A/N: Fluff Prompt from @livinginrhythm and an anon. Nate/Serena #65. Prompt meme linked at the end!
can I call you up (just one more time)
His phone rings when he’s watching the soccer game he DVR’d with Chuck. It’s a rare boys night, one that they don’t get often these days with work and kids and married life. Well, the last two are just Chuck but it still affects him and how much time they hang out just the two of them.
“Serena is calling me,” he says, looking at Chuck with a bewildered expression. It’s almost two am on a Friday night and Serena most definitely shouldn’t be calling him. Not just because it’s so late but because she’s married, to someone else.
“Want me to pause it?” Chuck smirks behind his scotch glass. “This oughta be good.”
Nate shakes his head. “Nah, I think I should probably take this one in my room.”
He doesn’t answer until the door to his room is closed. He’s still in the Empire penthouse, although it’s been all his for awhile now.
“Serena? Is everything okay?”
That’s his first thought, that something is wrong because it’s pretty common knowledge that no good news comes after midnight.
“Nate!!”
Serena’s drunk voice comes through, the one he’s heard more times in his life than he cares to admit. He can hear loud music in the background and then a shrill “Get off the phone, bitch!” from someone that sounds eerily like Georgina Sparks.
“Serena, what’s going on? Are you with Georgina?”
She sort of hiccups into the phone and he rolls his eyes. The girl is positively wasted. “Yes, Nate. Georgie and me, we’re having a really good time at this club. But don’t worry, she’s being good. No craziness, I promise.”
Nate laughs. “Except for the fact that you’re completely hammered. Where’s Dan?”
“Who knows? Who cares?”
Well, that’s definitely not what he expected her to say. Since they have been married, Serena and Dan have been in this honeymoon phase that Nate honestly finds annoying. But this, this is new.
“Is that why you’re out drinking?” He asks, because it would make sense if her and Dan got into a fight and then she ended up at a club at two am with Georgina Sparks.
“Nate, why didn’t we ever try again?”
He’s literally stunned silent.
“Nate, are you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here. I…I don’t know, Serena.”
She sighs and he can hear the music getting quieter. Either she went outside or into a bathroom, he doesn’t know, but she’s quiet. “I have always loved you, Nate. So much that I don’t think it’s ever going to go away.”
The broken sound of her voice makes his eyes close and he hangs his head as he attempts to process what she said. “Fucking hell, Serena. You’re drunk. You shouldn’t be saying that to me.”
“I know, I’m sorry.” Her voice is laced with sadness and he can hear that she’s close to tears. He knows he’s got to get her home but he is not the person for that job.
“I’m going to call Dan and have him come and get you.”
She’s practically frantic when she shouts, “No! Don’t call Dan, please.”
“Fine, then I’ll call Blair. Someone needs to get you home and I don’t trust Georgina, like, at all.”
He gets the name and address of the club she’s at and tells her to stay put before thumbing in Blair’s cell number.
“What’s wrong? Is Chuck okay? Did he drink too much again, because Nathaniel Archibald, I swear to God…”
Nate chuckles. “Blair, chill out. It’s not Chuck that’s too drunk, it’s Serena.”
“Serena? Wait...how do you know she’s drunk?”
“Well,” he sighs, contemplating just how much he should really tell her. Then he figures, fuck it. If anyone can get inside the mind of Serena Van Der Woodson, it’s Blair Waldorf. “She just called and professed her love for me so…”
’“Oh, so definitely completely hammered drunk. Where is she?”
Chuck’s amused face greets him when he makes his way back into the living room. “So, Serena got drunk and told you she loves you, huh?”
“Jesus, gossip travels fast in this town.”
His best friend laughs, picks up the remote and presses rewind on the DVR.
***
He doesn’t see or talk to Serena for a week.
Blair invited him to a small party to celebrate the opening of Chuck’s new hotel and without asking she informs him that Serena will be in attendance.
“She’s your best friend, Blair. Of course she’s going to be there.”
Blair laughs like he’s missing something. “Did you not hear what I said, Nate? Serena will be in attendance. Not Serena and Dan.”
“Oh,” he says without really thinking about what she’s just said. But then it really hits him. “Ohhh…”
“There it is,” Blair says and he can practically hear her rolling her eyes through the phone. “Dress nicely, please. Don’t even think about putting on that grey pullover sweater.”
He looks down at the sweater he’s already wearing. “Hey, what’s wrong with the grey swea…”
But she’s already hung up the phone.
Six hours later his car drops him off at Chuck and Blair’s townhouse and Nate can see that the party is in full swing. He should have known when Blair said a small party that it meant at least fifty people, if not more. He hands Dorota his coat when he walks in and gives her a wink as he heads off to find his friends.
“Nathaniel! So happy you could join us,” Chuck says when Nate walks into the living room. “Come in, have a drink.”
His eyes are scanning the room for Serena but he doesn’t want to come right out and ask where she is.
“Serena is in the kitchen with Blair,” Chuck tells him. “Don’t give me that look. I know you and I know how you feel about my sister.”
“I don’t…Forget it. What’s going on with her and Dan?”
Chuck shrugs. “I guess married life isn’t what they thought it was? Who knows, who cares?”
“Funny, that’s exactly what Serena said when I asked her about him.”
His friend smirks. “Great minds, and all that.”
It takes an hour of talking and drinking before Serena makes her way into the living room. Nate looks up at the exact time she walks through the door, like they are in some sort of romantic movie, and her eyes meet his immediately.
“Hey, Nate.” She kisses him on each cheek, her hand resting on his forearm. “When did you get here?”
“Awhile ago,” he says and he looks behind her shoulder to see Blair grinning mischievously. “Do you want to go somewhere and talk?”
Serena narrows her eyes. “Talk about what?”
“Are you kidding me?” She shrugs and he sighs, pulls her by the elbow so they are away from the crowd. “So, we’re just going to ignore the fact that you drunk-dialed me to tell me you love me?”
“I did no such thing,” she says but he can see in her eyes that she remembers exactly what she said.
“Yes, you did. You said that you have always loved me and that it’s never going to go away.”
Serena bites her bottom lip and he tries not to focus on that, but at the issue at hand. “Look, can we just forget about that conversation, please?”
“I can’t,” he says with conviction. “Not if it’s true. Not if...”
“Not if what?”
He sighs. “Not if that’s how I feel about you too.”
There’s no way that telling her this is a good idea, not when she’s married and to one of his good friends at that. It’s just something that’s been in his head for awhile, maybe forever even.
“I think I should go,” she says, and before he can do or say anything about it she’s pulling on her coat and heading out the door.
***
He hears through the grapevine that she files for divorce two months later.
It doesn’t surprise him, not with the stories he’s been hearing from Chuck and Blair. Both of them have been bugging him to contact Serena but he knows that it’s too soon.
Maybe someday, when they are both in the right place at the right time.
***
“I told you Portugal plays pretty good football.”
Chuck scowls, slides five crisp hundred dollar bills across the coffee table. “Eat me, Nathaniel.”
Nate laughs, folds the bills over once and slides them into the front pocket of his slacks. “Don’t be such a poor loser, Charles.”
He ducks when Chuck throws the remote control at his head and grins at Blair, who’s watching their antics and rolling her eyes.
“Are they acting like children again?”
Serena walks in balancing a tray full of snacks on one hip and holding a glass of wine in the other. She stops and drops a kiss to Nate’s lips before setting everything onto the table in front of them.
“I don’t know how many children are walking around talking like heathens, but other than that, yes.” Blair reaches for a grape from the snack tray and pops it into her mouth. She watches with a smirk as Serena settles herself across his lap instead of sitting next to him. “You two are nauseating.”
It’s been eight months since she called him drunk in the middle of the night, six months since she signed her name on the divorce papers. It’s been two solid months of bliss between the two of them, since he called her up and asked her out on a real date.
Serena kisses his cheek and rests her forehead against his temple. “Leave us alone, B. We’re happy.”
Nate pulls her closer and kisses the tip of her nose. “That we are.”
They laugh at the gagging noises coming from both Chuck and Blair. Nate whispers in Serena’s ear to come with him and they both stand up and head towards the door.
“Hey, where are you two going?” Blair calls and Nate chuckles, helps Serena on with her coat before pulling his on.
“We are going to dinner. On Chuck. Thanks, buddy.”
They hold hands on the way to their car, laughing out loud as they listen to Blair rant about the downfalls of gambling.
“Do you think we’ll be like them someday?” Serena asks, winding her scarf around her neck.
Nate thinks about it, about Serena being his wife, them having kids. A boring married couple, like they always make fun of Chuck and Blair for being.
“Yeah,” he says, kissing her quickly. “Someday.”
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