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Chapter 17.
Dan found himself standing in front of Serena's apartment, just a knock away from seeing her in person. It was almost two weeks after Serena got sick and since he wasn't asked by Lily to come over, he steered clear from the van der Woodsens, especially now that William is back in town.
He didn't really plan on seeing Serena today, or within the week, really. But at three in the afternoon, he walked past a flower shop and saw dozens of sunflowers. He immediately thought of Serena because sunflowers are her favorite flowers and really, when hasn't he thought of her since that night? So, he bought a bouquet of sunflowers before heading over to Serena's, not really thinking of what would happen.
But now that he's standing there, it suddenly occurred to him that maybe this wasn't his best idea after all. They haven't really talked since their 'non-date' so really, he doesn't exactly know where they stand. He wasn't even sure if they're at least friends right now. He should just walk away, right now. Maybe leave the flowers at her doorstep and just leave before anyone see him. Before Serena sees him.
Yup, that's definitely a good idea.
But just as he placed the bouquet on the floor, the door opened. There stood Serena, staring at him bewilderingly. She was already dressed to go, her purse clutched in one hand and her keys on the other.
"Dan!" Her voice was coated with surprise and confusion, like she didn't expect to see him at all, which she didn't.
"Hey, Serena."
"Dan, what -" She looks down and sees the bouquet of sunflowers before looking back at him. He feels nervous and embarrassed. God, what is he even doing here, bringing her flowers? This is a bad idea. "What are you doing here?"
He hurriedly picks up the bouquet before extending them to Serena who accepted it, although reluctantly.
"I was in the neighborhood -"
"You live in Brooklyn, Dan."
"Yeah..." He scratches the back of his head. "Anyway, I came across this flower shop and saw dozens of those and it made me think of you. So, I bought them for you."
He swears he caught her smile.
"Thank you Dan. They're lovely." She steps aside, gesturing for Dan to come in before walking away to her kitchen to find some vase.
Dan walks in to find clothes, shoes and bags scattered in the living room.
"Sorry about the mess." Serena shouts from the kitchen. "I decided to finally finish unpacking today, I just want to buy some coffee before going back to those so.."
"Do you need any help?" Dan asks as he scans the mess in Serena's living room. As he does so, he caught sight of the frame which contained their picture at cotillion. The golden girl and lonely boy. He stopped, almost dropping the frame but before he could do so, Serena came back from the kitchen, holding a vase now filled with flowers.
Serena quickly placed the vase of a small table beside her couch before moving over to where Dan is and gently pulled the frame away from Dan's grasp. She smiles sadly before glancing at Dan, who wore a confused expression.
"You still kept that?"
"Yeah." Serena said softly, eyes on the frame again before wiping off the dust that had settled on it. "Not every memory of our relationship is bad, you know? Most of them are pretty good actually."
"I know." Dan nods his head in agreement. "Remember the masked ball? You asked me to go see the Ice-capades with you then and we didn't even go."
"Jenny said you were scared to go see them. I never really wanted to go, Jenny just said you'd want to go anywhere with me. I just wanted to know if you'd really go with me." Serena giggles and somehow, Dan thinks, it makes his day a lot better than it was two seconds ago.
'I think he'd go basically anywhere with you.'
"Oh, remember when you thought I was pregnant?"
"Oh, god Serena! I don't think I've ever seen my dad that way before then."
'No matter what you decide, I want you to know that I'm here for you, because I love you.'
"What about that summer at the Hamptons? Or that jitney ride back to the Upper East Side?"
'I was hoping when I saw you I would know that we did the right thing. But I don't feel that way. I don't feel that way at all.'
'It was so romantic what you did; showing up here. And it feels so right to be together.'
'I will see you back in the city, fully clothed, with lots of people. Okay?'
"Or our first official date? At the pool hall?"
'Well, then, if it's a real Dan Humphrey date that you want, then it's a real Dan Humphrey date that you're gonna get.'
"And how you lied and told me you lack of pool skills?"
'When we came here on our first date, you didn't know how to hold a cue? Did you spend the last five years taking billiard lessons?'
'Or maybe you were looking for an excuse for me to put my arms around you.'
'A girl never reveals her secrets.'
"Hey, I don't know if you remember that time when you went with me to see my father when he tried to leave? Nate called the cops on him but you understood how much seeing him meant to me."
'Thanks for coming with me. I know this was a complicated one for you.'
'When are things not complicated with Serena van der Woodsen? You wanna talk about it?'
"Yes. Well, I even remember that bottle of wine with drank -"
"And that one kiss."
'I mean we just fell asleep.'
'After an entire bottle of wine, and a whole lot of talking -'
'And one kiss.'
"Remember when Blair set us up on a date?"
"Yeah, I remember that, and that old couple who told us that we'd make a good couple."
'You two make a lovely couple.'
"Yeah, hey, do you remember when I was helping you find an apartment?" Serena laughs. "You didn't even find one at the end of the day."
'If you need to find a new place, I know someone, who knows everyone, who has terrific instincts with real estate and who happens to have the afternoon free to look at apartments with you.'
"Do you remember that Saint and Sinners party where Juliet drugged me? I don't think you ever really knew how much I appreciate you being the only one to believe in me, especially since everyone didn't."
'Thank you for being the one person who believed in me. Even though it turns out you were wrong too.'
'I wasn't wrong to believe in you. I still do. I always will.'
"What about when you thought you were married to that Gabriel guy? I was so mad at you then because you got married to some guy you met a few weeks prior and me, who dated you way longer, we didn't even make to prom together."
'Serena, we were together for a year and we didn't make it to junior prom. You're with this guy for less than a month and you get married, so - I mean, yeah, it's a little bit insulting.'
"You were still my prom date though, remember?"
'Did you ever imagine yourself dancing at prom?'
"Yeah... But you knew that Gabriel a few weeks and -"
"It doesn't matter how long you knew each other before getting married, Dan." Dan freezes, eyes darting to Serena whose eyes were glued to the frame once again. "Some people just aren't meant to be together forever."
"Serena -"
"But enough of that..." Serena plasters a fake smile and it almost makes Dan cringe. He thought he was making progress with the whole 'awkwardness-with-Serena' thing but one single thing could ruin all of that, if there was any. "Do you want to join me?"
"Where?"
"I was going to Starbucks a few blocks away then I'll finish unpacking this mess. Do you want to help me?"
"Are you - are you sure?" Dan asks, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Yeah, sure. Let's just grab some coffee first?" She asks again, biting her lower lip in that cute way she always does when she's asking him a favor. She grabs his hand shortly after that and pulls him out of the apartment, locking the door quickly behind them.
Their hands somehow intertwine halfway to Starbucks but neither one of them uttered a word. Neither one pulled away.
...
"Dan?"
Dan looks up and sees Nate, coffee in hand, walking towards him. Serena's by the counter, buying them coffee. He tried to tell her that he'll pay for his own but Serena simply waved a hand at him, claiming she knows his coffee order. He doesn't know what that has to do with him paying for his coffee but it makes him smile because Serena knows his coffee order.
"Nate, what's up man?"
"Dude, you're here on a date? Georgina?" Nare asks as he sits in front of him, eyeing the purse in front of them with a stupid smirk on his face.
"No, actually, I'm with -"
"Dan!"
Both men turned around to see Serena walking towards their table two coffees in hand. They continue to look at her until she's directly in front of them and Nate looks back at Dan, still with that stupid smirk that he seriously wanted to punch out of his face. Serena, however, doesn't seem to notice or was ignoring it. Either way, he glad she doesn't point it out.
"Hey Nate!"
Nate stands up and gives Serena a hug which the blonde eagerly returned. Once they pulled apart, he let her take the chair he was previously sitting on before pulling a chair from the empty table next to them.
"So, I didn't know you two got back together." Nate stated, causing Serena to almost choke on her drink. Dan widened his eyes at Nate who simply shrugged before turning to Serena.
"We didn't. Nate!" She squealed, hitting Nate's arm. "I was unpacking my stuff and he just showed up in my apartment as I was about to head down here. He offered to help me unpack my things so..."
"Oh! Great, I'll help as well."
"No, there's no need for that, Nate. We're fine."
"Fine?" Nate laughs, sending out another smirk in Dan's direction. "Or maybe you just want to have Dan by yourself, huh?"
"Nate!"
"Okay..." Dan cleared his throat, before things get awkward. "Come on then, man. Feel free to join us."
"Great!"
"Serena?" Serena turns to Dan, who was trying to give her money for the coffee. "Here's for the coffee."
Serena shakes her head before grabbing Dan's wrist and placing the money back on his hands, curling his hands with her own. They smiled at each other and stayed like that for a few moments until Nate cleared his throat, telling them to stop undressing each other with their eyes before walking out of the shop. Serena laughed before standing up as well and catching up with Nate, yelling for Dan to hurry up.
...
Four and a half hours later, the trio finished unpacking Serena's things. Well, there are about three boxes left but Serena insisted that she'll take care of it. Dan left the apartment about ten minutes ago, claiming that he's meeting up with Vanessa at Central Park. He patted Nate at the back and gave Serena a hug - that lasted way longer than it should - before leaving.
"So..." Nate starts as soon as Serena closed the door. He kept on teasing the two of them the whole time they were unpacking which resulted in him getting hit on the arm by Serena one too many times. "You and Dan, huh? What is up with that?"
"Nothing is going on, Nate." Serena shrugs, plopping down on the couch next to him. "Besides, he's with Georgina."
"So, basically, what you're saying is that if Dan wasn't dating Georgina..." Serena groans and looks at him pointedly but he continues anyway. "That maybe - just maybe you and Dan would be together right now?"
"Nate!" Serena shrieks, hitting him again for the nth time.
"Oww! Would you stop hitting me?" Nate shifts in his seat, rubbing his arm as he looks at the blonde beside him. "Okay, be honest with me, Serena, okay? Do you still have feelings for him?"
"What?!" Serena squeals, almost spitting out the wine she's been drinking. When she composed herself, she continued. "No. No, no, no - - I mean, I don't know - I just -"
"Now, that's the problem." Nate grabs the wine glass from Serena's grasp carefully, setting it on the table before steering the blonde so that she's facing him as well. "You need to figure it out because you know he's dating someone else. It's not like they're already broken up."
"I know, okay? I'm not planning on stealing Dan from Georgina, you know."
"You know that I like you and Dan together because I can also see how happy the two of you are when you're with each other but I just don't want you to get hurt, S. And we all know, out of everyone of us here, he's the one that can hurt you the most." Nate states, rubbing Serena's arm affectionately.
Serena nods, leaning her head on Nate's shoulder and they stayed like that for a while before Chuck called Nate for reasons Serena doesn't know. As Nate walked towards the door, he caught sight of the bouquet of sunflowers and looked at her quizzically.
"When did you buy these flowers?"
"Oh, I - umm..." Serena stammered.
"Did Dan gave them to you?"
"Yeah, but..." Serena was cut off when Nate sighed.
"Just be careful, S, okay? I gotta go, I'll just see you soon." He kissed her on the cheek before walking out of the apartment.
.to be continued.
A/N: Don't worry, this is not going to turn into a Serenate story. Nate was just looking out for Serena here. He doesn't like her anymore or something - anything like that. Anyway, I hoped you liked the little 'trip down memory lane' with Derena in this chapter. I made sure there's at least one memory per season. And my apologies for any grammar and spelling mistakes I committed. :)
Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter! Oh, and I truly love hearing your thoughts, comments and suggestions, so if you could just leave a review, that'd be great! :) I really appreciate each and every one of it!
Next chapter will hopefully be out soon but I am still currently in the process of writing it, but here's to hoping! xx