Disclaimer: I don't own Gossip Girl.

Summary: He realizes he loves Blair Waldorf one night while he's staring out the window, and he observes that the stars look just like the sequins on her many, many headbands. DanBlair, oneshot

Mmkay! I've just had a season three marathon run, and I've had inspiration to write for this pairing, and just Gossip Girl in general. I hope that y'all enjoy this littel attempt of mine. Please review! It would be very much appreciated.

You're Awful, I Love You

He first meets her in a flurry of emotion and excitement and Serena van der Woodsen.

She's the best friend, the constant, the uppity and high-strung and very brunette friend of the lustrous, perfect bombshell that he's happened to snag.

Dan thinks she's pretty. In a classic movie type of way, not in the way that Serena is. Because at that moment, all he lives and breathes involves the supernova that is his girlfriend.

He notices that she's insecure, despite her bold words and flashy clothes and famous mother. She wants people to think that she's this cold, ice queen. The Queen B. The B that could stand for Bitch or Blair. As far as he's concerned right now, the two are synonymous with each other, since she's tried to split he and his princess up so many times now.

He's not sure what his first impression of Blair Waldorf is, but he remembers it isn't a good one.

His next encounter is in the stairwell.

They actually have a small heart-to-heart. Dan tries to give his best advice, and he thinks that she might actually listen. She's more broken than he's ever realized before. The word "insecurity" can't even be used to cover what she is anymore. What she has is something far different. Her envy of Serena is something that he's never seen before, and frankly, it's quite sad. It tugs at his chest, and he can't even imagine why he feels sympathy for someone like her.

However, his Serena-goggles are on, and he can't help but believe that his golden goddess has done nothing wrong. Nothing to merit this intense dislike.

He's not sure if that's the truth now, or not.

He finds himself looking at her.

Dan doesn't know why, but he finds her alluring. Even in one faint moment, one that he'd never tell anyone, no matter how hard they tried to weasel it out of him, he finds her more attractive than anyone in the room. Even Serena.

Then she opens that mouth of hers, and...yeah. The thought vanishes.

The thought might leave him, but the image remains.

The image of her in that slinky black dress still lingers. With her hair curled and styled and the headband firmly in place, and her soft brown eyes varying from intensity to relaxation, it seems like she's perfection.

But he sees the way Chuck looks at her, and the way Serena looks at him, and that erases whatever fantasy there was to begin with.

"So, she dumped your ass, huh?"

Dan stops, looking at the direction of the voice to find the face that matches those weighted words, "I broke up with her," he says, as if that makes the situation any less embarrassing than it already is.

Blair cocks her head to the side and lets out a scoffing laugh, "No, no, you didn't."

The writer crosses his arms and leans the majority of his weight on one of his legs, "Really? That's...not how it went down." He wants to so badly let out a smarmy retort, but he really isn't in the mood for it.

"Obviously," Blair says, the superiority in her voice never dying down, "you're wrong."

"And how is that?" Dan challenges, and he can feel the fire coming into his gaze. Blair, of course, doesn't flinch.

But when she speaks, a funny little note comes into her voice, and Dan can feel the resentment coming off her in waves, "Nobody dumps Serena van der Woodsen."

Soon, he and Serena are on-and-off, and she and Chuck are...well, he doesn't know what is up with their game playing and manipulative ways. And, frankly, he doesn't want to know a thing about it.

The strange thing is, though, he cares.

Of course, he always envisioned Serena as his endgame, and Blair and Chuck always seemed that way, too.

No matter who they date, or who is higher than who on the social scale, he doesn't want this strange, enigmatic, cunning woman to get hurt.

Dan questions his sanity more than once.

She's going to NYU.

It's strange that after all her scheming, Blair Waldorf ends up at NYU instead of an Ivy league like she so wanted. It's strange, and yet fulfilling when he doesn't want it to be. He doesn't want to be glad that Blair had to settle, but he is...deep, deep down.

It fully hits him when he sees her moving in. He's helping Vanessa with her things, and sees Blair marching down the halls, Dorota in tow. Obviously not wanting to actually help get things into her room.

He tells Vanessa to give him a moment, and he goes down the hall into the room designated as Waldorf territory.

"Overworking Dorota, you think?"

Blair turns from hanging some poster of Audrey Hepburn and gives him a look, "Dorota's fine, Cabbage Patch."

At that moment, the aforementioned maid comes bustling into the room, looking tired and out of breath, "Miss Blair...I..."

"You're fine, aren't you, Dorota?"

Dorota looks startled before answering, "Maybe if take break, Miss Blair..."

Dan looks over at Blair with a smirk gracing his features, "I'll be glad to help."

"No, Humphrey, we don't need your help." Blair snaps, looking at him like he's got leprosy.

"Miss Blair, there are at least twenty boxes out in car, still."

"Dorota!"

Dan's smirk only grows wider as Dorota takes his hand, "Miss Blair doesn't want to say, but she would like help."

Dan follows Dorota out of the room, and gives Vanessa an apologetic look as he sees her unpacking boxes. She only laughs and continues to straighten her bedspread.

He can feel Blair's gaze on his back, even when they are outside.

She doesn't fit in.

He's not surprised. Blair doesn't fit in many places - especially places where couture and backstabbing aren't involved.

But he feels bad for her. So bad that he actually stops by her ill-advised sushi party, just for a second, before making his way back to the movie party Georgina and Vanessa had thrown together.

Dan sighs when she comes in, angry that no one wanted her Upper East Side way of things.

She just doesn't understand.

But, then again, if she did, she wouldn't be Blair Waldorf.

Georgina was first.

He hates to think it, but she seems normal at the time that he slept with her. Which should have been a warning sign that she was even crazier than usual, because Georgina Sparks is never normal.

That relationship ends as quickly as it starts, but then there's Olivia.

Olivia was a bright ray of sunshine, normal where Serena was not. Friendly. No drama, no extra strings, no double meanings or secrets kept.

Still, somehow, he found his way to Vanessa.

Vanessa is great, vibrant and quirky and new and familiar all at the same time. His best friend and girlfriend. It was almost like he was getting the best of both worlds with this, a special package just for him. And they fit together better than he ever thought they would.

Still, there's just something about Blair that he can't shake.

The way that she could be so vulnerable and yet so guarded at the same time.

He hates that when he looks at his girlfriend, he sees someone else.

When he should see light, light eyes and inky, dark hair, he sees caramel eyes and waves of soft, brown locks.

He hears through the grapevine that Chuck exchanged Blair for the hotel. To his uncle. His creepy, insidious uncle.

The rage he feels when he finds this out is incomparable.

And, yet, she takes him back.

Blair takes him back, and then finds out that he betrayed her in the worst way.

He punches Chuck Bass.

He puts everything he has into it. For his sister, mostly. But there is an underlying cause - Blair.

Dan can't believe that Chuck would do that. He is shocked that his sister did what she did, and even more so that she did it with him. Dan isn't sure of the motives, or anything really. But he wants to believe that this time Blair would realize that she deserves someone better. That she doesn't need to settle just because she believes she's as bad as Chuck is.

Because, in reality, she can't be.

Dan believes that, beyond everything else, Blair is a good person. Maybe Chuck was, too, but he just can't see it right now.

He just wants her to be happy.

He calls Serena just as she and Blair are getting ready to leave for Paris.

Serena sounds happy, as usual. She's a single woman, as is Blair, and he can hear her voice chiming over the line at him, spewing happy words and his last name rolls off her tongue with no trace of the hatred she gives him on a daily basis.

He finds that he likes it - the sound of her voice - more than he should, and it causes a strange thudding to come from his chest. His racing heart betrays everything else.

It's not because of Serena.

It's because of her.

He realizes he loves Blair Waldorf one night while he's staring out the window, and he observes the stars look just like the sequins on her many, many headbands.

There is nothing he can do about it, though.

She's still getting over Chuck, and he's still...well, Dan.

He can't deny the fact that now, whenever he tries to write a story, they all end up revolving around a petite beauty with chocolate waves and a sharp tongue.

Dan Humphrey hopes that when he decides to tell her one day, she'll accept him without pretense.

And, if she does, he'll do his best to make her the happiest she's ever been.

End.

And there you have it! My first Dair in a long time. I really hope that y'all liked this, and I would love to hear your opinions on it. I just thought I'd write it like...his feelings through season one to season three, and just get his thoughts and everything down. Nothing really too romantic, but I liked it. I really hope y'all did too, because I enjoyed writing it!

Thanks so much for reading!