AN
This is the second to last chapter so there isn't long to go! Last chapter should be out before next weekend as I finish my last exam on Wednesday!
Hope you enjoy the chapter and don't forget to review :)
Summary
A story about how Dan and Blair fall in love.
This is set after Season 2.
Disclaimer
I own nothing but the story.
True Love Waits
Serena finds Dan standing by the ginger bread cookies and comes to stand beside him.
'So I know your secret', she says and gives him a knowing smile.
He looks worried so he rambles, 'If this is about how I had a threesome Olivia Burke and Vanessa, it's totally not true. Gossip Girl posted that after I broke into Vanessa's dorm room looking for a book she borrowed and Olivia was there and thought I was actually breaking in so she jumped on me and scratched half my shirt off. Took me twenty minutes trying to explain who I was. Apparently movie stars are super paranoid about everything because she made me wait until Vanessa came back and corroborated my story. And that's how I left their dorm room with half a shirt and messy hair'.
'Um... that's not the secret I know. And I have no idea what that story is about, but I know another feisty girl that may just be my best friend that you have feelings for'. Serena declares and laughs at the shocked expression on Dan's face.
'Just so you know, I approve. And before you go off denying it, I know what Dan Humphrey looks like when he's in love, so there's no point in making some excuse about how your face is always like that.'
He shuts his mouth quickly before he makes his retort so Serena continues to tell him that he should 'man up' and tell Blair how he feels.
'What if she doesn't feel the same way?'
Serena promised Blair that she would not tell Dan about her feelings. But that doesn't mean that she can't push him in the right direction.
'Are you going to go through college being her friend and watching her date other guys?'
It doesn't take long to convince Dan to talk to Blair. The simple fact that Blair could find another Justin is enough to persuade Dan to take Serena's advice.
When he enters the room, she's sitting on the edge of Serena's bed playing with her phone. Probably trying to contact Justin to apologise, he thinks as he comes to sit next to her.
'Hey', he says quietly.
'Hi', she replies without looking up from her phone.
'I'm sorry about Chuck. And Justin and everything', he apologises because he feels guilty. He should have never fallen in love with her.
'It's not your fault', she finally looks up at him and he can tell she's been crying.
This is the moment, he decides. He moves closer to her and carefully places his lips on her soft bow-shaped lips. It's their first kiss and it feels perfect, until she breaks it shortly after.
'Dan, what are you doing?' It's not that she doesn't like the feeling of kissing Dan Humphrey, because she really does, and it takes all her might to stop it. But she's scared that Serena broke their promise about keeping quiet and she needs to know how he feels.
He loves the way she says his name. It's saved for the rare occasions where she's actually being honest. There's no snappy 'Cabbage Patch', or 'Brooklyn', or 'Humphrey', it's just simple Dan and he swears he's never heard a more perfect sound from more perfect lips.
'Look, Chuck is a jerk and –'
'You're kissing me because Chuck is a jerk?' She interrupts with a tense tone.
'What? No. You were crying and I –'
She interrupts him again by pushing him away. Blair Waldorf hates pity. And she will not let Dan Humphrey feel sorry for her and kiss her to try to make her feel better. She recalls Chuck's parting words, poor UES girl so desperate to be loved, such a pity.
'I don't need your pity', she spits out and quickly exits the room.
He is too shocked to follow her, wondering where he went wrong.
She spends the rest of her holidays in France at her father's chateau drinking red wine and eating her endless supplies of Ladurée macarons. She meets French boys with hypnotic accents and who make grand romantic gestures but she finds that she misses the pointless rambles of a particular boy back home.
Her father tells her she has a visitor downstairs one afternoon and her first thought is that it must be him. He's here to tell her that he was trying to write a short story and the main character was a brunette bitch he couldn't get out of his mind and then he'll declare his undying love for her in the country where romance never dies (Blair Waldorf still believes in fairytales).
She walks a little bit too quickly downstairs to find another dark-hard boy from New York sitting on a chair in the living room with a scotch in his hand. She doesn't know where he got his drink since her father got rid of all their scotch when she came crying to France (Harold assumes it's about Chuck Bass).
'What are you doing here Chuck?'
He avoids her eyes when he finally says the words she had been waiting to hear all last year.
'I love you'.
Her back stiffens and her breath hitches in her throat. But it's for all the wrong reasons.
His tone is desperate yet arrogant. It's like's he's expecting her to fall so easily to the three words that he held onto for so long. And she probably would have not long ago.
She doesn't reply because she doesn't know how to.
'Blair, did you hear me?'
He still hasn't looked into her eyes and she realises the exact emotion she is feeling, indifference.
'It's too late Chuck'.
'Don't give us on us Waldorf'. His voice is unsure when he says the words. He sounds like his pleading for his life and she's the one holding the gun. His final words; his dying wish; his last breath. Just to have her again. It's every cliché in every love story.
'I don't love you anymore'. And she pulls the trigger. They were always meant for tragedy.
His eyes quickly shoot to hers when she says the words. She can tell he's looking for any signs to see if she's lying. She knows he won't find any because she's never uttered more truthful words in her life.
She also knows that Chuck Bass doesn't give up that easily.
He comes closer towards her and grabs one of her hands. She doesn't feel the electricity that she expects to spark between them.
'Come on Waldorf, you know that we're inevitable. Dan Humphrey is no comparison to –'
'You're absolutely right', she cuts off his grand speech of their inevitability and magneticism. It's all become too predictable.
'Dan Humphrey is no comparison to what we had. All we had was hurt and destruction'.
'And all that is my fault?' He spits at her. And thoughts of Jack and her and New Years Eve flood her mind.
'I don't blame you for anything Chuck. We both hurt each other', she tells him. She knows she's to blame for their catastrophe of a relationship as well. 'If you had told me you loved me when I needed you to, of course things would be different. But all I know is when I was around you, I felt weak and desperate. Dan Humphrey makes me feel strong and in control'.
'He'll bore you'.
'No, he challenges me. He makes me feel like l can be someone other than a society wife'.
'So what? You'll just end up a working-class housewife with a drug problem living in Brooklyn cleaning up after five kids'.
'No', she says confidently, 'I'll be Blair Waldorf with no labels'.
She's never sounded so sure in all her life and she knows he recognises it as well. She can see the way his heart breaks when she tells him she doesn't love him again.
'I'm sorry', she says, and she means it, but she knows deep down that Chuck and her can never be friends. When he leaves later she realises that they were never really friends to begin with.
She tells her father everything about Dan Humphrey that night as they nibble on macarons in her bed.
When Harold questions her why Chuck had visited earlier that day,
'Closure', she says simply and falls asleep with dry eyes.