[SORRY for the long delay!! I'm all moved now, though!]
It was stupid, but Chuck actually felt a larger swell of pride than he really should've from that ridiculous little nod. Blair was a lot like a cat, he'd noticed - so aloof and prickly that any time she deigned to show you some degree of kindness or gratitude you felt like the gesture was more generous than it actually was. Blair was a master of this kind of persona, and in moments like this, the depths of Chuck's admiration for it was clear. Like him, she had a role to play, and he'd long believed that hers was much, much harder to maintain. At least as the villain and playboy he was expected to screw up. Blair, on the other hand, was essentially expected not to. Sometimes, him his more forgiving moments, Chuck reflected on this. It was a hard cross to bear, even if it was one that she more or less inflicted on herself. Still, you had to admire her for carrying on with it, despite everything.
"I don't like it either," Chuck responded, a little surprised by the amount of honesty that was escaping his lips tonight. He blamed the alcohol, of course, but really it was more than that. He and Blair had been through something really traumatic, the kind of thing that bonded war buddies together. For the first time, he was starting to realize the depth of how much he trusted her, how much he actually didn't mind if she knew the truth.
And that was really scary.
After a beat, Chuck took a few more bites of dinner and said, "Don't worry though. I'm sure my father will sort it out. If things get really bad I'm sure he can airlift us or something."
Just as the words left his lips, the television flickered, filled with static, and then went white, a high-pitched, whiny buzz erupting from the speakers. Chuck frowned, tried to flip the channel (with no success) and then gave up and turned off the screen. "That's weird," he said, his brow furrowed with worry. Grabbing the phone from its receiver, he had a clipped conversation with his favorite concierge, then turned to Blair. "Apparently all the TVs are down temporarily. I'm sure it'll be fixed soon."