AN- Finally! I had exams and stuff and didn't get the chance to update earlier. Here's hoping you do like this chapter.
I didn't get a chance to get this beta read, so all the mistakes you catch are absolutely my own. And to all who also watch Lie To Me, you will recognize a scene I picked up from there.
He can hear her laugh even before he has entered the room. There is a certain tilt to it he does not quite approve of, but then who is he to approve or not approve of what Blair Waldorf does?
More often than he likes to acknowledge he just plays along with whatever she throws at him.
He stops at the doorway; taking in the scene which greets him…
Richard Clampton is standing in front of her, leaning not so casually while Blair looks up at him with unmistakable joy. He whispers something into her ears, his lips lingering for a second too long and Blair laughs that laugh again.
Dan almost spills the coffee he is holding in his hand.
Thankfully, the shrill voice of Charlotte Wilkins distracts him from doing something really stupid like punching Clampton square in the face and throwing the hot coffee on top of his head as well; you know, just for the added effect…He really has been taking his protector job way too seriously.
"Blaaair….I got you some coffee." Charlotte, her hair still blonde but now topped with a silk hair band breezes past him. Trust Blair to present Nate with a combination of Serena and herself…She did know the guy.
From his position at the door, just out of Blair's line of vision, he notices how Clampton smiles at her one final time, his fingers brushing hers, almost interweaving, as he walks past to let Blair turn to Charlotte.
This time it takes all of his effort to not throw the scalding coffee on the professor's faces...The fact that it was coffee for Blair is probably one of the reasons he stops short. He knows that she would not approve of him wasting the drink which he now has her addicted to.
The detail that she does not drink it unless he brings it for her each morning is not lost on him.
So he waits his turn, letting Charlotte offer a cup and watches how Blair's eyes first search for him and then with a resigned sigh she takes the cup…
"Decaf?" Blair says taking a sip. "Sorry Charlotte, I don't drink decaf."
"But I thought…"
"You thought wrong," Blair stops her midsentence, "I only take…"
"Hazelnut Latte with low fat cream…" Dan offers as he makes an appearance and hands Blair her coffee, who smiles at him gratefully before scowling, "You're late Cabbage Patch. Rehearsals began an hour ago."
He steals a glance at Clampton chatting up to a group of other cast members at the other end. "I noticed." He says dryly.
There are just two more rehearsals to go before the final curtain on Wednesday night. He for one can't wait for this thing to get over.
It's a scene straight from the closing act of the Shakespearean play they are dramatizing; She has her face turned upwards towards his, her arms lovingly around his neck while he looks down adorably into those Bambi brown eyes.
And they were not even on stage.
It would have been perfect but for the little details only close inspection bought out.
Blair does not have her head lovingly turned up towards him; she has his forcefully turned downwards. Her arms are not so much as around his neck in affection as much as her hands seemed to grip harshly at the nape of his collar. And the Bambi brown eyes Dan peers into with fear are shinning with something more acute to flaming rage than utmost passion.
"How…" She seethes, "How did Gossip Girl get this?"
"Blair…"
"Don't you dare 'Blair' me Humphrey. I want to know how in the world Gossip Girl found out about Rick."
"B- Blair, a little lighter please." Dan pleads, "You need me alive to answer that."
She of course only continues to tighten her hold on his nape, "It was you. Wasn't it?"
"Me?" Dan chokes out. "It could have been anyone."
Which is true considering Blair is not making any secret about her gigantic crush on Clampton and anyone could have given Gossip Girl the little tip for her latest blast:
Looks like B has decided to drown her NYU sorrows in a little inappropriate fraternization back at the Uni…From UES circles to stooping this low? Awww B, we do hope you rise back to your standards… Considering that you still can.
The picture accompanying the text is of her and Clampton during one of the rehearsals while Dan himself looms in the background…
"Um Blair…," Dan manages once she loosens her grip on him, "You do realize that the text does not really mention Clampton."
She quirks up an eyebrow at him and he continues hurriedly, "I mean I'm in the picture as well …" her other brow goes up, "it could well be about me…" He finishes.
She stares at him in disbelief before squaring her shoulders and replying, "It's not about you."
"Why? You don't think I'm low enough?" and dare he smile at a moment like this?
"No." She retorts before walking off in the opposite direction, "because I don't consider myself ever fraternizing with you."
He follows her none the less, responding to instincts which definitely do not correspond to the stronger part of his brain. Nobody follows Blair Waldorf before she has effectively blown off her steam, except him, who forgot to pay attention during Jude –Constance social dos and don'ts.
"Blair…" he slides in front of her, "listen to me."
But this time she doesn't stop to roll her eyes, she shoves against his shoulder and walks into a door and Dan is left with a hardly a choice but to follow her inside.
"I didn't do it…" he clarifies from behind her and the next he knows she has turned around, her eyes incensed with anger, shoving a finger at his chest, "You." She pushes at him again and he has to take a step back, "You are the reason I'm in NYU today. If not for you I would be at this moment in Yale."
And what had led this? It had been so long…Things had long cooled down.
He had thought that they had moved past since then…He had been thinking that they were friends.
"Your idiotic sister ruined my senior year," She continues, "and you're adamant on ruing my college."
"Blair." He tries again, "you're being unreasonable."
"I'm being unreasonable?" she snaps. "Look at you, following me into the ladies room."
And as if on cue the door opens and a guy walks in, eyeing Blair in a funny way.
Sensing the discomfort she looks around, for the first time taking in her surroundings. This was definitely not the Ladies' room.
"The Men's room Blair." Dan says quietly. "The Men's room."
Blair is in the middle of her Act V Scene II and she pretty much hates this part of the play, not only is it tediously long with too many lines to learn, it is also way too chauvinist…
She does the entire head at her husband's feet for the sake of theater alone and the fact that Susan Fleetwood did it once in 1973…..
"…Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot, and place your hands below your husbands' foot: In token of which duty, if he please, My hand is ready; may it do him ease…"
Dan pauses for a second and she assumes he is too busy rejoicing at the sight of her at his feet, "Why, there's a wench!" he recites while bending down to pick her up, "I didn't do it Blair." He whispers close to her ear, "I didn't send Gossip Girl any tip..."
Blair looks up at him uncertainly, she doesn't know if she believes him or not.
"I swear." He repeats. "Come on, and kiss me Kate."
And perhaps she does believe him. Perhaps.
Before she can pull away from his arms and let Lucentio recite his lines, Sarah, the assistant director helping out Rick cuts in, "You guys have to kiss at this point Blair…"
"What?" Both Dan and she turn around to look at her in shock.
"There's no kiss in the play." Dan argues.
"It's Shakespeare for God's sake..." Blair puts in.
Sarah says something about keeping in tune with the times, "besides, I didn't order it. Richard Clampton did."
"I'm not kissing him." She tells Sarah, "I'm not kissing you." She turns around to scowl at Dan, "Ever."
He doesn't think he has the room for argument at this point and thus simply nods in agreement, turning around to explain to Sarah that this was really not necessary.
But she is adamant and insists and soon there is an entire cast jibbing at them for being immature.
He argues and pleas, more for the benefit of Blair than himself (because seriously he is serious about his theater as well…)
He is half expecting Blair to quit now and walk off the stage when suddenly all he knows is that she has turned his face towards hers and her lips have slapped against his own.
Dan gasps in surprise which turns out to be a definite mistake because all it does is facilitate the pressure of the kiss and he has to hold on to her for the lack of support, his hands grasping at her waist while hers are bunched at the material of his shirt.
Vaguely, he is aware that this is going on for longer than a stage kiss and Blair should stop. But she hasn't and this is where he remembers that he isn't supposed to disagree with her.
So he angles his face and pulls her closer, swallowing a moan he isn't sure who lets out.
They finally break it up when the need to breath becomes too hard to ignore.
And he has to take several long ones to think clearly. What the hell just happened here?
Beside him, Blair has recovered from the shock much more quickly. She ignores the questioning look he gives her, "Are you happy now." She asks Sarah instead and without waiting for a reply, turns on her heels and walks off.
Leaving Dan and several others to stare after her.
"I think William Shakespeare just turned in his grave." Sarah finally mutters in a daze.
AN- So? A KISS? Too soon? Do review.