Summary: It was wrong and it was weak and he just wanted to make her right. He wanted her to be right about him. He wanted to deserve her.

Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me. All is GG season 3 quotes as well as characters and the like. Thanks to comewhatmay.x who beta's even though she's really busy.

Willing

Contrary to what you may believe, I prefer the woman to want to have sex with me.

It had been a dark night. For weeks she had been consumed with nothing else. She was plagued with the only thing that could keep her distracted. Her unrelenting pursuit of Yale was something that had always been with her. It was an aspiration that had originated before her father's infidelity, before her life had been turned on its head.

That thing that required a distraction.

That thing that she wouldn't let herself see drinking champagne as she ran by, chasing her conscience at the Boat House rather than the last words she had ever said to dark eyes that she wasn't used to seeing so empty.

So she ran. She ran, fully focused on regaining the respect of a new teacher so she wouldn't have to think about peonies hitting the floor of an elevator.

It had seemed so important.

Following her plan—or what it had been—that she'd had for as long she could remember.

And now it was all so trivial. Walking back into an opera house that was now crawling with police officers, she wanted to admit to herself how irrelevant it all seemed.

But he was there. And then she just couldn't. She just had to go on to that dream. Because he made her forget. Sitting with him on leather seats, or even her own bed plotting destruction, he made her forget. She forgot that she had to be perfect and that she had to exceed the expectations.

She was just Blair.

And that was all Chuck Bass cared about.

So she watched him with confusion, his knuckles red and battered as someone in uniform spoke with him in serious tones. She should have looked past him.

But that was something she never could do. She couldn't until the picture got a lot clearer. It was difficult for her to look past anything when it came to him, but then she saw Lily.

Fragile Lily, who was being guided away from the throng by her boyfriend, her hair in disarray, her dress in tatters. Blair didn't have to see Jack Bass being escorted roughly form the bathroom to know exactly what had happened.

Chuck's inflamed knuckles made sense, as did her disgust.

"I guess this is goodbye."

Jack was snide and indifferent and it made her feel ill just to have his voice in her ear.

"Forgive me if I don't send you flowers," Blair spat.

"Always so quick to judge," Jack scolded.

"He protected her," Blair said. "And you can't stand that another Bass can be better than you."

"Please," Jack scoffed. "She wanted it."

But before Blair could even think of how much she wanted the conversation to end, he was dragged off, and the older Bass was no longer obscuring the younger one.

Chuck's eyes were on him, and although he looked suspicious, and almost hurt, she smiled at him. She didn't want to. She hated thinking that she was sending him the wrong message, but he didn't approach. He just looked.

His fingers flexed self-consciously and Blair let the encouraging look fall. Because she had to distract herself. She couldn't let herself think of him, knowing that she still cared.

That was always where she faltered. Her heart was always more than willing to forgive him.

Jack Bass would always think a woman was willing to be with him. The problem was, that when it came to Chuck, Blair always would be.

And it was only a matter until it was that proven itself true once again.

Bond

My goal was to destroy Chuck. But now that he has you, I had to break that bond.

The minute he stepped back on US soil, Jack's plan was in place. Though Chuck's so-called sexual harassment claims would be easy enough to disprove, the distrust was still there. And yet, so was she.

The Empire had never been Jack's true endgame, of course. His first clash with his immature nephew had just been about the Company. The company that only Jack had deserved.

This was about revenge. Not just revenge, but the desire to see Chuck utterly and completely eviscerated.

He didn't think it would have been as easy this time. How easy it had been before, tempting Chuck in a way that any man could be tempted. He would have thought they would see this coming.

Chuck wasn't the only foolish one.

Love made everyone blind, and Blair Waldorf was no exception.

This was made clear to Jack when he saw her for the first time in a year. His condescension and gloating already delivered to Chuck, it was a purely enjoyable coincidence that Blair was in the lobby.

Then again, she could never be far from the breaking teenager. She cared too much. It was her fatal flaw and it always would be.

"Hello, Gorgeous."

Her words were curt and her technique was flawless. But Jack couldn't have been more pleased. He felt the girl's soft hand in his, her palpable disgust as he placed a kiss on her knuckles, but what he was even more aware of were the eyes burning into his back.

It was too easy. It wasn't exactly how it had been laid out before, but the intent was the same. And Jack knew that the end result would be the same as well.

Chuck didn't deserve her. The conniving, schemer who stole Jack's company away from him didn't deserve the love of such a woman.

A woman, who quite evidently, would do anything for his nephew. Jack would like to think as much, because his entire plan was riding on it. But the moment he left her alone in that lobby, he knew he was right.

It was too volatile, too tumultuous, and too passionate. Jack knew passion and he knew that it would combust all over them sooner or later.

Jack stopped around the corner, watching the two share one simple look. And it was in that moment that Jack knew that this would work. He would destroy the boy with the love he had been so fortunate to have.

Chuck's eyes never wavered from Blair's face, and Jack knew the exact emotion that could break any bond, take down any empire.

Jealousy.

Lost

I can't let my feelings cost me all that I've built.

Even if it means losing me instead.

Chuck had nightmares quite frequently. This wasn't a new occurrence. He'd had them since he was a young child. The knowledge that he had killed his own mother during his birth was something that anyone would stress over.

His father would work late nights, and bring home models; the only affection that Chuck had was that of his au pair.

And even that didn't last.

She was different. She had always been different. She didn't look at him with disgust, other than the playful teasing that they always exchanged. She didn't desire him like any other woman would. She respected him, and that was something even his father refused to give him.

Blair had always been different.

He refused to become attached. He refused to let the insomnia and nausea get the better of him. He refused even the word like. He had seen what she had done to the affections of men. Even Nate, who was in love with a completely different woman feared leaving her. It was what she did. She twisted the insides and emotions of everyone else to the point of confusion.

He hated that he found pleasure in it. The way her malice brought out her beauty, the way her smile was so deceptive and so alluring.

And he was gone.

He wanted to push her away. But she had been crying and before he knew what he was doing, she let him string diamonds along her neck and they were feeling and panting and heaving until his plan had collapsed.

And he was in love with her.

Blair was the first and only one to ever care about him like that. So much had occurred between them and he was too far in to pull away. But he'd had a relationship with his father longer, and he knew there was no way he could break from that either.

So he dreamed. He could never break down in front of her. The last time he had, he ran away for a month and broke her harder than he ever thought he could.

And he knew how close he was now. He knew how precarious they were. How together, they were invincible, but much more dangerous as well.

He thought he could hide it from her. She couldn't see beneath his solid facade. He had to be strong for her. He hated struggling when she believed so blindly in him. It was wrong and it was weak and he just wanted to make her right. He wanted her to be right about him.

He wanted to deserve her.

And yet, he still had nightmares. He still sweated the night out in ways he wished he wouldn't. And he didn't tell her anything. He didn't tell her that underneath his confidence, he knew something very bad was coming.

He couldn't have her leave him.

Then he really wouldn't be able to survive. With the knowledge that his father was right and the extraction of her love, he wouldn't survive it.

His breaths crashed through his lungs painfully, and looking through the darkness for her slumbering form, it was the only time he could be relieved. She was still by his side. She was still asleep.

She still loved him.

Chuck wound his arm carefully around her waist, not wanting to disturb her serenity.

But she was Blair.

"Chuck."

She was always aware.

He felt her hand come up to his forehead, and he cringed, knowing she could feel it.

"You're sweating."

Her statement wasn't anything obvious, but accusatory. He pulled away from her searching hand, but still kept his hands on her.

"Tell me."

"Just a dream," Chuck said quietly, in response to her command.

Neither of them could help it. They were connected, and so a part of each other, but right now, Chuck couldn't help but wish she were oblivious. He could hide from her then; keep her from finding that itch in him that told him something was coming.

But then she wouldn't be Blair. And he wouldn't need her.

"Promise me."

"What?" Blair asked. His nose was buried in her hair, but they both knew what he had said.

"Promise me you won't leave."

Her hand was consoling on the back of his neck.

He didn't push her away. He felt calmed by her, instilling even more fear that he was correct.

"I won't if you won't," she promised.

His kiss was fierce and he put all of the bad feelings away.

He wouldn't lose her. She'd promised him. So he pushed it all away. He pushed away the fear and anxiety, because no matter what happened, they would be together.

She promised.

It just didn't occur to him that he had made a promise to her. And he didn't think that he'd broken it—in any way.

He could never have the ability.

Blair thought differently.

And he lost his heart the moment he lost her.