Hi lovelies!

Here is the last chapter of For me, Formidable. The story will continue in a final fanfic, but I had to end this one there because I want to write the rest of the story a bit differently. I will tell you all about it in the next and final installment, called Les Plaisirs Démodés.

Thanks for all those who followed, read and reviewed. I love writing about Dair, and you guys make it even more fun.

Hope you enjoy this one.


If Dan wasn't so drunk, or high or whatever –he doesn't even remember what Nate gave him –he would find fascinating how everything can be so bright and dark all the same in the hot, crowded, loud confines of a nightclub. By now, how they ended there is a complete mystery. What he can clearly recall is the last day of finals and a boring gala that Lily and Anne Archibald insisted on making them all attend.

But somehow, Dan is there, in a suit, crowded by a thousand people, shouting out the lyrics of a song he didn't even know two minutes earlier with Serena who is moving her hips way too easily for someone who was in a car accident two weeks ago. Nate is with them, moving without lifting his feet from the floor –usual sign that it's time for him to go home.

Fluorescent lights keep hitting his eyes, and Dan starts feeling a bit hot and flushed. He looks around for a possible exit. He catches briefly the sight of Chuck and Charlie making out in a corner, for some reason, it makes him laugh.

His eyes get also caught by Vanessa's skirt patterns, and then his breath gets trapped. Blair is next to her, red dress, red heels, red lips and her long brown hair falling in her back. The dress is too short, Dan thinks, and people –men –are staring, waiting for an opening to approach her. He watches from afar Blair starting to move to the sound, fingers grazing softly up and down her sides. Her knees bend lightly, then she is back up, moving her hips around, throwing her head back. Her head turns, gaze going hazily over the crowd until it meets his. Then he sees the smallest of smirk on her lips, and a glimpse of malice in her eyes.

Dan curses under his breath.

He knows that whatever is feeling is emphasized by the euphoria of finally being in summer, and the reticence of her leaving for Monaco in two weeks, but Dan simply cannot help it. She is, at that moment, the most beautiful thing he's ever had the dreadful chance to see in his life.

He crosses the crowd, assured and confident until he reaches her. His arms slide easily around her waist, his lips find hers with a natural motion and he backs her up against the wall. They have gotten pretty good at shameless public make out, especially when they're drunk. The music is still loud, pounding in their heads, but somehow Dan still hears Blair whisper.

"Bathroom"

He moves away from her, fingers sliding down her arms to take her hands and pull her with him. Once they're inside the bathroom -men's, women's, who cares –Dan turns around to lock the door. They are deep inside Gossip Girl territory, the last thing he needs is a sex tape of him and Blair on the internet.

When he turns back to Blair, she is leaning forward above the sinks, canting out her hips and shimmying out of her panties which are red too and which Dan finds marvelous. His eyes follow as they fall down her thighs and pool around her ankles. She steps out of them.

"Pick them up" he hears her say "They are worth more than the suit you're wearing"

Dan steps forward and crouches down behind her, one hand around her thigh to pick up the lace fabric. He doesn't know what to do with them, so he ends up stuffing them in his pocket. He sees in the mirror Blair smile at that.

Dan figures that people are going to want using the bathroom soon, so he locks an arm around Blair from behind, and undoes his pants with the other hand. Blair holds on with both hands onto his arm, moaning the second he slides inside of her. While he moves, Dan watches her reflection in the mirror. She is looking back, eyes focused on his face and her cheeks are getting a pink shade that goes with her lipstick.

"Don't look at me like that" Dan whispers, because he can't handle the intensity in her eyes; he never could.

"Okay" Blair smirks as she closes her eyes.

She starts getting louder and one of her hands leave his arm to rest against the mirror, all five fingers spread apart. Dan sees the crease between her brows, the one's meaning he knows so well, and he picks up the pace. Blair comes loudly, short breaths between high pitched gasps and just as Dan follows her, someone knocks on the bathroom door.

As soon as they unlock the door, they get thrown out by security. They are barely outside, being stared at by everyone when the inside security guy comes back, throwing a wasted Nate at them. Charlie, Chuck, Serena and Vanessa drunkenly follow. Dan helps Chuck get Nate to his limo. The girls walk ahead of them, arms locked and giggling. Blair turns around twice to give Dan a smile that makes his heart skip a beat.

It's the last thing he remembers.

When Dan wakes up, it's because Aznavour's voice is ringing out in his room. He fumbles sleepily, feeling Blair stir next to him, until he finds his phone.

"Hello, Daniel. It is your father. A car is waiting for you downstairs and you have exactly twenty minutes to make it to Grand Station, unless you want to hear for the rest of your life your sister ranting about how you missed her high school graduation because of your girlfriend, even if you're not with Blair right now"

Dan's body shoots up. Fuck.

He hangs up without saying anything, and takes out a travelling bag, starts throwing clothes into it. Blair moves around in his bed; one of her arms reaches on the floor to take a shoe and throw at him. She misses, it breaks his desk lamp.

"Let me sleep" she mutters

"Sorry, I forgot I was taking the train this morning"

Dan considers changing, then figures he is already wearing a suit, so why bother? He takes a pair of sunglasses and puts them on, not wanting to show his father his hungover face. He sits next to Blair on the bed.

"Hey, I'm going. See you tomorrow"

Blair grunts, and rolls to face him. It seems to take her a lot of effort for her to open her eyes.

"I love you" she says "For not forcing me to come"

Dan chuckles "I love you too. Don't forget to feed Léon"

He kisses her, takes his bag, and gets out. Dan sees Vanessa, Charlie and Serena asleep in Vanessa's old bed; when he turns back he sees Chuck asleep on his couch and Nate passed out on the floor, unaware of Léon licking his face.

It's the way Dan leaves his loft that morning, and nothing has ever more felt like the start of summer to him.

Rufus and Eric give him a look when he arrives at Grand Station, and Dan gives back a single shrug. He doesn't have the time to change either when they get to Hudson, because Jenny's graduation starts half an hour later. Jenny turns up her nose at his crumpled suit, and Alison gives him the same look as Rufus and Eric did.

As they sit, waiting for Jenny to be called, Dan's head starts getting heavy. Jenny herself, sitting amongst her classmates doesn't even seem to be that interested in the matter. Eric is already flirting with someone, Nana is criticizing every single student who is handed a diploma, and Dan would rather be in his bed, or walking in Central Park with Blair.

But then, when Jennifer Humphrey gets called, he sees the look on his parents' faces, and he hears Eric cheer, doesn't hear Nana criticize anything and it gets to him that this is the moment when his baby sister is becoming just his sister. It sucks.

When Jenny joins them, she is smiling, holding proudly her diploma. Dan is the last one to give her a congratulations hug. The intention is aborted when, as he takes his hands out of his pockets to pull her into his arms, Blair's red underwear fall on the ground. Eric laughs, Rufus turns his head around, Alison blushes, Nana cringes and Jenny asks a higher power to kill her on the spot.

X

The heat is perfect. Not too heavy, not too dry, just the right amount to allow Blair to spend several hours on the roof of a Brooklyn building in her bikini, eating a frozen yogurt and reading the last issue of Vogue.

She sinks into her sun chair more comfortably, starting on a very promising article. Of course, Dan chooses this moment to notify his existence.

"Bair, a little help here?" he asks, sounding annoyed.

Blair lifts up her sunglasses, and looks over at him in his bathing short trying to maintain Léon into the soapy water of the giant bathing basin.

"I'm busy" Blair says "You seem to be doing fine on your own"

"Do I really? I have dog shampoo in my hair"

"Good. I actually bought it for you to use too. I figured since regular shampoo doesn't seem to work…"

She goes back to her article, while Dan gets a nervous, annoyed laugh.

"And here I was, thinking I would actually miss you once you're gone to Monaco" he says, stroking foam out of Léon's hair.

"And here you are, pretending that you won't"

He grunts, and she smiles. They hear someone call from the inside of the loft, and Dan gets up.

"Make sure he doesn't move, at least?"

Blair hums, and nods, so Dan makes his way to the window. He's reached it when he hears a giant splash. Taking a deep breath, he turns around to see Léon running happily around Blair, and the basin knocked over, leaking on the roof.

"Oops" Blair says, flipping nonchalantly a page of her magazine.

Dan shakes his head and makes his way inside the loft. Vanessa is standing in the kitchen, drinking from a bottle of water. She laughs when she sees him.

"Bathing the dog?"

"Attempting to" Dan hugs her hello, finds her a little stiff "How is the packing for Barcelona going?"

"Great" Vanessa nods, and drinks again from the bottle "Actually, I wanted to come and talk to you about something, since I leave for Vermont in three days and won't be coming back to the city before going to Spain"

"Uh oh" Dan smiles "Is this the part when we cry?"

Vanessa doesn't smile back, so Dan stops. She clears her throat.

"I read Inside. I think it's great, and that you should publish it"

"What?"

Dan asks that, because he really can't ask anything else. He is not even sure that what Vanessa said is what he actually heard. He wasn't prepared, so it must not be real. He swallows, hard, as he starts to take in the extent of the situation. Fuck.

"How did you even find it?" he asks, his throat tight.

Dan needs to know, because he printed it a little less than two weeks ago. And he doesn't have the memory of Vanessa being in his loft ever since, or at least not alone.

"I came by to borrow your DVD of Strangers on a Train, you weren't there and the window was open so…listen, the point is…it's amazing work, Dan. It doesn't deserve to stay hidden in your desk drawer like a stupid teenage diary"

"You crossed a line, Vanessa"

The sentiment of exposure and betrayal crawls onto his skin, and creeps up in his stomach. Dan barely restrains to put his arms around him in protection.

"I know" she puts her hands up to appease him "But that's what I do. I cross the line to tell you when your work is shit, and I cross the line to tell you when it's good and that…that was mind-blowing, Dan"

The compliments, for some reason, don't land in his mind. It is still too sudden for him to really process anything.

"I can't publish it" he says "I'm not ready, and it's not ready, and I can't do that to everyone"

"It doesn't have anything to do with anyone" Vanessa sighs

"Have you not read it?" Dan asks with a bitter laugh "Those are my friends, Vanessa"

"They're my friends too. And they'll understand, they won't stand in the way of your success" Vanessa steps closer to look him in the eyes "This is it, Dan. This is your moment"

Dan has a bit of trouble breathing. He thinks Vanessa might be right, but if she were, would his heart pound so loudly in his chest, as if to warn him?

"You need to go" he finally says, wanting to end with the pressure.

Vanessa frowns "You can't let them stop you from getting this, Dan. When are you going to realize that you won't get anywhere unless you take some risks?"

"Says the girl who is moving to Europe to run away from her problems" Dan snaps back "But you won't see me stop you, because my life was actually much better until you climbed back up that fire escape, four years ago"

It takes him a few seconds to actually regret saying that. But it's already too late anyway. Vanessa's face closes, and she stands there looking at him. Dan doesn't say anything because he is certain that she can see on his face how sorry he is. It doesn't really make anything better.

"Fine" she finally says "You won't see me climb it up again. In fact, you won't even see me step into this loft again"

"Don't say that" Dan sighs, feeling suddenly tired.

Vanessa shakes her head, and makes her way to the front door.

"I can't be the person you treat like crap because you know they'll always be around. Not anymore. So have a nice life with Blair, and Serena, and Nate and even Chuck. You finally got what you always wanted, but were too full of shit to admit"

Dan stands there even after the door closes on her. He hears her praises about his story in his mind, and he just wants it to stop.

"What was that about?" Blair's voice asks behind him "Was it Vanessa?"

Dan clears his throat, and turns around. Blair is walking toward him, soaked Léon trotting behind her.

"Yeah. She came by to give me back a DVD"

"Was that why you two were shouting?" Blair asks

"I told her Strangers on a Train was the lowest point of Hitchcock" Dan shrugs

Blair laughs "So, you wanted to kill her"

She goes back to his room to put clothes on. Dan takes several breaths, registering that he just lied to her, way more easily than he would have thought possible, and she believed him. Because she trusts him. Because she believed him when he said after the story with Georgina and Milo that he would never hide anything from her, ever again.

Dan regrets what happened with Vanessa, but he doesn't regret the reason why it happened. There was a time when perhaps he would have listened to her. But now everything's changed. Now Blair looks at him, she smiles at him, she kisses him and she loves him. And this is the one thing he'll never gamble.

X

Blair knows Dan is avoiding her and she knows it has everything to do with the Constance-St Jude alumni reunion invitations they both received in the mail. He doesn't answer his phone for three days and spends most of his time at The Empire with Nate.

What he seems to forget, is that he gave Blair a key to the loft. So she makes her way in one afternoon, and waits until he gets home with Léon, late at night. She secretly likes the way his body freezes in horror when he sees her sitting in his chair, waiting for him.

"Shit. The key" he says, unleashing Léon.

"Yes. The key" Blair closes her book, and stands up "So, have you decided what suit you're going to wear?"

Dan whines, and lets himself fall on the couch.

"Do we absolutely have to go? Is it really necessary for us to walk over there and hear everyone whisper about how unnatural it is that we're together?"

"What we're going to do, actually, is shamelessly show off our happiness" Blair sits on his lap "Besides, it's me we're talking about, everything I do is considered avant-garde. I'll bet you anything that Hazel and Katie stop drooling over Nate and find themselves a proper hipster within the week"

"So you just want to show your latest trendy accessory: me" Dan raises an eyebrow.

Blair thinks about it.

"If you say 'yes', you're in trouble" Dan warns her.

Blair laughs and kisses him, long, slow and hot. Then she pulls away, biting her lips and fluttering her eyelids.

"Please?" she asks softly, before pressing a light kiss behind his ear "For me?"

Dan shakes firmly his head. Of course, two days later, he is standing in the halls of St Jude School for boys, wearing a suit that Blair chose for him. He briefly wonders in which one of her designer handbags she keeps his balls. Nate bets him it's the orange Versace.

Everybody keeps looking at them with narrowed eyes, but Blair is unshaken. She smiles, and greets her old teacher so pleasantly, it's disconcerting. Dan decides to do the same, because he doesn't want to be the stuck-up boyfriend next to the sparkling girl. So he takes Blair with him to the dance floor, and makes her twirl as steadily as he can. Blair laughs, until something catches her eyes, and she gasps bringing Dan against her.

"What the hell?" she asks "Look at what Charlie is wearing!"

Dan turns around with a sigh, then back to Blair.

"Yes, it's hideous" he says, trying to keep dancing. Then he sees the way Blair looks at him, and he tries "I mean it's beautiful. But it would look better on you?"

Blair hits him on the shoulder "It's Serena's dress to Cotillion! You should know, you were her date"

"It was four years ago" Dan defends, makes her twirl one more time.

Blair lets him do, but keeps an evil glare upon Charlie from afar.

"That bitch is a psycho"

He kisses her cheek to distract her from the matter, and he overhears Katie Farkas say something about being about to throw up. Then Blair's evil glare is transferred directly from Charlie to her. After the dance, they join Nate at the bar. They drink champagne and try not to make fun of Georgina's husband who looks so very uncomfortable.

Blair's phone rings. She excuses herself to take the call, and when she comes back, she gives them a stiff smile.

"Have any of you seen Chuck?" she asks "I just ran into Queller, she was looking for him"

Dan and Nate both shake their heads, clueless. Blair finishes her glass of champagne, distracted, then she goes and says she'll be right back.

"Is she okay?" Nate asks Dan.

Dan shrugs, wondering the same. A few minutes later, Chuck joins them and asks for a glass of scotch, neat, that he downs in two seconds. Nate and Dan exchange a worried glare.

"What's going on man?" Nate asks "Is it because Queller is looking for you? You know you don't have to fear her anymore, right? High school is over"

Chuck asks for another glass, drinks it the same way he did with the first. Then he sighs.

"I've got to get my shit together" he says.

Dan debates internally whether or not he wants to listen to Chuck's man pain tales. He decides to stay, because it's not like he has anything better to do, until Blair comes back. Nate asks Chuck what's going on, and not very surprisingly, he stays quiet. Nate insists, until Chuck gives in.

"Something…strange just happened. With Charlie"

Dan sees Nate trying to repress a smirk, and he knows the same thing is going on over his own face.

"We were in Queller's office, and she suggested to give life to an old fantasy, one that would take place on a desk" Chuck says, looking down to his empty glass. "Everything was going rather well, but then she said something"

"What did she say?" Nate is really smiling this time.

Chuck hesitates, glances at the both of them.

"She asked me to call her Serena."

Nate and Dan's smirks fall off from their faces. Dan shakes ever so slightly his head, wondering if he heard right. Before he and Nate can request a confirmation, Chuck nods.

"And then, what happened?" Nate asks.

Chuck frowns slightly "I called her Serena"

"Dude!" Nate exclaims.

"I'm gonna throw up" Dan puts a fist over his mouth.

"Relax, I stopped two seconds later, it was too weird"

"You think! She's like your sister, man!" Nate shakes his head.

"Well, it seemed to be working for some" Chuck glances at Dan, who narrows his eyes on him.

He orders another drink with Nate, while Chuck reads a text he just received. He looks at them.

"Where is Blair?" he asks.

"I think she went to the bathroom or see Serena" Dan answers, not particularly liking that both Chuck and Blair asked each other's whereabouts within the last fifteen minutes.

"Hey guys" Serena arrives next to them "I think there might be something wrong with Charlie"

"You have no idea" Nate tells her.

Serena starts telling them about Charlie's medicines that she apparently stopped taking and how it could be dangerous for her to be alone. The plan is to separate and find her, before she does something.

Dan cracks his neck, and sighs before finishing his glass. Drama doesn't go on summer vacation, in the Upper East Side.

X

Blair is still shaking when Chuck unties her. He takes her softly by the arms to stand her up, but she dismisses him. She tries to get up, on her own, with the firm intention of walking away and never turning back, but her knees fail her. So when Chuck reaches to her again, she lets him and he helps her stand.

They both talk to the police, it's quick. Because he is Chuck Bass, he manages to convince them to book an appointment with Blair the following morning for her deposition, to let her go home and rest. Then he holds up a hand, hailing a cab, but Blair stops him.

"I want to walk" she whispers.

She starts walking, getting rid of her trench coat because the heat is suddenly excruciating, suffocating. Blair walks, counts in her head, steadies her breathing. She can hear Chuck's footsteps following her. A part of her wants to tell him to stop; the other one wins, and allows him to walk behind her.

She stops when she sees something that looks like a party. There is music, and bright lights, people smoking cigars outside. Blair realizes then that perhaps she needs a drink, so she walks toward the party, gets greeted by the security as if she belongs there, faintly hearing Chuck calling her outside. Turns out the party is a Bar Mitzvah, so Blair gathers all the Judaic knowledge she got from Cyrus and melts into the crowd while making her way to the bar.

"A bottle of champagne, please"

The bartender blinks at her, then gives her a bottle after having opened it.

Chuck finds her "Blair, I think you're in a trauma, let's go"

Blair shrugs, drinks from the bottle.

"I want to dance" she says.

And so she does. Blair dances with the anonymous at the party, and she dances alone, turning around on her spot and she never stops drinking. Chuck stands on the side, looks at her warily, like he is witnessing her having some kind of a mental breakdown. And perhaps she is, a little.

Blair has emptied three quarters of the bottle on an empty stomach, and suddenly, she doesn't feel so good. A woman notices her, and holds her when her knees go weak again. Chuck arrives and the woman shows them to a room where he can lie Blair down.

Blair doesn't want to lie down, though. Because then the world will start to turn.

"If I lie down, I will have no restrains nor regrets on vomiting on you"

Chuck lets her go, and Blair goes to sit on the floor, back against the wall and legs brought up against her body. Chuck sits on a couch nearby. Blair rests her head against the wall, fighting the unexplainable tears, and the pent up anger.

"I went over there to help you" she says.

Chuck doesn't answer.

"I received a call from Russell Thorpe that you were in danger, and then I debated in my head whether I should go or not" Blair knows at that instant that she is crying. It makes her even angrier "But then I asked myself, what Dan would do, so I came to your rescue"

"I'm sorry, Blair. I really am"

Blair shrugs, because it doesn't matter that he is sorry. What matters is that she was scared and alone because she wanted to help him. Every time she tries to help him, she ends up getting hurt. She sees Chuck put a hand over his face.

"He used you because he knows how much I care about you. I'm sorry I make it too obvious how much I still love you" he says.

"Of course you still love me!" Blair shouts "We've known each other our whole lives and we even dated, of course you would still love me. It doesn't mean that you're in love with me. There is not one only way to love people, Chuck, when are you going to realize? You selfish motherfucker"

She doesn't even know what she is saying, really, but it makes Chuck laugh.

"How do you love me?" he asks.

Blair grunts, thinking he has a lot of nerve to ask such a question. Then again, he is Chuck Bass.

"Like that porcelain doll I've had on my shelf since I was little. It used to be my favorite, then I turned nine and barely looked at her. But I never give it up to charity or throw it away, because my room wouldn't look the same without it"

"I'm going to try and take that as a compliment"

"As you wish"

"How do you love Dan?"

"No comparison necessary. I just love him"

Blair wipes away the humidity on her cheek. She is starting to feel better, and now she wants to see Dan. She closes her eyes, trying to picture his face, using her memory to hear is voice.

"He wrote a book about me" she says, eyes still closed.

"Of course he did" Chuck sighs, voice pierced by a slight annoyance.

"I knew he loved me, but I didn't know how much until I read some parts. He says I'm a Queen. He says I am 'inevitably and dreadfully lovable, like a time bomb that had been hidden under Dylan's skin from the moment he met her. He always knew, somehow, that it was there. The ticking was faint, but still audible. He always assumed that the day it would go off would be the day of her cold-blooded murder by him. Then she scolded him about mistaking her coffee order, something that she did every single time, just as a way to greet him and boom; he was in love. He had been for a while. The ticking was the process, and the explosion left only her in his sight to look at"

Sometime, Blair recites it in her head at night the same way she just recited it to Chuck. She opens her eyes to see him nod slowly.

"It is amazingly accurate" he says.

Blair cannot be the judge of that, so she doesn't say anything. They stay in silence for a while.

"Do you want to hear what happened between me and Charlie, earlier tonight?" Chuck asks.

"Do I?" Blair eyes him, skeptical.

Chuck nods with a faint smile, and tells her the story. And Blair laughs so hard that the euphoria mixed with the descent of adrenaline in her blood and the rise of alcohol makes her pass out. She hears Chuck call her name, feels him lift her from the floor.

Blair feels she is being put in the back of a car, and then taken out. When she feels familiar arms around her, with the familiar cheap cologne that comes with, she sighs in content. Then she is being stripped down in her underwear, laid out on cotton sheets. Her toes meet Léon's hair somewhere on the bed. She hears the humming of a fan, feels the artificial wind blow on her skin; then Dan's arm around her waist and his lips whispering "I love you" on the skin of her shoulder.

X

Blair lies back onto Dan, putting their sweaty, hot flesh together. The air conditioning onto her moist skin makes her shudder, and Dan wraps his arms around her. They both try to catch their breath, until Blair rolls off him and sits on the bed, reaching out for her robe. Dan's hands coming to rest on her stomach prevents her from tying it. She bats them away when she feels them inch up toward her breasts.

"Enough" she says "I have to pack"

Dan pulls her back on him.

"Don't go" he whispers in the crook of her neck.

"Come with me" Blair answers, only half-joking.

"So I can pass up the chance to get sand out of Léon's hair, be Eric's wingman and coach mini Nate Archibald into making an acceptable home run?"

Blair laughs, and gets swiftly off him before he can maintain her there. Dan grunts and starts dressing himself back up. Blair goes to stand in front of her closet, takes out several items that she puts carefully into an open suitcase on the floor. Léon lies next to her feet on the carpet.

Serena comes into the room through the bathroom door. She has a hand on her eyes.

"Everybody decent?"

Blair laughs "Yes"

Serena looks at her in her robe, and Dan in only his shorts, and she raises a dubious eyebrow.

"Barely" she mutters, then to Dan "I need to talk to you. What are you going to do during which the two weeks Eric is with Jenny in London before joining you to the Hamptons? Nate and Chuck are already spinning their little globe, deciding where they're leaving tomorrow"

"I don't know" Dan shrugs "Write, probably"

Serena half rolls her eyes "Of course. Well I have a suggestion. I decided that it was time I really discovered myself"

"You decide that every year" Blair says, putting a dress in her suitcase.

"Well, I'm deciding it again this year" Serena says pointedly "Because I screwed up four relationship this year. I broke my record of three"

"Come on, you didn't screw anything up with Louis" Dan attempts to reassure her "You know it"

"It doesn't matter" Serena says "The thing is, I thought that perhaps I feel like I'm missing something about myself because there is a part of my life I never got the chance to know. That's why I called Scott."

Dan blinks. Blair turns away from her closet and toward Serena.

"Scott…Rosson?" Dan asks.

"Our brother, yes" Serena says, impatient "He's just moved in with his girlfriend, and he said they would be thrilled to have us over for a couple of weeks at the beginning of the summer. They have a guest room, and a pull out couch in his office. They even said Léon could come"

Dan sees Blair looking at Serena like she has just lost her mind, and he can't really blame her. Although, the idea isn't as weird to him as it should feel.

"Do Rufus and Lily know about this?" he asks.

Serena shakes her head "And I'm not planning on telling them. We'll say we're in the Hamptons, and take a commercial flight to Boston not to raise suspicions. I think it would be good for us three to get to know each other better"

Dan glances over at Blair, then back at Serena who seems to be nervously waiting for his answer. Dan sighs.

"Okay" he says

Serena instantly smiles "Thank you. I wouldn't have been able to go alone. We can leave the same day as Blair, it'll be great, you'll see"

She hugs him quickly before going back to her room through the bathroom. Blair walks toward Dan, runs absent-mindedly her fingers in his curls.

"Are you sure about that?" she asks.

Dan shrugs awkwardly "Sure. It might take my mind off you leaving me here to die alone"

Blair laughs "You are so needy"

Dan takes her by the waist, and pushes her onto the bed. Blair protest briefly as his mouth starts to kiss her exposed collarbone, and his hands untie her robe.

"Only when it comes to you"

X

The morning on the day they are both supposed to leave New York, Dan is at the penthouse with Léon, and following Blair everywhere she goes. It makes Blair laugh, to see his pouting lips and his dreadful face. She hopes to cheer him up by watching one of his favorite James Stewart movies, but as soon as they're done, Dan is back to sulking like he's just learned the real date of the impending apocalypse.

She tries to distract him by ordering brunch, but he only eats three waffles, instead of the customary five. At one point, Blair pops open several buttons on the front of her dress. Then Dan is distracted for a good while, pleasantly so, but when they start dressing back up, she sees his shoulder fall again.

So she hits him.

"Stop acting like you're going to miss me more than I'm going to miss you!"

Dan sits on the bed, back turned to her and shrugs. Blair sighs, annoyed and kneels behind him.

"You are infuriating, you know" she whispers as she wraps her arms around him.

Dan kisses both of her wrists, then bends his head down, nose against her skin, breathing her in. Blair tightens her hold, and closes her eyes. She knows that her leaving is not the only thing that's wearing him down. She knows Vanessa left without telling him goodbye after their fight, but she is not supposed to know they fought, even less what they fought about.

Blair feels a bit guilty for showing the manuscript to Vanessa. She didn't mean for them to fight. She didn't mean for anything to go down the way it did. But Blair has faith in their friendship, she knows –or she hopes really hard –that everything will get better, in the end. If it doesn't, she'll come forward and patch things up. She just doesn't want Dan to feel pressured.

"August 4th?" he asks, bringing her out of her reverie.

Blair smiles "August 4th"

Dan adds up everything in his head.

"That's fifty-nine days, from today" he says.

"I know. I already counted"

Dan turns around and pushes her against the mattress, presses his body onto hers. He kisses her for a long time, and Blair kisses back, becoming aware that this is the last time in fifty-nine days she'll be able to have him this way in her arms.

"Call me every day" Dan says on her lips

"I probably won't" Blair answers. She rolls them around so she is on top of him, and weaves their fingers together "I will be too busy living in a castle. You'll have to call me"

"I will be too busy rejecting Hamptons cougars" he sits up to bring her closer to him.

Blair smiles and gives him a light kiss.

"Then I guess no one is calling"

"I guess so"

She kisses him again, mouth open, determined to take his breath away. Dan responds, threads his fingers in her hair and curls his hand around her thigh. The kiss softens, until they pull apart, breathless. Blair rests her forehead against his.

"Dan. If you don't call me, it's not going to end very well for you"

He smirks and presses his lips on her neck.

"I could say the same for you"

Blair bites the inside of her cheek.

"Fine. Then we shall see who breaks first" she says, looking at him defiantly.

Dan sighs "We both know it'll be me"

Blair laughs, kisses him again. Someone knocks on the door. It's Dorota, telling her that the car supposed to take her to the Grimaldi plane has arrived.

Blair gets half-heartedly off Dan, and puts her Vivier heels on. The doorman comes to take her luggage, and Dan leashes the Léon. Serena is waiting for them in the foyer; she and Blair hug for about five minutes. Then Blair takes Dan's hand in hers, and never lets go, not in the elevator, not in the car.

It's only when they're standing next to the plane that their fingers separate, and Blair feels an uncomfortable tingling.

"Don't use that time to make Léon love you more than he loves me" Blair warns, eyes narrowed and smile trapped into her pursed lips.

"I promise" Dan says. He pulls her in his arms, and even Léon gets closer to them. Dan kisses her one more time "You know, I do feel like I'm going to miss you more than you're going to miss me"

"That's because I made sure to take something with me that would always remind me of you" Blair says, and she kisses him again "I hope it won't be too hard for you to live without it"

Dan is only suspicious for a few seconds before he laughs, understanding.

"I'm sure Cedric will love Monaco"

Blair nods with a smile, and Dan can't help it, he kisses her again.

"Should I steal something from you, then? So I won't miss you too much. Should I take one of your Hermès scarves that you left behind?"

"I never leave any Hermès scarves behind"

A plane attendant approaches shyly to tell her it's time to go.

"August 4th" Dan says.

"August 4th" Blair repeats with a nod.

Then she bites her lip, thoughtful. Dan watches her lean down to take off one shoe that she hands him.

"To remind you of me" she says.

Dan laughs and takes it. Since she has one bare foot hanging in the hair, and probably cringes internally at the idea of putting it on the ground, Dan lifts her in his arms and walks with her to the plane scale. Then he puts her down.

They kiss one last time, before she disappears into the plane. Blair sits and watches through the window Dan and Léon get into the waiting car, which eventually drives away just as the plane gets ready to take off.

X

When Dan walks into the loft, the first thing he sees is an old record on the kitchen bar. He lets go of Léon's leash and puts Blair's shoe down to properly look at it. He is not really surprised to see that it's an Aznavour song. It's called Les Plaisirs Démodés, and a note is sticking on it.

It's only fifty-nine days until we get to rediscover the old fashion pleasures, together. Love, B.

Dan smiles. He puts the record on, letting the sound fill completely the loft while he packs. Then Serena calls him, says she is waiting downstairs and Dan leaves his loft, for a whole summer.

Serena watches a romantic comedy on the plane, and Dan writes. When they land in Boston, his hands start getting sweaty. He laughs a little at his obvious nervousness. They get Léon out of his travel crate, and leave the luggage delivery room.

Scott spots them first, and walks toward them with a little smile, holding the hand of a girl with long blond hair. Dan doesn't know if he should hug, or shake hands. Then he figures that Scott is after all a Humphrey, so he opens his arms. Scott and Karen give them a little tour of Boston before taking them home. Dan can see how excited Serena is, and he can't help feeling the same, a little.

They all cook dinner together, eat in a light chipper mood. It's easy, and it's fun. They never mention their parents, though. After dinner, Serena and Karen settle on the couch with a glass of wine to watch a Sex and The City marathon, so Dan and Scott go on the balcony with a beer to talk about life, and what they've been missing on. Dan doesn't tell him about Lily getting arrested, spends most of his breath on stories about Jenny and Eric.

He tells Scott about Blair, too. Scott laughs most of the time, opens his eyes in awe when Dan tells him about something Blair did, or said. Then Scott tells him about how he met Karen; she was a regular costumer in the music shop he is working at. She came in one day asking if they had anymore Lincoln Hawk records.

They talk until Dan feels tired. Karen and Serena are still laughing in front of the TV. Dan bids them goodnight, and goes to Scott's office with Léon. The pull out couch is already open, so he just has to put himself into his pajamas and lay under the cover, spent.

It's around three in the morning when his phone buzzes on the desk. Dan knows only one person would have the indecency to call at such an hour.

He picks up "Well, well. Look who broke first"

Blair's chuckle rings out deliciously in his ear.

"I've just arrived. I had breakfast with Louis, and now I'm in my room. And I miss you"

Léon whimpers in his sleep.

"I miss you too. Thank God, I have your shoe. So? How is the castle?"

Blair sighs dreamily "You see how my room in New York is the size of your living room? Well, my room in Monaco is the size of my living room in New York"

"Don't get used to it. Don't forget that you lowered your standards to the point of being perfectly satisfied with Brooklyn"

"I'll try. What time is it over there?"

"Three in the morning"

"I should let you sleep"

"You don't have to"

"I want you to sleep, so you can have a great day with your extended family tomorrow"

Dan smiles; he really does miss her.

"Alright. Talk to you soon?"

"Yes" Blair takes a deep breath, not really wanting to end the call "August 4th, though?"

"August 4th" Dan repeats with a smile "I love you, Blair Waldorf"

"I love you too, Dan Humphrey"

They hang up. Dan doesn't go back to sleep right away. He gets up, and fiddles in his bag until he finds Blair's shoe, that he puts next to the window, and his agenda. With a marker, he circles the date of August 4th, and crosses June 6th. Then he goes back to bed, hand resting on Léon's head, trying to temper down the impatience.

Fifty-eight days to go.


Again, Thanks guys and I love you all very much!

xo