Dichotomy

Summary: He will destroy her. It's the one thing about him that she can say for certain. Chuck/Vanessa

Setting: season 2 (around the era of "Remains of the J")

A/N: this chapter kind of went in its own direction and didn't really go the way i'd originally intended, but, here it is. and, bonus! i'm already almost done with the next chapter, so no crazy long wait this time. :)

deuce.

He's not sure, exactly, what it is that wakes him up at first. He's grown accustomed to the noise of the city - car horns, screeching tires, the angered yelling of the jaded passerby - so he knows that isn't what disturbs his sleep. Chuck feels his shoulder shift up, and then down, and suddenly, before he even knows it's happening, the pillow he's buried his face in is pulled abruptly and harshly from underneath him.

His eyes are open long before he is mentally ready to deal with the sunlight canting across his face. And the spot next to him, formerly occupied by a warm and naked Vanessa Abrams, is cold now. He frowns, as his shoulder changes positions again, followed by a rough tug on his arm. Chuck cracks open one eye, then the other, before groggily grumbling, "There are other ways, better ways, to wake me up, you know."

Vanessa scowls, though if her intention is to instill some modicum of fear within him, she is sorely mistaken. He'd laugh if it wasn't so early in the damned morning. "I know. Get up."

"You're awake. And fully clothed. Why?"

"Chuck. Get up."

He honestly can't resist the double-entendre that automatically jumps to his mind. He smirks. "I am up."

She ignores his comment, though, and simply says, "You have to get dressed."

"What?"

"You have to get dressed! Or, at least put some pants on. Now," she insists, shoving her finger into his bare chest.

"Now why would I do that, when it's so much easier to get you undressed-"

Vanessa sighs, an exasperated exhale, the sound intimating impatience and Chuck takes a brief moment to appreciate the thin material of her shirt, fastened haphazardly at only two or three buttons, and giving him quite a lovely view. "Because Nate is on his way up here and he can't know about... this. Us, and what happened last night."

"You're panicking."

"No, I'm not-"

"Yes, you are. Why? Getting Nate all hot and bothered about you and me was a part of the original plan."

"I thought you were done with the original plan."

"I am, but I'm not so sure that you are. Why, exactly, don't you want Nate to know?"

"Because," Vanessa falters, her eyes momentarily dropping to the lower half of his body when he slides out from under the sheets. "Nate is your friend and after everything that happened with you, him, and Blair I was thinking that him finding out about me, like this, is the last thing the two of you need." He's starting to wonder why her attitude's changed so much from last night, why suddenly Vanessa cares so much, when last night she was practically begging him to screw her.

"How altruistic of you." He pulls on his boxers, then slides on a pair of pants.

"Thank you."

"Trust me, it wasn't a compliment," Chuck insists. He moves so that he is standing in front of her and rests his hands flat against her hips, smirking inwardly when he doesn't detect a panty line. Interesting. He kisses her, intending to be brief, but ultimately getting caught up in the moment when she opens her mouth under his, tilting her head and deepening the kiss.

"Ugh, morning breath," she jokingly gripes when they both pull away after a moment, though his hands remain on her hips.

"Didn't seem to be stopping you before," he retorts. "Besides, yours isn't much better."

"Look, I know you want your friendship with Nate to go back to the way it was-"

"So, is this the new plan?" Chuck interrupts her, pointedly ignoring what she's trying to say.

"What?"

"Originally, you were just using me to make Nate jealous," he states accusingly, trying to figure out Vanessa's motive. Her eyes narrow at his tone, but other than that, show nothing in response to his statement.

"And you were just using me to make Blair jealous. What's your point, Chuck?"

"What's yours?"

She doesn't answer.

"Now who doesn't know what they want?"

She bites down on her bottom lip and rolls her eyes; it isn't hard for him to take notice of the fact that she won't look him in the eyes. A hard knock resounds from the other side of the door. "Will you just answer the damned door?"

"Chuck, man, open up. It's Nate."

Vanessa has scurried herself in the bathroom by the time Chuck gets to the door and he wonders, for the about the millionth time since this whole thing started, if he'll ever figure her out.

"This couldn't have waited until noon?"

Nate, as usual, is perfectly coiffed even at nine in the morning, seeming as though it just came naturally to him. His eyes look suspiciously over Chuck's shoulder, though, his mouth turned down into a frown. "You have a girl in here or something?"

"Not this time."

"Really? Because when I rang the buzzer earlier, kinda sounded like a woman's voice."

"You try waking up after only three hours of sleep and see how you sound." Off Nate's look of doubt, Chuck rolls his eyes. "When have you ever known me to hide away a conquest? There's no one else here."

He steps to the side to let Nate in, turning to watch his friend's face contort in confusion when he catches sight of a pair of lavender underwear peeking out from under the bed sheet. Apparently, Vanessa wasn't as careful as she may have hoped. "Then whose are those?"

"One of the maids must have left it behind, hoping for a tip. Trust me, they don't belong to anyone important," Chuck adds spitefully. The bathroom door is cracked, so he knows she's overheard him but that does nothing to deter him.

"Have you seen Vanessa?"

Chuck sighs, already feeling himself grow agitated by this conversation and the hangover he wasn't given the opportunity to sleep off. It would be easy, he knows, to tell Nate the truth and oust Vanessa's 'hiding spot' but, by the look on Nate's face, Chuck isn't so sure the truth would help anything. Besides, Chuck Bass doesn't really do 'easy'. "No."

"That's funny, because you were with her last night, and she's not at her apartment-"

"It's 9 am, Nate. Give the girl a chance to properly recover from a hangover." Chuck really didn't mean to come off so condescending, but he just can't help himself it seems.

"Is there something more going on with you and Vanessa?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I don't know... You two seemed pretty cozy at the Black & White ball last night."

"...Would it bother you if something more was going on?"

"Why?"

"You didn't answer my question."

"I just don't want her to get hurt by you...she's different; she's - "

"'Special'?" Chuck fills in, snorting derisively, mockingly. "Vanessa's a big girl, Nate, she can handle herself." Trust me, I know.

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

"Why do you need to know so badly, are you interested?"

"Not in any sick game you're playing. I care about her."

"And I don't?"

"Chuck, seriously, come on."

"Why do you care so much?"

"Because she's- she's important to me," Nate insists. He's practically pleading; Chuck wonders if the unexpected feeling in his chest is pity or sympathy, neither of which are emotions he's familiar with.

"You came over here just to tell me that?"

"Yes."

"Why does this feel like a threat?"

"It's not. I just thought you should know, before- I just thought you should know."

"Thanks for informing me, but I couldn't care less," Chuck replies. "It was just a game. It was fun, and now it's over."

"That's really all it was?" Nate asks, dubious, but Chuck knows him well enough to know how much he wants to believe it.

"That's all it was."

Barely seconds after Nate closes the door behind him, Vanessa steps out of the bathroom. The tension between them is thick and awkward, and suddenly Chuck is wondering if anything that was said and shared between them last night matters now. And, why, exactly, he wants it to matter.

"Well, now you know. He's yours if you want him. You got what you wanted."

"Chuck, I-"

He turns towards the window, his back facing her. "You can let yourself out," he coldly dismisses.

He doesn't turn around when he hears the door slam shut behind her.