A/N: First of all, thank you to all those who read an reviewed this. I really appreciate your feedback. Second, I hope you enjoy this short chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gossip Girl or any of its characters.
They both scroll through the news clips on the internet. Blair is sprawled on the couch, her legs resting on Dan's lap. She uses his laptop and he uses her phone, looking at different news sites, surveying the damage left by his book and her unexplained disappearance from Monaco.
Literary critics are raving about Dan's book without even knowing who the author is. He's already a revered writer – loved, talked about in a very positive light, and very much anonymous. The public remains clueless about the identity of the author of the hit book, but his closes friends and his family know about him. Surprisingly, not one of them came out to reveal him, not even Chuck Bass.
Chuck Bass. He is the winning choice in Gossip Girl's on-going poll: Why did Blair Waldorf back out of her dream wedding? The choices – a. Chuck Bass and b. Prince Louis is boring. Nobody ever thought of Dan freaking Humphrey.
"We're famous." Blair says as she reads through the news feed. It is merely an observation, one that is not exactly necessary as it's already a known fact between the two of them.
"You're famous. I'm not… my book is. And though I have dreamt of being a sought after author, I did not ever think it would happen this way." He answers her, rubbing her legs gently. They share a smile and stay silent for a while, still reading through the news.
…
"I called him Dan." She breaks their silence, looking deeply into his eyes, asking that he understands. He raises an eyebrow and she slowly drops her head; but not before her cheeks turn into a shade of red. He remains silent as he tries to comprehend what she just said.
"You're pretty slow, Humphrey. Have you suddenly turned dumb?" Her words fell on him like rocks, like she's expecting her to understand everything she says.
It sinks in then: she called her fiancé 'Dan' during an intimate moment. He feels sorry for her; yet happy at the same time. She was thinking of me. She's been thinking of me…
"I'm sorry, Blair." It's all he could say.
"That was the end of denial town for me. I said 'Dan' and he just… cried. Like he expected it all along, except he was worried it was going to be Chuck." He nods and pulls her close. Her lips find his and their emotions flood through.
They make love that night and she calls out his name like a sacred word. It feels right, she thought. Finally, it feels right.
…
A few more days go by and nobody bothers to contact Blair. Dan and Blair deduce they're giving her the space she needs to move on. That's her first course of action after all – hide out and keep silent. When she does come out in the open, any topics related to her hiding out are considered taboo. They also figure nobody would come looking for her in Brooklyn. After all, Dan is their outcast and best left alone… and lonely. Except he isn't anymore.
He presses the heels of his palms on his eyes, trying to squeeze out the strain from sleepless nights. She walks around the loft in his shirts now, barefoot and extremely comfortable with the limited space and the heat.
"Careful now, not that anybody else cares but I actually love your eyes. Don't you dare rub them off." He chuckles softly as she jumps into his bed, very un-Blair like. She stares at him lovingly – something she does more often now. There are still glares and a few hits now and then but there are also longing stares and soft glances. He tickles her into hysterical laughter. Her phone rings loudly, almost overpowering her screams of glee.
"Who's that?" Dan asks her without letting go, tickling her neck by nuzzling her with his nose. She giggles as she frees herself from him, moving to get her phone from the night stand. She stares at her phone before she looks at him.
"It's Serena."
A/N (again): Like I said, this is short. Hehe. Please review. Thanks for reading :)