A/N: Don't ask me what I'm doing! I honestly don't know. I guess I just want to keep exploring this plot line. We'll see. This scene just nipped at me, so I'd rather add it here than start a whole new one shot. Review, please?
"The old Chuck is dead Serena, he was gone the moment I landed in Prague." He sipped at his water, eyed the exit. He would crawl out of the window in the bathroom if he had to.
"What game are you playing?" Serena's eyes narrowed, his heart dropped to his stomach.
"Does it look like I'm playing?" He shouted, not caring that the entire restaurant was probably staring.
She lowered her voice, took a different approach.
"You can't erase what happened you know."
He went blank, a little pale.
"You say you don't want to hurt her anymore," Serena added, "But it's not stopping you."
"It's not that easy," He breathed through gritted teeth.
Blair.
"Nothing worthwhile ever is," was the reply.
Be adult about this.
Concise. You've dined and ditched, fucked but not loved, he thought, and somewhere beneath everything
...
there she is, in every word Serena uttered.
It was ridiculous, sitting there, allowing himself to be ridiculed.
"You can't make me do anything," He resolved.
"No, I can't. But no matter how far you run, you'll only ever find each other."
"She won't speak with me."
"She saw you last night," Serena said pointedly.
"It wasn't the easiest thing," He admitted.
"Are we done our childish banter?" Lily interrupted, "All it's doing is turning you both into beets."
Everything seemed to fall back into place then. The restaurant, the Parisian skyline as it poached the clouds.
Lily and Rufus were eating dinner too.
He had almost forgotten. Nodded, took a bite of his salmon, swallowed.
"Mom," Serena pleaded, "Tell him that he's being a prick."
He closed his eyes, awaiting the burn of Lily's words on his flesh. He hated disappointing her but he wouldn't budge, couldn't make them understand.
"As far as I'm concerned," She sipped at her water slowly, "As long as you're alive and well and you are alive and well, aren't you?"
He smirked, "As much as ever."
She glowed. "Then I have no problems with your plans to stay."
And just like that, Serena was silenced with the ghost of only one name whispering in his ear.
Blair.
Later:
The walk to the apartment was long enough for his thoughts to settle. He hated his limp, the way he had to lean on his cane. Every movement was longer, but each step was a little less painful than the last.
A new life.
The lock slid back and he pushed it open with the tip of his shoe.
"Ello?" Eva called.
"It's just me," He replied, trying to keep the loaf of bread he had picked up a few blocks earlier, tucked in his arm.
The kiss was short, brief. Snippets of the night before fell through his eyes.
He all but fell into the sofa.
She put away the bread and carefully sat in his lap, arms wrapped around his neck.
As though they belonged there. But there was no other place.
"How did it go?" She asked. All naivety and sunshine.
Hope.
He sighed. "It went as well as it could have."
"Good ... or non?"
"Neither," He explained. But it was harder than one thought, to know the place between one reason and another.