more minutes?", she whispers, snuggling up to Dan.

„Should be fine." he answers, pulling her closer to him, their foreheads now touching.

She kisses him lightly, resting her arm on his waist. He strokes her hair then her cheek, placing a gentle kiss on the tip of her nose. He then takes her hand and intertwines his fingers with hers, stroking her hand with his thumb. She smiles at him, not believing her luck. Dan and Serena have been together for 5 years now and it feels like their love has only grown in the last past years. Everyday, she falls a little more in love with him and she's positive that nothing ever could break them apart. They had to face so many obstacles and yet they've always overcome them. And as a couple, they only grew stronger. Dan still looks at Serena the way when they first started dating, the way that makes her feel so unbelievably special.

„You're beautiful, you know.", Dan says quietly.

„Your eyes, your hair, your face. I can't even say what I love most about you.", he continues, making Serena blush.

„Well I do know what I love most about you... your superior cooking skills", she loudly laughs at her own joke.

„I'm just kidding, i'm just kidding.", she continues as Dan gives her a little slap on the behind.

„Hey what was that for?", she says fake-sulkily, making a pout.

„I am beyond offended that you're using me for my cooking skills. I thought you were different...", Dan says, winking at her.

She smiles and sits up placing a soft kiss on his lips.

„I love you for this.",

„And I love you for this.", now kissing his cheekbones.

„And for this.", she says as she gently touches his eyes.

„And this," placing her hand on his heart. „I love you for this.", she repeats.

„I love you for loving me.", she whispers in his ear.

„Well... I can live with that.", he looks at her seriously, not trying to burst into laughter.

„You're stupid.", she says scuffing him in the side, a little to hard because he falls off the bed.

She covers her mouth and hopes he didn't hurt himself and is relieved when Dan says laughing: „It's time to get up anyway."

He stands up, going to the bathroom with Serena following him. She gets ready for her internship and he gets ready for his early-morning English literature class. They have a small breakfast together, then leave the building and kiss one last time before heading into different directions.

„Bye, baby, see you tonight.", he says, letting her hand go.

„Yep. I love you.", Serena says.

„I love you, too.", he responds.

Dan's class is dismissed at 11am which leaves him about 6 hours to do the grocery shopping, clean the house and find a publisher who'd be gracious enough to even consider publishing one of his stories. The last task seemed like mission impossible, considering Dan has been trying to do so for 4 months now. He enters the office of the „New Yorker"-magazine, where he has an appointment with the publisher. Dan is lead to a large office where he is asked to sit down. A couple of minutes later a well-fed man enters the room and sits down on the chair in front of Dan, a desk in between them.

„Well, Mr. Humphrey...", the publisher says as there's slowly forming sweat on Dan's forehead.

„I do have good news for you... The New Yorker is willing to publish your continuation of '10-08-05' as it seems to perfectly fit in our section 'romance'.", he continues, making Dan smile brightly.

„Thank you, Sir. I am so honored. Thank you.", Dan says not believing his luck.

After 4 months, he finally succeeded. He can't wait to share the news with Serena, who is going to be thrilled.

The publisher comes a little closer and says „But between us men … this seems like pure fiction..."

„Quite the contrary in fact." Dan says as he stands up and holds his hand up for the publisher to shake.

„Lucky boy," the publisher says, returning the hand shake „seems like a fairytale."

„Pretty much." Dan responds „Goodbye and thank you again, Sir."

He leaves the office, smiling like an idiot. He really was living a fairytale life. Dan goes grocery shopping at Dean & Deluca then cleans up the apartment. He spends the rest of his day writing and waiting for Serena.

#

11pm the same evening, Serena is about to leave the Vogue office. She looks through the window, noticing it's completely dark outside already. It's fall after all. She texts Dan that she's about to leave the building, telling him to start cooking.

*leaving now, fire up the oven, I AM STARVING.- S 3*

*done and done. + I have good news. I love you. - Dan*

*Uhhh, I'm excited. I'll hurry. I love you, too. - S*

Knowing her way inevitably leads through Central Park, she plugs her headphones in and turns the volume to the maximum. Serena hates the dark so she turns on Florence + The Machine's latest album. It's been on loop for weeks now and it was getting on Dan's nerves already but Serena didn't mind and wouldn't stop playing it. She walks through the gates of Central Park, faster than normal because she was scared but mostly because she was walking with the beat of the music, mumbling the lyrics along. Crossing the baseball field, the pond and the rocks where people sunbathe in summer, she knows the end of Central Park is close so she slows down. A little out of breath, she squeaks with joy when her favorite song comes on.

*No light, no light in your bright blue eyes...*

Lost in thought she doesn't notice the creature that is crossing her way. When she finally notices the person, she believes to be a man, judging from his shape, she plugs out her headphones. Her heart is beating so fast, she is positive she can hear it.

"Can I help you, Sir?", she asks quietly, still not knowing how that person looks.

a/n: first chapter of a story that I've planned on writing for a couple of months now. Review and let me know if you like it. Next chapter is going to be longer. :)