Hi there!
So, this jus came to me last night, an I figured I'd post it 'cos why not? Plus it's the first 'happy' thing I seem to have been able to write lately, so it has to be posted if only to fit the season ;)

Hope you enjoy…

Title: Sharing
Disclaimer: I only own the characters you don't recognise.
Summary: Because Chuck Bass was never meant to be tied to just one person.

"Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with others."
William Arthur Ward

.

Nate's always been a boys'-boy, so it makes sense that with age he has become a mans'-man.

It also makes sense that he has shacked up with Serena – given her tendency to fancy a liking to more than one boy at once.

Blair has always been a one-man kind of woman – until she met Chuck. Then she became torn between the two boys in her life.

And the only time Chuck was content with one girl was when he was with Blair. They might've been in love, but no one really expected her to stay the exception for long.

And they were right – about everything.

.

Nate and Serena have Ethan and Colt between them. And while Blair splits herself between Theodore (Teddy) and Chuck, he juggles his life around her, Cosette (Etty), Elspeth and Katalina (Kitty Kat Kat).

His are all brown-haired and brown-eyed, and he doesn't even waste the thought contemplating his involvement in their perfection – they're all their mother. Ok, so maybe they have a little of him inside them – he is their father after all.

He thinks his sister secretly enjoys being outnumbered in her own home. It means she can quilt-trip her best friend (sister-in-law) into involving her in the girls' lives more than she already is. Plus, she gets pampered like only his wife does (possibly a little less – he is Chuck Bass after all) when Mother's Day comes around, not to mention on her birthday.

And he knows his best friend loves having the boys as his own little sports fanatics. Nate's always been his brother, but it's a testament to just how good a friend he is, just how good his heart is; that when he congratulates his nephew on the Man of the Match status that his own son missed out on, he genuinely means it, and everyone knows it.

("Theo did well to score that."
"He's a Bass, Nathaniel – when we aim for something, we don't miss."
"I thought you were going to say something stupid like, Bass men always score."
"Please, brother, we're at a soccer game for seven-year-olds, keep the vulgar chatter for your bedroom."
He was smirking when his best friend (brother-in-law) tried to nudge him over, but failed; ending up grinning widely instead.)

His wife idolizes his family. It'd sound strange for anyone else, but Chuck knows he does too. He won't deny it, wouldn't ever try to change – because, really, he couldn't love them more.

Theodore, Theo, Teddy: his little man. His wife says he's just like him and he grins impishly up at the elder, who simply smirks and ruffles his hair. Seven-years-old already and Chuck wishes he could stop time just so he could witness every moment of his youngest child's life before it passes them all by in a precious whisper of gold and stardust.

Katalina is how he remembers all his daughters to be at age nine. So impossibly innocent and loving, but without quite the level of sass they seem to have acquired over the years. She's her mother's darling angel – and why wouldn't she be? All she wants to do is model her mother's clothes and fill the elder with compliments about shades and cuts and intricate details that all but the two of them seem to have overlooked. They make quite the pair.

As do his two eldest.

At fourteen, Cosette is one year older than her sister; but she still cried harder than Elspeth the first morning they were apart for school. When he took Elspeth by Constance at lunchtime that day, Cosette flew down the Met steps and flung her arms around her sister. They proceeded to spend the rest of the hour chatting animatedly, while he waited nearby; got ticketed three times, near clamped, and the girls hierarchy at his eldest daughter's school was called into serious question after the Freshman's casual abandonment of the Queen and her Ladies-in-Waiting without so much as a backward glance or fleeting apology.

He let Elspeth stay home for the rest of the day and when Cosette returned, she told him that Lorena 'Lori' Adams ("this random Junior who thinks that just because she can tell everyone else how to dress, it means that I will actually look to her for fashion advice. Ew – no. Her mother may have married up when she was five, but she's still from Brooklyn.") had asked her to oversee the themed party she was hosting that week.

The bills were scattered across the side-table beside him, when he saw his eldest daughter consult her sister about her thoughts on the matter and then watched as they called over their younger siblings for advice – one for fashion, the other for the 'cool-factor' (his words). His eyes settled on his wife's smiling face as she watched their children interact, their voices loud and cheerful; and his lips fell easily into a smile of their own.

Idolization indeed.

-

Music guilds to the parameters of the voices that surround him, and he sits in the armchair next to his wife, his fingers dangling languidly along the back of the sofa to rest across her shoulder. Her eyes are on their children: delighting in the holiday spirit. Their excited chatter resounds off the walls, their brimming smiles and sparkling eyes staring back up at him as they tear the wrapping from their presents, twirling ribbon around one another and sticking bows on each other.

The sound of footsteps draws nearer and he watches as two young blond boys scamper over to join the circle his children have made, his sister walking directly towards his wife and taking a seat next to her on the couch, and his brother taking up position in the armchair next to him. A moment later Dorota enters and tells him Eric is on the phone, and his children turn eagerly at the news.

His eyes are glassy as he takes in the scene before him, his ears picking up on their every sound. His heart swells; too big for his chest, he drags air into his lungs and breathes it all in.

There was a time when he only used to care about three things. Now all he cares about is his family.

And he couldn't ask for better company at Christmas.

The End.

A/N: The characters' names took me so long to decide on and even though I only described them in their barest minimum, they sort of tugged at the old heartstrings – so this might be the introduction to a few one-shots ;)

Not my best, but I hope you liked it all the same – and it would mean a lot to me if you told me what you thought.

Thanks so much for reading.
Steph
xxx