A/N: Your reviews make me do a little happy dance. (:

Habit: A recurring, often unconscious pattern of behaviour acquired through repetition; addiction; customary practice.

"Oh come on," Serena exclaimed as she placed her latest purchase from Chanel around her neck, a white gold diamond and pearl necklace to compliment her electric blue dress from the same brand. She smiled and ran a hand through her hair and applied lip gloss; ready to go. "Blair ditching us to catch up with Jenny? I know something happened between you two."

"Okay, I'll tell, granted it's not an epic tale." He conceded. Entering her bedroom and sitting on the bed, rather than the chair available. "I'm on your bed." He smirked, leading to Serena lifting one of her plush pillows only to throw it in his face.

He stiffened slightly and needless to say, when he talked about Blair a sombre man replaced the playboy. "She showed up randomly and we had a moment but nothing happened."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

The two remained silent. Serena was always the first to break it.

"They're not as strong together as they pretend to be are they?" She mused as she and Chuck made their way down to the car.

"Have they ever been?" Chuck reminded her of what an obvious, simplistic question she'd asked and she just nodded thoughtfully. "S, you were right there with us before you so surprisingly eloped and well, your return was even more so. I saw the look on Nate face when he saw you, for that first time in a year, do you remember?" He questioned intently, she then nodded and a small smile played on her lips, "That didn't lie. When you came back it was like he woke up."

Idle chatter continued, a gentle babble of banter between the two, however they halted when speaking about the marriage that was coming too fast and too soon, silence taking over again and again before Chuck asked Serena this;

"S, don't lie, I know why you're every bit as much opposed to it as I am." He smiled slyly as Serena blushed.

"What?" She stuttered as they got out of the limousine strolled into the Tribeca Star for pre-club drinks.

"After graduation you couldn't wait to get away, then you hear about Blair and Nate and you take time off your career after one year of constant work."

"I like a home that isn't a hotel room." She shot back.

"Why so much time in the sibling's suite then, darling?"

"Well she needs someone to help her with it and we always were going to be each others maids of honour." At this he chuckled. "And you need someone to talk about your oh-so traumatic feelings with."

"So you take time off to help a friend with a wedding. Really?"

"This is Blair Waldorfs wedding." She clarified. He shrugged in defeat.

When they entered, the sight of Dan, Vanessa and Nate talking was so foreign.

"And this is completely forced, let's save Nathaniel." He replied as Nate motioned for them to join him.

"Where is the fashion maven?" Chuck asked Nate at the bar as Vanessa, Dan and Serena reminisced about some memory shared by the three that wasn't actually worthy of all their laughter. Chuck knew she was going out with Jenny tonight for a catch up or whatever it was that two respective rulers of Constance did after high school was over, but he was tired of lying and was hoping she'd meet Nate later.

Nate's eyebrows furrowed and he smiled like a big dork, but just like everything else he did, he got away with it because after all, he was still the golden boy. "Um, right there?" He pointed to the blonde. Chuck smiled impishly, he'd caught him out. It hadn't been the first time Nate was blinded by the gleaming blond hair, toned figure and navy blue eyes, but every time a little hint from Nate dropped like better a broken nose than a broken heart, Chuck couldn't help but feel that there was always a flicker of hope and it was in those moments that he saw that.

"I mean your fiancé." He corrected smugly. Nate looked at his drink and told him she'd been adamant in not coming with them tonight and that she was out with Jenny.

"You can say her name, you know." Chuck replied.

"Why do I feel like I've been here before?" Nate responded quickly, bitterly.

"Because you have. But the story's different this time, I promise." Chuck then put a hand a Nate's shoulder in a bid of assurance; Nate's stomach couldn't help but sicken.

Jenny Humphrey was still very much the same girl striving for approval, still riding on her wave of popularity which wasn't really a wave anymore as she was crowned Queen about six years ago and considering her dream was going to morph into reality very fast, just as the popularity at high school did itself.

She and Blair had kept touch over the years, at first it was just text messages from Blair asking how things were at the Alma matter and the reply would always be some Blair-esque bitchy remark about one of many minions that answered to the younger Humphrey.

Rather than go out with Nate to the Tribeca Star, Blair had told Jenny to meet her for drinks at the Palace bar instead, where Blair had actually asked her to be a bridesmaid, Jenny laughed then realizing that Blair was being deadly serious, just chuckled and commented on how she always wanted something like this to happen when she was sixteen, stupid and just wanted to be a part of their world.

"Well little J it has that effect on most people. Besides your brother and Nate have become friends and he's a groomsman. Why, if your going to drag one Humpty Dumpty might as well drag them all, it's what we've been doing for the past what – six years?" She giggled.

"Can't mess with tradition." Jenny replied as their martini glasses clinked.

Tradition, Blair thought. It was what her relationship with Nate was built on.

And they had a long tradition with their eyes wandering to their respective best friends.

"I don't think I've told you lately, but you look beautiful." Dan Humphrey remarked smoothly as Serena exited the ladies bathroom. He had waited for her outside of the bathrooms just in the lobby and the phrase that sounded like a cheesy song lyric earned a smile from her, because it was said in that awfully awkward and endearing manner of his.

"I don't need telling." She shot back with a grin and Dan just sighed. She approached him tentatively. Lily and Rufus had ended a long time ago and Serena remembers the call from Dan. At the time, she had bee midway through her journey with Carter and that's what it was, a real journey. For the first time in a long time, someone had found her and because of that, she started to find herself. She came home again (she'd always been a runner, after all) and it couldn't have been a more drastically different return this time around. Whilst seventeen she had returned to a more than livid Blair Waldorf and a sexually frustrated and love ridden Nate Archibald, the Nate Archibald that was infatuated with two types of beautiful.

When she returned from her trip with the handsome Mr Baizen, Blair collected her at the airport and hugged her so tightly Serena felt like she'd fall apart.

She also shared a bed with Nate upon her triumphant return. But we'll get to that later, darlings.

When Dan informed her of their parents' final separation, his tone was so jubilant, so expectant. He honestly thought the phrase would be something like I'm on the next plane home, Humphrey or do you think this is our second chance? Asked by her in a breathy voice.

Neither of those was anything along the reply he actually got:

"Really? What? Dan, you have to get them to speak again...they're the loves of each others lives." Followed by a low, suave voice telling him Serena had a date.

The two found themselves strolling outside, and Serena could actually feel history repeating itself, even thought Dan had first asked her on a date outside the palace hotel rather than the Tribeca Star, but still.

"I know we haven't kept in touch and that's my fault." Serena commented, "But we're out of that place in our lives, you know? Not in high school anymore. I think we should just be friends, Dan."

The smile on Dan's face slackened a little, before he plucked up some the same courage he managed to summon all that time ago. "Would you consider being friends over dinner tomorrow?"

Upon looking for Dan and finding him with Serena, just the two of them sitting outside, Vanessa felt dejected and she couldn't pinpoint the exact reason, but it was too familiar not to notice that she'd felt it before.

Of course she knew, but she didn't want too. Because she should be twenty four and still be tortured by those intense feelings she had for someone when she was seventeen.

"Off we go, Humphrey. Goodbye, Serena." She forced a weak smile before Serena hugged her.

A pang of fear struck her, maybe they were meant to be all along, the high school couple that actually ends up married.

"So, I scored a date with Serena van der Woodsen." Dan quickly raised his eyebrows up and down twice, smiling. The both of them were having beers in Vanessa's apartment, it was the same Nate had inhabited.

"Oh, wow." Vanessa laughed, Dan was taken aback.

"Bad idea?" He questioned, already knowing the answer.

"Um, yeah!" She exclaimed louder with more disapproval than what she had intended, but then again their once rock solid, unaltered intentions had still led the both of them back to each other. "Dan, don't get me wrong. Blond, beautiful and well...from a different world and I know what it's like because I was with Archibald, but there was a reason why we didn't end up together again after we went to Europe." Her voice cracked slightly. Dan just remained silent.

"I just..." he couldn't justify it, he and Serena had been through enough and it hadn't been enough for them to actually stay together, "This could be the one...this time."

Vanessa looked at him; his elation had come and went fleetingly. She was the one raising an eyebrow when she silently hoped that this stint with Serena would too.

With more than a few drinks in their systems, Nate and Chuck actually forgot that they'd initiated a debacle once more when Chuck's car was depositing Nate back at his townhouse. They shared a joint which enhanced the laughter and it didn't take long for their favourite topic to sprout into conversation.

"You two need to talk," Nate began, his voice hoarse – he hadn't done this in years, "I know we're me and Blair but – she needs you in her life even if it's as a friend. I can tell she misses you."

The car stopped but Nate didn't move.

"Well, have a good night, Nate." Chuck bid goodbye sadly, both of them stepped outside and Chuck's eye fleeted up through the windows, just for a glance.

Nate noticed this, too bad he didn't notice it when they were all fifteen.

"I need you to put me at ease, man." Nate stated. "I've told myself so many times, she's always reassuring me and now I need you to do the same. Because we're not in high school anymore, you know?"

Chuck nodded thoughtfully before loosening his bowtie.

"You have nothing to worry about Nate...you know I love you both more than anything. You can make each other happy."

Nate didn't miss Chuck's eyes widening or his sweaty palm on his shoulder once again, and in that instant he knew.

A/N: Okay, I know there was zilch NS or CB interaction here, but those will be in abundance after this chapter! And don't despair; DS are a bump in the road. Let's hope we can say that by the end of season three (: and I love your feedback. Expect the next chapter soon, xoxo.