Love is a strange thing.

Love can come in all forms and shapes.

You don't know when it'll come along.

How.

Where.

Who.

Then it's suddenly there.

And then it's gone as fast as it came.

Love is a strange thing.

Love is real.

In an office, in a big city, a picture frame crushes into million pieces.

As a heart crushes too.

Love is very real.

Dan Humphrey has never been a big player, always been a pawn amongst kings.

For once in his life he wants that to change.

He wants his revenge, he wants what he believes is justice.

He wants this world where he's been and always will be an outsider in, to crumble.

But there is one good person left here.

One who's been there for him, been a friend.

Someone who deserves the truth.

And a warning.

So that's why he's standing outside his office now. The last steps up to the door feel like a mile. He doesn't know how Nate will react to the things he's about to tell him.

Nate's secretary tells him Nate's in, he has time to talk to him now, but only ten minutes. Dan doesn't think he needs more than that.

This is simple, but at the same time very hard.

He feels so ashamed.

He takes two steps forward and knocks slowly on the door.

"Come in."

Dan opens the door and Nate looks up at him and smiles.

"Hey man"

Dan smiles too, but it doesn't reach his eyes.

He sits down in the chair opposite Nate's desk.

"What's up?" Nate asks and finishes the papers he was reading.

"I.." Dan starts and looks down.

He has to start at the beginning, he can't begin with Serena.

"I think me and Blair broke up."

Nate's mouth is halfway open.

"What do you mean you think? "

"I mean..." He closes his eyes for a second, doesn't really know what to say, he isn't even sure himself what has happened.

"Neither has said the words, but I'm quite sure she ran off to be with Chuck."

Nate sighs, he was afraid this would happen. That Blair and Chuck are one of those couples no one can keep apart.

Even though he thinks it's not healthy for them to be together.

Not healthy at all.

He was standing on the sideline, quietly rooting for Dan.

"Are you sure?" He asks and his eyes wander to the picture standing on his desk.

Two brunettes and two blondes, four people who thought nothing could tear them apart and that the world didn't stand a chance.

They had been so wrong.

So completely.

He sighs again as Dan nods at his question.

"I'm sorry, man" Nate means it. Even though Chuck's his best friend, he has had his chances and he has done his share of bad things, more.

Dan doesn't deserve this.

"When I found out..." Dan begins, now comes the hardest part.

He knows the history of Nate and Serena.

He knows that Nate not ever will be entirely over her. That Serena will forever have a big place in his heart.

And he knows Serena.

The impact she can have, the hold. And he knows how hard it is to let her go, but also how freeing it feels to finally be able to.

But Nate is still holding.

"I did something I regret. And I…"

Nate looks at Dan, brows furrowed.

"I was at a private bar and Serena was there and..." Dan stops, he can see on the look on Nate's face he understands what comes next.

He can also see that he didn't expect this.

"At a bar?" Nate finally asks and Dan knows why.

He lost his virginity to Serena at a bar.

Irony will never stop baffling Dan.

Their lives have been filled with it.

Their lives intertwined for better and worse, now he thinks they've all ended up hurting each other.

Nate didn't expect his own reaction. It hits him in the face, how his heart crumbles when Dan tells him. How it aches to hear the words.

He has a girlfriend, one he cares for a lot.

And that's not Serena.

They haven't been together in almost two years and he has seen her with others. It hasn't had much impact on him, just a tiny feeling in the stomach that disappears as fast as it come.

But now, now the feeling in the stomach won't go away and he feels a flinch of anger when he looks at Dan.

Something important has been robbed from him. A sacred moment shared long ago, that now feels soiled.

"I don't know what to say." Dan sighs and looks to the ground.

"There's nothing to say, Serena isn't my girlfriend." He sighs too.

He doesn't want to be angry at his friend. The feeling inside of him isn't Dan's fault.

The problem lays further back in time; the problem will always be there.

He never seems to be able to shake Serena.

Never.

"I have a meeting soon so…" He says and Dan is up in no time.

He turns around and faces Nate one last time before he goes.

"I'm writing a book." He says and Nate listens intently.

"About the Upper east Side. The people, the secrets, the betrayals. I thought you should now. There are people here I think deserve it, I want you to know that you are not one of them. "

Nate doesn't know what to say, to believe.

As Dan shuts the door he goes up to the window. Stares at the streets below, the world he grew up in.

The world Dan wants to destroy.

And he gets it, he really does.

But still he doesn't know what to believe. Not anymore.

Not now.

He takes up the picture he was looking at before, those four kids that grew up in a world filled with money, secrets, power-struggles and betrayal. But still they had each other, a bond they thought could never break. And now they are not the same at all, they are not kids anymore. Not those people on the picture.

Suddenly it slips out from his grip, it crashes to the floor and all the pieces fly around.

He realizes that he doesn't care.

Not now.

"I'm back." Chuck say as he comes strutting inside.

"I can see that." Nate sits down and turns on his computer.

Chuck furrows his brows at the slightly cold welcome.

"Something you want to talk about?" He asks and sits down next to his best friend.

Nate shakes his head slowly and continues to have his eyes locked on the screen before him.

Chuck sighs into the air.

"Lily called." He says and tries to get Nate's attention.

He fails, but doesn't stop.

"No one has seen Serena in over a month."

Nate closes his eyes at his words. He is well aware of the situation, Serena is missing. She slept with Dan, he then rejected her and afterwards not a soul has seen her or had contact with her.

Mostly because people have stopped caring, she has herself to blame.

"I've heard." Nate answers and shuts the laptop.

"And?" Chuck asks, voice steady and calm.

"I don't care." Nate gets up from the coach and grabs his coat, ready to leave.

He turns around and looks at Chuck, who looks mildly confused.

"Why didn't you tell me you and Blair are back together?"

"We aren't…"

"Save it." Nate interrupts and walks to the elevator.

He sees Chuck's stunned face as the door shuts close.

The problem isn't really him but that Nate doesn't know who to trust anymore, who he can count on to be loyal, who he should look at as real friends.

Who he loves or should love.

Who he is.

Serena is a mess, like always.

Spinning around on a dance floor in a big city in a foreign land. Intoxicated with alcohol and pills. And most of all her own deception, her own actions.

Mistakes.

Her own life, her whole existence, crushing her from the inside.

All she wants is to escape, find a way out, be free in every way possible.

Being here should help. The numbness ought to disappear more and more for each drink and each pills she takes. But it doesn't. She still can't escape the voices in her head that tells her she is a complete failure. That tells her there's no one left.

She has no one.

Not even herself.

Because Serena doesn't know who she is, who she should or could be.

She never has.

Suddenly she feels a pair of hands on her waist, a man behind her dancing to the beat.

She turns around to face him, to kiss him, to escape a little bit more.

His blue eyes stop her.

She has to get out of there.

"I found her." Chuck throws a folder on the table.

Nate doesn't need to ask who he's talking about.

Serena.

He has found Serena.

"I don't…" He starts.

"Stop it." Chuck interrupts, mildly anger in his voice.

"I know you care. Stop pretending."

He leaves him there. Just Nate and a blue folder.

They both know he will open it. They both know he'll go after her.

They know he has to save her.

It's Serena.

He's standing outside of her hotel room, conflicting feelings filling up his head. Anger and disappointment, sadness and frustration. Fear of what'll meet him in there.

He rubs his forehead and closes his eyes before he opens the door.

She's sitting on the floor.

Just a vague reflection of her past self.

"A bar, huh?" His eyes show no emotion as he looks at her.

Hers get blank immediately.

Her tiny wrists start shaking as she tries to cross her arms around her waist.

And then suddenly the anger he has felt vanishes. She looks so fragile in that moment, so broken. Like a little bird that's trying to fly away from the nest for the first time.

He walks over to her, sits down next to her on the cold floor, gently puts his hand on her bare knee. He expects her to pull away from his touch.

To his surprise she doesn't.

"Are you okay?" He whispers into the air, isn't looking straight at her, isn't yet able to.

No words escape her lips, she's afraid her voice won't hold.

She shakes her head, but he doesn't see it.

She is nowhere close to being okay.

She doesn't deserve to either.

Not now.

He sighs as he thinks she doesn't answer him.

Nothing will ever change.

She will always be too closed up, but at the same time too free.

And he will always wait for the day she won't be.

It's a lifelong curse, a hopeless life.

He starts to get up, but she won't let him, her hand reaches out to stop him.

"Can we sit like this for a little while longer?" He almost can't catch her words; they're so small against the empty walls.

He nods slowly and sits back down, their bodies up against each other and their breaths in steady symphony.

No words are exchanged.

They are passed that.

He feels her shaking next to him, so he takes off his jacket and gently wraps it around her.

They are quiet for several minutes before his voice fills the room.

"I'll take you home, Serena."

A tear escapes from her eyelash; she doesn't know where home is.