#and idk. something about blair going back and getting an advanced degree from yale...it's nice

[terrainofheartfelt]

Dair prompt please! Decision

Dair + Decision

Blair sits at her desk in her home office nook, staring down at the legal pad in front of her, no longer seeing the words scrawled on the lines, all the hypotheticals, the possibilities, the pro/con lists. 

“Hey,” she hears Dan over her shoulder, “how goes it?”

She makes a noncommittal noise as he comes up behind her, bends to press a kiss to her temple. At the touch of his lips, her shoulders drop, she wasn’t even aware of the tension she was holding until after it leaves her body. 

She taps the end of her pen on her desk. Well, it’s Dan’s pen, she stole it from his home office because her good ones were all at the museum. At least once a week, the classic line of what’s mine is yours is used in their household to justify some grand office supply larceny.

“I think…” she starts, willing herself to speak it, “Yale.”

“Yeah?”

She turns to glimpse Dan’s face, gauging his reaction. “I know it's not in the city, but it's a better program, and it's definitely closer than most of the others. Like, I want a doctorate, but I don’t really want to have to go to Boston to get it.”

Dan snorts, cracking a smile, shaking his head slightly. 

“And,” she continues, “I could get most of the work done from here, except for the teaching, but we can work something out –”

“Of course we can,” Dan insists, sincere. “Lizzie’s in school now, so that’ll help.”

Blair arches an eyebrow. “And Sam?”

He shrugs. “He’s easy, just water him and face him towards the sunlight.”

She rolls her eyes, but refuses to laugh, it’s too easy. 

“We have a deep bench of backup,” Dan adds, slightly more serious. “We can absolutely make Yale work, if that’s what you want.”

She casts an eye to the stack of promotional material they’d gotten in the mail. She’d thought universities had moved strictly to email, but Blair guesses some things never change (though Dan had offered to print every one of her acceptance letters: Harvard, Bryn Mawr, Penn, Toronto, Princeton, even Stanford and Berkeley—even though she abhorred the idea of moving to California). 

“Yeah,” she declares after a deep breath. “Yeah it is.” 

He drops down next to her, meeting her eye level, like she’s their daughter coloring at the kitchen table. “But?”

Blair shoots him a sidelong look, but he knows her too well. “Do you think maybe it’s too…” she trails off, waving her pen in the air. 

He nods, knowing what she means without her having to finish the thought. “It’s not like that,” he says, soft but firm. “This is what makes the best sense for you now, and all that happened back then has nothing to do with it.” He taps a finger on the notepad in front of her, color-coded and organized to class size, faculty, and course offerings. “All the lists you’ve made are proof of that.”

Blair huffs out a laugh, pulling up one knee to her chest, propping her foot on her desk chair. “It may be about that,” she turns to meet Dan’s eye, and holds up two fingers, pinched together, “just a little bit.” 

He smiles. “So what if it is?” He settles onto his knees, scooting up right next to her. “I know – losing out then hurt you, but you’ve already been accepted. And now, you have the chance to go back and rub all the success you’ve had since right in their face.”

She bursts into laughter, her head dipping towards the desk in front of her. “And you?” she asks suddenly, turning back to him, not having to add any more words for him to understand their meaning. You were hurt, too. 

Dan reaches out, twirling a lock of her hair around his finger. “If it’s right for you, it’s right for me.” 

She reaches for him, runs her fingers through his hair. “You have quite a bit of success to rub in Yale’s face too, Dan Humphrey.”

He laughs into her hand, twisting around to kiss her palm. “Hey,” he says lowly, “as far as I’m concerned, I’ve won.” 

She grins, teeth digging into her lower lip. “Oh yeah?”

He nods, solemn. “Mmm-hmm. After all,” he kneels up, bringing his face right in front of hers, “I’m the one who’ll be married to the hot doctor.” 

Blair laughs, giving in, kissing Dan back, knowing that whatever else happens, there’s at least one choice she got right.