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Nate was perplexed but somewhat relieved when Blair suddenly ended things between them on the dance floor. He hadn't been expecting it, yet at the same time he wasn't surprised. Upon reflection he did feel a sense of sadness about the break-up, but it wasn't grief over an immediate loss, but rather a sweet melancholic recognition that everything belonging to his childhood was passing away from him, including his relationship with Blair. He'd offered to take Blair home but she told him to stay and enjoy the party. She wanted to catch up with her recently released best friend, brush up on her knowledge of ways to survive hard time in case her recent shoplifting exploits ever came back to haunt her.
So Nate remained at prom, mixing with those around him. Always more well-liked and approachable than any of the other members of the non-judging breakfast club, Nate was enjoying swapping reminiscences and savouring the nostalgia. At that moment he was chatting idly to some girl from his English class about his plans for the next year while she waited for her date to retrieve their coats. His back was to the door, and therefore he did not see Chuck re-enter the room and glower meaningfully as he caught sight of Nathaniel Archibald distinctive sun-kissed man-bangs.
It had not taken Chuck long to spot Nate. He would of course be talking to some random blonde. Typical Nate. Breaks up with Blair, breaks her heart and then moves on to the next girl that smiles at him as if nothing had occurred. The sight only served to fuel Chuck's rage. Nate had ruined all Chuck's work to make this evening perfect and left Blair to cry on Serena's shoulder outside, whilst he remained sunnily unaffected and indifferent to the heartache he caused. He deserved everything Chuck was going to do to him, now and in the days to come.
Chuck berated himself for not having acted on his earlier instinct and gone to talk to Nate when he'd noted his unease. If he'd given him a little reminder about the consequences of hurting Blair, this might have been avoided. But, honestly, not even he had thought that Nate was this dumb. He had told Chuck he wanted Blair, had repeatedly warned him to stay away from her. It was beyond comprehension to Chuck that Nate, who in having Blair to him had everything that could possibly matter, had chosen yet again to just throw it all away. Chuck should never have introduced Nate to weed. It had obviously killed off too many of his brain cells.
Chuck felt people turning to look at him as he stalked menacingly, face full of fury, towards Nathaniel, grabbing him by his shoulder and spinning him roughly around. "I thought I warned you Archibald!" Chuck hissed.
Nate knew that Chuck must have heard about the break-up and, assuming it was his fault, come to make good on his earlier threats. He could probably clear all this up by just explaining the situation and informing Chuck that it was Blair who broke up with him, but he fed up with his former friend's hostility. Nate had told Chuck to man up and tell Blair how he felt, but he had chosen not to do so. Instead, he seemed to prefer his life, and everyone else's, miserable. He was over it, and really wished Chuck would just let Blair know that he loved her rather than being this angry, confused mess all the time. Then maybe he would have a shot at getting his best friend back.
"Get your hands off me, man," Nathaniel spat, pushing aside Chuck's grip on his collar.
Irritation rising at Chuck's assumption that he had the right to interfere in his life, Nathaniel continued, "Do you really think I'm afraid of you? You're a joke, Chuck. Besides, you don't know what you're talking about." He turned as if to continue talking to the blonde behind him.
"Well, I know that your predilection for fucking blondes seems to have re-asserted itself," Chuck bit out, causing the girl Nate had been innocently chatting with to step away in embarrassment and Nathaniel to spin back around in anger. "At least you actually seem to have managed to end things with Blair this time first, rather than screwing her best friend during a wedding while you were meant to be her date."
Gasps were heard from nearby spectators to the showdown, their shock echoing throughout the room as this latest gossip was passed along. Chuck inwardly cursed. He was glad to besmirch Nathaniel's reputation but he had revealed that particular titbit without reflecting on the damage it would also cause to his sister. Not to mention Blair would probably not be best pleased, the blast that the Lord had been unfaithful to her had been humiliating enough but now it would look like a pattern of patheticness.
Nate was white with anger, suddenly intent on wounding Chuck as much as possible, irrespective of the auditors around them.
"Well, it didn't take her long to get over it thanks to the help of my supposed best friend. Only chance you'd ever get to so much as touch a high-class girl rather than the two-bit hookers you normally have to pay for," Nate sneered. "You should be grateful, maybe now she'll let you comfort her again."
Chuck's fist seemed to smash into Nate's cheek of its own accord. There was a satisfying cracking sound, but also a great deal of pain in Chuck's hand. He wasn't the sort to normally throw punches, leaving that to lesser mortals who were not equipped with his cunning and ability to wreak more satisfying, if slower, forms of revenge.
"Shut up!" he screamed as his hand collided with Nate's face. "You don't know anything about her, about us," he yelled, as Nate steadied himself after reeling back in shock at the suddenness of Chuck's attack. A couple of guys grabbed him to prevent him from returning the favour and Chuck was similarly restrained.
Nate laughed, a hollow bitter sound. "You forget who you're talking to. I've known you both forever. Although I was surprised to hear she actually stripped for you that night at Victrola. It must have been quite the performance to leave such a lasting impression on the great Chuck Bass."
More gasps were heard around the room at the revelation their oh-so-prim-and-proper queen had actually performed at a burlesque club. Chuck had been angry before, but now he reached new heights of the emotion. The Blair of that night was a secret, his secret. It was a side of her only he (he didn't count the hundreds of other anonymous viewers who had been there that night, they were nobodies) had witnessed. That was his Blair that everyone was now whispering about maliciously. His new wrathfulness gave him the strength to break free of the arms restraining him and lunge at Nathaniel.
The guys holding Nate back let go too, not wanting him to be unable to defend himself. Chuck grabbed Nate's collar and shoved him against a nearby wall. "Don't you dare talk about her like that. She's always been too good for you."
Nate had to work to hide a smile of satisfaction. From the corner of his eye he could see looks of incredulity that Chuck Bass was actually defending a girl. It was not only uncharacteristic, it was unprecedented. Chuck destroyed women's reputations, and took great pleasure in doing so, he didn't protect them. Nate knew he only needed to push Chuck a little further to send him completely over the edge. That's when he spotted Blair re-entering the room and coming towards them. Perfect. He hoped she would forgive him later for the words that were about to come out of his mouth. He was sure they would be for the greater good in the end.
"What's the matter, Chuck? She was just another one of your screws, right? Why should anyone give her any respect when you treated her just like any other slut?"
"I fucking love her all right!" Chuck shouted into Nathaniel's face, his hands around his neck, oblivious to the presence of the very shocked object of his affections not far behind him. All the times she had imagined first hearing Chuck make that declaration, this was never the way she envisioned it.
When Chuck spoke again it was more quietly and in control this time, but the rage behind the words was no less apparent. "I love her, and like I told you at the police station, I don't like to see the people I love hurt. Which is why by tomorrow you can kiss your acceptance to Columbia, your trust fund, your father's deal with the prosecution - all of it - goodbye. Because I meant it when I told you to make her happy or I'd destroy you."
As Chuck started to release his grip on Nate's neck, Nate responded to his words by punching him in the nose. Chuck returned the blow and in a few seconds had surprisingly quickly got the better of Nate, pinning him to the ground.
The shock of Chuck's confession had at first paralysed Blair, rendering her incapable of any action. But as it seemed like Chuck really might give the prom a rather spectacular end by killing his best friend, she rushed forward to intervene, grabbing his arm.
"Chuck, get off of him!" she screamed, hauling him to his feet. He turned to look at her in blank amazement. He didn't know what to say to her, was unsure how much she had witnessed. He hadn't really been capable of much rational thought during the altercation, or he might have been more circumspect in what he revealed. If rage hadn't slowed his mental processes, he would have realised that even if Blair wasn't in the room to hear it, she would soon be informed of anything he said. There was probably a blast on its way from gossip girl already. So he just stared at her, face emotionless except for a slight trace of fear he was unable to completely conceal.
Meanwhile Blair's face was contorted in rage. "Are you insane?" she yelled, beautiful even in anger, her rage only increasing the majesty that seemed to radiate off her, enhancing the gorgeousness of her Marchesa gown. "You love me, but instead of telling me you intimidate your best friend because you think he has a better shot of making me happy? Then you beat up on him because you think he broke up with me and broke my heart? Which you'd know he didn't, by the way, if you stopped long enough to get your facts straight. I broke up with him!"
Chuck turned to look at Nathaniel in shock. Nate simply glowered at him before picking himself up and heading over to Serena and Dan. Chuck's attention was turned back to Blair who was moving in closer towards him. Her voice was breaking, like she was almost in tears.
"And why did I break up with him? Because at prom, on one of the most perfect nights of my life, having just been elected prom queen, I can't shake the feeling I'm with the wrong king. Thinking about life after high school, about my future, I can't picture the boyfriend I'm dancing with, because I can't get the image of his narcissistic, egomaniacal, lying, leering," Blair punctuated each adjective with a slap across Chuck's shoulders, "unreliable jackass of a best friend out of my..."
Her words were cut off by Chuck's mouth descending on hers. After struggling at first and moaning against his mouth in protest, Blair wound her arms around his neck, giving herself up to the most passionate kiss of her life, and this time moaning in pleasure.
The room erupted in excited whispers, as half those present reached for their phones to snap pictures of the epic moment for gossip girl's archive.
"I can't believe they're finally together," Serena sighed. "Or that Chuck admitted he loved her in front of the entire school."
Nate humphed. "Well, I can't believe he told everyone what we did at the Sheppard wedding."
Dan turned to Nate. "Well, I can't believe you told everyone that Blair performed a striptease in a nightclub," Dan said in wonder. "Actually, I can't believe Blair did that, period. Is there video available? Something on youtube maybe?"
Serena hit her ex-boyfriend, now good friend, in the chest. "Inappropriate. And if Chuck hears you, possibly fatal."
Serena turned to Nate. "I'm sorry about all of this," she told him quietly. "I mean I'm happy for them, but I just wish it wasn't at the cost of your happiness."
"It's okay," Nate responded. Serena eyed him sceptically. "No really," he continued. "I don't think I've ever really been in love with Blair, not the way Chuck loves her. I was just in love with the idea of her, and I think she was only in love with the idea of me. That's why I was okay when she ended things tonight."
Serena nodded. "Maybe first love is always a bit like that. But what about things with you and Chuck?"
Nate grimaced. "Well, I'm not too pleased about him punching me, to be honest. I think it's going to take some time, we've both made mistakes and have things to apologise for," he shrugged his shoulders, "but maybe now he and Blair have sorted things out it will be easier between us. That's kind of why I tried to goad him into admitting he loved her just now."
Serena opened her mouth in surprise, then let out one of her childish giggles, slapping Nate playfully on the chest. "Nathaniel Archibald," she smiled up into his beautifully kind blue eyes. " All these years and you still manage to surprise me."
Finally Blair and Chuck broke their lips away from each other, breathless, whilst keeping the rest of their bodies and limbs entangled. "Four thousand, two hundred and fifty-nine days," Chuck said.
"Uh...what?" Blair replied, still dazed from the most mind-blowing kiss she would ever experience.
"That's how long I've been in love with you. Four thousand, two hundred and fifty-nine days. Almost twelve years."
"You've been in love with me since we were six?" Blair questioned disbelievingly.
Chuck rested his forehead against hers and began moving to the music, which had started playing again once it was evident that the public spectacle was over for the evening. "Yes. Ever since that day that I put red paint all over Miss Pasternach's chair. She knew it was me, because I'd got the stuff all over my hands. But you lied and told her I'd been with you finger-painting the entire morning, and that you'd seen Georgie hanging around her desk. You were very convincing," he chuckled. "I knew then. That you were like me, that I loved you and that it ought to be the two of us against the world. I may have pretended differently over the years, to myself as well as to you, but I've never really stopped since that day."
Blair smiled up at Chuck. "I remember that day. I told that lie mostly because I hated Georgina and wanted to get her into trouble. But also because you had said that you liked my headband that day. I think it might have been what started my obsession," she teased.
"With me?" he smirked.
"With headwear," she responded, motioning to her tiara. Blair's face grew tender and more vulnerable. "Chuck, I honestly don't know when I started loving you. But I do know that no matter how hard I try I can't seem to stop."
She looked up at him with perfect sincerity and he caught her mouth in another kiss, a gentler one this time.
When it ended she gave him her wickedest grin. "Now why don't you really help me make this evening perfect by showing me this penthouse you've booked?" she suggested, holding up the key.
He grinned, and hand in hand they made a rather hasty exit. He had no intention of letting her be distracted by the Audrey Hepburn film collection he had left in the suite now. In fact, by the time they were finished, the perfect evening might have been stretched into the perfect weekend. A long weekend. One in which Chuck would succeed in making Blair very, very happy.