A/N This took forever as I'm sure you are all aware. lol. I'm unsure as to how it turned out. Please drop me a line to let me know! Takes place after 'Pillow Talk', probably wouldn't be a bad idea to reread that one.

Thank you to Nes and Mads. You ladies are goddesses.

*GASP* I forgot to name this! Thank you to K.A who pointed that out! AND I FORGOT THE DEDICATION TOO! Geez, I was in such a hurry to FINALLY post this, I forgot to send my love to suspensegirl, Lauren, for requesting the Chuck's HS ILY!!! *kiss*

Serena flicked her long blonde hair over her shoulder as she studied her best friend from across the courtyard.

It was an image Serena had been met with nearly every day since she'd been eight; Blair waiting for her with her lunch alphabetically arranged from left to right (almonds, carrots, celery, grapes, yogurt) on the marble table under the old oak tree. He hair lay in long, dark curls down her back, pulled away from her face with a forest green headband. Her uniform was immaculately pressed as always, her Chloe purse sat by her side, and her little black flats were firmly in place on her feet. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary and yet something just seemed…. different to Serena. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she was sure it was there.

"Hello? Earth to Serena!" Blair's insistent calling startled Serena from her intense scrutiny. "Are you going to just stand there or are we having lunch?"

"Oh, sorry. Yea" Serena mumbled, closing the gap between them to set her tray down opposite Blair's. "I was just… thinking about something."

Blair arched an eyebrow, "Don't think too much, you might hurt yourself."

"Still mad at me, I see." Serena removed the clear lid to her Cesar salad, flicking quick, searching glances at her best friend, "You know, you wouldn't be this mad if-"

"I told you we aren't discussing this." Blair cut her off sharply, skewering a leaf of lettuce with her fork.

"Oh, come on B."

Blair glowered across the table at Serena. "The subject is not open for discussion."

Serena sighed. She really didn't think that Blair would be this mad at her. She wasn't naïve enough to think that they would have gotten away with it entirely – she was Blair Waldorf after all, deception and trickery were the air she breathed, but she hadn't foreseen the solid week of silent treatment or the outright refusal to talk about Chuck, what had happened with Chuck, or anything that could possibly lead in any way, shape, or form to any mention what so ever of Chuck.

It left her utterly confused. Was she just not talking about it as punishment or had things really not gone the way her and Dan had both thought they would? Chuck had looked so broken just last week, could they really not have worked it out?

Serena pushed a strand of wayward gold behind her ear, focusing intently on keeping the judgment from saturating her next words. "B," she began again, but the distinct feeling of someone watching her pulled her gaze from her best friend's annoyed glare. Her tongue tied itself in nervous knots as her eyes landed on the very reason for their conversation: Chuck Bass. Blue eyes widened as he pushed himself purposively from the courtyard wall and began an arrogantly slow swagger towards them. "Uh…"

"Sister," Chuck drawled, nodding towards Serena suggestively as he straddled the bench facing her, his back to Blair.

"Chuck…" Serena responded, guarded.

Blair remained stoically silent across the table, focused intently on her yogurt.

"I need your assistance with a certain… matter," he smarmed, his head tilted provocatively in the direction of a gaggle of flimsily clad freshmen.

Serena turned in the direction he was indicating, quickly snapping her head back around to shoot daggers at him. "You're a real asshole sometimes, you know that Chuck?"

Unfazed by the sudden venom behind his step sister's words, Chuck held up his hands palms out, "I can see this is a bad time for family bonding." He rose from the table without looking in Blair's direction, pausing to wink and blow a kiss at Serena over his shoulder before he sauntered off.

Serena glared at his retreating back. He had quite the nerve. Or at least she thought he had quite the nerve. She wasn't exactly sure if Chuck was the torturer or the tortured this particular time around.

But she was willing to bet by the expression on Blair's face it was more likely the former. Her eyes were suspiciously wet, her gaze glued to the grape she was rolling back and forth against the marble tabletop repetitively.

"B?" Serena questioned softly, "Please tell me what's wrong. I thought you had worked everything out… what happened?"

Blair cleared her throat and drew in a steadying breath, raising her eyes to Serena's. "I really don't wish to discuss it," she said harshly. "Please, Serena. Just let it go…" her voice caught almost unnoticeably, "Just let him go."

Serena smiled sadly, more confused now than ever. "Ok. If that's what you want."

"It is," Blair assured her quickly. "Can we please talk about something else now?"

"Alright," Serena agreed, quickly complying with the request, but before she could change the subject Blair's cell phone had beeped loudly and her friend had had quickly scurried off, tossing a quick goodbye over her shoulder as she passed Dan on his way over to their table. Or rather, Serena's table, since Blair had found excuse after excuse to leave her sitting by herself for the better part of their lunch period for the past week.

"Saved by the bell, I guess," Serena mumbled to herself.

Dan quirked a bushy brow questioningly as he took the seat Chuck had vacated only minutes before. "What was that all about?"

"The usual." Serena chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully, "I swear, if I hadn't just seen them with my own eyes…"

"What?" Dan prompted.

"Nothing. What about you? Anything on your end?"

"Officially?" her boyfriend of just over a year shook his head in the negative. "Unofficially, he missed three opportunities to throw thinly veiled and extremely crude sexual innuendos at Missy Meyers, who by the way couldn't have been more blatant with her set ups if she tried, and didn't leer disgustingly at everything in a skirt."

Serena furrowed her brow, mentally replaying her conversation with Blair. "Something is definitely up with those two."

Dan shrugged, abandoning their analysis of Blair's love life to bite into his sandwich. "I still don't see why you don't just ask her straight out," he mumbled, mouth full of egg.

Serena shook her head, her blonde locks swishing against her back, "I tried that. She won't even say his name out loud, let alone actually tell me what happened between them."

He shrugged a shoulder dismissively. "Then why don't we just leave her to it?"

Serena sighed. "Because I just can't stand to see either of them this upset."

"You aren't responsible for their happiness, Serena. We did what we could for them already, they either get their act together on their own or it doesn't happen."

"It's never that simple with those two." Serena looked pointedly at Dan. "There has to be some way…"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"So then I thought maybe the Badgley Mischka?" Serena held the champagne coloured gown to her chest as she twirled around to face Blair.

"Sure, whatever you want," Blair replied from her sprawled position on Serena's bed as she flipped aimlessly through a magazine.

"Oh, come on B. The perfume wasn't even my idea; you can't stay mad at me forever."

"Only because I won't live forever."

Serena sighed as she sank onto the mattress, "We were only trying to help. I just want to see you happy again."

"And when exactly did you decide that that meant Chuck Bass?" Blair's eyes widened slightly as she realized she'd said his name aloud, but she recovered quickly, adding, "The Mischka, definitely. And I think the silver Dior you were showing me earlier will suit the evening perfectly after all, don't you think?" Eyes still averted, she crossed the room quickly to the closet, hoping to distract her best friend from her favourite subject as of late; Chuck.

Refusing to be put off, Serena trailed after the petite brunette; "Since you said so yourself?"

"And those black Manolo's you have will be perfect," Blair continued stubbornly, refusing to allow the shift in topic. "And I think you have the perfect clutch, too." She smiled weakly and briefly made eye contact, "I hope this date of mine doesn't mind me impersonating the great Serena van der Woodsen for the evening. Not that any red blooded American male would." She fiddled nervously with her fingers, "What did you say his name was again?"

Serena's brow furrowed. Blair obviously didn't want to talk about Chuck. She'd been dead set against even going to the Snow Flake Ball with Matt when she'd slipped it into their conversation twenty minutes ago, and now she was coordinating an outfit to impress him?

Taking her life into her own hands, she tried one last time, "Tell me what happened, B."

Blair crossed her arms beneath her breasts, stubbornly refusing to meet her searching gaze.

"I thought you guys had cleared all this up. I mean, in my room after the assembly the other day…you seemed…. I dunno, just you seemed…."

'I just seemed what?" Blair snapped, her eyes slamming angrily into Serena's. "Badgered? Harassed? Coerced?"

"Lost without him," Serena countered softly.

Blair started intently at a spot on the wall over Serena's left shoulder.

"Come on, B. You guys seemed so close. Chuck even almost admitted to me that he was in -" Blair's ears perked up at that but Serena was too preoccupied with the memory of Chuck pacing barefoot and broken outside her bedroom door to take notice. "Well, he almost admitted something to me that he should have been to you. I just don't get why he didn't. He looked just as broken without you as you did without him." She shook her head sadly, "I just don't get any of this. What happened? Why aren't you off groping each other in a janitor's closet somewhere?"

Blair rolled her eyes, "Crass - even for Chuck."

Serena sighed. "That wasn't my point and you know it. Come on, this is me. You can tell me anything."

Brown eyes slid slowly back to blue, "Anything?"

"Anything," Serena nodded encouragingly. "No judgment," she mentally prepared herself, taking a breath to ensure her voice stayed even and free of judgment. "No matter what happened between the two of you... no matter what you did… together, you can tell me I promise."

Blair worried her bottom lip between her teeth. "Ok."

"Ok?"

Blair nodded.

Finally! "Ok."

"I'm not sure how to tell you this…" Blair took several deep breaths, "but we're going to be late for the ball."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Is everything set?

Serena glanced around the room hurriedly before she quickly typed a response to Dan's text.

Yes. Place cards switched and DJ bribed. Your end?

"We're all set," Dan's deep voice sounded in Serena's ear, startling her. "Sorry," he apologized, pressing a quick kiss to her jaw. "Have you seen her yet?"

Serena shook her head. "Matt was supposed to pick her up at eight, it's only quarter to now. What about Chuck?"

"It took some doing, but I managed to sweet talk Nate and Vanessa into doubling with Chuck and Missy. They should be arriving shortly after eight." Dan stole another quick kiss from his girlfriend, "You look incredible, by the way."

Serena smiled, turning to face her boyfriend and spotted Blair and Matt walking arm and arm into the ballroom.

Showtime.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chuck grumbled to himself under his breath. This entire night was turning out to be a bust. He didn't want to be here with Missy 'my bra size is higher than my IQ' Meyers with nobody to buffer the redhead's utter stupidity. Serena better finish frisking Humphrey and get the hell back to their table before Blair and her man doll…

Where the hell were those two, anyway? Swear to God if that jackass was somewhere molesting his Blair, he was going to strangle him with the scarf that she'd bought him to replace the one she'd burnt before this entire fucking mess had even started. Why, YES, Nathaniel, I do kill people now. More specifically, Matt if he lays one fucking finger to a single hair on her head.

Chuck's jaw clenched. If she was trying to make him jealous, it was working; he was pretty sure he'd peaked on the jealousy scale the second he'd walked into the ballroom to find 'Blair Waldorf and Matthew Moretti' scrawled daintily in ink on the tiny place card. Smarmy son of a bitch. What the hell did she see in him anyway? It didn't matter, because she wasn't going to win.

Chuck squared his shoulders and trailed a finger seductively up Missy's arm as he spotted Blair walking back into the room - he hid a smirk- without Moron Matt.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Blair stomped her way angrily from her ladies room powwow back to their table. Things were not working out as she had planned at all. Matt was an utter Moron and wasn't helping her cause in the slightest and Missy, although dumb as bricks, was admittedly a knock out. The evening was turning out to be a complete bust; maybe she should just pack it in and call it a night. Serena's shoes were starting to pinch anyway.

Blair's feet faltered slightly as she caught sight of Chuck openly molesting his 'date'. Then again, a little pain never hurt anyone. And Matt did have a certain 'Marcus-esque' quality about him…he could be just the thing she needed to put an end to this charade once and for all.

Chuck trailed an index finger across the top of Missy's more than ample cleavage. Oh, yes. A little pain never hurt anyone.

She stalked forward angrily and grabbed Chuck's hand. "Dance with me. Now"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"What are you doing?" Dan questioned, coming up behind his girlfriend.

Serena jumped, "Stop sneaking up on me would you!"

"I didn't exactly sneak," Dan replied, waving his cell phone in her face, "you texted me to meet you in the kitchen."

"It had the best view," She explained, inclining her head towards the glass window she'd had her nose pressed up against before Dan had startled her.

They both turned to peer through the circular window at Serena's best friend and step brother.

Dan blinked, confused, "What is Blair doing?"

"Asking Chuck to dance!" Serena squealed happily.

"Is that…" Dan pushed the revolving door open another inch, "it is. How did you know about the song?"

Serena furrowed her brow. "I…uh… read her diary. How did you know about the song?"

"Uhh…I didn't know Waldorf even kept a diary," he stuttered, changing the subject.

Serena studied his profile. "Uh huh, you're telling me later." She bumped his hip with hers flirtatiously, "Now watch our handiwork fall beautifully into place."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Blair's eyes widened in shock as she realized exactly what song was playing and that she and Chuck were dancing to.

He smirked and pulled her to him a fraction of an inch closer that was necessary.

She covered the momentary slip in her amour with a sneer. "Smart cookie you got there, Bass," she quipped, inclining her head towards Missy who'd just attempted to tip the wait staff.

"I don't know about smart," he drawled, unable to tear his eyes from Blair's lips, "but she sure is tasty." Jesus she smelt good, even better than she had a week ago. And she as beautiful as ever, though he did prefer to remember her wriggling on his bare mattress beneath him than adorned in the shinny silver frock. He was quickly losing room in his pants just thinking about it. "How long are we going to do this for, Waldorf?" he asked suddenly.

Blair cocked an eyebrow at her dance partner as she felt his hand dip lower on her back. "Hands, Bass," she warned.

He kept his palm firmly pressed just above her backside. "I don't know how much longer I can keep this up."

Blair smirked, "Your inability to perform sexually is no longer any of my concern."

Chuck stepped closer to her, crowding her personal space and pulling her to him so that her flat stomach came into contact with a very distinct bulge. "Isn't it?" he drawled.

Blair's pulse immediately began to race. "That was not the agreement, Chuck." She grazed soft fingers across the sensitive spot at the nape of his neck she knew sent shivers of pleasure down his spine and curled his toes under.

He gulped, pausing noticeably before his voice was steady enough to reply, "It should have been." He leaned in slowly to whisper in her ear, "I like it much better when the outcome of these little games is either me buried inside you to the hilt or you wrapped tightly around me screaming my name." He left himself twitch against her midsection to illustrate just how much better he liked it. "Tell me again why this time was any different?"

Blair batted her eyes innocently, breathing deeply so the corseted waist of her gown would further flaunt her pert breasts. "Tell yourself – it was your idea, though I seem to recall something about real men having restraint?"

Chuck slid his hand lower still down her back until his fingers could knead to top of her ass. "And what would a real woman have to say about the janitor's closet three days ago?"

Blair licked her lips slowly, recalling the feeling of his tongue on her sex.

"Or is 'Oh God, Chuck. Fuck me. Please, I want it now. Please' what they're teaching you in Home Ec these days?" he drawled, smirk creeping into his voice.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Blair asked coyly, catching her bottom lip between her teeth and fingering the pendant at her neck that fell between her breasts.

Chuck's breath caught in his throat at the sight of her: supple lips, milky breast, eyes hooded in the same look she normally gave him just before she took him home. Suddenly he didn't care about whether they attended Yale or Princeton; if he didn't get inside her – now – he wouldn't live long enough for either to matter.

So he did the only thing what little amount of blood still remaining in his big brain allowed him to do.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Are they doing what I think they're doing?" Dan asked.

Serena blinked quickly just to make sure her eyes weren't playing tricks on her, but the scene before them remained the same. Chuck had swept Blair off her feet – literally, and they pair of them were headed for the door. Though how either of them could tell exactly which direction the door was with their faces mashed together like that was beyond Serena.

"Looks like," She answered, feeling slightly like a voyeur watching her best friend and step brother going at it like that.

It was like watching a train wreck; Dan couldn't tear his eyes away. "Jesus, she's got no shame! Look where her hand – Her hand!" he cried.

"Yes," Serena turned her back on the scene before them that was quickly turning pornographic, "I know. She's practically grabbing his-"

"No!" Dan shook his head emphatically, cutting her off before she could say it, "The ring, she's not wearing her ring."

Serena started at him, confused.

"The little ruby ring Nate gave her? She's not wearing it." He motioned at Blair and Chuck as they disappeared through the ballroom double doors, "Waldorf never takes it off."

"I'm sure it's nothing," Serena replied all too quickly. "Come on, let's get out of here. There's a little something I want to take off myself."

"Oh? Is there now?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Blair lifted Chuck's hairy arm from her waist and slid from her bed. Her cell phone was beeping loudly and if she didn't get to it soon it was going to wake up Chuck before she had a chance to slip her little gold band back onto her finger.

She wondered who could be texting her. The entire ballroom had seen her and Chuck's hasty exit and should know that both of them would be otherwise involved for the next four hours at least.

Did it work? Dan nearly blew it.

Blair rolled her eyes.

For someone I'm supposed to believe is smart…

Hey. B nice.

Blair shrugged. It was true. She'd been hiding her hand behind her back whenever Chuck was around since the start of their latest game three days ago and Humphrey had only noticed when she no longer needed him to. It would do her no good now to have him blurting out in front of Chuck that she hadn't been wearing her ruby ring. There was only one reason Blair Waldorf would ever take off her signature ring, the one she'd worn for ten years; the one Nate had given her: Charles Bartholomew Bass. And unlike Dan, Chuck wasn't stupid and would catch on right away.

Although really, who wouldn't?

So you won, right?

Yes.

She'd had to stoop so low as to outright involve Serena in her master plan last minute, breaking the rules, but she'd won.

But what Chuck didn't know wouldn't hurt him, right? Or more aptly, couldn't hurt her.

I get that the first one to get the other to publically admit you were together won, but why were you hiding it in the first place?

Blair stared at her cell phone. She even went so far as to type 'Because he still hadn't said those three words' but it sounded petty and trite and she didn't want to give up the ground she'd gained today by making herself look pathetically weak. She'd been pathetic and weak her entire relationship with Nate, subsiding off of mumbled 'you too's' and hasty head nods and she wasn't going to do it again. This time she'd wanted to hear the words before they went public because this time it mattered, this time she'd lost her heart instead of her head.

And even though he hadn't said them tonight, Blair still felt lighter than a feather; she'd pulled one over on him and had won Yale. Which bought her four more years to slowly and deliciously torture the words she knew he felt out of him.

So instead she turned her cell phone off and scanned her room for her silver dress.

Where had he thrown it?

"On the dresser."

Blair jumped as his deep voice sliced through the quiet room.

"Oh, yes. There it is." She snatched the silver thing off her dresser, hiding it behind her back as she searched its pockets blindly for her ring. Finding it, she quickly tried to shove it back into place on her middle finger, but for some reason it wouldn't fit.

"Try your ring finger."

He knew about the ring? But how had he figured it out? And why would it fit her ring finger when it had always adorned her middle digit?

"Your other ring finger," Chuck demanded, sheets pooled at his waist, before she could slip the band onto the ring finger of her right hand.

Her left hand? Had Chuck gone mad? He wanted Blair to wear Nate's ring on her ring finger, the ring finger?

She regarded him questioningly, pulling her hands from behind her back to do as he suggested and gasped at what she saw.

It wasn't a red ruby that started up at her, but a beautiful dark blue sapphire.

"W-what…" she stuttered, confused, staring at the delicate white gold ring in her palm. Wide eyes met mischievous brown eyes, "How…"

"You think I missed something as monumental as Blair Waldorf taking off her signature accessory?" He shook his head. "I don't think so."

Blair gaped at him.

He motioned for her to put it on.

She moved to slip it into place, but he was before her with it in his hands before she could even process it.

"There's an inscription," he told her a little nervously, tilting the ring until she could read the delicate scrawl in the soft glow of the candles they hadn't gotten around to blowing out.

Blair's breath caught in her throat and tears sprang unbidden to her eyes as she raised them questioningly to his.

"Chuck Bass loves Blair Waldorf," he read the words a loud, slipping the ring that looked suspiciously like a promise ring to Blair into place, eyes locked on hers, "Promise."

Chuck smirked to himself as Blair threw her arms around his neck and attack his lips with hers. He'd realized the moment he caught Serena out of the corner of his eye signaling to the DJ from the kitchen as Blair dragged him to the dance floor that the missing ruby ring was indeed not a fluke. And even if she'd only taken it off as a strategy to win their latest bet, the fact that she knew everyone would know what its absence meant and that she wanted them to notice…

Not that it had taken Blair taking off the ring (read: letting Nate go publically) for him to finally be able to say those three words, not at all. After everything they'd fought and fucked their way through she deserved the most memorable 'I love you' since Rose pried Jack's frozen fingers from hers and sank him to the bottom of the ocean… or whatever, he'd only watched the cheesy chick flick once (that he'd been forced to, twice secretly on his own – for some inane reason Rose reminded him of a certain brunette he knew.) And if the three days it took his private jeweler to get the ring exactly the way Chuck wanted it happened to fall on the day a certain 'Charlie Trout' won the 'are they/aren't they' pool the senior class had going, then it was an added bonus.

An added bonus that he was going to use to foot the bill for the three hundred and eighty class rings he planned on inscribing with a little phrase that immortalized the evening perfectly.

'Blair Waldorf loves Chuck Bass'

Because he couldn't let her get off scot free with cheating, now could he?

Although he did plan on getting her off a few more times this evening…

Chuck backed Blair across the room until her mattress hit the backs of her knees.

… a few more times, indeed.

A/N - So not as smutty, I know. But it didn't fit the 'plot' to have the hanky be too panky. 12 is 1/2 written and promises to up the raunch factor. Thanks for hanging in there everyone!

Hope your holidays were all stress free and enjoyable:)

Lynne