He raised his eyebrows at Blair as she moved to take the seat next to his.
"I thought we weren't supposed to sit next to each other."
"There aren't many seats left." She whispered as she sat down. "At least I know that you shower, which is more than I can say for the guy three rows back."
It was not a conflict-free movie watching experience:
Blair claimed the armrest with a haughty smirk in his direction. Dan shrugged and put his arm on top of her seat behind her head.
"Fine, take the armrest." Blair said.
"This works for me." Dan replied with a smile.
"Like that matters." Blair retorted, moving to remove his arm.
"You're breathing way too loudly Humphrey. Stop." She whispered at him, her eyes not leaving the screen.
"Stop breathing? Sure." Dan whispered back, however in spite of this pledge, he continued to inhale and exhale.
"Stop."
"I did. I have. You're imagining things."
"You're moving. Stop moving."
"I have an itch, relax… It's in the middle of my back… do you think you could…?"
"Punch you in the face if you don't stop moving? Absolutely."
Blair tugged insistently at his shirt. The movie was almost over but her eyes were hard and brooked no argument. She was apparently willing to make a scene for some reason. He followed her out of the theatre and into a corridor that lead to the washrooms.
"What do you want Blair." For some reason he almost whispered it. The theatre environment had followed him out.
"You were staring at me for the entire movie."
"What? No I wasn't."
"Every time I looked in your direction you were looking at me."
"Fine, but I was not looking at you the entire time. It was just coincidence Waldorf nothing more. Honestly, I only looked at you at all because I've never seen your hair this messy before." He paused, looking at her hair. "I'd say it suits you, but I think you'd hit me."
"My hair is messy? Are you out of your mind?" But her hand went to her hair self-consciously anyway. "Besides which, you were not looking at my hair. Do we have to talk about this? Or do you see how…"
"Woah." Dan held up his hands. " I have no idea what you're talking about Blair. I… we hate each other more than a little. You've kicked me twice in the past half-hour." He met her eyes. "I know some people end up with a weird love-hate dynamic…" his eyes went to her lips for a micro-second. "but I've never seen how that could happen really. In movies sometimes…" His hand came up to cup her cheek. Their eyes met and held for a long moment.
"What are you doing?" Blair asked, she took his hand in hers and removed it from her cheek, but she held onto it.
"I don't know." Dan swallowed. "This is a weird feeling." His eyes drifted to her mouth again. He closed the distance between them and kissed her firmly but briefly. He moved back slightly and met her eyes again. His hand came up to her face again, and this time she let it stay there.
"We can't make out in a theatre hallway." She said finally. She took his hand and pulled him toward the women's washroom. "Wait here a second." She went inside for a moment and then reemerged, took his hand and pulled him in.
"We don't have to tell Serena when she gets back." Blair said as Dan attempted to hail them a cab. " No matter what your overdeveloped sense of morality may tell you."
"We don't have to tell anyone if you don't want… About the movie… It felt a little anti-climactic to me. Like if some people hadn't entered that room at exactly the wrong time… the plot might have come to a far more satisfactory conclusion… what do you think?"
"I think they could pick things up again in a different venue. Somewhere they're less likely to be disturbed." Blair looked at her watch. "Like a penthouse apartment that happens to be empty for about two hours because a maid happens to be elsewhere."
"I think that would work very well." Dan said earnestly.
"You don't think it's too contrived?" Blair asked him with an amused smile.
"Not at all." He shook his head emphatically.