Okay, I must apologise for the longer wait after I was so giddy with updates the whole way through. I guess I kinda got cold feet- always do nearing the end of a story. Endings are just so much less exciting than beginnings! I will say though, I've had so much fun with this story and really enjoyed hearing your thoughts and feedback throughout. I'm erring on the side of a little time jump epilogue chapter to take a look at how this telling of Chuck and Blair have settled into their lives together. But who knows? I am remarkably unreliable!

Thank you for joining me on another little project. Your reviews have literally meant the world to me. Being part of such a dwindling fandom means that there are so many days that it feels like I'm shouting into a void for no real reason, but the few of you that are still here with me make it all worth it. I'll just never stop loving Chair, I fear!

Thanks again. Over and out!

It was a dance of weighted silence that they joined each other in the following day at work; two minds running overtime to the quickening beat of silent music, never quite matching their moves to the other's.

Blair could tell, by the wrought expression he'd worn all morning, that he was enduring something at least distantly related to guilt for way he'd behaved the day prior. But Chuck certainly didn't seem like he was going to make the first move in disrupting the quiet that had settled like a dense smog between them.

Despite his sudden muteness, and her keen desire to scream, shout and shake him silly, figuring out how to navigate a declaration of intense feeling, alongside a gentle admission that she'd spilled the beans to Nate, was proving a difficult quandary for Blair to solve.

So ultimately she too had held up the unhappy quiet. Even still, she'd felt his relentless eyes on her throughout the morning- there was no other feeling in the world the same as that. Blair wondered if he could feel hers too, the sensation tickling down his spine until it reached the base and caused a shudder that only the feeling of being hotly stared at could inspire.

Around lunchtime, she watched him forlornly as he carefully packed up his briefcase, reached for the coat that was neatly hung over the back of his chair and made for the door. Blair tried to open her mouth to say something to stop him, but in the end she was only able to sigh dejectedly, not that he seemed to hear the sound. Chuck didn't, as she'd hoped he would, pause look back at her. Instead, she watched his hasty path until he slipped into the busy stream of lunch-goers and out of sight altogether.

They should have been going to lunch together, Blair thought. They should have been reaching for each other beneath the table like teenagers, as they half-heartedly attempted to keep their lustfulness for one another out of the public eye. Instead, they were at a loss for words, avoiding one another and stupidly overcome by their feelings.

He didn't come back after his lunch hour; she hadn't really expected him to. The interruption that came at last was one she craved very little, Matilda knocked thrice at her office door.

'Hey, Blair.' She spoke brightly. 'Is Chuck here?'

'What do you think?' Aggravated not just by her intrusion, but the reminder that Chuck hadn't wanted to be around her any longer, Blair gestured sharply around the office- empty but for herself.

'His loss, then.' She replied with a much-too-toothy grin that made Blair's nose wrinkle. 'I get to be the one to give you the good news!' Matilda clapped her hands together excitedly.

'What are you talking about?' Blair asked, still impatient and irritable. She pushed her chair back from her desk to study the woman in the doorway more closely.

'You're being promoted, Blair!' Matilda announced with a flourish of her hands that produced a sheet of paper.

Blair's mouth fell open and her stomach began performing somersaults. 'What?'

She took the paper and scanned for confirmation.

'Yeah, I just got out of a meeting with a few department heads, and it was a resounding yes! You'll get the official notification soon, but I just couldn't wait to let you know. These were all your pros!' The words were spilling out of Matilda's mouth faster than Blair could compute them. 'Congratulations.'

She ought to have sought comfort in the sprawling list of compliments thrust before her- she ought to have, but she didn't.

'So, Chuck won't be my boss anymore?' She asked, turning the alien idea of working separately from him over in her mind.

'No, you'll be getting your own office and even an assistant of your own too, if you like.'

'My own office?' She repeated, feeling inexplicably saddened by the thought of having to leave the one she was in now, the one where he usually sat at her side with his taunts and his flirtation.

'You don't seem as excited as I thought you'd be.' Matilda commented, one eyebrow raised. 'This is a big step up, Blair.' She pressed. 'I begrudge saying it, but it's even better than the package I got.'

That detail couldn't ever have failed to make her smile. 'No. No, I'm happy, I just- I wasn't expecting this.' Blair admitted.

Matilda eyed her curiously and opened her mouth again, but she was soon silenced by the approaching voice of another trespasser to Blair's troubled peace.

'Ladies, sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to congratulate Blair on the promotion. I just heard- it's very well deserved.' Blair recognised the voice of Mark Keane emerging from behind Matilda.

'Thank you.' Blair returned, though the congratulations felt odd arising from something that still felt somewhat more like bad news than good.

'Mark, have you seen Chuck at all?' Matilda queried the elder man who now stood beside her.

'Oh, you haven't heard yet?' Mark looked between the two women. 'Chuck handed in his resignation earlier this afternoon.'

'What?' Both Blair and Matilda said at once.

'He said he had other things to focus on and made some comment about the office culture not suiting him, whatever that means.' Mark snickered. 'Odd, though. He was so enthused about the role when I met with him in Paris earlier this year.'

She could hear him talking, but could scarcely make sense of the words with the world spinning so fiercely about her.

'Oh, Mark, I've only just recovered from that debacle, don't remind me.' Matilda jested, one hand lifting to pinch the bridge of her nose.

'Let's never speak of it again, shall we?' Mark laughed along with her.

'Sorry- what are you talking about?' Blair interjected, still grasping to recover from the initial blow of the news.

'Oh apologies, Blair. A while back I was in Paris meeting a client, just before we began interviews, for the role you applied for actually, and I ran into Chuck at a charity event.'

'And while he was there, Mark managed to lose three entire sheets of paper detailing the particulars and contact numbers of all of the applicants we had outlined as preferential.' Matilda shook her head in disbelief. 'Internal nightmare. 'Although luckily we never got a complaint.' Matilda paused, looking warily at Blair. 'Though, your details were likely on that sheet too, Blair.' She toyed with the sleeve of her blazer.

Blair waved her concern away.

'I swear it was in my briefcase the whole time- it just vanished!' Mark laughed jovially.

'So, Chuck wasn't back in New York already when the applications first opened?' Blair pressed.

'No, he was late to apply actually- we had already completed first interviews and selected our top candidates by that point. He really had to twist my arm to even get a look in, and then he demanded a particular slot too! It's hard to believe, after all that, that he was so willing to give it all up today. But there you have it.' Mark smiled fondly at the memory that had just tipped Blair's world upside down.

'Did he indeed?' Blair chewed over her words, the pieces of their strange puzzle at last slotting together, with Chuck Bass the devious game maker at its helm.

He had known she'd applied. If fact, he'd gone out of his way to ensure that they'd interview on the same day too.

She needed to find him.

After waiting the excruciating three hours for her day to end, Blair's first stop, The Palace, had come up frustratingly short. Then she'd tried the Van der Woodsen's, and with that too being empty checked her own deserted penthouse. The man was nowhere to be found; she'd even wondered idly if he might have caught the first flight out to Europe. Eventually, she found herself wandering back around the vicinity of their office block again, lost for ideas as to where to search next.

Frustrated, and in dire need of sustenance, Blair headed for the door of the spot she'd first stepped into after her interview. What she saw there brought her up short.

At the bar, with his head buried in stacks of barely-organised papers spread almost across the full length of its surface, sat Chuck Bass. Quite frozen to her spot, she couldn't halt the aggressive thud of the door behind her, as her fingers went slack around the handle. The sound, though, didn't distract him from his reading in the slightest.

Blair took several, tentative steps towards him.

'Chuck?' She whispered his name, fearing he were a mirage that might disappear if she disrupted him.

He looked up at her, fingers finally stilling their work.

'What took you so long?' He murmured, offering her a soft smile and nodding towards the seat beside him. 'Sit down a minute?' He asked.

Her feet moved without any instruction from her brain, and he pulled the barstool out for her. Blair sank down slowly, her unyielding gaze fixed on him.

'What are you doing?' She spoke. Allowing curiosity to get her better of her, Blair's eyes moved rapidly over the documents he'd been thumbing through. 'What is all of this?'

'Deeds.' He offered casually, brushing the sheets aside to find the title page. 'Here.' He slid it towards her across the smooth bar.

'The Empire Hotel.' She breathed, taking in the sight of its entrance- splendid even its photo form. 'So, you bought it then?'

Chuck nodded.

'This is big.' Blair breathed.

He nodded again, and this time it was he who watched her cautiously, as though she might be the one to vanish.

Blair regarded him quizzically and laid down the papers. 'But what about work?' She asked. 'Mark said you quit this afternoon. You didn't do that for me, did you?'

'Not as such.' He smiled at her. 'Though, I'm sure you weren't far off usurping my position, my pride couldn't have handled that.'

Blair chuckled, relaxing somewhat in her seat as she loosened her grip on the handbag she'd been clutching so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.

He sighed and nodded before opening his mouth again to speak. 'I realised this morning, that there was something I wanted a great deal more than a graduate position.' Chuck admitted.

'Right.' Blair agreed, looking back at the documents now tying him to the hotel. 'Owning The Empire is much bigger, and it will probably take up a lot more of your time.'

Chuck smirked at her. 'I'm not talking about the hotel, Blair.'

She regarded him with furrowed brows. 'Well then wh-' Her question trailed off. 'Oh.'

'Yes, oh.' He repeated her syllable softly. 'You. I thought that would have been blindingly obvious by now.'

She eyed him and scoffed in disbelief, but turned her attentions back to the papers again, her heart thumping almost out of her chest. 'This is a huge investment, Chuck.'

'Sure is.' He agreed dryly.

Another moment of quiet passed. She sank her teeth into her bottom lip to repress the squeal that warred so desperately to bubble up from her throat.

'Blair?' He called, his tone flat. 'Was that all you wanted to say?'

'You don't seem at all nervous about taking all this on.' She observed, ignoring his real meaning again, instead gesturing to the printed images of lavish hotel rooms, magnificent spas and sprawling restaurants.

'I know I ought to be, but I'm not.' He affirmed, humouring her nervous delay a moment longer.

She looked away from the sheets and up at him, almost buckling in her chair at the sweetness that clouded his gaze. 'But how can you be so sure?'

Chuck lifted a hand to her chin in a gentle caress. 'Because you believe in me.'

Her cheeks growing warm, Blair smiled in earnest at his words. 'Always have.'

'I was an idiot for holding onto the job, for not just quitting sooner- and you were right about Nate too.' He confessed. 'I'm sorry for how I reacted, I wasn't thinking. It would have been a disaster to have told him there.'

Blair couldn't help the slight raise of her eyebrows. 'Do my ears deceive me, or was that a genuine apology?' She pondered. 'You admit I was right without any caveats whatsoever?'

'Don't get used to it.' He chuckled, softening the seriousness of his expression. It wasn't long though until he returned to a more intense manner. 'We'll figure all this out Blair, we're one step closer.'

Blair bit her lip again and watched him for a moment before sucking in a deep breath. With no idea how he'd take her news, she risked sinking the life raft he'd cast out for her. But there was no use holding back anymore.

'We might be even closer than that.' Blair divulged, her mouth forming a thin line.

'What do you mean?' Chuck looked at her curiously, his hand lifting to cover hers where it rested in a tight fist atop the bar. It was the soothing strokes of his fingers that gave her the courage to say what she did next.

'I may have had an impromptu visit from a certain best friend of yours, and I may have told him, in no uncertain terms, that I'm rather horribly and desperately in love with you.'

Chuck's eyes widened and the ministrations of his hand stilled. 'How did he take it? Was he angry? Did he say-' He stopped suddenly, his brows knitting. 'Wait, what did you just say?'

She watched the wave crash over him and it rocked her too. 'You heard me.'

'Do you mean that?' He came up gasping, desperate and drenched by the revelation. The grasp of his hand around hers had tightened even firmer.

Blair's hair bounced at her shoulders as she nodded, her eyes brimming with fear.

In the future, she'd swear countless eternities had passed between her admission and his response. But it didn't take longer than half a second for him to gather her up in his arms, almost sending them both crashing to the ground in the process.

'Chuck!' Blair shrieked, grasping for the bar and almost unable to breathe beneath the tight grip of his arms around her.

'Sorry!' He said hurriedly letting her go, but for the one hand that still held hers fast atop the bar.

'Yes I mean it.' She nodded again. 'I mean it so much.' The weight she'd carried around since she was seventeen fell freely from her shoulders and she waited for him to react.

'Would you say it again?' The request was as from the mouth of a child who had never before been told he mattered.

She laughed, feeling suddenly nervous as he gazed on expectantly. 'I-' Blair hesitated, but the undying hope in his eyes, the absolute and immeasurable desire for more that she saw reflected there, spurred her on. 'I love you.' She admitted again. 'I love you, and it's okay if you're not ready yet, but-'

'Blair.' He interrupted her. 'I think I've loved you for years.'

Blair gasped, releasing a lungful of air she hadn't known she was holding. Her senses at once flooded by his revelation, she could hardly think of anything to say. 'Well, that's good.' Was all her breathy voice would allow.

'So, what does this mean?' He asked, looking so intently into her eyes that she wondered if he'd see right through to the indelible marks he'd left on her soul.

'Nate knows about us, we don't work together- nothing is in the way anymore.' The words, even though they'd at last been spoken aloud, sounded like they couldn't possibly have been true.

For his part, Chuck didn't ponder them any longer, drawing her into an eager kiss that baptised their sudden freedom and wholeness. Countless eternities then did pass, between the moment their lips touched and the moment they reluctantly broke away from one another.

'Can we get a bottle of your finest champagne and two glasses?' Chuck called abruptly to a startled looking barman. He had before, no doubt, been trying his very best to avert his gaze from the couple whose hands had been so recently moving in directions wholly unsuitable for the very public space they seemed to have forgotten they were in.

'Will Dom Perignon do, sir?' He mumbled, fumbling for a pair of flutes above their heads.

Chuck turned to Blair. 'I'm afraid she doesn't like Dom.' He explained with a sardonic smirk twisting up his lips. His fingers stayed curled possessively around her waist. 'Unless there was another grand admission you were hoping to make today, Blair?'

Blair rolled her eyes, but the jitters in her stomach never ceased. 'Don't toy with me, Bass.'

'Perhaps they carry Krug? If I recall, that used to be an old favourite of yours too. Although, I often feel obliged remark on the lack of complexity in its notes when compared with a finer option.'

'Chuck.' She drew his name out in warning.

'Just admit it, Blair. You never once stopped loving Dom.' His eyes twinkled with mischief.

'Fine.' She breathed, her fingernails raking up the front of his jacket. 'I lied. It was always- has always been my utmost favourite.'

'Rightly so.' Said the barman cheerily, as he peeled foil from a bottle neck.

They both turned to regard him with narrowed eyes, both of Chuck's hands now resting on Blair's hips and hers stroking his lapels.

'Uh- sorry.' He mumbled, teasing the cork from the neck of the bottle.

They were seated again to watch bubbles fizz against crystal, as the liquid frothed up and almost over the edge of the glasses it was poured into.

'To us.' Blair spoke, raising her flute to meet his in a gentle clink.

'The world doesn't yet know what's in store for it.' Chuck smirked.

'Do we?' She returned his wry smile.

'Now where would be the fun in that?' He countered, taking a long drink from his flute.

'Now,' he said, too impatient to let her finish the glass. 'What do you say we go and christen my legacy?'

Blair stood from her chair without need for another word of coaxing, silently allowing him to slip her coat over her shoulders. She picked up her purse and took his waiting hand.

A moment before they reached the exit, she paused. 'Actually, just one more thing before we go, Bass. Mark let slip that you showed interest in a certain position I desired after the initial round of interviews had already been completed.'

Chuck's lips twisted into a knowing grin as his hand paused on the door handle.

'He mentioned something about a sheet of top interviewees that went missing from his briefcase at a charity event held in Paris, right about the time you were there. Know anything about that?' She sang.

'Can I plead the fifth?' Chuck requested, holding the door open for her.

'Just what did you have to do to get yourself into that interview room right before my slot?' Blair wondered aloud, walking towards the limo that had materialised in front of the bar, seemingly from thin air.

'You don't want to know.' He said, pulling the car door and waiting for her to step in.

'Oh, I emphatically do.' She grinned, before slipping onto the leather seats. She'd save the news of her promotion for their second round of celebrations.