Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended.
"I found them!" Nate shouts from the kitchen, hopping on his bare feet. The kitchen floor tile is cold and he's not wearing a shirt and Serena is one room over, on his bed, tangled in his sheets, and warm.
"I knew I'd saved a box!" He announces, racing back into the room and jumping onto the bed. He laughs and shows her the top, "Unopened."
"You're really into this whole planning-ahead thing lately, aren't you?" she teases, cuddled into the shirt he's no longer wearing, half of the buttons done up. "C'mere," she adds; she wants him closer.
He crawls towards her on the bed. "I think about you a lot," he confesses easily, puts the box in her lap so he can slide in behind her and cuddle her to his chest. He kisses the side of her head, "Sometimes it involves breakfast pastries..."
She grins at him, opening a box and tearing into one of the packages of Pop Tarts. "Other times, what does it involve?"
"Pancakes." He teases. Everything. He opens his mouth and leans over her shoulder for a bite, "Aah..."
Serena kisses him instead, lets him taste sugar on her lips. "Pancakes?" she murmurs skeptically, against his mouth. "No food for you til you give me a real answer."
"Mhm..." he props his chin on her shoulder, face tilted to hers, "Only for the love of Pop-Tarts..." he teases and then presses a kiss to her jawline, "It involves - things like, your hair in the sun or your dimples when you smile... it involves this." He hugs her a little tighter, kisses her again. Us.
She feeds him a bite of Pop Tart. "Such a sweet talker."
He beams, gives her a closed-mouthed smile as he chews. "Sometimes..." he whispers in her ear, "It involves the beach... and your white bikini..."
"I packed that away," she tells him, licking her lips. "Strictly part of my summer wardrobe. Guess you missed out."
His gaze lifts from her mouth and he smiles, "I can help you unpack."
She smiles and pats his cheek. "Maybe."
He smiles back, leans his head into hers, "You remember when we were- when we were pretending to date? That summer? And sometimes we'd go to the beach and watch the waves and the clouds and squirt water bottles at each other...? That was nice."
"It was nice," she agrees. "It felt real."
"Yeah...it did." His arms come up around her, hands joining hers in breaking off pieces of the Pop-Tart, "It's kind of funny..." he offers quietly, "How easy that was. Right? And then when we- then it just wasn't."
"Yeah," she agrees, matching his quiet tone. "It just wasn't." She swallows hard and tells him, "We...we both had stuff going on that summer. Other stuff."
"Dan and Catherine." He studies her profile, "Now there's Dan and Juliet. I'm seeing a pattern."
She pokes her bottom lip out and holds his gaze for a moment before she breaks eye contact. "You had Blair first."
He's not really sure how that's relevant, but he blinks and says carefully, "That was- Blair and I broke up a long time ago."
"Yeah, but." She looks back at his face, wills him to just get it.
"But..." he says slowly, arms still around her, "What?" He looks back at her, doesn't want to assume he knows where she's going with this.
"Nate." She twists in his hold, moves so that she's sitting facing him instead, on her knees, the sheets tangled around her legs. She tries to shake off the thought. "It was a long time ago."
He's a little startled when she moves, loosens his hold and meets her gaze when she turns around. "I know," he agrees, "Blair and I were a long time ago, that's what I'm saying... and the other stuff, isn't." And he's not exactly sure why this has come up when they'd about to eat Pop-Tarts and kiss.
"I loved you, though." That's the whole point, how she'd loved him and learned to bury it, how it had stayed buried until that night in the bar, and then again until another night in the bar three years later when he said he'd loved her too. It makes her feel kind of achy, thinking about it, about how she'd never - "I never told you." She's telling him now.
"You loved me?" He doesn't mean to echo her or to stare - but both just happen. Because he can't remember when she'd loved- Because he loved her and that was whole point. He loved her, but he was with Blair and they both loved Blair; and he couldn't hurt them like that, he couldn't think or feel things like that- until the night when champagne and her smile had made it impossible to not think or feel that.
"I didn't..." he licks his lips, "Think that."
Serena bites her lip. "I tried not to...make it so you'd think that."
He stares at her for a beat and then he leans forward and kisses her softly, eyes closed and fingers tightening around his shirt she's wearing. It's a silent I'm sorry before he whispers, "I love you," against her lips.
She smiles, presses a quick kiss to his lips. "Prove it," she whispers back, soft and teasing.
He returns the quick kiss against her lips, smiles, "List your terms."
"You should know." She pokes his chest.
He pouts playfully, "Help me out."
She kisses his cheek and says, against his skin, "Asked you first."
"A pop-tart ice cream sandwich?" He laughs softly, hides his face against her hair, is kind of embarrassed that the answer to this question is anything you want.
She grins brightly. "Sounds yummy, but not exactly what I had in mind."
He hugs her tighter, "Mhm, I don't know what you have in mind," he mumbles, kisses her neck slowly, "Let's just run away... I'll help you unpack the white bikini... we'll take my boat... how important, really, is college?"
"I already skipped a year," she whispers, closing her eyes. "Maybe I should try to get through this one."
He smiles against her skin, "Admirable." He leans back so he can look into her face, "It's already Thursday. We could get to the Cape by tomorrow afternoon." He moves strands of hair from her face, tucks them behind her ear, "We could dock... swim, fish..." he wiggles his eyebrows, "Keep warm."
She shakes her head a little. "You're gonna make me fail, Archibald."
He laughs. "We'll do homework...?" He blinks at her, "Anything. We'll be together."
"Anything?" She bumps her nose against his, gives him a playfully serious look.
He holds her gaze. "Anything."
"Hm." She kisses him. "Okay."
He laughs against her mouth, "You're confusing," he teases and then tickles her.
She giggles, squirming away. "You're just confused."
He laughs, "You make my head spin."
"Let's go," she says quietly. "I mean it."
He grins at her, beams. "Good." And he kisses her, can't stop smiling. "We'll memorize the Columbia Campus map."
Serena smiles back. "Sounds sexy," she teases him.
"I pull out all the stops for you." He teases back.
"You don't have to, you know." I'd love you anyway.
His smile softens and he stretches out next to her, hooks a leg over hers to tug her close to him. "But I want to, I like to."
"Well, I'm not going to stop you..."
"Yeah..." a thread of seriousness slips into his voice, "Don't stop me."
"Don't let me stop you," she says very softly, resting her hand against his cheek as she kisses him.
He leans his forehead against hers, looks into her eyes, "Ever?"
"Ever's a really long time."
"I know."
She scrunches up her nose. "Sometimes I'm stubborn."
He kisses the tip of her nose. "I can be persistent."
"Okay." She nudges his body with her own, rolls them over so that she's stretched out on top of him, her toes resting on his feet. "Ever."
"Okay." That simple, that's how they should always be. He slides his hands under his shirt and against her skin, "I'm abducting you." But even when it's not- "Okay."
"Okay," she echoes, smiling at him as she tucks her hair out of her face.
He grins at her for a moment, touches a curl of hair, before leaning up and pressing a fast kiss to her mouth. He rolls them over quickly, kisses her again when she's underneath him. "You get one phone call," he laughs and then bounds off the bed and to his closet. He needs a duffel bag.
"Phone calls are for suckers," she giggles, finding her jeans against and stepping into them. She walks over to his dresser and pokes through his clothes, picking out t-shirts and boxers and a couple pairs of socks.
He laughs, drops the duffel onto the bed. "First order of business," he snakes arm around her waist and pulls her away from his dresser; kisses the back of her neck, "White bikini."
"Uh-uh." She shakes her head. "I don't want to go home, I just want to go." She turns her head and kisses the corner of his mouth. "How about no bikini?"
"Mhm... your argument is persuasive." He turns her around so he can kiss her, " I accept."
She smiles into the kiss, whispers, "Finish packing," against his mouth before she pulls away. "I'll get snacks."
.tbc.
