i know...its been a while but you asked for a long chapter and i'm giving you a relatively long chapter! so.......ENJOY!!

**********

Blair stood in front of the mirror and examined herself. Her custom made (by her mother) silver dress had not one wrinkle. Her face was blemish free and not one hair was out of place. Chuck entered her room in a handsome tuxedo (approved by Blair, of course). As he turned to face Blair, he froze, mouth open. She was gorgeous. "Wow." was all Chuck could let out.

Blair turned. "Are you sure it's not too...you know-" Chuck stopped her with a small, gentle kiss on the lips. He put the side of his right pointer finger under her chin as he attempted to deepen the kiss.

Chuck stopped before he got too carried away, for cotillion was less than an hour away from starting. "You look amazing."

As he led her downstairs, he teased, "So, any bets on how Nate will react?"

**********

"What are you two thinking?!" Serena whispered fiercely as Blair entered the Palace hotel with Chuck at her side. "Coming to cotillion together? Are you insane?"

Blair narrowed her eyes. "I thought you were going to be supportive of what's going on between me and Chuck!" she whispered back.

"I am but that's when I thought it was a small, secret, behind closed doors kind of relationship! How do you think Nate's going to react when he sees you with his best friend?!"

"Ok, while you two have your little whisper war, I'm going to the bar." Chuck said before he walked off into the crowd.

Blair turned back to Serena and sighed. "Look, Chuck and I are going to tell Nate that we're here as friends. Just friends."

"Fine, but try to tone down the tiny, little, supposedly unnoticeable public displays of affection. If you don't, Nate's going to know immediately that something's up."

Blair gave Serena a sarcastic smile. "Fine."

Jenny then sauntered up to the two best friends and said, "They told me to tell you guys that it's almost time to get in position on the staircase and to tell your escorts if they aren't already up there." She ran off before either could reply.

Blair took a deep sigh "I'm going to go find Chuck." She picked up the skirt of her dress and headed for the bar.

**********

Chuck drained the remains of his scotch down his throat and signaled the bartender for a second one. He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around. "Hey, man!"

"Nate, hey! Who are you escorting?"

"Hazel. But, I actually went over to Blair's the other day to see if I could escort her instead but, uh..." Nate shrugged, pretending it was no big deal, "she's still not exactly happy with me it seems. Who are you escorting, anyway?"

Chuck opened his mouth to answer when Blair came up behind him and interrupted. "Chuck! There you are! They're saying it's time to get in position. Remember, we're second."

He nodded. "Ok."

Blair looked up at her ex-boyfriend. "Nate." she said quickly, rushing off before he could respond. Chuck turned back to Nate who didn't look too happy.

"You're escorting Blair?" Nate said bitterly.

Chuck cleared his throat. "Yah, she uh," The bartender placed a new scotch in place of the old one, so he took a quick gulp of it to spare him a second to think on his feet. "She called me saying that the prince canceled on her so she needed a new escort immediately." he lied.

Nate stared at him. "Yet you knew I wanted to go with her."

Chuck opened his mouth to reply when a woman working at the cotillion came up to them and said, "You two really need to go to you places now," she grabbed their arms and led them away from the bar.

Chuck stepped up to his spot in between Kati's escort and Serena's escort, Carter. "Baizen." Chuck spat.

"Bass." Carter replied a little more calmly than normal. "You know, after our last little run in I realized that you're right. I'm not a good friend."

"Obviously." Chuck said without even glancing at him. "Now does this weird comment have a point?"

"Well, you definitely are one, Bass." Carter smiled and turned to face Chuck. "You're such a loyal and trustworthy friend that you deserve a badge of honor. I mean, come on, screwing your best friend' s very recent ex-girlfriend. Your father must be so proud."

Chuck's eyes widened as he faced Carter. "Excuse me?"

"Though, I don't blame you. Getting to deflower the infamous virgin Queen Bee of Constance must have been such a thrill ride. But getting to continually tap that ass behind closed doors," Carter closed his eyes and quickly sucked in air. "I'm almost jealous."

Chuck clenched his fists. "How did you know this? Who else knows?!"

"That's not important. Well...lets just say one way was that I overheard Blair and Serena's little conversation earlier. So I just put two and two together," Carter laughed, "and it looks like I'm right."

Chuck looked like he was about to punch him, though he knew he couldn't. Punches don't exactly go unnoticed.

"Oh, Bass, don't go getting your panties in a bunch. I haven't told anybody...yet."

Chuck was about to retort when the head of the cotillion announced the start of the ceremony.

**********

After announcing everyone's names, the men escorted all of the women onto the dance floor. Halfway through the dance, Chuck said to Blair, "Carter knows."

"Knows what?" Blair whispered as Chuck twirled her.

Chuck brought her in closer to his body and guided her forward, "He knows that we've been sleeping together."

Blair's eyes widened. "Has he told anybody?"

"He told me 'not yet'." Chuck sighed and glanced at his surroundings. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Nate, at the other side of the dance floor, glaring at him. "Blair?"

"Yah?" Blair replied as they danced past several other couples.

"Nate keeps staring at us. He doesn't look too happy." Chuck said out of the corner of his mouth without looking at Blair.

"Just ignore him. And didn't you tell him we're only here as friends?"

"Kind of..."

"What do you mean 'kind of'?!"

"I told him that the prince cancelled and you called needing a date/"

"You didn't tell him we're here as friends?"

"I was getting to that but some woman dragged us into our positions before I could say anything!"

Blair sighed, "Great."

It got to the point in the dance where everyone switches partners. Chuck ended up with Serena and Blair ended up with Nate.

"So, you go with Chuck but not me? What's up with that Blair?"

"We're here just as friends, Nate."

"But I offered to take you."

"Well, I haven't exactly forgiven you for thatlittle stunt you pulled on my birthday you know." Blair really wasn't in the mood for all this.

Nate snorted angrily. After a long moment of silence, he asked, "So there's nothing going on between you two?"

Blair raised her eyebrows. "It's Chuck, Nate. Who on Earth would want something with Chuck Bass?"

Nate sighed in defeat. "You have a point."

"See what happens when you assume things, Archibald?"

"I get it, Blair. I'm an ass."

Blair smiled. "And don't you forget it."

Across the room, Chuck was watching them as he danced with Serena. "I don't like the way she's smiling with him."

Serena looked over at Nate and Blair and rolled her eyes. "Trust me Chuck, that is not even close to the way I've seen her smile with you."

Chuck smiled, but quickly wiped it away and asked casually without looking at her, "Really?"

She looked at him and laughed.

Chuck furrowed his eyebrows. "Are you high or something?"

"You like her. I mean, really like her."

Chuck scoffed, "Please, what we are is just sex. Purely physical. Besides, she doesn't feel that way."

"So, you admit to liking her."

"No I don't."

"Oh come on Chuck! You've slept with her more than once, which, correct me if I'm wrong, is kind of your golden rule. You brought her flowers and just the fact that Blair is smiling and dancing with somebody else right now is eating you up inside!"

"What's your point?"

It was Serena's turn to scoff. "You like her!"

"Keep it down, will you?!"

"So you do!"

"I never said that!"

"Well," Serena looked down casually, "I happen to know that she does feel the same way."

"She does?"

"You're kidding me, right? You haven't noticed how much happier and lighter Blair has been since she's been with you?"

Chuck sighed. After a while he finally said, "Ok. I...have, maybe, some microscopic feelings for her. Happy?"

"I would say a lot more than microscopic..."

"Don't push it, Serena."

The song ended and everyone clapped. Blair approached Chuck and smiled, "Hey you."

Chuck smiled back. "How was your dance with Nathaniel?"

"Lets just say...he's not you."

Chuck's smile grew wider as Serena, awkwardly, said, "I'll just, uh, go find my escort." As she walked away, Chuck nodded to the conductor to restart the music and brought Blair in close to dance.

**********

so, i hope you liked it. it was kinda long.....sorry it took so long to get it up because i write them in a notebook and then type them up so it took some time to type it up. plus, i decided to just finish writing the story before typing this up so i'll try to type up the rest of the chapters quickly for you guys! 'til next time!!