A/N: A looooong, a little pointless, chapter with some Bleth bonding time. This will be kind of a buzz-kill for anyone not familiar with the titles mentioned, but it was kind of fun for me to write. It took especially long since I had to do a little research for it. :)
Hope you guys like it!
Blair hummed cheerfully to herself as she checked her reflection in the mirror. It was another Saturday morning, and Blair had given Seth the permission to sleep at his own house last night, marking their first Friday night apart since their last big talk. It was a little strange for Blair, feeling so secure and confident in a relationship. For once, she didn't feel in the least paranoid about his whereabouts, and how he felt about her. She sighed happily as she made her way downstairs to enjoy the breakfast that had been laid out by Dorota. Nothing like a quiet morning all to myself, Blair thought as she settled into her chair and gazed at the arrangement of fresh croissants and bagels stacked in front of her.
"Morning, Miss Blair," Dorota greeted her, putting the newest issues of all her favourite magazines next to her. Ever since her exhausting journey of dating Seth Cohen, Blair had had little time to catch up on the latest gossip and fashion trends on the UES. In fact, she had been so distracted that she had forgotten to check Gossip Girl for the fifth day in a row now. She flipped aimlessly through the pages, suddenly realizing that she had lost interest in the recycled stories in the tabloids – another shocking pregnancy, another break-up, another hook-up, and another nose job. She rolled her eyes as her gaze wandered to her phone, realizing that it was already ten in the morning, and Seth hadn't called her yet. She was still staring thoughtfully at her phone when Dorota cleared her throat.
"Miss Blair – Mr. Seth probably still sleeping," she reminded her lightly, knowing full well what Blair had on her mind.
"I know that," Blair snapped, slightly embarrassed that she had been so transparent. "I was just wondering whether I should save him some of this for breakfast, that's all." Blair gave Dorota the stare-down until the housekeeper finally retreated back to the kitchen, and immediately began to feel restless. She knew that Seth would call her as soon as he was awake, and God forbid she turn into one of those clingy, needy girlfriends that wanted to spend every single waking moment with their boyfriends! Nope, she decided. She was just going to enjoy her breakfast and her quiet day alone.
Blair arrived at the Cohen residence exactly half an hour later, a bag of fresh croissants and bagels in her hand. Despite Dorota's string of protests, Blair had decided that it was proper to pay Seth a visit at home to make sure he would wake up to a hearty breakfast on a Saturday morning – just as he was accustomed to having at her place after their usual Friday nights together. Blair rang the doorbell once, and was fully prepared when Sandy Cohen swung open the door, his thick eyebrows raising in surprise as he caught sight of her.
"Ah, Blair! What a sight for sore eyes," he said, stepping aside to let her in. "We weren't expecting you!"
Blair gave him her best elegant and composed Waldorf smile. She had spoken to Seth's dad on a couple of occasions when she was waiting for Seth to pack a few items for his sleepovers, but they had spent the majority of their time together at Blair's. She had to admit she didn't have much experience dealing with "normal" parents, having grown up on the Upper East Side. No one there wanted to talk about their children except to brag about what Ivy League colleges they would be applying to. But Blair knew from Sandy's raised-eyebrows expression every time he saw her that he approved of her.
"Hello, Mr. Cohen," she replied sweetly. "I'm guessing Seth is still sleeping. It's okay, I know my own way to his room. We'll just be a moment until I drag his slothful rear end downstairs so we could enjoy these delicious baked goods I've brought over. I have bagels," she added, remembering that Seth had said that his father could be bribed to do basically anything with sesame bagels.
"Why, that's very sweet of you!" Sandy's voice boomed. "But actually, you may want to join us for breakfast in the dining room instead. Seth's up already and my wife and I are cooking up some bacon and pancakes this morning. But good thinking on the bagels." He winked at her as he led her to their living room, where she was surprised to see Seth and Ryan, sitting on the floor playing video games, still dressed in their pajamas.
"Seth," Blair tried to greet him as calmly as possible seeing his entire family would be witnessing the confrontation.
Seth looked up momentarily, seeing Blair. "Oh, hey Blair! Just give me a moment, okay? This isn't really a good time. Ryan and I just have to take care of this – " His sentence ended abruptly as he pounded on his Playstation 3 controller furiously. Blair fumed as she watched him, completely engrossed in the game and ignoring her as if she were completely invisible. After what seemed like an eternity, Seth threw down his controller and tossed his arms up in the air in victory.
"That's right! I'm sorry, Ryan, but what did I tell you? Who's the all-time champion of Mortal Kombat?" he cupped his hand around his ear mockingly while Ryan gave him a blank stare. He rushed to Blair excitedly, jabbering away. "Did you see that? Did you see how I totally kicked his ass? That was epic." Blair stared back at him emotionlessly.
Ryan rose to his feet immediately. "Uh, I'm gonna see if Sandy and Kirsten need some help setting the table."
"So…how long have you been playing for?" Blair asked as casually as possible as soon as Ryan had left the room.
Seth shuffled his feet. "Um, not long. Maybe just…an hour or two. We woke up at like, nine, and we figured we had some time to kill before starting our day so…you know, just boys catching up," he explained, half-afraid for his life although he wasn't sure why he had to be.
"You've been playing this for TWO HOURS?!" she asked in disbelief.
"Not just this. We were actually playing some GTA earlier, but it got kind of old so we switched it up – "
Blair rolled her eyes impatiently, reminding herself to keep her voice down. "What I meant was," she said through her teeth, "you played video games for two hours?" Instead of calling me, she added to herself. She crossed her arms to wait for his reply.
Seth's head snapped back, confused. "Did we have plans?"
Blair frowned, looking flustered. She wasn't sure how to respond. "Well…no, but I just thought you would have called me as soon as you woke up," she muttered under her breath.
Seth opened his mouth to explain, but was interrupted by the sound of Sandy's voice. "Seth! Blair! Breakfast is ready!" Blair glared at Seth as if to let him know that the conversation wasn't over, then followed him begrudgingly into the dining room.
As sour as her mood was, Blair couldn't help but to be pleasantly amazed at the arrangement of breakfast foods on the Cohen table. Sure, Blair always had enough food for a twelve-person buffet during her breakfasts with Serena at the Waldorf's, but they never had any of this cozy, warm, all-American food. She feasted her eyes on the plates of freshly fried bacon, eyes sunny-side up and poached, stacks of pancakes – both blueberry and chocolate chip, white and brown toast, sesame and plain bagels, and a platter of every single type of spread imaginable – from cream cheese, to peanut butter, to peach jam. Her croissants looked out of place and highly unnecessary next to the Cohens' impressive display.
"I hope you're hungry," Sandy joked as he took a seat at the table and motioned for her to do the same.
Blair took a seat next to Seth and nodded politely to Sandy's wife, Kirsten. This was actually their first time meeting, since Seth's mom was always working at the office. Seth had told her that the majority of the Cohens' wealth came from his mom's side, and that as a result, she could sometimes be a little snobby and uptight. She found herself impressed by his mom's poise and beauty, even at her age. She actually reminded her a little of Serena's mom, but less plastic. "Hello, Mrs. Cohen," she greeted her, tipping her head.
"Call me Kirsten," she replied, giving her a small smile. "Seth's told us a lot about you."
Blair relaxed a little and smiled. "I'm sure he has."
"Well it's nice of you to return him to his family this weekend. I feel like I haven't seen my own son for weeks!" Kirsten joked suddenly, while Ryan and Sandy cleared their throat nervously.
Blair decided to bite her tongue and opted for a more graceful response. "Well I'm sure you were glad to see him back in his natural habitat this morning, slaving away on his Playstation." They all laughed at Blair's charm.
"Do you like video games, Blair?" Kirsten asked, pleased that her son's girlfriend had a sense of humor.
Blair looked at Seth meaningfully as she answered. "No, I would rather dedicate my time to more productive causes."
"Oh? What do you like to do in your spare time?" Sandy asked curiously while he bit into a bagel.
Blair opened her mouth to answer but Seth answered for her. "Shopping, gossip, giving instructions to her girl-pack, aaaaand planning world domination." Everyone laughed except for Blair.
She made a face at him. "Very funny, Seth. In fact, Sandy, back in New York, where I'm from, I spent most of my spare time at the MET, interacting with post-modern and impressionist art pieces and reading classic literary works by esteemed feminist authors."
Kirsten smiled warmly at her. "That sounds very impressive, Blair." They ate the rest of their meal in a similar fashion, going over countless topics, from when Seth was going to get a haircut, to Ryan's musical debut in Chino. Blair rose to help Kirsten with the dishes, but Sandy stopped her.
"Oh, I'll help. Give me a chance to impress my wife, will you? You've done enough of that already," he teased, making Blair smile. "You go and hang out with the boys. Leave the dirty work to me." He patted her gently on the back, and it gave Blair so much satisfaction to know that she had aced her first real meeting with Seth's parents, even though it had not been planned.
She practically pranced back to the living room, where she found Seth and Ryan nestling back into their spot on the floor, continuing the video game where they had left off. She stopped dead in her tracks as she realized that he could probably go on all day if she didn't say anything.
"Well, looks like the parents like you," Seth said to her while he mastered a combo-attack to send Ryan's avatar flying into the air.
"And looks like you know nothing about your girlfriend! Shopping, gossip and world domination? You might as well say that I'm Miley Cyrus's biggest fan!" she complained as she took a seat in Seth's couch, watching them play.
Seth gave a laugh in response, but was obviously too distracted with his video game to continue the conversation. Blair gave it another five minutes before she walked up to the TV and turned it off, leaving the boys staring straight at her in utter shock.
"What? Blair, I almost had him!" Seth whined, throwing one hand into the air in protest. Ryan placed the controller beside him silently as he watched the confrontation unfold.
"Give me a break! It's a video game – meaning, not real. Who cares how good you are at fighting in virtual reality? Besides, I am not going to sit here all day watching you play a video game," she said, crossing her arms.
"First of all, I can say on Ryan's behalf, that to be fair, he's pretty good at fighting in real life, too. Second of all, don't knock it 'til you try it," he held out his controlled to Blair, offering it to her.
"Are you out of your freaking mind? I don't have to play to know that video games kill brain cells. Some of us prefer real life achievements, and have real life goals without having to build our self-worth around our success on a bunch of games. I don't have that kind of time to waste," she replied, offended that he had even suggested it.
Seth smirked at her cockily. "You know what, Blair? I think that you're just afraid that you'll lose to me, and that there's finally something that you wouldn't be good at – even if you tried." He stared right into her eyes as if to challenge her.
"Video games are for geeks and low-lives, the kind of people who never see the light of day because they're too busy fantasizing about a bunch of Japanese girls wearing basically bikinis when they fight. But sure, Seth, defend yourself, because we all know if I beat you, I will cut off the only single fragile piece of thread that your dignity is hanging on," Blair replied curtly.
"Your stereotype of video-game lovers show just how little you know about the art. There's more to video games than just combat games," Seth snapped back, slightly offended. He paused, his mind reeling as he realized just the thing to do to put Blair in her place, plus buy himself some much-needed time with his video games. "How about this, Blair," he proposed, "you stay in this weekend, with Ryan and I, and we spend time the Seth Cohen way, where we will give you the full experience of a life with video games. We will introduce to you the best of the best, and – if you beat me in any one of those games, I will admit defeat and I will spend four consecutive weekends with you doing whatever it is you want. How 'bout it?" Seth watched Blair eagerly as she considered his offer, ignoring Ryan's look of warning.
Blair took a step towards him and shoved him onto his couch with a single finger. "How about this," she said, raising the stakes, "I beat you at more than one of those games, and you promise to never play video games again and donate your PS3 to the orphans."
It was Ryan who spoke up. "Don't do it, Seth. I'm not sure – "
Seth stood up and grabbed Blair's hand to shake it. "Deal." Ryan looked at him as if he had lost his mind. Seth placed an arm around Blair, and another around Ryan. "Relax, Ryan! What is Seth Cohen good at? Paranoia, sarcasm, comic books, aaand video games. We've got this." Blair gave Seth a sweet smile as she settled into the couch to wait for Seth to find an appropriate game to challenge her with.
Seth rummaged through his extensive video game collection and tried to find a game that would be challenging, but fun for Blair's first taste of video games. He considered Silent Hill – no, too scary; Zelda – no, too hardcore; Mario Chase – nope, too pointless. He sighed as he realized that he couldn't think of an appropriate starter game for Blair on any of his three consoles without seeing the image of Blair, rolling her eyes at him. Blair waited and peeked over Seth's shoulder to see what he had in store for her. Then, with a sparkle in her eye, she walked over and appeared to randomly pick up a game and hand it to Seth.
"This one looks kind of interesting. Here – put that in," she said, handing him the Guitar Hero case. She looked at him innocently as he eyed her suspiciously.
"Blair, you do know I can play the guitar, right? Remember that night at the Bait Shop? Are you sure you want to start with this one?" Seth asked with a raised eyebrow.
Blair gave him a confident smile. "Well, the more satisfying it will be when I beat you," she replied. "Are we going to play, or what?" Blair watched as Ryan held back his laugh and helped Seth to hook up the guitar controllers for the game. She couldn't wait to surprise Seth with her hidden Guitar Hero skills – after all, she was best friends with Serena van der Woodsen, and she didn't hold a Japanese-themed party for her 17th birthday without at least some practice.
To make it more convincing, Blair sat through the entire tutorial, asking questions at the right places with her trademark doe-eyed expression. Seth patiently walked her through the controls, assuring her that she should get the hang of it once she starts playing.
"To be fair, I'll let you have a few practice runs before we battle. But honestly Blair, I'd be okay if we switched to another game instead. This is a hard one for newbies," he explained to her.
Blair couldn't wait to see the look on Seth's face when she totally kicks his ass in. She scrolled through the menu and selected Thunderstruck by AC/DC – one of the most difficult songs of all time. She tried to look as nonchalant as possible when Seth shook his head at her choice and shifted his focus onto the game. The song started and Ryan stepped back to watch the two get at it, both Blair and Seth moving their bodies along as they played on their guitars. Blair was feeling rather confident, although she did struggle to catch up to the speed of the song at times. To her shock and complete horror, she glanced over at Seth only to find him playing with his eyes closed. She stopped just long enough to realize how darn attractive he looked rocking on his guitar, totally unfazed by the tricky riff. If it weren't for how much Blair hated losing at basically anything, she would have just given up on the damn game and pulled him upstairs to have her way with him. Blair threw her guitar down dejectedly as the screen flashed with the words "Player 1 rocks" across the screen, while Seth ran his hand through his thick hair, giving her a shy smile.
"That wasn't fair," Blair protested, feeling like a sore loser.
"Uh-huh. You thought I wouldn't notice that you knew how to play Guitar Hero. That was pretty sneaky of you, Blair. Good thing little old me here came prepared," Seth answered, shaking his head.
Blair narrowed her eyes at him. "Okay, fine. You got me. So you're pretty good at Guitar Hero, I'll give you that. And it's not like it gave me any unfair advantage considering you could probably play that in your sleep," she said, not as any sort of compliment.
"Oh come now, darling," Seth said to Blair, draping his arm around her while she pushed it away, "we've still got a whole day ahead of us. How about you let me choose this time, see if we can find something that would level the playing field."
"I don't trust you," she hissed at him, still angry from her loss. She turned to Ryan instead. "Can I trust you to remain neutral?"
Ryan shrugged. "Sure, I'll pick." He walked over to the video game collection and pulled out one randomly without even looking. "Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2."
Seth pumped his fists into the air. "Yes, oh my God, Ryan, yes. Thank you, Ryan. And sorry, Blair, but I've got this one."
"This looks stupid," Blair remarked, looking over the cover, which consisted of two ninjas staring intensely ahead of them.
Seth spun around immediately. "Do not even say that, or I will have to rethink this entire relationship." He popped the game into his PS3 and drummed his fingers impatiently as he waited for it to load. The menu screen popped up moments later as a blonde ninja with whiskers jumped from one option to another, freezing in strange poses. Seth chose the free game mode and the next menu revealed too many characters for Blair to even count. "Here, I'll choose TenTen, who must be like, the crappiest character of all time to give you an edge. And you can pick Sasuke. He's probably one of the best." He expertly pressed a few buttons and waited for Blair to respond.
"Who on earth is Sasuke?" Blair demanded, looking as lost as ever.
Ryan watched as Seth threw Blair a look of disbelief, looking as she had just asked who Abraham Lincoln was. "Um…the guy with the black hair, right there," he offered, hoping to do both of them a favour before someone's neck got snapped.
Blair shrugged and selected it, and before she knew it, they were both launched into a 360-degree battle ground in a ninja town. She frowned at her remote control, not having a single clue whatsoever what she was pressing. She pushed down furiously on every single button on the controller and threw her character aimlessly around the screen, launching whatever attacks she could.
Seth expertly dodged every single one of her random attacks, firing out 24-hit combos that sent Blair's Sasuke flying into the air. Blair rammed her fingers on the controller hopelessly as she watched her health bar decline drastically with every hit, while she had barely managed to touch Seth's character.
"Oh, how do you like that, huh Sasuke? Let me give you some of this," he said, launching yet another attack with his ninja stars that hit Blair's character squarely in the face.
"Ow! Shut up, Seth! Who talks to video game characters?" Blair said, frantically trying to run away now, from Seth's Tenten.
"Oh but you haven't seen the best of Tenten yet. Let me give you some of that," he taunted as his character unrolled what appeared to be a set of scrolls that smacked her character to his death. Seth put his controller down calmly. "And that is how it's done," he said solemnly as he raised his hands towards Ryan for a high-five. Ryan shot him a look and glanced at Blair, hinting for Seth to do the same. Seth slowly let his arms fall back to his sides.
"That was pathetic. No wonder why you're so good at them! They require no skill at all! How is it fair that you already know all the buttons for the combinations? I barely had a chance," Blair exclaimed, pouting heavily now. This was not looking good, and it seemed to her that she just may have underestimated her loser boyfriend. This was obviously his turf.
"Aww you poor baby. Do you want me to play the next game with my eyes closed, too?" Seth sneered at her.
"Shut up, you smug know-it-all. You just have an unfair advantage because we're playing all these boy games. There's got to be a game that you don't spend as much time playing," Blair declared, wishing that she could strangle him right then and there.
"There is that giant ball-rolling one that we gave up on," Ryan brought up casually.
Seth turned around immediately to glare at Ryan. "Katamari? That game's completely pointless. She wouldn't like it," he insisted, scrunching up his nose and shaking his head.
"She thinks it sounds perfect. Thank you, Ryan," Blair said pointedly, crouching down to retrieve the game. She examined the cover, which consisted of a bizarre ball of random things and the words Katamari Forever. "This looks kind of funky, but just different enough so that you wouldn't have mastered it. This one it is." She popped the game into the PS3 while they waited for it to load.
Blair and Seth both took turns going through the wacky, colourful levels of the game. The concept was simple enough for Blair to handle – they had to roll up everything around the room to make their ball as big as possible, rolling up things as big as furniture and actual people. Leave it to the Japanese to make a game out of rolling up the world, Blair thought, as she successfully rolled up a whole village of farmers and their pigs. She hated to admit it, but she was actually kind of having fun. The whole process helped her de-stress from her earlier embarrassment of losing to Seth. They were both neck-in-neck with one another until they reached a stage in which they were required to roll up the most expensive items in the shopping mall.
Blair laughed out loud and could not contain her own excitement. "So, I have to play a game in which I have to make the most expensive ball? I just don't see how I could lose this one," she bragged to Seth. And she was right. Blair was so happy about her first win that she couldn't wait to rub it in Seth's face. "What was that you were saying, Seth? I believe you once called yourself king of video games? Looks like someone has to bow to the queen," she said with a smirk.
Seth rolled his eyes in contempt. "That's just one win, Blair, out of like, a million. Don't get too cocky now." He shut the game off without a word of warning to Blair, who had just started a new level rolling up flowers. "That was a stupid game anyway." He turned back to face her. "Okay. Last one. Whoever wins this one wins it all. Deal?"
Blair hesitated, but wasn't ready to back down. "Deal. Just don't cry when I beat you at your own game, literally, okay?"
"Don't count on it. Ryan? Would you please do us the honour?" Seth gestured towards the video games and stepped aside to allow Ryan to choose a game for them.
"Okaaaay, let's do another random one," he said, picking one up from the bottom of the drawer. "L.A. Noire. Detective game."
"Ooooh, I love detective games!" Blair enthused. Seth gulped. He knew that sleuthing was Blair's strong suit, and not his. The two of them took turns asking the witnesses questions to solve a crime. They were required to judge from the witnesses' answers and also their facial expressions whether or not they were telling the truth.
"Uh…I think I'm gonna go with the truth on this one," Seth decided after some uncertainty. He was questioning a bartender about when he had seen the victim last.
"He's lying, you know. You could tell by the way his eyes shift to the corner before he answers. And look at his throat! He's swallowing hard, as if he has something to hide. And what took him so long to answer the question? It's a straightforward one. He's definitely lying," Blair affirmed, pushing the button for Seth. A check mark appeared next to the item, signaling that they had guessed right. Blair looked at Seth with a self-assured expression, while Seth watched her in admiration.
"Okay, fine. You're good at this. Have you ever considered a career as a private detective?" he asked her with genuine curiosity.
"Nah, I'd rather do it for entertainment – not as a job," she answered dismissively. "It should teach you not to lie to me though, about anything, considering how strong my sixth sense is. I have a built-in lie detector. Unless you want to lose a limb, I suggest you come clean – always."
Ryan cleared his throat nervously beside her. "I don't doubt that."
"Yeah…neither do I." Seth put his controller down. "You know what, you want to call it a day? I never thought I'd say this, but I'm kind of sick of playing video games. You wanna maybe go out? Hit the beach? Grab an ice-cream?" He stood up to turn off the console.
"What? But we're this close to finding the killer! Don't you want to catch the psychopath who did it?" Blair exclaimed in disbelief. She narrowed her eyes at him. "You just don't want to play because you realized you've just lost."
"I thought you said video games were stupid," Seth replied, avoiding her question. He sighed heavily in defeat. "But a deal is a deal, so if you want me to stop playing video games now, I guess that's what I'll do."
Blair glanced at the TV screen, feeling a little disappointed. She hated to admit it, but she had grown to like some of these silly games. "Maybe not stop altogether, but…just play less," she conceded finally.
Seth did a little victory hop and held on to her hands eagerly. "You mean, you'll still let me play, even though I lost fair and square?" Blair nodded, rolling her eyes. "And does that mean you also admit that video games aren't stupid, after all?" he added.
"Don't push your luck, mister," Blair said to him, stabbing his chest playfully with her index finger.
"Okay," Ryan interrupted, "I don't know about you two, but I've been watching you guys play video games for four hours straight now. I say we get something to eat." He got up from the couch and stretched, while Seth gave Blair an affectionate kiss on the cheek. Blair sat back on the couch and relaxed as she waited for the boys to get ready. Seeing that she had nothing better to do while she waited, she hit the resume button and continued to solve the murder mystery.