"I don't even know how this can get any better. Really." Blair smiles at Chuck as they walk to her English class.

"Now is that a complement for me or for that chocolate cake you were groaning over at lunch?" Chuck teases softly.

The corners of her mouth tilt up to smirk at him as she leans against the wall next to the door of her classroom. "The cake, of course."

His brow raises slightly as he leans down to kiss her. "The cake?"

She smiles into the kiss as her arms wrap around his neck. "Still the cake."

He gives a soft, good natured grumble before he leans down and kisses her again. The kiss this time is deeper and pulls a soft sound from Blair before a clearing of someone's throat interrupts them.

"Okay, you," Blair murmurs before she bites her lip at the stern look Serena is giving them.

"We have class, B." She doesn't wait for an answer before she heads into class.

"You know, now I want to kidnap you for the rest of the afternoon." Chuck laughs softly at the hit she gives his arm for that. "Alright. Alright. I'll meet you out front when school is out."

"Not a minute later," Blair replies with a smile. She leans up and kisses him one last time softly before sliding around him and into her class.

Chuck smiles as he watches her go before going himself. Classes for the remaining afternoon were boring for him. He's not sure if the way Nate was currently avoiding him was a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand it means they aren't exactly fighting about this but it also leaves this oddly weird tension as he waits for the recoil from his friend. He knows that it will take time before his friend will be his friend again, but he'd just currently like to know how exactly Nate is going to react to this.

The end of the day will find Chuck leaning against the railing at the bottom of the stairs out front, waiting for Blair. He smiles when he sees her emerge from the building. He's focused enough on her that he misses Nate coming out from around Blair and it's too late to stop his angry friend.

It takes Chuck a minute to realize what happened because one minute he was watching Blair and the next everything was turned upside down and he's on the ground in pain. He can hear Blair yelling at Nate as he shifts to get up, one hand raising to gently touch his eye with a wince.

"You were supposed to be my friend, Chuck! You weren't supposed to be fucking my girlfriend behind my back!" Nate snarls as he glares at both Blair and Chuck. Chuck himself is sure that the main reason he's glaring at Blair is because she's keeping herself between the two boys.

Tiny, pissed, and with the slightest waver to her voice because that accusation hurts. They hadn't been fucking. "Stop it, Nate! You're wrong!"

Nate didn't even react to the slight waver in her voice, the one that says he's hurt her and one that signals that she's near tears. He just glares and tries to get around her, "Move, Blair. Now."

Chuck dusts the dirt off his pants before pulling Blair back against his chest gently with an arm around her waist. Unlike Nate, who was faced with those tears and ignored them, even just the sound of them in her voice makes him want to make her better. His pain is nothing compared to hers, especially when she didn't do anything but be true to herself. "Hard as it may be for you and the rest of this school to believe, Blair and I aren't fucking each other. You're just angry she dumped you, and I get that, but causing her pain publicly in front of the school isn't the way to go about anything." He shift and starts to lead Blair to the waiting limo and get her out of the currently toxic environment.

They don't get very far before Nate grips Chuck's collar and jerks him back, intending to cause more pain. "We're going to finish this now, Chuck," he murmurs in a low tone.

"Nate!" The tears are finally trailing down her cheeks, feeling helpless in this situation. Neither she nor Chuck expected him to take this that badly, that he'd feel the need to pummel Chuck into the sidewalk because she dumped one and dated the other.

Chuck turns faster than Nate expects, getting in two punches of his own before Nate can get in one. It leaves Nate a couple staggered feet away on his knees as he tries to breath around the pain of his own black eye and a nearly broken nose. "We'll finish this when you can talk like a man that lives on the Upper East Side and not some of the trash from the lower parts of the city, Nathaniel." He doesn't wait for a response, doesn't give Nate the time to collect himself and come after Chuck again, he just turns and gently shuffles Blair into the limo to get her out of there.

It takes a small amount of coaxing this time, but he finally manages to get his crying girlfriend into his lap so he can hug her tightly to his chest while they drive to his place. "Blair, talk to me, please," he murmurs softly against her hair.

She looks up and brushes her fingers gently along the blooming black eye as tears continue to fall. "I'm sorry..."

He hugs her tighter to him as he leans down to kiss her forehead gently. "Don't be sorry, Blair. This was no one's fault, and I'll be fine."

Her head shakes as she buries her face into his chest, "No...you and Nate...I screwed everything up between you two..."

He catches her chin gently and brings her eyes up to look at him. "Nate will get over it in time, Blair. And my eye will heal. I wouldn't do anything differently, Blair."

She sniffles softly and leans into his touch as she blinks at that last sentence. "You...wouldn't?"

He smiles softly, his head shaking as he dips to kiss her very gently. "No. I wouldn't. Now, I know this changes some of our plans but, how does me getting some ice for my eye, you picking a movie, and us curling up on the couch and just watching a movie this afternoon sound?" He's not in the mood to play right now and he knows she's not.

She gives a soft hiccup of a chuckle before she nods and curls into his chest, burying herself in the warmth and scent of him. "Sounds perfect. Mother will just question me mercilessly if I come home red and puffy from crying...if only because it makes me look red and puffy..."

Chuck hugs her, resting his head on hers gently. "Well then I'll just have to make sure you rest, eat, and have a good afternoon so I return you to her looking as pristine as you always do."

Blair's nose wiggles a little to rest against his throat gently. "Thank you, Chuck," she murmurs softly as she relaxes a little into him. "Does it hurt?" She asks after a quiet moment.

He turns to kiss her hair gently. "Watching you hurt always hurts," he murmurs very softly. He knows that's not what she was asking, which is why the answer is almost too quiet to hear but with her so close and the limo itself so quiet he knows she does hear it. "A little ice and some pain killers to dull the pain and I'll be fine so long as I have you curled up with me."

Her arms tighten some around him at his first answer, knowing him well enough that she'll take that answer to heart but not draw attention to it. She knows he doesn't do well expressing those deeper emotions because of the way he was raised, but the answer still makes her smile softly against his throat. "You'll have me as long as you want, Chuck."

He smiles as they pull up to his place and both shift to get out in turn. He tucks her tightly into his side as they make their way up to 1812, "Is forever too much?"

She looks up at him, giving him her first real smile since Nate had attacked Chuck. It's soft and she looks like she's threatening to tear up again but for a different reason this time. "Forever sounds just perfect enough," she answers.

The afternoon will go a little faster than either expect because in the end, after ice, pain killers and curling up proves to be too much. The adrenaline has left both tired enough that it's only fifteen minutes into the movie before Chuck's breathing evens out and only another ten after that when Blair's does too.