A/N: So I wasn't sure if I was going to complete this chapter or not tonight but then I watched Pretty in Pink and all the Dan/Blair scenes were so bittersweet. (Bitter because I know they'll be the last for a while, what with Dan's whole: "I tried to convince myself that I could handle being friends with her but I realised tonight that I can't") And then I watched the promo for next week's episode and Chuck's crazy punching the glass moment, I'm still praying that that wasn't over Blair's head, made me feel sick; please Gossip Girl writers don't go there! So I decided in order to make myself feel better I would write about some Dan/Blair cuteness – or rather Dan cuteness (because damn Penn was looking fine this evening!). I hope you enjoy! Xxx IBH

Chapter 4

Blair woke up the next morning with a smile on her face. Her bed felt a lot cosier than usual, the warmth making her somewhat lethargic and although her pillow, which was normally very soft, felt much firmer than she was used to she found that this only served as further comfort. Snuggling deeper into the covers she felt the arm that had been loosely encircling her automatically tighten, pulling her further towards the source of warmth in her bed. Which is of course when she realised that it wasn't a pillow her head was resting on but rather a chest, Dan Humphrey's to be precise, and that the arm encircling her also belonged to the aforementioned Humphrey. She tried not to panic. She really did. But she was Blair Waldorf and he was Dan Humphrey, and he was in her bed, and she had just woken up in his arms, and worst of all: she had… enjoyed it! Blair Waldorf had enjoyed waking up in the arms of a man who was not Chuck; and not just any man, Dan. Humphrey. Ugh! If Gossip Girl could see her now…

With some regret, which she purposefully ignored, she quickly tried to disentangle herself from Dan's hold on her. Finally withdrawing from his embrace, she sprung out of bed and now, with a few feet of space between her and the sleeping man in her bed, she was able to breath again. Looking down at him sprawled out across the covers she tried not to laugh; he was snoring quietly with his mouth slightly agape, his hair was all mussed up (which she not find endearing, at all) as were his clothes. His shirt had risen a few inches above his jeans allowing her a peak at the slightly tan skin underneath, her eyes immediately started to follow the trail of hair that led south, her mind slowly wandering. Blair's eyes widened in shock when she realised exactly what she was thinking about and, quickly shaking herself out of her reverie, she grabbed the nearest object, which happened to be her cabbage patch doll, and threw it at the sleeping Brooklynite. She was pleased when it hit his head right on target.

"What the hell?" Grumbled Dan, sitting up suddenly and looking around her bedroom in a sleepy daze. When his eyes at last landed on Blair who was standing at the foot of the bed he put two-and-two together, "Waldorf," he muttered, "I'd nearly forgotten how insane you are in the mornings, or you know, all the time. A simple: 'it's time to wake up, Dan' would have been suffice."

"Yes, but where's the fun in that?" retorted Blair with a smug smile in place.

Dan groaned, flopped back down into the mass amounts of pillows that were on her bed and threw his arm over his face trying to shield his eyes from the sun shining in the room, "What time is it?"

"It's time to wake up, Dan!" replied Blair, mimicking his earlier words. A second later a pillow came hurtling threw the air and hit her square on the face. "Humphrey!" Blair screeched out in shock and then picking up the pillow made to swing it at her attacker but Dan foreseeing this quickly rolled out of harm's way and unceremoniously fell onto the bedroom floor with a loud thump. Blair laughed loudly as Dan grunted in pain. "And that Humphrey is why you don't –"

A soft knock on her bedroom door interrupted her victory speech and both Dan and Blair froze as Darota's voice came through the door, "Miss Blair," she said quietly, "Mr Chuck is waiting for you downstairs, he says he wants to have breakfast with you… should I send him away?" she asked knowingly.

Panic-stricken, Blair was lost for words, Chuck's voice however seemed to drive her into action mode as he called out, "Blair! I'm coming up! You can't stay mad at me forever!"

With a speed and strength she didn't know she had, she quickly dragged Dan to his feet and passed him his shoes, "Sneak out through Serena's bedroom!" she hissed as she ushered him towards her shared en suite.

"I'm having a serious case of deja vu here, Waldorf," Dan muttered as the bathroom door slammed shut in his face.

…

"Dan!"

So much for stealth, thought Dan, who had been hoping his swift exit from the Waldorf's, would go unnoticed. Slightly panicked he looked around for the source of his discovery. "Nate!" he cried out when he finally noticed his friend standing on the opposite side of the road waving his arms at him. A wide grin spread across his face as he quickly crossed the road manoeuvring around New York traffic to greet his friend with a big hug. "How are you, man?"

"I'm great!" Nate responded with excitement, "How are you? How was your trip?"

"It was awesome! I had the most amazing time! I'm sorry I didn't get to say goodbye before I left!"

"Nah man, don't worry about it! I can't wait to hear all the stories; European parties are something else!"

Dan just laughed at this, "yeah, they definitely are…" he said avoiding any eye contact, "Hey, wanna go get a coffee or something? I could really do with a caffeine hit; I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Oh, really?" asked Nate cheekily, wiggling his eyebrows. And then all of a sudden his mischievous expression dropped when he realized exactly which building he had caught Dan exiting just a few minutes prior. "Wait… You and Serena? Again? You do realize she has a boyfriend, right?"

"What? No!" cried out Dan, "God no!" he laughed.

"So then what were you doing outside of her and Blair's building?" Nate asked suspiciously.

"Oh, you know, I was just in the uh… neighborhood." Said Dan, inwardly cringing at such a pathetic lie. "Besides," he said, "I couldn't have been here to see Serena, she was at her boyfriend's house last night. I'm sure you can read all about it on Gossip Girl."

"Right…" drawled out Nate disbelievingly. Then he laughed loudly, "I'm actually going to believe you on this one Humphrey because the only other option would be that you had stayed the night with Blair; which even by Upper East Side standards would be pretty unbelievable!"

"Right, yeah." Dan muttered, laughing nervously, "Unbelievable."

And then suddenly Nate was bent over laughing, "I mean, can you imagine?"

"Oh, come on Nate," said Dan, awkwardly looking around as passers-by gave them weird looks, "It wouldn't be that crazy; I mean you did see the blast from the Pink Party, right?"

"Yeah, it's amongst my collection of Funniest Home Videos!" Nate breathed out through laughs.

"Ok," said Dan getting annoyed now, "I'm gonna go, I'll see you later." And he turned around and headed down the street towards the nearest subway.

"Awww come on, man!" Nate yelled out, pushing through the crowd to catch up with him, "Even you have to admit, it would be pretty funny; I mean everybody's reactions alone! I know the idea of you and Blair hooking up disgusts you or whatever, but – "

Dan stopped in his tracks suddenly and turned to face Nate, who had finally caught up with him, "It doesn't disgust me." He said quietly.

Nate was taken aback by the sincerity in his words, "Huh?"

Dan sighed realising the meaning behind what he had just said, "Look, I gotta go, I uh… forgot I had this appointment, so I guess we'll have to have coffee another time. I'll uh… I'll see ya later, Nate."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! You cannot just say something like that and expect to get away with it, Humphrey!" he cried out, once again chasing his friend down the street, "Dan, come on!" he said after finally reaching his friend, clasping a hand on his shoulder and forcing Dan to turn around and face him. "What's going on?" he asked with concern, "I know I was distracted with the whole Raina thing before you went away for the holidays, but that doesn't mean we aren't still friends; talk to me, man!"

"Blair and I are friends." Dan blurted out. Nate stared at him for a second, a smile started to creep up on his face and a small laugh escaped, "And you're laughing again!" Cried out Dan throwing his head back in exasperation, "Great, just, great."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" said Nate, trying to control his laughter, "It's just… well… I thought… I thought you guys – "

"Hated each other?" finished Dan.

"Well… yeah." Said Nate sheepishly, "Does Serena know?"

"Yeah, she's known for a while now. She wasn't too happy about it at first and to be honest I'm not too sure if she's very happy about it now; I haven't actually gotten around to asking her yet." Replied Dan with a slightly guilty expression.

"Right," said Nate, still trying to process things, "and Chuck?"

Dan grimaced, "I'm not sure."

"Huh," said Nate again, at a loss for words now.

"Yeah," Dan chuckled, "'Huh' seems about right."

"So then," Nate said slowly as he put the pieces of the puzzle together, "you were with Blair last night?"

"Well, yeah… but it was completely innocent, I swear! We fell asleep watching a movie."

"Huh," said Nate again, his eyes searching Dan's face for something.

"What?" Dan asked cautiously.

"I just… you know Blair's with Chuck, right?" asked Nate, concern for his friend once again written all over his face.

"Of course!" retorted Dan defensively.

"Like, ChuckandBlair BlairandChuck, right?"

Dan rolled his eyes, "Like I said before, Blair and I are friends, nothing more."

"But, the idea of hooking up with her doesn't disgust you…" said Nate, raising his eyebrows.

Dan's eyes widened slightly realising the trap he had inadvertently stepped into. Looking around to check that nobody was eavesdropping, he took a small step towards Nate and lowered his voice, "Look," he whispered, "I may have had a small, teensy, weensy crush on her before I left for Europe and yes, I may still find her a little attractive but I mean, she's Blair Waldorf and I have eyes, so I don't think that really says much, I mean you dated her; you know what I mean! And she does smell good and she really is intelligent and… and that's beside the point, the point is: I went to Europe to get over her and find myself. And I did. I am completely over that small, irritating and highly inappropriate crush, which never needs to be spoken of or mentioned again. Ever. Because… because I'm over her. And she's with Chuck. And I'm with… I'm with… well; I'm with no one. Which is fine by me, by the way! Because I found myself in Europe; I tried a lot of things the old Dan Humphrey would never have done and I wrote, I wrote a lot about everything that's happened and I've come to terms with it all. Truly, I'm better for it. And… and… and you're laughing again!"

…

Later that day, Dan could be found editing one of the chapters of his novel. This chapter really hadn't been his best work but, to be fair, he had been very hung over when he had started writing it. Dan chuckled to himself as he remembered the night before; Prague had definitely been an adventure.

"Laughing at your own joke, Humphrey? How very common of you."

Dan looked up in surprise to find Blair Waldorf standing at the door to his office, "Don't they teach you how to knock in the Upper East Side?"

"I did knock," she replied, "but apparently you were distracted."

Dan smiled slightly, "Yeah, I've just been doing a bit of editing." And he swore he could see Blair's ears perk up with interest at this, "What brings you to Brooklyn, Waldorf?"

Blair smiled sweetly, "I've decided that Ethan's short films weren't punishment enough; Darota is busy organising a back-to-school cocktail party I'm having tomorrow night, so I'm going to need your help today, Humphrey. As my friend and equal, of course," she added almost as an afterthought.

Dan searched her face warily, "and what exactly do you need help with?"

A/N: He he my very own version of a cliff hanger :D ... Please review!