"Instead of that boy you loved from the valley…"

It took Lily Bass a few moments to collect herself after her mother reminded her of that particular boy. The boy with the leather jacket, sleek brown hair and sexy smirk. The boy that hadn't treat her like a princess. The boy that only defended her when he felt she had deserved it.

Owen.

The one before Rufus. The other 'what if.

The one who had been much easier to let go, but harder to forget about.

"I worship it..."

Either his hands were large or her waist was that tiny. She didn't care either way. All that mattered was that his hands were upon her, encircling her waist and warming up her body from the centre outwards.

His whispers stole through her ears like they always did. The anticipation was close to being overwhelming, throwing caution to the wind and forgetting about why she had chosen to take him aside in the first place was becoming more and more likely.

His responses, as always, were excellent.

"I like it."

"I... Admire it."

"Oh I adore them."

There was just one more she needed.

"Someone I hope is finally ready to love me the way Cyrus loves you..."

Only in the sense that there was no one else for Cyrus but her mother. Blair could not handle the constant idiosyncrasies of Cyrus. Chuck's however, she could handle without a doubt. She had been handling them since she was five years old.

Like the way he dressed with more colour than she did. His habit of texting her when she was having a bath and asking; "want to go out?" Followed by: "again? perhaps we should stop defying fate and stay in" Or his longstanding offer to sleep with her - even though for most of the time she had been involved with his best friend. Or his utter devotion to something. The thing that set him apart from all the other men she had known, the one thing he had picked up from his father that Blair liked, well that and his penchant for good liquor.

Once Chuck Bass wanted something, he would do anything to make sure it stayed with him. And Chuck Bass wanted her. Like Cyrus wanted Eleanor, or Nate wanted Serena, or Dan wanted Serena.

Chuck Bass wanted her. And she hoped he would never stop.

"Are you dressing for someone?"

Blair always dressed for someone. She had dressed for her mother since the day she was born. The dresses, skirts and blouses had been all she had been allowed. Waldorf women only wear pants metaphorically speaking.

Once she had been old enough, and had filled out enough, she started dressing for Nate. The lingerie she owned, each piece she had specifically picked out without her mothers knowledge. Her mother had only cared about the outer shell, and for a time, Blair believed Nate had cared about what was further in.

Her shoes she had picked were for Serena. If there was one thing the two had in common was their love of good shoes. While their tastes differed they both knew what looked good on each other, and that was why when it came down to shoe shopping, no-one else came with them.

Her headbands she bought for herself.

And while the candles flickered, the wine glistened and the silk sheets slid across her naked body. She dressed for Chuck.

"Stop telling me what I feel..."

His whole life, people had been telling him what to do, how to act, what to don.

He had defied all of them, why not his feelings?

Because he couldn't.

Chuck Bass could not control the fluttering. He could not deny the bitter taste of jealousy in his mouth when he saw Blair and Nate together. He couldn't tell himself that this was never supposed to happen. Blair was never supposed to be his.

But his feelings were telling him differently.

"You need to be cool to be queen. Anne Boleyn thought only with her heart. She got her head chopped off. So her daughter Elizabeth made a vow never to marry a man. She married her country..."

Jenny frowned. She remembered what Blair had said.

Which meant that Blair herself knew she was no longer the queen.

Blair was like Anne, not Elizabeth. For she fell in love with Chuck Bass.

Although arguably, Jenny supposed Chuck Bass would be arrogant enough to consider himself a country.

You can't make people love you, but you can make them fear you."

The train ride was long and uneventful. A couple of young boys had stared at her as they walked past, and continued to crane their necks to look at her long after they had sat down.

Jenny didn't care. She was too busy contemplating the failure her life had become. In the beginning, Jenny had looked up to Blair, had wanted to be her friend. But then being Bair's friend hadn't become enough. Jenny had wanted more.

Jenny wanted to be better than Blair.

Being better than Serena was easy. Serena got everything handed to her - and everyone knew it. People feared her connections. Not Serena herself.

Yet everyone feared and respected Blair Waldorf. Blair didn't need connections. Jenny believed her when she said that she would destroy her. Jenny had tried many a time to destroy Blair, and every single time it back-fired.

And now Jenny was the one leaving her family behind, leaving New York, leaving everything. It was ironic that both of them had lost their virginities to Chuck Bass, after traumatic events had happened to the both of them.

And yet Chuck Bass hadn't wanted Jenny Humphrey afterwards. He still wanted Blair Waldorf. Blair and Jenny were similar but not exact.

If anything Jenny feared herself more than anyone else.

She wondered if Blair felt the same way.

"With you two it's always a big deal..."

Nate looked down at the streets of busy, bustling New York and wondered if anyone realized that they had survived what could be described as either a hostile take over, or an apocalypse.

The entirety of the UES, and to a degree UWS all had breathed a sigh of relief. The gossips had finally come out with claws itching to use the once formidable relationship of Chuck and Blair as a scratching post.

It was official. The relationship was over. It had been posted on Gossip Girl less than an hour ago, and Blair was on her way to France, while Chuck was already in Prague.

The juggernaut had slowed to a halt. Even his Grandfather seemed to be lighter and happier when he had talked to him on the phone.

It took Nate a little time to realize just how much of a 'power couple' the two had become. They were quiet, and rarely in the spotlight. Ruthless within both their endeavours. And as the mystery of Lily's medication had happened, Nate had found that their plans and social destruction was even more powerful than he had believed in high school.

Together the two of them could have owned New York City. Privately, secretly, quietly. And Nate was the best friend of one, and ex of the other. It made him worry, should he do anything to hurt either one, where his body would turn up.

Dorota after all had connections to the polish mafia.

Nate took a sip of scotch as one of the girls called out his name from the bedroom. He looked down at the streets of New York and smiled ruefully.

They were stupid to think that Chuck and Blair were over.

They were far, from over.

"You didn't think you were the only one who about the scrapbook did you?…."

Chuck had found it one evening whilst sneaking away from the hobnobbery at one of the many Waldorf soiree's.

He felt his eyebrow raise on it's own accord as the juvenile drawing's of what he assumed was Blair, in what could be described as nothing less than a princess setting.

Being ten years old and having been friends with Nate Archibald and subsequently Blair and Serena by default he understood what the book meant, (he turned the pages back to remember what the title of the book was) 'Magical Prom Night' did not include him.

At least if the other stick figures were Serena and Nate (not many people had big blue dots for eyes and long yellow hair) then it was obvious where he stood with young Miss Waldorf.

"What are you doing?" Chuck looked up from the pages of the book slightly startled by the loudness of his host's voice. She was dressed in one of her mother's creations, a pale cream silk dress that swung out slightly to her knees. She had a matching headband that her father had brought back from Paris earlier in the week.

She marched up to him and snatched the book from his hands. She glared at him and looked down before scoffing loudly. "Urgh, white with pink trimming, as a prom dress? What was I thinking."

She clapped the book shut and turned sharply, it took her a few strides before she unceremoniously dumped the thick book into the rubbish bin by her desk. She looked back at Chuck, "don't judge me, I was five when I made that. At least I can, unlike some people-" She added darkly "admit I once had poor taste."

He was silent as she went back over to her bed and got down on her knees, she rummaged under the bed for a few seconds before coming back up. This time, what was pulled from under the bed was some thing more subdued. It was a bigger book than the last, but at least Blair was smiling.

She sat next to him, smoothed down her dress and opened up the book.

He didn't hear any of her enthusiasm as she launched into great deal about 'The Prom Of The Century."

All that mattered was that a crayoned likeness of him was standing right there next to her.