A/N: The first section is sort of a throwback to another fic I did, but I just couldn't resist. So Spoiler Alert, if you've read Trust Me, Lover, be prepared. Its not completely the same but there are distinct similarities. I also couldn't help adding something from the only scene that Chuck and Blair were in the same frame. It makes no sense, but you have been forwarned.
Summary: Blair had never even accepted the consideration that she was being seduced. When you're being seduced, you don't realize it. That's the whole point. But usually someone realizes they're seducing you. The Devil would realize what he was doing.
Disclaimer: Quotes and awesomeness belong to GG. Only the words (that are not quotes) are mine. Yeah, I usually update before the newest eppie of GG primeirs that Monday but I totdally forgot. Not that any of you are waiting with baited breath. Here it is anyway.
Patience and Trust
I know that patience and trust aren't necessarily your strong suits, but you'll just have to rise to the occasion.
Blair turned away, the breath from her body literally stolen. She clutched the frame of the door, unable to force oxygen into her lungs. She didn't know what was happening to her. She had panic attacks when she was younger, but none of them had ever even come close to comparing to this.
She had cried when Nate told her about the Shepard Wedding, but this was something else entirely. This wasn't obligation or merging deals. This was what her heart felt. For a time, she was sure it was only what her body felt. But as she turned away from the familiar groans, she felt that her heart was literally sick. Sick from the groans that for the first time, she was hearing without herself in the room.
"Blair."
She heard his panicked voice and the rustling of clothing accompanied by a rushed zipper being pulled upwards. Usually, at the single syllable of her name, he could get her to do anything. Now all she wanted to do was run.
Her heels clicked frantically down the staircase as she heard him in hot pursuit. She pushed right by Serena, practically knocking Humphrey to the ground (not that she cared.) She finally found relief when she pushed the double glass doors to the open air of the townhouse where the garden lay. Thankfully, the bushes were right there. She keeled over and vomited.
The throat seared as she expelled the hot, burning, acidic liquid. She put her shaking hands on the cool grass, trying to calm herself. She had no idea why it was her heart this time and not her fingers that made her stomach churn.
"What the hell?"
Chuck suppressed the urge to groan. He so did not have time for this. He felt a steel grip stop him in his tracks as he tried to press himself outside. Serena fell back a couple steps and forced him to turn to face navy judgment in her eyes.
"Do you mind?" he snapped at similar dark ones, watching with horrified interest. He wasn't going to accept a beat down from a van der Woodsen while a Humphrey was witness.
"What did you do?" Serena demanded. His lips curled sardonically in a sneer that he had perfected since he was four.
"What's it to you?"
Like hell he was going to express remorse to someone who shouldn't even be privy to this party.
"She's my best friend," Serena retorted. "If you hurt her..."
"Save your breath," Chuck growled. He seized the hand that was clasped over his arm and pulled her roughly to him so he could whisper savagely. "Don't make the mistake of thinking you have any power in this."
He released her when he saw her looking over his shoulder. He turned and there she was. Dark eyes penetrated his as she leaned against the door frame, her arms crossed over her chest. She was eying him with an unreadable expression and he advanced on her.
Before Blair could even think of escape, he caught her by surprise and she was trapped.
"Blair, listen," he commanded, holding her forearms. She struggled with a slight grunt, trying extricate herself.
"Serena?" she asked him coolly. "Really, Chuck?"
Stung with surprise and confusion, Chuck just stood there and Blair pushed him aside as she escaped. He turned to see that Serena and her new boytoy were nowhere in sight.
Well, there was that.
Blair had to catch her breath around the corner, forcing herself to breathe deeply now that his intoxicating scent wasn't all around her. Now she could breathe without losing at the same time. She turned to the mirror in the hallway and righted her perfected curls with trembling hands. Ice met coal and she shuddered.
"Blair," Serena sighed. "I thought..."
"That I wasn't so stupid?" Blair laughed bitterly. "Yeah, me too."
"I'm so sorry--"
"Save it, Serena," Blair said shortly. "I just want to be alone right now."
He always found her when she was alone.
Always.
Then coal met coal and her heart was on fire again. This time all of her feelings and doubt weren't going to come up in a volume of acid. This time her heart would spawn verbal barbs that he deserved.
"Look what we have here," he said darkly as he slunk into her dark corner. Her eyes narrowed. She wasn't expecting this. Usually people just fell to her feet for forgiveness when they wronged her. The repercussions would be too great if they did not.
"All alone again, Waldorf?"
He was not doing this.
She didn't like it.
"Through no fault of my own," she seethed.
He took another dangerous step towards her. She would not back down this time. She would not back down ever.
Suddenly he was clutching her close and his lips were searing hers.
This was not something she had expected. Nate certainly never went this way. She supposed it was the element of surprise. That was it. She was in shock. She couldn't move, couldn't very well breathe.
For about a second.
Then she brought her stiletto to his shin and he grunted in surprise. She had to admire him for the fact, however, that he never let go.
"That hurt," he growled into her ear. Despite stating the obvious, her heart fluttered. He had nerve. No one had nerve against her. She tried to pull away to no avail. He didn't let go, but looked into her eyes, glare for glare.
"What do you think you're doing?" she found herself asking evenly.
"I should ask you the same question," he breathed. "I don't remember when you've been so cruel to me. As a matter of fact, our last... encounters left very pleasurable impressions in my mind. Not to mention other places."
"Ugh," Blair said in disgust, finally finding the ability to shrug him off. She spun around to meet his gaze again. "You're a pig."
He never looked affronted and it infuriated her to no end. He kept advancing on her and she kept finding herself... not backing away.
"You'll have to be more specific," he said throatily. She hated that tone.
"You know what you did," she spat. She closed her eyes as he stroked the side of her face. She wished he couldn't just melt her anger away.
"Enlighten me," he rasped in her ear.
"How could you?" she demanded, snapping out of it. He took a step away from her biting words but still never backed down.
"How could I what?" he asked.
"How could you?--"
"How could I let that girl pleasure me when we're not in a monogamous relationship?" he bit out. She stopped herself from recoiling.
"We're not in a relationship at all," she countered. She liked how his eyes darkened at this. "Isn't that what you said? What you're thinking?"
It was her that was advancing on him now as she watched his jaw twitch.
"This isn't anything, right?" she asked softly as his back hit the wall. "But then again, that would be sort of hypocritical, wouldn't it?"
He raised his chin as she continued.
"Or was that someone else who glares at his best friend every chance he can get when he thinks I'm not looking?"
Chuck's eyes snapped to hers and she claimed victory.
"You're jealous," he said instead.
"I'm jealous?" she sneered. "So what if I went over to Nate right now and told him to take me on the balcony right now?"
She wasn't aware how she had suddenly ended up in his arms again, but Chuck clenched her almost painfully with possession. "Don't you dare."
"You're jealous," she echoed, stepping away from him lightly.
"What do you want me to say?"
She didn't like that look in his eyes.
"An opportunity presented itself."
Blair scowled at the hurt that bloomed through her chest. She did something that she knew was the only power in her to do. She advanced on him again.
"And you just rose to the occasion," she said, her body heat against his, "didn't you?"
"Maybe," he countered. "Or maybe I was thinking of you the whole time."
"And why would you do that?" Blair asked, her fingers making the trip down to the buttons on her blouse where she slowly started popping them out of their holes, "when you could have just had me?"
She watched in satisfaction as his gaze dipped.
"Because I never said that I was monogamous," he said, hating himself for it. Instead of the hurt he expected to spread across her delicate features she just nodded. His brows furrowed in confusion.
"Neither did I," she said confidently, taking steps away. He realized what she was doing and he couldn't stop himself.
"You belong to me," he said, reaching out and pulled her harshly into his body. He didn't mean for it to come out. It shouldn't have. It compromised everything. He knew this especially when the sting of her hand shocked the side of his face.
He hated the sort of possessive and jealous person he had become. He used to not give a damn. He was turning into one of those... boyfriends. Shudder at the thought.
Blair shoved him off of her body.
Knowing Blair, she was always full of surprises. Instead of running like she was so prone to do, she did something else entirely. Her fingers suddenly dug into the front of his shirt and ripped it open savagely.
Chuck couldn't help but smirking in pleasure, even if he did sneak a look over her shoulder to make sure no one was coming.
Their hips were aligned, her arms locked around his neck as he pulled her up. She groaned as her back hit the staircase leading upwards and he descended upon her.
"So I guess we're exclusive now," he said into her ear as he was sure his clothing would come off at an alarming rate at this point. He growled at the feel of her yanking up the back of his hear by his hair.
"If I even see you with anyone else, I will ruin you," she vowed, her voice thick with want.
"Trust me," he said with the hint of a smile. "They don't even compare to you."
"Because I won't wait for you."
"No," he agreed. "You're far too perfect for that."
They were lucky that no one had a sudden whim to come up or down the stairs for the next couple of hours.
The Devil
I hate having to play the angel.
I know. The devil is so much better.
Blair always thought she knew the difference between right and wrong; good and evil. It was just logical. What was right was right and what was wrong was wrong. Good was light and pure. Bad was dark and evil.
Suddenly, she wasn't so sure anymore. There was a game that they played as children. She would always laugh at the dark suggestions Chuck had whispered in her ear at Serena's reproachful eye but nodded at Serena's light statements.
Even from and early age it would seem to Blair was susceptible to something that she couldn't name. She never thought that it would come to this. She never thought amusement would turn into some sort of admission about herself. She never knew that her virginal exterior would just melt away. Funnily enough, on the night that she lost her virginity. The Devil always worked in mysterious ways.
He was always in her, breathing, thinking, whispering. He was always there, but she didn't think that was what it was. She never thought in her teenage years it would have to be broken down so simply. It wasn't that simple, but the comparison had to be. Light or dark. Vanilla or chocolate.
Nate or Chuck.
It wasn't until later did she realize she already had chosen. She connected with Nate early on because he was everything that she wasn't. Maybe she was redeemable if some pure little boy thought well of her. But there was always that corner in the dark that called to her.
When Nate looked away, she was just a different person. Laughter at dark suggestions became consideration and when suddenly her dress fell to her feet as though it wasn't there at all, she had to consider what was really there and what wasn't.
Nate was never really there. He should think about his golden boy reputation before he started getting drunk at society weddings. But when some people had darkness in them, they knew it. They didn't flee. They didn't run. They accepted it as the gift that it was.
Some people made her discover that it wasn't anything to hide from. Darkness was a cure to loneliness. No one knew what it was like to watch everyone in your life turn away. They didn't watch their best friends, their boyfriends, and their fathers all disappear one by one.
He did.
"What are you doing?"
Her arms were barely supporting her as she leaned across the tile floor. She couldn't answer. She was far too gone.
"Waldorf."
She didn't like his tone. She would have snapped but she just couldn't. He had no right to sound concerned. He had no right to be appalled.
"Go away," she whispered weakly.
He didn't answer. She had hoped he had walked away.
"What are you doing to yourself?"
This time his voice was soft. It was nearer to her and she turned slightly to see the edges had disappeared from his eyes.
"I'm not good enough."
She thought she saw heat flash across his eyes, not know what it was from.
"You don't have to be alone," he said.
"Why are you telling me this?" she asked. "We don't do this."
"We do now," he said unrepentantly. "Because I know what it's like to be alone."
Oh.
Oh.
He knew what it was like.
Blair had never even accepted the consideration that she was being seduced. When you're being seduced, you don't realize it. That's the whole point. But usually someone realizes they're seducing you. The Devil would realize what he was doing. Even if he didn't mean for it to happen.
He answered things in her soul she thought would be empty forever. She thought she would be empty forever until he touched something in her that no one else ever had.
She wondered vaguely if Persephone knew about the pomegranate seeds. Her mother was looking for her but maybe she didn't care. Maybe that was the whole point. She couldn't seem like someone as virtuous as her actually wanted to be somewhere she shouldn't. She couldn't seem like she liked Hades's presence. Eating those seeds could have been a whole ploy to stay where she wanted to be, even for a price, going back up to the surface for a couple months out of the year.
She had to admit, it was a good trick. Her reputation wouldn't be tarnished and she would still get what she wanted. Too bad the Ancient Greeks didn't live on the Upper East Side. Then she wouldn't have to choose.
But that was over and done with. She knew it when she watched them standing side by side, talking jovially like the best friends that they were. And she knew her decision. She knew because he was there for her when no one else was.
Their eyes met and he smirked. He knew it too.
"Do you wish he was here?" The Devil prodded as she gasped for breath beneath him. "Do you wish he could touch you like me?"
Blair clutched the silk sheets in her fists, unable to breathe, let alone answer. But she did. She always answered.
"No," she gasped out. He smirked as she arched into his body, biting back a deep throated groan.
"You don't?" he teased. "You don't wish you were with your golden prince right now?"
Power shifted quite easily with them, however. And right now, Blair was getting annoyed.
"No," she snapped. She dug her talons into his shoulder blades, feeling them sink in with satisfaction as they quelled her desire, if only for an instant. "Only you."
He moved again, smugness etched across his face, laced with pleasure, emitting another scream from her.
She had already decided.
She let the Devil seduce her.
And she liked it.
Champagne and High Heels
I have to go. I have to fix something.
They were oceans away. Still. But they had always been connected. They always had been since they were small. They would play games on the others when they were little, never knowing how soon the games would mutate into something involving what neither of them could explain. Neither of them could have known how a simple understanding of each other would change into such an intimate and passionate connection.
They still couldn't see.
For a second, he thought he could. A flurry in time, he thought he could feel her. Just a pivot and he would have seen her gracefully leap across the lobby. He would have seen that she was fast for a girl in heels and if they caught on the carpet, maybe he would be there to stop her from breaking her neck.
Maybe.
For a second, maybe she could have understood how close they were again. An eye flicker and she would have seen his strong back and shoulders, extremities that used to hold her up so effortlessly. He coolly tossed back his champagne flute, lost in thoughts of loss, delaying the time in which he would go to watch the opera. Maybe even thoughts of her.
Maybe.
In another life, another time, another universe, they would have been able. He would get over himself like he held the inability to and go inside and she would slow down for even a moment like she was never able to and maybe they would meet. She would slow down to keep herself from falling and he would be able to smell her from where he was standing like he always could and they would meet in the middle... like they were never able to do.
She would pitch forward slightly and he would be there to catch her, like he used to in what seemed like lifetimes away. She would look up and he would look down and everything would be alright again. Maybe they would kiss. Maybe they would embrace. Maybe they would talk. Or maybe they would just stare like they hadn't been able to do in a while. But it would have been an understanding. It would have been contact that they hadn't had in what seemed like forever, though only week. Maybe nothing would have happened, but it would have been a chance. A chance like the one they hadn't been able to have in so long.
Maybe they would finally see.
But all they had was a flurry in time. His body tensed when he heard almost familiar sounding heeled footsteps pounding in a rhythm that seemed almost like a distant memory. He could have turned.
But he didn't.
She almost faltered her determined footing when she heard a clink of a champagne flute that was always present in her society life. She could have turned.
But she didn't.
However, it was only a matter of time. They had time. This wasn't the end. They were inevitable. Turning would have sped it up, with their destiny still on its way. They were separated by an unseen force or an ocean of space, but it was still there. And that wasn't going to go away.
Ever.
