A/N: This chapter follows on directly from the last one. Thanks for reading and your reviews are always appreciated. More Dan/Blair scenes in 2010 please Josh!

It Was Midnight

It was midnight
Your hand was in mine
All eyes were on our table
It was after noon before you were out of bed and I was able to concentrate
To figure out a plan to keep you here,
To evaluate.
To make a list, a list to convince you
Don't run away;
It only fuels the flames.
Don't pull away;
It only makes me wanna stay

-Tegan and Sara

Post Christmas, she's finally admitted to herself that this friendship, connection, relationship – whatever it is she has with Dan Humphrey, its necessary, startlingly so. In the morning, when they stumble into class, in the afternoon when they're lunching and laughing at anything valid enough to mock (mostly it's just Georgina) and dinner and night and this is really scaring Blair.

It's not like she's even allowed to pretend to be ignorant to the fact that she spends pretty much every hour of every day with him, it's that Serena, Nate, Vanessa and of course, Georgina never let her forget about it. You two are at least hooking up occasionally, right? Georgina will ask casually, Just don't come to me for any relationship advice, you know Dan and I tried and failed about four hundred times, Serena says flippant as ever and Vanessa...Vanessa just gives Blair the look that says I-know-you'll-be-with-my-bff-soon-so-you-better-not-break-his-heart.

She's giving it right now as they're getting ready for this New Years Eve party Blair couldn't really care less about. No partying on a random rooftop tonight; she just had to go ad promise Serena that she'd drag everyone (except Chuck, but he'd drag himself anyway) to the party Lily and Rufus are having. They insisted on doing something as a family, and she's sure Chuck, Dan and Serena are completely estranged by it, but Serena's relationship with her mother needed no further hindrance. As if anyone's did.

"Are you going to keep gawking at me or actually speak?" Blair demands, briefly wondering how a girl can progress from having one of the largest walk in wardrobes on the Upper East Side to sharing a mirror with a Brooklyn native.

"Just make sure it's not Chuck you kiss on the stroke of midnight, okay?" She replies disdainfully.

"Why reserving him for yourself? It's not wise to revisit an old path, especially if the path happens to be Chuck Bass." Blair shoots back, eyes hardened. She's in no mood for Vanessa's self-righteousness; it wasn't as if V proved herself unsusceptible to the Bass charm.

"No, it's the fact that it's me and Dan that have to live with any repercussions, is all. He still has a habit of randomly showing up looking for you."

"And I have a habit of slamming the door in his face, an art I've been perfecting since we were twelve. Seriously though, V," she says, aware that's the closest thing she's ever coming to actually addressing her by name, "That's over. I mean it was like getting on a plane you knew was going to crash. Almost like my end of high school fling with Nate." She laughs bitterly. Two boys she considered herself in love with, and both attempts crashed and burned. Maybe love really is just a neurosis and doesn't exist at all. Everyone knows she ditched the black and white roll of film in her head that played internally for years on end, complete with her two boys and Yale. Love. No, she doesn't need some epic romance to sweep her off her feet. She just wants something casual.

This is what these people have done to me, she thinks, since when does Blair Waldorf abandon formal for casual?

"Are you okay?" Vanessa asks. But before she has time to answer, or even fling an insult about her green doc martens, Georgina comes crashing in with cheap beer and 2010 shaped sunglasses for no real reason.

"So," she's called Serena because Vanessa and Georgina are already tipsy and making fun of her and Dan's 'courtship period' which annoys her because waking up on Dan Humphrey's couch is hardly courtship, "how's everything progressing with the van der Bass house? Van der Humphrey. Lily's place." She rectifies, almost bursting out in laughter as Serena softly giggles.

"Well Rufus is moody but he usually is. I just can't wait until you guys get here and save me. Eight o'clock, remember?" Serena half whines and it's the perfect excuse to just land there early.

"You need me now. I'm ready anyway. The only problem is getting these three into a limousine alive." She growls impetuously.

"There might not be a party to come to if you don't get here soon. Mothers are crazy, and they stay crazy, too." Serena responds.

"Okay, I'm coming, don't die." Blair smiles, liking how easily her friendship with Serena seems to just snap into place despite any distance. Clicking off, she commands Dan and Georgina and Vanessa to look out for the car. The more things change...

Dan wanders in her room, offering her a beer. She declines and he sits beside her on the bed.

"It's not strange, is it? That I'm dragging you here?" She asks, although it's not something she desperately needs the answer to.

"I would've ended up here anyway what with Jenny and my dad..." he trails off.

"Sorry, that wasn't really the question I was asking. Is it weird with you and Serena now?" She asks, actually needing to know this one.

"Yeah." He answers frankly, she likes that there are no games here; no other people. Yes, they're now discussing Serena after months of Blair venting about Chuck, but still, it's just them dealing with it together. This is possibly the simplest relationship of her life. "There just comes a point when we have to move past what we once felt for each other, I guess. For our family, which is actually kind of cool?" He adds, smiling only slightly goofily. "Serena was my first love but Lily is clearly the love of my dad's life."

"Well maybe you could teach me the art of rising above, somehow." Blair replies aimlessly, taking the beer and tipping it. It's disgusting.

"We're going to have to beg for mercy more like, after the Christmas we pulled." He laughs and she agrees. "So he'll be here tonight, right?" He adds vehemently. She nods is response and he rolls his eyes. "Don't worry. I've been in an intense training regime since the last time." He jests. But she doesn't need him to throw punches. Because this, right here, right now, this is the leading man in her movie. She's just glad out of all the people who could be saving her, it's him.

It's a strangely calm affair, with minimum drama, as it unfolds smoothly. The boys look dapper in their designer suits, the older parents look upon their gorgeous and newly educated children with pride and Dan might be in the minority, but he doesn't consider Serena to be the most stunning girl in the room.

He sneaks up behind her, probably to cowardly to approach her directly, his breath on the nape of neck.

"Hi." He greets her, sounding every bit the broken man.

"What are you doing?" She asks. "I have to say, the whole you sneaking up behind me seems creepy now that I don't want anything to do with you."

He steps in front of her, reeking of scotch. "God Chuck I'm getting drunk just off your breath. You're worse than fifteen year old Serena. What do you want from me now?"

"You. Just you. Come on Waldorf, new year, new start –

"No." She gives him that icy stare, but of course, conflict only ever encourages him.

"No one should be alone on New Years Eve. One last time. Have sex with me." He whispers.

She doesn't even grace him with a reply. It's been over for months now, and she's just done. And she makes a vow to make sure she and Dan are right in front of his face when she kisses him at midnight.

But that's not what happens.

The 'children' abandon the place early in favour of moving onto a club, and as Georgina steps into the limo after Blair she says, "Tonight's the night, B."

She doesn't even reply. She knows Georgina is right.

Serena and Nate escape with them, surprisingly abandoning Chuck to his own devices. It's sad, and she feels that for one sharp, piercing moment. The foursome is well and truly over, it's been as devastating as divorce and she's won Nate and Serena in the settlement. Maybe Nate will visit him later or something, but that boy is obviously wrapped around Serena's finger in a way Blair only for when she was fourteen.

"I am so fucking glad to get outta there," Georgina announces, Serena laughing wickedly and Blair agreeing, "It felt like we were thirteen again and my mom was forcing me to go to this stupid party to parade me."

"Really, G? Your mom wanted to parade you?" Blair replies, making them remember the fact that at one time, Georgina Sparks was the closest thing to the Upper East Side version of Courtney Love or Marissa Cooper. "I distinctly remember S ditching me, we were like fifteen and you two were bar hopping –

"Leaving you in the dreaded triangle, huh? Squashed between Chuck and Nate, that set the tone for years to come right there." Georgina laughs and Serena looks slightly embarrassed. She was thinking the dreaded triangle consisted of her, Blair and Nate. Whatever they were in, it's pretty clear when Blair looks at Dan they're safely out of it.

Blair's head flops onto Serena's shoulder and she asks the brunette's what's wrong.

"Nothing...just seeing Bass tonight reminded me that I don't even have a real date for tonight. And considering you've got Nate now, I don't even have a backup anymore." She says wistfully.

"B, you should have seen that coming years ago." Serena smiles, knowing its sensitive territory, but it's never stopped her before.

"I did, too." Blair replies, playful but bitter. "And you know what else I see coming? You leaving, possibly dragging Nate with you."

"I never said I'd stay, sugar." Serena replies lightly.

"Okay, Sawyer." Blair laughs. "Maybe you've been on one island too many with a certain Baizen, S."

They sit there contended until they get out and get monumentally drunk.

Serena slides over to the bar and says, "I think it's pretty obvious who the real dates are."

Blair just looks at her. It's yet another Waldorf-Van der Woodsen silent understanding. Blair sees that Serena's okay with it, whatever she has going with Dan. Maybe she's going to give it a try. She hasn't thought much about it. (She's thought too much.)

"Although I'm not sure you should double date with G and Vanessa. There's the real unlikely couple." And Blair laughs so hard her cranberry-vodka comes through her nose.

He wants to say something meaningful to Blair tonight. Something like I'm glad we ended up together, even if it's not Yale. I'm glad we practically share the same apartment. I'm glad that you make me write without explanation.

But none of those even come close to being accurate, because Dan isn't glad. Dan has never been happier, and he thinks Blair is a big factor in that. He hates that it's true.

Maybe, he thinks, he'll say something about how he's noticed she's stopped putting effort to look pristine and put-together for her earlier morning classes and she actually pulls off messy better than she thinks and it's doesn't matter because she looks beautiful all the time anyway. Can't mess with those genetics.

She'd probably hit him or something as a reply.

They let the night run in front of them anyway, and before Dan has selected was he's going to say the countdown has started and it's Blair by his side.

Everyone's shouting. It's a sea of sound.

"Ten!"

Blair realises she has nine seconds to seek any further approval from Serena. Fuck it, the thought fleets across her mind. And still, she can re-hash the whole you-slept-with-my-boyfriend-when-you-were-sixteen debacle.

Vanessa's already mauling some guy, Georgina too and Blair just rolls her eyes.

"Blair," he alerts her, "Hey. I just wanted to say I'm glad –

"Speak up Humphrey!" She demands, eyebrows knitted together.

"Six, five..."

"I glad we're both at NYU together!" He shouts.

And she just looks oddly nervous. Which adds further to the ridiculousness.

At three, she starts playing with his tie and smiling, soft, small smile.

"Two! One!"

It's her that makes the first move and pulls him in. Of course it is. Blair always makes the first move, always dictates what's going to happen. She'd lost the crown, but it's more than that. Blair had started believing so much that she was regal that everyone started believing it, almost.

Her lips crash into his and his smash into hers. It's all messy and she feels his hand cupping her face and maybe she should have thought more about this. But five seconds into the kiss, they stop thinking at all.

All things considered, after the year they've had; failed relationships; failed applications to Yale, tonight feels a lot like 2010 is finally going to be the year when they get what they wanted the most.

When they part their foreheads linger on one anothers, she gasps, "Me too, Humphrey. Me too."