Dream of Me

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

― Dr. Seuss

Blair dreams in black and white. It's occurs this way because Blair herself is a classic and all the greatest stars and films existed in the monochromatic world. It's the shades of greys that make you think, because there's always more to the picture. Colour makes things complicated, and frankly, too confusing.

The brunette likes them straight and obvious thank you.

And she likes her dreams that way. She likes to stay there, living in the 1920's or 1950's. Life's grand in a black and white world. It's better than living in the colour blinding reality anyway.

…

Dan dreams in colour. He loves the vibrant life that it brings. Nothing's held down in boring shades leaving nothing to the imagination. Colour provides anything, any sort of inspiration. He's a writer, colour makes him thrive. Hues of orange, warm and cold colours. What could be better?

He hates reality. It's too black and white, one or the other. There's no room for creativity, for originality. It's a shame, and he'd rather sleep forever than get up another day.

…

It when she meets him that she knows she really doesn't like colours. He wears tacky plaid shirts and, for goodness sake, jeans. He's got no sense of fashion, so what her friend Georgina sees in him she'll never know.

He's with a girl who is practically wearing bags and her hair looks a rat's nest. Blair purses her lips as she sees the couple walk by and his sad story of a sister following them. Jenny Humphrey is a hot mess, and Blair feels a sense of satisfaction knowing that the blonde is in her rightful place.

It also confirms that colours are just so not cool.

Nate squeezes her hand and Blair smiles back, showing off her pearly whites which she is so proud of. (See? White is better than yellow).

They aren't together anymore, but do tend to use the other when needed. They've got that on again off again kind of relationship. It's straight forward and simple, just the way Blair likes it. There are no strings attached, no complication of emotions. Just good sex.

And frankly, that's sometimes all you need.

…

Dan likes Vanessa, he really does. He's not sure if he loves her because well, he just doesn't feel like he does. There's something off about her but he isn't quite sure what it is.

Jenny says it's because they don't have chemistry but that isn't true. She's great in bed and her personality isn't too bad either.

Still though…there's just something.

He doesn't think about it much, rather let's himself float on by not really caring about the world. It's his thing and he blames it on his writing. Writers don't come up with ideas, ideas come to them.

It's when he meets Blair Waldorf that he finds the inspiration for the perfect character. Granted, she's nothing he'd be into. She's pompous, manipulative, and frankly just a bad person all around.

She's one dot on the side of a die that doesn't have any other dots on it. He's never written such obvious characters before. Most of them are tragic heroes, broken souls with more to them than meets the eye.

Blair on the other hand is like an open book. She's too clear for his liking. Black and white, no colour in her soul.

She's boring and honestly Dan has no interest in her life, or any part of her for that matter.

So when he goes home and collapses in his bed after a long day it bothers him that he dreams of a girl with caramel locks and chocolate brown eyes with dusty rose cheeks and red lips to match her fiery dress.

He dreams of her in colour.

…

Blair sighs as she sets down the pumpkin latte and slams the book cover shut. He's on her mind, playing over and over again like Breakfast at Tiffany's in the ever so perfect black and white film.

He's like a noir film. Classic, yet deadly. Okay maybe not deadly but it's the morning, she's not on her A-game yet.

But either way he's in her head and he's not leaving. He's a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve, a bleeding heart really. He's a guy of the colour kind, the one who wants to talk about the mess of emotions.

Ugh.

Nate joins her then and looks on amused at Blair's stress.

"B, what's going on?"

"What do you know about Lonely Boy?"

Blair knows they've got some sort of illegal friendship going on. He's from the low east side as they're from the upper. They don't mingle with the poor folk.

"Nice guy, good guy, uh aspiring writer."

"Anything else?"

"We don't really talk about our personal lives…"

Blair understands that Nate isn't the most intelligent of guys, one of the reasons they broke up, but seriously…what else do friends talk about?

She wants to know more about this enigma, and why he's on her mind like a bad itch that she just can't seem to scratch.

…

It's when they get into an argument over Jennifer Froelich's Dream of Me the ultimate question comes up. What's better? Black and white? Or colour?

Dan fights for colour while Blair cheers on black and white.

The professor? He says they have to do a project together on the difference between dreaming in colour and dreaming in black and white.

The difference is so incredibly obvious the pair agree that they'll have it done in a snap, and never have to deal with the other again.

…

It's when Dan heads over to Blair's loft that he sends out a low whistle.

"Yes Humphrey, I know, you wish this was your life, but please, stop drooling on the carpet. It's been imported from Bali."

He huffs, because he knew it was a bad idea to end up working with…Blair Waldorf, who is basically everything he hates about the Upper East Side distilled into one 95 pound, doe eyed, bonmot – tossing, label whoring, package of girly evil.

It's quite sad really.

"If I drool it's because it's dull Waldorf and it's putting me to sleep."

She seems a tad bit offended, and Dan smirks in satisfaction, brushing past her to the kitchen.

"Let's just get started Humphrey."

"Sounds good to me."

…

They're about an hour in and arguing like maniacs. It's not surprising, they always do this. Each believes themselves to be right, and tries to prove their theories with any sort of evidence they can scrounge up.

It's when a knock erupts on the front door they pause and turn to look at the solid white wood. Dorota sighs a breath of relief for the silence presented. She goes and opens it and there's Georgina, standing there with a gold dress on and her eyes draw straight to Dan's.

She walks in, uninvited and Blair stares at her friend with horrid eyes and Dan tries to avert his.

"Oh Dan, I didn't know you were here!"

Blair snorts and covers it up immediately, as Dan looks at her amused because since when does the Queen of the UES ever do something so unlady like?

Georgina ignores it and sits herself down beside Dan, enraging Blair in the process.

"So, Dan… I heard you're writing a book. Wanna tell me about it?"

He doesn't want to in the slightest, but Blair's ignoring the pair, sipping her latte, her eyes on her laptop.

"Uh not exactly, it isn't really together yet. Sort of just a bunch of ideas in my head."

"Oh really? Well what's the problem then?"

"Writer's block."

"You know the best way to relieve writer's block is to get a muse. I'm up for the position."

Blair coughs and directs a look straight to her friend indicating that it's time to go. Georgina challenges Blair head on and the doe eyed girl purses her lips and raises an eyebrow.

Dan watches on intrigued at the two girls. Georgina finally concedes and Blair grins, watching as the frenemy leaves the penthouse, onto better things.

"How'd you do that?"

He's dying of curiosity and Blair simply shrugs and keeps working.

"It's a world you'll never understand Humphrey."

Dan can swear he hears her sigh.

…

Blair dreams of black curly hair again. It's weird, because the face is white, completely blank but feels familiar, and frankly comforting. She yearns for it secretly; she won't let anyone know she fantasizes about who the black haired man could be.

She wanders through the hall of her university, looking around at the guys but none strike the resemblance to the mystery man.

She runs into someone then and they catch her before she falls to the ground and embarrasses herself.

She looks up and huffs as it's none other than Lonely Boy himself, his unruly hair and too brown eyes keeping her locked in his gaze.

"Let go of me Humphrey., I don't want your peasant hands all over me."

He let's go of her and she brushes herself off as if he was contagious.

"Sorry for trying to keep you from destroying your reputation in front of everyone. Next time, I'll let you fall."

He walks away and Blair stares after him, thinking what he did was oddly sweet. She shakes her head because Humphrey if anything, is too sweet and a sappy romantic. Have you seen Vanessa who practically drools whenever she smells a rose sent by him?

Yeesh.

She huffs and walks the opposite direction. The last thing she needs is her mind focused on Lonely Boy. That would destroy her reputation if anything.

…

They're stuck in the library working on their dream project when Jenny visits this time. The blonde plops herself down beside her brother, plugs in her iPod and listens away.

Blair simply stares at the girl because she had the audacity to disturb them, during their working time. Has the girl got no sense of when she's not wanted?

Apparently so.

Blair nudges Dan, her eyes going from him to Jenny. She's clearly indicating she wants the blonde gone. But Dan smirks and shrugs and goes back to working.

Blair gasps because no one ever says no to her. Ever.

She flips his laptop shut and he glares at her and she smirks and shrugs going back to her own laptop. He shuts hers.

Her eyes widen, and she pushes the books off of his side to the table. He growls and does the same.

Jenny meanwhile has her eyes on the two of them now and rolls them because the tension is completely unbearable.

"Just sleep with each other and get over it."

Jenny gets up and walks out of the library, leaving the pair mouthed open and slightly repulsed.

…

Dan dreams of her in colour again. It's getting to be a nasty habit, and he begins to wonder if Jenny was onto something.

Is he actually attracted to the annoying spawn of pure girly evil?

Nah. That would be ridiculous.

But it would make for a good story.

…

Blair sits in front of her laptop shocked.

There isn't a difference.

Colour and black and white dreaming is the same. One is based on watching colour TV, the other on black and white. It's kind of ridiculous actually considering she and Dan had though it meant something so much more.

Their professor is going to get a kick out of this and they're going to look incredibly stupid.

Damn Humphrey and his need to be right.

…

They present in front of the class. It's flawless, and both discovered they actually make quite the team over the course of the month they were forced to endure together.

She's able to get information while Dan is able to sort it. She knows what's real, he knows what they need.

It's a duet of intellect. Something that neither thought the other was capable of. They're actually the geniuses of their group, and it's odd because they're so different.

At least, that's what they force themselves to think.

…

He misses her. Since they're no longer working together they don't see each other anymore than when they pass each other in the halls.

He finds himself seeking out ways to challenge her in class because he misses her. He misses her fiery attitude, her wit, and her intellect.

Their equals in ways he never thought was possible because it seems that she's not as obvious as he thought. Maybe she does have a bit more colour to her.

…

She misses him. It's annoying actually, because she realizes that she craves their heated debates over any topic, because she can't find anyone else who can match her that way.

He makes her think, and she likes it. A lot more than she should. He's always straight to the point with his arguments.

Maybe he's a bit more black & white than she thought.

…

They run into each other more often than expected. He's been hanging around more in UES and she's visited Brooklyn herself a few times. Neither say why they're there, but there's a hope that they've gone to the opposing world for the other.

They eventually get fed up of miraculously bumping into each other so Dan just grabs her hand, and drags her to a late night showing of Roman Holiday in Brooklyn.

They both enjoy it more than ever before.

…

They start to make excuses just to hang out. Blair would declare some sort of fashion emergency (or she'd just threaten her minions) and Dan simply tells them he has to go to the library.

Vanessa begins to catch on, realizing that he's not really going where he says he's going. Jenny knows, she always thought they'd be cute together. She would never say anything out loud though, she'd just get reprimanded.

Jenny and Vanessa were sitting in the mall the food court, Jenny eating and Vanessa fuming.

"Jenny, I seriously think Dan is cheating on me."

"What makes you think that?"

"He's always cancelling our plans. He's never around anymore."

"Maybe he's actually busy? He is job searching you know."

"No this is…this is different."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know."

…

They're sitting in Blair's favourite café her with that pumpkin latte and him with his cappuccino. They're talking about some book when Nate spots them. He's shocked, because he never though Blair would ever be caught dead in Brooklyn.

"Hey guys!"

"Nate! Hey man!"

Blair stays silent, shock on her face. She morphs it into a fake smile which Nate knows isn't real but he plays along anyone.

"Nate, why don't you join us?"

"Sure B thanks. So what are you two doing?"

The pair look at each other, not exactly sure what to say.

"Uh well Blair and I ran into each other…"

"And Dan spilled my latte so he…"

"I offered to buy her a new one."

"And that's the story."

Blair gave Dan a puzzled look and he shrugged. He couldn't come up with anything better.

"Well sounds like quite the story guys."

Nate didn't believe one word of it.

…

Dan comes home to his loft only to find Vanessa sitting there in a plush chair, waiting for him. He sets down his laptop bag and looks at her quizzically. They don't live together so it's a wonder why she's there.

"Uh hi Vanessa. What are you doing here?"

"You're cheating on me."

Dan's eyes go wide at the bold statement. He's flabbergasted, because he would never do something like that ever.

"What are you talking about?"

"I get it Dan. I'm not super rich, nor do I dress in fabulous clothes but Blair Waldorf? Really? I thought I knew you but you've changed ever since you started hanging out with her. Have you sunk so low?"

Dan's mouth hangs open because he isn't with Blair. They're friends…sort of and he would never cheat. Ever.

"I'm not sleeping with her."

"No? Why else would you be with her all the time. Cancelling on me to go play in the sheets with the brunette. Nothing else makes sense Dan."

Dan reaches for his phone and dials Blair's number.

"What do you want Humphrey?"

"I need you to talk to Vanessa."

"Bag lady? And why would I do that?"

"To tell her I'm not cheating on her with you."

The phone is silent till Blair barks out a laugh and Dan can practically feel her smirking.

"Alright. Hand it over."

Dan stretches it to Vanessa who takes it and put it up to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Listen up Vanessa. I get the fact that you're an idiot, what with your fashion sees and all but to accuse Dan Humphrey of cheating? You're more stupid than I thought. One, the guy is more monogamous than Eric. Two, he and I were working on a project if you can't remember thus leading us to have to spend time together, and three you really think I'd date Lonely Boy? Key word being lonely. Honestly, get it together Bags; you're turning into Little J."

With that Blair hangs up the phone and Vanessa looks at it with a disgusted look. She turns somber though as she meets Dan's eyes.

"I'm sorry. I guess I got a little freaked out. You're…Blair is right. You'd never cheat."

Dan sighs. "Vanessa I think…I think we need to take a break from this."

"It's because of Blair isn't it?"

"No, it's because you don't trust me. I can't do this if there is no trust. It won't work."

"I do trust you."

"No you don't. Not if you accuse me of the one thing I would never do."

"Dan…"

"Just…go. Please."

Vanessa gets up and leaves, looking at Dan one last time. He never thought this would happen as he hears the door shut behind him.

Jenny walks in then and gives him a curious look to which he sighs and sits at the island.

"I'm assuming the sigh has to do with a peeved Vanessa?"

"We broke up."

"Really? It's about time."

Dan looks at his sister curiously.

"What?"

"Dan, you've never really been into Vanessa. Sure she was nice and all, smart I guess, but she never really challenged you."

"She's good though."

"Sometimes what we need isn't necessarily "good" sometimes we just need passion, even if there are fights all the time, it's better to be in love, than to just love someone. You and Vanessa were never in love. Well, maybe she was but you? You loved her but were never in love with her. There's a big difference between the two."

"Oh? And who would you suggest?"

"You already know who. I mean, no one grates on your nerves more than Blair Waldorf. That my dear brother is passion."

…

Blair lies in her bed with her sleeping mask on and her eyes shut. She finally recognizes the hair in her black and white dreams, its Humphrey's.

She never thought Lonely Boy would ever appear in her dreams, but there he is, dressed to the nines and frankly he looks amazing.

Blair can't deny she's attracted to him, but she's no home wrecker. She'll just be with him in her dreams. Where they live in a black and white world, in the obvious, just the two of them.

It's nice, and she wants it to be real, not just a fantasy.

…

Dan avoids Blair. It's not so much that he doesn't want to talk to her, he does, but he's confused. Jenny's words are playing around in his head and he doesn't know what to feel.

Does he like Blair? Does he not?

He's not entirely sure.

At least not until he sees Blair with the new exchange student Louis. The green monster claws at his gut because she's flirting and blushing with the new guy, and Dan thinks that he should be him Blair's flirting with, not this…Louis.

…

Blair likes Louis. He's smart, handsome and a real life prince. He's perfect, exactly what she's been looking for. But when they're kissing in the hall truth be told he isn't that good of a kisser.

In fact, he kinda sucks.

Her mind drifts to black curly hair and she pushes Louis away from her.

"Excuse me."

She dashes off around a corner and pauses, leaning against the wall to catch her breath. There's no way she likes him. He's Humphrey for goodness sake…Lonely Boy…

It hits on her like a bolt of lightning. She does have a thing for Dan.

Merlin, she likes Dan Humphrey.

…

She notices he's avoiding her. He never seems to be around anymore, and the only time he talks to her is when their professors pair them up and even then he's almost silent.

Blair doesn't like it.

So she corners him in the darkness of the hall, finger pointed in his chest and her curls wild.

"You've been avoiding me."

It's blunt like her and Dan can't help but admire the colour of her clothes and hair. He's speechless and her finger is digging deeper into his chest sending heat straight to his core.

"So? Why do you care?"

Blair isn't sure how to answer, in fact, she's kind of speechless. She's at a loss of words, so the brunette does the only thing she can think of.

She kisses him.

For Dan all he can feel is colour bursting through his soul as she heats up his core. Blair feels like she's in a classic black and white film, where the kisses are incredibly intense and the romance is a burning fire.

She pulls back and looks at him with her wide doe eyes. Dan doesn't like that, missing the feeling of her lips on his. He grasps her head and pulls her back in, plundering her mouth like a pirate.

There is nothing innocent about this kiss.

Dan flips them, Blair now against the wall as Dan's fingers go under her shirt and tickle her skin, she grins into the kiss and her hands find themselves in his curls that she loves so much.

He pulls back, their breath heavy and panting. She's flushed and his lips are swollen.

"What does this mean?" she whispers.

Dan runs his hand through his hair. It's only them in the hall, by themselves. He knows what he wants, he's been denying it a long time.

"I want you."

Blair stays silent, leaning against the wall. The confession is out there in the open and Dan's palms are sweaty.

"Alright. Let's try this Humphrey. It can work."

Dan grins and pulls her in for a kiss, bringing it down her neck onto her collarbone. The brunette laughs and pushes him away, taking his hand as they walk out of the dark hall. The bell rang a long time ago making the school empty as they walked the halls.

He walks her home and they stop just outside her door. He leaves her with one more kiss, oh so faint, and simultaneously the pair says,

"Dream of me."

They grin at each other, their foreheads resting together. Dan gives her one more kiss, leaving her to the rest of her day.

For them it passes by too fast and once it's night and time for bed. The pair can't sleep because for once, reality is finally better than their dreams.

A/N: Another DAIR fic! It's my longest so I hope you all enjoy!