William Darcy doesn't know.

He doesn't know how he managed to get through that disastrous confession/confrontation with Lizzie Bennet. He doesn't know how he was able to maintain a (mostly) neutral expression throughout her verbal assault on his character. He doesn't know how he managed to leave the room and get back to Fitz's apartment. He really, really doesn't know how he could have misread her so incredibly.

As Darcy enters the apartment unit, Fitz looks up from where he was slouched on the sofa, eyes shimmering with glee and expectation. "Darce-o-o-oohhh…." The cheerful "Darce-o!" turns into a longer, agonizingly pitying "Ohhh" as Fitz reads the expression on his face.

"It didn't go…as you'd planned?"

"No." His reply is short and succinct.

"Wh-what happened?"

"Fitz, I really don't want to talk about it right now. All I want to do now is go to my room and be left alone, okay?"

To anyone who didn't know Darcy well enough, his answer would have come across as snobby and mean. But Fitz has been his friend long enough to understand the complexities of William Darcy and knows what he really meant: "I was just rejected by the woman of my dreams, and I need to wallow in self-pity for a while."

"Then why don't you watch my videos?"

Darcy draws up the YouTube webpage and begins typing in her name. He hasn't finished entering "Lizzie Bennet" before the suggestions pop up.

Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Lizzie Bennet Diaries 53

Lizzie Bennet Diaries 49

Lizzie Bennet Diaries 57

Her face beams at him from thumbnail to thumbnail as he scrolls down the page. After a few seconds' hesitation, he clicks on the first video. His heart tightens as she comes alive before him on the screen, cheerfully and brightly introducing herself to the people of the Internet. She is also, he thinks, introducing herself to him.

Darcy doesn't know how he got her all wrong. But he's determined to find out.