Title: Colluded Individuals
Author: fading_tales
Pairing: Chuck/Blair
Disclaimer: I do not own Gossip Girl or any characters, they belong to the CW and Cecily von Ziegesar.
Rating: PG-13 ~ T
Summary: What do you have when you get Chuck Bass and Blair Waldorf lurking around in a dark alley way? Trouble.Takes place after 2x08, AU.
Chapter Two
School is more torturous the next day than usual. He shows up during fifth period and she wonders why he even bothered. He sees her and attempts to approach, but she quickly out maneuvers him, taking refuge with Serena and allowing her minions to block his path. If anything, Blair Waldorf knows how to hold a grudge.
The school bell signaling the end of the day comes all too soon and her defenses quickly scatter to the four winds, suspicious all too busy and unresponsive to her demands.
"Helpless without your subjects, Blair?"
She should've known he wasn't going to let sleeping dogs lie. The memory of the harsh comments the day earlier bubble to the surface. She refuses to speak to him.
"Blair, come on. Stop being immature," he whines.
"I'm not the immature one here!" She retorts.
She's angry, as she should be, but he's grateful he has her at least speaking.
"Why don't we go get a drink? Go to Butter maybe."
"I don't feel like going to Butter."
"Then wherever you want. I'll have Arthur bring the car around."
She gives him a steady look that reads: no, no, and NO and swings her Chloe handbag over her shoulder.
"I'm busy, Chuck. Go back to whatever it is that you do nowadays. I won't be intruding on your dirty little secret anymore. My schedule's full and I'm already late for my appointment."
She doesn't spare him a glance as she marches off. He should've known it wasn't going to be easy.
---
She knows she is probably as much in the wrong as he was, maybe even more, but that doesn't mean she's not angry. Besides, if she gives him an inch now, who knows to what length he'll ask her to go to the next time around. The reason they worked, or didn't work, was because both of them shared a particular quality of stubbornness and pride.
She arrives at the Montgomery household, smirk in place, deadly envelope containing critical information regarding Sarah Montgomery in hand. She poses as the picture of Upper East Side elegance and is courteously let in. Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery gush over how wonderful it is she's come to pay their 'little Sarah' a visit. Blair knows Mr. Montgomery's firm is angling to land her mother as a client. Everyone knows that being new money and all, but not enough money as Bart Bass to be formidable, the Montgomery's are always trying to rub elbows with the old, traditional elite families of New York. So, Blair smiles a fake smile and says nice pleasant things while carefully biting back nasty comments that are itching to burst for her lips. There are proper times for certain things and soon the timing will be right to let his bitch flag fly.
"Thank you for you wonderful hospitality, Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery. I was just wondering if dear Sarah would be joining us soon?"
Patience is unfortunately not one of her many virtuous attributes.
"Oh yes! Let me go get her. The girl is probably up in her room studying as usual. You know how our Sarah gets about her studies. No distractions for her! It's all volleyball and school! She doesn't even have a boyfriend," Mrs. Montgomery rambles on as she mounts the stairs.
Blair restrains herself from commenting on what 'little Sarah' likes to do with boys after volleyball practice underneath bleachers. Instead Blair sips her tea and smiles politely at Mr. Montgomery.
A scream is heard from upstairs that startles both her and Sarah's dad. They both rush up the stairs to find out what's wrong. What they saw was the epitome of wrong. It was Chuck Bass fully clothed and lounging in a chair while Sarah Montgomery was topless and in her panties, haphazardly trying to cover up herself with a magazine. It soon becomes clear that Sarah was in the middle of a private strip show when her mother had caught her in the act. Hence the hysterics on the Montgomery matron's part.
Chuck watches as the chaos ensued. It was much more entertaining than the volleyball chick's awkward attempts at being seductive. "Money just can't account for taste," he laments mentally. Really, those satin, lacey, rhinestoned panties of hers just scream desperate and trying-too-hard in five different languages. He much rather enjoy the look of shock upon Blair's face, not for seeing Sarah being the slut that she is, but the fact that he was there and still clothed, stealing her vengeful thunder. His depravity knew no bounds.
"Well… thanks, Sarah for the offer on the um, tutoring session. But I think I'm just going to borrow that history book that I asked for."
Chuck calmly makes his way past the Montgomery's, politely bidding good-bye to Sarah's parents. One could tell that Mr. Montgomery wanted very much to strangle Chuck, but seeing as his name is Bass and Montgomery & Associates main office is headquartered in one of Big Bart's many prime real estates, he bites his tongue and steady his hand. The anger and humiliation is instead projected on poor little Sarah, crying her eyes out and still clutching onto that magazine for dear life. Chuck drags a stunned Blair out the door while the family continued their little family "talk".
Once they're outside, Blair quickly recovers herself and quickly finds the scathing comments she couldn't think of before. Streams of colorful expletives and obscenities about Chuck come spilling out her mouth as he stands there taking it all in.
"What the hell are you doing here?!" She screams at him.
"Clearing up your schedule," he replies with the same calmness as before. "Now that we've got the whole destroy the volleyball whore out of the way, you can come join me for that drink we talked about before."
He reaches for her arm to lead her to the waiting car, but she only slaps his hand away, adamantly rooted to her spot.
"You just totally ruined my plan! I spent precious time preparing to take down the bitch, victory within easy reach and you just took it away from me!"
"What does it matter who destroys her? The point is that she's destroyed. I did it for you!"
"Oh! It must have been terrible for you to sit there and watch a girl strip for you. I'm just soooo grateful you suffered through that for me. Really! Thank you!" Blair mocks.
"You're welcome," he snaps.
She lets out a frustrated huff and proceeds to stomp away.
She thought it was so easy. As if he didn't have to grovel to Serena to find out where she was heading, slap together a plan to destroy the Sarah bitch that completely lacked the finesse he usually employed, basically winging the entire thing, all the while trying to beat her to the punch and being stealthy about it. If she thought the last hour had been anything simple or easy, she had another thing coming. And all of this for what? A fucking drink. That's all he asked of her. Never had Chuck Bass worked so hard to get a girl to go out and have a drink with him. Usually the rate he has girls flinging themselves at him is enough to require Arthur to double as a bodyguard. The nerve of her to rebuff his offer!
"You stop right there, Waldorf!"
"I will not!"
If he wasn't so angry, he'd be impressed by the rate she's going in those ten inch heels. He manages to catch up with her when she stumbles over a crack in the pavement. Blair mentally curses at gravity for always messing her up.
"Hey! Hey! Will you just look at me for a second?"
She crosses her arms defiantly and turns her head to face the opposite direction.
"You're making it awfully hard to say I'm sorry."
She still refuses to look at him.
"Did you hear that, Waldorf? I just said I'm sorry!"
"About?" she prods.
She never made things easy.
"About fucking everything. Everything is my fault, okay? Sorry, sorry, sorry! I'm apologizing for every fucking thing that has gone wrong now or will go wrong in the future in your perfect little life because of me."
He's hot, tired and embarrassed. This is the first time he's ever apologized to anyone. Ever needed to, ever cared to. And it's not even entirely his fault! She's the one that stumbled into his life and fucked everything he's ever known up and here he is apologizing to her. It's not as if she doesn't know she's a self-righteous, selfish bitch. He's not the only one with questionable morals here and yet he's the one in trouble for it. There are a lot of reasons for not apologizing. He said it anyways because it's better than not speaking to her, not seeing her, not being around her. She's silent and the humiliation grows exponentially.
All issues past become irrelevant with her next comment.
"I missed you."
It's three words, two letters too long. But it's close. She's irritating, infuriating, maddening. One minute she's angry with him, ready to claw out his eyes with her bare hands, and the next she's saying things that make him want to kiss her and never stop.
Blair Waldorf doesn't usually let her mask slip and he can't stop the hammering of his heart. The increase in his pulse rate doesn't change that fact that they had agreed to wait. Their pretenses as… whatever it is they are remains firmly in place. For all the rest of the world knows, Chuck and Blair are nothing out of the ordinary. Just a boy and a girl.
But then again, isn't that how every story starts?
"You haven't been in school lately. You don't come out with Nate or Serena or me anymore. I feel like ever since that night on the rooftop and our whole 'let's wait' thing, I don't even see you anymore. I know we can't be together, at least not yet. I know I said that there might even be some sort of excruciating pleasure in it, but all I feel is the excruciating and none of the pleasure."
At the moment, for the life of him he can't imagine why he'd want to wait.
"I'm sorry, too. About what I said yesterday... I didn't mean to –"
"Shut up, Waldorf."
And she promptly does. It's kind of hard to talk when his lips is pressing on hers.
His lips are slight rough and she darts out a tongue to moisten them. It becomes quickly entangled with his. Wasn't it Emmerson who asked, "How much of human life is lost in waiting?" Chuck decides he needs to start making up for lost time.
FIN?
A/N: This could end with this as a two part one shot, but I also have a bit of an idea of how to extend it although I don't have a clear ending in mind so updates will be sporadic. What do you guys think? A good ending? Continue?? Let me know! Reviews/comments = 3