Fic: Tango in D Minor (Serena/Blair, Gossip Girl 4-5/?)

[fembuck]

Title: Tango in D Minor
Author: Janine
Fandom: Gossip Girl
Pairing: Serena/Blair
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don’t own them.
Summary: Blair and Serena’s relationship continues to grow. Sequel to Audrey Can Wait and Here We Go

 Tango in D Minor - Parts 1-3

Part Four

Two Weeks Later

Serena put her book down on the table and reached for her coffee, her eyes lifting to scan the world beyond the window, a look of surprise coming across her features a moment later as she reached out to tap the glass, waving at the figure she had spotted walking by.

“Big as it is, Manhattan’s actually kind of small,” Dan said coming to a stop beside Serena’s table once he made it inside the café.

They hadn’t really spoken to each other much after the most awkward movie night ever, but he’d had time to deal with the demise of the romance that never was and he was beginning to think that they might actually be able to pull off the friends thing for real.

“Have a seat. The Raisin Cinnamon French Toast is great here, you should totally try it,” Serena said kicking back the seat opposite her. “Unless you’ve been here before and already have a favorite. In that case, disregard all of the above,” she went on smiling as he took a seat.

“I’ve never been, thanks for the recommendation,” Dan said relaying the order to a waitress who materialized by the table a few seconds later. “So, you look …” Dan began once he had ordered taking a good look at Serena for the first time. “A little … down,” he continued trying to be as diplomatic as possible. The truth was that he had only seen her look better.

“It’s just been a rough couple of weeks,” Serena said sighing before shrugging a little and smiling.

For days after the night Blair had called herself frigid the brunette had refused to allow Serena to do more than hug her and kiss her. Blair had relented somewhat in the past week but Serena still found herself being hesitant to touch the brunette because tension and anxiety radiated from Blair in waves whenever it seemed like things might get heated between them again. They were still spending as much time together as they had before but there was a strain and self-consciousness to their interactions that was starting to get to Serena. And the worse part about it was that she had absolutely not idea what to do about it.

“You wanna talk about it?” Dan asked seeing a small frown appear on Serena’s lips as her gaze momentarily lost focus. Even though his romantic aspirations had fallen through in regards to Serena, there was still a part of him that looked her at and just wanted to try and help put her together again. “Friends, right?”

“I,” Serena began forcing a smile onto her face before shaking her head lightly. “Yeah, I do actually, but I probably shouldn’t,” she continued ruefully.

“Ah,” Dan said knowledgably, nodding his head, “Romantic trouble.”

Serena looked over at him a bit uncomfortably.

“Don’t worry. I’m not being passive aggressive or anything,” Dan said a moment later realizing she could have interpreted his comment as a dig after the reason she had given him for not seeing each other. “It’s water under the bridge, really. You can date whoever you want,” he said making a mockingly grandiose sweeping motion with his hand to try and make his words as un-condescending as possible.

Serena leaned back in her chair regarding him silently for a few seconds, her gaze inscrutable.

“Why are you so certain I’m dating someone?” Serena asked finally looking over him, willing to take his assurance that they were fine at face value. It was one of the things she had always liked about Dan. He didn’t play games. He just laid things out there just as it were. “Even Gossip Girl doesn’t think I’m dating anyone.”

“Okay, feel free to throw your coffee at me and storm out here if I’m wrong, but you are dating someone,” Dan responded squaring his shoulders as if he was going into battle. He was confident about the conclusion he had come to after months of surreptitiously watching Serena and trying to figure out what happened between them. Well, he was fairly confident anyway. At the very least he was mostly confident. Okay, he was maybe just pretty confident, but that was still something. “Gossip Girl just hasn’t picked up on it because it’s not a guy,” he continued breathing in deeply as he kept his gaze focused on Serena.

Serena stared at Dan unblinkingly in response.

“Blair,” Dan went on somewhat unnerved by the blonde’s look, not sure whether she was seconds away from breaking down and confirming his suspicion or taking him up on that offer to bathe him in coffee.

“Why would you,” Serena began softly blinking rapidly though her eyes were still on him.

“You were holding hands at the movie,” Dan responded simply, shrugging a little.

“Oh, you saw that,” Serena muttered softly before a little smile touched the corner of her lips.

It helped explain why he gave up on her so quickly after the movie. The truth was her ego had been a little damaged when he had given up so easily. However, she could understand him not wanting to lose her to girl … twice.

“So do you want to talk about it?” Dan asked again taking her comment as an affirmative response to the ‘are you dating Blair’ question.

Serena smiled at that, a genuine one that reached her eyes, but shook her head again a second later looking tempted but uncertain. It would be weird to talk about what was going on with her and Blair with the guy she had almost dated, but didn’t because she and Blair got together instead.

No matter how much she wanted to talk about it with someone she really shouldn’t …

“It’s just … I kind of know how guys feel,” Serena said glancing up and looking over at Dan.

‘Right, so much for the not talking about it thing,’ she thought to herself.

Dan’s eyebrows shot up at that. That wasn’t what he was expecting to hear. He didn’t really know what he was expecting her to say, just that it wasn’t that.

“How so?”

Serena sighed deeply and leaned back in her chair. “I shouldn’t talk about it,” she said.

“You obviously want to talk about it, and well, you can trust me,” Dan said seriously leaning forward, resting his elbows on the table. “I’m not going to tell anyone. Besides, I’m pretty sure that no one else knows, so I’m kind of your only option,” he finished smiling crookedly.

Serena smiled at him and rolled her eyes, her fingers playing with the edge of the table. He was right, she did want to talk about it, and she really didn’t have anyone else to talk about it with. She was beginning to drive herself insane going over the same information again and again in her head and maybe if she got an outside opinion she might be able to …

“She won’t have sex with me,” Serena blurted out, her voice mercifully soft as she said it, her eyes widening when she realized what had just come out of her mouth. She had meant to allude to the situation, to be tactful and coy, not to … well, she supposed it didn’t really matter anymore.

Dan blinked rapidly, nodding his head slightly in rapid succession.

“Okay,” he said finally, chewing on his bottom lip and staring at Serena with an uncertain smile on his face.

He hadn’t expected that either. He thought that maybe she had inadvertently called Blair fat, or had forgotten her birthday, or had worn white after Labor Day or something. But sex … Serena and Blair … and sex … together … or the lack of it. No, he had not expected that.

Serena slumped back in her chair upon seeing Dan’s reaction. She knew she shouldn’t have said anything.

“Why?” Dan asked seeing Serena begin to shut down. “I mean why won’t she … you know,” he continued making a vague hand motion to indicate the act he couldn’t think about without getting distracted and kind of turned on. He needed to focus, he was being a friend. He was more than his hormones. Or at least he would keep telling himself that.

“I don’t know, I think … Blair is very controlled,” Serena began softly, thoughtfully, relaxing a bit more with every word, “and it scares her to think about losing that … even with me.”

Dan leaned back in his chair, “Well, I’m not exactly Oprah, but maybe …” he began deciding that as long as they didn’t talk about make-up or Justin Timberlake that he could possibly handle being Serena’s ‘girlfriend’ for the afternoon.

---

Part Five

Waldorf Brownstone

//Spotted: Queen B, looking fabulous in Chanel, loaded down with bags on 5^th. What treasure troves of fashion lay inside of those brand name bags? Unfortunately, most of us will never find out.

It’s strange to see B out these days without BFF, S. Could there be trouble at Tiffany’s? We here at Gossip Girl certainly hope not. The Waldorf-van der Woodsen tag-team warms our cold and jaded little heart, and we wish the two hotties the best of luck. //

Blair sighed and glared at her laptop screen as if she could melt it with the fury in her eyes alone. She had to keep up with her press but often it was a thankless task. She actually didn’t mind the first part of the report since she did look very good in that Chanel dress. Her mother had even commented on it which was about as common as seeing a monkey with a pancake on its head. She did not appreciate the speculation about her relationship with Serena however.

Normally she wouldn’t let Gossip Girl’s ramblings get to her, but her relationship with Serena had been a source of anxiety and panic for her in the past few weeks and she didn’t appreciate a complete stranger speculating about it … especially because she was certain that there was trouble at Tiffany’s.

She had overreacted when Serena had tried to move things to third base and she hadn’t been able to do it, she realized that now. For days after the incident she had barely let Serena touch her fearing what would happen if things got serious again and she couldn’t complete the mission.

She had managed to force herself to loosen up a little bit in the last week, but things were still strained between them. Serena seemed to be uncertain what type of touching would be allowed and what would make her shut down and had been very careful and hesitant with her. And even though Blair would have liked a bit more contact, she didn’t push it, because how could she risk getting Serena worked up if she knew she couldn’t take care of her?

Sighing again Blair scrolled further down the screen to see the next bit of gossip. Hopefully reading about how someone else’s life sucked would cheer her up.

//Spotted: S and Lonely Boy sharing a table at Red Flame Coffee Shop. Could it be that our young paramour is lonely no more? Gossip Gawkers report that S and Lonely shared a long and intimate conversation over French toast and coffee. Has S already been taken off of the market again? (And before we even knew she was back on it, naughty girl!)

Only time will tell, but here are some pictures of the biscuties.

L’amour or lunch? You decide.//

Blair stared at the images of Serena and Dan seated opposite each other at the coffee shop. They were intently focused on each other and in many pictures both had their elbows on the table were leaning towards each other as if they were completely riveted by one another. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, there was even a picture of Serena eating some French toast off of the plate in front of Dan.

Blair shut her laptop quickly and stood, standing immobile by her desk for a moment before she moved slowly over to her bed and collapsed on it.

She had talked to Serena a couple of hours after she left the coffee shop and all Serena had said to her was, “I ran into Dan”.

Blair hugged her pillow to her.

“I ran into Dan” was not an adequate description of what had happened when Serena had in fact had an hour and a half long conversation with Dan that included sharing food items.

“I had coffee with Dan,” or “I talked with Dan,” would have been vague but somewhat accurate. But “I ran into Dan” did not even begin to cover it.

Blair released her pillow and stared up at the ceiling trying unsuccessfully to blink back tears.

Something needed to be done, she thought as she rolled back onto her side and hugged her pillow again as she curled into the fetal position.

There was no way that she was going to lose Serena, especially not to a ‘Fish t-shirt wearing, wanna-be hipster, John Cusack-Woody Allen if they mated, public-transit riding, no trust fund, non-legacy’ loser like Dan Humphrey.

Nobody put Blair Waldorf in the corner, nobody.

Blair sniffled and brought her hands up to her face wiping away the tear tracks that had formed.

She was going to fight for her woman.

To be continued ...

Comments

[kosmos8.livejournal.com]

I love that you brought Gossip Girl into it! That's awesome. The greatness that is S/B often makes me forget the other parts of the story .. and Gossip Girl I forget exists, sometimes, which is sad because it's the name of the show.

Nobody put Blair Waldorf in the corner, nobody.

Love it :P

[fembuck.livejournal.com]

love that you brought Gossip Girl into it! That's awesome. The greatness that is S/B often makes me forget the other parts of the story ..

lol, I know. With this one I've literally had to force myself to remember that they have lives away from each other, and know other people and have family's and that it cannot be one constant ball of cuteness with them cracking jokes and making out (unfortunately).

Waldsen is just so much more interesting than everyone else!

Love it

Drama queen Blair is a thing of beauty, lol